“These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly.”
— Thomas Paine, in The American Crisis.
“For more than two decades, through two wars and domestic upheaval, the idea that al-Qaeda acted alone on 9/11 has been the basis of U.S. policy. A blue-ribbon commission concluded that Osama bin Laden had pioneered a new kind of terrorist group—combining superior technological know-how, extensive resources, and a worldwide network so well coordinated that it could carry out operations of unprecedented magnitude. This vanguard of jihad, it seemed, was the first nonstate actor that rivaled nation-states in the damage it could wreak,” The Atlantic reports.
“That assessment now appears wrong. And if our understanding of what transpired on 9/11 turns out to have been flawed, then the costly policies that the United States has pursued for the past quarter century have been rooted in a false premise.”
“The global War on Terror was based on a mistake.”
Politico: “It sounds outlandish. It was literally a plot point in HBO’s political satire, Veep. It hasn’t happened for 200 years, not since the House clawed the presidency from Andrew Jackson, who won the popular vote but didn’t manage to win over the Electoral College, and elected his opponent, John Quincy Adams — prompting a massive populist backlash that remade American politics.”
“And yet it’s an entirely plausible outcome once again, thanks to recent efforts that could lead to a scenario in which neither candidate makes it to that golden number of 270. If that comes to pass, the fallout could be just as existential as it was in 1824.”
“The agreement by President Biden and Donald Trump to move ahead with two presidential debates — and sideline the Commission on Presidential Debates — is a debilitating and potentially fatal blow to an institution that had once been a major arbiter in presidential politics,” the New York Times reports.
“But the roots of the commission’s decline go back at least a decade and came to a head in 2020, when the commission struggled to stage a debate with Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden during the pandemic.”
Politico: Why Biden ditched the debate commission.
Jimmy Carter’s grandson said Tuesday that the former president is “coming to the end” in a brief update about the 39th president’s health, CNN reports.
William Kristol: “Over three months later, on August 26, 1968, the Democratic party’s national convention assembled in Chicago, and in scenes of riots and disorder, nominated as the party’s candidate a long-time senator and the incumbent vice president, Hubert Humphrey.”
“This year the Democratic convention will come to order on August 19, in Chicago. It will nominate a long-time senator, the former vice president and incumbent president, Joe Biden.”
“In 1968, the Republican party voted to put on their national ticket—for an unprecedented fourth time—Richard Nixon. This capped a remarkable political comeback. After Nixon had not only lost the presidential race in 1960 but the California governorship in 1962, he was widely supposed to be finished.”
“This year the Republicans will nominate for president, for an unprecedented third time in succession, Donald Trump. This will cap a remarkable political comeback. After Trump not only lost the presidential race in 2020 but failed in his attempt afterwards to overturn the results, he was widely supposed to be finished.”
The impasse over Ukraine aid in the House has triggered a debate about whether lawmakers are facing a “Churchill or Chamberlain moment,” the Washington Post reports.
Politico: “Democrats say they have the convention’s logistics under control and are confident Chicago Police and federal officials will be able to manage the protesters.”
Nate Cohn: “We’ll never know what would have happened if the Supreme Court had allowed the recount to continue. But I don’t think it’s always appreciated that we probably do know that Mr. Gore would have won Florida, and therefore the presidency, if it weren’t for the infamous ‘butterfly ballot’ in Palm Beach County.”
“If you don’t remember — it has been a while — the butterfly ballot was very unusual. Candidates were listed on both sides of the ballot, and voters cast a ballot by punching a corresponding hole in the middle. What made it so unusual was that the ordering of the candidates on the ballot didn’t have the same logic as the corresponding punch hole: George W. Bush and Mr. Gore were the first two candidates listed on the left-hand side, but they corresponded to the first and third hole on the punch. The second punch corresponded with the first candidate on the right-hand side of the ballot: the paleoconservative Pat Buchanan, running as a Reform Party candidate.”
“After the election, many voters from Palm Beach claimed they had inadvertently voted for Mr. Buchanan when they meant to vote for Mr. Gore. This is clear in the data.”
