Politics Daily http://www.politicsdaily.com Politics Daily http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.politicsdaily.com/media/feedlogo.gif Politics Daily http://www.politicsdaily.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/Warren Christopher, Former Secretary of State, Democratic Wise Man, Dead at 85http://politicsdaily.com/2011/03/19/warren-christopher-former-secretary-of-state-democratic-wise-m/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/03/19/warren-christopher-former-secretary-of-state-democratic-wise-m/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/03/19/warren-christopher-former-secretary-of-state-democratic-wise-m/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , ,

Former Secretary of State Warren M. Christopher, who served as secretary of state in the Clinton administration during the bloody ethnic conflicts in the Balkans, died Friday from complications of kidney and bladder cancer. He was 85.

After four years as the nation's top diplomat, Christopher stepped down to serve as a senior adviser to Al Gore's 2000 White House campaign, leading the vice president's legal team during the disputed post-election recount in Florida.

President Obama, in a statement Saturday, called Christopher a "skilled diplomat, a steadfast public servant and a faithful American."

Obama said Christopher was "deeply dedicated to serving his country" during a career that included World War II service in the Naval Reserve, a U.S. Supreme Court clerkship, a law practice in California and Washington, and a role as a much sought-after adviser to Democratic politicians.

"As President Clinton's secretary of state, he was a resolute pursuer of peace, leading negotiations with regard to the Middle East and the Balkans, including the Dayton [Ohio] agreement, which ended the war in Bosnia," Obama said. Christopher was also a U.S. negotiator in the 1981 release of American hostages in Iran.

Former President Jimmy Carter, in his memoirs, called him "the best public servant I ever knew."

Christoper died at his home in Los Angeles, the Associated Press reported.

 

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]]>dailyguidanceWarren ChristopherPolitics Daily Staff2011-03-19T14:14:00+00:00Obama Jokes for His Supper at His First Gridiron Dinner Appearance as Presidenthttp://politicsdaily.com/2011/03/13/obama-jokes-for-his-supper-at-his-first-appearance-at-exclusive/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/03/13/obama-jokes-for-his-supper-at-his-first-appearance-at-exclusive/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/03/13/obama-jokes-for-his-supper-at-his-first-appearance-at-exclusive/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Bowing to precedent -- and perhaps the advice of his 2012 campaign staff -- President Obama attended a Gridiron Dinner on Saturday night for the first time since winning the White House.

He had skipped the two previous white-tie banquets and amateur theatricals where some of Washington's top journalists spoof the political/media establishment in song, dance and ridiculous costumes. But on Saturday night, Obama duly snarked for his supper by mocking himself, potential rivals and the tradition-bound club that even in this age of Twitter and You Tube, steadfastly bars TV coverage.

As commander-in-chief, he signaled Marine Gunnery Sgt. Kevin Bennear, one of the club's musically gifted ringer members, to "play that song we talked about," meaning the loud and proud "Born in the U-S-A, Born in the U-S-A" refrain made famous by Bruce Springsteen.

"Some things just bear repeating," Obama said of the lyrics, as if there might be any birthers questioning his citizenship among more than 630 politicians, government and media heavyweights who packed the Renaissance Hotel ballroom for the priciest and most exclusive of Washington's press celebrations of itself. ($300 per ticket, and a fraction of the more than 2,000 expected at next month's White House Correspondents' Association Dinner).

Then, taking aim at his hosts, whose predecessors entertained their first White House guests 126 years ago, Obama ticked off the heady events of 2011 that topped old regimes elsewhere in the world and said, "Look out, Gridiron Club."

Related Stories

He had other targets, of course, some of them in the audience and most already ridiculed onstage in elaborately costumed Republican and Democratic skits.

Commenting on the "unusual skin tone" (translate orange) of the absent Speaker John Boehner, Obama said he used to think it was a tan until he saw how often his nemesis got weepy: "I realize that's not a tan, it's rust."

Noting a new civility (really?) that has "people with strong disagreements getting along as never before," Obama cited Mitt Romney, the "former Massachusetts governor and presidential candidate working together by sharing a host body. It's inspiring...and creepy."

Obama thanked the rotund Republican Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi -- not known for his athleticism -- for backing first lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" anti-obesity initiative. "Haley, when Michelle said you should run, she didn't mean for president," the president said.

As for the also-absent Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama said her passion for recent Middle East regime change made it "hard to sleep with Hillary out on Pennsylvania Avenue shouting and throwing rocks."

The president had barbs for the dinner's two other speakers, Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana, a possible 2012 White House contender, and Democratic Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, a former Kansas governor who has struggled to push Obama's embattled health care plan.

"Mitch tore into his filet like it was a public employee," Obama said of Daniels, who reversed the requirement that state workers be union members. He cited Daniels's prior experience as a pharmaceutical executive and President George W. Bush's budget chief. "I don't have a joke here," Obama said. "I just wanted to put that out."

Having asked his own cabinet members to "cut things they care about, in Kathleen's case it was her once-promising political career."

Earlier Daniels, his right arm in a sling following rotator cuff surgery, went after Obama by recalling the Democratic candidate's private remarks to big party donors about conservatives clinging hard to their guns and their religion. "Mr. President, until I get this thing off, I can cling to my gun or my Bible, but not both," Daniels said.

At 5 feet 7 inches and balding, Daniels, who said he's still mulling whether to run, ticked off
a string adjectives used to describe him in recent news stories. "Small, stiff, short, pale, unimposing, unassuming, uninspiring, understated, uncharismatic, accountant-like, non-telegenic, boring, balding, blunt, nerdy, wooden, wonky, puny, and pint-sized," he said. "Really, it all points to one inescapable conclusion: It's destiny!"

In her speech, Sebelius told Daniels they had much in common. "We're both Midwest governors, we've both been cabinet members and neither of us is going to be president in 2012," she said.

Saying one reason she took her current job was because "it came with great health insurance," Sebelius then announced a plan to put TSA airport screeners in the HHS building "making it a lot easier for the businessman on the go by allowing him to get a boarding pass and a colonoscopy at the same time."

Among all that levity a couple of backstories played out.

At a time of toxic partisanship in Washington, the 65-member Gridiron Club (disclosure alert: I was tapped to join in 1990) and its swank dinner offers the chance for political adversaries to share a night of conversation, merriment, political gossip and agenda promoting.

But it's also the kind of gathering that make cynical voters outside the Beltway think there's not a dime's worth of difference between the two political parties, and that the relationship between the pols and the press is entirely too cozy and elitist.

The Gridiron president, Susan Page of USA Today, took note of that when she said in her welcoming speech that all those swells dressing up in white tie and sipping fine wine and hanging out for an evening "is exactly what the tea party suspected."

Then there is the irony of the Gridiron's policy of barring TV cameras, photographers and non-member, non-guest journalists from covering the dinner.

This is the 25th consecutive year C-SPAN has been denied access, prompting Mark Knoller, longtime White House correspondent for CBS Radio and not a Gridiron member, to Tweet that although Gridiron members attending the event are allowed to cover it, "barring WH press pool coverage of a presidential event is indefensible."

But Page told Politics Daily that transparency is maintained by all those reporters at the dinner who file stories after it's over, and who attend the Friday dress rehearsal to see the costumes and hear the lyrics. She also told me there is no great move afoot among members to push for TV cameras inside the room.

In part, it's to preserve a little mystery and exclusivity. But let's not kid ourselves. There probably aren't too many Gridiron members -- or their bosses who pick up the considerable dinner tab - very eager to end up on C-SPAN or You Tube dressed as a Hell's Angel, a drag queen or a dancing oil rig.

As Obama left the ballroom Saturday night, he had one bit of cheery news for the crowd: "The bar will be open till midnight and last time I checked, so will the government." Actually, the after-party was still going strong early Sunday.

 

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]]>Haley BarbourAnnie Groer2011-03-13T11:48:00+00:00The Gridiron Club's 2011 Political/Media Roast and Toast Lyricshttp://politicsdaily.com/2011/03/13/the-gridiron-clubs-2011-political-media-roast-and-toast-lyrics/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/03/13/the-gridiron-clubs-2011-political-media-roast-and-toast-lyrics/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/03/13/the-gridiron-clubs-2011-political-media-roast-and-toast-lyrics/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Once again, you won't see this costumed spoof on C-SPAN or YouTube, unless someone among the record 633 invited guests at Saturday night's 126th annual Gridiron Dinner surreptitiously captures the singing, dancing and wise-cracking and posts it online.

Of course there's always a chance an adroit cellphone or camera-toting guest will violate club rules, either at the dinner or at Sunday's matinee reprise show, thus busting an image-less tradition in place since 1885.

Say what you will about the irony or hypocrisy of a group of journalists barring media cameras from broadcasting the onstage antics (C-SPAN has been asking to do just that for a quarter century). Only the speeches by President Obama, Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana (cracking jokes for the Republicans) and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sibelius (doing stand-up for the Dems) will be on the written record, although many more details will likely leak out.

In a nod to the times, tweeting, Facebooking and other instant communication about all aspects of the dinner were embargoed until it ended.

So in the interest of semi-transparency, herewith the lyrics from every parody performed
this weekend by nearly 100 journalists and a handful of vocally-blessed ringers with truly great voices.

Don't Stop Believin' (Journey/Glee)

DEMOCRATIC CHEERLEADERS singing about Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Obama

DEM CHEERLEADER 1

He came from Ha-wai-i, with hope, change and audacity.
Now two years later and he is on the run.

DEMOCRATIC CHEERLEADER 2

In a designer blouse, not long ago she ruled the House. She lost her power, and it's just no damn fun.

DEMOCRATIC CHEERLEADER 1

He calls her on the telephone.

DEMOCRATIC CHEERLEADER 2

Says Nancy, are you all alone?

BOTH

For a moment, they both shut their eyes, and dream on and on and on and on.
What if midterms, had turned out very differently?

DEMOCRATIC CHEERLEADER 1

What if red states had turned blue?

CHEERLEADER 1

What if we could, cap and trade and then we'd save the whales.

CHEERLEADER 2

Health care for all,

DEMOCRATIC CHEERLEADER 2

Dental too!

BOTH

Don't stop, believin'.

REPUBLICAN CHEERLEADERS 1& 2

Who are you deceivin'?

DEMOCRATIC CHEERLEADER 1

We're cooked.

DEMOCRATIC CHEERLEADER 2

We're through.

DEMOCRATIC CHEERLEADERS 1 & 2

Whoa oh oh!
Don't stop believin'.

REPUBLICAN CHEERLEADERS 1& 2

Dudes, you must be dreamin'.

DEMOCRATIC CHEERLEADER 1

Farewell.

DEMOCRATIC CHEERLEADER 2

Aloha.

DEMOCRATIC CHEERLEADERS 1 & 2

Whoa oh -oh!

CHORUS

Don't stop!


LIVIN' ON A PRAYER (Bon Jovi/Glee)

REPUBLICAN CHEERLEADER 1

Boehner used to work in a bar.
Palin hunts for moose, they're not very far.
Like Russia, they're in her yard.

REPUBLICAN CHEERLEADER 2

Bachmann would repeal this whole room.
Newt is back for more, O'Donnell might fly in soon, On her broom.

REPUBLICAN CHEERLEADER 1 & 2

Now, that we're run by the Tea Party
Let's fire all the unions, make them work for free.
With God and money we rule the House for now,
Just don't ask us how.

REPUBLICAN CHEERLEADER 1

Are we screwed next year?

DEMOCRATIC CHEERLEADERS 1 & 2

Hell yeah! You haven't got a prayer.

REPUBLICAN CHEERLEADER 2

Senate seemed to be so near.

DEMOCRATIC CHEERLEADERS 1 & 2

No way, you haven't got a prayer.

CHORUS

Haven't got a prayer!


TIME WARP (Rocky Horror Show/Glee)

SPEAKER

And now the part, where we sing 'bout ourselves.
I apologize, boss, if this causes any stress.
But fair is fair, and no one is exempt here,
So now it's time, to poke fun at the press.

PRESS CHEERLEADER 1

I remember, when newspapers were dying
Network ratings in the dumps, it surely looked like the end.
The furloughs were appalling, but then Bloomberg started calling.
We're back in business again.

CHORUS

We're back in business again.

PRESS CHEERLEADER 2

There's Arianna on the left.

PRESS CHEERLEADER 1

Glenn Beck's on the right.

PRESS CHEERLEADER 2

Juan Williams works for Fox now.

PRESS CHEERLEADER 1 NPR?

Not so bright.

PRESS CHEERLEADER 2

Is that Jul-i-an Assange there?

PRESS CHEERLEADER 1

No, he's not that insane.

BOTH

But thanks, Jules, your leaks were our gain.

CHORUS

We're back in business again.

REPORTER

I took a flogging, before I started blogging,
Each morning I write tweets, then switch to video.
I like to write at Starbucks, it's like the newsroom 'cept it don't suck,
Maybe I'll go to work at Patch, and cover 'burbs in Kokomo.
Politico sent out a news alert, in just one hour it's the thirty-third.
The cycle never stops, 24-7 in the know.
Enrollment's up in J-school. We're the cool kids but not that cool.

DEMOCRATIC AND REPUBLICANS CHEERLEADERS AND REPORTER

So welcome to Gridiron, my friends.

CHORUS

Welcome to Gridiron, again.
Wel-come to Grid-iron, a-gain.


