All About the Presidents

Republican Polarities: ‘The Bush Years’ and ‘Tricky Dick’

Paul Clinton — Wed, 01 May 2019 05:06:12 +0000

CNN seems like an unlikely venue for a gauzy tribute to two recent Republican presidents, but that was exactly what “The Bush Years: Family, Duty, Power” delivered.

The six-part documentary, which aired in March, provided a very different view of its presidential subjects than “Tricky Dick,” a four-part exploration of Richard Nixon’s destruction that aired on many of the same Sundays and bled into April.

In the first CNN Original Series, George H.W. Bush is an easy figure to like. He’s a doting family man, war hero, and diligent politician whose work brings him into a position of prominence despite his privileged upbringing as the son of a U.S. senator and Wall Street banker.

The “Fathers and Sons” episode tracks Bush’s early years. Bush’s rise is interspersed with plenty of archival photos and videos that color in the portrait of this Greatest Generation hero, especially the episode’s archival footage that shows him being rescued at sea from his downed U.S. Navy aircraft.

In “The Price of Loyalty,” the subjects intersect with Nixon’s appointment of Bush as ambassador to the United Nations in 1971. About two years later, Bush took the somewhat thankless job of chairman of the Republican National Committee. This episode could have been called “Bush: The Functionary Years.”

The series hits its stride in “A Family Triumph,” which recounts his ascension to vice president after Ronald Reagan outmaneuvered him at a 1980 New Hampshire debate. Episode Four, “First Family,” fills the time until “Sibling Rivalry,” which explores the early lives and political rise of Jeb and George W. Bush. The family expects more-accomplished Jeb to take the mantle, but George W. overcomes his dissolute lifestyle to purchase the Texas Rangers and eventually win an unlikely election against popular Democrat Texas Gov. Ann Richards.

George W. eventually follows his father into the White House. The series takes a softer approach in dealing with the still-controversial Bush 43 presidency, but interviews with other family members and V.P Dick Cheney add welcome context. Neither of the former presidents are interviewed for the series.

While the Bush series treats its subjects as American political royalty, “Tricky Dick” approaches the presidency and life of Richard M. Nixon as a study of self-destruction.

Promotional materials for the show have drawn parallels with the Donald Trump presidency. While this is still debatable, Nixon remains a fascinating, if infuriating, leader whose presidency ultimately fell victim to his own shortcomings. The series, which presents new footage of Nixon, casts an appealing spell with its heavy reliance on archival film to recount Nixon’s rise and fall.

In “Will to Win,” we learn that the young Nixon was an opportunist, but the series takes off with “Nixon’s the One.” We see Nixon struggle as Eisenhower’s barely-acknowledged vice president, and later fall short during the run against JFK in 1960, largely in part to a disastrous TV debate performance. A failed run for California governor in 1962 leaves Nixon fuming at his media enemies, as he scolds the press with, “You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore.”

“Storm Clouds” begins with Nixon’s presidency after a stunning 1968 comeback and tightly-managed campaign that included a promise to end the Vietnam War.

One of Nixon’s own quotes provides the backdrop for “And Then You Destroy Yourself” – the crescendo of anti-war protests, the Watergate scandal, resignation, and life after the presidency. Throughout the series, we hear Nixon intone, “But those who hate you don’t win, unless you hate them. And then, you destroy yourself.”

While “Tricky Dick” may not provide many new insights, it sums up Nixon’s journey into the dark as well as any other documentary out there.

March Presidential Birthplaces

Paul Clinton — Wed, 20 Mar 2019 06:53:20 +0000

Three presidents – Andrew Jackson, James Madison, and Grover Cleveland – celebrated March birthdays within three days of each other and a fourth, John Tyler, was born later in the month.

Jackson’s 252^nd birthday was celebrated this year at The Hermitage outside of Nashville, where Jackson spent most of his adult lift, with a wreath-laying ceremony at the gravesite of our seventh president and a War of 1812 encampment, reports The Tennessean.

While he is most associated with his Nashville-area home, Jackson was born in Waxhaws on the border of modern-day South Carolina and North Carolina on March 15, 1767.

Jackson’s precise birthplace isn’t known, because at the time the area was still being established as a settlement. Jackson always claimed he was born in South Carolina, even though an aunt who was present for his birth, said it was in North Carolina, according The Hermitage.

Today, historical signage in North Carolina on Main Street in Waxhaw and at the end of Route 1105 mark the area near what was once McCamie cabin – one of two possible birth locations.

Madison’s 268^th birthday was celebrated on March 16 at the cemetery at Montpelier, Virginia. Our fourth president was recognized with a wreath-laying ceremony at the home where he spent most of his life, reports The Daily Progress.

Madison was born in 1751 in a small house at the estate of his maternal grandmother at Port Conway on the Rappahannock River near Fredericksburg.

The Conway House slid into the river in the 1930s due to erosion in an area just off U.S. Route 301 near the James Madison Memorial Bridge. A birth-site marker can be found on the south side of the river, according to PresidentialMuseums.com.

Cleveland, our 22^nd and 24^th president and only one to have served two nonconsecutive terms, was born on March 18, 1837 in Caldwell, New Jersey.

He was born in a home that served as a Presbyterian church for his father, a reverend who also led services in the building.

The family moved to New York in 1841, and a group of local citizens later purchased the home to open it as a museum.

Cleveland’s 182^nd birthday was celebrated at the Grover Cleveland Birthplace as part of Grover Cleveland Week that included a memorial service and presidential talk.

Cleveland is buried at the Princeton Cemetery near Princeton University, where he once served as a trustee prior to his death in 1908.

John Tyler, our 10^th president, was born to a prominent family on March 29, 1790 in Charles City, Virginia.

His father, also named John Tyler, was Virginia’s governor. He was born at Greenway, a now-private residence with a historic marker along 10920 John Tyler Memorial Highway.

Tyler’s Sherwood Forest plantation home located nearby is open to the public and Tyler’s grandson, as of 2012, was giving tours by appointment, reported WTVR at the time.

This year would be Tyler’s 229^th birthday.

Obama’s Hope for a Digital Presidential Library

Paul Clinton — Mon, 04 Mar 2019 04:39:06 +0000

Barack Obama finds himself back where he started his political career – navigating the bruising landscape of Chicago politics. And he will need some hope and change.

This time, instead of building consensus as a community organizer or seeking support for an Illinois state office, Obama finds himself embroiled in a struggle to establish his presidential legacy on home turf.

The Obama Presidential Center would be built on 19 acres of City of Chicago parkland in Jackson Park on the South Side along the shore of Lake Michigan. The $500 million project would include a museum, event space, athletic center, and other features.

Just don’t call it a presidential library.

“The campus will remove barriers and seamlessly connect the park to the lakefront, unifying it with other local South Side institutions,” according to the Obama Foundation.

The private foundation is spearheading the project, which departs from tradition in several ways. The 13 existing presidential libraries collect all the unclassified papers during a president’s term and preserve them for the historians of the future.

The National Archives and Records Administration then manages the libraries and archives for all the presidents back to Herbert Hoover.

Obama is breaking with precedent with a plan to digitize his memos, letters, social media activity, and other records, so they won’t be stored on site for researchers.

His privately funded center has run afoul with local open-space activists, who hae won a court ruling that could delay its planned 2021 opening.

On Feb. 19, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois allowed a lawsuit from Protect Our Parts to proceed to determine whether the center violates the public trust doctrine, reports CityLab.

Plans for the presidential center have been in the works since May 2017, shortly after Obama left office. However, details were sparse until Feb. 19, when the National Archives released its agreement with the Obama Foundation about how the 44^th president’s records would be digitized. More than 30 million pages will be scanned.

Several historians and presidential library officials have bemoaned Obama’s approach for depriving the public of a central repository.

Timothy Naftali, the former director of the Richard Nixon library, told the New York Times that the move “opens the door to a truly terrible Trump library.”

Public park debates aside, Obama’s privately run presidential library may break from recent tradition, but many popular and successful presidential sites are run by private organizations, including George Washington’s Mount Vernon, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, and Andrew Jackson’s The Hermitage.

Donald Trump’s Cabinet Turnover

Paul Clinton — Mon, 25 Feb 2019 05:23:22 +0000

After taking office, Donald Trump increased his cabinet to 15 advisors, but rather than offering a wider-ranging sounding board, his top people have been diminished by high turnover, factionalism, and scandal. Trump has demanded loyalty, and those who stray often find themselves back in the private sector.

Slightly more than two years after he took office, Trump has lost more than half of his cabinet with only seven remaining from the start of his presidency. Several of the eight roles that have turned over have seen multiple secretaries.

When compared to past presidents, the high turnover is historic for this short a time frame. Andrew Jackson purged his cabinet in 1831, following the Eaton affair, slightly more than two years in office. And five of John Tyler’s six cabinet members resigned in protest in September 1841 (five months after he took office) in protest of his policies.

In 1979, Jimmy Carter fired six cabinet members in a single day, as his presidency spiraled toward the end. He had asked for resignations from all 12 to deal with what he saw as disloyalty.

Several of Trump’s advisors have left because they could no longer carry the water, and others have left due to ethical lapses.

Labor Secretary Alex Acosta is the latest to become embroiled in scandal, following a Feb. 21 report from the Miami Herald’s Julie K. Brown that he broke federal law by concealing a plea agreement from 30 underage victims of who were sexually abused by hedge fund manager Jeffrey Epstein while he was U.S. Attorney in Miami.

On April 27, 2017, Acosta had replaced acting Labor secretary Ed Hugler, who had remained in the role longer than expected after Trump’s initial pick, Andy Puzder, withdrew after it came to light that he employed a housekeeper not authorized to work in the U.S. and may have abused his ex-wife.

Earlier this year, Ryan Zinke resigned as Secretary of the Interior and Jim Mattis left the Department of Defense. The former Navy SEAL ZInke left amid investigations into real estate transactions in his home state of Montana. He was told he could quit or be fired.

As the more high-profile departure, Mattis quit because Trump disregarded his advice to keep some American troops in Syria to combat terrorist groups.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigned on Nov. 7, 2018 – the day after the midterm elections that swept Democrats into control of the House of Representatives. His recusal from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia-collusion probe has angered Trump, and Sessions days were numbered.

Trump had fired Rex Tillerson, his first Secretary of State, earlier in 2018 (March 13). A late-2017 GQ article quoted Tillerson calling Trump “a fucking moron.” After firing him, Trump later tweeted that Tillerson was “dumb as a rock” and “lazy as hell.” The U.S Senate confirmed former CIA Director Mike Pompeo as his replacement on April 26, 2018.

Tom Price resigned after seven months as Secretary of Health and Human Services, in September 2017, after reports surfaced that he had spend more than $1 million of the agency’s funds for travel on private jets and military aircraft.

Alex Azar eventually replaced Price on Jan. 29.

Trump fired Obama-era official David Shulkin, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, for another travel scandal on March 28. A department report had criticized him for misusing agency funds for trips by him and his wife.

The Department of Homeland Security has also had two secretaries, after its initial cabinet representative, John Kelly, left on July 28, 2017, to become Trump’s chief of staff.

A few cabinet members have remained in place since the start, including Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin; Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue; Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross; Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson; Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao; Energy Secretary Rick Perry; and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

The Mysterious Death of Warren G. Harding

Paul Clinton — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 03:50:38 +0000

The final chapter of John Dean’s survey biography of Warren G. Harding carries the apt title, “Death and Disgrace,” because with a few months of his Aug. 2, 1923 death in the presidential suite of the Plaza Hotel in San Francisco, the Teapot Dome scandal engulfed his administration.

The cause of Harding’s death wasn’t well understood at the time, which fed speculation about his demise, including a theory that persists to this day that a jealous wife, who had discovered his infidelities, fed him poison in his meals.

The handsome, dapper Harding remained popular at the time of his death. His promise of a “return to normalcy” in 1920 had swept him into office as a virile, stabilizing alternative to the stroke-stricken Woodrow Wilson and the divisive treaty that ended World Word I.

