Making politics palatable
I have a weak spot for a Texas accent. And in the midst of a controversial presidency, I feel like I shouldn’t admit that I like to listen to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson speak because of the way that Texas sound drips from his tongue. Hmmm….this is taking a tone that is probably a […]
Dwight D. Eisenhower was the last army general to become President of the United States. Like Andrew Jackson and Ulysses S. Grant before him, his military performance begat his political popularity. His military history, after all, was a long one. He served in the army from 1915-1953. He didn’t see combat in the first World […]
William Howard Taft was one of the first presidential biographies that I read when I decided a few years ago to embark upon a project to read a biography of each United States President. There are several things that stood out to me about him then. One of them is that he took dance lessons […]
James Buchanan both started and ended his presidency as a bachelor. Grover Cleveland entered the presidency a bachelor and left it a married man. In fact, he was the first sitting president to be married in the White House. That is the factoid about President Cleveland that takes a second place to the other fact […]
I get it; nothing is free. All sorts of folks are figuring out what they can do to make ends meet. This includes government. With the events of last month, that’s no surprise. I was surprised, though, to learn that a few months ago a president-related historic site was in danger of being closed. The […]
James K. Polk is sometimes thought of as the last strong president until Abraham Lincoln. Other times he is called the first “dark horse” president. While he was watching election-related things unfold, he realized that the presidential candidates, Martin Van Buren and Henry Clay were avoiding the highly contentious issue of expansionism. Polk brought the […]