KNOCK AROUND BARACK (Rock Around the Clock, Bill Haley)

Cast portraying Republican Reps. Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy, Paul Ryan, Darrell Issa

CANTOR

House went up 63, thanks a lot Barack
Six more seats in the Senate, thanks a lot Barack
Boehner's now the Speaker, and the Dem's are still in shock
We're gonna knock Barack around the clock
Pick your spending cuts, and come with us
We'll put it all in an Omnibus

RYAN, McCARTHY, ISSA

We're gonna block Barack around the clock
We're gonna block block block it's our bedrock
We're gonna rock gonna rock our great big voting bloc

CANTOR

When health care dies, and earmarks flee
We'll owe a debt to the tea par-ty

TRIO

We're gonna move Obama to the right
We're gonna mock mock mock his election fright
We're gonna talk, gonna talk, and then we might indict

CANTOR

Republicans will have our way
We'll protect your wealth when you pass away
We're gonna knock Barack around the clock
It's just a recipe for more gridlock
We're gonna block, gonna block Barack around the clock.

CHORUS

We're gonna block Barack around the clock
It's a recipe for more gridlock
We're gonna knock, gonna knock Barack around the clock.


A BOEHNER MEDLEY (From: Johnny Angel, Shelley Fabares, and It's My Party, Lesley Gore)

Cast portraying John Boehner

LEAD SINGER

Johnny Boehner (GIRL GROUP: Johnny Boehner), he's our Speaker (he's our speaker)
He's got charm and grace and such élan
We Republicans are thrilled
That he's our No. 1 man

Johnny Boehner (GIRLS: Johnny Boehner), how we love him (how we love him)
He's the one who some of us adore
How we hold our breath when votes
Are counted on the House floor

He gets headaches
All his ducks in a row
Shot down by his own folks
No wonder that he smokes
In his loafers, and his bright-colored ties
At least he wears a shirt
While others online flirt

Johnny Boehner (GIRLS: Johnny Boehner), we still love him (we still love him)
He's so orange, suave and doctrinaire
If his convictions have to die
At least he'll do it with flair

ALL SHOUT: LOOK! HERE HE IS NOW!

BOEHNER (It's My Party and I'll Cry If I Want To)

Nobody knows just how hard it can be
Keeping a caucus in line;
Right wingers go their own way.
They pay their speaker no mind.

I'm try'n to show them some leadership here
Some gravitas and some gu-uts;
How did I end up in bed
With all these Tea Party nuts?

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to,
Cry if I want to, Cry if I want to;
You would cry too if it happened to you.


LADIES OF MAINE (Lady of Spain, Eddie Fisher)

Cast portraying: Republican Sens. Jim DeMint; Sen. Rand Paul; Sen. Olympia Snowe

DUET

Ladies of Maine, we abhor you
Loyalty means nothing to you
How could you work with those yahoos?
Just when we needed you most?

Stimulus money, how could you?
Gays and abortion, why would you?
Tea party's now aiming for you
Ladies of Maine, you'll be toast.

CHORUS:

Ladies of Maine, you'll be toast


REPUBLICAN MEMOIRS (Paperback Writer, The Beatles)
Cast portraying George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, and Dick Cheney

BUSH

Hey Dick and Rummy, did you read my book?
It took me DAYS to write, you should take a look
it's based on my mem'ry of decider days
how I got Saddam,
Even when I learned that he had no weapons

CHORUS

He had no weapons

RUMSFELD

Iraq's my story and I do confess
How because of YOU it became a mess
Paul Bremer, Condi Rice and Colin too
Screwed the whole thing up
Never told me that we needed more troops there
Needed more troops there

CHORUS:

Needed more troops there...troops there....troops there...

CHENEY

Mine will come out soon and then I'll settle scores
Like Iraqi prisoners you'll be on all fours
Al Qaeda's working to destroy this place,
Still a real grave threat
But Obama knows that we did the right things

CHORUS:

We did the right things

BUSH, RUMSFELD, CHENEY

If you really like them you can have our rights,
We can make a movie for you overnight.

BUSH: Brad Pitt, RUMSFELD: George Clooney, CHENEY: and Matt Damon too.

They can play our parts
Just as long as they can make us look macho
Make us look macho

CHORUS:

Make them look macho...macho...macho


FINGER IN THE WIND (Candle in the Wind, Elton John)

Cast portraying GOP Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham

MCCAIN:

Gays in the military
Used to never bother me at all
I was happy once letting
The Joint Chiefs make that call
And on immigration,
You know my old stance was withdrawn
And my message, it became:
"Hey Juan, get off my lawn." [shout this line]

And it may seem to you I lived last year
With my finger in the wind
Never knowing what to cling to
'Cause I had to win
And when it comes to all your judgments
Frankly, I don't give a damn.
I still have my Senate seat
And my best friend, Lindsey Graham

CHORUS
He still has his Senate seat
And his best friend, Lindsey Graham


LEADER OF THE PAC (Leader of the Pack, the Shangri-Las)
Cast portraying Mitch Daniels and Girl Group

SPOKEN:

MITCHETTE 1

Is she really gonna give to HIM ?

MITCHETTE 2

Well, there she is. Let's ask her.

MITCHETTE 1

Betty - Is that Mitch's PAC you're supporting?

BETTY:

Mm-hmm

MITCHETTE 2

Gee - it must be great giving to Mitch.
Is he doing anything for you?

BETTY

Uhn - uhn

MITCHETTE 1

By the way, where'd you meet him?

SUNG:

Betty:

I met him at the O-M-B
He read tax code and rules to me
You get the picture?

MITCHETTES

Yes, we see

BETTY:

So now I give to the AIMING HIGHER PAC.
(Motorcycle Noise)
Some folks say he's a true heavyweight (Mitchettes: weight, weight)
Though he may come from a really dull state

MITCHETTES

(Watcha mean when ya say that he comes from a really dull state?)

BETTY

They said he had no height
But I fell for his might
That's why I give to the AIMING HIGHER PAC
(Motorcycle Noise)
One day I might want somebody new (Mitchettes: new, new)
But till then Mitch will just have to do

MITCHETTES

(Watcha mean when ya say that ya might want somebody new?)

BETTY

My Hoosier's plans are grand
But sometimes he seems bland

CHORUS

But still she gives to the AIMING HIGHER PAC

THE IMPOSSIBLE TWEET (The Impossible Dream, from Man of La Mancha)

SARAH PALIN character

To tweet the un-thought-about tweet
To own my own name through trademark
To scorn those who opine against me
To shoot caribou on a lark

To give those at C-Pac the shaft
To star in reality shows
To bear the unbearable liberals
To blog about things I don't know

This is my quest
To side-step the press
To run if I want to
Not under duress

To fight for the right
And to lay waste the left
To be willing to refudiate
Without knowledge or heft

And I know if I only stay true
To my Tea Party base
That my books and my speeches will sell
If I just show my face

CHORUS

And her world will be richer for this
Who needs work or an office to seek

PALIN

I'll rise as a modern-day Shakespeare
To tweet the un-thought-about tweet


I'VE SEEN EVERYONE (I've Been Everywhere, Hank Snow)
Cast portraying Karl Rove and various GOP presidential candidates names in the song

ROVE

Well, back in the day, you know
They called me the ARCHitect
I had a certain knack for knowin'
Who the people WOULD elect

But this time I dunno unless
There's someone I've missed
And, listen, man, I've looked at
Every hopeful on the list!

I've seen every one, man
I've seen every one, man
Sure as the mornin' sun, man
They all wanna run, man
Egos by the ton, man
I've seen every one.

I've seen...
Romney, Huckabee, Christie, Giuliani
Johnson, Huntsman, Daniels and Pawlenty
Roemer, Cain, DeMint, Santorum
Trump, Bush, Bachmann, Barbour and Bolton
Perry and Pence and Palin and Paul
Gingrich, too, I've seen 'em all.

Tim is excitin' -- NO, not very
But HE's got Red Hot Smokin' Mary
Cain's an expert with a pizza
Mitch, he's shorter than Scalia
Haley hopes he can win it all,
And history'll get an overhaul.

I've seen every one, man
I've seen every one, man
Sure as the mornin' sun, man
They all wanna run, man
Egos by the ton, man
I've seen every one.

I've seen ...
Huckabee at his weekly weigh-in
Sarah Palin out surveyin'
Eye of Newt and chin of Romney
Guy in drag, that's Giuliani
Mitt, he's drivin' fast and far
With man's best friend strapped to his car.

John McCain, I guess he's history
What he's thinkin', it's a mystery
Where the heck is Harold Stassen
Guess he's pushin' up the grass..an'
Someone mentioned Alan Keyes

CHORUS (Shouted)

Not again!! Oh, spare us please!

CHORUS

We've seen every one, man
We've seen every one, man
Sure as the mornin' sun, man
They all wanna run, man
Egos by the ton, man

ROVE

I've seen every one.


EVERYTHING's COMING UP ROSES (Gypsy)

Cast portraying Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid

PELOSI

Things are swell!

REID

Things are fine!

PELOSI

Harry's still got his JOB, I got mine

REID

Now we're back.

PELOSI

Frick and Frack.
REID

Nancy, everything's coming up roses!
PELOSI

Lost the House
REID

That's okay

PELOSI

Running things was a drag anyway

REID

Budget cuts? Not for us

PELOSI

Honey, we would be holding our noses!

REID

Who needs winning! Power's lost its lus-TER

PELOSI

My head was spinning!
REID

It's our turn to filibus-TER!
PELOSI

We give up! To the right!
REID

Let them get 60 votes every night!
PELOSI

Our stimulus ... will stimulate!
REID

Any year now! Just you wait!
PELOSI

There's really nothing left for us to do!

REID

Nancy, everything's coming up roses for me and you!
PELOSI

Boehner's in charge; let's see how much that he can do!
BOTH

The mess that we left him will mess up his Tea Party!
CHORUS

Everything's coming up roses for you and for me!



JUST LIKE A LIBERAL (Bob Dylan's Just Like a Woman)

Cast portraying Howard Dean

HOWARD DEAN

Nobody feels any change
Since that election night Chicago - it's all the same!
Everyone supposed, we knew `The One' we chose
But lately we seen the emperor has no clothes
Now we're wondering: Who's that man?

(refrain)
He looks just like a lib-ral
Yes he does and he writes books just like a lib-ral
Yes and his knee jerks just like a lib-ral
But he works with ... the Re-pub-li-CANS


John Boehner's his new friend
Can you believe they cut the rich man's tax again?
What were those campaign pledges worth?
Quell the oceans, heal the earth
Don't ask don't tell the country of your birth
End the war, close Guantanamo - "No we can't!"

(refrain)
He's so cool just like a lib-ral
Yes he is Harvard Law School just like a lib-ral
Suffers us fools, just like a lib-ral
SOLOIST and CHORUS: But he rules with Republi-CANS


MY FAVORITE FRIENDS (My Favorite Things from "The Sound of Music")

Cast portraying Sec. of State Hillary Clinton and global leaders named in the skit:

(Spoken) Oh, no! We said WHAT about WHO?

How dare that Wiki-Leaks publish our super-secret cables? Can you imagine
a world where diplomats say what they really think about foreign leaders?

Well it would certainly make it more fun to listen to Hillary Clinton. Here
comes our frequent-flying secretary of state now.

HILLARY CLINTON, singing:

A thin-skinned French MIDGET who goes by Sar-KO-zy
A dirty old man that they CALL Berlus-CO-ni
A nut job named KARzai who we must defend
These are a few of my favorite friends

Kim JONG-il's a drunken delusional FAT man
MedVEDev and Putin are Robin and BATman
In a Mafia state run by Russian made-men
CHORUS: These are a few of my favorite friends

Germany's MERK-el is timid and NER-vous
QuaDAffi's had sexy UKRAINian nurses
Prince ANdrew's bad language can SOMEtimes offend
CHORUS: These are a few of her favorite friends

After long flights
When this job bites
When I'm feeling bleak
I simply imagine my favorite friends
When they see their WI-ki leak

IT WAS NEWS TO ME (You Belong to Me)

Cast portraying CIA Director Leon Panetta:

PANETTA

See the pyramids along the Nile.
Authoritarians were just our style.
Revolutions brewing all the while
How was I to see?

Tunis, Cairo, those kids ran amok
Hid their plans where we would never look
A very secret place they call Facebook
It was news to me.

Could it be that after all those years
Of giving tyrants cash and guns and gear
Egypt, Bahrain all that oil so dear
Won't belong to us?

CHORUS

Won't belong to us!

_________________________________________________

TSA MEDLEY (Heigh-Ho from "Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs" and Give up the Funk)

TSA SCREENER

Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho! To frisk you we must go! We'll reach way down and grope around!
Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho.

Heigh-ho Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho! We'll goose you 'til you glow!
We're going to look, in every nook! Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho!

If you say NO, say NO! To X-Ray you must go! And we'll divulge your every bulge!
Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho!

Heigh-ho Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho! This may feel kind of low!
If it's a pain, then take the train! Heigh Ho! Heigh-Ho

HARRIED AIR TRAVELER

You got a late flight to catch, you're in line, losing time
There's a whole lot of waitin' goin' on (Heigh-ho!)
You feel a hand on your waist, moving 'round, slidin' down
There's a whole lot of feelin' goin' on (Heigh-ho!)

Don't touch my junk! (Heigh-ho!)
CHORUS: Don't touch my junk! (Heigh-ho!)
I know my rights! (Heigh-ho!)
Stay outta my tights! (Heigh-ho!)
When did the courts (Heigh-ho!)
Let you into my shorts? (Heigh-ho!)
Yo, screener punk! (Heigh-ho!)
CHORUS: Don't touch my junk!
_____________________________________________________________

SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW (from the Wizard of Oz)

Cast portraying Health Sec. Kathleen Sebelius and characters from The Wizard of Oz

SECRETARY SEBELIUS

Somewhere over the rainbow
Mandates lay.
We made sure they won't start 'til
After Election Day.

