Saturday, July 7, 2007

McKinley on Financial Honor; TR on The Will Of the People; Taft on War

I needed to hear something useful from politicians tonight. I had to dig back to the 19th and early 20th centuries, but found a few items worth hearing:

A snippet of McKinley in an 1896 campaign speech on the Financial Honor of the Government;

The Great TR on corruption;

President Taft talks about war.

I realize that there was a heck of a debate going on about gold vs silver and gold backing of the buck in 1896, but at least fiscal matters were at the forefront in the campaign. No one asked McKinley if he believed in evolution.

In the context of TR, the recording was made in his unsuccessful run as an independent, but he at least remembered that there was such a thing as the will of the people. He not only remembered it, but believed it.

And, Taft? He lived to see WWI and was shocked - so much for his idealistic comments, but they ring true, especially his reference to those waiting for word about their loved ones on the battlefield and the fate of those who come marching home.

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