Wow - what a speech. One seldom recognizes eloquence in its day, but that speech screams it. Very well said, top to bottom.

After reading that speech, which talked a lot about Truman and what he did, I spent a little time reading a contemporary account of Truman and his administration, and ran across this very interesting prediction from his 1950 State of the Union speech. This account is from TIME magazine:

Standing at the mid-century mark, he took a long look ahead to the year 2000 and presented a heady vision of sustained U.S. prosperity: "If our productive power continues to increase at the same rate as it has increased for the past 50 years...the real income of the average family in the year 2000 A.D. would be about three times what it is today." That would mean an average family income of $12,450 a year.

So, looking at this in two ways: first, $12,450 in real dollars in 2000 would be $89,009 (according to the Consumer Price Index); according to the census, the actual average income was $63,278, or 71% of Truman's prediction.

Looking just at median family income, in 2003 dollars, it was $21,477 in 1950; triple that and it's $64,431; actual was $54,191, or 84% of Truman's prediction.

Not sure what this means - except maybe, when in doubt, don't bet against the U.S.

I've always thought that the post-war boom was a bit of an anomaly, the result of all our competitors being flattened, plus the pent-up bounce from 15 years of war and depression. Your figures say, not so. Very interesting.

Peggy Noonan wrote a great piece comparing Bush and Truman, The President Within, back on Nov. 16, 2001. (The same week I started this blog.)

I think it stands up well, except that Vlad Putin has been a bit of a disappointment,,,

Hey, another treasure...December 11th, 1950 - here's the story from TIME:

The first hint of tough action against the Chinese [who had just entered the Korean war with a massive surprise attack] came during Harry Truman's jampacked press conference at midweek. The President began by reading a prepared statement. It condemned the Communists and warned that the U.N. forces might suffer reverses, but "have no intention of abandoning their mission in Korea." A reporter picked up a presidential remark that every weapon the U.S. had would be made available to General MacArthur: "Mr. President," he asked, "does that mean that there is active consideration of the use of the atomic bomb?"
There has always been, the President replied.
Did this mean that Douglas MacArthur could drop the atomic bomb whenever he felt like it? No, no, no, said the White House. Under the law, only the President may authorize use of the bomb, and "no such authorization has been given."
The State Department, in a matter of minutes, began quaking at such boldness. When the shock waves hit Western Europe, newspapers blazed with headlines. Britain's Prime Minister Clement Attlee swiftly decided to hustle off to Washington for a personal conference with the President.

...so many echoes of today...