News
A Look Into The Cabinet
The death at age 93 of Robert S. McNamara, Secretary of Defense under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, stirs up a whole host of memories for people of a certain age - as many (and as mixed) as are stirred up by the death of Michael Jackson where a younger generation is...
Been There Done That
From Confrontation to Negotiation: RN with Nikita Khrushchev in the famous Kitchen Debate in Moscow in 1959, and with Leonid Brezhnev (who had been part of Khrushchev's official entourage in the Kitchen) on the Truman Balcony at the White House in 1973. In a few...
Palin, Nixon, And The “Secret Plan”
At CQ Politics, Jonathan Allen contrasts Sarah Palin and Richard Nixon. "Palin doesn't have Nixon's interest in, or knowledge of, foreign affairs," he writes. "Imagine the reaction if Palin suggested she had a "secret plan" to win the war in Afghanistan." He is...
37’s 4ths
The Philippine Republic and the USA share July Fourth as their Independence Day. On 4 July 1956, Vice President and Mrs. Nixon joined President Ramon Magsaysay and First Lady Luz Magsaysay in Manila to celebrate the Philippines' 10th and America's 180th birthdays. ...
The Star Spangled Batter
Washington National Symphony violinist Glenn Donnellan wanted to make the orchestra's concerts for young people more engaging. So, naturally, he decided to make a violin out of a Louisville Slugger. As Anne Midgette reports in today's WaPo: Donnellan made his...
7.4.09
FLOTUS 37’S COIFFURE AND AMERICA’S HISTORY
Christina Cristoforou's interesting illustration on the op-ed page of today's New York Times places our forty-four first ladies' hair styles in historically cross-hatched perspective. PN is in the middle of the second row from the bottom. This reduction doesn't do...
Watch What We Do Not What We Say
The President held a Town Hall meeting in Annandale, Virginia, on Wednesday. The logistics were the subject of some controversy. Before: And after (per the WaPo): In the stage-managed event, questions for Obama came from a live audience selected by the White House...
Which Revolution?
In my opinion, the best part of John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address on January 20, 1961, had nothing to do with asking anyone anything. The moment to remember was when he said: The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all...
RN, Apollo, And Obits
The Smoking Gun is featuring documents that the Nixon White House prepared before the Apollo 11 mission in the event that it ended in tragedy. Discover mutters that reading the plan "gives us the creepy feeling of reading the obituary of someone who is still alive." ...