legacy

19 Stories

DOE Looking Into How Harvard Admits Students

Harvard's legacy, donor admissions in the spotlight after SCOTUS ruling on affirmative action

(Newser) - A landmark ruling last month by the US Supreme Court struck a blow against using affirmative action in college admissions, and soon after that decision, murmurs began intensifying on an adjacent controversy—legacy and donor admissions. Now, one of the Ivy Leagues is under the microscope over the practice: The...

Trump Hits 2 Speed Bumps on His Obama Promises
This Week's Scorecard:
Obama 2, Trump 0
the rundown

This Week's Scorecard: Obama 2, Trump 0

ObamaCare, Iran show Obama's legacy is proving stronger than Trump thought

(Newser) - This has been a rough week for the White House for reasons that have nothing to do with Russia. Two big promises of President Trump fell by the wayside, at least temporarily. In addition to the GOP failure to scrap ObamaCare, Trump reluctantly preserved President Obama's nuclear deal with...

The Ravens—Letting Edgar Allan Poe's Legacy Die?

The city closed Poe House, and the Ravens did nothing

(Newser) - The city of Baltimore and its high-flying football team rely heavily on Edgar Allen Poe's legacy—yet they're letting it fade away, writes A.N. Devers at Salon . City officials shut down the Edgar Allan Poe House last year, citing its $85,000 annual cost, even though it...

Clinton's Grade at State: Just 'Solid'
 Clinton's Grade at 
 State: Just 'Solid' 
analysis

Clinton's Grade at State: Just 'Solid'

Popular leader hasn't left enduring legacy: analysts

(Newser) - As Hillary Clinton leaves the State Department a fawning public is eating out of her hand, but policy wonks are less impressed, complaining that she hasn't left an indelible mark. "She has never dominated issues of war and peace in the manner of predecessors Dean Acheson or Henry...

Jack Klugman's Quiet Legacy: Lifesaving Crusader

Actor shoved Congress to pass Orphan Drug Act of 1982

(Newser) - Most obituaries of Jack Klugman remember him for his roles on The Odd Couple and Quincy, M.E., but the actor had another legacy that few people remember, reports the Washington Post . Klugman was a fierce advocate of the Orphan Drug Act of 1982, a bill that aimed to provide...

Ivy Donations Are 'Loathsome'

 Ivy Donations Are 'Loathsome' 
opinion

Ivy Donations Are 'Loathsome'

Giving to 'Affirmative Action for Rich' is 'moral crime,' writes Hamilton Nolan

(Newser) - Gawker's Hamilton Nolan is scrambling onto the anti-Ivy League bandwagon by slamming donations to the elitist institutions as "loathsome" and a "moral crime." The schools "are terrible choices for huge donations. Supporting education is a worthy cause; but there are many, many more effective ways...

Liz Cheney Thrives as Dad's Attack Dog
 Liz Cheney Thrives 
 as Dad's Attack Dog 
and she'll seek office

Liz Cheney Thrives as Dad's Attack Dog

She's definitely thinking dynasty, says Karl Rove

(Newser) - Liz Cheney is hard at work on the family legacy, not just collaborating on dad's memoirs but boosting the former VP's attacks on the current administration with her own. Insiders say Liz was pivotal in convincing her father to reenter the public sphere and stand by his policies—at the...

Media Airbrush Did Kennedy No Favors: Hitchens

Camelot replay overshadowed real accomplishments, redemption

(Newser) - The Kennedy “legacy” is not pretty, precisely because it requires so much media “airbrushing” to stay intact. “One of the many dreadful aspects,” Christopher Hitchens writes for Slate, “is the now-unbreakable grip of celebrity politics, image-doctoring, stage management, and ‘torch passing’ rhetoric in general....

'Whiz Kid' McNamara Could Not Escape Vietnam
'Whiz Kid' McNamara Could Not Escape Vietnam
legacy

'Whiz Kid' McNamara Could Not Escape Vietnam

(Newser) - Robert McNamara led many careers but will be best remembered for his time as secretary of defense during the Vietnam War. Though he privately disagreed with some decisions, he maintained a public optimism about “McNamara’s War” that earned him derision, Reuters reports. Describing the impact of the war...