Somewhere over the rainbow
Cost curves bend,
And the savings we promised
Will cause the debt to end.

But if you have a slacker son
Who's sitting home upon his bum,
He's covered.

And if conditions pre-exist,
You won't lack coverage due to risk.
Don't you just love this?!

Somewhere over the rainbow
Folks will see
A better system if it's fine
with Justice Kennedy.
Some day they'll thank us, yes they will,
But only after
They...get...very ... ill.


TRIANGULATE (Twist and Shout)
Cast portraying Bill Clinton

Well, take it from Bubba now (CHORUS: take it from Bubba)
Tri-ANG-u-LATE! (CHORUS: tri-ang-u-late)
Fake it, fake it, Obama now (CHORUS: fake it Obama)
For me it worked great. (CHORUS: It worked great)

You're going to look so tight (CHORUS: look so tight)
You're going to look so slick (CHORUS: look so slick)
Play the left against the right now (CHORUS: left against right)
Just like I did in 96 (CHORUS: ninety-six)

[8-bar dance break]

CHORUS

Aaah, aaah, aaah, aaah, (squeal)

Well, it's really not that hard now (CHORUS: not that hard)
Tri-ANG-u-LATE! (CHORUS: triangulate!)
Your opponents aren't that smart now (CHORUS: not that smart)
You know they'll take the bait (CHORUS: Take the bait, oooh!)

You're a silver-tongued devil, (CHORUS: silver-tongued devil)
There's no one so deft (CHORUS: none so deft)
You can own the whole center now (CHORUS: own the whole center)
If you freak out the Left (CHORUS: freak out the left!)

CHORUS

Aaah, aaah, aaah, aaah


"MAKE IT STOP" ("Start Me Up" Rolling Stones)

RED CHEERLEADER 1

Yeah we started up
So long ago you thought we'd never stop
Since we started up
You wondered when the show would ever stop

We've been on so long
Bill Daley's nappin' on a table top
Seventh course is done
Alan Greenspan's beggin'make it stop, make it stop, make it, make it, make it stop

We've made you ladies sigh
We've made you grown men cry
We singe but never fry
Sometimes we're cute, sometimes we're mean
Sometimes out meaning is impossible to glean

CHORUS

Time to stop
Time to stop


"THE GRIDIRON PLAYERS'' ("Livin' on a Prayer" Bon Jovi)

BLUE CHEERLEADER 1

They got some nerve to stand up on stage

They're barely employed, they don't act their age
They lust for . . . your gaffes

They been from Dogpatch to Camelot
Coverin' politicians some were clean some not
For tellin' truth to power they're OK but -- for laughs
Is this all they got?

Whoa-oh the Gridiron players
Whoa-no they don't have a prayer
They got a band, pretty costumes to wear
But whoa-no they don't have a prayer

CHORUS

Whoa-oh the Gridiron players
Whoa-no they don't have a prayer
They got a band, pretty costumes to wear
But whoa-no they don't have a prayer


"THE GRIDIRON-RON'' ("Da Doo Ron Ron," Crystals)

RED CHEERLEADERS; BLUE CHEERLEADERS; OLD NEWSBOY;
GOOD-GIRL & BAD-GIRL GROUPS
RED CHEER 1

Tonight we showed the world the way to get along

RED DUET

At Gridiron-ron at Gridiron

RED CHEER 2

Just drink a glass of wine and sing a silly song

CHORUS

At Gridiron-ron at Gridiron
RED DUET

Strange bedfellows
Dancing dosi-dos
'Til the curtains close
CHORUS

At Gridiron-ron at Gridiron

BLUE CHEER 1

Sebelius tried sell us medicine

BLUE DUET

At Gridiron-ron at Gridiron
BLUE CHEER 2

Mitch Daniels rocked us like a crazy man
CHORUS

At Gridiron-ron, at Gridiron
BLUE DUET

Monday we will fight
But we're friends tonight
By the rosy light
Of Gridiron-ron of Gridiron

OLD NEWS

We started up the show in 1885
CHORUS

The Gridiron-ron, the Gridiron

OLD NEWS

Some of us remember 'cause we're still alive

QUINTET

At Gridiron, son, at Gridiron

QUINTET

O say can you see
Sweet Civility
Baby 'tis of thee
We sing at Gridir'n at Gridi-ron

CHORUS REPEATS VERSE

O say can you see . . .

 

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]]>Annie Groer2011-03-13T11:43:00+00:00Why Gingrich Needs to Find His Inner Victimhttp://politicsdaily.com/2011/03/10/why-gingrich-needs-to-find-his-inner-victim/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/03/10/why-gingrich-needs-to-find-his-inner-victim/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/03/10/why-gingrich-needs-to-find-his-inner-victim/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , , ,

Newt Gingrich has always been a hard guy to feel sorry for, given his blustery and often bilious political opinions and an indulgent personal life marked by three marriages and a chilling indifference to the dire circumstances of his jilted spouses.

As David Frum put it, "It's not the infidelity. It's the arrogance, hypocrisy, and -- most horrifying to women voters -- the cruelty. Anyone can dump one sick wife. Gingrich dumped two."

And yet Gingrich's latest explanation for his tendency to stray from his vows -- an attempt to soften his image with the public ahead of an expected run for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination -- doesn't seem to be helping, either.

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"There's no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate," Gingrich told David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network on Monday.

The former House speaker's effort to explain (he did not excuse) his love affairs as stemming from his love of country was, of course, shark bait for pundits and humorists, with the award for best satire going to Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic. He brilliantly skewered Newt's passionate patriotism with a breast-heaving riff: "Sure, I noticed her purple mountain majesties as soon as she walked in the room. I mean, who didn't? Believe me, in a sweater, those purple mountains sure were majestic."

So what should Gingrich do to try and improve his likability -- if that's possible -- ahead of his expected campaign launch, which is now shifted to May?

Research suggests that Gingrich should try to make himself into a martyr of sorts, or find some way to cast himself as a victim.

For Gingrich to do that, he can't just portray himself as a heroic figure whose good public deeds outweigh his personal failings in some cosmic balance sheet.

Kurt Gray, a social psychologist and the director of the Mind Perception and Morality Lab at the University of Maryland, and Daniel M. Wegner, a professor of psychology at Harvard, write in the current edition of "The Journal of Experimental Social Psychology" that sinners who adopt a "hero strategy" of emphasizing their good deeds to overcome negative perceptions about them were likely to suffer a backlash instead of an improvement in their standing.

On the other hand, Gray and Wegner cited three studies that found that adopting a "victim strategy" was effective and "consistently reduced blame" in the eyes of others.

"In fact, people have a hard time even remembering the misdeeds of a victim," Gray wrote in a March 7 column at "Science and Religion Today." "There's something about victims that seems to be a nonstick blame coating."

Gingrich could certainly use some of that Teflon. Whether he can get it is questionable.

Gray explains that while people like to believe they judge the world by distinction of good and evil, in fact we tend to divide up the moral world into "agents" and "patients." The agent is one who does the deed, whether good or bad -- a rescuer or a thief, for example -- while the patient is the one who is rescued or robbed.

People tend to sympathize with "patients," that is, victims, rather than "agents."

In other words, a man of action like Gingrich is always likely to be seen as more responsible and more culpable than a more passive person, or someone who is perceived as having suffered, even if that victim is blameworthy in some other respect.

Consider Donald Trump, also a thrice-married potential GOP contender, who last week beat Gingrich to the punch when he told The Des Moines Register that "one of the reasons I was divorced is because I worked very hard."

"And, you know, that's a good reason," Trump continued.

Well, it may actually not be such a great reason, when it comes to voters.

It doesn't help Gingrich when there are striking counterpoints to his own narrative, such as when Nevada Republican Sen. John Ensign, embroiled in an adultery scandal, announced Monday he will not seek reelection in 2012, saying "there are consequences for sin." Ensign is leaving Washington after having an affair, but Gingrich is trying to return to the place where he broke his vows.

So what can Newt do to portray himself as a victim?

He could pray for a Gingrich clone from the left to pester him much as he bird-dogged Bill Clinton in the 1990s with investigations and impeachment hearings that helped to make the Adulterer-in-Chief a popular and even pitiable figure.

So far, however, Gingrich has been focused on communal victimhood, arguing -- as he did again in his CBN interview -- that "our Judeo-Christian civilization is under attack" from "radical Islamists" and what he called "a secular, atheist, elitism," both of which "would like to eliminate our civilization if they could."

That does not seem to strike the kind of personal note most voters can connect with, however.

Gingrich has also been relying heavily on the story of his 2009 conversion to Roman Catholicism and his affecting and oft-stated belief, also repeated to David Brody, that there is a loving God of whom he has asked, and received, forgiveness.

The problem is that while God is said to rejoice more over one repentant sinner than 99 righteous folks (and God knows there are plenty of those on the campaign trail), Gingrich has to convince voters to accept him. And they're a much tougher audience than the Almighty.

 

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]]>adulterydivorcegingrich 2012newt gingrichRedemptionsinDavid Gibson2011-03-10T21:34:00+00:00White House Longs for 'Golden Era' of Balanced Budgetshttp://politicsdaily.com/2011/03/09/white-house-longs-for-golden-era-of-balanced-budgets/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/03/09/white-house-longs-for-golden-era-of-balanced-budgets/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/03/09/white-house-longs-for-golden-era-of-balanced-budgets/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , , , ,

Ah, those were the good old days.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, peppered with spending questions, couldn't hide a little nostalgia Wednesday for a simpler, more prosperous time a little more than a decade back -- a time of balanced budgets.

"There was a golden era in an administration long, long ago, where balanced budgets were created, where surpluses were created," Carney during an exchange with a reporter at his daily briefing. "Surpluses were envisioned as far as the eye could see: 1999, 2000."

Right. So it wasn't that long ago. In fiscal year 1999, with President Bill Clinton in the White House and Republicans holding a majority on Capitol Hill, the nation's budget was balanced and produced a $1.8 billion surplus. The following year the federal surplus grew to $86.4 billion. And at least some of the credit for that goes to peace, prosperity and a bipartisan, tax-raising budget deal in the early 1990s between President George H. W. Bush and the Congress.

The burst of the dot-com bubble, the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq soon erased the surplus -- and President Obama faces a deficit likely to exceed $1.5 trillion this year.

With the clock winding down on another stopgap spending plan, Carney said "we need to get very soon to the hard work, the important but achievable work of negotiating a budget deal that funds government through the end of the year, cuts spending substantially in a way all sides can agree on, and that maintains the important investments to keep our economy growing." The spokesman was back on message.

 

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]]>Bill Clintondailyguidancefederal spending cutsspendingspending cutsPolitics Daily Staff2011-03-09T17:40:00+00:00'Feelings Thermometer': Michelle Obama Ranks 'Warmest' With Voters, Pelosi 'Coldest'http://politicsdaily.com/2011/03/07/feelings-thermometer-michelle-obama-ranks-warmest-with-vote/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/03/07/feelings-thermometer-michelle-obama-ranks-warmest-with-vote/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/03/07/feelings-thermometer-michelle-obama-ranks-warmest-with-vote/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Everyone is used to the familiar "horse race" poll that tells us who is out front when it comes to a campaign, but Quinnipiac University has a different measure for some of today's leading political personalities: namely, who ranks the "warmest" and "coldest" on a "feelings thermometer"?

The winner when it comes to warmest? First lady Michelle Obama, with former President Bill Clinton close behind. The coldest? Sarah Palin and Nancy Pelosi. (Actually, Harry Reid ranks right in between them, but more later on why his result doesn't count as much).

The way Quinnipiac did this poll, which was conducted among registered voters Feb. 21-28, was to ask those surveyed to "choose any number between 0 and 100. The higher the number, the warmer or more favorable you feel toward that person, the lower the number, the colder or less favorable." The pollster then calculated a mean score for each.

But possibly a more bracing result for some of the politicians than being seen as "cold" was the measure of how little some of them are known nationwide, despite the relentless coverage they may get in Washington.

Quinnipiac asked respondents to say if they did not know enough about the person to rate him or her. The list of "least knowns" was topped by many of the Republicans who are considering making a run for president in 2012: former ambassador to China Jon Huntsman (84 percent don't know him); Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana (78 percent); former Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota (67 percent); Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi (65 percent); and former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania (63 percent).

Now, back to Harry Reid. He may be the Senate majority leader and was much in the news last year because of his high-profile re-election contest against tea party favorite Sharron Angle, but 37 percent do not know enough about him to express an opinion. That's much less the case with his company at the "cold" end of the list - Palin, who is unknown by only 4 percent, and Pelosi, unknown by 15 percent.

At the other end of the thermometer, first-term Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, who has been a hit on the speaking circuit lately, ranks as the third warmest, but 55 percent don't know enough about him, compared with Mrs. Obama (4 percent), Bill Clinton (2 percent) and President Obama (everyone knows him).

While Democrats feel almost equally warm about President Obama and Bill Clinton, Republicans are fonder of Clinton: His mean "temperature" among them was 41.5, compared with 30.4 for Obama.

The temperatures for Palin and Pelosi are a measure of how polarizing each is. Palin is seen warmly by 63.8 percent of Republicans while Pelosi gets a score of 58.2 from Democrats. But the feelings they inspire in members of the opposite party are cold indeed: Palin gets a 15.6 from Democrats and Pelosi gets a 13.1 from Republicans.

