Do more.

That's when Americans demanded their presidents these days.

A real president, Democrat or Republican knows how to use the office.

A real president makes things happen.

Or so the conventional wisdom.

But actually there is another model.

A president can succeed through inaction by doing as little as possible.

One such president was Calvin Coolidge, who took office upon Warren Harding's sudden death.

When the time Coolidge became president in 1923 to the time he left in 1929, Coolidge

served a philosophy that was simple and powerful.

Don't do.

Coolidge was our great refrainer.

The leadership style matched the personal style.

Coolidge did not waste words.

Hence his nickname, Silent Cal.

For these quiet ways, the 30th president absorbed much abuse.

A Washington socialite, Alice Longworth, said that Coolidge looked like he'd been weaned

on a pickle.

Coolidge indeed cut a sharp contrast to Alice's father, Theodore Roosevelt, who had served

a decade and a half earlier.

And what a contrast Coolidge provides with another Roosevelt Franklin, who came just a

few years later.

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