Character Above All: Richard Reeves on John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Vol. 4
The bestselling author of President Kennedy: Profile of Power historian and biographer Richard Reeves lends his unmistakable voice to the groundbreaking Character Above All audio series with an illuminating examination of one of America's most popular Presidents.
Recorded live at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, Reeves continues a series of lectures delivered by a team of historians, biographers and journalists assembled by Robert Wilson to explore the Presidential character on leadership and the creation of trust.
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Latest Column
This is How Congress Works
LOS ANGELES — There is a story Rep. Henry Waxman during hearings on steroid use in baseball that some say is apocryphal. But I believe it — and we have been friends for more than 25 years. It is said that after the sensational hearing where Mark McGwire said he did not want to talk about the past, the congressman came into his office the next morning and said he was surprised there was so little coverage in the newspapers.
Column Archive
Happy Days Will Be Here Again
LOS ANGELES — The word "recession" became part of my vocabulary in 1958, when I dropped out of college to look for a job. It was a tough year, particularly if your resume was as thin as mine. Working as a lifeguard, selling records at a department store or lugging material around at an ironworks did not impress many employers.
Why is Obama So Popular?
LOS ANGELES — The New York Times and CBS News headlined and broadcast last week that their polling indicated Americans have more confidence in President Obama than they do in his programs — especially when it comes to health care and the federal budget.
Sotomayor Looks Like One of Us
JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Growing up in Jersey City in the late 1950s, I thought the United States was an Italian country governed by the Irish. So it was a rather pleasant surprise for me when I moved out into the country and realized that this was a nation of white Protestants, governed by white Protestant men, for white Protestant men.
What to do With Enemy Prisoners?
BERLIN — On Sept. 14, 1948, Capt. Kenneth Slaker of Lincoln, Neb., was making his sixth flight as a Berlin Airlift pilot, bringing food and fuel to the World War II enemy capital, which was blockaded on land and on rivers by the army of the Soviet Union. The United States Air Force, along with Great Britain's Royal Air Force, was trying to keep alive more than 2 million people in West Berlin, which was surrounded by East Germany and hundreds of thousands of soldiers of the Red Army.
The Late, Great State of California
LOS ANGELES — It's just another day in paradise. Sunny, 75 degrees. Also, this news from the morning papers around California last Friday:
L.A. CANCELS MOST SUMMER SCHOOL CLASSES
GOV. PROPOSES 5 PERCENT CUT IN STATE EMPLOYEE SALARIES
AREA'S STATE PARKS ARE ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK
COUNTY RAIDS HOMELESS CAMP
BART FARES GOING UP 6.5 PERCENT ON JULY 1
To The Lucky Class of 2009
LOS ANGELES — Another year, another graduation. But, of course, this is not just another year. For the graduates themselves, it is one of the most important times of their lives. For many of them, their parents and millions of ordinary Americans, it is a very, very tough time.
What is the American Way of Life?
NEW YORK — This is how they got young men into the military in Honduras in the 1980s: They would show Kung Fu movies in local theaters and then surround the building with trucks, scooping up the audiences, young men, of course, and driving off them to army camps and basic training.
The Last Days of Pakistan?
NEW YORK — Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord that the United States and India have plans to seize Pakistan's nuclear weapons.
Let's Mess with Texas
DALLAS — Rush Limbaugh, the entertainer, announced the other day that he was moving out of New York City because New York Gov. David Paterson proposed higher state taxes on the rich. Paterson reacted by saying that if he had known Limbaugh would go, he would have proposed the tax a long time ago.
Women and Islam
LOS ANGELES — As many teachers of history and journalism do, I show my students "The Battle of Algiers," not because it is one of the great films, which it is, but because it is a good way to begin talking about the cultural clash between Islam and the West.
Obama and Erectile Dysfunction
LOS ANGELES — George W. Bush's last press secretary, Dana Perino, whom I know to be a perfectly sensible person, was on CNN last Thursday playing her part as a loyal Republican by saying that President Obama had embarrassed all real Americans by bowing a bit as he shook the hand of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah. That is the same guy Bush once held hands with when he was nothing but a crown prince — Abdullah, not Bush.
Hearts and Minds — and the Grim Reaper
LOS ANGELES — Two months ago, I wrote a column about Afghanistan and the goals of President Obama, ending: "Who are we fighting? Why?"
The Crisis Scorecard: Winners and Losers
LOS ANGELES — There are going to be winners and losers as America tries to dig itself out of this economic hole. You can't tell the players in this very big game without a scorecard, and they're subject to change from inning to inning. There will be hits, there will be errors, and there will be substitutions and new players coming up from the minors.
The Coming Health Care Debate
LOS ANGELES — Uwe Reinhardt is a professor of economics at Princeton and one of the wiser scholars of health care in the developed world. But he was not always a professor with a string of fancy titles and a gold-standard Ivy League health plan. He grew up poor in Germany, and this is part of what he says about that:
"I grew up in a tool shed, and I know how good it was that when we were paupers, my family, we had health insurance like everyone else in Germany. I've never forgotten that, and I would like the American people to have what I had, and my mother had as a kid. So that is why I care."
Which Way is Right for the Right?
LOS ANGELES — Republicans and conservatives are not necessarily the same people. They are not even kissin' cousins these days, as they try to figure out whether they should help the new Democratic and liberal administration try to save a shaky country or follow the lead of their largest person and pray our new leader fails.
Class Warfare: Bring It On!
LOS ANGELES — "We seem to be going back to class warfare," said a Republican congressman from Ohio, Steven LaTourette, after looking at President Obama's first budget.
O, Democracy: A Coast-to-Coast Mess
NEW YORK — Ask about Mayor Michael Bloomberg these days and you get a classic on-the-one-hand answer: "On the one hand, he's been a good mayor." Some say a great one. "On the other hand, it's outrageous what he's doing on term limits."
Why Are We in Afghanistan?
NEW YORK — Twenty-five years ago, when more than 100,000 soldiers of the Red Army were trying to gain control of Afghanistan, I spent most of a day at the Afghan Surgical Hospital on the Pakistan side of the Khyber Pass, listening to stories about Soviet atrocities.