"Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead."Chevy ChaseSaturday Night Live (c. 1976)It's fashionable these days — and justifiably so — for people to complain that Washington is broken.But that really isn't new. I mean, folks have been complaining about the damn guv'ment for as long as I can remember.That's a truism of politics.And the party that is out of power always wants to take power from the other party. Always.That's another truism of politics.So, in spite of the racial angle that is introduced into the 2012 presidential campaign because...
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
There really isn't anything terribly remarkable about this evening.It's just an ordinary Wednesday. As Jimmy Stewart observed in "Rear Window," the calendar is full of 'em.But that calendar runs out on everyone eventually. That's something of which I have been reminded far too often in recent years, and it's something we all know we'll have to face ... someday. We alone among the creatures who walk or swim or fly on this planet possess the intelligence to know that our days are numbered.That knowledge can be as much of a curse for some people as...
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
"I used to think that the Civil War was our country's greatest tragedy, but I do remember that there were some redeeming features in the Civil War in that there was some spirit of sacrifice and heroism displayed on both sides. I see no redeeming features in Watergate."Sam Ervin(1896–1985)This would have been the 115th birthday of a man who was widely regarded as a national hero when I was a boy but who seems to be largely forgotten today — Sam Ervin.He...
Friday, September 23, 2011
I believe, as I have believed for a long time, that the 2012 presidential election will be shaped — and, ultimately, decided — by the unemployment rate and the general state of the economy.But there is more to it than that, and, as tempting as it will be for many of his supporters to blame racism when he faces the almost insurmountable challenge of trying to be re–elected in the midst of an economy that is, arguably, worse than it was when he took...
It had been nearly 16 years since the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees had squared off in a televised debate.But on this night in 1976, when President Ford and former Gov. Jimmy Carter came to Philadelphia, they weren't there to see the Liberty Bell. They were there to debate, and there was much anticipation in the air on that Thursday night.In a couple of departures from how things had been done in 1960, the debates of 1976 were held in public places and in front of live audiences. The audience that assembled on this night in 1976...
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Death is unavoidable. What is uncertain is when each of us will die.Sometimes, given the way an individual lived his or her life, the timing of death may be seen as ironic. So it is, I think, with the death of Charles Percy, a former Republican senator from Illinois.If you are too young to remember Percy, you may be inclined to think, when I say that he was a Republican, that he was a Tea Party type, like Michele Bachmann and some other prominent...
Friday, September 16, 2011
In my lifetime, it often has seemed that the primary role of a vice president has been to make the president look more presidential by comparison.Maybe there was a time when the vice president had more dignity, but that surely was before Spiro Agnew came along.Agnew, who died on this day in 1996, first came to the attention of Republican leaders when he was elected governor of Maryland in 1966. In hindsight, his victory in a traditionally Democratic...
Saturday, September 10, 2011
I realize that this is a weekend of somber reflection, of remembering the thousands of lives that were lost in the terrorist attacks of September 11.And I realize that it is true, as President Clinton said during his remarks at the dedication of the Flight 93 Memorial in Pennsylvania, that there has always been a special place in the American heart and memory for heroes who sacrificed themselves for others.But one of the things my mother taught me...
Thursday, September 8, 2011
I know this has been said before — in many, many ways — but it really is hard to comprehend that it has been 10 years since the September 11 terrorist attacks.I learned long ago that it isn't necessary to mention the year. All you need to say is "September 11" — or, in the shorthand form of which modern Americans are so fond, "9–11" — and the listener knows precisely what you're talking about.My memories of that day are bound to be considerably different...
Monday, September 5, 2011
Today is Labor Day, and it is now little more than three days before Barack Obama is slated to give his landmark address on job creation.He was, as you probably know, going to give his speech on Wednesday — but, as usual, someone in this White House failed to do the most basic of legwork, which would have quickly revealed that a debate between the Republican presidential candidates had been scheduled for that day.In fact, it has been scheduled for several months, and it is taking place at the library that bears the name of the Republicans' 20th...
Sunday, September 4, 2011
I've been watching the weather forecasts unusually closely lately because those of us here in north Texas appear to be on the cusp of an important — and, for most of us, welcome — shift.I'm speaking of nature's seemingly endless grip of triple–digit temperature readings we've had in this area this summer.Now, it's been a scorcher across most of the country this summer, as it usually is — and it is always hot in Texas — but the summer of 2011 has...
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