News
9.25.69
Forty years ago today, on 25 September 1969, RN welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir to the White House. It was the beginning of what became a warm and close relationship. A relationship that would be tested, refined, and perfected during the Yom Kippur War in...
What’s Wrong With This Picture?
A face in the crowd: the "above the fold" photo from the UN Security Council meeting on The New York Times' website this morning. First and foremost, there can be no prestige without mystery, for familiarity breeds contempt. All religions have their tabernacles, and...
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 is the...
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 important...
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 given me enough...
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, Greene's column at the...
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...
9.21.72
On 21 September 1972, RN announced the establishment of an Advisory Committee on the Economic Role of Women within the President's Council of Economic Advisers. He wrote: Women are playing an increasingly important role in the economy of our Nation. We in this...
Irving Kristol, 1920-2009
Today, Irving Kristol died at the age of 89 in Arlington, Virginia. The New York Times obituary calls him the "Godfather of Conservatism;" the Washington Post's obit is headlined "Architect of Neoconservatism." Either way, there is no disputing that Kristol was the...