Harry Truman

When Did Americans Stop Naming Babies After the President?

Howard Steven Friedman | Posted 05.23.2012

Read More: Baby Names, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Historical Baby Names, Presidential History, Naming a Baby, Woodrow Wilson, Popular Baby Names, Babies, Parents News

There was a time when parents often named baby boys after the President of the United States. Yet today, neither Barack, Hussein nor Obama have reached the top 1,000 most popular boy names in the U.S.

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The Conservative Fantasy History Of Civil Rights

New York Magazine | Posted 05.22.2012

Read More: National Review, Civil Rights Act, Conservatives, Ronald Reagan, Harry Truman, Conservatism, Strom Thurmond, Democrats, African-Americans, Civil Rights, Barack Obama, Republicans, Politics News

The civil rights movement, once a controversial left-wing fringe, has grown deeply embedded into the fabric of our national story. This is a salutary ...

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Obama vs. Romney: The Overstated Importance of Picking the Right VP Running Mate

Philip White | Posted 05.18.2012

Read More: Mitt Romney, Vice President, 2012 Election, Rob Portman, Barack Obama, Harry Truman, Sarah Palin, Joe Biden, Politics News

The elections of today are all about appearance and public perception; looking "presidential," it seems, is now more important than a candidate's ability to act as such. A vice presidential candidate is not immune from these superficial requirements.

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Basic Scientific Research and Its Transformational Potential

James M. Gentile | Posted 04.30.2012

Read More: Basic Scientific Research, Randy Hultgren, Solar Energy Conversion, Research Corporation for Science Advancement, Harry Truman, Job Growth, Frederick Gardner Cottrell, Smithsonian, Robert Goddard, Franklin Roosevelt, High-Risk High-Reward, Applied Science, Fox Chicago Sunday, National Science Foundation, Nobel Prize, National Air and Space Museum, Foundation, Fermilab, Basic Science, Early Career Scientists, Ipad, Ernest O. Lawrence, Green Technology, Google, Sun-Orbital S, Science News

As our nation's leadership in scientific and technological innovation is challenged as never before, federal funding of basic scientific research remains essential, but that research should be potentially transformational.

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No Place for Rush Limbaugh in Hall of Famous Missourians

Randy Turner | Posted 05.06.2012

Read More: Walt Disney, John Ashcroft, Rush Limbaugh, Steve Tilley, Hall of Famous Missourians, Stan Musial, Walter Cronkite, Harry Truman, Sexism, Racism, Dred Scott, Sandra Fluke, Barack Obama, Buck O'Neil, Media News

The timing of Missouri Speaker of the House Steve Tilley's announcement that he had named Rush Limbaugh to the Hall of Famous Missourians could not have been any worse.

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Bipartisanship on Broadway

Rob Taub | Posted 04.28.2012

Read More: Angela Lansbury, Richard Nixon, James Earl Jones, Harry Truman, Broadway, Congress, Michael McKean, Gore Vidal, Bipartisanship, Presidential Debates, John Larroquette, Jfk, Candice Bergen, Culture News

This was a time when politicians were smart, oozed tons of charm and weren't shy about drinking bourbon & branch water. The words politics and entertainment are seldom found in the same sentence, but The Best Man is loaded with both.

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Obama Can Win Big With FDR Formula

Robert S. McElvaine | Posted 03.26.2012

Read More: Big Business, 2012 Elections, Wall Street, Ronald Reagan, Big Government, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Progressives, Harry Truman, Public Opinion, 1936 Election, Democrats, Barack Obama, Politics News

Always a savvy pragmatist, FDR finally realized it was impossible to compromise with those who refuse to compromise. He also saw that he needed to move left to catch up with his "followers," who were demanding more vigorous action.

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A German Town Mourns Its Holocaust Past: The DP Camp Story, Part 2

Bernard Starr | Posted 02.14.2012

Read More: Rwanda, Shoah, Church, Holocaust, Judaism, Harry Truman, Hebrew, Ulm Germany, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Nazis, University of Pennsylvania, Jewish, Holocaust Museum, Genocide, Zionism, World War II, DP Camps, Displaced Persons, Lutheran, Culture News

A commissioned stained-glass window dedicated to the Holocaust portrays a gas chamber scene and bears a Star of David. To all who enter the church, it's a stark reminder of past atrocities

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Battleground North Carolina: Democratic Women Fired Up!