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Visit the Poll Watch Home Page and see all the latest polls in one place

 

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]]>Chris ChristieDonald TrumpHaley BarbourMichael Bloombergmichelle bachmannMitch DanielsRick SantorumRudolph GiulianiBruce Drake2011-03-07T06:30:00+00:00Gay Marriage Decision May Not Hurt Obama or Help the Religious Righthttp://politicsdaily.com/2011/02/25/gay-marriage-decision-may-not-hurt-obama-or-help-the-religious-r/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/02/25/gay-marriage-decision-may-not-hurt-obama-or-help-the-religious-r/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/02/25/gay-marriage-decision-may-not-hurt-obama-or-help-the-religious-r/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

When the Obama administration announced that it would adopt a matador defense on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the reaction from conservative Christian activists alternated between rage and celebration that the president had basically allowed the political right a slam dunk for the 2012 campaign.

The Justice Department declared that it would no longer argue in court on behalf of a key restriction against gay marriage contained in the law, which effectively gives gay marriage a pass from the executive branch -- and gives the religious right a debating point.

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But social conservatives may want to hold off on the high fives. Unlike abortion, gay marriage is not the automatic winner for the right that it was as recently as the 1990s when Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman.

Even among evangelicals and other conservatives, opposition is eroding, especially among a younger generation that doesn't see anything all that wrong with gay and lesbian couples.

Mike Huckabee, a possible 2012 presidential candidate who is far and away the front runner among Republican voters when it comes to social issues and moral values, this week conceded that reality. The former Baptist pastor noted that younger evangelicals have shown an "alarming" trend toward acceptance of homosexual relationships that could complicate political prospects for a candidate like himself who sees gay marriage as a moral threat on par with abortion.

The numbers certainly give Huckabee and his fellow opponents of gay marriage reason to worry.

Surveys in the last year show that for the first time more Americans are accepting than disapproving of "homosexual relations" (52-43 percent in a Gallup poll). Both Gallup and Pew Forum surveys last fall showed the gap is narrowing between those who disapprove of gay marriage itself and those who accept, suggesting acceptance will soon win out.

White evangelicals who form the core of the Republican right (and the tea party movement) remain the most opposed to gay marriage. However, even that opposition is easing, and it is significantly weaker among younger Christians, as Huckabee lamented. Not even a majority (just 48 percent) of white evangelicals said they opposed gays serving openly in the military, in a poll taken just before Congress voted to repeal the "Don't ask, Don't tell" (DADT) law last December. Even most Republicans under age 45 said same-sex couples should have the same benefits as opposite-sex couples, according to an Associated Press-National Constitution Center poll last summer.

As authors Robert Putnam and David Campbell write in their sweeping new study of faith in the United States, "American Grace," given these trends "homosexuality will become less attractive as a wedge issue in politics and will likely cease to be a potent issue at all." If anything, homosexuality is becoming a dividing line within the Republican Party rather than between Republicans and Democrats, as shown by the boycott of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference by some groups of social conservatives (and not others) over the presence of the conservative gay organization, GOProud.

These attitudinal shifts, along with the overriding concern about jobs and the economy, may help explain the decidedly low-key response this week from Republican leaders to Obama's DOMA decision.

Sarah Palin was quiet, and old bulls like Newt Gingrich largely confined their protests to the constitutionality of Obama's move rather than the impact on America's moral life. Tim Pawlenty said only that he was "disappointed," and a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner had an equally mild response: "While Americans want Washington to focus on creating jobs and cutting spending, the president will have to explain why he thinks now is the appropriate time to stir up a controversial issue that sharply divides the nation."

As Mark McKinnon, a Republican strategist who worked for President George W. Bush during his 2004 campaign, told The New York Times, "The wedge has lost its edge."

Indeed, marriage traditionalists like New York Times' columnist Ross Douthat has suggested gay marriage is no longer worth fighting, and in the wake of the 2009 California court ruling overturning Proposition 8, a number of leading evangelicals also said the battle wasn't justified.

There are several reasons why the Christian right is yielding this front in the culture war.

One is the disparity between what Christian conservatives preach about the sanctity of marriage and how some Christian conservatives and their leaders behave, as they seem to divorce and cheat at much the same rate as other Americans.

"In short, we have been perfect hypocrites on this issue," Christianity Today Editor Mark Galli wrote in 2009. "Until we admit that, and take steps to amend our ways, our cries of alarm about gay marriage will echo off into oblivion."

Another factor may be related, paradoxically, to the success of the pro-life movement.

America's continuing unease with abortion -- in contrast with a growing comfort level about homosexuality -- means that conservative jeremiads against allowing gay couples to adopt babies who might otherwise have been orphaned or aborted just doesn't make sense, emotionally or morally, to many traditional Christians.

"I find myself convinced of the truth of the Church's teaching, but also without a good argument for why orphans are better off languishing without loving parents than they are being in a nurturing home with a same-sex couple," blogger Rod Dreher has written.

A chief reason for the evolution among religious conservatives is one that is driving acceptance of gays among the wider public as well: familiarity.

Huckabee said this week that the change is "not surprising because every movie, every television show, every novel that many young people are exposed to is an affirmation of the rightness of gay marriage and the idiocy, if not the antiquity, of views of people like me who think some social institutions matter for a reason."

But homosexuals are emerging not just in popular culture but in the conservative world, too.

In the 2004 presidential race, gay marriage ballot measures in a dozen states (for and against) helped rally conservative voters. The head of George W. Bush's campaign at that time -- and subsequently GOP chairman -- was Ken Mehlman, who last August came out publicly as gay. A few months before that, Bush's wife, Laura, wrote in her memoir that she supports the right of gays to marry, and Cindy McCain, wife of 2008 presidential runner-up and gay marriage opponent Sen. John McCain, last year posed for an ad campaign in support of gay rights.

In April 2010, Christian music star Jennifer Knapp returned to performing after a seven-year absence, and announced that she had been in an eight-year relationship with another woman -- and was still a Christian. Gospel star Tonex came out as gay in 2009 as did Christian singer/songwriter Ray Boltz in 2008.

After this week's DOMA decision, some Republicans and their allies are making noises about passing a resolution in the House to fill the legal void left by the Obama administration's defection.

But when popular Christian singers and well-known Republicans are out of the closet or supporting their gay friends, it begins to look as though Obama has handed the GOP the one issue it doesn't need.

 

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]]>Christian conservativesChristianConservativesDefense of Marriage ActDefenseOfMarriageActDOMAgay marriageGayMarriagehomosexualityJustice DepartmentJustice Department and Defense of Marriage Actreligious rightsame-sex marriageDavid Gibson2011-02-25T20:42:00+00:00From Mike Huckabee to Sarah Palin, the Republicans Offer Indecision 2012http://politicsdaily.com/2011/02/23/from-mike-huckabee-to-sarah-palin-the-republicans-offer-indecis/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/02/23/from-mike-huckabee-to-sarah-palin-the-republicans-offer-indecis/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/02/23/from-mike-huckabee-to-sarah-palin-the-republicans-offer-indecis/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , , , ,

Like prominent Republicans from, well, Mississippi (Gov. Haley Barbour) to Alaska (c'mon, you can do it), Mike Huckabee admits that he mulls every day whether he should enter the wide-open GOP presidential contest.

But unlike other Republican White House dreamers -- with the conspicuous exception of the indefatigable Mitt Romney -- Huckabee knows the adrenaline rush and the arduous pressures of a presidential race from his quest for the 2008 GOP nomination. "If you've jumped out of an airplane," Huckabee told Washington political reporters Wednesday afternoon, "you have a whole lot better understanding of what you're going to do the next time you do it because you've done it."

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Not since New York Gov. Mario Cuomo (aka "Hamlet on the Hudson") bowed out of the 1992 Democratic presidential race with a plane waiting on the tarmac to fly him to New Hampshire has a political party been so afflicted with "to be or not to be" indecision. In a rare burst of clarity, South Dakota Sen. John Thune, after "lots of prayer," announced Tuesday that he would remain on Capitol Hill. But whether it is deciphering Sarah Palin's intentions or guessing what is going on with Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, political reporting on the potential Republican 2012 field has morphed into a branch of soothsaying.

At the Wednesday afternoon coffee organized by the Christian Science Monitor, Huckabee conveyed the impression (at least to me) that he is poised to enter the GOP fray if the politics allow him to delay until summer. "The idea that somebody would crank up a campaign as early as possible -- having been through it -- doesn't make sense," the former Arkansas governor said. With his weekend show on Fox News, his paid speeches, his new book ("A Simple Government") and, yes, hosting an early June cruise to Alaska, Huckabee, who hails from the populist wing of the Republican Party, admits, "In the last few years, I certainly have done better than I ever have in my life."

Huckabee stressed that, after cashing in his life insurance and annuities to seek the presidency in 2008, "One thing I committed to myself, my wife and God was that, if I do this, I am going to be in a position where I'm not totally destitute at the end of it." But Huckabee, who clearly is devouring poll numbers even more intensely than he checks the bestseller lists, appears to believe that he has enough name recognition and enough support to mount a credible late entry.

"I'm in a very different position that I was four years ago," he said. "Obviously, I'm better known. I'm polling at the top of virtually every national poll. . . . It doesn't mean that I can wait indefinitely. It certainly means that I would be smart . . . to wait for the field to develop."

The decision to run for president -- the ultimate triumph of narcissism and ambition over rational behavior -- is one of the least understood aspects of presidential politics. Few would-be presidents are as blunt as Jimmy Carter was in his campaign autobiography, "Why Not the Best?" Recalling how he was courted by White House contenders in both parties when he was governor of Georgia, Carter wrote, "I lost my feeling of awe about presidents." A 1970s Democrat, who fell far short on his way to the White House, argued that the mental trick was believing that you were more qualified than your rivals for the nomination -- and not that you were superior to 250 million Americans.

Many candidates have run for president before they were politically ready, whether it was Bob Dole in 1980, Al Gore and Joe Biden in 1988 (actually, he dropped out in 1987) and, yes, Barack Obama in 2008. "For up-and-comers, there is really nothing to be lost in running," said Elaine Kamarck, a former adviser to Al Gore who now teaches at Harvard's Kennedy School. "Bill Clinton -- and I was privy to conversations about this -- never expected to win the nomination in 1992. He thought Mario Cuomo would be the nominee who would lose to George H.W. Bush in November. By running, Clinton was positioning himself for 1996." Former Minnesota GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who is 50, fits this up-and-coming probable candidate profile. Little known nationally, but respected by political insiders, Pawlenty should also be thinking about 2016 as he gets ready for the ordeal of visiting all 99 counties of Iowa.

Presidential candidates not only have to believe in their almost super-human abilities and their potential to bend the national destiny in their bare hands, but they also have to see political openings where often, in reality, none exist. Larry Rasky, who advised Biden on both his 1987 and his under-funded 2008 presidential campaign, said shrewdly, "Some of these people who run know that they will have the money. Some of these people think they will have the money. And some of these people convince themselves that they will somehow have the money."

Not all presidential candidates face a wrenching decision. "Once Ronald Reagan got into politics, it seemed like the only natural end of his career was the presidency," said Republican strategist Rich Galen, who worked for Fred Thompson's failed 2008 campaign. "More recently, 'W' was like Reagan. Once he got bit by the running-for-office bug, there was no stopping him." Sitting vice presidents (unless they are counted out for health reasons like Dick Cheney) automatically run for president at the end of eight years as George H.W. Bush did in 1988 and Al Gore in 2000.

For my book on the 2004 Democratic race, "One-Car Caravan," I interviewed all the presidential contenders about their decisions to throw their hats into the ring (or a yarmulke in Joe Lieberman's case). There was something naively touching about former Florida Sen. Bob Graham, who dropped out before the Iowa caucuses, telling his wife, Adele, as they drove by the White House, "Maybe we'll be in that house over there in a couple of years." And Howard Dean -- long before he became the tribune of the anti-Iraq protest vote -- decided to run for president because the alternative was serving on corporate boards "and swearing at The New York Times every morning and saying how outrageous it was."

It has been nearly 60 years since both Dwight Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson were drafted for the 1952 presidential nominations. These days, even fake drafts (like the one that Donald Trump apparently is trying to gin up) strain credulity. In truth, the only way to run for president is to nominate yourself as a candidate. That is why the first primary takes place in the minds and hearts of the men and women who fantasize about being the 2012 Republican nominee.

Follow Walter Shapiro on Twitter (lucky you).

 

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]]>2012 Republican presidential nominationHaley BarbourMike Huckabeemitch danielsMitt RomneyRepublican presidential candidatesSarah PalinTim PawlentyWalter Shapiro2011-02-23T21:47:00+00:00Third Federal Judge OKs Affordable Care Acthttp://politicsdaily.com/2011/02/22/third-federal-judge-oks-affordable-care-act/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/02/22/third-federal-judge-oks-affordable-care-act/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/02/22/third-federal-judge-oks-affordable-care-act/#commentsFiled under: , , , , ,

A federal trial judge in Washington, D.C., Tuesday bluntly rejected the latest legal challenge to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, ruling that the "individual mandate" requirement in the new federal health care law was a legitimate exercise of congressional power to regulate the nation's health insurance initiatives.

U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler, a 1994 appointee of President Bill Clinton, declared that Congress had the authority under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution to enact the contentious 2010 law, which requires individuals to purchase health insurance starting in 2014. In rejecting an argument by the law's challengers, she said that an individual's decision not to purchase health insurance was an active choice impacting the cost of health insurance for everyone else.

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In her 64-page ruling, Kessler wrote: "Both the decision to purchase health insurance and its flip side -- the decision not to purchase health insurance -- therefore relate to the consumption of a commodity: a health insurance policy ... Because of the cost-shifting effect, the individual decision to forgo health insurance, when considered in the aggregate, leads to substantially higher insurance premiums for those other individuals who do obtain coverage."

