The Morning Delivery

State of the Union Addresses and its Storied Traditions

``The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.''

Abraham Lincoln's Second Annual Message
December 1, 1862

As President Barack Obama prepares for his third State of the Union address on Tuesday night during an election year no less, he is reportedly planning to lay the foundation of a new economy, one that is ``built to last.’’

Hoping to strike a populist chord and rally the middle class discouraged by his handling of the battered economy, the president is  expected to  champion a restructuring of the tax code, which will make wealthier Americans pay more taxes to help pay for spending proposals aimed at creating new jobs.  Mr. Obama is also likely to take a hard line on China, particularly the way it manipulates its currency for trade advantages, another bitter subject among a majority of Americans.

Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana will deliver the response to the president’s address.

For those who might wonder exactly how many of the grand traditions associated with the State of the Union address first got started, what follows is a brief historical overview of the annual address that began 222 years ago.

• Article II, Section 3, clause 1 of the United States Constitution authorizes the State of the Union Message, which states: “He [the President] shall from time to time give to the Congress Information on the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.

• The State of the Union address is customarily delivered in the House chamber of the Capitol, before a joint session of Congress.

• George Washington delivered the first State of the Union Address on January 8, 1790.

• President Thomas Jefferson altered the procedure with his first annual message (December 8, 1801) by having his private secretary delivering copies of the message to both houses of Congress to be read by clerks in the House and Senate. Jefferson believed the addresses delivered orally by his predecessors was too British or aristocratic, likening it to the monarch’s speech from the Throne and out of step with a republic.

• Between 1801 and 1913, then, U.S. Presidents would typically send annual reports as a formal written letter to Congress, which contained information about the state of the nation, including a list of policy recommendations.

• Beginning in 1913, President Woodrow Wilson broke with tradition when he delivered the 1913 Annual Message in the House chamber before a joint session of Congress.

• Calvin Coolidge became the first President to broadcast the annual address on radio.

• President Herbert Hoover made no personal appearances before Congress.

• Franklin Roosevelt first inaugurated the term “State of the Union,” which became the popular name of the speech from his presidency forward. Prior to FDR, The message was simply known as “the President’s Annual Message to Congress.’’

• FDR additionally ushered in the modern tradition of reciting the collective words “we” and “our” with greater frequency than his predecessors.

• Harry Truman’s 1947 State of the Union address was televised for the first time.

• Beginning in 1965, as way of attracting a larger audience, President Lyndon Johnson began delivering the State of the Union address in prime time.  Previously, the annual addresses were delivered during the day.

• Prior to the ratification of the 20th amendment (January 23, 1933), which changed the timing for the new terms of Senators and Representatives to January 3, the annual message was routinely delivered in December.

• Since 1934, the President’s annual message has been delivered between January 3rd through February 2nd.

• Aside from reserved places for leadership, seats in the chamber are not assigned to Members. Anytime during the day, House Members may claim a seat for the evening’s address on the condition they remain physically in the seat to secure their place for the speech.

• At the January 25, 2011, State of the Union, Members of Congress broke from tradition and sat next to Members of the opposing party. In previous years, Members sat with affiliates of their own party. This historic departure was brought about at the urging of Senator Mark Udall of Colorado who wrote a letter to Members, encouraging them to cross the aisle.

• In keeping with a longstanding custom and to ensure the continuity of government, one cabinet secretary does not attend the State of the Union speech.

• After September 11, 2001, congressional leadership began requiring two Members from each house of Congress, representing both parties, to remain absent from the Capitol during the President’s speech.

• Seating in the gallery is restricted to ticket holders and is managed by the House Sergeant at Arms. Each Member of Congress receives one chamber ticket, with a specific reserved seat, for the address. Congressional leadership and the White House meanwhile receive multiple tickets.

• Ronald Reagan in 1982 began the tradition of inviting guests, who performed an act of heroism or achieved a significant milestone, to join the First Lady in the gallery. At the appropriate time, the president will acknowledge the guest sitting with the First Lady while noting their individual contribution. Presidential speechwriters typically refer to these guests as “Lenny Skutniks” in reference to the first guest highlighted by Reagan in 1982.

• President Dwight Eisenhower’s farewell message, broadcast to the nation on January 17, 1961, is remembered most for its warnings against the “military-industrial complex.”

• During his 1995 State of the Union address, Bill Clinton introduced the concept of a “New Covenant” as a way of invoking the twin themes of “opportunity and responsibility” with the current policy challenges facing his administration.

• Of the five Presidents since 1965 who gave State of the Union postelection addresses, the average State of the Union legislative success rate was 51.4 percent, approximately eight percentage points higher than the overall average. The success rate falls for second-term addresses to 38.6 percent.

• According to recent analysis by the Congressional Research Service, of State of the Union addresses from 1946 to 2003, every 50 words a President devoted to an issue resulted in a 2 percent increase in the public identifying that problem as the most important in the nation.

• During a presidential election year, about 13 percent of State of the Union addresses deal with past achievements, scholarly studies have shown,  while policy proposals rise to an average of 36 requests, mostly likely to demonstrate an ambitious agenda if reelected to a second term.

• The practice of a rebuttal to the president’s State of the Union address began in 1966 when Senator Everett Dirksen (R-IL) and Representative Gerald Ford (RMI) delivered the Republican reply to President Lyndon Johnson.

• In 1995, Republican Governor Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey became the first non- Congressional elected official to deliver the opposition response, while Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) in 2007 was the first freshman Member of Congress to provide the opposition response to the State of the Union address.

• The opposing party often responds directly to specific proposals contained in the President’s State of the Union address. Excerpts of the State of the Union address are released hours before the president’s address. Such a practice, allows the opposition enough time to change its response by adding specific counter punches to the President’s proposals.

• FDR holds the record for the most State of the Union Messages delivered — 12 — of which 10 were personal appearances before Congress; President Zachary Taylor submitted only one written annual message, in 1849; while two Presidents did not serve long enough to submit an annual message: William Henry Harrison, who died in 1841, 32 days after his inauguration, and James A. Garfield, who was assassinated in 1881 and served only 199 days.

• President George W. Bush’s 2002 address was the first to be made available as a live web cast on the Web from the White House website, and the 2004 address was the first to be broadcast in high definition television.

• President Reagan delivered a televised farewell address to the nation from the Oval Office on January 11, 1989, a practice followed by President Clinton on January 18, 2001.

-Bill Lucey
January 23, 2012
[email protected]

Source: Congressional Research Service; the American Presidency Project

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Web Sites to Keep in Mind

C-Span Video Archive of State of the Union Addresses:

Words Presidents have used in their State of the Union Addresses: (SpeechWars.com) 

The American Presidency Project 

2012 State of the Union (WhiteHouse.gov)  

2012 State of the Union  Republican Response

Michelle has No. 44's Back in Jodi Kantor's ``The Obamas''

If you picked up a copy of ``The Obamas’’ by New York Times political reporter Jodi Kantor expecting a catalogue of abuses in the West Wing of the White House, similar to the sensational tales being reported about the clandestine and lavish Halloween party; or explosive verbal exchanges between First Lady Michelle Obama and Rahm Emanuel and Robert Gibbs—you might come away greatly disappointed.

Those events, minor as they were, has peppered the headlines of most news outlets, both on the cable channels and web sites.  But don’t fall for the off speed pitch. This is more a tale of Michelle Obama‘s voyage from entering the White House armed with top chic and glamorous designer labels before transforming herself into sporting more main street attire, such as a $34.95 dress from H & M, the fast fashion clothing company; while valiantly trying to restore her husband’s image of being shaped by a ``sense of purpose’’ and acting as a `transformative figure’; important characteristics that slipped away from the president soon after assuming the presidency.

The First Lady saw it as her mission to get no. 44 back on message.

Michelle Obama accompanied Barack to the White House in January, 2009, reluctantly as it turns out. The first lady, as Kantor notes, wanted to remain in Chicago with children Sasha and Malia so they could finish out their school terms and gradually make the leap to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue later in the year.

Such a scenario was determined unthinkable by the West Wing brain trust; so came they did to the nation’s capital. The White House was a jolt at first, it wasn’t exactly their $1.65 million historic brick mansion back in Chicago; there were too many security personnel buzzing around and invading their sense of privacy. Then again, any house which has 132 rooms, six levels, 35 bathrooms, 412 doors, and three elevators, like the White House has, takes some getting used to.  But the Obama’s eventually adapted to their new digs, including the first lady.

