Michael Beschloss
Michael Beschloss
Michael Richard Beschlossis an American historian. A specialist in the United States presidency, he is the author of nine books...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionHistorian
Date of Birth30 November 1955
CountryUnited States of America
nominating
From the beginning of the presidential nominating conventions in the 1830's really through the 1950's, you had conventions that actually did real business.
center events historical
He's at the center of two big historical events.
adjusted adulthood almost bad given graceful nice reach
Given the experiences he had, for him to reach adulthood and be pretty well adjusted and be thought of almost universally as a pretty nice and graceful guy, that is not a bad accomplishment,
admire coming left plan understand vacuum
In retrospect, I emotionally understand where Morgenthau is coming from, and I admire him for it. At the same time, Morgenthau's plan was too vindictive. In retrospect, if it had been instituted ... it would have left a vacuum for the Soviets.
divided final oftentimes period
Oftentimes during the period in which conventions really did business, you had situations where the delegates were divided and you would have ballot after ballot before there was a final nominee.
aware change hear life snap
This a person who can change the life of all of us, really, in the snap of a finger, by writing one word. And it's something that Americans are not as aware of because we don't hear that much about these people. We don't see them interact.
bill bit clear clinton cut difficult invasion job middle objectives president turn
This is not as clear as saying, 'We are going to turn back the invasion of Kuwait.' The objectives here are a little bit more complex, a little bit more difficult for a president to explain, especially in the middle of a campaign. Bill Clinton really has his job cut out for him.
cases electoral represent result underlying united
So the result was that in many cases the conventions really did represent the underlying electoral topography of the United States.
kids remember tabloid
To kids of the 90's -- they probably remember him more of something of a tabloid celebrity,
father boys history
To people who remember JFK's assassination, JFK Jr. will probably always be that boy saluting his father's coffin.
party political firsts
First of all, there's no mention of political parties in the Constitution, so you begin American history with not only no political conventions but also no parties.
hard-times people nominations
So if 1960 had occurred under the old convention system, Kennedy would have had a very hard time getting the Democratic nomination because he would have been rejected by all those people who had worked with him in Washington.
hard-times years presidential
You have had presidential candidates over the last 30 years who would have had a very hard time getting nominated under the old system. One example is John Kennedy.
party aggravation president
As parties began to develop around the turn of the 19th century, you had party nominees for President nominated in caucuses made up of party members in Congress.