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Two Terms, Two Returns
On March 4, 1889, the outgoing First Lady of the United States said “I want you to take good care of all the furniture and ornaments in the house, and not let any of them get lost or broken, for I want to find everything just as it is now, when we come back again…
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Boring Historical Data 2024
This is the second to last blog of my presidential election series. Thank you for reading any. If you made it this far, there may be something worth reading at the end. It’s almost election day and we (those nerds like me who follow the news TOO much) are exhausted. For some reason…
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Al’s Dilemma
In October of 2024, Vice President Kamala Harris is learning that it is very difficult to run for the presidency as a sitting vice president. Richard Nixon discovered this in 1960, as did Hubert Humphrey in 1968. In 1988 George Bush became the first Veep elected since Martin Van Buren in 1836. Al Gore was…
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Bill Clinton’s Rapid Response Team
When Michael Dukakis ran for president in 1988, he pledged to a decent campaign- above the fray. He did and became a punching bag for his opponent. He as attacked brutally and relentlessly- and lost. In 1992, Democrats had lost five of the last six elections. Only Jimmy Carter’s 1976 close call broke…
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Politics is a Blood Sport
After his heroic service as the youngest Naval combat pilot in the Second World War, George Herbert Walker Bush left the aristocracy of the Northeastern United States for Texas to make his mark on his own. His father, Prescott Bush had served as a United States senator from Connecticut. He tried his luck in the…
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Courage
In 1956 Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy published a Pulitzer Prize-winning book called Profiles in Courage. Speechwriter Ted Sorenson was with his aide, collaborator, ghostwriter, or all of the above. The book increased Kennedy’s name recognition ahead of his 1960 run for the presidency. In 1984, former Vice President Walter Mondale was the Democratic nominee…
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I’m Paying for This Microphone Mr. Green!
For decades, ‘Likeability:” has been a big factor in the electability of political candidates, particularly at the highest levels. In 2008, the usually articulate Barack Obama commented to one of his opponents “You’re likable enough Hillary” which may have cost him the New Hampshire primary. Ronald Reagan was certainly a likable, amiable man. After…
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Why Watergate?
Ah, Richard Milhous Nixon. The man who appeared on every presidential ballot from 1952-1972 except 1964. A complex man who was at the center of American politics for much of the Cold War era. Congressman, Senator, Vice-President, and the only President of the United States to resign. Why? Richard Nixon was born in 1913 in…
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