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Time Persons of the Year

Bill Sullivan — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 18:27:06 +0000

When Time named Barack Obama its 2008 Person of the Year, the president-elect joined an august if occasionally startling list of winners.

Charles Lindbergh won the first-ever award in 1927. Franklin D. Roosevelt was honored on three different occasions. Winston Churchill won twice, as did George W. Bush and Richard Nixon.

Over the years, the magazine has valued “doing” over “doing good.” That probably explains the back-to-back victories of Adolph Hitler (1938) and Joseph Stalin (1939).

Here’s the full list:

1927: Charles Lindbergh
1928: Walter Chrysler
1929: Owen D. Young
1930: Mahatma Gandhi
1931: Pierre Laval
1932: Franklin D. Roosevelt
1933: Hugh Samuel Johnson
1934: Franklin D. Roosevelt
1935: Haile Selassie I
1936: Wallis Simpson
1937: Chiang Kai-shek/Soong May-ling
1938: Adolf Hitler
1939: Joseph Stalin
1940: Winston Churchill
1941: Franklin D. Roosevelt
1942: Joseph Stalin
1943: George Marshall
1944: Dwight D. Eisenhower
1945: Harry S. Truman
1946: James F. Byrnes
1947: George Marshall
1948: Harry S. Truman
1949: Winston Churchill
1950: The American Fighting Man
1951: Mohammed Mossadegh
1952: Elizabeth II
1953: Konrad Adenauer
1954: John Foster Dulles
1955: Harlow Curtice
1956: Hungarian Freedom Fighter
1957: Nikita Khrushchev
1958: Charles de Gaulle
1959: Dwight D. Eisenhower
1960: U.S. Scientists
1961: John F. Kennedy
1962: Pope John XXIII
1963: Martin Luther King, Jr.
1964: Lyndon B. Johnson
1965: William Westmoreland
1966: The Generation Twenty-Five and Under (Baby Boomers)
1967: Lyndon B. Johnson
1968: Apollo 8 astronauts (William Anders, Frank Borman, and Jim Lovell)
1969: The Middle Americans
1970: Willy Brandt
1971: Richard Nixon
1972: Richard Nixon/Henry Kissinger
1973: John Sirica
1974: King Faisal
1975: American women
1976: Jimmy Carter
1977: Anwar Sadat
1978: Deng Xiaoping
1979: Ronald Reagan
1981: Lech Wałęsa
1982: The Computer – Machine of the Year
1983: Ronald Reagan/Yuri Andropov
1984: Peter Ueberroth
1985: Deng Xiaoping
1986: Corazon C. Aquino
1987: Mikhail Gorbachev
1988: The Endangered Earth: Planet of the Year
1989: Mikhail Gorbachev
1990: George H. W. Bush
1991: Ted Turner
1992: Bill Clinton
1993: The Peacemakers (Yasser Arafat, F.W. de Klerk, Nelson Mandela, and Yitzhak Rabin)
1994: Pope John Paul II
1995: Newt Gingrich
1996: David Ho
1997: Andy Grove
1998: Bill Clinton/Kenneth Starr
1999: Jeffrey P. Bezos
2000: George W. Bush
2001: Rudolph Giuliani
2002: The Whistleblowers (Cynthia Cooper, WorldCom; Coleen Rowley, FBI; and Sherron Watkins, Enron)
2003: The American Soldier
2004: George W. Bush
2005: The Good Samaritans (Bono, Bill Gates, Melinda Gates)
2006: You
2007: Vladimir Putin
2008: Barack Obama

Source: Time

Popular books about presidents

GetListy — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 22:35:13 +0000

From Amazon.com

Here is a list of some of the most recent, well-regarded major books about U.S. presidents:

1. American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House — by Jon Meacham

2. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln — by Doris Kearns Goodwin

3. Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief — by James M. McPherson

4. Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt — by H.W. Brands

5. The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope — by Jonathan Alter

6. John Adams — by David McCullough

7. Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America — by Rick Perlstein

8. No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II — by Doris Kearns Goodwin

9. Truman by David McCullough –

10. FDR — by Jean Edward Smith

Related lists:

Presidential disapproval ratings

Bill Sullivan — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:25:13 +0000

In the wake of the 2008 elections, President George W. Bush’s approval rating with the American public sank to just 24 percent, meaning that 76 percent of those who responded to a poll taken by CNN and Opinion Research Corporation did not believe the president was doing a good job.

