I found Amy Gardner’s piece at The Washington Post through Tom Sullivan’s post at Hullabaloo. There was once a time when the GOP loved mail-in voting. No more. Here is Gardner: Republican operatives worth their salt remember well the Sunshine...
2012 Election
When Bernie Sanders Tried to “Primary” Barack Obama
Here is a taste of Edward-Isaac Dovere’s piece at The Atlantic, “The Hidden History of Sanders’s Plot to Primary Obama“: Bernie Sanders got so close to running a primary challenge to President Barack Obama that Senator Harry Reid had to intervene to stop...
John Kerry: You May Want to "Walk Back" That Rocky IV Line from 2012
A “preposterous claim?” [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgUyqLrgO7Q&w=560&h=315]...
Barack Obama May Want to "Walk This One Back"
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1409sXBleg&w=560&h=315]...
A Tale of Two Word Clouds
Compare Romney’s “roll-out” of Ryan in 2012 with Trump’s “roll-out” of Pence yesterday. Courtesy of NBC News:...
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan on 60 Minutes–August, 2012
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYwTTqQnh3s&w=420&h=315]...
If History is Any Indication…
Will Trump win the GOP nomination? Who will win the Republican primary? If recent history is any indication, it is far too early to tell. And with the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary not taking place until February 2016,...
From the Archives: Education for a Democracy
How did Jefferson understand the idea of an “informed citizenry?” I originally published this piece in March 2012 when I was writing my Patheos column “Confessing History.” I loved writing that column and still stand by most of what I...
What Mitt Romney Said About Russia
It looks like he was right. From Isaac Chotiner at The New Republic: In the course of the last presidential campaign, Mitt Romney made a comment about America’s number one “geopolitical foe,” which Romney claimed was Russia. He was mocked by...
Watch “Mitt”
You can now watch the entire 90 minute film here. I was riveted by it. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVBkP4-TAY0]...
Obama Thanks Bruce
Posted at Backstreets:
Joseph Ellis on What George Washington Would Think About the 2012 Election
Frankly, this whole line of questioning by The Wall Street Journal is rather odd, but Joseph Ellis does a nice job of dealing with it. Here is a taste: What would be George Washington’s thoughts about the 2012 elections? If […]
Stephen Hahn on Race and the Obama Re-Election
Stephen Hahn is a Pulitzer-Prize winning historian of race in the post-bellum South. In Sunday’s New York Times, he reflects historically on race and Barack Obama’s re-election last week, particularly in the wake of the racial slurs cast on Obama...
The World Reacts to the Obama Victory
My colleague Cathay Snyder passed this along. Very interesting. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640 Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Life and the 2012 Election
Michael New of the The National Review reports that “life” fared pretty well in the 2012 election. A taste: …ballot measures dealing with sanctity-of-life issues fared well on election day. First Montana voters approved LR 120 by a nearly 2...
This Week’s “Anxious Bench” Post at Patheos: “Why I Am Glad The Election is Over”
“As an American historian, what do you think about the 2012 presidential election?” I am asked this question often and I am never sure how to answer it. Ask me in another ten or twenty years and maybe I might...
Do Partisans Make Poor Citizens?
My Messiah College colleague Robin Lauermann has an op-ed in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer reflecting on the problems with political partisanship. I think it is an important read this Election Day morning. Here is a taste: The problems our society faces...
Is America a Christian Nation? What Focus on the Family Gets Wrong
This piece never found a home in an Iowa newspaper, so I am publishing it here. –JF In the last twenty-four hours many citizens of Iowa have received a brochure in the mail from CitizenLink, a political affiliate of the […]
Would Mitt Romney Use the Book of Mormon to Take His Oath of Office?
No, says Mormon expert (and editor extraordinaire) Jana Riess. Mitt would probably use the Bible that his father used when sworn-in as Governor of Michigan. Riess was interviewed as part of a CNN article, “What Would a Mormon White House...
A Challenge to the Obama Narrative of 20th-Century Economic History
According to Brian Domitrovic, the chair of the history department at Sam Houston State University, Barack Obama needs a lesson in economic history. Here is a taste of his piece at Forbes with some of my thoughts interspersed. “Governor, when...