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Robert S. McElvaine is a professor of history at Millsaps College and the author of ten books. He is a frequent contributor to the op ed pages of the major national newspapers and blogs for the Huffington Post. His latest book is "Grand Theft Jesus: The Hijacking of Religion in America" (Crown).
(14 comments) SHARE Sunday, September 14, 2008 "Well . . . I'd Like to Bring about World War, Charlie"
Sarah Palin was runner-up in the 1984 Miss Alaska pageant. Her answers to some of Charlie Gibson seemed like those of some pageant contestants. But instead of giving the standard answer that she seeks "world peace," Palin in effect said she seeks world war. It's appropriate that her pageant was in 1984.
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, August 13, 2012 Job Policies: An Experiment
We had a 16-year experiment comparing the competing job creating plans of Democrats and Republicans. It is called the Clinton and Bush 43 administrations. Here are the results.
(9 comments) SHARE Wednesday, October 13, 2010 We Have Won In Vietnam!
I expected to see Ho Chi Minh spinning in his glass coffin when we visited him in Hanoi, but he appeared to be serene in the face of the collapse of his revolution through what might be termed the Great Bourgeois Cultural Revolution.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, September 12, 2008 Christian Author Warns of Palin's "Scary" Religion: "Answer Questions, as JFK Did 48 Years Ago Today"
On this date in 1960, Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kennedy appeared before the Greater Houston Ministerial Association and a national television audience to address widespread concerns that his religion might harmfully influence the way he would preside over the United States if he won the election.
It is high time for Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin to face a similar forum.
(2 comments) SHARE Sunday, July 13, 2008 Grand Theft Jesus-IJ Released!
Satirical piece on the release of a new electronic game, Grand Theft Jesus-IJ, in which players get to turn Jesus upside down, hunt for upright Jesuses, and laugh with Inverted Jesus as people in New Orleans drown during Katrina, among other fun "Christian" activities.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, August 4, 2014 Vietnam a Half Century after the Gulf of Tonkin
Fifty years ago this week the United States Congress passed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, giving Lyndon Johnson a blank check to conduct war in Indochina. A look at Vietnam today shows just how terrible and tragic that mistake was.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, August 4, 2012 THE Economic Question of the Election
Here is the simplest graphic way to present the key economic question of the election: Do voters want to go back to the policies of George W. Bush that produced the economic collapse?
(6 comments) SHARE Tuesday, August 19, 2008 Obama v. "Oh, Bomb 'Em"
Republicans and "Christians" love John McCain's "crisp, forceful" response to Pastor Rick Warren's question about how to deal with evil: "Defeat it!" But it is the opposite of what Jesus taught we should do in the face of evil.
SHARE Wednesday, October 15, 2008 McCain & the Missiles of October
Had John S. McCain been sitting where John F. Kennedy sat in 1962, would he have played the heroic role JFK did in preventing catastrophe by resisting the "Bomb 'em now and worry about the consequences later" chorus? Would McCain do so under similar circumstances in the coming four years? All the evidence, including his own testimony on how he makes decisions, indicates that he would instead be leading that chorus.
(3 comments) SHARE Saturday, February 20, 2010 Dump Summers and Geithner: Bring in Warren and Spitzer
The time is overdue for Mr. Obama to sack the gold men with ties to Goldman Sachs and replace them with people who will bring honesty and fairness to the nation's financial "services" sector.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, December 10, 2010 Wake Up. Obama! (VIDEO)
An irate long-term Obama supporter gives the President a piece of his mind on his surrender to the Republicans and the hyper-rich in, as Harry Truman once said of a talk he had with the Soviet foreign minister, "words of one syllable, unadorned by the polite verbiage of diplomacy."
(4 comments) SHARE Wednesday, August 6, 2008 Paris Hiltons of Elections Past
When they ran for president, Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy were seen as fluff -- celebrities -- but they are now generally seen as the two greatest presidents of the past century. So was another guy, one the GOP likes.
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, October 5, 2008 SSM (Sewage Stream Media) Intimidate MSM on Palin
Sarah Palin's performance in no way indicated the slightest readiness to be president. That is obvious, so why is it that so many commentators in the mainstream media are saying that she "passed the test" and showed herself to be a "plausible president"? The only explanation is that many in the MSM have let themselves be intimidated by the SSM (Sewage Stream Media).
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, June 21, 2010 Debt - What Is It Good For? Absolutely Some Things
The article seeks to provide some history of federal debt, distiguishing when adding to the debt is necessary from when it is just foolish. American voters need to understand this distinction so they aren't hoodwinked into voting in a way that will bring back the disastrous policies that produced the economic collapse of 2008.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, February 25, 2010 Let's Start Calling Them 'Regressives'
Vindictive & malicious right wingers like Beck along with delusional haters like Iowa's Wilson & Mitt Romney do not deserve to be called "conservative" because in fact their retrograde elitism is nothing less than regressive & we should call it that.
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, July 31, 2012 Un-Favorite Son
The people who know Mitt Romney best oppose him by a huge margin, unprecedented in the history of home-state support for presidential candidates.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, October 22, 2008 McCain's "Hruskaism:" The Mediocre People of America Deserve Representation!
