56-Downed-Up Charges
"Midrash" by George Barany, Christopher Adams, Martin Herbach, and Alex Vratsanos (May 2016)

Several members of our group are simultaneously fascinated and horrified by the unfolding Presidential election campaign, and find ourselves compelled to provide rapid-response commentary via the medium we know and love best. The present puzzle was inspired—a word that must be used with considerable trepidation—by a "Twitter war" that recently broke out between the presumptive Republican nominee (68-Across/56-Down) and the Democratic Senator from Massachusetts (3-Down). For overall orientation on these current news events, please click here or here.

Our purpose here is to provide non-comprehensive scholarly backup to some of the clues in our puzzle, sans further editorialization and certainly without endorsing any of the offensive viewpoints therein reported. We do hope that you find some our links amusing, or even fodder for further thought.

Across

• 4-Across FOUR freedoms [freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear; enunciated in President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's January 6, 1941 "State of the Union" address to Congress] [and did you notice the clue number is the answer?!]
• 8-Across POSADA [bonus hint to the baseball player, a 17-year teammate of Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera on the New York Yankees]
• 15-Across URGE [link is to a relevant New York Times editorial]
• 16-Across OUTFOX
• 17-Across (My)_LAI
• 19-Across CRUISE [and be sure to check out this puzzle]
• 20-Across VIZSLA
• 26-Across POOH-BAH [and the source of the image on the puzzle's main page]
• 28-Across BROWN [link is to the current Democratic Senator from Ohio, not to the Republican ex-Senator who filled Ted Kennedy's seat in a special election, but was defeated for a full-term by Elizabeth Warren]
• 37-Across NATION [self-explanatory]
• 40-Across MURAT
• 43-Across ATHENA [also (kvelling alert), click here and look at 2007]
• 45-Across AGAR_AGAR
• 47-Across NEW_(Deal), another FDR legacy
• 50-Across ISAAC_Davis [click here for image of the iconic statue by sculptor Daniel Chester French]
• 51-Across ALASKAN [link takes you to an SNL cold open starring the great Tina Fey and Darrell Hammond]
• 60-Across CORONA
• 64-Across NLU [all of the well-known alumni athletes cited in the clue played there before the University changed its name]
• 67-Across CEM(etery) [clue mentions two of the most famous cemeteries in the world; an earlier clue to Arlington National Cemetery was nixed due to the NATION dupe]

Down

• 2-Down (Mark)_TWAIN [and click here for more quotes by the great American humorist whose final resting place is in Elmira, NY]
• 3-Down ELIZABETH_WARREN [link is to her tweet that is quoted in the clue; see introductory paragraph for more about the Senator]
• 8-Down POCAHONTAS [link is to Trump's offensive tweet; click here for more about the legendary princess, and here to learn about the Disney version]
• 11-Down A_FIGHTING_CHANCE [clue quotes from New York Times book review; click here for more about the book]
• 12-Down DOSS
• 13-Down AXE
• 23-Down ION_(thruster_propulsion_technology_for_NASA) (with a verbal pun, "eye on," embedded in the clue)
• 29-Down WOMAN'S_CARD
• 34-Down ONAN [you might also enjoy this puzzle, or head down the route of Biblical scholarship eschewed by most mainstream media crossword puzzle editors]
• 35-Down VOTE
• 38-Down TEA_ACT
• 44-Down NSA
• 52-Down LEONA_(Helmsley) [wonder if she ever played the 29-Down?]
• 53-Down AISLE
• 55-Down (Roger)_AILES [FOX noise head honcho, and hence boss to Megyn Kelly]
• 58-Down [link to a tweet by The Donald on Memorial Day a year ago. Shameful!]
• 57-Down POPO
• 60-Down COD
• 61-Down NEL_(Blu,_Dipinto_di_Blu)
• 63-Down YEW

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