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The John Batchelor Show

SECOND TERM FAILURE TO BE RELEVANT: 3/8: A Man of Iron: The Turbulent Life and Improbable Presidency o1 Grover Cleveland Hardcover – by Troy Senik (Author)

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Society & Culture, Arts, News, Books

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 10 June 2024

⏱️ 14 minutes

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Summary

SECOND TERM FAILURE TO BE RELEVANT: 3/8: A Man of Iron: The Turbulent Life and Improbable Presidency o1 Grover Cleveland Hardcover – by Troy Senik (Author)

https://www.amazon.com/Man-Iron-Turbulent-Improbable-Presidency/dp/1982140747?ref_=ast_author_dp#customerReviews

Grover Cleveland’s political career—a dizzying journey that saw him rise from obscure lawyer to president of the United States in just three years—was marked by contradictions. A politician of uncharacteristic honesty and principle, he was nevertheless dogged by secrets from his personal life. A believer in limited government, he pushed presidential power to its limits to combat a crippling depression, suppress labor unrest, and resist the forces of American imperialism. A headstrong executive who alienated Congress, political bosses, and even his own party, his stubbornness nevertheless became the key to his political appeal. The most successful Democratic politician of his era, he came to be remembered most fondly by Republicans.

1886 CLEVELAND AND FRANCES FOLSOM

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is the story of

0:05.0

CBSI on the world. I'm John Bachelor.

0:08.0

Visiting with Troy Senec, his new book A Man of Iron,

0:12.0

is the story of Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th President of the United

0:16.8

States. You notice there's something in between. That's because Grover Cleveland was three

0:22.3

times a candidate for the presidency. He won the

0:26.4

popular vote all three times, but the second time he lost in the

0:30.2

electoral college. Why did he lose? Why is a man who's been celebrated his whole life as as Troy writes,

0:37.6

he's not returning, which we say of Margaret Thatcher, we say that of Grover Cleveland. Why was he rejected in the election of 1888? We go immediately

0:46.1

to the policies that dominate the conversation. We mentioned the Grand Army of the Republic

0:51.9

rebuking Grover Cleveland for not handing out the pensions that

0:55.6

are brought by senators and congressmen as a form of, well, the graft is too strong a word, favors. However, we come to his thinking about America as the frontier is

1:06.4

closing. And I want to start there because you mentioned Troy that he denounces Geronimo

1:12.3

as a murderous savage. Iounces Geronimo as a murderous savage.

1:14.0

I thought Geronimo in Gover Cleveland's life?

1:16.5

Good heavens.

1:17.3

What was Guever Cleveland's opinion for the least among us, the Native Americans

1:21.9

and the African Americans, and also for the people who were homesteading

1:27.6

in America. Let's begin with the Native Americans, the indigenous people. what was his attitude about their challenges?

1:36.8

He has what we would now regard as a fairly righteous attitude about the way that Native Americans have been mistreated by the federal government.

1:45.4

He singles them out in his inaugural address and reproaches the country for the way that

1:50.6

they've been treated in the past. he makes one of the objectives of his first term trying to set Native Americans on better footing.

...

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