November 9, 1946: Army vs. Notre Dame, "The Game of the Century"

November 9, 1946, 80 years ago: One of those college football games that gets the label "Game of the Century" is played at the original Yankee Stadium.

The football team at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York -- 47 miles north of The Stadium, and they'd used both it and the nearby Polo Grounds as a home-away-from-home a few times -- was usually just called "Army." The teams, as were the students, were known as the Cadets. But, by this point, they were already being called "the Black Knights of the Hudson" in the press. In 1999, the Academy dropped "Cadets," and made "Black Knights" official.

Unlike most college football teams, Army didn't have a manpower drain due to World War II: Quite the opposite: They were training men for war. As a result, head coach Earl "Red" Blaik had the best backfield in the sport, and that included the NFL: Felix "Doc" Blanchard, Number 35; and Glenn Davis, Number 41. Due to their running style, Blanchard became known as "Mr. Inside" and Davis as "Mr. Outside."

In 1943, Army went 7-2-1. They were ranked Number 3 when they played the University of Notre Dame, ranked Number 1, at Yankee Stadium, and lost, 26-0. Army also lost their season finale, to Navy, at Municipal Stadium in Philadelphia (later renamed John F. Kennedy Stadium), 13-0.

But they went 9-0 in 1944, and were named National Champions. This included a 59-0 shellacking of then-Number 5 Notre Dame at Yankee Stadium, and a 23-7 win over Navy at Municipal Stadium in Baltimore. (Memorial Stadium was built on the site in 1954.)

In 1945, again, they went 9-0 and were named National Champions. This included another game at Yankee Stadium, against Notre Dame, then Number 2, and they won it 48-0. And they beat Navy, who had risen to Number 2, 32-13 at Philadelphia Municipal Stadium.

In 1946, they won their 1st 7 games. They beat Villanova at home, 35-0. They beat a rising Oklahoma team at home, 21-7. They beat Cornell at home, 46-21. They went to Ann Arbor and beat Number 4 Michigan, 20-13. They hosted Columbia and won, 48-14. The played Number 13 Duke at the Polo Grounds, and won 19-0. They hosted West Virginia and won, 19-0. They went into Yankee Stadium for the Notre Dame game with a 25-game winning streak.

Notre Dame, based in South Bend, Indiana and known as the Fighting Irish, were coached by Frank Leahy. They won the National Championship in 1943, led by quarterback Angelo Bertelli, who won the Heisman Trophy. In 1944, they went 8-2, losing to Navy and Army in back-to-back games. In 1945, they went 7-2-1. Their loss to Army was immediately preceded by a tie against Navy, and they also lost to the Great Lakes Naval Training Station team.

But in 1946, they were ready to make another run at the National Championship. They beat eventual Big Ten Champion Illinois in Champaign, 26-6. They beat the University of Pittsburgh at home, 33-0. They beat Purdue at home, 49-6. They went to Number 17 Iowa and beat them, 41-6. Then they went to Baltimore and beat Navy, 28-0. They were 5-0 and ranked Number 2 as they went into The Bronx to face Army.

When the teams took the field, there were 4 men who had, or would, win the Heisman Trophy: Blanchard won it in 1945, Davis would win it for 1946, Notre Dame quarterback Johnny Lujack would win it for 1947, and Notre Dame end Leon Hart -- due to the war, freshmen were temporarily made eligible -- would win it for 1949.

Johnny Lujack

There was already history between these teams, and not just in the 3 preceding seasons. In 1913, when Army was one of the top teams in the country and Notre Dame was almost unnoticed, Notre Dame became the 1st college football team to make headlines with the passing game, and upset Army at West Point.

In 1924, they played each other at the Polo Grounds, and Notre Dame won. Nationally-syndicated sportswriter Grantland Rice labeled Notre Dame's backfield "the Four Horsemen." In 1928, they played each other at Yankee Stadium, and Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne invoked the memory of George Gipp, a player who had starred for their 1920 National Championship team and then died, telling them to "win one for the Gipper." The Fighting Irish did just that.

Now, these two powerhouses were playing to set the winner up for the National Championship, in front of 74,121 fans. They saw it in color, but people seeing photographs and newsreels after the fact only saw black & white, and had trouble telling the teams apart: Army wore black jerseys, Notre Dame navy blue ones, and both teams wore gold helmets, with Army's having a black stripe down the middle.

The Corps of Cadets, in formation on the field prior to the game

With the New York and Eastern press pushing Army, and the Chicago and Midwestern press pushing Notre Dame, it was billed as "The Game of the Century."

Sometimes, when a game gets that label, it lives up to the hype. This one did not. Notre Dame had 6 turnovers, 3 of them interceptions of Lujack by Arnold Tucker, who was also Army's quarterback, and finished 5th in the Heisman balloting, behind Davis, Charley Trippi of Georgia, Lujack and Blanchard. (Future Detroit Lions Hall of Fame quarterback Bobby Layne finished 8th.) Army had 4 turnovers.

Notre Dame fumbled on their 1st possession of the game, giving Army the ball on the Notre Dame 23-yard line. But the Cadets couldn't capitalize, and turned the ball over on downs. Notre Dame got to Army's 4-yard line in the 2nd quarter, but also turned it over on downs. Neither Blaik nor Leahy was willing to attempt a field goal; at the very least, the game should have been 3-3 at that point.

