Garrison Keillor marks an important milestone that reminds us of times when public leaders were intelligent and eloquent:
It was on this day in 1940 that Winston Churchill gave his first speech as prime minister to the House of Commons. He had taken over the job three days earlier. The speech Churchill gave is considered one of his greatest.
He said: “I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this government: ‘I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.’ We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land, and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival. Let that be realized; no survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge and impulse of the ages, that mankind will move forward towards its goal. But I take up my task with buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men. At this time I feel entitled to claim the aid of all, and I say, ‘Come then, let us go forward together with our united strength.’”
Churchill was a good writer as well as a good speaker. He wrote more than 40 books — histories, biographies, memoirs, and even a novel. He is the only British prime minister who has received the Nobel Prize in literature.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Wondering how you’re relating this to the current moment. Why are we waging war? And who are we waging war against?
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Waging war against a virus? Of course Churchill was very eloquent and a man of letters long before WWII. Whereas Trump, not so much.
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Brilliant. I’m writing a piece right now about how inappropriate it is (or more precisely, how many affected by disease) or some don’t want to listen to war metaphors. Very insightful of you.
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In the current moment, we have poor leadership.
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Is part of our dilemma that the President-In- Name Only doesn’t touch alcohol?
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The point is that Churchill rose to the occasion in the great challenge of his time, and that he was an exceptionally intelligent and learned political leader – not all that common even in his era, and very unusual in modern times.
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I’ll be the curmudgeon this time. No big fan of Churchill. Based on my reading of the first Morris biography, Nicholson Baker’s Human Smoke, which is a compilation of contemporary new reports from pre WWII era, and Julia Boyd’s Travelers in the Third Reich, Churchill was quite late to the game on opposing Naziism, indeed, he found much to admire in the early years. And there were very good reasons why Attlee’s Labor Party won the election before WWII was over. If you know anything about Gallipolli or have seen the film of the same title, remember that Churchill was the man behind it. But now I fear I sound like our resident contrarian. He was a good wartime prime minister, but a horrible, racist man. If he excelled at anything, it was excising his real views and impact on policy prior to WWII. The only reason, in my view, that people remember him fondly is because FDR saved him and Great Britain. Without that, history would remember him as a pompous ass.
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Not Morris, Gilbert. Confused authors of TR and Churchill. Aging.
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