Roundup: Media's Take

June 12, 2004

From Lincoln On, a Time of Grieving Has Been One of Reconciling

David Stout, in the NYT (June 11, 2004): ... Abraham Lincoln's funeral in 1865 loosed a flood of grief only a half-year after his very re-election was in doubt."In point of sad sublimity and moral grandeur, the spectacle has been the most impressive ever witnessed in the national capital," The New-York Times observed then.An older generation of Americans recalls the heartbreak of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's funeral in 1945, just five months after he was elected to

June 9, 2004

What W Could Learn from Reagan

Fred Kempe, in the WSJ (European edition) (June 9, 2004): In the early weeks of this Bush administration, a veteran U.S. senator told me not to compare the new President to his father but rather to Ronald Reagan. The senator, who knew all three, said that while the first President Bush had been one of America's finest public servants, his son and

June 8, 2004

NYT: OPEC Wants to Avoid the Mistake of 1998

Neela Banerjee, in the NYT (June 6, 2004): At their meeting here last week, members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries seemed to abdicate responsibility for the recent record-high oil prices. Purnomo Yusgiantoro, the group's president and Indonesia's minister of energy, complained in his opening remarks that"the high prices have been caused by a combination

June 8, 2004

NYT: George Tenet's Leaving with His Reputation in Tatters ... Like a Long Line of CIA Directors

Philip Taubman, in the NYT (June 6, 2004): It seems an immutable law of Washington: directors of central intelligence are better remembered for their failures than their successes. George J. Tenet joined the roll last week. Historians may someday credit him for rebuilding the marquee spy service at a dangerous hour in the nation's history, but for now his critics will consign hi

June 4, 2004

NYT: FDR and De Gaulle Had Their Problems, too

Elaine Sciolino, in the NYT (May 31, 2004): Franklin Roosevelt loathed Charles de Gaulle and de Gaulle loathed him back. The Free French leader, was given only two days notice that 150,000 American and other foreign troops were coming by sea and air to the Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944, and de Gaulle was not allowed to take part. President Roosevelt , wo

June 4, 2004

Rumsfeld's Vietnam Syndrome

Jeffrey Bell, in the Weekly Standard (May 24, 2004):FOR GEORGE W. BUSH, it would be bizarre if the most loyal and gifted member of his cabinet were to be the instrument of his defeat in November 2004. Recent developments on the Iraq front of the war on terror make such thoughts about Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld harder and harder to put aside. No, it is

June 3, 2004

Music Censors Have a Long History

Annie Nakao, in the San Francisco Chronicle (May 30, 2004):Long before Janet Jackson's breast set off national hand-wringing over smut on our airwaves, the world was already a dicey place. Or so Seattle music historian Peter Blecha maintains in his new book, "Taboo Tunes, A History of Banned Bands and Censored Songs," which romps through centuries of public outrage over music of every sort, from bawdy tavern ditties to gritty hip-hop. "I

June 3, 2004

Arianna Huffington: Bush II=Henry V?

Arianna Huffington, column (June 2, 2004):As our anger, anguish and anxiety about Iraq continue to mount, I find myself looking for clarity and understanding not in the media's daily play-by-play, which confuses more than it illuminates (Did we win in Fallujah or get our butts kicked?), but rather in Shakespeare's "Henry V." I've found it contains far more truth about our present situation than any

May 27, 2004

NPR: Before FDR, Presidential Candidates Never Accepted Their Nominations at the Convention

John McDonough, on NPR (May 26, 2004): Until Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first nomination as the Democratic candidate in 1932, no candidates attended their parties' conventions, and they waited weeks before getting the news and accepting. So John Kerry's consideration of the idea of not formally accept his party's nomination at the convention would be a throwback, not a precedent. Click here to hear the report.

May 27, 2004

Two American Towns--Same Story--Except One's Facing Complaints About Jews, the Other About Muslims

Elizabeth Hayes Alvarez, in Sightings (Martin Marty Center at the University of Chicago Divinity School) (May 27, 2004):"There is a kind of social contract, an unwritten law, to be a good neighbor," Nadler said."Here's the problem: That social contract is not binding for them.  They have another contract.  They have a contract with the Torah.  They have a contract with God.