Kessler then wrote: "To put it less analytically, and less charitably, those who choose -- and Plaintiffs have made such a deliberate choice -- not to purchase health insurance will benefit greatly when they become ill, as they surely will, from the free health care which must be provided by emergency rooms and hospitals to the sick and dying who show up on their doorstep. In short, those who choose not to purchase health insurance will ultimately get a 'free ride' on the backs of those Americans who have made responsible choices to provide for the illness we all must face at some point in our lives."

A jurist with extensive experience handling terror law cases, Kessler now becomes the third federal trial judge -- and the third Clinton appointee -- to declare the core of the Affordable Care Act constitutional after reviewing the merits of the legal claims against it. She joins U.S. District Judge Norman K. Moon in Virginia, who last December rejected a legal challenge to the new law by Liberty University, and U.S. District Judge George C. Steeh, who last October rejected another legal challenge in Michigan.

But two other federal trial judges -- both Republican appointees -- have declared the same provision of the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. Last December, U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson, an appointee of President George W. Bush presiding in Virginia, struck down the "individual mandate" provision in the new law as an improper attempt on the part of Congress to regulate what he called local and personal "inactivity." Last month, U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson, a 1983 appointee President Ronald Reagan sitting in senior status in Florida, went even further, tossing out the entire new law as a violation of the Commerce Clause.

This lack of consensus at the trial court level -- and the likelihood of more disagreement in the months ahead at the federal appeals court level -- virtually guarantees that the United States Supreme Court eventually will have to broker the dispute. Kessler said as much in her ruling: "The controversy surrounding this legislation is significant, as is the public's interest in the substantive reforms contained in the Act. It is highly likely that a decision by the United States Supreme Court will be required to resolve the constitutional and statutory issues which have been raised."

The Justice Department issued a statement Tuesday in the wake of the ruling: "This court found -- as two others have previously -- that the minimum coverage provision of the statute was a reasonable measure for Congress to take in reforming our health care system. At the same time, trial courts in additional cases have dismissed numerous challenges to this law on jurisdictional and other grounds. The Department will continue to vigorously defend this law in ongoing litigation."

 

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]]>Commerce ClauseCongresshealth care lawhealth care litigationJustice DepartmentNecessary and Proper ClausePatient Protection and Affordable Care ActPresident Barack ObamaU.S. District Judge Gladys KesslerUnited States Supreme CourtAndrew Cohen2011-02-22T22:51:00+00:00Bill Clinton Honors Arkansas' Little Rock Nine, 1957 Civil Rights Iconshttp://politicsdaily.com/2011/02/19/bill-clinton-honors-arkansas-little-rock-nine-civil-rights-pio/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/02/19/bill-clinton-honors-arkansas-little-rock-nine-civil-rights-pio/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/02/19/bill-clinton-honors-arkansas-little-rock-nine-civil-rights-pio/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - The Little Rock Nine hold a special place in Bill Clinton's heart.

He returned here on Saturday to honor the nine African-American students who in 1957 were prevented from attending the racially segregated Little Rock Central High School by the Gov. Orval Faubus and angry mobs that threatened lynching.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued Executive Order 10730, which sent units of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock and federalized the Arkansas National Guard to escort the students into the school.

The protests continued, but the Little Rock Nine were eventually admitted to Central High. They still faced verbal and physical abuse, and the incident clouded the national perception of Arkansas for decades. And it became one of the most important events in the civil rights movement.

Clinton celebrated the unveiling of a new permanent exhibit, which features the Little Rock Nine Congressional Gold Medal, at his presidential library. In 1999, then-President Clinton bestowed the Congressional Gold Medal, the country's highest civilian honor, to the Little Rock Nine at a White House ceremony.

After a video with crisp footage of Eisenhower's famous 1957 address to the nation about the Central High crisis, Carlotta Walls LaNier, one of the Little Rock Nine and president of the Little Rock Nine Foundation, introduced Clinton, sporting a gray three-piece suit and a Navy blue tie.

At times, Clinton sounded troubled about the direction of the country, and his speech seemed more political than commemorative.

He talked about the controversial ending of a busing plan by tea party board members in a North Carolina school district that had allowed diverse students to attend school together. He mentioned the campaign to repeal health care reform and what he characterized as backward steps on energy and education. And Clinton harshly criticized the growing conservative agenda, saying the country was "infected with a virus" that believes any federal power is "quashing democracy."

He said that Eisenhower was a genuine conservative Republican for his time, but that didn't stop him from using federal power to gain equal opportunity for all Americans regardless of race. "Conservative means something very different today than it did in 1957," Clinton said.

Clinton was 11 years old when the Central High crisis unfolded. He said that he watched Eisenhower on television but could not tell if he was a Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative. He never forgot the message or the historical moment.

In 1977, when he was the state's attorney general, Clinton attended an event at Central High School with members of the Little Rock Nine and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Clinton recalled that Jackson, a liberal activist, gave an unlikely speech.

"He gave what would be a right-wing conservative speech today," Clinton said.

Clinton's point: Jackson spoke about his position on family values without politics entering the dialogue. That no longer happens, he said. But it should.

"We need voices of America to remember the mission we were given," he said. "Listen to President Eisenhower . . . let's try to give it [a more perfect union] to more people in the 21st century."

 

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]]>Bill Clintoncivil rights movementClinton Presidential LibraryDwight D Eisenhoweregypt protestslittle rock ninetea partySuzi Parker2011-02-19T20:00:00+00:00DLC, Centrist Democratic Group, Closing Shophttp://politicsdaily.com/2011/02/08/centrist-democratic-group-closing-shop/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/02/08/centrist-democratic-group-closing-shop/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/02/08/centrist-democratic-group-closing-shop/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

A death knell for the "sensible center"? Well, one big brand anyway. The Democratic Leadership Council, founded more than 25 years ago on the ashes of a crushing Democratic loss to Ronald Reagan, is closing its doors.

The DLC, sort of a rump caucus of Democratic Party moderates, was once an incubator for centrist, pro-business ideas. The goal of its founders was to pull the left-leaning party back into what they viewed as America's political mainstream. It reached its zenith in 1992 with the election of Bill Clinton, who had previously served as president of the DLC.

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The organization faded during George W. Bush's White House years and continued to lose traction when the political left claimed much of the credit for Barack Obama's election. Had Hillary Clinton won the White House, there might have been a nook or cranny for the DLC somewhere on Pennsylvania Avenue.

The organization's demise was first reported by Politico, which said it was out of money and on the brink of a shutdown.

In a statement released to the National Journal, DLC founder Al From said Monday the departure of CEO Bruce Reed to become Vice President Biden's chief of staff had prompted the board of directors "to suspend operations while it considers what the next phase of the DLC will be." From isn't giving up yet. He said the DLC "has had an historic impact on American politics over the past 25 years. We're convinced that it will continue to have an impact in the future."

Reed, a co-founder, was a key figure in guiding President Obama's deficit reduction commission before signing on with Biden -- a move seen as a modest tilt toward the center for the Obama administration.

At its peak during the Clinton presidency, the DLC was credited with nudging the party toward polices embracing welfare reform and a balanced budget. It was a safe harbor for moderates like Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and former Sens. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) and Evan Bayh (D-Ind.). Al Gore was among its early members.

The DLC was created in reaction to former Vice President Walter F. Mondale's 1984 landslide loss to Reagan, which some Democrats blamed in part on Mondale's adherence to old-left orthodoxy. Many liberals always disliked what they saw as DLC's center-right drift, and a donor base that drew heavily from business interests. The Rev. Jesse Jackson derided the DLC as the "Democratic Leisure Class."

A think tank once affiliated with the DLC, the Progressive Policy Institute, is still in business. And Al From, talking about a "next phase," hinted that the DLC itself could reemerge.

Folo Tom Diemer on Twitter http://twitter.com/tomdiemer

 

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]]>bill clintonbruce reeddailyguidancedemocratic leadership councilwalter mondaleTom Diemer2011-02-08T09:56:00+00:00Bill Clinton Meets With Congressional 'Blue Dogs'http://politicsdaily.com/2011/02/07/bill-clinton-meets-with-congressional-blue-dogs/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/02/07/bill-clinton-meets-with-congressional-blue-dogs/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/02/07/bill-clinton-meets-with-congressional-blue-dogs/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

The Blue Dog Coalition, made up of centrist House Democrats, is meeting with former president Bill Clinton as it charts a course forward after seeing its ranks thinned following November's election.

Clinton, who became known for his rapport with Republicans after his party took a hit during his first midterm election, is addressing the group Monday in New York, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Blue Dogs hope to be integral to any deals forged between Democrats and Republicans on key issues like the deficit and the economy -- especially as President Obama moves toward the center now that the GOP is in charge of the House.

"The Blue Dogs are working to find ways to bring people together to develop middle-of-the-road, common-sense solutions to our nation's biggest challenges," Blue Dog leader Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.) told the Journal. "If we have any hope of doing what the American people sent us here to do - create jobs, pay down the debt and put our economy back on a fiscally sustainable path - both Republicans and Democrats must begin to work together."

Ross praised Clinton's "proven record of success working with members of both parties."

The Blue Dogs saw their influence slip after more than half of their members lost reelection bids or retired.

The 26-member coalition may have its work cut out just in dealing with is own party. Blue Dog Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) told MSNBC Monday there is "no communication" between his group and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Shuler, who challenged Pelosi for the top Democratic leadership post, suggested that Blue Dogs feel shut out from House leaders, The Hill first reported.

"There has been really no communication whatsoever," Shuler said. "We still do not have any connection between the Blue Dogs and leadership."

 

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]]>bill clintonblue dog democratscongressdailyguidancedemocratsheath shulerhousenancy pelosiChristopher Weber2011-02-07T14:30:00+00:00Reagan's Long Shadow Over Clinton, Obama, and Both Busheshttp://politicsdaily.com/2011/02/05/reagans-long-shadow-over-clinton-obama-and-both-bushes/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/02/05/reagans-long-shadow-over-clinton-obama-and-both-bushes/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/02/05/reagans-long-shadow-over-clinton-obama-and-both-bushes/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , ,

At the outset of his presidential campaign, Barack Obama framed the setting of his candidacy as taking place at a time when Americans were eager for change. The year 2008 was a lot like 1960 when John F. Kennedy ran, Obama mused aloud. And like 1980, as well, he added, which was a more delicate point for a Democrat to make. But Obama didn't shy away from his thesis:

"Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that, you know, Richard Nixon did not, and in a way that Bill Clinton did not," Obama said on Jan. 14, 2008. "He put us on a fundamentally different path, because the country was ready for it ... he tapped into what people were already feeling, which is we want clarity, we want optimism, we want a return to that sense of dynamism, and entrepreneurship that had been missing."

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Bill Clinton, who was easily provoked during the 2008 primary season, rose to the bait. So did his wife, who happened to be Obama's main challenger. The Clintons took a stab at trying to make Obama sound like a Republican apologist, but their gambit fell flat, and for good reason: Both Hillary Rodham Clinton and William Jefferson Clinton were, by that time, on the record for having praised Ronald Reagan in far more expansive language than Obama had ever employed.

But the Reagan Problem was not Hillary's alone. The 40th president of the United States, it can be safely said now, cast a long shadow over the office he once held. Democrats who are too dismissive of Reagan don't tend even to get to the White House. And the Republicans presidents who have come after Reagan -- both of them named George Bush -- have found his act a difficult one to follow.

"The latter President who may have been vexed most by Reagan was George H. W. Bush," says Les Francis, who worked in the congressional liaison office for Jimmy Carter -- the Democratic president unseated by Reagan. "When Bush was elected in 1988 it was largely seen as the advent of Reagan's third term. The trouble was, as decent and as well-prepared for the office as Bush 41 might have been, he suffered in comparison to Reagan."

Bush wasn't the last, as his son and namesake would learn. Nor was this perception entirely fair. To this day movement conservatives complain about the 1990 tax deal forged by Bush 41 with congressional Democrats. In his spirited, if quixotic 1992 Republican primary challenge to George Bush, Patrick Buchanan endlessly replaced the clips of Reagan's vice president assuring Americans at the 1988 Republican National Convention that they could read his lips: He'd agree to no new taxes.

Ultimately, Bush did agree to new taxes, just as Reagan himself had done in his second term. And although he may have saved the U.S. economy in the bargain, all the thanks Bush 41 got from his country and his political party is that both of his sons who went into politics openly modeled themselves as conservatives in the mold of ... Ronald Wilson Reagan.

"You know, Dick," George W. Bush once said to House Majority Leader Dick Armey, an ardent tax cutter and supply-sider, "I'm more like Ronald Reagan than my dad."

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This was certainly true on tax policy, and it was true on certain social issues, such as abortion. It was not true when it came to war, however, and George W. Bush's uneasy audition as "Reagan's Disciple," fell short, in part, because Bush understood the "evil empire" part of the Soviet equation as well as the military buildup and the rhetorical braggadocio involved in daring the Russian president to tear down the Berlin Wall. Less understood by Bush was that Reagan's real desire was to show the world by example -- and not on the battlefield -- that democracy was superior to communism, and to bring the Soviet Union to the negotiating table, which he eventually did.

Another Reagan legacy frequently misunderstood by Reagan's successors is a less happy one. Reagan ran in 1980 vowing to cut taxes, build up the military, and balance the federal budget. The appeal of supply side economics notwithstanding, these three goals were incompatible -- they simply defied mathematics -- and, predictably, Reagan was only able to accomplish the first two of these promises. But the unhappy fate of Walter Mondale, the Democrat' sacrificial lamb who lost 49 states to Reagan in 1984 after promising voters he would raise taxes, has set a bad example for all those who came later.