In the 3rd quarter, Lujack threw deep, but Tucker intercepted him. Tucker looked like he might return it all the way for a touchdown, but Lujack himself brought him down. A few plays later, Davis tried an option pass, but was intercepted.

And that was the game's last scoring threat. Blanchard and Davis were held to a total of 79 yards. Neither team attempted a field goal. Final score: Army 0, Notre Dame 0. Leahy called it "a terrific battle of defenses."

Army went to Philadelphia, and beat Penn at Franklin Field, and went back there 2 weeks later and beat Navy, to finish the season 9-0-1. Notre Dame hosted Northwestern and beat them, went to New Orleans and beat Tulane, and closed the season by beating Number 16 USC at home.

Neither team accepted an invitation to a postseason bowl game, which was usually the case for each of them. (Although, by playing at Tulane Stadium, site of the Sugar Bowl, it could be argued that Notre Dame played in an equivalent game.) Number 3 Georgia beat Number 9 North Carolina in the Sugar Bowl. Number 5 Illinois beat Number 4 UCLA in the Rose Bowl, the 1st time that game would officially be between the Champions of the Big Nine and the Pacific Coast Conference, the leagues now known as the Big Ten and the Pacific Twelve (or Pac-12). Number 10 Rice beat Number 7 Tennessee in the Orange Bowl. And Number 16 Arkansas beat Number 8 Louisiana State in the Cotton Bowl.

So the question for the National Championship wasn't whether 9-0-1 Army or 8-0-1 Notre Dame was going to receive it, but which one of them. After the season, the Associated Press (AP) released a final poll, with Notre Dame at Number 1 and Army at Number 2. The American Football Coaches Association poll, which became the United Press International (UPI) poll in 1958, also chose Notre Dame. A few minor polls chose Army, and one chose 11-0 Georgia. But Notre Dame was the main pick.

Army eventually extended their unbeaten streak to 31 games, before October 25, 1947, losing to Columbia in a game known as "The Miracle of Morningside Heights." Two weeks after that, they lost to Notre Dame again.

Notre Dame repeated as National Champions, although they split the polls with Michigan. (Now considered big rivals, the teams did not play each other that season.) Only a tie with USC in the season finale spoiled things for the Fighting Irish in 1948, as they again split the polls with Michigan. They went undefeated again in 1949, and there was no split. It was 4 straight National Championships, and a 39-game unbeaten streak. Not until October 7, 1950 did they lose again, at home to Purdue.

That streak would be a record until 1957, when Oklahoma made it 47 straight. Just as would be the case with UCLA basketball and their record 88-game streak from 1971 to 1974, the last team to beat Oklahoma, and the next one, was Notre Dame.

The 1913 game at West Point was the 1st between Army and Notre Dame. They also played each other at West Point in 1914, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1919, 1920, 1921 and 1922. They played at Ebbets Field in 1923. They played at the Polo Grounds in 1925. They played at Yankee Stadium from 1925 to 1929, at Soldier Field in Chicago, Yankee Stadium again from 1931 to 1946. They played at South Bend in 1947, fulfilling their contract. But then they called the rivalry off, as they agreed that the hype had gotten out of control.

They resumed in 1957, at Philadelphia Municipal Stadium. They played at Notre Dame in 1958, 1966, 1970, 1974, 1980, 1985, 1998 and 2006. They played at Shea Stadium in 1965, the old Yankee Stadium in 1969, and West Point in 1973. They played at Giants Stadium in 1977, 1983 and 1995. They played at the new Yankee Stadium in 2010 -- with Notre Dame as the official home team despite Army's proximity -- and the Alamodome in San Antonio in 2016.

Notre Dame leads the rivalry, 40-8-4. Army hasn't beaten Notre Dame since 1958, when Army had Heisman Trophy winner Pete Dawkins. That was Blaik's last season as Army head coach. He lived until 1989. Leahy stayed at Notre Dame through the 1953 season, one more National Championship, and lived until 1973.

The U.S. Army spun the U.S. Air Force off in 1947, and Doc Blanchard was part of its charter officer corps. He later coached Army's freshman football team. He flew 84 combat missions in the Vietnam War, and retired with the rank of Colonel. He served as Commandant of the New Mexico Military Institute, and died in 2009.

Unlike Blanchard, Davis did serve out his military commitment and then play pro football. Unfortunately, when he and Blanchard were filming the movie Spirit of West Point in early 1947 -- which turned out to be Blanchard's last football action -- Davis injured his knee, and arrived with the Los Angeles Rams as damaged goods. He reached the NFL Championship Game in 1950, losing to the Cleveland Browns; and got the Rams back into it in 1951, this time beating the Browns.

Although he made the Pro Bowl in 1950, the knee held him back. And the Rams were loaded in their backfield, with players like Paul "Tank" Younger, "Deacon" Dan Towler and V.T. "Vitamin" Smith. A reinjury of the knee cost Davis the entire 1952 season, and he was released afterward, never to play again. Although both he and Blanchard were elected to the College Football Hall of Fame during their lifetimes, neither became a pro legend. Davis became the organizer of charity events for the Los Angeles Times, and died in 2005.

