Why 1916 Matters

Charles Evans Hughes was called the 'Tuesday President' after he was first declared the winner over President Woodrow Wilson and then, by just 3,400 votes in California including war-weary westerners, upset TR voters and women voters who hadn't yet earned the right to vote in other states, America barely endorsed its President. When word reached the President of his miracle win, he was not as excited about being the first Democrat re-elected in consecutive terms since Andrew Jackson as you might expect. We look at that election and the ONE thing about this election that makes it different from all the rest; something that might have consequences for 2012.

In Which the Winner of the '12 Election is Revealed...

An incumbent running in a tough time. Attention focuses on a key swing state. Views are mixed on the President's performance. A challenger emerges. The President's partisans attack the character of the Republican challenger, who himself is having a tough time with his own party. Who will win?

The Steelworker and Bob Seger

are among the many things discussed in this hodgepodcast. What's better, a service or a manufacturing economy, The role of data now, in 1880 and 1790, The changing mind of judges, and the history of Cinco de Mayo.

Condemned By Silence?

The creation of a 'Bank of The United States' was a large undertaking of the new Federal Government. It was done by reading into the Constitution, and no judge could stop it. We look at the debate over the bank, the career of Alexander Hamilton, and what its history might add to the debate over large programs such as healthcare reform.

The Supreme Court of Owen and Tony

A look at the so-called 'swing' justices of the Supreme Court Owen J. Roberts and especially Anthony Kennedy. As all eyes are on the latter justice in so many cases, but especially in the recent healthcare case. Kennedy is famously hard to read in oral argument as to how he'll go in a case; here we do our best job a an admittedly risky prediction of how he might go in the healthcare reform case based on past oral arguments.