When things were going good, as they were in 1984, Walter Mondale's dour Midwestern honesty didn't have much of a chance against the unbridled California optimism of an incumbent president who assured voters in his ads, "It's morning again in America."

But this, too, is Reagan's legacy, one Barack Obama has learned only too well. And it's not necessarily a benevolent one.

"Reagan created an irresponsible economic model," says former Clinton aide Lanny J. Davis. "George Bush initially called it 'voodoo economics' and he was right. It plagues both parties today: We can borrow and spend, pay for two wars and massive bailouts, stimulus programs, pork, and national health care -- cut taxes all while adding three trillion more dollars to the national debt. Let our grandchildren pay the tab. This is immoral -- both parties today are complicit - and it all began with 'Morning in America' and Ronald Reagan."

Bill Clinton seemed to understand some of this. He put himself in a position to be sprinkled by the Reagan magic fairy dust, even while chipping away at some of the Reagan tax cuts. "Reagan and Clinton were both very upbeat people who entered office with a sagging economy," says Gettysburg College political scientist Shirley Anne Warshaw. "And both used their natural optimism to win reelection."

Her point hints at the central irony of Clinton's 2008 outburst over Obama's attempts to wrap himself in the Reagan cloak. One of the things that had always set Bill Clinton apart as a Democrat even before he ran for president in 1992 was how respectfully he spoke of Reagan in public. Until Clinton came along, Democratic Party leaders seemed intent on trying to morph Ronald Reagan into Herbert Hoover. This was ineffective, not to mention ahistorical. Hoover lost reelection in a landslide to Franklin Roosevelt. Ronald Reagan carried nearly 60 percent of the popular vote when he ran for reelection; and when Reagan departed the White House, he didn't leave a Great Depression and a dispirited GOP, he left behind a humming economy and a Republican Party that was more robust than at any time in the 20th century.

Bill Clinton, astute political animal that he was, realized he had no quarrel with Reagan. In fact, his first trip as president-elect was to Southern California where he paid a very public visit to Ronald Reagan's Century City office. And while running for reelection in 1996, Clinton's staff borrowed tapes from the Reagan library and actually emulated some of Reagan's campaign moves.

Now it's Obama's turn. As things turned tough, he too, sought solace in Reagan's example. The two men shared a terrible economy, sobering mid-term election results, and job approval ratings in the 40s. In hopes of turning things around, Obama has been reading a Reagan biography and quietly seeking some back-channel advice.

"Reagan's sunny disposition is something Obama is learning," says former White House chief of staff Kenneth Duberstein. The two men are quite different, but they seem to share a knack for getting a deal when they need one. And that, more than any other trait, may be the key to a successful presidency.

"Like Reagan, Obama is a great communicator," says savvy political commentator Bill Schneider. "Obama communicates an impressive intellect. Reagan communicated deep values. Both are seen as more ideological than they really are. Obama makes deals. He's a pragmatist. So was Reagan."

 

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]]>Carl M. Cannon2011-02-05T20:00:00+00:00Chelsea Clinton in New York, Marc Mezvinsky in Wyoming, Still a 'Very Happy' Couple, Friend Sayshttp://politicsdaily.com/2011/02/03/chelsea-clinton-in-new-york-marc-mezvinsky-in-wyoming-still-a/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/02/03/chelsea-clinton-in-new-york-marc-mezvinsky-in-wyoming-still-a/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/02/03/chelsea-clinton-in-new-york-marc-mezvinsky-in-wyoming-still-a/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

Is the state of the union of former First Daughter Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky, her husband of barely seven months, solid?

"The couple are very happy," a family friend told Politics Daily, in response to questions raised in media reports about why the two are currently living nearly 1,900 miles apart.

Clinton, 30, is in Manhattan pursuing her doctorate in public policy at New York University, while Mezvinsky, 34, who recently quit his financial sector job at G3 Capital, is spending a few months skiing and snowboarding in Jackson Hole, Wyo.

The National Enquirer cited a "close" source saying Chelsea asked her parents, former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton -- "if they could help her get an annulment" after a serious argument with Mezvinsky over when she would get pregnant.

"These reports are completely false," the family friend told me.

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It's not as if the two hadn't already spent years together before doing the two-state tango. They met in the 1990s, started dating in 2005, got engaged at Thanksgiving 2009 and tied the knot last summer in a lavish wedding in Rhinebeck, N.Y.

It's not as if Marc, who worked for Goldman Sachs before joining G3, didn't make enough money to pay $4 million for a Manhattan condo a few years back, and has probably socked away enough since then to take off for a few months before looking for his next gig.

It's not as if Chelsea, always a conscientious student, couldn't study just as hard in his absence and then, every now and again, hop a private jet owned by some family friend, for a hassle-free flight to Jackson Hole.

While Marc's parents -- former Democratic Reps. Edward Mezvinsky of Iowa and Marjorie Margolies of Pennsylvania -- have kept scrupulously silent on the suject of the couple,
Chelsea's father and mother have spoken openly and longingly about the next generation.

Bill Clinton has made it clear he'd like to be a grandfather. Then, speaking for his wife, he noted, "I'll tell you this: Hillary wants to be a grandmother much more than she ever wanted to be a president." Descibing Chelsea's marriage to Mezvinsky, he said, "I've known this guy for half his life...and they've been friends a long time. I admire him, I love him and I think it was time for her to do it. I trust my daughter. She has always had good judgment about life."

Hillary Clinton also weighed in with this statement: "Let me just say, I love babies, so you know, maybe I'll have more in my life some day," describing herself as "absolutely" ready for grandmotherhood. Both Clintons "spend as much time with our daughter and [her] husband as they will let us. So we, luckily, live in New York near where they live, because that gives us an easier chance to get together for dinner or go to the theater or just hang out. And we're always looking for excuses to do that."

Perhaps they'll also hit Jackson Hole some time soon.

 

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]]>chelsea+clintonchelsea+clinton+annulmentchelsea+clinton+newschelseaclintonchelseaclintonannulmentchelseaclintonnewsGoldman Sachshillary+clintonhillaryclintonJackson Holemarc+mezvinskymarcmezvinskyNational EnquirerWyo.Annie Groer2011-02-03T20:30:00+00:00The Challenger Disaster and President Reagan's Gift to a Grieving Nationhttp://politicsdaily.com/2011/01/27/the-challenger-disaster-and-president-reagans-gift-to-a-grievi/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/01/27/the-challenger-disaster-and-president-reagans-gift-to-a-grievi/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/01/27/the-challenger-disaster-and-president-reagans-gift-to-a-grievi/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

On Jan. 28, 1986, Ronald Reagan was scheduled to give his State of the Union address. In a meeting with a bi-partisan delegation of congressional leaders, he and House Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill Jr. tangled over the issue of unemployment.

After they left, Reagan prepared to have the traditional State of the Union lunch with the network anchors while receiving a last-minute briefing from acting press secretary Larry Speakes when several members of the White House staff rushed in with news that the Space Shuttle Challenger had exploded after takeoff.

The State of the Union speech was postponed, and in what he would later describe as "one of the hardest days I ever spent in the Oval Office," his speechwriting staff began drafting a very different kind of address. It was delivered at 5 p.m., and although only 648 words in length, it is still remembered as perhaps the most inspiring of his presidency.

"The future doesn't belong to the faint-hearted, it belongs to the brave," Reagan said that evening. "The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we'll continue to follow them." He ended his homily by borrowing a passage from a World War II era sonnet: "We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God."

On that day, Ronald Reagan at once connected with presidents of the past while setting the standard for what would be expected of future presidents: Give voice to Americans' shared grief at a moment of national tragedy, while showing the way forward out of that grief -- and, thus, giving some meaning to the calamity.

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Tip O'Neill, who had been angered in the Oval Office by what he saw as Reagan's cavalier attitude toward those without jobs, later wrote that he had seen the worst of Reagan, and the best, in the same day. "It was a trying day for all Americans," O'Neill wrote in his autobiography, "and Ronald Reagan spoke to our highest ideals."

This is not an entirely new task: It is what Lincoln did at Gettysburg, and why Franklin Roosevelt personally led the nation in prayer on D-Day. But television has gradually changed our expectations, and it was a movie actor-turned "citizen politician" who demonstrated how effectively a chief executive can use the camera to unite a grieving nation.

The presence aboard the Challenger of New Hampshire teacher Christa McAuliffe had drawn many schoolchildren to the broadcast of the space shuttle's liftoff, which Reagan alluded to in his speech. "With television now making us part of such events, we need someone to express our grief and feelings of tragedy," says Martha Joynt Kumar, a Towson University professor and expert on presidential communications. "The president is that person. President Reagan did that for us and he is forever remembered for it."

Others have followed suit, and the resulting speeches, simultaneously somber and soaring, are remembered by the litany of place names and proper nouns that form a mosaic of tragedy - and national resolve: Oklahoma City, Columbine, Ground Zero, National Cathedral, the Space Shuttle Columbia, Virginia Tech, Tucson.

"A president is the only national leader, the only singular, transcendent leader we have," notes Jeff Shesol, a speechwriter during Bill Clinton's presidency. "There's no Church of England here, and at moments like these he's not the leader of a political party, not the leader of an ideological movement. He's the president of all the people. And we want him to speak to our collective sense of loss."

Despite the Lincoln and FDR examples, it wasn't necessarily always this way. On Jan. 27, 1967, almost 19 years to the day before the Challenger broke up after takeoff, a fire broke out in the capsule of Apollo 1 and all three astronauts on board, Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White II, and Roger Chaffee, were killed.

In the White House that night, Lyndon Johnson was thinking of space exploration. In fact, LBJ was celebrating what he considered one of his greatest achievements of his presidency - the successful negotiation of a treaty with the Soviet Union and Great Britain barring nuclear weapons from outer space. Signing ceremonies were held in Moscow, London, and Washington. Earlier that evening, at the East Room ceremony, Johnson had said, "This is an inspiring moment in the history of the human race. We are taking the first firm step toward keeping outer space free forever from the implements of war . . .This treaty means that the moon and our sister planets will serve only the purposes of peace and not of war (and) that astronaut and cosmonaut will meet someday on the surface of the moon as brothers and not as warriors for competing nationalities or ideologies."

A little more than two hours later, while in the family quarters of the White House listening to a toast from the Commerce secretary, LBJ was handed a note: "The first Apollo crew was under test at Cape Kennedy and a fire broke out in the capsule and all three were killed . . . Grissom, White, and Chaffee."

Although stricken -- "The shock," LBJ would say years later, "hit me like a physical blow" - the only statement from the White House was a 24-word press release. Johnson did not speak to the nation, either on television or at Arlington National Cemetery, even though he attended Grissom's and Chaffee's funeral there and sat beside their widows.

Perhaps the exigencies of the Cold War made a presidential speech problematic. Or maybe Lyndon Johnson simply didn't know what to say. Two years later, while the Apollo mission to the moon was taking place, White House speechwriter William Safire wrote a precautionary speech for Richard Nixon. Fortunately, it never had to be delivered.

To a U.S. president, the loss of astronauts is a personal loss, felt in a way that probably only other presidents can understand. In Ronald Reagan's case, he had taken a special interest in the crew of the Challenger, calling them periodically, and personally making the announcement that the first civilian in space would be a schoolteacher. Since Thomas Jefferson's time, there has been a bond between the president and explorers sent out to unchartered territory, a connection only heightened by the inherent dangers of space travel. John F. Kennedy, who committed his nation to exploring the heavens, warned that there would be days like Jan. 27, 1967 -- and Jan. 28, 1986.

"We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard," Kennedy said in his famous 1962 speech at Rice University. "Therefore, as we set sail, we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked."

And on Feb. 1, 2003, in the midst of a presidency already rocked by a deadly attack on this nation, the peril that JFK warned about became apparent again. "The Columbia is lost," a grim-faced George W. Bush told the nation. "There are no survivors."

Bush had already rallied and consoled this nation in the aftermath of 9/11: His stirring speech at National Cathedral the Friday after the attacks may have been the high-water rhetorical mark of his presidency. Now he had to do it again, with the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia, and its entire crew. Bush ended his address that day with an Old Testament passage, from the Book of Isaiah, in which the prophet assures us that the Lord knows all the stars in the heavens and calls them by name. "The same Creator who names the stars also knows the names of the seven souls we mourn today," he said. "The crew of the shuttle Columbia did not return safely to Earth, yet we can pray that all are safely home."

Michael Gerson, chief speechwriter in Bush's administration, is still grateful to longtime Bush adviser Karen Hughes for finding that biblical passage. A committed Christian, Gerson recalled that when Bush spoke at National Cathedral, family members of those missing at the Pentagon or the World Trade Center were still carrying around photographs of their loved ones, in hopes that they were still alive.

"The media now broadcast tragedy immediately and universally, and the president has taken the role of providing comfort and spiritual context, even when the wounds are very fresh," Gerson said Thursday. "The Columbia speech had a nice ending - that they are all safely home - and it demonstrated to me, again, the unavoidability of religious hope in times of tragedy."

Such events - providing the president strikes the right chords -- also can benefit a president. Until 9/11, George Bush was a divisive figure, mostly because of the contentious way his election had transpired. Michael Waldman, Bill Clinton's chief speechwriter, wrote in his memoir, "POTUS Speaks," that Clinton's surefooted rhetorical response to the Oklahoma City bombing "was the nation's first exposure to Clinton as mourner in chief, a role at which Ronald Reagan had excelled."

"In fact," Waldman added, "it was the first time Clinton had been a reassuring figure rather than an unsettling one. For many people, during those days, for the very first time, he truly became a president."

