Dwight D. Eisenhower | The New York Observer

The Smallville Campaign: Hillary Goes Back in Time

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 20:00:00 -0400

Until I saw her on the stump these past few days, I’d never have believed that Hillary Clinton could attract voters by appealing to their sense of yearning for the 1950’s. It seems, on the face of it, an absurd idea. The only thing that Mrs. Clinton’s most zealous fans and shrillest critics agree upon is that her Presidential candidacy represents a decisive and potentially transformative break with tradition. To her fans, she’s a...

We Are All Jews In Our Enemy's Eyes

Sun, 05 May 2002 20:00:00 -0400

The defense of Zacarias Moussaoui, the Frenchman of Moroccan origin who allegedly was meant to be the 20th hijacker, got off to a bad start in a Virginia courtroom last week. Mr. Moussaoui assailed "pagans, Jews, Christians and hypocrites," and said that he prayed for "the destruction of the United States" and of "the Jewish people and state." It's as if O.J. Simpson had taken the stand to harangue the jury about white bitches....

A World-Changing Orbit: How a Satellite Freaked Us Out

Sun, 04 Nov 2001 19:00:00 -0500

Sputnik: The Shock of the Century , by Paul Dickson. Walker & Company, 310 pages, $28.

Junior-high history classes and cable-TV retrospectives have long hammered it into the head of anyone under 50 that the Soviet launch of the world's first satellite on Oct. 4, 1957, was both an epoch-making event and a national trauma for the United States. Well, maybe you had to be there. At 184 pounds, Sputnik was scarcely larger than a...

Forty Years Later, Ike's Words Resonate

Sun, 28 Jan 2001 19:00:00 -0500

Bill Clinton has followed the tradition of most two-term

Presidents by wishing us farewell. But now that the Celebrity Presidency has replaced the Imperial Presidency, a Presidential farewell address seems as anachronistic as a horse-and-buggy ride down Pennsylvania Avenue. John Quincy Adams said there is nothing so pathetic as an ex-President; Mr. Clinton very likely will prove that there is nothing so ubiquitous. George Washington bequeathed the farewell address, and its mandatory lofty view, to the nation. Less successfully, Andrew...

Gore, Bush Ignore Ike's 'Cross of Iron'

Sun, 08 Oct 2000 20:00:00 -0400

We've reached that stage of the national campaign when smarty-pants columnists start asking trick questions-of potential voters.

In keeping with the genial spirit of things, here's a test: What political figure do you suppose said the following: "Every gun that is fired, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies ... a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.… This is not a way of life at...

Boomers Beware: You're Old News

Sun, 19 Dec 1999 19:00:00 -0500

President John F. Kennedy was on C-Span the other night, delivering that inaugural speech which people of a certain age will never forget. It was a speech of many memorable lines, but on this particular night, one less-remembered phrase struck a chord. He was describing the new generation to whom the torch of power had been passed: "tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace." And, oh yes, "born in this century."...

Al Gore's Biggest Woe: Clinton's a Republican!

Sun, 15 Aug 1999 20:00:00 -0400

In his new book, Name-Dropping , John Kenneth Galbraith suggests that Dwight Eisenhower's political legacy consisted of accepting, confirming and carrying forward the social welfare programs launched under the New Deal. As we approach the end of Bill Clinton's tenure, it's clear that his legacy will be a mirror image of Ike's. Just as Eisenhower validated the policies of his Democratic predecessors, Mr. Clinton's Presidency has successfully achieved the domestic policy objectives of his...