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Watch the Polls -- Where People Vote

by Leo P. Ribuffo

Election workers in Philadelphia's 62nd Ward, 4th Division, on Election Day 2008. Credit: Flickr/David Webber.If I had been Al Gore's campaign manager in 2000 and he had listened to me, he would have defeated George W. Bush for president. My prime directive would have been simple. Even at the cost of spending less money on television spots, focus groups, and tracking polls, make sure that you have plenty of flesh-and-blood representatives at the polls where people vote in order to prevent intimidation and help with complicated ballots.This advice -- which is equally relevant to the 2012 election -- would not have been the product of my day job as a professor of history but rather the result of my experience as a young poll watcher for Eugene McCarthy delegates in the April 1968 Connecticut Democratic primary. There I learned that a lot of ballots get screwed up, a non-academic term used here to embrace spoiled, stray, null, over-voted, under-voted, residual and other technical categories favored by scholars who study this problem as part of their day jobs.

Bundling Up to Save Syrian War Victims

by William Lambers

Syrian refugees in southern Turkey, August 2012. Credit: Flickr/IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation/TURKEY.What cannot be forgotten amid the conflict in Syria is the humanitarian crisis which grows daily. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been forced from their homes by the fighting between rebels and the government forces supporting President Assad.Food aid is needed to save lives and prevent malnutrition and disease from growing. For hunger can easily become the greatest threat facing the Syrian people. Vivian Manneh of the charity Catholic Relief Services says Syrian refugees are exhausted.But this crisis gets even scarier when you think of what is coming: winter. Yes, even in the Middle East, colder temperatures will come putting refugees at even more risk if they do not have supplies.

The Last Time America Had So Many Two-Term Presidents was the 1820s

by Robert Schmuhl

James Monroe, the last member of the "Virginia dynasty," in his official portrait.American politics travels today at warp speed, with change rather than continuity a hallmark of the accelerated pace and communications of contemporary campaigns. Three times in the past two decades -- in 1992, 2000 and 2008 -- the White House has swung from one party to the other in almost pendulum fashion.Despite the shift of presidential power back and forth between the Democrats and the Republicans, it’s possible that the outcome of the 2012 race will create a situation that hasn’t existed in the U.S. since the nation’s early days. If Barack Obama defeats Mitt Romney, he would become the third straight president (following Bill Clinton and George W. Bush) to win a second term.

The Arab Spring and the Loss of Innocence

by Andrew Meyer

Protesters waving black Islamist flags near the American embassy in Cairo. Credit: Flickr/Aslan Media.The wave of anti-American protests set off by the film The Innocence of Muslims has occasioned an explosion of politicking, soul-searching, and speculation across the media spectrum here in the U.S. and among our allies abroad. Amidst alarm intensified by the genuinely horrific murder of America's ambassador to Libya and three of his colleagues, the polemics and rhetoric generated by these events have been white hot and wildly divergent, suggesting a discourse made incoherent by hysteria. Dire predictions of an ensuing clash of civilizations abound, pundits decry a U.S. foreign policy "in shambles." In their rush to pronounce definitively upon a fluid and sensational situation as it unfolds, few observers seem willing to pause long enough to consider what the long-term historical implications of this moment might be.

Mitt Romney is Not the First Mormon to Run for President

by Thomas B. Allen

1842 portrait of Joseph Smith by an unknown painter.Mitt Romney is not the first Mormon to run for president. That title belongs to Joseph Smith, who was in fact the first Mormon. He founded what became the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, based on a divine vision that he had seen as a teenager in 1820. Unlike Mitt Romney in 2012, Smith in 1844 campaigned as a Mormon -- the head of the Mormon Reform Party, with Sidney Rigdon, a high-ranking Mormon leader, as his running mate.

Why Voting for the GOP is Bad for Your Health: Interview with Dr. James F. Gilligan

by Kristopher Wood

Photo Credit: Flickr/Edward Allen L. Lim.Dr. James F. Gilligan is the author of Violence: Reflections on a National Epidemic and PreventingViolence: An Agenda for the Coming Century. Having formerly headed the Institute of Law and Psychiatry in addition to directing mental health programs for the Massachusetts prison system while on the faculty of the Harvard Medical Scholl of Law and Psychiatry, Dr. Gilligan is currently a Collegiate Professor in the College of Arts and Science, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine, and Adjunct Professor in the School of Law at New York University.