Michael Carmichael | Posted 12.23.2011

Read More: Women's Rights, David Koch, Tea Party, Chapel Hill, Richard Burr, Koch Brothers, Unc, Orange County Democratic Women, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, John Lewis, Hamilton, Molly Ivins, Harry Truman, Obama, Occupy Wall Street, Mecklenburg County NC, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Nino Scalia, Paul Wellstone, 2012, Republican, Battle of the South, Jefferson, Cesar Chavez, Bank of America, Gay Rights, Joan Dresser, Charlotte-North Carolina, Charlotte, Barbara Jordan, North Carolina, Palin-Bachmann, Abortion Rights, Citizens United, John Roberts, Wake County, Ellie Kinnaird, Tom Tillis, Donna Brazile, Jim Crow, Wall Street, Alice Bordsen, Charles Koch, North Carolina Democratic Women, Wake County School Board, Jimmy Carter, Gene Nichol, Renee Price, Lillian's List, David Price, Art Pope, Politics News

Recognizing that women's rights will take a devastating hit if Republicans return to power in 2012, Democratic women are rising to face the challenge.

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Obama Rips Page From Former President's Playbook

AP | KEN THOMAS | Posted 12.07.2011

Read More: Congress, Barack Obama Truman, John Boehner, Boehner, Harry Truman, Elections 2012, Boehner Obama, Obama Administration, Do-Nothing Congress, Obama, Barack Obama Congress, President Obama Truman, Barack Obama, Obama Boehner, Video, Obama Truman, Congress Popularity, Politics News

WASHINGTON — Give `em hell, Barry? Heading into a tough re-election campaign, President Barack Obama has been railing against Congress to pass ...

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Truman Moment for Dems

Brent Budowsky | Posted 11.22.2011

The idealism of JFK, the reformism of Ross Perot, the toughness of Harry Reid and the fighting spirit of Truman will make today's headlines look like ancient history long before ballots are cast in 2012.

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Big Apple Turnover

Henry J. Stern | Posted 11.19.2011

Read More: Bob Turner, Anthony Weiner, Harry Truman, President Obama, David Weprin, Dov Hikind, Meat Loaf, Joseph Crowley, Saul Weprin, Ed Koch, Vito Lopez, Mark Weprin, Michael Long, Jimmy Carter, Melinda Katz, Ny-9, New York News

The election last week of Republican Robert Turner to Congress is significant for several reasons. One is that the result will be widely perceived as a rebuke to President Obama and the Democratic Party, which it is.

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The Theology of Armageddon

Robert Koehler | Posted 11.15.2011

Read More: Military Proselytizing, Nuclear Weapons, Just War Theory, Evangelical Christians, Hiroshima, Wernher Von Braun, Armageddon, Harry Truman, Air Force, Pope Benedict XVI, Politics News

The woo-woo nuttiness of it all defies the imagination, beginning with the idea of a course in "Nuclear Ethics and Nuclear Warfare" at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Nuclear ethics?

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Where Is Harry Truman When We Need Him?

Harlan Green | Posted 11.13.2011

Read More: President Obama, Unemployment Rate, Governor Thomas Dewey, Unemployment Report, Harry Truman, 1948 Presidential Campaign, Give-Em-Hell-Harry, Fdr, Business News

Truman was not afraid to take on those who wanted to reduce government, when government was the only support for both businesses and consumers during tough times.

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Why Obama's Jobs Speech Failed to Deliver

Andy Ostroy | Posted 11.09.2011

Read More: Gop, Mitch McConnell, President Obama, Ronald Reagan, 2012 Election, John Boehner, Harry Truman, American Jobs Act, Jfk, Republican Party, Democrats, Eric Cantor, Fdr, Politics News

The speech should've been short and sweet. Fifteen minutes. And delivered from the Oval Office. Instead what we got was the standard pomp and circumstance show, complete with all the odd merriment that typically accompanies these bi-partisan charades.

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Would a Third Party Hurt or Help Obama in 2012?

