Category: History

The Kennedy assassination, 48 years later

Posted by dcrim – November 22, 2011

Today is the 48th anniversary of that awful day in Dallas. Below is the initial television report from Walter Cronkite. James  Piereson, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and the author of “Camelot and the Cultural Revolution: How the Assassination of John F. Kennedy Shattered American Liberalism,” takes issue with a recent book on the JFK assassination.

These were the myths, illusions, and outright fabrications in which the Kennedy assassination came to be encrusted. Despite all evidence to the contrary, they are still widely believed. In fact, the Kennedy legend, incorporating the myths about his assassination, is closely intertwined with the history of modern liberalism: JFK has come to represent a liberal ideal and his assassination the threat posed to it by the forces of the far right.

Click here for the story.

Art of compromise lost during cantankerous debt limit debate

Posted by dcrim – August 2, 2011

The Senate is expected to approve emergency bipartisan legislation later today to allow the government to borrow more. Speechwriter and author Michael Cohen, writing for Politico, laments that the months-long debate for raising the debt ceiling — once a formality — provides a glimpse of the death of effective politics.

What we have seen over the past few weeks is the continuing erosion of the notion that political compromise, the linchpin of our democratic system, is the key to effective legislating and policymaking. Hostage-taking has replaced deal making in Washington with potentially devastating consequences for the political system.

Click here for the entire analysis.

Remembering Reagan assassination attempt 30 years later

Posted by dcrim – March 30, 2011

In the prologue to “Rawhide Down,” Washington Post reporter Del Quentin Wilber hypothesizes that the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan, and the president’s grace and courage in dealing with it, were the catalysts for his eight mostly successful years in office.

The public’s impression of Reagan certainly changed after the events of March 30, 1981. Indeed, John Hinckley may have created the “Teflon president” when he opened fire outside the Washington Hilton. Afterward, not even the Iran-Contra debacle could bring Reagan down. He had performed heroically after being shot, and America loves its heroes. Click here for the story.

When Reagan was shot, who was in charge at the White House? Click here to read an account from someone who was there.

‘She’s becoming Al Sharpton, Alaska edition’

Posted by dcrim – March 14, 2011

Sarah Palin’s flamboyant rhetoric always has thrilled supporters but lately it is coming at a new cost: A backlash, not from liberals, but from some of the country’s most influential conservative commentators and intellectuals — the likes of George Will, Charles Krauthammer, the right-leaning Manhattan Institute and a former strategist in the George W. Bush White House.

This from Matt Labash, a longtime writer for the Weekly Standard:

“The appeal of conservatism is supposed to be people taking responsibility for their own actions,” said Labash. “But if you close your eyes and listen to Palin and her most irate supporters constantly squawk or bellyache or Tweet about how unfair a ride she gets from evil moustache-twirling elites and RINO saboteurs, she sounds like a professional victimologist, the flip side of any lefty grievance group leader. She’s becoming Al Sharpton, Alaska edition. The only difference being, she wears naughty-librarian glasses instead of a James Brown ‘do.”

Ouch. Click here for the story.

As we near the 30th anniversary of President Ronald Reagan being shot by John Hinckley, Washington Post reporter Del Quentin Wilber is out with a new book that details just how close Reagan came to dying that day. “Rawhide Down” will be released Tuesday. Click here for the story.

Freewheeling debates reveal new way of doing business in House

Posted by dcrim – February 20, 2011

John Bresnahan and Jonathan Allen of Politico report that the sometimes chaotic debates last week in the U.S House were an example of Speaker John Boehner living up to his promise to decentralize power in that chamber, to shift it from the speaker’s office and leadership after decades of creeping control of the chamber in fewer hands. Click here for the story.

Unlike his predecessors, Democrat and Republican alike, Boehner has vowed not to run the House with a tight fist. Bresnahan and Allen note that even some veteran Democrats praised what was the most open and sprawling floor fight the House had seen in years. James Madison, after all, envisioned the House being a chamber “of the people,” elected directly by the people of the United States and representing public opinion.

Illinoisans don’t have to look far to see what happens when so much power is concentrated in the hands of so few.

A look back at the presidency of Ronald Reagan

Posted by dcrim – February 6, 2011

Real Clear Politics takes a look back at some of the most memorable moments of Ronald Reagan’s two terms as president on the 100th anniversary of his birth. Below is Reagan’s Berlin Wall speech in 1987, near the end of his second term.

Lou Cannon offers this look at the former president: Reagan was at once a man of conviction who thought seriously about the great issues of his time and an ordinary American, never braggy, who treated his audiences — all of us, really — with consideration and respect.

On Sheen, Reagan, Bachmann, Challenger and trading Pujols

Posted by dcrim – January 29, 2011

Saturday morning shorts while trying to digest the stunning news that Charlie Sheen has reportedly checked himself into a rehab facility after suffering a hernia during an all-night party with five porn stars:

• On the eve of the 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s birth, the Washington Examiner offers a retrospective on the nation’s 40th president.

• Politico reports third-term Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann has developed a fan base like 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s: Energized, fiercely loyal and capable of making a critic’s life miserable with threats of political retribution. Meanwhile, Gail Collins of the New York Times writes: Is Michele Bachmann the new Sarah Palin? And do we really need a new Sarah Palin? Shouldn’t the first one be made to go away before we start considering replacements?

• Twenty-five years have passed since the Challenger space shuttle exploded 73 seconds into its flight. From the Associated Press: “ … images of the exploding space shuttle still signify all that can go wrong with technology and the sharpest minds. The accident … remains NASA’s most visible failure. … It was the world’s first high-tech catastrophe to unfold on live television.

• As the clock continues to count down on the Cardinals’ contract negotiations with Albert Pujols, ESPN’s Buster Olney reports the slugger will veto any trade proposals should that strategy emerge.

John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address 50 years later

Posted by dcrim – January 20, 2011

America needs hybrid nation-building plan to reverse pessimism

Posted by dcrim – November 29, 2010

Thomas Friedman of the New York Times is disheartened by a poll earlier this month that shows 47 percent of Americans believe the country’s best days are behind us. That sobering assessment doesn’t come from worry about the rising national deficit, which the flood of recent campaign ads suggested, but rather because most people do not see a plan — a hybrid political plan — that would make America great again.

Friedman believes we are facing a really serious moment.

… We have to get this plan for nation-building right because we are driving without a spare tire or a bumper. The bailouts and stimulus that we have administered to ourselves have left us without much cushion. There may be room, and even necessity, for a little more stimulus. But we have to get this moment right. We don’t get a do-over. If we fail to come together and invest, spend and cut really wisely, we’re heading for a fall — and if America becomes weak, your kids won’t just grow up in a different country, they will grow up in a different world.

Remembering Jackie and that awful day in Dallas 47 years ago

Posted by dcrim – November 22, 2010

Former Secret Service agent Clint Hill, who threw himself over a stricken President John F. Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy in the back seat of the limousine after three shots rang out in Dallas 47 years ago today, remembers Jackie and that awful day. Hill is the last surviving member of the limousine that arrived at Parkland Hospital.

This six minutes of Walter Cronkite reporting live (below) after learning President Kennedy had been shot will be forever remembered by old and young alike: