Good morning, it’s Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. Today marks the feast of the Epiphany on the Christian calendar. The date is celebrated as Three Kings Day in Spain and much of Latin America, including the great state of Puerto Rico. Perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself there, but political change is afoot in this country: In news I’m sure you already know, Georgia voters elected the Rev. Raphael Warnock as the first black senator in the state’s history yesterday. The other Senate race is closer, but it seems to have gone by a razor-thin margin to Jon Ossoff.
Good morning, it’s Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2020. Thirty-six years ago today, in a meeting at Camp David, Margaret Thatcher shared her insights with Ronald Reagan about a rising Russian politician. His name was Mikhail Gorbachev. Thatcher’s observations were not idle gossip. They reflected high-level intelligence, gleaned first-hand. And that conversation between a British prime minister and an American president about a Soviet functionary with a bright future would help make the world a safer place.
Gorbachev, Thatcher told her host, is someone with whom the West could “do business.” Gorbachev, set to assume the helm in the Soviet Union, was “an unusual Russian,” Thatcher added, in that he was “much less constrained, more charming, open to discussion and debate, and did not stick to prepared notes.”
Good morning, it’s Friday, Dec. 18, 2020, the day of the week I pass along quotations intended to be inspirational or thought-provoking. Today’s comes from a West Virginia educator named Bondy Shay Gibson in the form of a letter she wrote to the parents of her school district.
Her poignant missive has received national attention in a pandemic-plagued country starved for positive human interest stories. And Dr. Gibson gave us one.
First, though, let me point you to RealClearPolitics’ front page, which presents our poll averages, videos, breaking news stories, and aggregated opinion pieces spanning the political spectrum. We also offer original material from our own reporters, columnists, and contributors, including the following:
Good morning, it s Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020. Six years ago today, members of the 113
th Congress awoke to the news that their year-end job approval rating in a new Gallup poll was a paltry 15%. This was not quite as embarrassing as the 14% figure an all-time annual low racked up the year before. That year, 2013, had featured a 17-day government shutdown, which resulted in the single lowest job approval figure in congressional history: a November rating of 9%.
But in the spirit of the season, let’s focus on a happier event that took place on this date.
On Dec. 16, 1901, Edward and Emily Mead of Philadelphia welcomed a baby girl into their lives. From an early age, their daughter was smart and spunky. Her father, who taught economics at Penn, wasn t quite sure what to make of a girl so intellectually precocious. “It’s a pity you aren’t a boy,” he once told her. “You’d have gone far.”