Dr. Philip Neches | Posted 10.01.2011

Read More: Third Party, Congress, Progressives, Harry Truman, 112th Congress, Dixiecrat, Barack Obama, 1948 Election, Politics News

Conventional wisdom doomed Harry Truman's re-election bid in 1948 by not one, but two third party challenges. But a deeper look at history suggests that those challenges might actually have helped Truman win.

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Debt Ceiling Debate: Obama's Turnip Day?

Dr. Philip Neches | Posted 09.14.2011

Read More: Greece Debt, Congress, National Debt, Debt Ceiling, Tea Party, Barack Obama, Harry Truman, Politics News

Most years, Congress raises the debt ceiling as quietly as possible, at the last moment, with little debate and less suspense. Not so this time.

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The Way Out

Murray Fromson | Posted 09.01.2011

Read More: Congress, Budget, Barack Obama, Harry Truman, Deficit, Foreclosure Crisis, Bankruptcy, Unemployment, Demoralization, Home Foreclosure, Politics News

Americans are desperate for change. They hunger for their imagination to be aroused and their can-do energy to find its way back into the country's bloodstream. If anyone can do that, it would seem to be Barack Obama.

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The Economic Hangover: Part Two

Don McNay | Posted 08.08.2011

Read More: Elizabeth Warren, Teddy Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Bailouts, Main Street, Obama, Robber Barrons, Wall Street Bailouts, Goldman Sachs, Aig, Pete Mahurin, John Edwards, Move Your Money, Timothy Geithner, Wall Street, Great Depression, Citigroup, Third World America, Kentucky, Joe Nocera, Iceland Economic Crisis, Credit Cards, Vanderbilt University, Justice Department, Inside Job, Banks, New York Times, Ben Bernanke, Personal Finance, The Fed, Economic Crisis, Business News

The bailout and stimulus money allowed us to limp along for a couple of years. Now we are back to where we started, but worse, since we borrowed trillions to pay for it.

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The War on Terror and Ghosts of Osama Bin Laden

Rizwan A. Rahmani | Posted 08.01.2011

Read More: Oabama Administration, War on Terror, Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan, Morality, Harry Truman, Navy SEAL, Assassination, Osama Bin Laden, World News

Is there a shadow on our national psyche cast by bin Laden and the War on Terror?

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Playing Presidents: Good History vs. Good Drama and The Actor JFK (and Jackie) Wanted To Play Him

Carl Sferrazza Anthony | Posted 06.07.2011

Read More: John F. Kennedy, Actors, Washington, The Kennedys, Film Production, George W. Bush, Harry Truman, Presidents, Thomas Jefferson, Hollywood, Woodrow Wilson, Barack Obama, George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, Andrew Johnson, Grover Cleveland, Media News

Whether filtered by an archivist, historian, editor, screenwriter, actor or director, perspective on the life of another person is ultimately subjective - and there's no group of people more highly susceptible to the subjective than the presidents.

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Weather the Storm: Blame Congress

Dr. Philip Neches | Posted 06.06.2011

Read More: Dewey Defeats Truman, Congress, 1948-Election, Economy, Harry Truman, Elections 2012, Fdr, Cold War, Barack Obama, Politics News

To counter the perfect storm -- a bad domestic economy, overseas troubles, and a charismatic opponent -- that he may face this election cycle, candidate Obama should take a page from Harry Truman's playbook.

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Google Ranking The Presidents

Howard Steven Friedman | Posted 05.25.2011

We find that the Google rankings of presidents corresponds very well to historians' rankings.

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Defining Reagan's Legacy: Two Expert Views

Al Eisele | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Lou Cannon, Theodore Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, David McCullough, Ronald Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama, Harry Truman, Politics News

I don't have anything worthwhile to add to the huge outpouring of commentary and analysis triggered by the Ronald Reagan Centennial, but I know a couple of very smart guys who do.

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Left and Right Playing a Double Game on Trade

Ian Fletcher | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Bill Clinton, Robert Reich, Liberalism, Harry Truman, Andrew Jackson, Free Trade, Conservative, Protectionism, Republicans, Democrats, Laura D'Andrea Tyson, Politics News

Democrats want to hear that America's trade problems are caused by exploitative capitalism. But the problem is that corporate pursuit of profit has been decoupled from the success of the economy as a whole.

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