“Joseph Lieberman, Connecticut’s four-term United States senator and Vice President Al Gore’s Democratic running mate in the 2000 presidential election won by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney when the Supreme Court halted a Florida ballot recount, died on Wednesday in Manhattan,” the New York Times reports.
“His family, in a statement, said the cause was complications of a fall.”
New York Times: “The passage of the Affordable Care Act would be his signature legislative achievement, but it propelled Republicans to a sweeping midterm election victory and control of the House. And Mr. Obama thought he might be the next to pay the price at the ballot box.”
Said Obama to an aide in late 2010: “This is shaping up to be a one-term presidency.”
“He turned out to be wrong, but the fatalism Mr. Obama expressed privately that day captured the weighty consequences of one of Washington’s most high-wire legislative battles in modern times.”
“A new set of oral histories released on Friday, on the eve of its 14th anniversary on Saturday, documents the behind-the-scenes struggle to transform the nation’s health care system to cover tens of millions of Americans without insurance.”
“Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to be among those marking the 59th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the day Alabama law officers attacked Civil Rights demonstrators on the iconic Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama,” the AP reports.
The apartment Bob Woodward lived in during Watergate is listed for sale.
“When Deep Throat — later identified as Mark Felt — wanted to meet with him about the Watergate scandal, Felt would circle page 20 in Woodward’s daily New York Times and then draw a clock in the lower part of the page to signal what time they should meet in a Rosslyn parking garage.”
“If Woodward wanted to meet, he would put a flag in a flower pot on the balcony of his apartment at the Webster House along P Street in Dupont Circle.”
Out this fall: America’s Deadliest Election: The Cautionary Tale of the Most Violent Election in American History by Dana Bash and David Fisher.
A book about the little-known 1872 Louisiana gubernatorial election which “led to hundreds of murders, warfare in the streets of New Orleans, dueling governors of Louisiana.”
It also offers a warning: “Readers will find eerie parallels to today’s divided political landscape and leaders willing to seize power no matter the cost.”
“President Biden’s reelection campaign hammered former President Trump on Monday for coming in last among presidents in a new survey,” The Hill reports.
“Trump found himself at the very bottom of the list, while Biden was ranked the 14th-best president in the 2024 Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey, which was conducted from Nov. 15 to Dec. 31 by a panel of experts specializing in the American presidency.”
From a Biden email: “Happy Presidents’ Day! … Unless You’re Donald Trump.”
“Every new president selects personalized Oval Office decor to suit his tastes and pay homage to admired predecessors. President Biden’s Oval Office boasts both a portrait and a bust of Abraham Lincoln,” the Washington Post reports.
“But his family’s connection to the 16th president extends far beyond workplace ornamentation.”
“It dates to a late-night brawl during the Civil War.”
Justin Vaughn and Brandon Rottinghaus: “Presidents Day occurs at a crucial moment this year, with the presidency on the cusp of crisis as we inexorably shuffle toward a rematch between the incumbent and his predecessor. It’s the sort of contest we haven’t seen since the 19th century, and judging by public opinion of President Biden and former President Trump, most Americans would have preferred to keep it that way.”
“But the third installment of our Presidential Greatness Project, a poll of presidential experts released this weekend, shows that scholars don’t share American voters’ roughly equal distaste for both candidates.”
“Biden, in fact, makes his debut in our rankings at No. 14, putting him in the top third of American presidents. Trump, meanwhile, maintains the position he held six years ago: dead last, trailing such historically calamitous chief executives as James Buchanan and Andrew Johnson.”
New York Times: “Carter entered hospice care one year ago Sunday, choosing to forgo further life-prolonging treatment with the intent to return to his simple home in Plains, Ga., to pass his final days in comfort and peace.”
“As it turns out, there have been more final days than he or anyone around him anticipated. The former president’s long goodbye has defied the odds and absorbed many around the world who have spent the last 12 months honoring his memory even as he has refused to follow anyone else’s timetable.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
