Debate Is Blacked Out for Some Viewers Washington Wire Customers of Verizon Communications Inc.’s FiOS TV service who live in parts of the New York metropolitan area don’t get MSNBC, the purveyor of the final standoff before next week’s big primaries. The cable network has a distribution deal with Cablevision Systems Corp. that excludes Verizon.
Clinton Campaign Starts 5-Point Attack on Obama The New York Times After struggling for months to dent Senator Barack Obama’s candidacy, the campaign of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is now unleashing what one Clinton aide called a “kitchen sink†fusillade against Mr. Obama, pursuing five lines of attack since Saturday in hopes of stopping his political momentum.
On the Campaign Trail Associated Press "I don't want a campaign that is divisive here, and there's a danger in that," Sen. Christopher Dodd said, although he denied he was nudging Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to end her candidacy.
McCain Hits Back in Campaign Finance Row AFP Aides to Republican John McCain Tuesday accused the Democrats of playing election games in a legal row over his attempts to back out of receiving public money for his White House campaign. "Everything we did here was legal, ethical and proper," McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker said, accusing Democratic hopeful Barack Obama of "backpedalling" on whether he too would take public funds.
The 1920s-50s were baseball's Golden Era. Today is nothing close to that. But does anyone remember baseball's Silver Era?
February 27, 2008
Leafing through the campaign coverage, I found this gem:
THE GRAND QUESTION STATED
At the present solemn and momentous epoch, the only question to be asked by every American, laying his hand on his heart, is: "Shall I continue in allegiance to GOD-AND A RELIGIOUS PRESIDENT.
The question was not being asked of supporters of Clinton, McCain or Obama, but of Jefferson and Adams.
It was the Election of 1800, the second contested presidential contest in the young Republic's history, and a veritable bile-fest of slurs, innuendo and backbiting. Name a perceived ill of modern campaigning - gossip, the evolution of religious litmus tests for candidates, media that focus more on process than programs - and it was likely there, merely clothed with a more elegant style of discourse.
Let's take the matter of religiosity, a seemingly modern phenomenon in which candidates are graded on piety rather than policy. The question above was featured in the Federalist newspaper, Gazette of the United States. Faith turned out to be the Achilles' Heel of Thomas Jefferson, whose flexible, eloquently stated views as a Deist could easily be construed as a type of Atheism. Federalist Party supporters of opponent John Adams latched onto freethinking statements by Jefferson to cast him as a Godless agitator. (Adams, to his credit, opposed such tactics.)
And even though there was little that modern-day politicos would recognize as "campaigning," the 1800 version of the political pundit still managed to critique how the candidates conducted themselves. Noting that Adams made a side-trip through Pennsylvania to get to Washington, a pro-Jefferson newspaper accused him of unseemly politicking. "Why must the President go fifty miles out of his way to make a trip to Washington?"
The Federalist Daily Advertiser was similarly dismayed with Jefferson's running mate, Aaron Burr, asking how the candidate could allow a "would-be Vice President . . . stoop so low as to visit every corner in search of voters?"
Other writers preferred gossip, turning Jefferson's long-rumored affair with slave Sally Hemmings into grist for the political mill.
Finally, there were real issues of state. Adams' Federalists favored strong central government, closer ties with Britain, and new taxes to fund the broader role they envisioned for Washington, D.C. Jefferson's Democratic-Republicans favored states' rights, alliance with France, and strict adherence to the Bill of Rights.
The newspapers, never much for subtlety, reduced it to this: A vote for Adams meant a continued "reign of terror." With Jefferson, one only had to support the "teaching of murder robbery, rape, adultery and incest."
In other words, not much has changed in more than 200 years. The only difference today is that the muckrakers have 150 cable channels with which to do their dirty work.
Share the Eye:
The Duel nps.gov Vice President Aaron Burr was replaced on the Republican ticket in 1804 with George Clinton, the New York political boss. Burr's power base rested in a delicate balancing act between the parties.
The Federalist Papers Foundingfathers In total, the Federalist Papers consist of 85 essays outlining how this new government would operate and why this type of government was the best choice for the United States of America. All of the essays were signed "PUBLIUS" and the actual authors of some are under dispute, but the general consensus is that Alexander Hamilton wrote 52, James Madison wrote 28, and John Jay contributed the remaining five.
Ronald Reagan and States' Rights Volokh Conspiracy It has somehow become part of conventional wisdom that Ronald Reagan launched his 1980 presidential campaign with a blatant appeal to southern racism by engaging in a vigorous defense of "states' rights" in Philadelphia, Mississippi, where three civil rights workers were murdered in 1964. I've read it myself so often I was sure that it was true.
The Case for the Libertarian Democrat Cato.org It was my fealty to the notion of personal liberty that made me a Republican when I came of age in the 1980s. It is my continued fealty to personal liberty that makes me a Democrat today.
still thinking about today...
Who's Your Favorite President?
11% 33% 0% 11% 11% 0% 22% 11%
I've always admired Jefferson. I watched an interesting movie about him called "Jefferson in Paris" a few years ago. Incidentlly, while Jefferson was in Paris he read a book called Dangerous Liasons. It was made into a movie with Annette Benning. I actually preferred a version called "Valmont". I have an English translation of the book. I wonder what Jefferson thought about it?
There is a movie about John Adams to be released in the near future...hopefully, it will be interesting.
Too bad we don't have candidates today of their stature.
"I never had an opinion in politics or religion which I was afraid to own. A costive reserve on these subjects might have procured me more esteem from some people, but less from myself." ~ Thomas Jefferson ~ March 13, 1789