It’s somewhat surprising that Michelle Obama has taken such a dim view of the book; she reportedly has complained ``The Obamas’’ has portrayed her as an ``angry black woman’’, rather than a supportive wife and accomplished first lady.

While slices of the book, unquestionably, document her assertiveness; ok, bitchiness if your prefer (questioning staff for inviting guests to a White House dinner without being asked first), avoiding meaningless ceremonial first lady duties and embracing more national issues in which she could bring about profound change-such as her obesity campaign.

And it was no secret that the first lady growled at Emanuel, the chief of staff,  for booking her (without asking her first) to campaign with Allen Boyd, U.S. congressman from the 2nd congressional district in North Florida in exchange for his vote on a key energy bill that the White House wanted passed.

The first lady soon made it clear in no uncertain terms, that she would not be an ``easy sell.’’ If the West Wing wanted her out on the campaign trail (during the mid-terms when the president’s popularity was plummeting ) ; they would have to ask her properly and more importantly, she didn’t want to campaign for congressional members she knew little about. Congressman Boyd, as it turns out, voted against the health care bill. Besides, unbeknownst to the first lady and the White House, she was being used to ``head off a potential black challenger for Boyd’s seat.’’

Overall, Kantor delivers a fair and balanced treatment of the first lady, far from coming off as an angry black woman, ``The Obamas’’ shows Mrs. Obama to be an important element of the White House machinery, especially in reminding her husband of his sense of purpose and to change the culture in Washington, important themes that brought Obama to Washington with such high expectations.  The highly publicized horse trading on display over the health care bill (e.g., the infamous ``Cornhusker Kickback’’ to secure passage of health care) was one subtle reminder how Mr. Obama fell victim to the ``business as usual’’ approach instead of changing the culture like he promised. 

Mr. Obama's increased disengagement from the cries of the American people during the Great Recession, partly attributable, some argue, to being so hemmed in by a coterie of advisors (Gibbs, Emanuel, and David Axelrod, Obama’s top political advisor) alarmed the first lady that her husband was losing touch with the pulse of the American public.  As Axelrod told Kantor, ``when she [Michelle Obama] thinks things have been mishandled or when things are off the track she'll raise it, because she's hugely invested in him and has a sense of how hard he’s working and wants to make sure everybody is doing their work properly.’’

Another fascinating slice of ``The Obamas’’ was the degree to which the First Family, Mrs. Obama in particular, drives Sasha and Malia hard not only with academic distinction, but with other extracurricular activities as well, including piano, and flute lessons,  excelling in basketball and scheduling tennis lessons. At first glance,  you might think Michelle Obama is in ``Tiger Mom’’ country, but once you appreciate Michelle, much like her husband, attended college in the age when affirmative action was in full swing; the high standards they expect of their children comes into sharper focus.

Kantor reports how Mrs. Obama while attending Princeton often endured suspicious glances from white students, wondering if she entered its prestigious Ivy League halls because of a quota system. Even as the Obama’s both made great strides in their professional careers, the presumption seemed to always follow them that they got there because of their race.

So it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that Sasha and Malia are being pushed and shaped and driven- even to the point of overachieving- to prevent wild accusations many years from now that they rose to their respective professional careers because they are the children of Michelle and Barack Obama and not because of their own hard work and academic success.

Unlike so many mismatches with First Family marriages, (consider Richard and Pat Nixon, FDR and Eleanor), Michelle and Barack are cut from the same cloth: both are highly educated, both share similar perspectives of the world, share the same friends, want to portray black Americans in a positive light, while longing for a meaningful change of culture in Washington.

In the end, if Mr. Obama loses in 2012, questions will be raised time and again why Michelle Obama wasn’t incorporated more effectively into getting the president’s message out to the American people by articulating a profound sense of purpose, a sense of hope, while helping her husband build the bridge of comprise and bipartisanship so sorely needed with the U.S. Congress.

Unless the economy improves dramatically, Mr. Obama is now in danger of having fallen victim to the same set of circumstances that undid Jimmy Carter; in that he came to Washington with a mountain of ideas he wanted put into action, but because he never understood the inner-working of the U.S. Congress, including keeping powerful congressional members at arm’s length, he gave voters the impression that he was nothing more than a highly educated policy wonk who didn’t understand Washington.

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]
January 17, 2012

Will December 21, 2012 Really be the End of the World as We Know It?

Is the end in sight?

Just as we’re welcoming in another year, buoyant with signs the economy is improving, U.S troops at long last pulled from Iraq, and the NBA back on the court, now some doomsayers are predicting that 2012 may end up being our very last on planet earth?

You probably couldn’t help but notice that dozens of books and a number of Internet sites have been popping up like toasters lately, predicting the world will come to an end on December 21, 2012, based on the Mayan Long Calendar, which suggests that a cycle of more than 5,000 years will come to an end in the winter of this year.

The Maya calendar is a system of calendars used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, and in many modern communities in highland Guatemala] and in Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico.

Maya used the Long Count calendar during a period typically referred to by historians as the Classic Period of their culture, which lasted from roughly 250–900 C.E.

According to Robert K. Sitler, writing in the  Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, ``The December 21, 2012, date simply marks the last day of the current b’ak’tun cycle, a period of 144,000 days roughly equivalent to 394 years.’’ Sitler further argues that the 2012 has no real significance other than it marking a cyclical change in an ancient calendar.

So do any of these apocalyptic forecasts being tossed around have any validity? Probably not. But just to be on the safe side, I contacted a number of scholars, scientists, and astrologers to ask them if we should put much weight behind these calamitous predictions of the world coming to a screeching halt on December 21st of this year, based on a careful interpretation of the ancient Mayan Long Count calendar?

Here are some replies that came back.

• We want to believe that we're central to the story of time, but we're not.
The Mayans? Really? There's a persistent yearning for the universe to have some secret, yet decodable, plan that tells us what the future holds. It's no secret, though: there's no code. The future is what we make of it. Apocalypticism is simply a vehicle for justifying narcissism.
Drop me a line a year from now. Whether I'm here or not, the world will be.
Onward,
    -Richard E. Miller, Executive Director of the Plangere Culture Lab and Professor in the Department of English at Rutgers University

• The literalists will be wrong again. The world will not physically end on December 21, 2012. However, the ancient Maya as well as modern poets and philosophers who think metaphorically and figuratively have it right. The world as we know it ends and is renewed again with each passing day. That will happen on December 21, 2012 as well.
-John W. Hoopes, Associate Professor of Archaeology at the University of Kansas and author of ``What You Should Know About 2012'' published in Psychology Today.

• The short answer to your question is No. Don't cash in your IRA. On December 21 2012 party like there is no tomorrow, then, when Tomorrow DOES come, get back to work!  We have a lot to do.
    -Mark Van Stone, Maya expert and professor of Art History at Southwestern College

• No, and I never have in all my 25 years of study of the Maya culture and the 2012 date.  It is the marketplace and the media projecting ridiculous fear-mongering onto the date. The ancient Maya had no such conception attached to 2012.
-John Major Jenkins, visiting scholar at a number of colleges and universities, including The Institute of Maya Studies in Miami, The Esalen Institute, Naropa University, and author of ``The 2012 Story: The Myths, Fallacies, and Truth Behind the Most Intriguing Date in History.''

• The Maya never said the world would end in 2012. It's not in the glyphs, in the codices, in the Popol Vuh, in the Chilam Balam books or any other historical Mayan source.
That said; with the current rate of species extinction, climate change, top-soil erosion, loss of tropical forest, global contamination, decline of coral reefs, etc.; the world we humans have known for over two hundred thousand years is indeed coming to an end.’’
    -Robert Sitler, professor in the Department of Modern Languages & Literatures at Stetson University and author of the ``The Living Maya, Ancient Wisdom in the ERA of 2012''

• No, I don't see any validity in such predictions.  The Mayans themselves didn't say much of anything about what they thought the significance of the end of the long count would be, or at least no written statements survive, and so much of what is said just consists of wild speculations.  Any significant astrological alignments during this time frame that people try to point to as being relevant tend to be pretty unimpressive, and I get the sense that most of the time people are just projecting what they want to see into things.  As a result of this, I tend to view the 2012 phenomenon as a generic form of millenarianism, and nothing more.
    -Chris Brennan, practicing Astrologer from Denver, Colorado who maintains his own Web Site.

