News
Father’s Day With The Whitings And Bradlees
As I mention at the blog around this time every year, Father's Day, which arrives this Sunday, was first officially proclaimed a national holiday by President Nixon in June 1972. Here's a moving column by David Whiting of the Orange County Register, who reminisces...
Noonan on the Politics of Predecessors
Peggy Noonan writes in The Wall Street Journal: There is still a sense about Mr. Obama that he needs George W. Bush in order to give his presidency full shape and meaning. In this he is like Jimmy Carter, who needed Richard Nixon, or rather the Watergate scandal,...
Thirty-Six Years Ago: RN Meets King Faisal
On June 14, 1974, President Nixon landed in Jidda, Saudi Arabia, his second stop in a five country peace tour of the Middle East. On the tarmac to meet him was King Faisal, an ardent anti-communist pivotal to the stability in the region. RN reflected on the meeting in...
Obama Channels Nixon on Energy
The energy issue has been around for decades, so it is very hard for a president to say anything new about it. President Obama's Oval Office address on the Gulf oil spill is an example. Toward the end, he invoked images of American determination and ingenuity: The one...
Providing Americans Clean Air and Water
The words pollution and environment were on many politicians mind in 1969. Improvement of the environment was an achievement during the Nixon administration. Nixon grasped issues rapidly and presented a comprehensive and broad legislative environmental agenda. A...
Can the Penn-McKee Hotel be Saved?
The site of the first debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon is not only in desperate need of rehabilitation and preservation—it may one day have an appointment with a wrecking ball. Of course, many reading this will be tempted to Google just where the...
Legacy of Parks
Environmental conservation was at the forefront of Richard Nixon’s domestic legislative agenda. In his 1971 State of the Union message, RN declared: “I will propose programs to make better use of our land, to encourage a balanced national growth–growth that will...
RN and the Formation of the EPA
The establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 was one of the most important actions of Richard Nixon’s presidency, setting up an arm of the Federal government’s executive branch that now employs more than 17,000 people and operates a budget of...
June 12, 1971 (And a Favorite Photo)
Thirty-nine years ago today Tricia Nixon married Edward Finch Cox in the White House Rose Garden, in one of the truly most memorable moments in the Executive Mansion's history. Last month, Mrs. Cox visited the White House for a Mother's Day tea, as described some days...
Expletive Deleted
President Obama's recent TV statement about kicking posterior led a number of journalists to muse about previous presidents who used bad language in the White House. Thanks to the tapes, of course, we know about RN's unfortunate weakness for expletives. But as a...