Lujack played 4 seasons in the NFL, all with the Chicago Bears, succeeding Hall-of-Famer Sid Luckman as starting quarterback. He led the NFL in passing yards and passing touchdowns in 1949, and, despite being a quarterback, led it in rushing touchdowns in 1950. He made the Pro Bowl in 1950 (making him, for the only time in his career, a teammate of Glenn Davis) and 1951.

He returned to Notre Dame as an assistant coach in 1952 and '53, and then became a successful car dealer. As far as I know, Johnny Lujack was the last surviving player from this game. He died in 2023, at the age of 98, as the earliest living Heisman Trophy winner. Dawkins now holds that distinction.

November 8, 2016: Donald Trump Is "Elected" President

November 8, 2016, 10 years ago: A Presidential election is held. The Democratic Party's nominee for President was Hillary Clinton. She was, perhaps, the most qualified candidate the Presidency has ever had. The nation's First Lady for 8 years. A U.S. Senator for 8 years. The nation's Secretary of State for 4 years.

But some people could never forgive her for being a woman, for being a liberal, for being married to former President Bill Clinton, or for staying married to him through all his infidelities.

The Republican Party's nominee was Donald Trump. He was, beyond any question, the most underqualified candidate ever nominated for President by a major party. He had never held public office, either elective or appointive. He had never served in the armed forces, much less held a command in them, like some other men who were not previously politicians. This, alone, should have convinced people that he wasn't fit to be President.

As if that wasn't enough: He was a pathological liar, a known bigot, and a damn fool. Having grown up watching the New York local news, and having seen him on it for over 30 years, I could legitimately tell people that, in spite of being 70 years old, which would have made him the oldest first-time President ever to that point, he was not in mental decline: He was always an idiot.

Even the main argument in his favor, that he was a successful businessman, should have worked against him. For one thing, running a government -- national, state or local -- and running a business are two very different things. Businessmen don't know a damn thing about governing. In other words, even if Trump were a good person with good intentions, he would still have been a lousy President, because he wouldn't have known what the hell he was doing.

For another thing, he wasn't a successful businessman. He was a real estate mogul, and lost money on just about every building he built. He built and operated casinos, and lost money running them. How the hell do you lose money running a casino? And he bought a professional football team, the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League, and ended up destroying the entire league.

As they used to say on the TV show Match Game, Dumb Donald is so dumb!

But not completely dumb. He tapped into the anger that some people had at Hillary. And he let the nation's bigots -- whether they hated people because of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or any  other category -- know that he hated the same people, and would hurt those people at the benefit of those who hated them. It would be government by spite. Essentially, he was giving them permission to be openly bigoted again.

And there were enough people who ate that up so that, when combined with those people who, whether they liked Trump personally or not, or whether they thought he was intelligent enough or mentally stable enough to be President or not, were going to vote for the Republican nominee no matter what, because they wanted tax cuts, deregulation and right-wing judges, that he had a chance.

In the election, Clinton won 65.8 million votes, to Trump's 62.9 million. She won 48.2 percent of the popular vote to Trump's 46.1 percent. Gary Johnson, a former Republican Governor of New Mexico, nominated by the Libertarian Party, won 4.5 million votes, or 3.3 percent. Jill Stein, a doctor and the nominee of the Green Party, openly appealed to the supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont, who finished a distant 2nd to Clinton in the Democratic Primaries, and got 1.4 million votes, or 1.1 percent.

So, nearly 63 million people saw that Trump was unqualified, dishonest, stupid, and bigoted, and voted for him anyway. Or, as someone else put it: Not everybody who voted for Trump considered themselves racist, but they knew that he was, even if they weren't willing to publicly admit that, and they did not consider that fact to be a dealbreaker.

But, fairly or not, it's the Electoral Vote that matters. Clinton won 20 States, plus the District of Columbia, for 232 Electoral Votes. Trump won 30 States, plus 1 Electoral Vote in Maine, for 306. In the end, there were "faithless electors" who voted for candidates other than those for whom the popular votes in their States said they should, so the final count was Trump 304, Clinton 227.

Two Electors in Texas refused to vote for Trump. One voted for a Republican former Congressman from that State, Ron Paul, who had run for President in 2008 and 2012, and whose son, Rand Paul, was now a Republican Senator from Kentucky, and had run for President in this election. Another voted for Governor John Kasich of Ohio, another of the Republicans that Trump had defeated in the 2016 Primaries. An Elector in Hawaii refused to vote for Clinton. Instead, he voted for Sanders.

And 4 Electors in the State of Washington refused to vote for Clinton. Three of them voted for former General and Secretary of State Colin Powell, who had considered running for President in 1996, and had endorsed Clinton in this election.

The other voted for Faith Spotted Eagle, at the time a 68-year-old member of the Yankton Sioux Nation in South Dakota, who had been among the leaders of the attempt to block oil pipelines being built through Native land in her State. She thus became the 1st Native American ever to receive an Electoral Vote, and along with Clinton 1 of the 1st 2 women to receive one. She had run for the State House of Representatives in 2006, coming in 3rd in a Democratic Primary, and went on to repeat this performance in 2018.