The Bad Things Presidents and Would-Be Presidents Have Said About Each Other

by Thomas Fleming

Anti-Lincoln political cartoon from 1864 by John Cameron, printed by Currier and Ives. Credit: Library of Congress.Recently I went to a dinner party at which several guests wondered aloud if the 2012 presidential election was setting some sort of record for nastiness. The two candidates and their spokesmen were calling each other a startling range of names from liar to crook to weakling to would be dictator. I agreed that the rancor was growing intense -- but I assured them that other candidates for and holders of the nation’s highest office had compiled a record that equaled and often exceeded the current epithets.

The Grand Old Party Ain't What It Used To Be: Interview with Lewis L. Gould

by David Austin Walsh

Barry Goldwater buttons from his 1964 presidential campaign. Credit: Flickr/Wofford College.Lewis L. Gould is the Eugene C. Barker Centennial Professor Emeritus in American History at the University of Texas -- Austin. A prolific writer and presidential historian, he is the author of numerous books on the presidency and the Progressive era, including, most recently, a new biography of Theodore Roosevelt. An updated paperback version of his 2003 book Grand Old Party: A History of the Republicans, has just been released by Oxford University Press.I recently spoke to Professor Gould on the telephone about the presidential history of the Republican Party.

Katyń: A History Written in Blood and Tears

by Padraic Kenney

A memorial to the Katyń massacre in Krakow. Credit: Flickr/themactep.

No Julian Castro Without Mother Rosie Castro

by Cynthia E. Orozco

Julian, Rosie, and Joaquin Castro at a La Raza Unida Party reunion. Credit: Flickr/Jaime Puente.For the first time, Latinos and Latinas were adequately represented on the national stage by both major political parties. At their recent national conventions, Democrats and Republicans finally acknowledged that Hispanics are full-fledged Americans. Bert Corona, a Los Angeles immigrant activist, spoke at the 1968 Democratic convention, but non-Latinos were not listening. Now they are listening, at last.

Judging Romney Fairly

by K.C. Johnson

Mitt Romney giving his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in Tampa. Credit: Mallory Benedict/PBS NewsHourIt’s not fair to criticize Mitt Romney solely for choosing to politicize a foreign policy crisis, as he did when he recently released a statement in response to the events in North Africa. “It's disgraceful,” he asserted, “that the Obama administration's first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.”

The “Muslim” Problem

Protests in Bahrain against the anti-Islamic film "The Innocence of Muslims." Credit: Wikipedia/Mohamed CJ.The past week has seen a dramatic punctuation in the political present. This present is one in which several countries in North Africa and the Middle East are emerging from years of “stable” dictatorial rule in which human rights were ignored by the Western countries who philosophize how important human rights (or at least the right kind of rights) are. There is also a presidential election looming in the most powerful nation on earth, a nation divided in a partisan way with few realistic ideas on how to frame a way out of the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression. It is raining politics and that is fire and brimstone in the current climate.

How Hawkish Are Americans?

by Lawrence S. Wittner

U.S. Army gunner during a mission in Afghanistan. Credit: Flickr/Zoriah.In the midst of a nationwide election campaign in which many politicians trumpet their support for the buildup and employment of U.S. military power around the world, the American public’s disagreement with such measures is quite remarkable. Indeed, many signs point to the fact that most Americans want to avoid new wars, reduce military spending, and support international cooperation.The latest evidence along these lines is a nationwide opinion survey just released as a report (Foreign Policy in the New Millennium) by the highly-respected Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Conducted in late May and early June 2012, the survey resulted in some striking findings.One is that most Americans are quite disillusioned with the Iraq and Afghanistan wars of the past decade. Asked about these conflicts, 67 percent of respondents said they had not been worth fighting. Indeed, 69 percent said that, despite the war in Afghanistan, the United States was no safer from terrorism.

