News

A Visit To The Crater

The Everett, Washington Herald today has an interview with RN's brother Ed Nixon concerning his new book The Nixons: A Family Portrait. In the article, Ed explains that it was partly thanks to his famed elder sibling that he developed an interest in the field in which...

Bowling For Atonement

The one truly embarrassing moment in President Obama's sit-down with Jay Leno on The Tonight Show came when Jay asked the Chief Executive if he had followed through on his promise, often articulated on the campaign trail, to replace the bowling lane installed at...

RN’s Hundred Days

David Greenberg, author of Nixon's Shadow and history professor at Rutgers, has an essay up at the Wall Street Journal's site comparing the expectations generated by President Obama's first hundred days (or the first 60 or so that have gone by so far) and what's been...

Some Forgotten Presidents Shouldn’t Be

On August 2, 1927, President Calvin Coolidge had breakfast in the White House residence with his wife, Grace, and remarked to her “I have been president four years today.” It was one of those quick, concise, directly-to-the-point sentences she had been used to hearing...

Defining Dignity Down

The President made his ground-breaking appearance on last night's Tonight Show --- the first sitting President ever to grace this particular gig. He looked great; he sounded great; he was thoughtful; he was clever; he was convincing; and, with the exception of one...

Claude Brinegar 1926 – 2009

Claude Brinegar, the second of RN's two Secretaries of Transportation, died yesterday in a nursing home in Palo Alto, California. He was 82. The LA Times published a comprehensive obituary: Claude Brinegar, who as U.S. transportation secretary led an overhaul of the...

Ron Silver    1946 – 2009

Ron Silver died in his sleep on Sunday at his home in Manhattan.  He was 62. When I was named editor of Saturday Review in 1984, one of my first tasks was to liven up that distinguished by moribund institution.  In my search for interesting and unusual reviewers and...

Annals of the Obama Administration

Jon Stewart got a lot of attention last week because of his memorable face off with Jim Cramer.  But he also took an amusing look at some of the gee whiz aspects of the President's schedule (and there do seem to be a lot of them).