Notable

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s guest appearance on the Daily Show was immensely entertaining.  Far beyond the typical academic, Goodwin is a great story teller, who just draws one in.  Ever ask where are all those who would be statesmen? Or sigh and shrug in disgust thinking politics is dirtier and more shallow than ever? Ha! Apparently we are right on par with the smear campaigns of the 19th century. What we don´t have is the songs.

… They used to have these great songs, like “I like Ike cause Ike is easy to like”. Oh and my favorite one is “Get on the raft with Taft”. Now Taft weighed 350 pounds and if you get on a raft with Taft, you’re gone. … Van Buren was corrupt, so the jingle was: “Who would for gain, his country sell, deserves the lowest place in hell. Van Buren.”

[ ... This campaign is ] no where near as dirty as the old campaigns. [...] When Thomas Jefferson ran, the other side, the Adams people, said he was a howling atheist …

About Doris Kearns -From doriskearnsgoodwin.com
Doris Kearns Goodwin won the Pulitzer Prize in history for No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II, which was a bestseller in hardcover and trade paper. She is also the author of the bestsellers Wait Till Next Year, The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, and Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream. Ms. Goodwin serves as an NBC-TV news analyst and lectures around the world.

This year´s U.S. Presidential election is over, and whilst the world seems to draw a collective sigh of relief that President Elect Obama can speak complete sentences, comedian´s admit they are wondering what they will do after taking a fortnight´s worth of pause. This almost certainly goes for political pundits, as well as nightly news reporters en masse. What will they find to sensationalize next? [Read more]