When Jeff Greenfield was not long out of Yale Law School and was a regular on William F. Buckley's PBS interview program "Firing Line" he reminisced about the period he had served as a volunteer in the 1968 presidential campaign of Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

Greenfield recalled a discussion featuring one of the leading figures of the Kennedy campaign, Richard Goodwin, with younger staffers such as Greenfield.  Greenfield noted the seriousness of Goodwin, assuredly reflecting the view of Kennedy, who also happened to be Goodwin's closest friend, on the subject of presidential power.

The framers of the U.S. Constitution, save Alexander Hamilton and others who believed in the very system being overthrown in America and favored, if not a king, a strong executive, subscribed to the philosophical concepts enunciated by French thinkers such as Montesquieu concerning the importance of limiting power in that branch and dividing it instead.  

The Virginians Jefferson and Madison were staunch Francophiles and believed that, unless checked, an executive dictatorship could well emerge.  Indeed, the elder statesman at Philadelphia's Constitutional Convention, the venerable Benjamin Franklin, when being asked at the conclusion of the final session what kind of government the new nation had, replied, "A republic if you can keep it."

Having grown up in and written about the Hollywood scene, I admired Paul Newman for standing up to the heavy weight imposed by international film stardom and remaining his own person.  Like so many great people a secret for accomplishing this status was never taking himself too seriously.

During the 1968 presidential campaign Paul Newman was one of the most deeply committed figures in the artistic community to urge an end to the tragic Vietnam War that was tearing out America's heart and soul as the death toll mounted in a campaign that realists observe, as they now do in Iraq, that there was no way to achieve "military victory" in the manner that super hawks believe could be realized.

Newman became a mainstay in boosting the campaign of Senator Eugene McCarthy, who surmounted astronomically low odds to playing a major role in derailing any thought President Lyndon Johnson had for winning another term.  McCarthy served as a forerunner of Barack Obama with his success in drawing young voters to his campaign.

Initially a scoffing mainstream media referred to McCarthy's efforts as a "children's crusade" with the Minnesota senator ultimately turning what was intended as an insult into a proud plus as he invoked the name with relish in campaign speeches.