President Ronald Reagan speaks at a press briefing Feb. 4, 1983, when a surprise party was held in honor of his 71st birthday. (CNN Press Room)
In the Boston Globe, a look at the faith of Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Of course, if she runs for president, she and her staff need to analyze why the Methodism of the last female candidate for president never shone through and what lessons there may be in that fact.
At Politico, how Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards shows the way for Democrats to win in the South and why those pushing for abortion to be a litmus test need to find a different litmus.
The critics of Pope Francis are sometimes confined to the lunatic fringe, e.g., this LifeSiteNews interview with George Neumayr, where he argues Francis is in bed with communism.
If the criticism were confined there, we could view it as a kind of sideshow, the way early circuses featured abnormal humans and animals. But when the criticism finds its way into the National Review, we need to pay attention. I challenge Michael Brendan Dougherty to a debate about whether Francis is diminishing the papacy or not, any time and any place.
At The Washington Post, Larry Summers on the need to balance the power of employers by strengthening the power of workers, in large part by enacting labor reform that makes it easier to unionize.
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Also at the Post, Steve Dollar looks at last night’s CNN show on Ronald Reagan. I watched the show and agree with Dollar that Reagan paved the way for Trump in many ways, and there must be a reckoning with his legacy. I knew there was a reason I persist in calling the airport most of us in Washington use “National Airport” rather than “Reagan Airport.” His sunny disposition cannot blind us to the harm that happened on his watch.
One moment the film highlighted was Reagan’s speech to the 1988 GOP convention, as he as leaving office. At the conclusion of the speech (go to 1:28 on the video below), Lee Greenwood came out and sang “God Bless the USA.” Fr. Spadaro: Call your office.
[Michael Sean Winters covers the nexus of religion and politics for NCR.]
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