One Term Presidents

“I’D rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president,” President Obama confessed to ABC News’ Diane Sawyer last year. Other than the “really good” part, Republicans would be happy to see this wish fulfilled.

With waning approval ratings and a stagnant economy, the possibility that Mr. Obama will not be re-elected has entered the political bloodstream. Suddenly, the opposition party envisions a scenario in which its presidential candidate could defeat Mr. Obama in a referendum on his job performance. Mr. Obama needs to think hard about his own statement and consider what it takes to be a successful one-term president, in the light of history.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/opinion/sunday/if-obama-is-a-one-term-president.html?_r=2&ref=todayspaper

How Should We Remember 9-11?

Ten years later, many Americans still remember clearly the unfolding of horrible events on September 11, 2001. Planes flying into the World Trade Center; people jumping out of windows more than 100 stories high; thousands of civilians fleeing out of downtown Manhattan by foot: These kinds of images are hard to forget.

On the other hand, most people who were glued to the news for days in 2001 now think only rarely about that horrifying day. And people who were far from the scene or who were very young at the time may not know many details about the terrorist attacks at all.

http://news.discovery.com/history/september-11-remembrance-110902.html

Expansion of the US Via Post Office

Here’s a link to an interesting video showing the expansion of the US as seen through changes in the distribution of post offices.

Posted: Visualizing US expansion through post offices. from Derek Watkins on Vimeo.