By all accounts Mr. Rickey, as everyone called him, wasn’t much of a ballplayer himself. He only played in the majors for four seasons,...

Ol’ Silent Cal came to the Black Hills of South Dakota to vacation in the summer of 1927 and the magnanimous native people who considered...

Yet, amid the dismal economic news, Roosevelt had succeeded in his first term in passing tough new banking regulations, massive public...

By 1932 McAdoo had assembled a remarkable political resume. He married well – Woodrow Wilson’s daughter – and served as his...

For sure Ryan brings youth, partisan excitement, strong conservative credentials and a certain policy wonk attractiveness to the GOP...

The (Almost) Case for Unilateral Action In September 1940, just in front of the election that would make Franklin Roosevelt the first and...

Skillful politicians, it is often said, make their own luck. They have – or develop – the instincts to act, speak or hold their tongue at...

A little over one hundred years ago J. Pierpont Morgan ran much of the world’s business from an elegant office at 23 Wall Street in New...

Harry Truman famously said, “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.” I’ll offer the Johnson Corollary to Truman’s great one...

Mad Men Attitudes and 21st Century Politics By every measure it seems clear that Ann Romney has the smarts, style and personal qualities...

More than 20 years ago I was on the way home from a trip to Washington, D.C. with Clancy Standridge, who was for many years the...

Two years ago in his State of the Union address, Barack Obama called out the Supreme Court of the United States for its ruling in the...

For 20 of the last 31 years a Republican president has occupied the Oval Office. Two of those presidents – the first and second George...

John Nance Garner is mostly forgotten now days. If he’s remembered for anything it was for his alleged pity comment that the “vice...

So many things we associate with the modern American presidency, including its imperial nature, where created by Franklin D. Roosevelt...

Thomas E. Dewey, the one-time mob busting New York City prosecutor and later governor of New York, made three different runs at the White...

Elections and the Court When the Obama Justice Department announced last week that it had asked the United States Supreme Court for an...

At pivotal moments in American history it has often been the case that the right leader somehow emerged from the chaos of the moment and...

When Its Lost Can it be Found Again? I’ve had a good deal of fun over the last few weeks teaching a college-level political science...

I’d argue that ever modern American presidential election comes down to one fundamental question: do we change or do we continue? In...