Today is Election Day
(as you just might have heard somewhere). While the snarky thing might be to
write about election screw-ups
of the past,
we couldn't help but notice that it's also the birthday of two of the most
influential voices of the 20th century on American politics: Will
Rogers and Walter Cronkite.
From our 21st century vantage point, it may be hard to remember just how important
these men
were in their heydays. Rogers was born in the Cherokee Nation in 1879, and by 1902, had begun a show
business career, which took him from rodeos
to vaudeville
to starring on Broadway in the Ziegfeld Follies,
From there, he branched into Hollywood
(becoming the country's number-one
box office draw), was the most popular newspaper column in America, and radio,
where his weekly show was the nation's top-rated program. Rogers's act
consisted mostly of ad-libbed comments about the day's political
events, and led to his 1928 mock campaign
for president (though he might well have won a serious race). In 1935, at the
peak of his popularity, he was killed in a plane crash, throwing
the world into mourning.
Cronkite may not have been as beloved as Rogers, but for decades, was
considered the "most trusted
man in America." He closed his newscasts with "And that's the way it is ...,"
a statement that might have seemed presumptuous coming from another reporter,
but given his background,
avuncularity,
and nonpartisanship,
was the opposite of hyperbole.
He saw America through some of its greatest
crises
and triumphs,
and through it all, his calm authority was so powerful that Lyndon Johnson
declared that if he had "lost Cronkite"
on the Vietnam War, he had lost middle America.
So on this day that celebrates democracy, we salute two men who represent the
best of what Americans can be.
Suggested Sites...
- Will Rogers.com - Will's official site, with biography, quotes. and information.
- Wikipedia: Walter Cronkite - biography of the former CBS anchorman.
- Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication - training the next generation of journalists.
- Wikipedia: 2008 United States Elections - follow the news and results.
- Vote 411.org - learn about the candidates' positions, find your polling place, and exercise your right to vote.
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