And so, the mourner in chief role is a two-way street. It is also of unimaginable benefit to a third constituency: Those who are grieving a personal loss. Jeff Shesol, who joined the Clinton speechwriting team long after the Oklahoma City crisis, was with the president when he went to Colorado in 1999 to comfort the parents of the students massacred at Columbine High School. "It's fascinating how much it mattered to them to be met in this way by - to be embraced -- by the president of the United States and to be told, in essence, that the nation recognized their loss," Shesol said.

"These are not people wanting to meet a president and have their picture taken," Shesol added. "These are families experiencing a horrific grief, gathered together in this instance in a gymnasium to hear a president express the nation's collective grief and to begin the process of transcending it. It's an important part of the presidency."

This is what Barack Obama was doing two weeks ago in Tucson, Ariz. There, he too, began the process of transcending the tragedy, this time by invoking the senseless death of 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green, there in the line of fire because of her faith in American government. Obama's take-away was not a meditation on violence, guns, mental illness, or uncivil discourse - it was about how we could give meaning to her death by living up to her faith in American self-government.

Similarly, when George W. Bush eulogized the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia, at a Feb. 4, 2003 memorial service three days after the disaster, he recalled something that Columbia crew member David Brown told his brother before the ill-fated mission: That if disaster struck the crew, the space program would still live on. "Captain Brown was correct," Bush said. "America's space program will go on."

Ronald Reagan traveled the same path in 1986, flying on Air Force One from Andrews Air Force Base to Houston for a memorial service at the Johnson Space Center. The president and first lady Nancy Reagan sat between two new widows, the wives of Challenger commander Francis Scobee and crew member Michael Smith. "I found it difficult to say anything," Reagan recalled in his autobiography. "All we could do was hug the families and try to hold back tears."

But Reagan was mistaken. It was not all he could do. When it was his time to speak, the president arose, walked to the lectern and eulogized each of the seven members of the crew by name. "America itself was built by men and women such as our seven star voyagers," he said.

"Sometimes when we reach for the stars, we fall short," Reagan added. "But we must pick ourselves up again and press on despite the pain. Our nation is indeed fortunate that we can still draw on immense reservoirs of courage, character, and fortitude; that we're still blessed with heroes like those of the space shuttle Challenger."

Full Reagan Centennial Coverage

 

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]]>Christa McAuliffColumbia disasterColumbine High SchoolGround ZeroJeff ShesolJohnson Space CenterLarry SpeakesLyndon JohnsonOklahoma City bombingtip oneillVirginia Tech shootingsCarl M. Cannon2011-01-27T23:40:00+00:00How the Challenger Tragedy Gripped the Nation: A 'Perfect Storm' of Eventshttp://politicsdaily.com/2011/01/26/how-the-challenger-tragedy-gripped-the-nation-a-perfect-storm/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/01/26/how-the-challenger-tragedy-gripped-the-nation-a-perfect-storm/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/01/26/how-the-challenger-tragedy-gripped-the-nation-a-perfect-storm/#commentsFiled under: ,


Just 73 seconds after liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center, on the unusually cold Florida morning of Jan. 28, 1986, things went horribly wrong for the space shuttle Challenger.

And two minutes later, with some or all of its seven crew members still possibly conscious, the craft slammed into the Atlantic Ocean seven miles off the coast. Challenger, and the remains of its occupants, would not be retrieved for weeks.

Images of smoke and flames visible against a crystalline sky were replayed over and over from that day forward. So were NASA promo clips of the crew floating weightlessly during training and posing for their official portrait in baby blue flight suits, proudly holding their helmets.

On the night of the tragedy, after postponing his State of the Union address, President Ronald Reagan spoke somberly from the Oval Office. He directed some of his words to the schoolchildren who had watched a closed-circuit NASA telecast of what should have been the triumphant launch of a crew that included the first "teacher in space."

"I know it's hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. The future doesn't belong to the faint-hearted; it belongs to the brave," Reagan said. "The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we'll continue to follow them."

Within months, amid the graves of fallen soldiers, the slain President John Kennedy, polar explorer Robert E. Peary and boxing legend Joe Louis at Arlington National Cemetery, a granite marker was erected in memory of the Challenger Seven. Its bronze plaque bears the names and faces of this diverse and accomplished crew: Capt. Michael J. Smith, USN; Lt. Col. Francis R. "Dick" Scobee, USAF, the mission commander; Dr. Judith A. Resnik; Dr. Ronald E. McNair; Lt. Col. Ellison Onizuka, USAF; Gregory B. Jarvis; and Sharon Christa McAuliffe, the high school social studies teacher who was to deliver two lessons to millions of students while orbiting Earth.

"I hate the phrase 'perfect storm,' but that's what we had for Challenger," says Sally Karioth, a nursing professor at Florida State University who specializes in grief and trauma. "It was a televised event that involved the entire country. We had this cute little curly-headed teacher in that blue astronaut outfit, and we had dragged in every kid in America to write her letters before the launch, so it was like Christmas Eve. Then it blows up in the sky and that's the Grinch," Karioth told Politics Daily from her home in Tallahassee, Fla.

This was not the way it was supposed to happen.

"Reach for the stars" was almost a McAuliffe mantra to her high school social studies classes in Concord, N.H. Those words made the loss all the more poignant.

Though she was, by all accounts, genuinely down-to-earth -- someone you'd want living next door or marrying your big brother -- McAuliffe had also become an educational rock star, besting more than 11,000 others to become the first teacher in space. All 10 finalists were at the White House for the July 1985 televised ceremony in which Vice President George H.W. Bush announced McAuliffe's selection.

"She made everybody feel kind of good about themselves; she made the schoolchildren learn as much as they could and she taught them how important they were. That was what she was striving to do," recalled her mother, Grace Corrigan, 86, who still lives in Christa's hometown of Framingham, Mass.

Was McAuliffe at all frightened by the prospect of space travel? "Not a bit. She was just so excited. She was thrilled to be going on the trip of a liftime," Corrigan told Politics Daily.

Why would she be frightend? After all, the previous 24 shuttle launches, from April 1981 to Jan. 12, 1986, had gone without a hitch. And then, the unthinkable.

"We have all these adults horrified by what looks to millions of little kids like a fireworks display," said Karioth. "The adults became responsible for explanations to the children at a level the kids could understand, when in fact the adults couldn't understand it themselves."

One of those mystified grownups was then-Rep. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., who just 10 days earlier had returned from the ultimate congressional junket, a seven-day mission on the space shuttle Columbia. He had requested and trained for celestial travel because the Kennedy Space Center was in his district.

Nelson was in his Capitol Hill office explaining the second-by-second Challenger launch to staffers when the craft seemed to explode.

"At that point, Challenger was the 25th flight in the shuttle program, which was still in its infancy, and it had come to symbolize America's technical prowess," Nelson, now a U.S. senator, told Politics Daily. "Suddenly it disintegrated in front of everybody's eyes on the TV screen. It wasn't that NASA had taught the American people that shuttle travel was so routine, it is what the American public had come to think because it had all gone off so flawlessly."

The presence of two vibrant, successful women among five male crew members also added to the nation's profound sense of loss, said retired Rep. Don Fuqua, another Florida Democrat, who at the time chaired the House Science and Technolgy Committee.

"We expect men to get killed in airplane crashes, in space flight, but not women. Of course no one likes to see anyone get killed, but Judy Resnik and Christa McAuliffe were young, they were accomplished, they were dedicated and there was just so much excitement about the whole teacher in space program. Christa McAuliffe was someone everyone could relate to," Fuqua told me.

The evolution of the media also played a large role in making Challenger such a national tragedy, he explained. Forty-four years ago Thursday, on Jan. 27, 1967, when three Apollo 1 astronauts died in a fire that swept through their rocket cockpit during a test on the launch pad, there were no TV crews to record and replay the disaster. "I knew all three of those guys," said Fuqua: Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Roger B. Chaffee and Edward White.

In 1986, CNN -- then the country's only 24/7 news operation -- carried the Challenger launch live. "Pretty soon it was all anyone saw on any channel you turned on," said Fuqua.

A blue-ribbon commission studied the causes of the disaster, with all shuttle flights grounded for 32 months while answers were sought and fixes made. Factors contributing to the Challenger explosion were long-standing design flaws in the O-rings made by contractor Morton Thiokol, and the unheeded fears of the firm's engineers about the potentially fatal outcome of launching in such cold weather.

Since the report's release and implemention of safety suggestions, there have been more than 110 subsequent shuttle flights -- and a second disaster, when Columbia disintegrated over Texas. The eighth anniversary of that Feb. 1, 2003 accident, which claimed another seven-member crew, falls next Tuesday.

The shuttle program is winding down even as these three grim commemorations bump up against one another. Astronaut Mark Kelly -- whose wife, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) was severely wounded in the Tucson shooting spree that killed six and injured a dozen others Jan. 8 -- was set to command the Endeavour's last flight in April. He has since requested a back-up commander should he need to remain on terra firma to help his wife recover.

NASA's 135th and final space shuttle flight for the orbiter Atlantis is currently scheduled for June 28.

"It was such a crushing blow to us that these loving people wouldn't be remembered for how they lived," said June Scobee-Rogers, widow of mission commander Dick Scobee in an interview with Florida Today. She will not mark the 25th anniversary at Arlington Cemetery, but at one of the nearly 50 Challenger education centers that have been established throughout the country.

Tonight, on the eve of that tragic flight, Grace Corrigan will go to the Christa Corrigan McAuliffe Center for Education and Teaching Excellence where eighth graders from the McAuliffe Regional Public Charter School will present their space science projects.

"By my last count, there are 40 or 42 schools in the United States named for her and another three outside the country," said Corrigan. "Her legacy is ongoing."

 

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]]>Apollo 1Ben NelsonChallenger Sevenchrista mcauliffeGrace Corriganmark kellyNASAronald reaganSpace Shuttle Columbiaspace shuttle endeavourAnnie Groer2011-01-26T21:45:00+00:00Will Obama's State of the Union Rise Above the Cliches of a Stale Speech?http://politicsdaily.com/2011/01/22/will-obamas-state-of-the-union-rise-above-the-cliches-of-a-stal/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/01/22/will-obamas-state-of-the-union-rise-above-the-cliches-of-a-stal/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/01/22/will-obamas-state-of-the-union-rise-above-the-cliches-of-a-stal/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , ,

Ever since Woodrow Wilson invented the modern State of the Union Address by coming before a joint session of Congress in 1913, presidents have been struggling vainly to rise to the rhetorical occasion. The clichés of this annual exercise somehow inspire even the most eloquent presidents to deal in buzz words and hackneyed phrases.

There have been memorable State of the Union moments such as Bill Clinton in 1996 hyperbolically declaring that "the era of big government is over" and George W. Bush in 2002 ominously including Iraq in his "axis of evil." But no one has delivered a great speech that holds together as a coherent whole rather than as a laundry list punctuated by partisan applause.

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A single White House speechwriter may have full rein in composing an inaugural address that strives for eloquence, or in crafting a presidential sermonette marking a national tragedy such as the Challenger disaster or the Tucson shootings. But a State of the Union inevitably is a bureaucratic document thematically marred by speechwriting by committee. Cabinet agencies pleading for a few sentences (marking, say, the recent passage of the food safety legislation) combined with the political necessity of pleasing constituency groups (prediction: Barack Obama will include a shout-out for immigration reform) help produce theme-less puddings of presidential prose.

As a former presidential speechwriter for Jimmy Carter, I am certain what the Obama wordsmiths first did to prepare for this year's address. They immediately went back and studied all the prior presidential State of the Unions that came on the heels of stunning rebukes at the polls.

Some of the examples were chilling. Jerry Ford, whose party lost 48 House seats in the post-Watergate election, gave in 1975 what was probably the bleakest -- and most honest -- assessment in modern history: "I must say to you that the state of the Union is not good: Millions of Americans are out of work. Recession and inflation are eroding the money of millions more." The next year, though, when Ford was running for reelection he announced, "Just a year ago I reported that the state of the Union was not good. Tonight, I report that the state of our Union is better -- in many ways a lot better."

Since the days of Harry Truman (the Democrats dropped 54 House seats in 1946), presidents have been trying to acknowledging these embarrassing political setbacks with a flash of humor. In 1947, Truman began his State of the Union with a rueful acknowledgment of his shellacking as he referred to the changed partisan makeup and physical layout of Congress: "It looks like a good many of you have moved over to the left since I was here last."

In a remark that Obama may be tempted to echo, Bill Clinton, after the electoral wipeout that made Newt Gingrich House speaker, declared in 1995, "If we agree on nothing else tonight, we must agree that the American people certainly voted for change in 1992 and in 1994. And as I look out at you, I know how some of you must have felt in 1992."

Obama is certain to invoke the spirit of bipartisanship. That now overused word for political accommodation was first brandished by Harry Truman in his 1950 State of the Union when he expressed his appreciation for "the bipartisan cooperation in foreign affairs which has been enjoyed by this administration." In fact, until Richard Nixon, bipartisanship only popped up in these annual speeches to Congress as a variant on the old foreign-policy saw that politics stops at the water's edge. It was Nixon in 1974, clinging to the presidency by a thread, who first used bipartisan in its modern context when he declared, "The Congress has in the past given strong bipartisan support to the Arts Endowment. That same support will be needed in the future." Yes 37 years ago, support for the arts was the embodiment of bipartisanship.

(This is the moment to express my gratitude for the searchable data base of State of the Union addresses -- and all other presidential words -- created by the American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara.)

