• Politics is a Blood Sport

    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…

  • Courage

    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…

  • I’m Paying for This Microphone Mr. Green!

    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…

  • Why Watergate?

    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…