• In short, no. However, it is significant that groups and communities that have engaged in speculating in other apocalypses have jumped on to the 2012 bandwagon and have been grafting their philosophies and theologies onto this. Additionally, if we're talking about major environmental or astrophysical changes I've not encountered any colleagues in any of the relevant faculties here or elsewhere who are placing much credence in these claims. I've also heard from a very credible source (an academic specialist on 2012 writings) that the man responsible for reviving interest in this just mentioned the end of the calendar in a book he wrote in the 1960s and didn't think anything of it. Hence, he was actually quite surprised (and somewhat amused) that people decided to take this so seriously. I should also note that the scholars who follow Maya history and anthropology also don't follow the apocalypse line either. That, I think, is probably the most significant factor in interpreting whether the Mayans were predicting the end of time, etc.
    - Dr Pete Lentini, Director of the Global Terrorism Research Centre at Monash University, in Australia

• I am often asked if I believe in 2012. The short answer is no, but I believe in the power of belief. While there is no firm evidence that the Maya believed anything special would happen on December 21 2012, and while there is no scientific evidence of some imminent earth-shattering solar or astronomical disaster, there is nevertheless a strong need in people to pin their dreams and anxieties on something tangible, and 2012 offers a powerful focus for this need."
    -Joseph Gelfer, Adjunct Research Associate at Monash University and author of ``2012: Decoding the Countercultural Apocalypse''

• No, I don't.  Calendars are arbitrary human constructions that use a wide variety of recurrent phenomena to keep track of time by counting (also using a variety of "counts").  There are many such calendars with many different systems of counting.  The predictions about December 2012 are a little like the expectation that an (older) car that reads 99,999 miles on its 5-digit odometer will fall apart when one drives an additional mile and the odometer goes to zero.  Why should it fall apart?  On what conceivable grounds? This particular way of reckoning distance has nothing to do with the integrity of the car or the way it was maintained.  Nor will the same model of car with 99,999 km on the odometer disintegrate sooner if one drives it 1 km more.  Nor will the car last longer if one replaces the odometer with a 6-digit one. Simply put, the "so-called" end of an arbitrary "count" has nothing to do with the non-arbitrary structure of the world.  Any calendar is like an odometer--it can be continued after it supposedly "ends," using the same principles that kept it going earlier.  In other words, it does not really end (although one can stop using it and switch to another).  And even if a calendar somehow could end, this would have nothing to do with the way the structure of the world.  If, by some truly bizarre coincidence, on Dec. 21 2012 the sun goes supernova or a giant meteorite crashes into the earth, it will have nothing whatsoever  to do with the calendar of any civilization, past or present.
-Michael H. Shank, Professor, History of Science and Integrated Liberal Studies at the University of     Wisconsin-Madison.

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]
January 5, 2012

Remembering Some Christmas Traditions

It's only 5 days until Christmas, which means I have plenty of time to finish start my Christmas shopping.

What I'm most grateful for this season is that I'm so close to making it through the season without once having the sound of José Feliciano's ``Feliz Navidad'' or ``Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer'' reach my ears. 

I hope I haven't spoken too soon.

For those lucky enough to have the gifts wrapped and cookies baked already, I thought you might enjoy a collection of historical nuggets on the origins of some of our Christmas traditions.

Have a Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays!

• The original Saint Nicholas was a wealthy 4th century bishop of Myria in Asia Minor (now Demre, Turkey), known for his kindness and works of charity.

• St Francis of Assisi, Italy constructed the first Nativity scene in a cave near Greccio, Italy on Christmas Eve, 1223.

• In Scotland, The Kirk (The Church of Scotland, or the Presbyterian Church influenced by the Scottish Reformation) beginning in 1560 produced the First Book of Discipline (later adopted by an Act of Parliament) abolishing Feast Days, including Christmas, which  did not become an official holiday in Scotland until 1958.

• In 1647, under Oliver Cromwell, an Act of Parliament prohibited the observance of Christmas.  The holiday was restored by Charles II after the Restoration in 1660.

• The Puritan government in Massachusetts made it illegal to celebrate Christmas between 1659 and 1681.

• By the end of the 16th century, indoor Christmas trees were a common fixture in most German homes; by 1610, thin strips of silver, later to be known as tinsel, began to be used as decoration.

• J.S. Bach’s Christmas oratorio premiered in Leipzig, Germany in 1734.

• The world premiere of Silent Night was performed in the Nikolaus-Kirche (Church of St. Nicholas) in Oberndorf, Austria on Christmas Eve, 1818.

• Sir Henry Cole, an English civil servant and founding director of what is now the London’s Victoria & Albert Museum approached a painter in 1843 to devise a series of holiday cards which would read: ``A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You.’’ By 1860, Christmas cards became wildly fashionable in England.

• In 1847, Placide Cappeau, a wine merchant, amateur poet, and mayor of the village of Roquemaure in Rhone Valley wrote the lyrics to what would eventually be known as ``O Holy Night’’ a French carol, titled: ``Cantique de Noёl’’ or literally, ``Song of Christmas’’; the carol was set to music by Adolphe Adam and first performed at the Christmas Eve Midnight Mass of 1847 in Roquemaure with Madame Laurey performing the solo.

• Jingle Bells was first published by Oliver Ditson and Company in Boston in 1857 under the title: ``One Horse Open Sleigh’’, but was later reissued as ``Jingle Bells’’ or ``One Horse Open Sleigh’’ in 1859. Today, the song is simply known as ``Jingle Bells’’ written by James Lord Pierpont, a native of Meford, Massachusetts.

• ``O Little Town of Bethlehem’’ a sacred carol written by the Rev. Phillips Brooks, pastor of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Philadelphia , was first performed by children of the Holy Trinity Sunday School on December 27, 1868.

• Edward H. Sears, pastor of First Church Unitarian in Wayland, Massachusetts  wrote the lyrics to America’s first prominent carol ``It Came upon the Midnight Clear’’ , which was originally a five verse poem first published in the Christian Register on December 29, 1849. The poem was set to music by Richard Storrs Willis who later became a music critic for the New York Tribune.

• George Frideric Handel’s ``Messiah’’, a composition so firmly fixed to the Christmas season, was actually first presented as an Easter oratorio at Dublin’s New Music Hall in Fishamble Street on April 13, 1742

• In Ethiopia, Christmas Day is celebrated on January 7th  on day called ``Ganna.’’ Worshipers are given a candle and walk around the tree three times before standing for the remainder of the three-hour service.

• Filipinos celebrate the Christmas season with nine pre-dawn masses known as Misa de Gallo or ``mass of the rooster.'' It begins on December 16 and ends on the midnight mass of December 24.

• The first image of the St Nicholas sliding down a chimney appeared in the New York Mirror on January 2, 1841.

• In 1836, Alabama became the first state to declare Christmas a legal holiday.

• The first department store to feature a Santa Claus was in Philadelphia on December 24, 1841 at the J.W. Parkinson's store. The next Santa Claus wouldn't be spotted again until 1890, this time accompanied with his own white beard at the Boston Store in Brockton, Mass.

• In a poem published in Harper’s Weekly on December 26, 1857, ``The Wonders of Santa Claus’’, the poem makes one of the first references to elves making toys.

• Thomas Nast, a German immigrant, age 22, publishes his first depiction of Santa Claus speaking to Union troops in the January 3, 1863 edition of Harper’s Weekly.

• Based largely from the German and French models, the first English gift book or literary annual, ``The Forget me Not: A Christmas and New Years Present for 1823. was published by R. Ackermann, a publisher of illustrated books.

• The first illustration of a Christmas tree was in an American book, published in 1836,  ``The Stranger's Gift. A Christmas and New Year's Present’’ written by a German immigrant, Herman Bokum.

• The London Illustrated News in 1848, published a woodcut print of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their children gathered around a Christmas tree.

• Charles Dickens first wrote about Christmas in ``Sketches by Boz’’ (1836). His last chapter, ``A Christmas Dinner’’ is undoubtedly a foreshadowing of Cratchits’ Christmas Dinner in a Christmas Carol.

• On June 26, 1870, Christmas was declared a federal holiday in the United States.

• In 1883, Sears, Roebuck & Company began offering the first artificial Christmas trees – 33 limbs for $.50 and 55 limbs for $1.00.

• In 1897, an 8 year-old girl, Virginia O'Hanlon, who lived at 115 West Ninety-Fifth Street in New York City, wrote a letter to her local newspaper, The New York Sun, asking if there really was a Santa Claus after some of her friends told her there is no such thing as Santa Claus. The editor, Francis B. Church, responded to her letter, which was published on September 21, 1897, with the heading: ``Yes Virginia There is a Santa Claus.''

• Great Britain’s King George V delivered his first Christmas broadcast by the BBC radio in 1932 with the messaging reaching an estimated 20 million people; while the first televised broadcast of a Christmas message was delivered by Queen Elizabeth II in 1957.