Romney, Reagan, and Campaign Foreign Policy

by Chester Pach

Mitt Romney’s criticism of the Obama administration’s handling of the deadly attacks on U.S. embassies and diplomats in the Middle East has raised questions about the Republican nominee’s judgment during foreign policy crises. The concern over the propriety, wisdom, and even factual accuracy of Romney’s accusations evokes memories of similar charges against Ronald Reagan during the 1980 campaign against President Jimmy Carter. Reagan, too, had many critics who thought he was inexperienced, inept, or incompetent in dealing with international issues. A closer analysis, however, shows that Reagan’s approach to foreign policy was more temperate and principled than critics recognized. Reagan was also more successful than Romney has been so far at persuading the American people that they could trust him to serve as commander-in-chief.

Romney Jumps the Shark: Libya, Egypt and the Butterfly Effect

by Juan Cole

Counter-protest in Benghazi. Credit: Mohamed al-TheebThe late science fiction writer Ray Bradbury authored a short story about time travelers. They were careful, when they went back to the Jurassic, not to change anything, but one of them stepped on a butterfly. When they got back to the present, the world was slightly different.

Monopolizing War: Doing What America Does Best

by Tom Engelhardt

Lockheed Martin display promoting the M299 Missile Launcher at the DSEI arms trade show in London. Credit: Flickr/Ian Haskins.It’s pop-quiz time when it comes to the American way of war: three questions, torn from the latest news, just for you. Here’s the first of them, and good luck!Two weeks ago, 200 U.S. Marines began armed operations in…?:a) Afghanistan b) Pakistan c) Iran d) Somalia e) Yemen f) Central Africa g) Northern Mali h) The Philippines i) Guatemala

How Trauma Shaped Renowned Writing: Interview with Doug Underwood

by Robin Lindley

Ernest Hemingway, the poster child of a literary giant who suffered a traumatic life, on safari in Africa with his wife in 1954. Credit: JFK Library.Like a red thread, themes of violence, suffering, pain and loss run through the greatest works of literature. Many of the most admired writers of American and British literature were also journalists and, for many of them, the experience of physical and emotional trauma in their work and personal lives shaped their most memorable works. 

The Cuban Missile Crisis, According to Harvard

by Max Holland

ExComm meeting, October 29, 1962. Credit: JFK Library.The fiftieth anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis in October 2012 is being commemorated with documentaries, conferences, and new books. Several educational institutions are also making primary sources and other historical materials available for educators on websites -- among them the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Lincoln Would Choose Obama over Romney

by Daniel Herman

Lincoln and Obama. Not pictured: Mitt Romney. (Photo Credit: HNN Staff/Wikipedia.)Mitt Romney claims history’s stamp. “The ‘last best hope of earth,’” declares his website, “was what Abraham Lincoln called our country. Mitt Romney believes in fulfilling the promise of Lincoln’s words.” Would Lincoln agree?Lincoln penned those words -- “last best hope” -- 150 years ago. Nine weeks earlier -- on September 22, 1862 -- he had issued the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which promised to free all slaves in rebellious states that failed to return to the Union by January 1. No state came back. Lincoln’s “last best hope,” then, was an activist U.S. that would free slaves and win the war. It was also a Union that promoted the greater good through economic intervention. Were he alive, he would endorse Obama.Far from being Lincoln’s heir, Romney is heir to his 1860 opponent, Stephen Douglas, the states’ rights Democrat called “The Little Giant.” It was Douglas who convinced Congress to renounce its power to stop slavery’s spread by passing the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. Each territory would now decide whether or not to legalize slavery prior to statehood.

America Needs an Industrial Policy

by Judith Stein

Ford Foundry in Dearborn, Michigan, 1973. Credit: National ArchivesRepublican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan famously accused President Obama of failing to save a big General Motors plant in Janesville, Wis., after promising to keep it open for "another hundred years." Candidate Obama actually said the plant would prosper for another century if it were retooled for "green" production. GM stopped making light trucks and SUVs at the plant in December 2008 (while George W. Bush was still president), formally closed it in April 2009, and started making the same vehicles in China four months later.