Author Archives: Jonathan Menitove

A year ago, Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont decided his campaign for the Democratic nomination for president was over. Dean, by successfully tapping the Democratic anti-war sentiment, had been the frontrunner of the field for months, yet after a disappointing third-place finish in the Iowa caucus, the Dean campaign came “screaming” to a halt. A »

President Bush has always been bad with numbers — something we’ve known ever since the 2000 presidential debates against Vice President Al Gore, when he uttered the term “fuzzy math” to counter his opponent’s overwhelming statistical evidence. Of course, it is not completely his fault that numbers are the president’s weakness. The 2000 election, in »

Over winter break, I was saddened to hear that Congressman Bob Matsui of California had passed away. Congressman Matsui, a third-generation Japanese-American, spent the earliest years of his life in an internment camp. Triumphing over racism and modest economic beginnings, Matsui was elected to Congress in 1978 and, at the time of his passing, was »

It is rumored that at the first Cabinet meeting following a president’s re-election, a very unusual procedure transpires. After the reporters and flashbulbs leave the Cabinet meeting room, the president thanks his Cabinet for their service and then, either he or his chief of staff requests every Cabinet member’s resignation. The gesture is largely symbolic »

The first question posed to Sen. John F. Kerry in the second presidential debate came from Cheryl Otis. Cheryl asked the senator about the veracity of the flip-flop label that has formed the center of Republican strategists’ negative campaigning. In response, the Senator defended his record, illustrating how White House-sponsored legislation has not been fully »

Does anybody remember the name of Sen. John F. Kerry’s running mate? Ah, yes: that nice young-looking man from the South who did well in the primaries. While I am probably exaggerating — most Americans probably remember Sen. John Edwards as the vice-presidential nominee on the Democratic ticket — his lack of appearances in the »

Last Friday, Sept. 10, independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader received quite a bit of ink in the morning’s newspapers. The New York Times disclosed that on Sept. 9, Circuit Judge Kevin Davey in Florida had removed Nader’s name from the November ballot. I was relieved. With the most recent polls illustrating a statistical dead heat »

This past month, John Kerry and John Edwards parted ways as Edwards embarked on a campaign swing through the South. The rationale behind this division of forces is that Edwards’s populist message will nullify Kerry’s supposed aloofness while Edwards’ Southern roots will increase the Democratic ticket’s appeal in Dixie. Political pundits and high-ranking Democrats are »

Andy Card leaned over to whisper into the president’s ear. It was Sept. 11, 2001, shortly before 9 a.m. and the president was listening to a class of reading school children at the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Fla. “There’s one terrible pilot. It must have been a horrible accident.” These comments, spoken »

Now that Senator John Forbes Kerry has wrapped up the Democratic nomination, the speculation on potential vice-presidential candidates has kicked into high gear. A myriad of names have been thrown out by politicos and pundits. While some mention names like Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano or New York Senator Hillary Clinton, most agree there are truly »

We are all familiar with the current practice of politicians bashing government as too large, too expensive and too unresponsive. In fact, ever since the Reagan Revolution of the 1980s, demonizing government has been a standard procedure to score points with the electorate. Government officials, both Democrats as well as Republicans, attempt to win elections »

When was the last time, aside from the State of the Union address, that you saw Dick Cheney? The vice president has largely remained invisible these past few months. Early on in the administration, we often spoke about Cheney, either in the news or in his “undisclosed location.” In hiding after September 2001 or threatening »