The Night Nixon Moved America

On Monday, November 3, 1969, President Richard M. Nixon sat at his desk in the Oval Office as the clock crawled toward 9:30 p.m. He was reviewing the words he would momentarily share with the American people.  There wasn’t a Teleprompter in sight. Nixon instinctively...

The Forgotten Lesson of 1964

For years, during campaign after campaign, moderate Republicans—in various shades of pastel—have preached a big-tent gospel, one that insisted on conservatives being good soldiers in support of the GOP.  And the record has shown that conservative minded Republicans...

Checkers — The Moment Politics Met Television

One day in 1974, as Spring began to give way to Summer, Frank Gannon—wordsmith and White House Fellow—took a walk in Washington, largely to get away from the stress induced by the Nixon White House’s ever-increasing Watergate milieu. He found his way to an old...

Can the Penn-McKee Hotel be Saved?

The site of the first debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon is not only in desperate need of rehabilitation and preservation—it may one day have an appointment with a wrecking ball. Of course, many reading this will be tempted to Google just where the...