In 2016, it looked like it was finally time for the country to elect a woman as President of the United States. Hillary Clinton had expected to be the Democratic Party's nominee for President eight years earlier in 2008, but a charismatic Illinois Senator who had not even served a full term in the Senate, named Barack Obama, snatched that prize. In ( Read more... )

In 2012, it looked as if incumbent President Barack Obama might be vulnerable and the Republicans could possibly retake the White House. He had used considerable political capital passing the Affordable Care Act in his first term, and in the mid-term elections, control of the House of Representatives changed from the Democrats to the Republicans. ( Read more... )

The Democratic Party held their convention to formally nominate their candidates for President and Vice-President in Chicago from August 19 to 22. The formal vote to nominate Kamala Harris and Tim Walz as the Democratic Party's ticket had already taken place virtually during the first week of August, and so the convention was ceremonial as ( Read more... )

Six years ago today, on Saturday August 25, 2018, Senator John Sidney McCain III died, following a battle with a very aggressive form of brain cancer. McCain was the last candidate to run for president on the ticket of a major party who was an authentic war hero and a prisoner of war. He had been the senior United States Senator from Arizona and ( Read more... )

On August 4, 1961 (63 years ago today), Barack Hussein Obama II was born, not in Kenya as some have claimed, but in Honolulu, Hawaii. He was the 44th President of the United States, and the first African American to hold the office. President Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he served as president of the ( Read more... )

It is almost certainly too soon to be able to fully and fairly assess Barack Obama as a President, and it is near impossible for anyone to be completely objective on the subject without being influenced either by ideology or other factors. Born to mixed race parents, raised mostly by his mother and her parents, it seemed unlikely that a child born ( Read more... )

Our series on Black History Month will end with a look at the election of Barack Hussein Obama, who, on November 4, 2008, became the first African-American to be elected President of the United States. Many people were expecting this election to bring about a first, but the "first" those people were expecting was the first female president. Senator ( Read more... )

In 2012, it looked as if the incumbent President might be vulnerable and the Republicans could possibly retake the White House. Obama had used considerable political capital passing the Affordable Care Act in his first term, and in the mid-term elections, control of the House of Representatives changed from the Democrats to the Republicans. ( Read more... )

2023 wasn't my most prolific year when it came to reading. It was a year of personal transition that intruded into reading time. Still, there were 10 books that were read and reviewed in this community, some new, some old ones that I've been meaning to get to. Here's a look back at the books we read and reviewed in this community.

( Ten Books Read and Reviewed in 2023 )

What's it like to be a Senator willing to vote according to your conscience and your understanding of the Constitution, at a time when doing so will earn you the wrath of your party and place you and your family at risk of physical harm from angry, riled-up zealots accross your country? In Romney-A Reckoning, McKay Coppins, a journalist for the ( Read more... )