McCain's defense of his choice of Sarah Palin is reminiscent of Roman Hruska's of Nixon's 1970 nomination of G. Harrold Carswell to the Supreme Court: She may be mediocre, but there are a lot of mediocre people in America. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they? But the mediocre people HAVE been represnted in the presidency for the last 8 years. Isn't it time for the thinkin' people to be represented?
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, September 3, 2009 When Will GOP Leaders Denounce the Pyromaniacs?
The parallels between the hate speech of the early 1960s and today are numerous and disturbing. But there are also important differences. So, where does the Republican leadership stand on playing with matches?
SHARE Monday, August 25, 2008 Sports Fans: Oppose McCain!
As Americans make the overnight transition from the Olympics to presidential politics, shifting attention from Beijing to Denver, sports fans should realize that the US will not get the 2016 Olympics if McCain is elected.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, September 15, 2008 Bush-McCain Economic Philosophy Needs More than "Adjustments"
This morning George W. Bush used the carefully chosen word, "adjustments," to describe the accelerating financial collapse. But we need more than adjustments. The GOP economic philosophy has brought us to a point close to where that same philosophy brought the economy in 1929. Far from the economy being "fundamentally sound," the economic philosophy is fundamentally flawed and most be drastically changed.
SHARE Thursday, August 14, 2008 Back in the Saddle(back)
In trying to strike a balance between religious voters and those who are fearful of the religious right, McCain has, like Nixon in 1968, embraced those he knows are wrong.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, July 26, 2011 Solomon and the Debt Ceiling
So, is Solomon Obama saying to Republicans, cut infant America in half that Republicanhs & Democrats shall have equal parts & Norquist's bagger devotees in the House are saying, "No way! Kill the kid!"
SHARE Saturday, August 30, 2008 She's Not Quayle; She's Thomas
McCain's cynical selection of Sarah Palin is a reprise of George H.W. Bush's nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. "I'll get on my knees and pray / We don't get fooled again."
SHARE Sunday, October 19, 2008 The Demeanor of Da Meaner Guy
There has been a lot of discussion of John McCain's demeanor during the presidential debates. More important, though, has been the demeanor of his campaign as a whole. In comparison with Barack Obama, John McCain's behavior toward his opponent and toward the voters has shown repeatedly that he is "da meaner" candidate.
(3 comments) SHARE Friday, September 5, 2008 Oops, The McCains Said It Again
On Sunday, when Cindy McCain said that Sarah Palin's national security experience is that "Alaska is the closest part of our continent to Russia," we all assumed it was a gaffe. But more than three days later, all her husband could come up with in response to a question about whether Gov. Palin's has enough experience to be commander-in-chief was: "Alaska is right next to Russia. She understands that."
(7 comments) SHARE Sunday, July 6, 2008 Jesus Thieves Convene for McCain
In a gathering reminiscent of the 1957 organized crime summit in Apalachin, New York, some ninety major figures in the rightwing conspiracy to kidnap Jesus and commit identity theft against him gathered last week in Denver. These Jesus Thieves preach value$ opposite those of Jesus. Most of them agreed to back John McCain.
SHARE Friday, August 29, 2008 No Dice to a President Who Loves to Roll Dice
John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin confirms just what Barack Obama said about him in his acceptance speech: that he doesn't have the temperament or judgment to be president. McCain loves to play craps and we don't a dice-thrower as president.
(3 comments) SHARE Tuesday, July 15, 2008 Ghosts of 1960
There are remarable parallels between the 1960 and 2008 elections, but there are also a few critical differences. Both the similarities and the divergences are instructive in assessing how the 2008 Election is likely to unfold. That Kennedy, despite his great advantages over Nixon, almost lost, should serve as a warning to Barack Obama.
SHARE Wednesday, July 16, 2008 Beer Drinkers, Beware McCain!
"If you like what happened to the price of gasoline with two oilmen running the government," Cindy McCain said gleefully, "you'll love what will happen to the price of beer with a beerwoman as first lady!"
(2 comments) SHARE Sunday, April 19, 2009 Keep the Bank Pirates on the Run
President Obama seems to be hearing the growing outcry against the big bank pirates' declaration of war on the American people through their outrageous increases in credit card interest rates.
SHARE Wednesday, January 20, 2010 How Obama Can Get His Groove Back
The demented element in American politics slashes out to bite the Democrats where it hurts. The message: Obama may not be a progressive, but he & they need to smarten up fast.
SHARE Wednesday, June 4, 2008 Harmonic Convergence
In the week during which the nation marks the fortieth anniversary of the assassination of Robert Kennedy, Barack Obama has clinched the Democratic presidential nomination
The hope that died in 1968, particularly with the murders of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy, is reborn in an improbable presidential nominee who presents himself as the embodiment of "the audacity of hope."-
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, July 3, 2008 Panic, Anyone?
While President Bush continues to toss around such euphemisms as "rough patch" and "tough times," most Americans have clearly felt the effects of a recession--a "bear economy"--for the past few months. The question now is whether we are facing something far worse.
SHARE Friday, August 1, 2008 The Ludacris-Rove-McCain Axis
"The race card" is something that is only played by someone who can hope to use it to produce a winning hand. In this game, it is obvious that that player is John McCain.