Time Capsule: ‘Monkey Business’ Derails Democratic Front-Runner
In a story spread across the top of its front page, the Miami Herald published a photograph of a young woman leaving former Sen. Gary Hart’s townhouse in Washington, D.C., on this day twenty-five years ago. The Herald, which had been investigating reports of Hart’s alleged “womanizing” and following a tip that the Democratic presidential [...]
Poised for Historic Breakthrough, Libertarians Stymied Time and Again By a Different Kind of Spoiler
Despite the looming prospect that history will repeat itself and Americans Elect, the somewhat shadowy, hedge fund-financed entity with a yet-to-be-named candidate — a “mysterious millionaires’ machination,” as one left-wing skeptic recently put it — could potentially emerge as a viable alternative in the 2012 presidential election, Libertarian activists arriving in Las Vegas for the [...]
Time Capsule: Nevada’s Paul Laxalt Forms Exploratory Committee for 1988 Presidential Bid
Twenty-five years ago today Paul Laxalt, the former two-term senator and ex-governor of Nevada, formed an exploratory committee for a long-anticipated bid for the 1988 Republican presidential nomination. One of President Ronald Reagan’s closest friends, Laxalt had served as national chairman of Reagan’s presidential campaigns in 1976, 1980 and 1984. Declaring that “there is much [...]
Time Capsule: A Modest Radical Seeks the White House
Declaring that the “hour of Socialist Revolution has struck,” the tiny Socialist Labor Party (SLP) — the original party of Marxism in the United States — nominated little-known John W. Aiken of Chelsea, Massachusetts, for president at the party’s national convention at the Cornish Arms Hotel in New York City on this day in 1936. The [...]
Time Capsule: Wildflower of ’72 Calls Nixon an ‘International Outlaw,’ Challenges McGovern to a Debate
Calling President Richard M. Nixon “an international outlaw” on this day in 1972, the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) candidate for president of the United States urged students at the University of Arizona in Tucson to join the antiwar movement. As part of a two-day swing through the Grand Canyon State that also included an appearance at [...]
Candidates on Left and Right Flourish as French Voters Head to the Polls
While President Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist Francois Hollande, vying to become the country’s first left-wing president since Francois Mitterand defeated incumbent Valery Giscard-d’Estaing in 1981, appear likely to survive Sunday’s first-round balloting in France, several radical candidates — led by fiery leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the far-right’s Marine Le Pen — are hoping for a last-minute, frustration-fueled [...]
INTERVIEW: Balanced Budget, Curbing Immigration Top Priorities for Constitution Party’s Nominee
He knows he’s tilting at windmills, but the Constitution Party’s newly-minted presidential nominee relishes the opportunity to present his party’s case to the American electorate. While focusing on adherence to the U.S. Constitution, former U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode said that balancing the budget and cracking down on illegal immigration will be the top priorities of [...]
Time Capsule: Lift Off — John Glenn Launches 1984 Presidential Bid
Declaring that Ronald Reagan’s presidency was a “national tragedy and a national disgrace,” Sen. John Glenn of Ohio announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on this day in 1983. Reagan’s presidency was wedded to an imaginary past resulting in “people sleeping on grates and families living in cars,” the 61-year-old former astronaut told [...]
Time Capsule: Stassen Seeks Role as Negotiator in Iranian Hostage Crisis
Thirty-two years ago today, Harold E. Stassen announced that he had asked President Carter to send him to Iran to negotiate a release of the 52 American hostages being held captive after Islamic students and militants stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979. The 73-year-old Philadelphia attorney told reporters at an April [...]
Betting Big on Tiny Delaware, Gingrich Scores Former Speaker’s Endorsement
Former Delaware Speaker of the House Terry Spence endorsed Newt Gingrich for president yesterday morning during a Gingrich campaign stop at the Correctional Officers Association of Delaware. Hoping to revive his lagging campaign, the former U.S. House Speaker is focusing the majority of his energy on the Delaware primary, the smallest prize in next week’s [...]
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