Trump won 6 States that the outgoing President, Democrat Barack Obama, won in 2012: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa and Florida. And some of those votes were close enough to be suspicious: Trump won Michigan by 10,704 votes, Wisconsin by 22,748, and Pennsylvania by 44,292. 

Those 3 States were won by a total of 77,744 votes -- less than the seating capacity of MetLife Stadium. In Michigan, Johnson got 172,000 votes, Stein 51,000. In Wisconsin, Johnson 106,000, Stein 31,000. In Pennsylvania, Johnson 146,000, Stein 50,000.

Had Hillary gotten another 11,000 votes in Michigan, 23,000 in Wisconsin, and 45,000 in Pennsylvania, it would have swung the Electoral Vote in her favor, 278-260 (not counting faithless electors).

And as the votes climbed high into the night to light the sacrificial rite, I developed a headache. That's right: Donald Trump literally makes me sick.

Why did Hillary "lose"?

Say what you want about Trump, and I have. But, however despicable, his racist/populist campaign was very effective. It brought out people who had never voted before, because even previous Republican nominees weren't bigoted enough for them. Had any other Republican been nominated, these people wouldn't have voted at all.

Trump also had outside help: Vladimir Putin and the Russian government, and Julian Assange and his WikiLeaks (pro-Russian, and therefore nicknamed "RusskiLeaks"), fabricated statements that spoke to the "Crooked Hillary" lie, and a bunch of gullible people believed it. Furthermore, Russians hacked America's voting machines. This is not, as Trump called it, a hoax: The U.S. Senate confirmed this. The Republican-controlled Senate, mind you.

Then there was James Comey. The Director of the FBI, in effect, turned the election with 2 weeks to go by revealing... nothing at all, but raising suspicions about Hillary. Comey went on to get fired by Trump anyway, for apparent disloyalty. He is the one guy who has gone through this who became hated by both sides.

Then there was the media. They were absolutely terrified of being called "liberal," and of the charge that the election was "rigged." So they weren't willing to call Trump out on his crimes and lies, as they had been against the many lies told by John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012.

Then there were those media outlets that actually promoted Trump, because they either had a financial interest in a close election, or actually wanted a conservative to be President, or wanted the "entertainment" of a Trump Presidency. For the ratings, therefore for the money. You know, like when Ronald Reagan, formerly a literal professional entertainer, ran and won in 1980 and 1984. In each of these cases, you people know who you are. And we have not forgotten.

As usual, conservatives said CNN was against Trump. That's insane: They wanted Trump. But if Ted Turner -- who, I'd heard, was already not well, and died earlier this year -- were still running CNN, Trump would have been properly investigated well before he was going to make it official, and would have been arrested by the FBI when he got to the bottom of the damn escalator at his candidacy announcement at Trump Tower.

But the biggest culprits of all were the progressive purists. The people who wanted Sanders, but didn't go along with him when he endorsed Hillary. The people who voted for Stein instead. The people who voted for Johnson instead. The people who were stupid enough to actually consider Trump to be more progressive than Hillary. And the people who stayed home, and didn't vote at all. Stein's vote totals, let alone Johnson's, in what turned out to be the 3 key States -- Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin -- were greater than Trump's margin of victory.

"The left" -- a term conservatives love to throw around, as if they have a clue as to what it means -- does this at least once in every generation:

* In 1944, they didn't get a 2nd term for Henry Wallace as Vice President, as establishment Democrats, knowing that Franklin D. Roosevelt was ill, didn't want Wallace to be the next President. So they talked FDR into taking Harry Truman as Vice President, and he became President in 1945 when FDR died. In 1948, the left refused to vote for Truman, and instead voted for Henry Wallace in his 3rd party campaign. That time, the Democratic nominee won anyway.

* In 1968, they didn't get Robert F. Kennedy (assassinated) or Gene McCarthy (dropped out before the Convention, and he had no chance, anyway), so they refused to vote for Hubert Humphrey, a champion of liberalism for 25 years, and mostly stayed home. And we got Richard Nixon.

* In 1980, they didn't get Ted Kennedy or Jerry Brown, so they refused to vote for Jimmy Carter, and mostly stayed home. And we got Ronald Reagan.

* In 2000, they didn't get Ralph Nader, who wasn't the slightest bit qualified for the office, so they refused to vote for Al Gore, and either stayed home, or voted for Nader anyway. And we got George W. Bush.

* In 2016, they didn't get Bernie Sanders, so they refused to vote for Hillary Clinton, and either stayed home, or voted for Jill Stein. And we got Donald Trump.

* Since then, in 2024, they again didn't get Bernie, so they refused to vote for Kamala Harris, and, again, either stayed home, or voted for Stein again. And we got Trump again.

In 1968, 1980, 2000, 2016 and 2024, each time, the left caused the election of the President who was the least like the one they wanted. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me five times, and I'm a progressive purist.

Hillary got more votes than any Presidential candidate had ever gotten, to that point, except for Obama in 2008 and 2012. So don't tell me she was "unpopular." That is a lie. And don't tell me she was "a flawed candidate." They all are. And no candidate has ever been more flawed than Trump. Does the Democratic nominee have to be without flaws? It wouldn't matter: The Republicans would make flaws up. And Hillary proved to be more popular than he was. But the Constitution says Electoral Votes matter more, and those went for Trump -- suspiciously.

