The other moderate (or some would even say "liberal" Republican who was born on this day was Nelson Rockefeller, the former New York Governor and Vice-President, who was born on July 8, 1908 (113 years ago today). Nelson Rockefeller was the poor little rich guy who, even in the 1960s, was too moderate for the Republican Party. He wanted to be ( Read more... )

Baseball great Ted Williams (born Theodore Samuel Williams) died on July 5, 2002, 19 years ago today. Williams is best remembered for his career on the baseball diamond and for being the last player to have a batting average above .400 in a season (and have over the minimum number of plate appearances required to qualify for a batting title). ( Read more... )

One would think that 2020 would have offered an abundance of time for reading and yet for some reason, there weren't as many books reviewed in this community in the past 12 months as in other years. Personally I found myself reading a lot of books on subjects unrelated to this community and therefore fewer reviews were posted here. Still there were ( Read more... )

In 1976 the odds were stacked against Gerald Ford in his bid to be elected as President of the United States in his own right. Ford had become President following the resignation of Richard Nixon on August 9, 1974. At first there was considerable public support for Ford, who was perceived as an honest breath of fresh air after the many ( Read more... )

The 1996 United States presidential election was held on Tuesday, November 5, 1996. Incumbent Democratic President Bill Clinton was challenged by former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, the Republican nominee, and Ross Perot made another run for the presidency, this time as the nominee for the Reform Party.


( Read more... )

One of my beliefs is that presidential election debates and running mate selections make very little difference in the outcome of a election. The 1988 contest tends to support that theory, given that one of the most memorable debate moments took place in that contest, not in the debates between the presidential candidates, but in the lone debate ( Read more... )

Debates between Presidential candidates are a relatively new phenomenon. Although a series of debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas occurred in 1858, these were actually held as a lead up to a contest for the Illinois Senate between the two men, a contest that Lincoln lost. (Technically, the senate position was appointed by the ( Read more... )

John Anderson was a ten-term Republican Congressman from Illinois who ran as an independent candidate for President in 1980, under the banner of the National Unity Party. He acquired a populist following both from Democrats who were frustrated with President Jimmy Carter's handling of the economy, and from Republicans who distrusted their party in ( Read more... )

Patrick Joseph Buchanan is a conservative media personality who was once a speechwriter for Richard Nixon and White House Director of Communications for Ronald Reagan. He sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1992 and 1996 and ran on the Reform Party ticket in the 2000 presidential election. He is a co-founder of The American ( Read more... )

In 2016 a world-wide populist trend reached its pinnacle in November of 2016 with the election of Donald John Trump as President of the United States. Born on June 14, 1946, Trump hailed from the Queens borough of New York City. He had an economics degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, but had never held any elected ( Read more... )