• John Adams was the first U.S. president to celebrate Christmas in the White House; while Calvin Coolidge was the first president to light the National Community Christmas Tree on the Ellipse in Washington D.C. on Christmas Eve, 1923

• The First Radio City Music Hall Christmas Show was launched in 1933.

• In 1939, Chicago retailer Montgomery Ward introduced Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer.

• The radio broadcast of Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel was the first opera to be broadcast by radio from New York City’s Metropolitan Opera on Christmas Day in 1931.

• On December 7th, 1898 Canada issued the world's first Christmas stamp, showing a map of the world in 1569 by the Flemish cartographer Gerhardus Mercator inscribed with ``Xmas 1898.''

• Eggnog originated with the British from posset, a hot drink consisting of eggs and milk with nog (strong ale) or wine added.

• The motion picture ``A Christmas Carol’’ premiered as a silent film in 1914 starring Charles Rock as Scrooge; the first sound version was made in the United States (1938) starring British actor Reginald Owen as Scrooge.

• The televised broadcast of the Midnight Mass from St Peter’s Basilica in Rome has been an annual tradition since 1948.

• In January, 2003, President Hosni Mubarak issued a presidential decree authorizing the celebration of Christmas as a national holiday, making it the first time that the Egyptian government recognized a Christian holy day.

Bill Lucey
[email protected]
December 20, 2011

Source: ``The Christmas Encyclopedia’’ (Second Edition) By William D. Crump; ``Inventing Christmas: How Our Holiday Came to Be’’ By Jock Elliott; ``Life Christmas Around the World’’ (Published by Life Books)

 

What Everyone Should Know About Iowa

Barack Obama campaigning on a farm in Adel, Iowa, 2007      Photo: Associated Press

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The race is on.

In just a little over two weeks, on January 3, 2012, the nation will turn their attention to the much anticipated results of the Iowa caucuses to find out which of the Republican candidates will be considered presidential timber, or at least enough to give Barack Obama a run for his money in November; and which ones will fade into the sunset as voters deem them not quite ready for prime time. Remember, it was only four years ago in Iowa, when Democratic contenders for the White House, Joe Biden and Christopher Dodd after receiving such a miniscule amount of the vote-decided to cut their losses and drop out of the race.

So as we anxiously wait to see if Newt Gingrich (Newt Gingrich the historian that is) is really the reborn darling of the GOP; if Ron Paul is able to pull off the mother of all stunners; and if Mitt Romney, fresh from his endorsement from the Des Moines Register, is able to leap to the head of the pack and claim front-runner status-what better time than the present than to catch up on some Iowa history with its rich political tradition in a state so proud of its first-in-the nation prominence.

Iowa: Historic Background

• 1788: Julien Dubuque creates first European settlement in Iowa.

• 29th state admitted to the Union on December 28, 1846, with the capital at Iowa City.

• State Motto: ``Our Liberties We Prize and Rights We Will Maintain''

• Nickname: Hawkeye

• Population: 3,046,355 (2010).

• The word "Iowa" comes from the American Indian tribe of the same name, Ioway, a Sioux tribe.

• The Mesquakie Indian Tribe still owns land in Iowa.

• The Du Buque Visitor was the first newspaper published in Iowa in 1836.

• In 1857, capital of State of Iowa moved to Des Moines.

• Iowa’s sound financial standing makes it one of just seven states currently holding a AAA rating from all three major U.S. financial rating agencies - Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch.

• According to Moody’s Investors Service, Iowa has the second lowest state debt per capita in the nation.

• Iowa has slipped from the 20th most populous state in 1940 to 30th in 2000.

• Iowa is first in corn production.

• Iowa is ranked the nation’s second-most livable state based on 43 factors ranging from median household income to crime rate and from sunny days to infant mortality rate.

• Iowa is named the fifth-best state to raise a child.

• Iowa ranks sixth in safest neighborhoods in the U.S.

• Iowa has the highest SAT scores in the country and the 15th-highest ACT scores.

• Iowa has the third-highest public high school graduation rate in the U.S.

• Iowans enjoy the seventh-shortest average commute time (19.1 minutes) among the 50 states.

• Iowa’s capital city, Des Moines, was listed as one of the best cities to live, work and play.

• About four-fifths of Iowa’s population (81 percent) claim to be Christian (predominantly Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and Methodists) compared with 78 percent of the national population.

• Citizens aged 65 and over represent 14.7 percent of the population in Iowa, compared with 12.4 percent nationwide, the 4th highest in the country.

• Whites in Iowa make up 2,748,640 or 93.9 percent of the population; Hispanic or Latino’s 82,473 or 2.8 percent of the population; and Black or African Americans: 61,853 or 2.1 percent of the population.

• Unemployment: 6 percent, 7th lowest in the nation.

• Median Family Income: $48,005.

• Mitt Romney's $10,000 Question: 78,330 Iowans or 6.4 percent of the population makes $10,000 or less a year.

• Famous Iowans include: the 31st president of the United States, Herbert Hoover (Born in West Branch, Iowa on August 10, 1874);  Henry A. Wallace, Vice President to Franklin D. Roosevelt (1941-1945); Samuel Freeman Miller, served on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1862 to 1890; First Lady Mamie Doud Eisenhower, wife of General and President Dwight D. Eisenhower,, Suffragist leader Carrie Chapman Catt, Bob Feller, Baseball Hall of Famer who pitched for the Cleveland Indians from 1936 to 1956; Academy Award actor, director, producer, John Wayne; Big Band Leader, Glenn Miller, Academy Award winning actress Donna Reed, George Gallup, creator of the polling technique that bears his name; Abigail Van Buren (Dear Abby) and Ann Landers, widely-read advice columnists in newspapers; and television actor and co-star in the CBS sitcom ``Two and a Half Men’’, Ashton Kutcher.

• The Republican Party was first organized in Crawfordsville, Iowa in February, 1854.

• The hamburger was first introduced in Clarinda (Southwestern Iowa) when a restaurant owner, Bert Gray, discovered a new way of making a sandwich by using ground beef. The Clarinda restaurant's chef who was from Hamburg, Germany named the sandwich.

• Onawa, Iowa, ice cream vendor Christian Nelson created the Eskimo Pie.

• On February 3, 1959, a small-plane crash outside Mason City, Iowa, killed three American rock and roll pioneers: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, as well as the pilot, Roger Peterson. The musicians had just played for more than 1,000 fans at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake.

• The motion picture ``Field of Dreams' was filmed in Dyersville (eastern Iowa); and the 1995 movie ``The Bridges of Madison County" was made on location in Madison County, Iowa.

• Ronald Reagan was once a sports reporter for WHO radio in Des Moines.

• On March 4, 2002, the Iowa English Language Reaffirmation Act formally reestablished English as the official language of government in Iowa. The law encourages "every citizen of the state to become more proficient in the English.’’ 26 other states have approved similar measures.

Iowa Caucus History/Highlights

• Iowa adopted a caucus system soon after it became a state in 1846.

• Caucus is an Indian word, meaning ``elder'' or ``counselor''

• A caucus is a political party meeting where voters suggest policy issues and pick delegates to the county convention. It's the first step in selecting party candidates for president.

• The caucus system was the dominant system for nominating public officials until the primary system became popular in the early 1900's.

• April 10, 1916 would mark the first and only time Iowa held a presidential primary. Governor George W. Clarke addressing the General Assembly in 1917 called for a repeal of the direct primary law and the return of the caucus and convention system.

• Prior to 1972,  the Iowa political parties typically held their precinct caucuses in late March or in April, which fell in the middle of the national primary schedule.

• Beginning in 1972, the Iowa Democratic Party moved its caucus date forward to January 24, making it the first primary event in the nation.

• The official date for precinct caucuses is set by the state central committee of each party, and since 1976 the Republican and Democratic parties have held their caucuses on the same day.

• Iowa has 6 Electoral Votes.

• Iowans elect less than two percent of the delegates to the parties' respective national conventions

• Iowa has 1784 precincts spread out over 99 counties

• In Iowa, the law permits seventeen-year-olds who will be eighteen by the time of the general election to participate in the caucuses.

• Over the last 10 presidential elections (1972-2008) Iowa has split its vote between Republican and Democrats, by voting  Republican five times (1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 2004), while voting Democratic five times as well (1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2008).

• In 1972, George McGovern campaigned in Iowa for only a day and a half. Small wonder, then, that he finished third with 23 percent of the vote behind Edmund Muskie with 36 percent of the vote.

