Robert Novak - Defending The American Dream Summit

This evening Robert Novak spoke during our dinner at the Defending the American Dream Summit. Yes, I know what some of you are thinking who routinely read my blog. It has not been long since I said of Novak that as he has aged (he is 76) he has gradually stopped doing research and reporting and instead has become a gossip columnist. (And, yes I made a similar claim about the Wall Street Journal’s John Fund who will be speaking to us tomorrow.) But, let me tell you, Novak’s speech this evening and the Q&A session afterwards were both insightful and interesting.

Novak’s speech was built around two points; (1) that Barack Obama is not as strong a candidate as some have given him credit, and (2) that this election matters.

Novak cited numerous data points which have historically been negative indicators that an incumbent party can retain the White House; an unpopular President, engagement in war, a third term for the same party, etc. The Republican party is not just fighting against one or a few of these negative circumstances but a whole plethora of them, yet Read more

Search For A Great President

Who were the truly great Presidents in the history of the United States? And how does one measure true greatness when it come to this position. After all, there have only been 43 men who have held this unique position, and they are spread across more than 200 years so it is in many ways very difficult to compare them.

In 1996 Arthur Schlesinger Jr. did poll ranking of the presidents using thirty-two experts (most academics). They did not include the two presidents who died shortly after taking office (Games Garfield and William Henry Harrison). The following are the results, as reported by John Maxwell Hamilton in Casanova Was A Book Lover.

GREAT PRESIDENTS– George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt

NEAR GREAT PRESIDENTS

– Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, James Polk, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Harry Truman

UPPER AVERAGE PRESIDENTS

– John Adams, Monroe, Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson

LOWER AVERAGE PRESIDENTS

– James Madison, John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren, Rutherford B. Hayes, Chester A. Arthur, Benjamin Harrison, William H. Taft, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, William Jefferson Clinton

BELOW AVERAGE PRESIDENTS

– John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Calvin Coolidge

FAILURES

– Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, Warren G. Harding, Herbert Hoover, and Richard Nixon

I am curious, what do you think makes a successful President of the United States? Most readers of this blog would move Ronald Reagan much higher on the list and William Jefferson Clinton lower on the list. What other changes would you make to the evaluations above?

Conservative versus Libertarian

While the Republican primaries were in full swing, I heard talk radio hosts say some of the most inane things I have ever heard. Not that radio talk show hosts don’t say some pretty stupid things on a continuing basis, but these were things so outrageously idiotic that I would not expect them even from such people as Rush Limbaugh, Hugh Hewitt, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Mark Levine (all of whom must be taken with about 32 grains of salt).

Among the many misstatements of fact and inconsistencies in reason were Read more

McCain’s VP

Who should John McCain select to be his running mate. The selection of a Vice President running mate has historically been a small factor in the success or failure of elections. However, I believe that the dynamics are different in this particular election such that the VP candidate will be absolutely crucial for both Republicans and Democrats.

In the video below Laura Ingraham discusses with Greta Van Susteren her preferences for who John McCain should ask to join him.

I’m Not A Republican

I’m not a Republican.  No, I’m not a Democrat, either.  I’m not a Libertarian and I’m not Green. I’m independent with a non-capital i.

I find no fault with anyone who is active in a political party, such as my wife.  But, I just don’t feel like I can belong to a political party at this point in my life and not get caught in a conflict of interests with the primary calling on my life; the gospel.

Nevertheless, I am a political junkie.

So, I am very interested in what is happening with Huck Pac.  After dropping out of the race to become the Republican nominee in the presidential election, Mike Huckabee formed Huck Pac to support Republican candidates who share the conservative values of those who had previously supported Huckabee.  To quote Huckabee, “Huck PAC is not a “memory-maker” from the presidential campaign, it is a serious effort to make a difference in the campaigns of Republican candidates everywhere.”

I will be very interested to see how this endeavor develops.

Locked In The Cabinet - Robert Reich

I enjoy reading political memoirs. One of my favorites is Robert Reich’s Locked in the Cabinet. In it, Reich humorously describes his time as Secretary of Labor during the Clinton administration. Humorous? Yes, in a “I laugh to keep from crying” kind of way.

Read more

Escapism: Barack Obama vs. J.B. Phillips

The news media and internet have been abuzz with discussion of a statement made earlier this month by Senator Barack Obama. At a fundraiser on April 6 in San Francisco, Barack Obama said the following;

“You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

Read more

Winston Spencer Churchill - Select Quotes

“What shall I do with my books?” was the question; and the answer “Read them” sobered the questioner.
But if you cannot read them, at any rate handle them and, as it were, fondle them. Peer into them. Let them fall open where they will. Read on from the very first sentence that arrests the eye. Then turn to another. Make a voyage of discovery, taking soundings of uncharted seas. . . . Arrange them on your own plan, so that if you do not know what is in them, you at least know where they are. If they cannot be your friends, let them at any rate be your acquaintances. If they cannot enter the circle of your life, do not deny them at least a nod of recognition. Read more

Christian Involvement In Politics

The Christian’s goal is not power, but justice. We are to seek to make the institutions of power just, without being corrupted by the process necessary to do this.
~ Charles Colson

The strength of a country is the strength of its religious convictions.
~ Calvin Coolidge

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievance.
~ Constitution of the United States, Amendment I

We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being.
~ Justice William O. Douglas, in a Supreme Court decision, March 1952 Read more

Aristotle - Select Quotes

But he who is unable to live in society, or who has not need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.
~ In Politics, bk. I, ch. 2, 1253a

If liberty and equality, as is thought by some are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.
~ In Politics

One who throws a stone has power over it until he has thrown it, but not afterwards.

Every action must be due to one or other of seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reasoning, anger, or appetite.

Reason is a light that God has kindled in the soul.

Anybody can become angry — that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way — that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.

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