Free Republic

She always called him “Mr. President” — not Jack. He refused to kiss her on the lips when they made love. But Mimi Alford, a White House intern from New Jersey, was smitten nonetheless. She was in the midst of an 18-month affair with the most powerful man in the world, sharing not only John F. Kennedy’s bed but also some of his darkest and most intimate moments. In her explosive new tell-all, “Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath,” Alford, now a 69-year-old grandmother and retired New York City church administrator, sets...

President John Tyler’s grandson Harrison Tyler, 84, says he’s not impressed with the state of politics today and particularly thinks Newt Gingrich is a “big jerk” for his three marriages. Incredibly, President Tyler, who was born in 1790 and became the 10th president in 1841, has two grandchildren still alive today. His grandson, Harrison Ruffin Tyler, currently maintains the Tyler presidential home, Sherwood Forest Plantation Foundation in Charles City, Va. Harrison said he doesn’t spend much time focusing on the 2012 presidential race — “I can’t stand watching television” — but considers himself a conservative. His big problem this election,...

Fifty one years after a young president from Massachusetts delivered a stirring inaugural address on a frigid day in the nation's capital, contemporary politicians still aspire to the Kennedy mystique.

Rick Santorum's near-miss in Iowa provides a reminder that, for many Republican voters (and not a few candidates), religion and politics overlap. If you need another reminder, though, consider this: recently, the Smithsonian has restored and put on display a weird and fantastic 19th century book known as "The Jefferson Bible." That's Jefferson as in Thomas, and this private, personal document offers a useful case study in how politics and Christianity have mixed it up in American history, right up to today. To understand Jefferson's Bible, you need to start with the one book he published in his lifetime: "Notes...

In early December, in Osawatomie, Kan., President Obama delivered the sort of fiery populist speech his base had been demanding since the start of his administration. The speech as a whole strongly overstated the extent of economic insecurity in today’s America, but one particular claim jumped out at me — that upward mobility has declined rather sharply: We tell people — we tell our kids — that in this country, even if you’re born with nothing, work hard and you can get into the middle class. . . . And yet, over the last few decades, the rungs on the...

Sean Hannity's use this week of President Reagan's Christmas Message may have noted the stark difference between the content of that message with those of last year and this year.The contrast we may not have been able to draw, however, is the contrast between the current President's messages and the words and celebrations of Presidents throughout the past 200 years.Without reviewing them all, however, and especially for young people who may visit FR, may I suggest that visitors here also visit the web site of Wallbuilders.com where such information has been collected and referenced. Democrats and others who may think...

Colleges pay presidents millions while raising tuitionBy Blake Ellis @CNNMoney December 20, 2011: 5:22 AM ET NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Some private colleges are paying their top executives millions of dollars, at the same time they're hiking tuition prices for students. Vanderbilt University paid its chancellor, Nicholas Zeppos, $1.9 million in 2009, according to the school's most recent tax filings -- enough for up to 43 students to attend Vanderbilt at current prices. His total pay includes a base salary of $673,002, as well as bonus and other compensation. That same year, Vanderbilt's tuition jumped 4.3%. Since then, the college...

Psychiatrist Karl Menninger, founder of the Menninger Clinic, raised the question, “Whatever became of sin?” in his 1973 book title. There was a time when U.S. presidents made certain that our sin didn’t fade from our national conscience. Not this year. The Huffington Post reviewed the Thanksgiving Proclamations of 26 U.S. Presidents from Washington to Barack Obama, and concluded that they’re “strikingly the same”: "Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor..." With these words,...

Lech Walesa said that there would not be a free Poland without Ronald Reagan, during the unveiling of a statue in Warsaw of the late American president on Monday.The former Solidarity leader said that “as a participant in these events,” it was “inconceivable” that such changes would have come about without the last American president during the post-1945 cold-war era. Walesa added that thirty years ago, it seemed that the fall of the communist system would not be possible without a nuclear war. The bronze statue of Reagan has been installed not far from the American Embassy, on Ujazdowskie Avenue,...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Richard Nixon's grand jury testimony about the Watergate scandal that destroyed his presidency is finally coming to light. Four months after a judge ordered the June 1975 records unsealed, the government's Nixon Presidential Library was making them available online and at the California facility Thursday. Historians dared hope that the testimony would form Nixon's most truthful and thorough account of the circumstances that led to his extraordinary resignation 10 months earlier under threat of impeachment. "This is Nixon unplugged," said historian Stanley Kutler, a principal figure in the lawsuit that pried open the records. Still, he said,...