In spite of the vote for Trump, the Democrats actually gained 6 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, and 2 seats in the U.S. Senate. Among the new Senators elected were Democrats Kamala Harris of California, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois; and Republican John Kennedy of Louisiana. He may have been a Senator named John Kennedy, but, to paraphrase the late Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas, this Senator was no Jack Kennedy.

As they usually do with the winner of the Presidential election, Time magazine named Trump its Person of the Year for 2016.

On October 22, 2018, at a campaign rally, at the Toyota Center, home of the NBA's Houston Rockets, for the re-election of Senator Ted Cruz of Texas -- who, during the 2016 campaign, opposed Donald Trump, and Trump called his wife ugly and said that his father was involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy -- Trump told the crowd, "You know what I am? I'm a nationalist. Okay? I'm a nationalist. Use that word. Use that word."

An idealist might say that he wanted to draw a contrast between himself and "globalists," people who want to bring the world together; that a "nationalist" was someone who was for his own country first. A cynic would say that "nationalist" was short for "white nationalist," and that "globalist" really means "Jew," and that both terms are bigoted.

The problem is that it doesn't really matter if Trump is bigoted: The bigots believe he is, and thus they believe that he's with them, and that's why they chose him. Therefore, either he is a bigot, which would be a terrible thing; or he isn't one, and he's just playing the bigots to gain and keep power, in the biggest confidence game in world history, which is a different, but still terrible, thing.

On May 31, 2017, I wrote the following:

It's almost June. Let's take a look at Donald Trump's report card, shall we?

Math: F. He doesn't know that tax cuts don't increase revenue.

English: F. His grammar and spelling are atrocious, and what's "covfefe," anyway? (He had just issued the tweet that contained that word. Although he was complaining about the "press," and could have meant "coverage," as of November 8, 2026, we still don't know for sure what "covfefe" meant.)

Science: F. He denies that climate change is real.

History: F. He doesn't know that antagonizing allies is not a good thing. He doesn't know that allying with dictators is bad, too.

Civics: D. He seems to slightly grasp the fact that he needs Congress to pass his plans, but doesn't seem to understand that people, including journalists, are constitutionally entitled to question and criticize him.

Geography: F. He doesn't know that Israel is in the Middle East. He doesn't know that Palm Beach is not in D.C. He doesn't seem to know that Trump Tower is not in D.C., either, and, thus, neither is his wife. (This was before he used a Sharpie on a map to make a statement he made about a hurricane affecting Alabama as well as Florida "correct.")

Physical Education: F. We went from an athlete to... this.

Sex Education: F. He still hasn't learned that you don't grab a woman by any body part unless you have her consent.

Home Economics: F. Did he sew that toupee himself?

Arts: F. It's not that he has BAD taste, it's that he has NO taste. No wonder he once sold "Trump Vodka": Vodka has no taste, either! Also, it's Russian.

Recommendation: Expulsion. Granted, this won't teach him anything, either, but it will leave the country better off.

If you had told me on the night of November 8 into 9, 2016 that Trump's tenure in office would lead to the deaths of over 1 million Americans, I would have believed it. But I would have guessed it was due to some stupid war he got us into, not an epidemic that his supporters would have been too goddamned stupid to protect themselves from. I would have guessed they wouldn't have cared about protecting others, but not even themselves? They stockpile guns and food for self-preservation, but won't wear a mask for that reason? Dumb Donald is so dumb, but his fans are still dumber.

Joe Biden became the President, and things got so much better, in every way. Some of the problems of the Trump Administration were still there. But at least we had a government that's working on them.

But when he ran for re-election, the lies came out. He was corrupt. (He wasn't.) He was too old to be President. (He is less than 4 years older than Trump, and a year younger than Sanders.) He was in mental decline. (He wasn't, and isn't. His brain works better now than Trump's ever has.) After a terrible debate performance, his own Party's leaders ganged up on him, and he dropped out.

And Vice President Harris was nominated, and she kicked Trump's fat Fascist ass in a debate. Unable to handle losing that badly to a black woman, Trump staged an assassination attempt, and that changed everything. In the end, Trump finally won the popular vote, but not a majority of it, and the Electoral Vote, but there's more evidence that 2016 and 2024 were "stolen" than 2020 was.

And, as bad as his 1st term was, the 1st half of his 2nd term has been much worse.

More things in America have been named after Donald Trump than any President other than George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. However, he named most of them after himself, and most of those before he went into active politics.

There are 2 highways named after him in Florida, and 1 in Oklahoma; but no schools. This past March, a member of the Board of Education in Colts Neck, Monmouth County, New Jersey proposed naming one of the town's elementary schools after him. The Board rejected the proposal.

And, after calling American servicemen who died in service to their country "losers" and "suckers," there will never be an American military base or ship named for him.

On September 30, 2025, it was announced that the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library would be built at Miami Dade College's Wolfson Campus in downtown Miami. But, as of November 8, 2026, it only exists online. That is somewhat appropriate, since brick-and-mortar libraries, and museums, encourage learning, while Trump said, the day after his 2016 "win," "We won with the poorly educated. I love the poorly educated!"

Trump followed Theodore Roosevelt as the 2nd President born in New York City, and Franklin Roosevelt as the most recent President born in, or representing, New York. But, infamously, he moved to Florida to take advantage of its lower taxes.