• As proof of the scant attention the Iowa caucuses received prior to 1976, it’s worth noting that it was never referred to in Theodore White's: ``The Making of the President 1972'' or Timothy Crouse's ``The Boys on the Bus''; not even in Hunter S. Thompson's ``Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72.''

• Between 1976-2008, The Democratic candidate who went on to secure the nomination won seven out of nine Iowa caucuses, the exceptions being Michael Dukakis finishing third in 1988 and Tom Harkin, senator from Iowa, the ``favorite son’’, trouncing Bill Clinton with 76 percent of the vote in 1992.

• The eventual Republican nominee between 1976-2008, would win the Iowa Caucus only three times: 1976, 1996, and 2000.

• In 1976, Jimmy Carter, commonly referred to as "Jimmy Who’’ before the Iowa caucuses, won a commanding 27.6 percent of the vote in Iowa with Senator Birch Bayh of Indiana a distant second with 13.6 percent. After his impressive caucus showing, Tom Whitney, the Iowa Democratic chairman called Carter’s win ``striking’’, telling The New York Times that he thought the ``former [Georgia] governor was going to be a major factor in 1976.’’

• In 1980, after edging Ronald Reagan in the Iowa caucuses, The Washington Post wrote that George [H. W]. Bush had "established himself tonight as a serious challenger to Ronald Reagan’’, while a Post editorial, two days later, called Bush's win an impressive victory and a "major setback" for Reagan. A jubilant Bush belted out to television cameras that he had the “Big Mo,” momentum

• In the 1988 Iowa caucuses, Vice President Bush, the GOP heir apparent and leading in polls, slipped to third place, beaten by Bob Dole who was second in the national polls, while a surprising second place finish went to televangelist Pat Robertson whose candidacy up to this time was considered negligible. R. W. Apple Jr. in his post-election analysis  for  The New York Times wrote: ``A surprisingly  feeble showing by Vice President Bush raised insistent questions about his chances of winning the nomination, even though almost every major politician has been describing him for months as the favorite.’’

• In 1988, (Pat Robertson, second with 25 percent of the vote) and again in 1996 (Pat Buchanan, second with 23 percent of the vote), the ideologically more extreme candidates fared better in caucuses than in primary states.

• In 1992, Bill Clinton was one of the rare exceptions to the rule when he skipped the Iowa caucuses altogether, (making only one January appearance in the Hawkeye state); but still managed to capture his party’s nomination.

• In 1996,  Pat Buchanan so overjoyed with his strong second place finish to Bob Dole in the Iowa caucuses roared: "I've emerged as the first-tier challenger to Senator Dole’’, while his sister and campaign manager, Bay Buchanan, declared, "There's only one conservative left in this race ... we now go to New Hampshire.”

• In 2000, The Des Moines Register described publisher Steve Forbes’ impressive showing behind George W. Bush a “strong No. 2.”, who benefited mightily from his ``flat tax’’ proposal.

• In 2004, both John Kerry and John Edwards’ poll numbers were in the single digits prior to the Iowa caucuses, only to finish first and second respectively, while Howard Dean, the national frontrunner, came in a distant third.

• In 2008, 98.6 percent of the voting-age population in Iowa was registered to vote, compared with 74.2 percent nationwide.

• In the 2008 Iowa caucuses, the junior senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, cruised to victory in a record turnout with 37.6 of the delegate support with John Edwards coming in second with 29.8 percent, while Hillary Clinton came in a disappointing third with 29.5 percent of the vote.  After receiving such a small percentage of the vote, both Senators Joe Biden Christopher Dodd announced they were dropping out of the race.

• On the Republican side in 2008, Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas and a Baptist minister delivered a crushing setback to Mitt Romney by winning 34.4 percent of the delegate support, well ahead of Romney who came away with 25.4 percent of the vote. ``Tonight we proved that American politics is still in the hands of ordinary folks like you'' Huckabee shouted to jubilant supports after claiming victory, while Mr. Obama took to the stage clapping his hands and telling supporters, ``They said this day would never come.''

• Victories for Mondale (1984), Bush (2000), and Gore (2000), in the Iowa caucuses coincided with their front runner status, while Carter (1976), Bush (1980), Obama (2008), and Huckabee (2008) victories in Iowa vastly exceeded expectations.

• Since 1972, no candidate failing to finish among the top three places in caucus results has gone on to win the presidency

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]
December 19, 2011

Source: ``The Iowa Precinct Caucuses: The Making of a Media Event’’ (Third Edition) By Hugh Winebrenner and Dennis J. Goldford;   ``The Iowa Caucuses, 1972-2008: A Eulogy’’ By Peverill Squire, published in The Forum 2008 (Volume 5, Issue 4); Iowa Economic Development Authority; State Historical Society of Iowa; U.S. Census Bureau

***

Iowa Caucus Results: 1972-2008

January 24, 1972

Democrats
Uncommitted 35.8 percent
Edmund Muskie 35.5 percent
George McGovern   22.6 percent
Others    7 percent
Hubert Humphrey   1.6 percent
Eugene McCarthy   1.4 percent
Shirley Chisholm 1.3 percent
Henry Jackson   1.1 percent

General Election Results:  The Democrats nominated McGovern and President Nixon won the general election
Source: Des Moines Register
 
1976 Iowa Caucuses
January 19, 1976

Democrats
Jimmy Carter 37.15 percent
Birch Bayh 13.16 percent
Fred R. Harris 9.93 percent
Morris K. Udall 5.97 percent
Sargent Shriver 1.10 percent
Others.  1.76
2,212 precincts reporting, 95 percent of the vote
Source: The New York Times

Republicans
Ford: 264 votes
Reagan: 248 votes
Undecided: 62
Other Candidates: 9
Note: The 1976 results are of a straw poll of 62 sample precincts conducted by the Republican Party of Iowa
Source: Iowa.Gov Official Register
 
1980 Iowa Caucuses
January 21, 1980

Republicans
George H. W. Bush 31.6 percent
Ronald Reagan 29.5 percent
Howard Baker 15.3 percent
John Connally        9.3 percent
Phil Crane 6.7 percent
John Anderson    4.3 percent
Undecided 1.7 percent
Bob Dole 1.5 percent

Democrats
President Jimmy Carter 59.1 percent
Ted Kennedy   31.2 percent
Uncommitted 9.6 percent
General election results:   Ronald Reagan defeated incumbent Jimmy Carter.
Source: Des Moines Register

1984 Iowa caucuses
February 20, 1984

Democrats
Walter Mondale 48.9 percent
Gary Hart 16.5 percent
George McGovern   10.3 percent
Uncommitted 9.4 percent
Alan Cranston      7.4 percent
John Glenn 3.5 percent
Rueben Askew 2.5 percent
Jesse Jackson    1.5 percent
Ernest Hollings    0 percent

Republican caucuses were uncontested in favor of incumbent President Ronald Reagan.

General election results:  President Reagan was re-elected over Walter Mondale.
Source: Des Moines Register

1988 Iowa caucuses 
February 8, 1988

Democrats
Richard Gephardt 31.3 percent
Paul Simon   26.7 percent
Michael Dukakis   22.2 percent
Jesse Jackson   8.8 percent
Bruce Babbitt   6.1 percent
Uncommitted   4.5 percent
Gary Hart   .3 percent
Al Gore    0 percent

Republicans
Robert Dole   37.4 percent
Pat Robertson   24.6percent
George Bush   18.6percent
Jack Kemp   11.1percent
Pete DuPont   7.3percent
No preference   .7percent
Alexander Haig   .3percent

General election Results:  Vice President George Bush defeated Dukakis
Source: Des Moines Register
 
1992 Iowa caucuses
February 10, 1992

Democrats
Tom Harkin 76.4 percent
Uncommitted 11.9 percent
Paul Tsongas 4.1 percent
Bill Clinton 2.8 percent
Bob Kerrey 2.4 percent
Jerry Brown 1.6 percent
Others    .6 percent

Republican caucuses were uncontested in favor of incumbent President George H. W. Bush.

General election results:  Governor Bill Clinton defeated incumbent President Bush

Source: Des Moines Register

1996 Iowa caucuses
February 12, 1996

Republicans
Robert Dole 26 percent
Pat Buchanan 23 percent
Lamar Alexander 17. 6percent
Steve Forbes 10.1 percent
Phil Gramm 9.3 percent
Alan Keyes 7.4 percent
Richard Lugar 3.7 percent
Maurice Taylor 1. 4 percent
Robert Dornan   1.4 percent
Other   .04 percent

Democrats
Incumbent Bill Clinton unopposed.

