Alfred zacher presents his thoughts on why some president to succeed while others feel during their second terms in office. This is about 45 minutes. The afternoon and appreciate you being here for less event this event that we can credit cspan2 for being here. We are familiar with the faces phase past is prologue which is amazing on the wall of the national archives. We have heard the phrase history does not repeat itself, it rhymes. This afternoon with your assistance, i will attempt to apply the prologue to the history of the second term but i simply do not understand history writing so that one will not be ignored. We are once again facing the challenge selecting our president when the winner is too close to call. We do not expect to witness an election won by a landslide. Some will look lonely on the times when one candidate dominated the political theme. Lyndon johnson nearly beat Barry Goldwater and Richard Nixon overwhelming george mcgovern. In each of those elections on of the
Character to fame generous charc bequeathed it his immortal name. Some lines later, the fourth , president s name was joined to that of the first. The the honored place of washington was filled by madison in diplomacy skilled. Dipl a seat far more exalted than a throne, or ever yet too hauty monarchs known. The patriotic consensus went like this. The office of the presidency all by itself was a testament to thy nobility of the american political experiment. And madison had already proved himself by 1814 as both as great and as a appropriately humble as the first of men, George Washington. So the unfortunate tendency is to make history simple. The whole idea of a political la faith is that it is supposed to eliminate confusion by suggesting pictures to the mindt that are frozen in time, somehow pure, cleaner, than they really were. The world had known many a hauty monarch, americas distinctive e characteristics was its nonhereditary system of governance. The presidencys republican chara
Before the nixon improvements, you can see a portion of his lydia can tell you better than me. The wine cellar, semicircular, is still down there. The mike, oh, okay. Traces of jeffersons wine cellar and after the war of 1812, when the house was rebuilt, where the west wing big building is now was a stable. It is under the dining room windows, wasnt a very clear decision. And it was paved all in there, and you can the big arch is still there, just filled in where the horses were admitted. So it is the west wing is a working wing and it receives plenty of attention, but it does have a job to do. Yes. I would like to know when was electricity put in the white house so that an elevator could be used by president roosevelt or if, for some reason, they didnt have a back up, were there ramps or anything of that sort to be used . The first elevator, which was a counterweight elevator, not electrical, was ordered by president garfield and put in later by put into operation by arthur. It was ne
The symbol had survived and even increased in power and roosevelt dismissed any critics of the remodeling as yahoos. Thats all he said. The white house was lived in hard for the next some 40 years. World war i and ii passed by. Very little in world war i, world war ii. They lived it down. And it also was threatened with being dangerous for bombs and things during the war. We thought wed be attacked. Ms. Roosevelt wrote in the summer of 43 and said qun father expects los angeles to be bombed this summer. So the Great Depression was battled from its walls in world war ii. president coolidge in the 20s tore off the attic and added a lowprofile third floor. President franklin met with the corps of engineers after pearl harbor, and among the many negative documents, a particular one brought a week after pearl harbor called the house a fire trap. Roosevelt simply dismissed the report. I dont want to hear it. In 1945 came a president no one had ever heard much about. Harry s. Truman was a Pro
President franklin met with the corps of engineers after pearl harbor, and among the many negative documents, a particular one brought a week after pearl harbor called the house a fire trap. Roosevelt simply dismissed the report. I dont want to hear it. In 1945 came a president no one had ever heard much about. Harry s. Truman was a Problem Solver and considered that he had an appropriate knowledge of architecture and interior design. Some might have objected to that, but he did have a history of dealing with buildings. One might question trumans sophistication but his sensitivity towards symbols was acute. Always had been. As he was to demonstrate with this house, the corps brought to him the same documents that hed truman read them and ordered a structural investigation from the corps. He wasted no time. And the resulting death sentence predictably, the corps said the house must be torn down and reconstructed. The widowed Eleanor Roosevelt moved out from the second and third floors s