ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
Now is some thought on presidents - past and possibly future.
MELISSA BLOCK, host:
On this day in 1961, Dwight Eisenhower delivered his farewell address from the White House. It was a speech that looked toward America's future challenges.
President DWIGHT EISENHOWER (United States): We face a hostile ideology -global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method.
SIEGEL: Communism - he meant there. He spoke of the need for a strong military, and also the need to guard against its influence. He spoke of a military industrial complex.
Pres. EISENHOWER: The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.
BLOCK: And he spoke of a future of world peace and human betterment.
Pres. EISENHOWER: May we be ever unswerving in devotion to principle; confident but humble with power; diligent in pursuit of the nations' great goals.
BLOCK: Well, today, 47 years later, we talked with three candidates for president.
SIEGEL: And we wanted to know more about their visions of the future based on presidencies past. Whose legacies do they admire? We asked the trio of current contenders who is the one past president who would be their role model and why.
BLOCK: Democrat Barack Obama told me…
Senator BARACK OBAMA (Democrat, Illinois; Presidential Candidate): I think it would have to be the - our last president from the great state of Illinois, Abraham Lincoln who showed enormous wisdom and leadership during a very difficult time in this country's history, but did so without demonizing the country or his opponents, but rather brought the country together and was able to, you know, project a vision for where the country could be despite evidence that it wasn't possible. You know, that's the kind of presidency I - obviously, all of us would like to see. Somebody who, even during difficult times, is able to rise above it and appeal to what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature.
BLOCK: Senator Barack Obama.
SIEGEL: Republican Fred Thompson spoke without hesitation when I asked him about his idea of a model president. He chose…
Mr. FRED THOMPSON (Former Republican Senator, Tennessee; Presidential Candidate): I think George Washington - a man who represented the height of personal integrity, which I think everything else is based upon; a man who was more interested in his country than in personal (unintelligible); a man who served his country and walked away from politics and never even visited the Capitol again. As far as I know, after he left, they were telling him the country could not survive without him. He knew better. He knew the strength of America and our system. And the king said that if he walked away from it, he'd be the greatest man in the world. And in my estimation, he was one of true great men in the world - and because of that.
SIEGEL: That's former Senator Fred Thompson.
BLOCK: Now, Thompson's fellow Republican, John McCain, had no ideal whom senators Obama and Thompson had chosen. But when he spoke today with our co-host, Michele Norris, he said…
Senator JOHN McCAIN (Republican, Arizona; Presidential Candidate): I think in modern times, we all admire our founding fathers and our early presidents up to Lincoln as our greatest president.
SIEGEL: But Senator McCain had a hard time narrowing his choice to just one.
Sen. McCAIN: I happen to be particularly fond of T.R.
NORRIS: That's Teddy Roosevelt.
Sen. McCAIN: Teddy Roosevelt. He had the - he had the vision of the greatness of America in the 20th century. He - a man of incredible energy and exuberance, and I thought he was just one of the great leaders.
We all admire and love Ronald Reagan, but I'll tell you, another guy that I admire very much, and that's Harry Truman. Harry Truman had the guts to stick to what he believed in, and he stuck to it even at great political costs. And I admire the guts that he showed in a number of areas, but particularly in not pulling out of Korea.
SIEGEL: A stand that ran counter to public opinion. That's Senator John McCain wrapping up our reflections today on presidents past and future.