General election results:  President Clinton won re-election over Senator Robert Dole.

Source: Des Moines Register

2000 Iowa Caucuses

January 24, 2000

Democrats
Al Gore   63 percent
Bill Bradley 35 percent
Uncommitted   2 percent

Republicans
George W. Bush 41 percent
Steve Forbes 30 percent
Alan Keyes 14 percent
Gary Bauer 9 percent
John McCain 5 percent
Orrin Hatch 1 percent

General election results: George W. Bush won election over Al Gore
 
2004 Iowa Caucus
January 19, 2004

Democrats
John Kerry: 37.6 percent
John Edwards: 31.8 percent
Howard Dean: 18.0 percent
Richard A. Gephardt: 10.5 percent
Dennis J. Kucinich: 1.3 percent
Other: 0.4
1,951 of 1,993 precincts reporting, or 98 percent

Republican caucuses were uncontested in favor of incumbent President George W. Bush

Source: Iowa Democratic Party

2008 Iowa Caucus

January 3, 2008

Democrats
Barack Obama 37. 6 percent
John Edwards: 29.7
Hillary Rodham Clinton: 29.5 percent
Bill Richardson: 2.1 percent
Joe Biden: 0.9
Uncommitted: 0.1 percent
Christopher J. Dodd: 0.0
Mike Gravel: 0.0 percent
Dennis J. Kucinich: 0.0 percent
Others: 0.0 percent
100 percent reporting

Republicans
Mike Huckabee: 34.4 percent
Mitt Romney: 25.2 percent
Fred D. Thompson: 13.4 percent
John McCain:  13.1 percent
Ron Paul: 10.0 percent
Rudolph W. Giuliani: 3.5 percent
Duncan Hunter: 0.4 percent
Tom Tancredo: 0.0
98 percent reporting
Source: The New York Times
***
Web Sites to Keep in Mind:

Iowa Quick Facts (State Data Center of Iowa) 

Iowa Media Guide (Greater Des Moines Partnership)

Iowa Caucus 2012-Campaign Contacts/Caucus Resources (Foreign Press Centers)

IowaPolitics.com (2012 GOP Caucus Countdown) 

Des Moines Register (Caucus Page)

Iowa Media Links: Television, Radio, Print Media (IowaPolitics.com)

Iowa Caucuses (2012 Race for the White House) 

Iowa Caucuses & How They Work

Iowa Fact Sheet (Economic Research Service) 

How Iowa Compares to Other States (Iowa.gov)

Gallup Poll (Election 2012) 

Iowa Caucus on Twitter:  

Most Popular Online News Stories for 2011

It’s that time of year, again, when news organizations are scrambling to determine which stories and screaming headlines attracted the most attention from its readers.

As a way to get the ball rolling, I contacted some leading news organizations and asked them to provide the online story that generated the most page views on their Web Sites over the last year.

Here, then, are the responses that came back from those organizations considerate enough to return my emails.

• The New York Times: The story with the most page views on NYTimes.com between January 1 through Dec 5, 2011 was ``Sustainable Love'' By Tara Parker-Pope, an essay on what makes a happy marriage. The article appeared in the Times' print edition on January 2, 2011.

• The Wall Street Journal:  The most popular story at WSJ.com for 2011 was an essay entitled: ``Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior’’ which were excerpts from author Amy Chua’s new book: ``Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother", a book that caused a great deal of controversy earlier this year.

• New York Daily News: The most popular story of the year on NYDailyNews.com was a story about a Brooklyn Housing Authority worker killing a giant rat with a pitchfork. The article, according to Editor-in-chief Kevin Convey, generated 907,057 page views since it was published in August.

• CNN: The biggest traffic day at CNN was their first day of coverage (March 11th) of the earthquake in Japan.  According to a CNN spokesperson, CNN.com generated 135.9 million page views throughout the day.

• FOX News: At FoxNews.com, their most viewed story as of December 5, 2011 was a story about American socialite and reality television star Kim Kardashian being placed on an official Australian Immigration Department watch list after breaching her visa application as many as three times.

• NBC: At MSNBC.com, the top online video story of the year was the earthquake and tsunami in Japan  which generated more than 40 million online video streams in one day, setting an all-time one day site record, according to an MSNBC spokesperson.

• ABC: According a company spokesperson, the top story for 2011 on ABCNews.com was a story about the 50 most popular women on the Internet. The article was originally published on May 6, 2010.  The two other top stories for 2011 at ABCNews.com was the killing of Osama bin Laden published on May 1, 2011; and the obituary of former Apple CEO Steve Jobs , published on October 5, 2011.

• At TVNewser, one of 16 blogs at mediabistro.com,  their number one story of the year (so far) was a report about Jared Loughner, the suspect in the shooting of Arizona U.S. Congresswoman, Gabrielle Dee "Gabby" Giffords

• The most viewed story at FBI.gov for 2011 with more than 1.4 million page views was their posting about the murder of 41-year-old Ricky McCormick whose dead body was dumped in a field in St. Louis. Police found two encrypted notes stuffed into the victim's pockets, but have been unable to break the code, which remains a mystery to this day.

• ESPN:  According to an ESPN.com spokesperson, their most popular story to date was an article first published on January 13, 2011 about New York Jets cornerback Antonio Cromartie unleashing a battery of harsh words for New England Patriots quarterback, Tom Brady. 

• The most widely read story at TechCrunch.com. a leading technology media property,  was a story about the new Facebook Timeline on September 22, 2011. The posting generated 1, 201, 589 page views according to John Briggs, editor of TechCurnch Gadgets. The second most popular story at TechCrunch for the year was news of Steve Jobs resignation as CEO of Apple on August 24, 2011, a breaking news story which generated 847,889 page views.

• According to a company spokesperson, the most popular television show, not necessarily this year, but of all time at Hulu.com is ``Family Guy’’,Fox’s American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane.

• Finally, at Nexis, a subscription-based database that offers a comprehensive collection of news, public records, and legal and business information- tells me that they were unable to reveal their top search terms for the entire year; but they were kind enough to disclose their top 100 search terms for the past three months. Nexis provided me the results in alphabetical order, so they are not rank-ordered or listed by the most popular.

Another thing to keep in mind about these results is that Nexis, due to confidentiality concerns, doesn’t archive search strategies from its customers; so these results are based on the most used LexisNexis SmartIndexing terms.  SmartIndexing is the company’s own classification (or taxonomy) of subjects, industries, geographic areas, people and companies.

100 Most Popular searches over the past 90 days from LexisNexis.

1.) AAA
2.) ACLU
3.) Afghan conflict
4.) Africa
5.) Amanda Knox
6.) American Enterprise Institute
7.) Americans for Tax Reform
8.) Americans with Disabilities
9.) Anderson Cooper
10.) Antitrust
11.) Asset Management
12.) ATV
13.) Biometrics
14.) Black Friday
15.) Brookings Institute
16.) Center for American Progress
17.) Central America
18.) China
19.) Church sexual abuse
20.) Climate Change
21.) Columbia University
22.) Commercial Construction
23.) Congress
24.) Corporate Malfeasance
25.) Credit Watch Agencies
26.) Criminal Justice
27.) Cyber Security
28.) Debates
29.) Disney
30.) Employee Benefits
31.) Employment
32.) Energy Recycling
33.) Engine Technology
34.) Equity Markets
35.) Executive Moves
36.) Food Contamination
37.) Food Industry
38.) Food Insecurity
39.) Greece
40.) Health Savings Accounts
41.) Healthcare
42.) Heritage Foundation
43.) Herman Cain
44.) Hopstop
45.) Human Rights
46.) Illegal Immigration
47.) Income Trends
48.) India
49.) Insurance
50.) Ira conflict
51.) Iran
52.) Iraq
53.) Islamic extremism
54.) Israel
55.) Japan Economy
56.) Jimmy Fallon
57.) Job Creation
58.) Layoffs
59.) Mexico
60.) MF Global
61.) Michael Bloomberg
62.) Motorcycle
63.) Mutual Fund Market
64.) Net Neutrality
65.) NHL
66.) North Korea
67.) Nuclear
68.) Obama
69.) Occupy Wall Street
70.) Olympics
71.) Organized Crime
72.) Pakistan
73.) Payroll Processing
74.) Persian Gulf States
75.) Political Violence
76.) Private Equity Markets
77.) Railway Infrastructure
78.) Reinsurance
79.) Religion and Environmental Policy
80.) Religious Bigotry
81.) Retail Industry
82.) Rick Perry
83.) Romania
84.) Romney
85.) Sales Compensation
86.) Sandusky
87.) Schumer
88.) Scientology
89.) Sean Hannity
90.) Securities Markets
91.) Social Security
92.) Solyndra
93.) Steel
94.) Steve Jobs
95.) Tax policy
96.) Teach for America
97.) Terrorism
98.) Tim Kaine
99.) Tribal governance
100.) Turkish politics

Source: LexisNexis® Business Insight Solutions

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]
December 7, 2011

 

New Hampshire Union Leader: Presidential Endorsement Scorecard

The St Louis Cardinals stunned the world, winning the 2011 World Series as a wild card team; so maybe there’s room for another wild card in 2012.

