Obama's Bipartisan Mentors: F.D.R. and Reagan
Those who give Obama low grades for working with Republicans misread presidential history.
View ArticleHow Not to End Another President's War
Nixon was going to end Vietnam, then decided to win it. Now Obama faces similar decisions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
View ArticleFilibusters: The Senate's Self-Inflicted Wound
Once the tool of Southern segregationists, the filibuster has become as acceptable as it is undemocratic.
View ArticleHow Kennedy Won the House and Lost the South
By bringing the House Rules Committee in line in 1961, John F. Kennedy turned the Democratic South into Republican territory for decades.
View ArticleHow Not to End Another President's War (L.B.J. Edition)
Lyndon Johnson tried to give his nation guns and butter. In the end, he provided neither.
View ArticlePopular Presidents, Fractious Parties
Like F.D.R. and Reagan, Obama is finding that a "friendly" Congress can cause some headaches.
View ArticleHail to the Chief — in Public, That Is
A look back at the Bay of Pigs crisis suggests that Dick Cheney's recent criticism of President Obama breaks from the norm of history.
View ArticleCan Obama Be a Majority of One?
The president could take a lesson from L.B.J. on how to bend fractious Congressional Democrats to his will.
View ArticleHow to End a War, Eisenhower's Way
Bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq might require President Obama to be like Ike.
View ArticleGuest Column: Will Obama Ride Reagan's Ratings Roller Coaster?
A close looks at polls of reactions to Ronald Reagan's first few months in office provide striking parallels to what polls now find about opinions of President Obama. A consideration of the Reagan...
View Article
