In the past day or two you may have seen in the headlines that John Hope Franklin died.  His death is even noted on the TPM front page.  He lived a long and extremely productive life.  He was, in my opinion, a great American and a towering figure in the field of American history.  Unlike most great historians, he was not only widely admired and respected within his field, but also outside his field and for good reason.  He was highly skilled in his profession and was a groundbreaker in terms of shedding light on topics that had received little attention by historians until he came along.  This was especially true early in his career, but he kept that focus and helped in a very real way to redirect the attention of the whole nation toward subjects it had neglected to learn about previously.

As an undergraduate, I read several of John Hope Franklin's books and found them fascinating and very illuminating.  I read others after that time not because they were assigned, but because he made the subjects he wrote about so interesting and vital.  The best historical works I've ever read always help me to understand the world we live in today and his were certainly in that category for me.  I was very impressed by his work from the moment I started reading it.  In my opinion, one of the key aspects of a great historian is that they are simultaneiously great teachers.  Mr. Franklin was certainly that.  Our country was blessed to have had this great teacher and even more blessed that despite his passing all his works remain to teach future generations and that will help us never to lose sight of the very important subjects he concerned himself with.

If you are interested in American history, but have never read anything by John Hope Franklin, I recommend his work to you.  It will be well worth your time.  He was a great scholar, but more importantly, as mentioned above, a great teacher in the sense that his examination of the past was engaging, communicated very clearly and made the subjects he tackled very accessible to any reader.  I hope that both he and his works will be remembered and honored for many years to come.

Two simple and short items here. 

1.  On a scale of 1-10 (1 being worst and 10 being best) how would you rate the President's performance at the Press Conference? 

2.  Using the same scale, how would you rate the performance of the press? 

After rating each, go ahead and put down your thoughts on any details you consider important, highlights, etc...

Here's my take...

The President gets a 9.5 for his performance.  The only negative is that he tends to overdo the responses in terms of length.  The answers aren't bad, they are just sometimes too rambling and that reduces the effectiveness of what he has to say.

I thought his response to the "what took you too long" gotcha question on AIG was just about perfect.  His answer on the middle east was very good and I thought he struck the right tone.  His staff is right to put him forward as much as they do.  He certainly understands the issues and what he needs to say.  He is quick on his feet and, I think, he actually believes in the approach he is taking and that counts for something even if it ends up being wrong.  Conviction is a quality that resonates with people and is especially important in the midst of so much upheaval.  When he pointed out that "the public" has been sacrificing a great deal he really hit it out of the park.  The question demonstrated how out of touch the millionaire media is and gave Obama the opportunity to clearly demonstrate that he understands who is hurting economically.

The Press gets a 4 for their usual shallow questions and attempts to try and "catch" the President or fool him into saying something they could sensationalize.  The White House Press Corps is an incredibly unimpressive lot.  I think they were actually worse this time than they were during the Bush years.  They should all be replaced with the exception of Helen Thomas.

This brief music video will warm the hearts of Krugman fans and drive those who don't want to hear what he has to say aboslutely crazy!

I highly recommend it!  It's worth a couple of your minutes.

Go here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOYAuk809fY&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcrooksandliars%2Ecom%2F&feature=player_embedded