SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY – TO THE NEW YORK POST, THE OLDEST CONTINUALLY PUBLISHED NEWSPAPER IN THE UNITED STATES – FROM THE POST:  It was 220 years ago Tuesday, November 16, 1801, that the first issue of The Evening Post was delivered to 600 lucky subscribers in New York City.  It was a newspaper born in exile. Alexander Hamilton, former treasury secretary, had returned to Gotham out of power and disliked by members of his own party, the Federalists.  His political career was in tatters. If you’ve seen Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton,” go ahead and sing along: Hamilton had admitted to a torrid extramarital affair. He had publicly bashed the party’s leader, President John Adams. And in early 1801, Hamilton’s influence swayed the election to Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson. Adams didn’t agree with Jefferson, but thought him a man of principle and preferable to his opponent, Aaron Burr.  Hamilton was 43, with a wife and 8 children and only a law office to support them. Democratic-Republicans controlled the presidency and Congress. Newspapers were the primary way to spread political ideas, but the Federalist-leaning papers in New York were moribund. One, the Commercial Advertiser, was derided by another paper as “too drowsy to be of service to any cause; it is a powerful opiate.” Hamilton saw one option: Start his own.  And he did, and it survives today.  And it is firmly in our political corner.

November 15, 2021