Trump played himself in movies and on TV shows before running for office. He was played by Alec Baldwin on Saturday Night Live from 2016 to 2020. Thereafter, on the show, James Austin Johnson played both Trump and Joe Biden.

November 8, 1946: Viola Desmond, the Rosa Parks of Canada

November 8, 1946, 80 years ago: Canada develops its own Rosa Parks -- 9 years before America had theirs.

Viola Irene Davis was born on July 6, 1914 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her father was a barber, and she wanted to go into the hair care profession, too. But the only beauty school in town wouldn't admit her, because she was black. So she trained where she could: Montreal, Atlantic City, and New York. She married Jack Desmond, and they opened a combination barbershop/beauty salon. She also opened her own beauty school, so no other black woman would have to be denied like she was.

On November 8, 1946, she drove across Nova Scotia to Sydney, to sell her beauty products, but her car broke down in New Glasgow. The good news was, the mechanic she went to was willing to fix a black person's car. The bad news was, it would take a day.

So she went to see a movie. The Roseland Theatre was showing The Dark Mirror, and sold her a ticket to the balcony section, which matched America's treatment of black people in segregated movie theaters. But her eyesight was poor, so she asked for a floor seat. The ticket seller said, "I'm not permitted to sell downstairs tickets to you people." Which, legally, was a lie. She took her ticket for the balcony, and sat in the floor section.

And usher found her, and told her to move. She refused. She offered to pay the additional 10 cents for a floor seat. They responded to this by calling the police, who picked her up, injuring her hip. With that injury, she was in jail for the next 12 hours. She was never informed about her right to legal advice, a lawyer, or bail.

The charge was tax evasion. She wasn't evading anything: She had offered to pay the extra 10 cents. One cent of that was slated for the Province of Nova Scotia, and she was convicted of depriving the government of a single cent. Instead of paying an extra 10 cents, she was fined $26.

Her husband wanted her to let it go, and pay the fine. But her church stood by her, and hired a lawyer. His name was Frederick Bissett, and he made a critical mistake: He opted for a judicial review, rather than appeal the original conviction. Desmond's lawyer tried to appeal the decision on the basis of her being wrongfully accused of tax evasion, not on the basis of racial discrimination. The prosecutors stood by the theater's story, that the issue wasn't race, it was taxes. Which was a lie, because she had offered to pay the money. The fine stood.

To make matters worse, her husband soon left her. She closed her business, went to college in Montreal, moved to New York, and died on February 7, 1965, only 50 years old. She had surely heard the story of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, but there is no record of Mrs. Parks and Mrs. Desmond ever having met.

The legend of Viola Desmond grew after her death. In 2010, the Nova Scotia Provincial government granted her a pardon and an apology. They were posthumous, of course: She would have been 94 years old. Beginning in 2018, her face adorned the Canadian $10 bill, replacing that of the country's 1st Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald.

As of November 8, 2022, there has never been a film made about her, even though a prominent black American film actress shares her birth name of Viola Davis.

 

November 7, 1876: Samuel Tilden Is Elected President, But Not Really

November 7, 1876, 150 years ago: Samuel Jones Tilden, former Governor of New York, wins the popular vote and the Electoral Vote in the Presidential election, defeating the Governor of Ohio, Rutherford B. Hayes. Tilden got 51 percent of the popular vote, to Hayes' 48; and 204 Electoral Votes, to Hayes' 165.

What's that? You've never heard of Tilden? That's not surprising, unless you're a history buff, or are from Brooklyn where there's a high school named for him, or Nebraska where there's a town named for him (the hometown of Baseball Hall-of-Famer Richie Ashburn). He didn't get to become President, because the Republicans stole the Electoral Votes of Louisiana (8 of them), South Carolina (7) and Florida (4), plus 1 of the 3 in Oregon.

So the final count, not made official until the Electoral Commission made its ruling on a pure party-line vote of 8-7 on March 2, 1877 -- 2 days before the Inauguration -- was Hayes 185, Tilden 184.

Hayes, nicknamed "Rutherfraud," "His Fraudulency" and "Old 8 to 7," announced he would serve only 1 term, and kept his promise. Tilden was convinced he was robbed, but did not run again in 1880 or 1884, due to ill health, and died in 1886.

But was he robbed? The Democrats, then the nation's conservative party, may have engaged in serious intimidation of newly-enfranchised black voters in Southern States. It's possible they tried every bit as hard to steal those States on Election Day as the Republicans did afterward. We may never know who truly deserved to win. Regardless, there is absolutely no known evidence that either Hayes or Tilden participated in any election fraud on his own behalf.

The book shown above, Fraud of the Century, was published in 2003. Its author, Roy Morris Jr., is the editor of the magazine Civil War Quarterly. He has also written biographies of Union General Philip Sheridan, poet Walt Whitman, and authors Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce and Gertrude Stein; and a dual biography of Abraham Lincoln and his 2-time election opponent Stephen A. Douglas.

November 6, 1986: The Immigration Reform and Control Act

Behind the President, left to right: Representative Peter Rodino,

Senator Alan Simpson, Vice President George H.W. Bush,

Senator Strom Thurmond and Representative Romano Mazzoli

November 6, 1986, 40 years ago: President Ronald Reagan signs the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. It has been the defining document of America's immigration policy ever since.

