U.K. politician Winston Churchill with U.S. President Harry Truman on March 3, 1946, leaving for Missouri, where Churchill would make a speech warning about the dangers of the Iron Curtain.
Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images
The way two presidents used language to ask Americans to support intervening in a foreign conflict shows the power of a leader who uses plain speaking – and sets limits on intervention.
Biden supporters in Philadelphia celebrate when his win – with a much smaller margin than predicted by polls – was projected by news outlets on Nov. 7, 2020.
Chris McGrath/Getty Images
Stung by their failure to accurately predict the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, pollsters collectively went off to figure out what went wrong. They have yet to figure out what or why.
Pollsters predicted a much higher vote for Joe Biden, including in Florida, where workers at the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Office in Largo process voters’ ballots on Nov. 3.
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Pollster Bud Roper once said of his field that “a good deal more than half is art and … less than half is science.” After the 2020 polls got a lot wrong, is it time for more candor from pollsters?
Supporters on election night 2016 at a Hillary Clinton party, when it became clear poll-based forecasts had been off target.
Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Polling is an imperfect attempt at providing insight and explanation. But the public’s desire for insight and explanation about elections never ends, so polls endure despite their flaws and failures.
Will Trump voters – like these at a rally, waving goodbye to him as he leaves – defy the polls and send him back to the White House?
Olivier Touron/AFP/Getty Images
Polling shows Joe Biden with a large lead over Donald Trump nationally in the presidential race. But there are many ways that presidential race polling has gone wrong in the past, and could do so now.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt broadcasting his first fireside chat, March 12, 1933.
National Archives
On March 12, 1933, President Roosevelt addressed the nation from the Oval Office during a time of great crisis. That ‘fireside chat’ proved broadcasting’s power as nothing before or since.
LGBT veterans march in a Boston parade. Contrary to what some may say, the military has a long history of embracing socially marginalized groups.
AP Photo/Steven Senne
Whether it be African-Americans, Catholics or transgender people, the armed forces have played a vital role in shaping US social policy toward the country’s minorities.
Former FBI Director James Comey testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington.
AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
For many contemporary observers, the Spanish Civil War was seen as very much of a piece with the war against Hitler and Mussolini. But then things changed. Why?