CNSNews.com) - The Obama administration passed another fiscal milestone this week, according to new data released by the Treasury Department. As of the close of business on Oct. 3, the total national debt was $14,837,099,271,196.71—up about $44.8 billion from Sept. 30. That means that in the less-than-three-years Obama has been in office, the federal debt has increased by $4.212 trillion--more than the total national debt of about $4.1672 trillion accumulated by all 41 U.S. presidents from George Washington through George H.W. Bush combined. This $4.212-trillion increase in the national debt means that during Obama’s term the federal government has already...

(Full Title) FDR Goes to War: How Expanded Executive Power, Spiraling National Debt, and Restricted Civil Liberties Shaped Wartime America Release Date:October 11, 2011 Reviews:"FDR Goes to War is a page-turning tour de force -- and a scholarly one, at that -- of the politics and economics of America's involvement in WWII. Be prepared to rethink much of what you think you know about FDR, the war, and the post-Depression U.S. economy." --Don Bordreaux, Chairman of the Department of Economics at George Mason University "In New Deal or Raw Deal? Burt Folsom exposed FDR's failed policies during the Great Depression....

Many Americans feel insecure. They are worried. Their financial condition is not good. They know they are dependent upon their employers, and they also know that losing their jobs could lead to disaster. An insecure nation is not going to re-elect its leadership. Franklin Roosevelt said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Well, with all due respect to FDR, that's no longer the case. Americans have a legitimate fear that government is simply out of control, spending the nation into bankruptcy and failing to fix economic problems. That fear is real, and it's a present danger....

The Huffington Post recently released a copy of Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry’s college transcript from Texas A&M. The academic picture wasn’t pretty. Perry struggled in some familiar classes (an F in organic chemistry, a D in economics) and some bizarre ones (a C in gym, a D in something the transcript labeled only as “Meats�). Are Perry’s low college marks all that astonishing for a high-profile politician? Apparently not. Let’s take a look at a few other big names who didn’t light the academic world on fire. 1. Al Gore Gore’s the brainiest politician around, right? Possibly, but you...

WASHINGTON—The alleged liaison between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings entered a new phase upon the release of an updated scholarly report at the National Press Club on Sept. 1. The “Jefferson-Hemings Controversy: Report of the Scholars Commission” seeks to overturn the widely held belief that the author of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States had an affair with one of his slaves, Sally Hemings, and was the father of one or more of her children. The liaison has gained acceptance and notoriety in popular culture. In February 2000, “Sally Hemings: An American Scandal” was shown...

This will be especially useful to future generations...click the image for a larger version

How smart do we want our presidents to be, and what does their academic performance tell us about their chances for success? This month Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s college transcript was leaked, and the Republican presidential contender’s academic performance at Texas A&M turned out to be less than stellar. Perry’s critics seized on the document to suggest that he didn’t have the aptitude to serve as leader of the free world. Is there a correlation between success in the White House and a president’s perceived intelligence, or at least between academic performance and Oval Office success?

Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis believed Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was behind the assassination of her husband, according to tapes recorded by the former first lady just months after President John F. Kennedy's death, the Daily Mail reports.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai's powerful half brother, a lightning rod for criticism of all that is wrong with the Afghan government, was assassinated by a bodyguard Tuesday at his home in the southern province of Kandahar, officials said. Ahmed Wali Karzai, who was head of the Kandahar provincial council, had become a political liability for the Karzai government after a series of allegations, including that he was on the CIA payroll and involved in drug trafficking. He denied the charges, and the president repeatedly defended him, denouncing accusations that his brother was involved in criminal activities...

Betty Fordhas died at the age of 93.