Its most significant effect was that it allowed immigrants who had entered the U.S. illegally before January 1, 1982 to apply for legal status, provided they paid fines and back taxes. This provision, which Reagan himself referred to as "amnesty," allowed around 3 million immigrants to secure legal status after paying $185 -- about $565 in 2026 money -- demonstrating "good moral character," and learning to speak English.

It superseded the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which superseded the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which replaced the terribly restrictive Immigration Act of 1924.

The 1986 Act was proposed by Senator Alan Simpson, Republican of Wyoming. Its House of Representatives sponsor was Romano Mazzoli of Kentucky, a Democrat and a son of Italian immigrants. So it had bipartisan support. The House passed it on October 14, by a vote of 238-173. The Senate did so on October 17, by a vote of 63-24. So the vote wasn't close.

Reagan signed it into law in the Roosevelt Room at the White House. Among those with him at the time were Simpson, Mazzoli, Vice President George H.W. Bush; and the Chairmen of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, respectively: Peter Rodino, Democrat of New Jersey, and Strom Thurmond, Republican of South Carolina. Thurmond had come a long way from a past of bigotry. He should have: He was a few days short of his 84th birthday.

Conservative activists since Reagan, who have demagogued the issue of illegal immigration since the 1990s and especially since the 9/11 attacks in 2001, find it hard to believe that their favorite President of all time could have done such a thing, but he did. Say what you want about him, and I have, but the man did believe that immigrants made America stronger, not weaker.

And every President after him agreed: Both George Bushes, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama -- until Donald Trump, who was so anti-immigrant, he made Calvin Coolidge look like a believer in open borders.

Another big difference between Reagan and Trump: Reagan had a healthy distrust of Russian dictators. Trump has an affinity for them, and it is very unhealthy for America.

November 6, 1956: President Dwight D. Eisenhower Is Re-Elected

November 6, 1956, 70 years ago: President Dwight D. Eisenhower is re-elected. Despite concerns over his health (he'd had a heart attack in September 1955, and had been hospitalized again in June, possibly for another heart attack that the White House didn't want to talk about), the fitness for office of Vice President Richard Nixon, and how "Ike" had handled the recent crises in Hungary and Egypt, he wins 57 percent of the popular vote, and 457 Electoral Votes.

Former Governor Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois fares no better in the rematch than he did in 1952, winning just 42 percent, and 73 Electoral Votes. Stevenson won only 7 States: North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Missouri. In the other 41 States, he comes close only in Tennessee.

As it turned out, it was a "personal landslide" for Ike. He was much more popular than his Republican Party, and had no "coattails" in the Congressional elections. The Republicans gained only 2 seats in the House of Representatives, and the Democrats broke even in the Senate, to hold their majorities in each house. Among the new Senators were Democrat Frank Church of Idaho and Republican Jacob Javits of New York.

Comedian Mort Sahl had said, "Eisenhower stands for gradualism. Stevenson stands for moderation. Between these 2 extremes, we the people must choose."

November 5, 1996: President Bill Clinton Is Re-Elected

November 5, 1996, 30 years ago: President Bill Clinton is re-elected, winning 379 Electoral Votes to Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole's 159. Clinton wins 49.2 percent of the popular vote, while Dole wins 40.7, and Reform Party candidate Ross Perot wins 8.4 percent but no Electoral Votes.

Clinton went over the necessary 270 Electoral Votes with the States that closed at 9:00 PM, Eastern Time.

After the failure of his health care initiative in 1994, Clinton saw his Democratic Party battered in the midterm elections, with the Republicans taking both houses of Congress. Dole, from Russell, Kansas -- always mentioning his hometown, not just his State -- had first been elected to Congress in 1960, and to the U.S. Senate in 1968. He was nominated for Vice President under Gerald Ford in 1976. He ran for President in 1980, but didn't get far. He became Senate Majority Leader after the election of 1984, but the Democrats regained the Senate in 1986, making him the Minority Leader.

He ran for President again in 1988, and finished 2nd in delegates to Vice President George H.W. Bush, who was elected. In 1992, Clinton beat Bush to become President-elect. The next morning, mere hours after Clinton clinched victory in a 3-man race in which Perot got 19 percent of the popular vote (but no Electoral Votes), Dole pointed out, "57 percent of Americans did not vote for Bill Clinton, and I intend to represent that majority on the floor of the U.S. Senate. If Bill Clinton has a mandate, then so do I."

Clinton was now 1-0 in Presidential elections. Dole was 0-2, 0-3 if you count 1976. Clinton got just under 45 million votes for President. Dole got 2.3 million votes in the 1988 Republican Primaries. Dole himself had just been re-elected to the Senate in 1992, with 244,000 votes. And he then represented a caucus of 43 Senators. He was in no position to claim any majority, especially against a man who had just gotten almost 45 million votes. The 57 percent of American voters who chose someone other than Clinton? As far as I know, not one of them voted for Bob Dole for President, not even as a write-in candidate.

But the '94 election restored Dole to the post of Majority Leader. And Newt Gingrich, a Pennsylvania native who moved to Georgia to teach at a college, and was first elected to Congress in 1978 and used fiery rhetoric to get into the Republican Party's leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1989, became the Speaker of the House.

