9.23.52

Taking matters into his own hands:  On 23 September 1952, RN went on radio and TV to answer charges of financial impropriety.   The phenomenal success of his speech assured Ike’s victory and put RN’s bench mark on the emerging medium of television. Today...

The Checkers Effect

Beginning of Fund Speech I come before you tonight as a candidate for the Vice Presidency and as a man whose honesty and — and integrity has been questioned. —Richard Nixon September 23, 1952 We all know that Richard Nixon is one of the most complex and...

What Are the Odds That This Story is Fake?

Jonathan Movroydis previously noted a The Los Angeles Times story quoting an Edward Kennedy yarn about the 1960 election: “And, believe me, I knew the odds. I was so certain of Jack’s victory that I placed a Las Vegas bet on it. My winnings could have...

Bob Greene, Richard Nixon, Civility, And Mystique

Yesterday, Bob Greene – the veteran journalist, not Oprah’s trainer – wrote a column for CNN.com about the nation’s winter of partisan discontent. (Well, yes, it is September, but the air did get perceptively colder this morning.) For decades,...

Gander Sauce Now Appearing On White House Menu

From the earliest days of RN’s administration he was plagued with leaks of highly classified material that ended up in the media. RN condemned the leaks as undermining his ability to end the war and conduct the nation’s foreign policy. The anti-war establishment...

Rashomon — Cape Cod Style

Jonathan Karp, the editor of Senator Edward Kennedy’s posthumously published memoir True Compass, was a guest on C-Span’s Washington Journal the other morning. He discussed the Senator’s version of the disastrous 1979 CBS interview with Roger Mudd.  The two men sat...