Hardball   |  November 16, 2012

Matthews: Will President Obama dare to be great?

Chris Matthews talks about the great leaders of White House past, and asks whether or not President Obama will follow in their footsteps.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>> let me finish tonight with this. a leader must have a mission. an american leader especially. we are frontier people, happiest most excited most american when we're on a quest. presidents need to know that. great presidents know it because it's who they are, why they set out to lead us in the first place. all our great leaders, washington, lincoln, fdr, kennedy were men with a mission. washington led us into nationhood and defeated the most powerful military force in the world by a brilliant retreat till he caught the british sleeping. then he did something remarkable, setting the model that made him truly great. walking away from power twice. as our first elected leader. he would have been without match until lincoln came along. championing a bloody civil war that are cost us 600,000 countrymen shooting at each other with their blue and gray uniforms, their only cover. he iman pay theed slaves and through it all began the healing. finally came roosevelt who carried us through the great depression and world war ii yielding us up as the leading country of the modern world by force of human will, getting this country to prevail against the toughest challenges through the strength of his own confidence. one author said he knew who he would win the war just hearing fdr declare it. kennedy a hero in world war ii , led the country through the cuban missile crisis . created the peace corps and took us to the moon. my book on him, jack kennedy elusive hero is just out in paperback. now for barack obama . he's given us health care and a discrimination based on -- begun the case for marriage equality , toughened the fight against terrorism. will he now bring us fiscal and immigration policies that secure a confident, competent 21st century ? when we face down the threat of climate change, will he dare to be great? this