'Candid' Laura Bush Tells Her Story

Met with historians to discuss her little-known legacy

(Newser) - Shortly before the election last November, Laura Bush sought to shape her somewhat hazy legacy. The former first lady spoke to historians, reporters, and other DC insiders in a 3-hour “legacy lunch,” at which she was called “candid,” “funny,” and “open” as she...

Dads May Hatch Schemes to Leave Golden Nest Eggs

But best a man can leave is his good name

(Newser) - From King Lear to Tom Daschle, a father’s desire to provide for his children could leave them with a rather dubious inheritance—“a legacy of embarrassment,” Stephen Amidon writes in the New York Times. "Inheritances can be tricky things. Even those given with the best of...

Bill, Gore, Rubin Guide Obama in Spirit

Bill, Al Gore and Robert Rubin leave mark on transition

(Newser) - Three of Barack Obama’s most important advisers will accompany him to the Oval Office only in spirit, Gerald Seib writes in the Wall Street Journal: Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and Robert Rubin. In leaving behind a healthy record as Democratic building blocks, the Clinton years left Obama “what...

Bush Touts Mideast Legacy
 Bush Touts Mideast Legacy 

Bush Touts Mideast Legacy

(Newser) - President Bush is optimistic about his legacy in the Middle East, saying the region is a “more hopeful and more promising place than it was in 2001,” the Washington Post reports. Bush does acknowledge some missteps: “As with any large undertaking, these efforts have not always gone...

Bush Contemplates His Legacy
 Bush Contemplates His Legacy 

Bush Contemplates His Legacy

'I didn't sell my soul:' Bush

(Newser) - President Bush wants to be remembered foremost as someone who "did not sell his soul in order to accommodate the political process." In an intimate interview conducted by his sister Doro for an oral history project of the Library of Congress, Bush lists liberating Iraqis, fighting AIDS in...

Newman Wanted Charitable Legacy

Actor hoped camps, Newman's Own line would outlast him

(Newser) - Paul Newman broached the subject of his philanthropic legacy several years ago while fishing with friends in North Carolina. Even though he was a Hollywood icon, it was a rare moment in which Newman reflected on how he would be remembered after his death, one of his buddies recalled yesterday....

Mbeki Leaves Mixed Legacy
 Mbeki Leaves 
 Mixed Legacy 
Analysis

Mbeki Leaves Mixed Legacy

How aloof leader will be remembered

(Newser) - Thabo Mbeki could never be as beloved as Nelson Mandela, so he didn’t try, writes Mark Tran in the Guardian. Instead, Mbeki projected himself as a competent technocrat: cool, aloof, almost disdainful of popular opinion. He leaves behind a legacy as inscrutable as that persona, with clear victories, like...

Campaign Tarnishes Clintons' Legacy

Divisive tactics take shine off long-time winners

(Newser) - Hillary and Bill Clinton have led complicated public lives, but they’ve always been winners. Now Hillary’s defeat has jeopardized that legacy, thanks to a campaign that saw her repeatedly stretch the truth, invoke assassination, and lose African-American support. It’s one thing to employ questionable tactics and win,...

Bushes' Brother Act Goes Out With a Whimper
Bushes' Brother Act Goes Out With a Whimper
OPINION

Bushes' Brother Act Goes Out With a Whimper

Lifelong rivalry leaves both siblings at loose ends: Weisberg

(Newser) - In perhaps the final chapter of their peculiar sibling rivalry, Jeb Bush's political aspirations lie smoldering in the ashes of his brother's disastrous presidency, Jacob Weisberg writes in the LA Times. "Jeb's position as favorite son rankled his brother," the Slate editor writes, and "George's mistakes have...

Candidates Play the Name Game
Candidates
Play the
Name Game
OPINION

Candidates Play the Name Game

Obama's best selling point: He's neither a Bush nor a Clinton

(Newser) - With “little substantive to separate them,” Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton nevertheless present radically different choices, argues US-based Guardian columnist Gary Younge. He contrasts Obama's fresh blood against "the sclerosis in America's political class," heaping scorn on President Bush’s “cronyism, sleaze, dysfunction and incompetence”...

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