Michael Beschloss (left) and Douglas Brinkley (right) were the speakers of the first 2013 Tate lecture Tuesday night. (Emily Wu / The Daily Campus)

Two of the nation’s leading Presidential historians spoke about presidential legacy and leadership at the SMU Tate Lecture Series Tuesday evening.

Moderated by William McKenzie, Michael Beschloss and Douglas Brinkley spent much of the hour speaking to the presidential legacy, and the necessary time needed after the end of a president’s time to accurately judge his leadership.

“If we are obsessive, it’s an insider’s club of historians. I don’t think we [as a country] know enough about our presidents,” Brinkley responded to McKenzie’s question of whether we lust too much for presidential leadership.

Beschloss said that in order to learn fully about the country’s leaders, we have to wait for inside sources to provide “what these people are like behind the scenes.”

“Usually presidents 40 years after office look very different,” Beschloss said. Issues and “obsessions” that were escalated during the presidency often are quelled or even better understood as the country moves forward.

“It’s good to wait and read books by historians and great journalists,” Beschloss said.

In terms of the president thinking about what his legacy should look like during his first term, Beschloss said, “in a self-conscious way,” he hopes such is never the case.

“What the great presidents [think about is] what kinds of decisions will stand up 40 or 50 years later,” Beschloss said.

Brinkley, in agreement, added that the first term of a presidency has far more immediate needs than eventual reminisce.

“Their first term they have to keep this political alliance going to be re-elected,” Brinkley said.

However, Beschloss was careful to caution against that same sentiment in the sense that “building to get reelected is not necessarily the best [strategy].”

In regards to keeping a close eye on the polls-or, in contrast, disregarding them nearly entirely-Beschloss asserted “every president should use polls but not be governed by them.”

Brinkley echoed these sentiments in his own words, saying that while presidents are not “obsessed” with polls, they do “watch [and] worry” about them.

As the conversation veered further from blanket ideas and more to specific presidencies, Abraham Lincoln was approached with specific interest and regality.

“All presidents worship Abraham Lincoln because no matter how bad they have it, Lincoln had it worse,” Brinkley asserted.

Referencing especially his reelection and “tough” decision not to withdraw the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln is known as one of, if not the, greatest president in America’s history.

Lincoln, focused in on such difficult and controversial decisions he needed to make during his time in office.

“The thing that is compelling about Lincoln is that he was not a saint,” Beschloss said.

McKenzie asked both historians about Barack Obama’s legacy.

“He’s a historic figure,” Brinkley said.

Individually, as the first African American president, he clearly is a historical first, he said.

His overall administration has also had several firsts, and Brinkley addressed the fact that he appointed the first two women to the Supreme Court, and there may very well be more female members added during his second term.

However, Beschloss spoke on a different note, marking all of the “in-progress” issues-such as the economy and foreign affairs-that are at the cusp of falling one way or another, as evidence that his legacy cannot be truly determined until their outcome is decided.

“You really need to have the President, in our minds, pass into the realm of history,” Beschloss said. “40 years from now we will know and can give a definitive answer.”

Moriah Momsen, a junior at the university, said that this lecture stood out in her mind because, contrary to typical moderated lectures, the two historians “pretty much agreed on everything.”

“It was different. Usually at all the panels they kind of battle it out. This one was a very different tone,” Momsen said. “It brought me through our American history and my infatuation with the President.”

While taking the audience through such a review of American leaders, providing stories of both presidential success and moments falling short of such, Beschloss summed up the role of the Presidential historian.

“We assess who gets the credit, who gets the blame.”