But by 1923, Harding was suffering from his own health problems, including cardiac symptoms caused by an enlarged heart. The year had begun with the Jan. 2 resignation of Interior Secretary Albert Fall, the financially strapped cabinet member who accepted bribes from oil companies to explore Wyoming land named for its teapot-shaped rock formation and Elk Hills, California.

Early that year, Harding and his entire cabinet were struck with a virulent strain of the flu and undiagnosed heart attack that forced him into bed rest until he recovered.

On Feb. 28, Charles R. Forbes resigned as director of the Veterans Bureau, which was at the time not a cabinet post, for taking kickbacks for providing contracts. Attorney General Harry Daughter’s involvement in the scheme eventually led to his removal by Calvin Coolidge in 1924.

Harding was in some ways overwhelmed by the duties of the office. “I don’t know what to do or where to go,” he wrote to a friend.

“The Voyage of Understanding” began in June, as the presidential train Super left Washington for scheduled visits to St. Louis, Kansas City, Denver, Salt Lake City, Helena, Spokane, Portland, and Tacoma. After returning from Alaska, Harding fell ill rom food poisoning, which led to pneumonia.

When he reached San Francisco, an exhausted Harding lay in bed in Room 8064, as wife Florence read him newspaper reports. Blood tests revealed he had bronchopneumonia. At 7:20 p.m. on Aug. 2, as Florence read aloud a “Saturday Evening Post” article about him, Harding shuddered and died.

News reports listed Harding’s death as being caused by a cerebral apoplexy (aka stroke), which was later disproved. Harding likely died of a heart attack.

At the time, Coolidge was vacationing in his Vermont village of Plymouth Notch, where his father John, a notary, eventually swore him in as president in the front room of the main farmhouse.

Conspiracy theories surrounding Harding’s death continue to this day.

In a Sept. 4, 2018 article in The Mercury News, Richard Sharon, a descendant of one-time Plaza Hotel owner Sen. William Sharon (R-Nev.), rekindled a conspiracy theory with roots in a 1930 book.

Gaston Means, a former Harding administration member, claimed Florence poisoned her husband after learning about his extramarital affairs. The claim was later debunked.

Lyndon Johnson’s Election and His Daisy Girl

Paul Clinton — Sat, 22 Dec 2018 07:19:32 +0000

Lyndon Johnson's Election and His Daisy Girl

Lyndon Johnson’s election victory in 1964 over Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater shattered the Republican party and ushered in a darker time of presidential leadership.

Johnson must have known the old political adage. Above all, you have to give people something to vote for rather than asking them to vote against.

On the campaign trail, Johnson talked about his “Great Society,” which at the time must have seemed like an aspirational extension of John F. Kennedy’s “New Frontier.”

Johnson declared war on poverty and ignorance as he ran against Goldwater, whose ideas about the tactical use of nuclear weapons in Europe and reforming Social Security created fear and confusion.

As the ultimate political animal, Johnson also ran attack ads against his opponent, which highlighted Goldwater’s extremism. The most notable one, known as “Daisy Girl,” has served as a template for Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and other presidential aspirants.

As a result, the year 1964 was a watershed in presidential politics. Moving against his Southern brethren in the U.S. Senate, LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on July 2, which prohibited racial discrimination at polls, schools, offices, and restaurants.

The act was a major step toward reversing the “separate but equal” doctrine that reinforced racial segregation. And it gave LBJ a new voting block: African Americans.

Picking a Vice President

Johnson picked the more liberal Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey as his vice presidential running mate. This helped shore up support in the Northeast.

Humphrey was also a good choice, because he was Johnson’s bridge to the more liberal wing of his party.

After LBJ’s nomination at the Democratic National Convention in late August in Atlantic City, he headed into September, and unleashed the dogs.

Johnson hired the Manhattan advertising firm Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB) – a “mad men” firm known for their successful campaigns for Volkswagen, Avis Rent a Car, and El Al Airlines.

To accomplish the attack mission, DDB produced three TV ads, including the 60-second “Peace, Little Girl,” which aired Sept. 7 during NBC’s Monday night movie, “David and Bathsheba.”