<p>An increasing number of Americans -- and not just conservatives -- are expressing the opinion that Barack Obama's presidency is as calamitous for the United States as was that of Jimmy Carter.  If so, then in the relatively short span of three decades, America has experienced two spectacularly flawed presidencies, each comparable to only a handful that have occurred over the life of the Republic.  Could these two recent tragedies have been predicted?  Are there any identifiable personality traits, past experiences, or political trajectories that might enable voters to foresee impending abject failure in a presidential candidate?</p>

Former President Ronald Reagan died Saturday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 93. Reagan led a conservative revolution that set the economic and cultural tone of the 1980s, hastened the end of the Cold War and revitalized the Republican Party. He suffered from Alzheimer's disease since at least late 1994. At least two of his children and his wife, Nancy, were at his bedside, according to the former president's Los Angeles office.Ron Reagan Jr. and Patty Davis -- children from his current marriage to Nancy Davis Reagan -- were with him at his home in the Bel Air...

Did the president lament the day he "unwittingly ruined" his country by creating the Federal Reserve? ... " I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world -- no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government...

In my latest column for The Week today, I use the Academy Award-winning film The King’s Speech to bookend my point about the incoherence of the Obama administration on its Libyan adventure. Like King George VI, Barack Obama needed to demonstrate leadership, inspire a nation, and give a clear account of why the nation’s forces had been sent to war after ten days of contradictions, incoherence, and silence from the administration. Unfortunately, Obama turned out to be no more coherent on Monday than George VI before his speech therapy: Later in the same speech, though, the president then said that...

When King George VI gave his Sept. 3, 1939, war message to the people of the British Empire, it was a time of great moment. It was a “grave hour,” he began, “perhaps the most fateful in our history.” The king said that “for the second time in the lives of most of us, we are at war.” That, however, was back when war was war. Now it is just kinetic military activity.

By literally cutting and pasting biblical passages demonstrating the life and lessons of Jesus Christ from several Bibles, Thomas Jefferson put together a book that he titled “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth” during his retirement in 1820. The former president’s finished product would become known to historians as the Jefferson Bible. "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth" (CNN) Nearly 200 years later, conservationists at the National Museum of American History are working to carefully preserve the 86-page book and preparing to put it on display in November. Over time, the book’s brittle paper has become...

Change isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. That’s what most of us have come to realize in recent years, whether the change proposed came from Pres. Barack Obama or the Tea Party movement. Still, most haven’t quite reached the point where we oppose change and fight for stability. Maybe we ought to: Maybe sometimes it is the time for no change. That, at least, was the position of Warren Harding. Warren who? On the presidential roster, Harding is POTUS 43. No, that doesn’t mean he’s replaced George W. Bush: Harding’s “43” is his aggregate rank among presidents. Since...

This Wed., March 2, the Prince William County School Board will be voting on what to name the new elementary school opening Fall 2011 on Linton Hall Road.  The naming committee came up with the lame name of "Piney Branch Elementary School" -- Ronald Reagan didn't even make the top 18 suggestions of the committee despite it having strong supporters.  I first suggested that name early last October and encouraged people to submit it to the naming committee by the Dec. 1 deadline.  Following is the message that I sent to the naming committee: Since the new elementary school on...

The Mexican political world was sent reeling this weekend after a former PRI politician admitted his party had exercised strong control over Mexico's drug trafficking routes. During a recent university conference, former Nuevo Leon governor Socrates Rizzo said that previous PRI presidents had formalized agreements with drug cartel leaders to coordinate and protect Mexico's lucrative drug trade, Milenio reports. Rizzo argued that presidential control over smuggling prevented the widespread violence that has been commonplace since the 2000 election of PAN president Vicente Fox, which ended more than 70 years of PRI control. To add insult to injury, in a Wikileaks...

On Presidents’ Day, Americans take a day to recognize the office of the presidency – and to reflect upon the country’s best. FrumForum asked freshman Republican members which president they admired the most, but excluded President Reagan from contention to give the other presidents a fair chance. The fourteen Republican members who responded gave a range of answers, but President Abraham Lincoln came out on top. Interestingly, these freshman congressmen have something in common with President Obama, who has identified Lincoln as his favorite president. Independent voters also agreed – a new Gallup poll shows that Lincoln was their favorite...