The first round of planned White House leaks to manage expectations for the State of the Union underscores that Obama plans to make "common ground" with Republicans a major theme of the address. The phrase was first used in a State of the Union by Ford in 1977 to gush about the rapprochement with China: "We are finding more and more common ground between our two countries on basic questions of international affairs." Nothing changes in the world of super-powers. Hu Jintao used the same bromide (as translated) last week during his arrival remarks at the White House: "We should deepen mutual understanding through communication, increase mutual trust through dialogue, and expand common ground through exchanges."

With the appointment of such 1990s figures as Bill Daley and Gene Sperling to top White House jobs, Obama is fast finding his inner Clinton. Small wonder that Clinton highlighted the phrase "common ground" in three separate State of the Union addresses (in 1995, 1996 and 1998). But before Obama embarks on this rhetorical nostalgia tour, he should consider the context in which Clinton used the phrase in his pre-election 1996 speech -- while rhetorically abandoning the traditional Democratic liberal idea of government.

After bidding a fond farewell to the era of big government in his State of the Union, Clinton immediately said, "But we can't go back to the era of fending for yourself. We have to go forward to the era of working together as a community, as a team, as one America, with all of us reaching across these lines that divide us -- the division, the discrimination, the rancor -- we have to reach across it to find common ground."

The truth is that almost every rhetorical conceit in a State of the Union address is recycled. John Kennedy, a president who endorsed a strict separation between church and state, ended his 1962 speech by saying, "And in this high endeavor, may God watch over the United States of America." God's next cameo came in 1977 when Jerry Ford (who might have heard a sneeze in the audience) ended his address to Congress by saying, "Good night. And God bless you." Jimmy Carter concluded all his State of the Unions with a simple "thank you." In 1982 (the same year that he began a State of the Union tradition by introducing heroes from the balcony), Ronald Reagan combined the Ford and Carter endings by saying, "God bless you and thank you." By 1984, Reagan slipped into full Kate-Smith-singing-Irving-Berlin mode when he declared, "God bless you and God bless America."

No president has departed from this seventh-inning-stretch formula since then with the exception of Bill Clinton in 1999. Facing an impeachment trial in the Senate, Clinton went with this wordy coda: "Let us lift our eyes as one nation, and from the mountaintop of this American Century, look ahead to the next one, asking God's blessing on our endeavors and on our beloved country. Thank you, and good evening."

Not everything in a State of the Union will be recycled. Here is one Obama line from last year's speech guaranteed not to be repeated: "To Democrats, I would remind you that we still have the largest majority in decades and the people expect us to solve problems, not run for the hills."

In defense of Obama's speechwriters, it is difficult to compose enduring prose when every three sentences are supposed to contain at least one applause line and the TV cameras distract viewers at home by zooming in for close-ups of the partisan reactions. Still, everyone who loves political rhetoric -- regardless of party or ideology -- hopes that somehow on Tuesday night Obama will find a way to transcend (or, at least, reinvent) the clichés that invariably mar the only constitutionally mandated speech on a president's calendar.

Follow Walter Shapiro on Twitter (lucky you).

 

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]]>Walter Shapiro2011-01-22T23:00:00+00:00And the Author of 'O' Is . . .http://politicsdaily.com/2011/01/20/and-the-author-of-o-is/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/01/20/and-the-author-of-o-is/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/01/20/and-the-author-of-o-is/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,



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on Twitter at ChaosTheoryPD

 

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]]>anonymousBarack ObamaBill ClintonBodogsfictionHillary ClintonnovelobamaObama Administrationobama dogObama Dog BoRobert and Donna Trussell2011-01-20T13:17:00+00:00Obamas Host China's President Hu at Glitzy White House State Dinnerhttp://politicsdaily.com/2011/01/19/obamas-host-chinas-president-hu-at-glitzy-white-house-state-din/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/01/19/obamas-host-chinas-president-hu-at-glitzy-white-house-state-din/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/01/19/obamas-host-chinas-president-hu-at-glitzy-white-house-state-din/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , ,

President and Mrs. Obama welcomed China's President Hu Jintao to a glittery state dinner for 225 Wednesday night, with guests ranging from Wall Street titans to a human rights champion, to a pair of former presidents -- Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton -- and a clutch of entertainers and business leaders.

The event also featured an all-American dinner capped by apple pie and ice cream and the news flash from Obama that China will let Washington's National Zoo keep Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, its adorable loaner pandas, for another five years. After the toasts came a jazz concert.

Most guests arrived via a ground floor entrance and walked across the marble floor past a media scrum -- there was no red carpet, this being the White House, not the Golden Globes -- and it's not clear whether any of them noticed the dozens of protestors across Pennsylvania Avenue. The protestors spent much of the day demonstrating against China's crackdown on the religious group Falun Gong and against China's tough policies in Tibet.

Kenneth Roth, who heads Human Rights Watch, stopped to talk to reporters on his way to cocktails and addressed that very issue when he said, "I take it that was the reason I was invited, as a statement to President Hu. . . . These days the Chinese accept human rights as a topic of conversation. That is a step forward from the past."

This state dinner was the smallest of the three the Obamas have hosted -- there were more than 300 guests at the 2009 dinner for the Indian prime minister and some 260 honoring the Mexican president. This is also the first one held exclusively inside the White House, rather than under an enormous tent outdoors.

Guests were seated in three adjoining rooms, and although a state dinner invitation is, by definition, a hot ticket, best bragging rights arguably went to those in the State Dining Room. The Obamas and Hu -- who eschewed a tux for a dark business suit and necktie -- sat at a long rectangular head table for 20. Ten smaller round tables were arranged throughout the room. The rest of the guests were in the Red and Blue Rooms, which where equipped with large TV monitors so everyone could see and hear the toasts that came at the end of a long day of events dealing with trade and security.

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The tables were covered in richly colored cloths -- teal, garnet or sable -- featuring a pheasant print that may have been meant to kill two birds with one stone: The pheasant is native to China, and was a favorite avian subject of American naturalist John James Audubon. Floral centerpieces of roses, hydrangeas, orchids and foliage toned down the gold service plates and flatware, some of it dating to the 1890s. The china came from the Reagan and Clinton presidencies.

At the request of the Chinese delegation, the menu was quintessentially American (think surf and turf) and for the first time at an Obama state dinner, White House chef Cristeta Comerford did not have to share her kitchen with a "guest" chef. The meal started with a pear, fennel, walnut and goat cheese salad, followed by poached Maine lobster with orange glazed carrots and black trumpet mushrooms, then a spot of lemon sorbet (the all-important palate cleanser) and proceeded on to dry, aged rib eye with buttermilk crisp onions, creamed spinach and double-stuffed potatoes. Dessert was that old standby, apple pie and ice cream.

As they have at previous celebrations, the Obamas used a professional party firm in addition to the White House staff. Rafinelli Events of Boston, which did the honors, is perhaps best known for staging Chelsea Clinton's knockout wedding in July.

And now, let's get down to the really important stuff: Who wore what, and who had clever repartee en route to pre-dinner cocktails.

Michelle Obama did not choose a gown by either Jason Wu (she wore one of his creations to the inaugural balls) or Vera Wang, two Chinese-Americans she has favored in the past. Instead she chose a long, deep red and black number with asymetrical shoulders, a tight bodice and draped skirt by Alexander McQueen, the bad-boy British designer who committed suicide last year.

The best-dressed man at the dinner, hands down, was martial arts movie mogul Jackie Chan, in a buttonless, open black jacket and high-collared white shirt with no tie. He carried a large camera to take groupie pix, and said he'd spent the morning hoping to hear some news about the American and Chinese film industries.

Wang wore, well, duh, Wang, a taupe and cream chiffon column; around her neck was a chunky stone collar of bronze-y bling (diamonds? crystals?). Barbra Streisand, who joked she'd been invited because "I worked in a Chinese restaurant," also claimed design credit for her ensemble: a long, dark pinstripe skirt with a high slit, a low-cut vest with giant sparkly buttons, a matching jacket and perhaps 200 carats of clear bling (diamonds? crystals?) around her throat.

Vogue Editor Anna Wintour -- who put the First Lady on the fashion mag cover -- sported an elegant knee-length white Chanel suit accented with geometric glitz. Conspicuously absent were her trademark sunglasses. Was there anything she wanted to know about Hu? "Will he invest his money in Chinese fashion?" she asked. We presume she was not referring to China's notorious knock-off clothing and counterfeit accessories factories.

Actor B.D. Wong of "Law & Order" was so thrilled to be at the White House he took cell-phone pictures of the media on his way in with his mother. Imagine his delight to discover he would be seated at the head table.

Perhaps it was an accident of timing, or maybe a minor global financial conspiracy, but Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs and Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan Chase came in one after the other, with their wives on their arms. There were no shouted questions and no volunteered remarks.

Although the crowd was heavily Democratic there were some Republicans, including Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, who brought her father rather than her husband, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. He was one of several lawmakers who declined the Obamas' invitation. So, too, did House Speaker John Boehner, who meets Thursday on Capitol Hill with Hu.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid also declined, which is probably a good thing given that he called Hu a "dictator" on Tuesday during a radio show in Las Vegas, although House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi happily attended with husband Paul.

Then there was John Huntsman, the U.S. ambassador to China who is widely rumored to be interested in running for the Republican presidential nomination. Asked about future plans on the way in, he said simply, "We are loyal to our country and our president."

But the State Dinner was about the moment, not the future. And so when dinner ended, guests filed into the East Room to hear such jazz greats as Herbie Hancock and Dee Dee Bridgewater and Chinese pianist Lang Lang. On a school night, Obama daughters Sasha and Malia were allowed to stay up late and come downstairs to catch the concert, for which they had the president of China to thank.

 

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]]>Anna WintourJimmy CarterKenneth RothLloyd BlankfeinWhite House East RoomAnnie Groer2011-01-19T23:00:00+00:00Sargent Shriver, a Peace Corps Founder and Liberal Activist, Is Dead at 95http://politicsdaily.com/2011/01/18/sargent-shriver-former-peace-corps-director-is-dead-at-95/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/01/18/sargent-shriver-former-peace-corps-director-is-dead-at-95/http://politicsdaily.com/2011/01/18/sargent-shriver-former-peace-corps-director-is-dead-at-95/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , ,

Sargent Shriver, first director of the Peace Corps, the 1972 Democratic vice presidential nominee and a trusted Kennedy in-law who was known as the family troubleshooter, is dead at the age of 95.

Shriver, who had Alzheimer's disease, was hospitalized earlier in the week in Bethesda, Md., a Washington, D.C. suburb. Shriver's wife, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder of the Special Olympics, died in 2009 at the age of 88.

In his day, Shriver was a handsome and dedicated public figure who took the helm of the Peace Corps for President Kennedy when it was created in 1961 and went on to lead the "War on Poverty" for the assassinated Kennedy's successor, Lyndon Baines Johnson.

"Our dad, Robert Sargent Shriver, Jr., lovingly known as 'Sarge,' today went to heaven to join the love of his life, Eunice Kennedy Shriver," his family said in a statement after his death Tuesday. "He was surrounded by his five children, five children-in-law, and his 19 grandchildren."

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"He was a man of giant love, energy, enthusiasm, and commitment," the family said. "He lived to make the world a more joyful, faithful and compassionate place. . . May the angels and saints receive him with a party beyond all imagining."

Within the Kennedy family, he was viewed as a go-to guy who could be counted on to take on the tough tasks. Even before his Peace Corps service, he fought for racial integration in Chicago as head of the school board Catholic Inter-racial Council. And he persuaded Kennedy, the candidate, to phone the Rev. Martin Luther King's wife and offer support when King was jailed in Georgia. The intervention was credited with later helping to win black votes for Kennedy.

In his landmark book, "The Making of the President, 1960," author Theodore H. White recounted the incident and called Shriver "the gentlest and warmest of the Kennedy clan."

When Kennedy was gunned down on Nov. 22, 1963, Jacqueline Kennedy turned to Shriver to arrange the funeral in Washington for the fallen president. Such was Shriver's standing that Johnson considered offering him the No. 2 spot on the ticket in 1964, according to "Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye," a book by Kenneth P. O'Donnell and David F. Powers, aides to JFK. The running mate slot eventually went to Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota.

Instead, Shriver was instrumental in helping Johnson wage his War on Poverty, which resulted in the creation of Head Start, VISTA, the Job Corps and other programs aimed at helping America's poor.

Shriver got his chance to run nationally in 1972. He replaced Sen. Thomas Eagleton of Missouri as Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern's vice presidential pick. (Eagleton dropped out after previously undisclosed medical issues came to light.) But the McGovern-Shriver ticket was trounced by Richard Nixon and his running mate Spiro Agnew in November.

In later years, Shriver became involved with his wife in the Special Olympics, an event that gave disabled athletes a chance to compete and shine. He was appointed chairman of the board of the Special Olympics in 1990. In 1994, President Clinton awarded Shriver the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

"I was deeply sadened to learn about the passing of Sargent Shriver, one of the brightest lights of the greatest generation," President Obama said in a statement releasted Tuesday evening. "Over the course of his long and distinguished career, Sarge came to embody the idea of public service. . . His loss will be felt in all of the communities around the world that have been touched by Peace Corps volunteers."

Robert Sargent Shriver Jr. was born in 1915 in Westmister, Md., graduated from Yale University law school in 1941 and served in the Navy during World War II, according to his website. He married Eunice Kennedy, John F. Kennedy's sister, in 1953.

His five children include Maria Shriver, an NBC News reporter and wife of former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

 

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]]>dailyguidanceeunice kennedy shriverjohn f. kennedyLyndon B. Johnsonpeace corpssargent shriverspecial olympicswar on povertyTom Diemer2011-01-18T16:52:00+00:00