Dole Institute director Smith to give departing presidential lecture Nov. 23

LAWRENCE -- Free tickets are available to hear presidential historian Richard Norton Smith, outgoing director of the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas, give the final presentation of the institute's annual Presidential Lecture Series next month.

Smith will present "Ten Rules to Judge a President," an unconventional guide to the historical parlor game of presidential ranking, at 8 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 23, at the Lied Center at KU.

The Presidential Lecture Series, co-sponsored by the Dole Institute, Kansas Public Radio and the Lawrence Journal-World, is one of the signature programs developed during Smith's two-year tenure, which ends Dec. 1 when Smith becomes executive director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Ill.

This year's roster of noted presidential historians and White House insiders includes Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Caro, speaking at 8 p.m. Nov 2. Best known for his biographies detailing the life and career of Lyndon Johnson, Caro is working on a fourth installment of "The Years of Lyndon Johnson."

The series continues Nov. 9 with Roger Wilkins, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and the author of "Jefferson's Pillow: The Founding Fathers and the Dilemma of Black Patriotism," and with David Gergen on Nov. 16. Gergen has served as presidential adviser for former Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. He wrote "Eyewitness to Power," is a faculty member at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government and is a frequently seen political analyst on ABC's "Nightline."

For tickets to the lectures call the Lied Center box office, (785) 864-2787, between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. weekdays. Admission is free and open to the general public.

The Dole Institute opened in July and since has attracted more than 40,000 visitors. Admission is free, and the institute is open 9 a.m to 5 p.m. daily. For more information, call (785) 864-4900 or visit http://www.doleinstitute.org.