Today we celebrate a federal holiday, which is much more about giving your public servants another day off than it is to honor the names of Jefferson and Washington. They can be honored without sending the workers home. But why in the plural? It’s because of the egalitarian necessity not to judge, we suspect. After all, who are we, mere American citizens, to say one president is better than another? Let’s lump ‘em all together and celebrate the U.S. Grants and Jimmy Carters too! Pollster Rasmussen Reports has an interesting survey on (or sort of on) point: . . .

(PRINCETON, NJ) — Ahead of Presidents Day 2011, Americans are most likely to say Ronald Reagan was the nation’s greatest president — slightly ahead of Abraham Lincoln and Bill Clinton. Reagan, Lincoln, or John F. Kennedy has been at the top of this “greatest president” list each time this question has been asked in eight surveys over the last 12 years.

PRINCETON, NJ -- Ahead of Presidents Day 2011, Americans are most likely to say Ronald Reagan was the nation's greatest president -- slightly ahead of Abraham Lincoln and Bill Clinton. Reagan, Lincoln, or John F. Kennedy has been at the top of this "greatest president" list each time this question has been asked in eight surveys over the last 12 years.

On the centenary of Ronald Reagan's birth, I pause for another historic event: agreement with President Obama, who says of his predecessor in USA Today, "Ronald Wilson Reagan was a believer ... he recognized that each of us has the power -- as individuals and as a nation -- to shape our own destiny. He had faith in the American promise; in the importance of reaffirming values like hard work and personal responsibility; and in his own unique ability to inspire others to greatness." Precisely! I suspect Reagan would be embarrassed by the attempts to elevate him to political sainthood....

Despite the family feud that has unfolded over the past few days between Ron Reagan and his half-brother Michael, Nancy Reagan said she is very proud of her son for writing his new book "My Father at 100." “She was worried about me. She said ‘Are you alright?’ I said ‘Yeah mom, I’m fine... but they are going to ask me what you think of the book. So what should I say to them,’” Ron Reagan said on “GMA.” “And she said, ‘You tell them that I’ve read it, I loved it, it made me cry and I’m very proud...

Tunisia's angry protestors are shedding no tears for the downfall of ousted President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali's greedy wife Leila. The former hairdresser was likened to the Philippines' Imelda Marcos of the Arab world because of her love of wealth and its trappings. While Ben Ali, 74, was granted refuge in Saudi Arabia, his wife, more than 20 years her husband's junior, was at first thought to be holed up in Dubai - a destination she is said to know well through shopping trips. The woman who came from a humble background, was branded 'The Regent of Carthage' for her...

Guess MSNBC missed the part of Pres. Obama's Tucson speech decrying the way our politics have become "so sharply polarized" . . . During today's Morning Joe, MSNBC aired a promo for PBO's impending State of the Union that featured video from previous SOTU speeches. Notably missing were any clips from past Republican presidents. Instead we were treated to a montage of JFK, LBJ, Clinton, Obama and even Jimmy Carter. Think Ronald Reagan, or W just a few months after 9-11, might have said something inspirational in their SOTUs? Not in the mind of MSNBC.

The Battle of New Orleans had made Andrew Jackson a national hero overnight. But mere early accomplishments can never fill the void that exists in a lost man's soul. Besides, the humble general had more sense than the editors of Laissez Faire Books concerning the ultimate cause for his victory, acknowledging to a friend, "It appears that the unerring hand of Providence shielded my men from the shower of balls, bombs, and rockets, when every ball and bomb from our guns carried with them a mission of death." Andrew Jackson was better known for his attendance at duels than at...

If it was "morning in America" for President Ronald Reagan, a new commemorative postage stamp due in February to mark "the Gipper's" birth centennial will forever view the sunrise.The new commemorative stamp, whose design was unveiled Monday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., always will be valid for a 1-ounce first-class letter, the U.S. Postal Service confirmed. It officially will be released at the library on Feb. 10, 2011, four days after the 100th anniversary of Reagan's birth.Texas artist Bart Forbes did the portrait, based on a 1985 photograph of Reagan taken at Rancho del Cielo,...