May 27, 2004

Changed My Mind: Bush's Dad Was Right to Stop After Liberating Kuwait

Brendan Miniter, in the WSJ (May 27, 2004):For more than a decade I believed that the first President Bush made a massive mistake in leaving Saddam Hussein in power in 1991. I almost voted against him for this wobbliness in 1992. But the longer the fight drags on in Iraq today, the more I thank God that the first Gulf War stopped with the liberation of Kuwait. This is no endorsement of Saddam's final

May 26, 2004

Were We Hoodwinked by Iran or by the Bush Administration About WMD?

Steven Aftergood, in the newsletter of the FAS Project on Government Secrecy (Volume 2004, Issue No. 47 May 26, 2004): The yawning gulf between the Bush Administration's sequential rationales for the war in Iraq and the facts as they have emerged (e.g. regarding weapons of mass destruction, links to al Qaida, etc.) has left many people grasping for an explanation of what went wrong.Lately, the suggestion has been raised that the war was propelled by an Iranian e

May 26, 2004

Gerald Nicosia: The Presidency Wasn't on Kerry's Mind During His Anti-war Days

Gerald Nicosia, author of Home to War: A History of the Vietnam Veterans' Movement (Crown Publishers, 2001, forthcoming in a new edition from Carroll & Graf this August), in the LAT (May 25, 2004):... The next big event by the VVAW [Vietnam Veterans Against the War] began in late January 1971, at a Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge in Detroit. [John] Kerry atten

May 26, 2004

Is Lynne Cheney Kidding? Bush Is an Outstanding President?

Columnist John Nichols, in the Wisconsin Capital Times (May 25, 2004):When she served as chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities under former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, Lynne Cheney established herself as an outspoken advocate for the teaching of history in the public schools. She even published a groundbreaking report, "American Memory,"

May 26, 2004

Americans Are Proving in Iraq that They Are in the Middle of History, Not at the End of It

Gregory Clark, a former Australian diplomat and vice president of the new Akita International University, in Japan Times (May 25, 204):U.S. President George W. Bush says often that the American aim in Iraq is to promote something called "democracy." But what is this democracy? The American philosopher Francis Fukuyama has gotten much publicity with his thesis that d

May 26, 2004

Do Liberals Ignore Their Own Rich History?

Mark Schmitt, the Director of Policy for the U.S. Programs of the Open Society Institute, in the American Prospect (May 20, 2004):American liberals suffer from a well-earned inferiority complex. How often do we hear phrases like, “We need a Heritage Foundation for our side,” or, “We need ideas and a framework, like the right has”? Robert B. Reich

May 25, 2004

Jon Meacham: What Bush Could Learn from Churchill

Jon Meacham, in Newsweek (May 31, 2004):In the first days of the Bush Restoration in 2001, Karl Rove, the new president's senior adviser and in-house history buff, was dining at the British Embassy in Washington with the then ambassador, Christopher Meyer. In the grand building up on Massachusetts Avenue, Rove mentioned George W. Bush's fascination with Churchill. "He was a man who saved the world,&quo

May 23, 2004

Nation Building Was Hard in 1945, too

Adam Bruce, in the Scotsman (May 23, 2004):IT’S undeniable - the coverage of American foreign policy makes for grim reading. The lack of an exit strategy, the ongoing violence and the failure to build a credible administration are common themes. "Americans are losing the victory", "How we botched the occupation" and "Bin Laden has exceeded even his wildest dreams&q

May 22, 2004

Bush as Henry V

Bob Thompson, in the Washington Post (May 18, 2004):To invade or not to invade, that was the question. Once again, you had a bunch of Washington pundits and insider types shooting off their mouths about a decision that would get thousands of people maimed or killed and poison international relations for the foreseeable future. Fortunately, the eight panelists holding forth at the Shakespeare Theatre yesterday were talking about the 15th century, not the

May 22, 2004

Seymour Hersh Strikes Journalism Gold (Again)

From the NYT (May 21, 2004):With his reports in 1969 of a massacre by young American soldiers at My Lai, Seymour Hersh began his run as one of journalism's best-known investigative reporters. But in spite of his longevity, none of his subsequent reportorial efforts has had the impact of his first. Until now.In less than a month, Hersh, 67, has written three articles