How does that compare to other presidents? In August of 1974, the month he resigned in the face of the Watergate scandal, President Richard Nixon’s disapproval rating stood at just 66 percent.

CNN offered a chart covering Bush and previous presidents, the rate of disapproval, and the date of the poll representing the lowest point:

George W. Bush: 76% – Nov. 2008

Bill Clinton: 54% – Sept. 1994

G.H.W. Bush: 60% – July 1992

Ronald Reagan: 56% – Jan. 1983

Jimmy Carter: 59% – June 1979

Gerald Ford: 46% – April, Nov., Dec. 1975

Richard Nixon: 66% – Aug. 1974

Lyndon Johnson: 52% – March, Aug. 1968

John F. Kennedy: 30% – Nov. 1963

Harry Truman: 67% – Jan. 1952

Sources: CNN and Politico

Related lists:

Closest presidential elections

Bill Sullivan — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 14:14:42 +0000

While the race between John McCain and Barack Obama didn’t turn out to be as close as many predicted, election night often has been a nail-biter of an affair. Just eight years ago, the George W. Bush-Al Gore contest wasn’t resolved until after months of recounts and endless debates about hanging chads and dirty tricks.

Which are the narrowest margins ever in a presidential race?

Here’s one list, with percentage of popular vote for each of the leading candidates, followed by votes received in the Electoral College:

1960

Richard Nixon — 49.6

John F. Kennedy — 49.7

(Kennedy won the electoral vote, 303-219)

2000

George W. Bush — 47.87

Albert Gore — 48.38

(Bush won the electoral vote, 271-266)

1968

Hubert Humphrey — 42.7

Richard Nixon — 43.4

(Nixon won the electoral vote, 301-191.)

1976

Gerald Ford — 48.0

Jimmy Carter — 50.1

(Carter won the electoral vote, 297-240.)

Source: Infoplease.com

Republican Nominees

Bill Sullivan — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:55:50 +0000

John McCain may have his work cut out if he is to become the next U.S. President, but don’t be too quick to rule out the Republicans when it comes to closing the deal on election day.

Democrats ruled the middle of the 20th century, holding the White House for 20 years (1932-52). Lately, though, the roles have reversed, as Republicans have won the presidency in seven of the last 10 general elections.

Here’s a list of Republican nominees over that period, with the result in parentheses:

2004 — George W. Bush (W)

2000 — George W. Bush (W)

1996 — Robert Dole (L)

1992 — George H.W. Bush (L)

1988 — George H.W. Bush (W)

1984 — Ronald Reagan (W)

1980 — Ronald Reagan (W)

1976 — Gerald Ford (L)

1972 — Richard Nixon (W)

1968 — Richard Nixon (W)

Memorable Political Moments

Bill Sullivan — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:15:42 +0000

With media playing an ever-larger role in American politics, more and more attention is paid to how radio and television shape the course of events.

Recently, the Museum of Broadcast Communications polled scholars, politicians, commentators and analysts to produce a list of the “Top 125 Most Memorable Political Moments,” beginning with radio’s commercial debut on Election Night, 1920.

Here are the Top 10:

1. John Kennedy Assassination and Funeral (November 22, 1963)

2. 9-11 World Trade Center Attack (September 11, 2001)

3. Kennedy-Nixon: First Televised Debate (September 26, 1960)

4. Franklin Roosevelt: Pearl Harbor Speech (December 8, 1941)

5. Moon Landing (Neil Armstrong) (July 21,1969)

6. 1968 Democratic Convention Riot (Chicago) (August 26-29, 1968)

7. Franklin Roosevelt: First Inaugural Speech (March 4,1933)

8. Richard Nixon: “Checkers” Speech (September 23, 1952)

9. Martin Luther King: “I Have a Dream” speech (August 28, 1963)

10. Richard Nixon: White House Farewell Speech (August 9, 1974)

Ready to see the rest? Visit the official MBC site.