* Return trip on Air Force One costs up to £1million * $63,000 to fly Michelle and daughters to Hawaii * $134,000 for 24 White House staff to stay at home President Obama provoked fresh outrage today after taking a 20-man motorcade to visit a childhood friend during his lavish Christmas holiday in Hawaii. The 10-vehicle convoy drove the president and wife Michelle from his rental property in Kailua, across highways cleared of traffic and through a military community to reach Bobby Titcomb's beachfront house. Mr Obama, who spent eight years at Punahou School in Hawaii before graduating in 1979,...

PASADENA - The centennial celebration of Ronald Reagan's birthday begins New Year's Day, when a float dedicated to the 40th president will make its way down Colorado Boulevard. The 55-foot-long float is designed by Fiesta of Irwindale. It features a 26-foot-high bald eagle and 11 black-and-white photographs of Reagan, which will be decorated with onion seeds, poppy seeds and crushed sweet rice. "President Reagan always believed America's best days were ahead. At a time when many Americans look forward to a New Year with a similar optimism and pride, we at the Reagan Foundation are honored to be invited to...

Former president John F. Kennedy, Jr. remains the most popular of recent past American presidents, according to a recent Gallup poll, while former President Richard Nixon continues to rank as the least popular. According to the poll, Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963, enjoys an 85 percent approval rating - up one point from 2006 figures. He bests by 11 points former President Ronald Reagan, who clocked in at second place with a 74 percent rating.

James Madison Drinks, and Writes an ArticlePhilip Freneau had set the deadline for the December 22nd edition of the National Gazette, and James Madison found himself racing the hourglass. Freneau published the newspaper, dedicated to the positions of Thomas Jefferson’s faction within the Congress and the council around His Excellency, while working for the red-haired Secretary of State as a translator. Mr. Jefferson saw neither difficulty nor conflict with this arrangement. Freneau had labeled the men of Alexander Hamilton’s faction as Monarchists, Tories, and Anti-Republicans, claiming their role was to reverse the results of 1776. The Secretary of the Treasury...

It’s tempting to say that Ronald Reagan was the best U.S. president of the past century, and I’ve certainly demonstrated my man-crush on the Gipper. But there is some real competition. I had the pleasure yesterday of hearing Amity Shlaes of the Council on Foreign Relations make the case for Calvin Coolidge at the Mont Pelerin Society Meeting in Australia. I dug around online and found an article Amity wrote for Forbes that highlights some of the attributes of “Silent Cal� that she mentioned in her speech. As you can see, she makes a persuasive case. … the Coolidge style...

Contemporary American politics makes a great deal more sense in light of the realization that Barack Obama's most devoted fans and fiercest critics are united by a shared delusion: the belief that Obama is really, really interesting. How this manifests among his supporters is apparent enough in the starry-eyed adulation he been able to inspire in so many people. How this manifests among his opponents was especially driven home recently by the now somewhat notorious Dinesh D'Souza article in Forbes, in which D'Souza argued that Obama's politics are the result of the anti-colonialist ideology of Obama's Kenyan father. As D'Souza...

The results

Man paints picture of all the past presidents...surprise with Obama....

This article gives another perspective on liberals, libertarians and conservatives. The history both Lincoln and Sherman has been written by the victors and beyond reproach. Do we want to restore honor in this country? Can we restore honor by bringing up subjects over 100 years old? Comments are encouraged. Randy's Right aka Randy Dye NC Freedom The American Lenin by L. Neil Smith lneil@lneilsmith.org It’s harder and harder these days to tell a liberal from a conservative — given the former category’s increasingly blatant hostility toward the First Amendment, and the latter’s prissy new disdain for the Second Amendment —...

How would the Founding Fathers and the Presidents of the past react to Barak Obama’s trampling of the Constitution? What would their faces express and their body language tell you? Artist Jon McNaughton shows you: VideoDid you notice the expressions of progressive President’s that came before Obama, clapping and smiling?