Before Bill Clinton broke the string in 1992, losing to Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts, beginning in 1952, every candidate who won the New Hampshire primary went on to the win the presidency. In 2000, George W. Bush won the presidential election despite losing to John McCain in New Hampshire; as did Barack Obama who was upended by Hillary Clinton in the 2008  New Hampshire presidential primary. But though the importance of winning this pivotal New England state has been diminished slightly over the years, winning New Hampshire would be a boon to any candidate so early in the political season. Which is why Newt Gingrich, not long ago considered by many to be nothing more than a broken down relic of the 1990’s, has suddenly sprung to life and is downright giddy in winning the endorsement of the New Hampshire Union Leader, which made its preference known in its Sunday edition.

New Hampshire’s primary has been set for January 10th.

Despite all the buzz and excitement among die-hard conservatives over Mr. Gingrich’s recent surge in the polls, most of whom are still lukewarm about throwing their weight behind Mitt Romney, how influential, you might ask, is the New Hampshire Union Leader in ensuring a victory for their endorsed candidate; or for that matter, in picking the next president of the United States?

Well, their track record is not great; in fact, it’s below the Mendoza Line.

In the past 13 presidential elections from 1948 through 2008, the Union Leader has only endorsed the winning candidate (prior to the New Hampshire primary) twice: Richard Nixon in 1968 and Ronald Reagan in 1980. For those scoring at home, 15.4 percent of the time, the Union Leader endorsed the winning candidate in the presidential election.

Despite polls just three weeks before the 1948 presidential election, showed that Thomas Dewey would crush Harry Truman on Election Day, the 33rd president of the United States, ignored  such doom and gloom by continuing his whistle stop tour, brandishing his signature mantra: ``Give ‘em Hell Harry’’, while  hammering away at the ``Do Nothing 80th Congress’’  and the ``One-Party Press.’’ A majority of U.S. newspapers, including the Union Leader, endorsed Dewey; and Life Magazine almost two weeks before the election, published a picture of the New York governor, identifying him ``as the next president of the United States.’’

Even before Watergate tore him to smithereens, polls in mid 1971-showed Richard Nixon’s popularity had dipped below 50 percent, opening the door to challenges in the 1972 primaries from the left and right within his own party. One of them was a conservative congressman from Ohio, John Ashbrook, who earned the endorsement of the New Hampshire Union Leader. The other primary challenger was a liberal, Pete McCloskey.

Despite the Union Leader’s endorsement, Ashbrook received only 6 percent of the vote in the New Hampshire primary;  McCloskey’s anti-war campaign, garnered him 11 percent of the vote, while Nixon received a commanding 83 percent of the vote, leaving his opponents in the dust as he easily captured 1323 of the 1324 delegates to the Republican Convention. Ashbrook faded into the thin night air shortly after the Iowa caucuses (April 4) where he received just a few votes in the straw polls.

The Union Leader also placed their stamp of approval on the candidacy of Delaware Governor Pierre du Pont IV in 1988; only to see him earn 10.1 percent of the vote in the New Hampshire primary, behind Vice President George H.W. Bush who had 37.6 percent of the vote, Senator Robert Dole received 28.4 percent, and Jack Kemp with 12.8 percent. Alexander Haig only managed 0.3 percent of the vote, while evangelist Pat Robertson was practically at the bottom of the pack with 0.4 percent. After such a poor showing in New Hampshire, du Pont withdrew from the race.

The one Republican candidate who benefited mightily from the Union Leader’s endorsement was Pat Buchanan, who in the 1992 Republican primary in New Hampshire earned nearly 40 percent of the Republican vote, collecting more than 3 million votes, not enough to beat the Vice President, but strong enough to weaken his candidacy, showing Bush as a weak vulnerable candidate once the general election rolled around. As it turns out, Buchanan’s strong showing in New Hampshire would end there. He never won a primary. Buchannan, some would argue, would only further divide the party when he delivered his disruptive cultural wars speech at the Republican Convention in Houston of 1992, when he declared: that ``American was in the midst of a ``cultural war’’, a ``religious war’’, and in a struggle for the`` soul of America.’’

Yet another poster child of the conservative movement endorsed by the Union Leader only to fizzle before he really began, was publisher and businessman Steve Forbes who managed a mere 13 percent of the vote in New Hampshire in 2000. John McCain took 49 percent of the vote; while George W. Bush took 31 percent. Polling conservative voters before the primary showed they agreed with Forbes’ core conservative issues on taxes and abortion over the other candidates, but they still preferred Bush or McCain when push came to shove. After his third primary loss in Delaware in February, 2000 (a state he won in 1996) and after pumping $35 million of his own money into the campaign, Forbes withdrew from the race, leaving Bush, McCain and Alan Keyes to fend for themselves in their pursuit of the 2000 Republican nomination.

So if nothing else, the Republican field of Romney, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Herman Cain, and others can take heart, knowing that losing the endorsement of the Union Leader isn't exactly the end of the world.

While all these candidates, to be sure, would have welcomed the endorsement from the New Hampshire Union Leader with open arms, history shows, future presidents are not exactly at the mercy of an editorial endorsement from this conservative newspaper either, even if it has the largest circulation in the state of New Hampshire.

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]
November 28, 2011

****
Candidates Endorsed by the New Hampshire Union Leader Before the New Hampshire Primary.

1948: Tom Dewey
1952:  Robert A. Taft
1960:  Richard Nixon
1964:  Barry Goldwater
1968:  Richard Nixon
1972:  John Ashbrook
1976:  Ronald Reagan
1980:  Ronald Reagan
1988:  Pierre du Pont
1992:  Pat Buchanan
1996: Pat Buchanan
2000:  Steve Forbes
2008: John McCain

Source: Office of the Editorial Page Editor: New Hampshire Union Leader

24 Things to Know About Thanksgiving

In just a few days, Americans will be celebrating Thanksgiving, hopefully with their families and loved ones, even if it means traveling far and wide by planes, trains and automobilies.

It will be a day of giving thanks, thanks to the Republicans for not holding a debate on Thanksgiving, thanks that the Joy Behar show has been cancelled, thanks that Charlie Sheen miraculously is still among the living, thanks that Lebron James went another year without a ring, and thanks that the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue hasn’t been foreclosed on, not yet anyway.

So as we anxiously await the holiday, I prepared a plateful of information to feast on about things you might not have known about Thanksgiving.

• In the autumn of 1621, 51 Pilgrims and 90 Indians in the colony of Plymouth held the day harvest feast in what would become the first Thanksgiving.

• The first recorded formal proclamation of Thanksgiving was in Charleston, Mass. in 1676.

• The first Thanksgiving consisted of boiled eels and venison; ducks and other waterfowl, lams and mussels, corn bread, leeks, plums, and sweet wine made from the native grapes.

• Historical records show that In America, Thanksgiving feasts occurred in settlements in what is now Texas, Florida, Maine, and Virginia prior to the celebration in Plymouth

• It would take 320 years after the Pilgrims held the first Thanksgiving for it to achieve full legal status.

 • Beginning in 1846, Sara Joseph Hale, editor of Godey’s Magazine published editorials, encouraging governors of states and territories to make Thanksgiving a legal holiday.

• Prior to Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation in 1863, three presidents, George Washington, John Adams, and James Madison, issued informal proclamations of a national day of Thanksgiving, while President Thomas Jefferson, who considered Thanksgiving purely a religious celebration, reasoned that the U.S. government was in no position to involve itself with the day since the U.S. Constitution specifically prohibits any connection between church and state.

• Prior to Thanksgiving being declared a national holiday, there were only two national holidays: Washington’s Birthday (February 22), and Independence Day (July 4).

• The Intercollegiate Football Association, an organization maintained by college students, scheduled its first championship game on Thanksgiving Day in 1876.

• As late as the 1880’s, The Catholic Church didn’t recognize Thanksgiving as a holiday, reasoning it was strictly a Protestant rite.