Dole was considered mean, a reputation he got in his 1976 Vice Presidential debate with Walter Mondale, and deepened in his 1988 Presidential run. But, politically speaking, he was still a center-right candidate, willing to compromise for the greater good of the country. Gingrich was not: He was frequently called a "firebrand" and a "bombthrower."

Like most politicians, especially Republicans, he wanted to balance the federal budget. But his plan severely cut social services -- and also seriously cut taxes, especially on the wealthy. This didn't work when Ronald Reagan was President in the 1980s, and actually created the conditions that led to Clinton's election in 1992. As we have since seen, it didn't work in 2001, and it didn't work in 2017. It would not have worked in 1995.

Every year, the federal budget takes effect on October 1. That is, "Fiscal Year 1996" ran from October 1, 1995 to September 30, 1996. If no deal between Congress and the President is in place by October 1, they can pass a "continuing resolution": For the length of the resolution, the proportions of the previous fiscal year continue.

But Clinton and the Republicans controlling Congress couldn't reach a deal by September 30. So they passed a continuing resolution that ran until November 13. But the Republicans refused to pass a new one by November 14. So, at midnight on November 13, the government shut down.

And the Republicans went before the media and said it was Clinton's fault. Except Clinton also went before the media, and pointed out that he was still willing to make a deal, and the Republicans weren't. Finally, he called Dole and Gingrich into the Oval Office. So often willing to compromise on things, seemingly desperate to get re-elected, but angering many in his own party, Clinton told them, "I don't care if I go down to 5 percent in the polls. If you want that budget signed into law, you're going to have to get somebody else behind this desk."

For once, Clinton held his ground. And polls showed that more people supported his stance than the Republicans' stance. Their approval rating plummeted. Finally, on November 19, they caved. And when the general election campaign got underway, the Democrats aired commercials showing Dole and Gingrich together so many times, it began to look like Gingrich was Dole's running mate.

Having been the Republican nominee for Vice President in 1976, and having run for the Republican nomination for President in 1980 and 1988, Dole had practically been running for President in the 1996 election since the day after the 1992 election ended. Politically-themed comedian Mark Russell, who was 10 years younger than Dole, and specialized in rewriting pre-rock-and-roll songs for political issues of the time, wrote for one of his periodic TV specials on PBS:

This old man, Robert Dole

has the White House as his goal.

For 20 years, there in his eye, a glint.

This old man can't take a hint.

And yet, Russell followed this song by saying, "I'm thinking of voting for Bob Dole. I figure it'll be the last chance to have a President who's older than I am!" He turned out to be right, living to see the Presidencies of George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, all younger.

Dole officially announced his candidacy on April 10, 1995. Despite losing the New Hampshire Primary to Pat Buchanan, an archconservative journalist who had previously worked for Presidents, Nixon, Ford and Reagan, he won enough Delegates to secure the nomination on March 19, 1996.

He traveled the country on a plane he named, after his position in the Senate, Leader Ship. Then he rolled the dice, and resigned from the Senate on June 11, to show the American people he was focused only on the election: "I have nowhere to go, except the White House, or home." He changed his plane's name to Citizen Ship. (Dole was succeeded as Majority Leader by his Majority Whip, Trent Lott of Mississippi.)

At the Republican Convention, held at the San Diego Convention Center, Dole chose a real running mate: Jack Kemp, former pro quarterback, former Congressman from Buffalo, New York, a 1988 Presidential candidate like Dole, and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Bush. Kemp had long been the darling of the conservative tax-cut movement, and boosted Dole in the polls.

In his acceptance speech, on August 15, Dole said, "Let me be the bridge to an America that only the unknowing call myth. Let me be the bridge to a time of tranquility, faith, and confidence in action." This was a blunder: In his acceptance speech, at the United Center in Chicago, Clinton said, "We do not need to build a bridge to the past. We need to build a bridge to the future, all the way to the 21st Century!"

After that, Clinton and his running mate, Vice President Al Gore, solidified their lead, and Dole and Kemp never really got close to them. Near the end of the campaign, Dole tried to make a big deal about Clinton's "scandals," but nobody could pin anything on him. And Clinton seemed to be handling his role as Commander-in-Chief well. And, just as in 1992, the issue of "the economy, stupid" helped him: This time, he was in charge of it, and it was doing well.

Dole didn't run a bad campaign, but once Clinton won the battle over the budget, Dole never had a chance.

Comedian Mort Sahl, closing in on half of century of joking about politicians of both parties, said, "There were 4 million people in the American colonies, and we had Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Franklin. Now, we have over 200 million, and the top 2 guys are Clinton and Dole. What can you draw from this? Darwin was wrong!"

What no one yet knew was that the government shutdown, at the same time that it was securing Clinton's win, was also setting the stage for the biggest internal crisis of his Presidency: Among the volunteers working in the White House during the government shutdown, and also among the young staffers welcoming him back to the White House with a hug the day after the election, was a young woman named Monica Lewinsky.

The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics was established at the University of Kansas in 2003, on the occasion of Dole's 80th birthday. It performs some of the same functions as a Presidential Library, but it is not the same thing. Dole died in 2021, at the age of 98.