Just the motivation of a president to take such personal risk for the sake of the country. Cleveland decided to make the surgery secret, which increased the risk exponentially, to keep the confidence of the people steady after the Panic of 1893. The surgery was a secret long after the Panic and the president were gone. If a modern president made such a gamble, would we even know? Even twenty years later? Read Matthew Algeo's The President Is A Sick Man, about the surgery, the coverage, the doctors, etc. It is a wonderful read about an interesting subchapter of American presidential history.
