Free Republic

In February 1958, the immense prime-time audience that tuned into Edward R. Murrow’s CBS program See It Now was treated to a historical first: a television interview with a former president of the United States. Among various other topics, the great journalist asked Harry Truman about how he was getting along financially. As was his custom, the plainspoken Missourian minced no words about his situation. “You know,” Truman told Murrow, “the United States government turns its chief executives out to grass. They’re just allowed to starve.” Truman went on to claim that only his recent inheritance of the family farm...

Life sometimes imitates art, even in the Obama presidency. The old movie, The Truman Show, starring Jim Carrey as the earnest and clueless Truman Burbank, a man literally raised in a bubble since he was born, and the star of a popular television show, is a decent analogy for Obama's first half year in office. Let's start with the bubble itself in the film. The enormously costly stage for the show is a sealed environment where everyone is scripted, except Truman himself, and all actions are tightly controlled. The drama for the TV audience is in how Truman will react...

Barack Obama has evoked Abraham Lincoln ever since launching his campaign at the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill. Now he plans to arrive in Washington the same way that Lincoln did in 1861, with a train trip that will include stops, speeches and crowds along the way. On Jan. 17, Obama and his family will start the day with an appearance in Philadelphia, where they will board a chartered Amtrak train. The train will stop in Wilmington, Del., where the Obamas will be joined by Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. Then comes a stop in Baltimore before the...

President-elect Barack Obama will board a train in a month and retrace Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural journey to Washington, D.C., but hopefully with much less mayhem. At least, there will be less time for anything to go awry. As opposed to Lincoln’s two-week trek in 1861, Obama’s journey will begin and end on Jan. 17, setting off from Philadelphia and making a stop in Wilmington, Del., to pick up Vice President-elect Joseph Biden Jr. and his family, and a stop in Baltimore for an unspecified event. The entourage, aboard a chartered train, will arrive in the District in the evening.