Romney Still Fails to Make the Sale

OP-EDS & REVIEWS By Gil Troy, HNN, 4-4-12 Mitt Romney’s three state sweep this Tuesday is being touted as the tipping point in his surge toward the Republican nomination. The candidate whose greatest ability has been his inevitability now seems all but destined to become the Republican nominee. But in this moment of near-triumph, it [...]

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The Tsantorum Tsurge and anti-Mormon Prejudice

OP-EDS & REVIEWS By Gil Troy, HNN, 2-13-12 So far, it seems that former Senator Rick Santorum is having his Paul Tsongas/Bill Bradley Moment. Remember them? Each of these former senators enjoyed a momentary surge when running against a flawed candidate on the Democratic side. In 1992, Tsongas was the Massachusetts media darling who had [...]

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Mitt Romney Channels Dan Quayle as Gaffemeister

OP-EDS & REVIEWS By Gil Troy, HNN, 2-4-12 Everyone’s having a grand old time mocking Mitt Romney for finally “admitting”: “I’m not very concerned about the very poor.” The quotation has been bandied about as proof that Romney is a greedy, unfeeling capitalist. And, in a presidential campaign which emphasizes optics over good sense, Romney [...]

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GOP Debate Trivializes First Ladies

OP-EDS & REVIEWS By Gil Troy, HNN, 1-28-12 Toward the end of Thursday night’s debate in Florida, which viewers were told repeatedly would be high stakes and very serious, CNN’s moderator Wolf Blitzer asked the candidates to assess their wives as potential First Ladies. Blitzer’s question was valid and relevant.  For decades now, Americans have [...]

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A Referendum on the Republican Party — Not Just its Leaders

OP-EDS & REVIEWS By Gil Troy, HNN, 1-19-12 After months of debating, fundraising, positioning, posturing, and polling, America’s Republican candidates are finally facing the voters – with Election Day still nearly ten months away. As always, there is much to mock. But despite its flaws, America’s electoral system is working, managing a complicated, intense, continent-wide [...]

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Bring It On: Early Attacks on Romney’s Bain Capital Record May Inoculate Him Against Democratic Attacks

OP-EDS & REVIEWS By Gil Troy, HNN, 1-12-12 A crisis is looming for political reporters desperate for a drawn out, dramatic presidential campaign.  Republican voters may be less crazy and more predictable than the conventional wisdom suggests.  If Mitt Romney continues his winning streak because Republicans realize he is the most electable candidate, we might [...]

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Relaunching this Blog: Fed up with the Iowa Corn Con

OP-EDS & REVIEWS By Gil Troy, HNN, 1-5-12 Mitt Romney’s margin of eight votes highlights just how small and unrepresentative the sample at the Iowa caucus is – -and how marginal that exercise should be. My third grade class presidency was decided with a larger margin. And, once again, the state that made Pat Robertson [...]

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Osama’s Spectacular Failure

OP-EDS & REVIEWS By Gil Troy, 5-2-11 Osama bin Laden died a spectacular failure. While his predecessor Yassir Arafat proved that terrorism can work, bin Laden proved terrorism’s limits.  Osama killed more people more flamboyantly than Arafat.  But, under Arafat, the Palestinians blasted their way onto the world’s agenda.  Osama’s nihilistic terrorism was so destructive it [...]

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Obama 2.0 Must Lead from the Center Humbly and Substantively

By Gil Troy, HNN, 11-4-10 Gil Troy is Professor of History at McGill University. He is the author of “Leading from the Center: Why Moderates Make the Best Presidents” (Basic Books, 2008). His latest book, co-edited with Vincent J. Cannato, is “Living in the Eighties” (Oxford University Press, 2009). The American voters gave President Barack [...]

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Once Again the State of the Union Makes a President Strong

By Gil Troy, HNN, 1-28-10 The State of the Union Address is Woodrow Wilson’s gift to future presidents. President Thomas Jefferson submitted the annual update the Constitution mandated in writing, deeming presidential appearances before Congress too monarchical. In December 1913, after his first year in office, Wilson decided to address a joint session of Congress [...]

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