In the ad, a child with a daisy in her right hand counts toward 10 as she picks the white petals. Birds chirp, as the camera pulls the viewer closer. She reaches four. When she reaches 10, a mission control announcer breaks in to begin a countdown.

As he nears the end, the camera zooms into her face and freezes on her eyeball. At that moment, a nuclear explosion shatters the scene with a mushroom cloud accompanied by Johnson’s Texas drawl, “we must love each other, or we must die.”

The ad retains its power when watched today; even though the Cold War’s ever-present threat of nuclear annihilation has receded.

The Fruits of Victory

Johnson’s Nov. 3 election victory was supreme. His 486 electoral votes (of 538) gave him 44 states and 61.1% of the popular vote (43.1 million). It was the largest share of the popular vote since James Monroe’s 1820 victory.

The election also blew apart a Republican Party that had been divided into factions unsupported by Dwight Eisenhower, such as the Eastern establishment’s Nelson Rockefeller, Goldwater, and Richard Nixon, a stalking horse in 1964 who hadn’t quite recovered from his 1960 defeat to JFK.

Why does it all still matter? Goldwater’s campaign, from the lens of today, can be seen as a spiritual predecessor of the Reagan Revolution, even though Goldwater’s legacy remains murky. He turned more liberal in later years, even giving interviews from his retirement in Arizona in which he supported gays in the military and abortion rights.

And Johnson’s presidential term turned darker with his escalation of the Vietnam War following several other legislative accomplishments, including the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Medicare, Medicaid, and Head Start.

JFK’s Boyhood Home

Paul Clinton — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 04:46:50 +0000

JFK's Boyhood Home

Forty-one years before John F. Kennedy inspired a generation with his “ask not” call to service, he was a 3-year-old boy living in a cramped second-floor bedroom in Brookline, Mass. JFK’s boyhood home provided a modest start on the road to greatness.

It’s doubtful that JFK remembered much about the nine-room Colonial Revival-style house at 83 Beals St. It was here that his parents began to shape his early life.

You can visit JFK’s boyhood home, which is now managed by the National Park Service. Rangers field questions in a basement gift shop. And you can take a tour of most of the house that includes recorded memories from Rose Kennedy.

Rose and Joseph Kennedy moved into the home in 1914, shortly after Joe married Rose Fitzgerald. Joe insisted on owning a home rather than living with either of the couple’s prominent parents partly. This was a signal of his ambition for what was to come. He “had a strong need for privacy, for independence, for being able to choose the people he wanted to be with in close association,” Rose said later.

The home was the birthplace of the first four of nine Kennedy children. JFK arrived on May 29, 1917 as the second child after Joseph, Jr. and before Rosemary and Kathleen. Eunice, Patricia, Robert, Jean, and Ted would come later.

Kennedy Loyalty Learned in Brookline

The tightly knit Kennedy family forged its early bonds in Brookline. Joe and Rose taught their children about filial loyalty, love of knowledge, Irish Catholic pride, and social rank.

Family loyalty became a hallmark of the Kennedys, especially with Robert Kennedy, who idolized his older brother. Especially after an assassin’s bullet ended the JFK presidency on Nov. 22, 1963 in Dallas.

In his chronicle of Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1964 campaign, Theodore White writes this family bond.

“Robert F. Kennedy, who loved his brother more than he loved himself, saw John F. Kennedy, even while alive, as more than a person—as the flag of a cause. His brother was for him not only the occasion of brotherly love but a new departure in American purpose.”

JFK remembered his childhood fondly, later writing about “a very special affection” for the place of his birth.

The Kennedys left the home in 1920 with a growing family. They moved into a larger home at 51 Abbotsford Road, also in Brookline due to Joe’s business success.

They would leave that home in 1927 for the Bronx, New York, and a Riverdale mansion with views of the Hudson River.

In 1969, Rose Kennedy remembered the years on Beals Street.

“We were happy here and although we did not know about the days ahead, we were enthusiastic and optimistic about the future,” Rose remembers in a recording that you hear at the last stop on the tour in the kitchen.