Jimmy Carter: A Life of Quiet Greatness

Oh, President Carter. They don’t make many like you anymore. Your passing feels deeply personal, like losing a mentor who shaped my values from afar. You were the first U.S. President of my newlywed years and I’ll never forget when you won. I had fallen asleep, worried about the results, unsure if the world would … Read more

Memorial Ceremonies For Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Kalvis Golde at SCOTUSblog has the details of memorial ceremonies for justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Ginsburg to lie in repose at court on Wednesday, Thursday: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will lie in repose at the Supreme Court on Wednesday and Thursday, and she will lie in state at the Capitol on Friday. Shortly before 9:30 … Read more

In Memoriam: President George H. W. Bush (State Funeral)

The 41st president of the United States and the father of the 43rd, George H. W. Bush who steered the nation through a tumultuous period in world affairs, has died at 94 (NY Times):

His death, which was announced by his office, came less than eight months after that of his wife of 73 years, Barbara Bush.

Mr. Bush had a form of Parkinson’s disease that forced him to use a wheelchair or motorized scooter in recent years, and he had been in and out of hospitals during that time as his health declined.

Mr. Bush, a Republican, was a transitional figure in the White House, where he served from 1989 to 1993, capping a career of more than 40 years in public service. A decorated Navy pilot who was shot down in the Pacific in 1944, he was the last of the World War II generation to occupy the Oval Office.

Mr. Bush was a skilled bureaucratic and diplomatic player who, as president, helped end four decades of Cold War and the threat of nuclear engagement with a nuanced handling of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the liberation of Eastern Europe.

Yet for all his success in the international arena, his presidency faltered as voters seemed to perceive him as detached from their everyday lives. In an election that turned on the economy, they repudiated Mr. Bush in 1992 and chose a relatively little-known Democratic governor from Arkansas, Bill Clinton, a baby boomer, ushering in a generational shift in American leadership.

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