By Michael P. Riccards On this site before, I have dealt with the issue of the physical fitness of the presidency. Now we have to come to grips with the more difficult issue of the mental state of chief executives. Politics tends… Read More ›
Michael Riccards
The VP Debate in Retrospect
By Michael P. Riccards Two term vice president John Nance Garner once said that the office he held was not worth a pitcher of warm spit. If he had been more loyal to his president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, he might have ended up… Read More ›
The presidency in sickness and in health
By Michael P. Riccards The recent illness of President Trump is only the latest episode in our chief executives fighting medical problems. In the 20th century, the nation experienced some extremely important setbacks linked to the illnesses of the chief… Read More ›
Tonight’s Debate: ‘A National Embarrassment’
By Michael P. Riccards In 1960, the nation had its first live televised presidential debate with Kennedy and Nixon. It was fascinating and enlightening. But tonight it was a national embarrassment with Trump and Biden. What are we doing as… Read More ›
The Catholic Church and the Pandemic
By Michael P. Riccards Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerith of tiny Luxembourg has argued that the COVID-19 epidemic could accelerate by 10 years the secularization of the West. For some reason, apparently this view is shared by other high members of the… Read More ›
Should we put a cap on the age of presidential candidates?
By Michael P. Riccards I have always loved conventions, and I attended two of them. They are P.T. Barnum at his best, but in fact they have had an impact on this nation. At the convention of 1860, the Republicans… Read More ›
Presidential scholar to provide analysis of race for the White House
Presidential scholar and author Michael P. Riccards will provide weekly commentary and analysis on the 2020 presidential campaign for the Jandoli Institute this fall. “Michael has written extensively about the presidency,” Jandoli Institute Executive Director Richard Lee said. “His insight… Read More ›
The President and the Plague
By Michael P. Riccards The terrible pandemic waves of 2020 have led to a marked decline in the popularity of President Donald J. Trump. Although the virus is overwhelmingly worse in the United States than anywhere else on the globe,… Read More ›
Some lessons from the 1988 presidential campaign
By Michael P. Riccards In 1988, I was the president of St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a rather strange choice for an Italian American from Jersey who was an easterner in his fingertips. But such is destiny…. Read More ›
How important is a VP candidate?
By Michael P. Riccards John Nance Garner, FDR’s vice president for his first two terms, once said that the office was not worth a pitcher of warm spit. Yet if he had curtailed his anti-New Deal sentiments, he might have… Read More ›