• William DeLoss Love, a Congregationalist minister and member of the Sons of the American Revolution wrote the first history of Thanksgiving in 1895: ``Fast and Thanksgiving Days of New England’’.

• When the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade began in 1924, many consider this the beginning of the official commercialization of the holiday.

• In the Thanksgiving issue of the Saturday Evening Post for 1931, an advertisement for Camels plugged the cigarettes as "something to be thankful for."

• In 1934 on Thanksgiving Day, the Chicago Bears beat the Detroit Lion 19-16 in the first NFL game to be broadcast on national radio, NBC.

• Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939 changed the date of Thanksgiving to the third Thursday in November to lengthen the Christmas shopping season; only to revert back to fourth Thursday in November two years later.

• In 1947, the first official National Thanksgiving Turkey was presented to President Harry Truman, who followed President Lincoln’s example by pardoning it.

• NBC began televising the Thanksgiving Parade in 1948.

• By 1956, NFL games were televised on Thanksgiving.

• On November 11, 1962, before a national televised audience, 57,598 fans at Tiger Stadium watched the Lions sack Green Bay Packers quarterback Bart Starr 11 times for a total loss of 110 yards.  It was the Packers’ only loss of the year.

• According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are four places in the United States named Turkey. Turkey Creek, La., was the most populous in 2010, with 441 residents, followed by Turkey, Texas (421), Turkey Creek, Ariz. (294), and Turkey, N.C. (292). There are also 11 townships around the country with Turkey in their names, including three in Kansas.

• The American Automobile Association projects 42.5 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles during the Thanksgiving weekend, an increase of 4 percent from the 40.9 million people who traveled last year.

• According to Orbitz.com, the busiest airport from November 23rd to 27th will be Los Angeles International Airport; the least congested will be Mineta San Jose International.

• According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, the average price of a traditional Thanksgiving meal is up about 13 percent from 2010.

• The National Restaurant Association estimates that 14 million Americans will visit a restaurant for a Thanksgiving meal this year, and an additional 16 million will use restaurant takeout.

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]
November 21, 2011

Source: ``The History of Thanksgiving in the United States'' Journal of Social History (Summer, 1999); ``The First Thanksgiving'' Gastronomical: The Journal of Food and Culture, (Fall 2003); ``A Thanksgiving Tradition’’ American History, Nov/Dec95, Vol. 30.

 

Most Popular Halloween Costumes for 2011

 

Tea Party activist Christine O’Donnell,  as she stated in her campaign ad, may not be a witch, but you can rest assured come this Halloween, there will be plenty other witches, along with vampires, pirates, ghosts and Dracula’s prowling your neighborhood, hoping to shake you down for an extra  fistful of candy.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimated there were 41 million trick-or- treaters ages 5 to 13 from across the United States in 2010 on Halloween.

But ever since the 1970’s, Halloween has become more closely associated with young adult party goers, dressing up in their most favorite costumes, usually as contemporary newsmakers from the world of  politics and entertainment. In the 1990’s for example, Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton costumes (smoking a cigar, of course) was in vogue; recent characters have been Saddam Hussein, Osama bin laden, George Bush and vampish entertainers like Snooki  from MTV’s ``Jersey Shore’’ along with pop icon, Lady Ga Ga.

According to the National Retail Federation  seven in 10 Americans (68.6 %) plan to celebrate Halloween, up from 63.8 percent last year and the most in NRF’s nine-year survey history. And those celebrating Halloween will plunk down an average of $72.31 on decorations, costumes and candy, up from $66.28 last year; with total Halloween spending expected to reach $6.86 billion.

To give you an idea of what’s popular this year, I checked in with some costume shops from across the country to ask what are some of the most popular costumes and characters being requested.

• At  Ricky’s Costume Superstore in New York City, some of the more popular requests have been newly married Prince William , former New York Congressman and Twitter enthusiast,  Anthony Weiner  Mr. Winning himself, Charlie Sheen, a Lady GaGa Tuxedo Costume,  Walking Dead Zombies  , and Smurfs.

• According to Daniel Hazen, owner of Ozzie Dots on Hollywood Blvd in Los Angeles, Ca., the most popular costume theme this year has been Zombies with a twist, such as Zombie Amy Winehouse, Zombie Bill Gates, Zombie Betty Ford. Recently, someone popped into Hazen’s shop and wanted to be Zombie Amy Swinehouse with pig ears. Steampunk was yet another costume request Ozzie Dots received, which apparently is a cross between Edwardian and Science fiction. Otherwise, according to Hazen, the most popular requests have been ``lots of gears and gadgets with goggles on bowler hats and such.’’

• At Costumes on Haight in San Francisco, the early buzz has been costume requests for Pan Am style flight attendants, Cleopatra has been unusually popular this year, its popularity is thought to have been sparked by the recent death of Elizabeth Taylor, at least according to the store’s owner, Chuck Nicklow. Requests for Amy Winehouse has been in high demand, as are the Black Swan for women and Renaissance and medieval costumes, largely due to the success of ``Game of Thrones’’, the American medieval fantasy television series on HBO.

• At the Buffalo Exchange  headquartered in Tucson Ariz., the most popular costume requests have been Glee characters, 90's Grunge,  Lady GaGa, Victorian/Marie Antoinette, and an assortment of 80's music icons.  Its Santa Monica (Ca.) store, meanwhile, is fielding a number of requests for Black Swans, angry birds,  ``Jersey Shore’’ gear, Lady Gaga and classic super heroes, especially Wonder Woman and Bat Girl.

• At Mallatt Pharmacy and Costume in Madison Wisconsin, two noteworthy costumes quick to sell out were Harry Potter for children (The ultimate Super Hero!) and black tutus and black rhinestone crowns for Black Swan (adult females). In addition, adult women wanting Nanny McPhee, including the wig, prosthetic noses and snaggle tooth is in high demand. Super Heroes and Zombie requests have additionally gone through the roof, while Mallatt owners admit they’re having trouble keeping up with the demand for the V for Vendetta mask.

• At the Creative Costume Company in New York City, other than the typical requests for standard Halloween costumes, whether it be pirates, vampires witches, princesses, Marie Antoinette and Napoleon etc; this year, stewardess uniforms and Playboy bunny costumes are more popular than usual, according to Susan Handler from the Creative Costume Company.

• At the Halloween Mart in Las Vegas, Nevada, Angry Bird and Monster High costumes are extremely popular requests this year, while a unique and unusual request the online Halloween costume store received just the other day was for LeeLo from The 5th Element motion picture. 

Happy Halloween; and remember as Sgt. Phil Esterhaus would tell you, ``Let’s Be Careful Out There!’’!

 Bill Lucey
[email protected]
October 26, 2011

Key Dates of U.S. Presence in Iraq

With President Obama announcing today he is pulling the remaining U.S. troops out of Iraq by the end of December after the Iraqi Parliament refused to give U.S. troops immunity from prosecution, here is a look back at some key dates in the United States presence in Iraq.

Key Dates on U.S. Presence in Iraq

• October 16, 2002: President Bush signs the authorization for use of military force against Iraq.

• June, 2004:  U.N. Security Council adopts Resolution 1546, reaffirming the authorization for the multinational force in Resolution 1511, while noting that its presence in Iraq “is at the request of the incoming Interim Government of Iraq.”

• May 1, 2007: President George W. Bush vetoed the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, H.R. 1591, partially due to certain measures that would have limited the U.S. military role in Iraq.

• November 26, 2007:  U.S. President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Kamel Al-Maliki signed a ``Declaration of Principles for a Long-Term Relationship of Cooperation and Friendship’’ between the Republic of Iraq and the United States of America.

• November 17, 2008: U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and Iraq Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari sign a withdrawal agreement, which among other provisions, calls for the withdrawal of all U.S. forces no later than December 31, 2011.

• January 1, 2009: The U.S. signs a security agreement with Iraq that requires all U.S. combat troops to move outside of cities by the end of June 2009, while all U.S. troops leave Iraq by December 31, 2011.

• February 27, 2009: President Obama delivers a speech to U.S. Marines at Camp Lejeune, stating the U.S. strategy in Iraq was complete and calls for U.S. troops to be reduced to 50,000 troops by August 31, 2010; and a complete withdrawal by December 31, 2011.

• October 21, 2011: President Obama announces that all U.S. troops will leave Iraq by the end of the year, after the loss of 4,400 troops and $ 1 trillion spent on the nine-year military engagement.

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]
October 21, 2011

Source: Congressional Research Service