Thursday, March 5, 2009

Hillary’s Mystery Woman

For anyone who's wondered who the gorgeous woman is that serves as Hillary Clinton's personal aide, here's a fascinating story on Huma Abedin.
Indeed, in the insular world of New York and D.C. politics, Huma Abedin has become a sort of mythical figure.

On a day-to-day basis, Ms. Abedin is responsible for guiding the Senator from one chaotic event to the next and ensuring that the many hundreds of situations that arise at each—the photo ops, the handshakes, the speeches—go smoothly. The job of “body person”—industry-speak for the catchall role of an omnipresent traveling assistant—is a notoriously grueling one, requiring unfaltering level-headedness and a zeal for multitasking. These folks are constantly on the move, juggling 20 different chores, and they consequently often appear slightly disheveled (or even sweaty).

By most quantifiable measures, Ms. Abedin has the most challenging of those gigs. In the last 10 days, she has accompanied Mrs. Clinton to more than 20 events, involving nine plane flights and several trains. At each stop, they were mobbed.

“I think she has special powers,” said public-radio broadcaster Katia Dunn, who recently crossed paths with Ms. Abedin and Mrs. Clinton at a café on Capitol Hill.

Ms. Dunn explained that she had heard about the “cult of Huma,” but had never met her. “All of a sudden, I turn around and there was this woman I now know to be Huma. And it wasn’t just that she was gorgeous—she did just sort of have this presence. She stopped me in my tracks for a second.”

The daughter of an Islamic scholar and a Pakistani-born professor, Abedin still works for Clinton at State.

Read more at The New York Observer.

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Sunday, March 1, 2009

Palin 2012 Watch

I report, you decide, but remember that four years before the last election nobody knew who Barack Obama was, and everyone thought Hillary Clinton would be the front runner.

When asked who they would like to see running for president in 2012, Republicans cite familiar names from the 2008 presidential campaign season, topped by vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. This is according to a CNN/Opinion Research poll that provides a very early test of GOP voters' preferences.

Palin, the governor of Alaska, led with 29 percent among the 462 Republicans who responded to the poll taken Feb. 18-19. Palin built a sizable fan club on the Republican right as the party's surprise vice presidential pick with her effusive campaign style and strongly conservative views, though she committed several stumbles that raised serious doubts among many other voters.
More at CQ Politics's Poll Tracker.

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Tuesday, February 24, 2009

President Obama’s Address to Congress


The weight of this crisis will not determine the destiny of this nation. The answers to our problems don't lie beyond our reach. They exist in our laboratories and our universities, in our fields and our factories, in the imaginations of our entrepreneurs and the pride of the hardest-working people on Earth.

Those qualities that have made America the greatest force of progress and prosperity in human history we still possess in ample measure. What is required now is for this country to pull together, confront boldly the challenges we face, and take responsibility for our future once more."

Dang, Poor Nancy Pelosi must have been exhausted after jumping up and sitting down all night.

Other precious moments:
"We can no longer afford to put health care reform on hold." Cut to Hillary Clinton in hot pink in the front row.

"...with the name of Orrin Hatch...." Cut to Orrin, looking down reading his program... Hullo....

Joe Lieberman, slow-clapping at "eliminate the no-bid contracts that have wasted billions in Iraq..."

"I will soon announce a way forward in Iraq that leaves Iraq to its people and responsibly ends this war." Even John McCain gets up for applause.

"I can stand here tonight and say without exception or equivocation that the United States of America does not torture." John McCain is up again. (And yes, he should have led on that issue.)
More stuff:

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Obama flops my way

HuffPo is calling this a "flip-flop." If so, it's my kinda flip-flop, and I ain't talking the rubber beach sandal...
Multiple senior administration sources [confirm] that the health care proposal in Obama's budget will have a mandate. Sort of.

Here's how it will work, according to the officials I've spoken to. The budget's health care section is not a detailed plan. Rather, it offers financing -- though not all -- and principles meant to guide the plan that Congress will author. The details will be decided by Congress in consultation with the administration.

One of those details is 'universal' health care coverage."

That word is important: The Obama campaign's health care plan was not a universal health care plan. It was close to it. It subsidized coverage for millions of Americans and strengthened the employer-based system. The goal, as Obama described it, was to make coverage "affordable" and "available" to all Americans.

But it did not make coverage universal. Affordability can be achieved through subsidies. But without a mandate for individuals to purchase coverage or for the government to give it to them, there was no mechanism for universal coverage. It could get close, but estimates were that around 15 million Americans would remain uninsured. As Jon Cohn wrote at the time, "without a mandate, a substantial portion of Americans [will] remain uninsured."

The budget -- and I was cautioned that the wording "is changing hourly" -- will direct Congress to "aim for universality." That is a bolder goal than simple affordability, which can be achieved, at least in theory, through subsidies. Universality means everyone has coverage, not just the ability to access it. And that requires a mechanism to ensure that they seek it.

Administration officials have been very clear on what the inclusion of "universality" is meant to communicate to Congress. As one senior member of the health team said to me, "[The plan] will cover everybody. And I don't see how you cover everybody without an individual mandate." That language almost precisely echoes what Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus said in an interview last summer. "I don’t see how you can get meaningful universal coverage without a mandate," he told me. Last fall, he included an individual mandate in the first draft of his health care plan.

The administration's strategy brings them into alignment with senators like Max Baucus. Though they're not proposing an individual mandate in the budget, they are asking Congress to fulfill an objective that they expect will result in Congress proposing an individual mandate. And despite the controversy over the individual mandate in the campaign, they will support it. That, after all, is how you cover everybody.

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Friday, February 20, 2009

Socks, former Clinton cat, put to sleep - CNN.com

Socks, the cat who won international fame during his years in the Clinton White House, was euthanized Friday after months of treatment for cancer.Socks, who was born in 1989, was put to sleep about 10 a.m. at Three Notch Veterinary Clinic in Hollywood, Maryland, said veterinary assistant Rae Dera. Veterinarians say he was probably either 19 or 20 years old.

The cat had been losing weight since November and had been treated at the clinic, Dera said. He had been suffering from a cancer in his mouth and jaw.

Since the Clintons left the White House in 2001, Socks had lived with Betty Currie, former President Bill Clinton's secretary. The Clintons were known to have visited Socks, and Currie, when in Washington.

He had been a stray and was adopted by Chelsea Clinton, the Clintons' daughter, when Bill Clinton was governor of Arkansas.

Read more on CNN.com.

For a terrific history of Socks and some wonderful photos of his days at the White House, visit Purr-n-Fur.

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Thursday, January 22, 2009

The West Wing

For many of us, discussion of any of Obama's new senior staff members engenders only one question: "Who was that on 'The West Wing'?"

Well, wonder no more. The UK Guardian has published this helpful guide.

(By the way, don't forget that Obama was the model for Jimmy Smits' character Matt Santos.)

White House layout. To go with piece 22/1/09

The layout of the White House under the Obama administration.

1. President

Barack Obama. In the West Wing: Jed Bartlett

2. Personal secretary to the president

Katie Johnson. In The West Wing: Dolores Landingham

Johnson, 27, part of the team of 20-somethings accompanying Obama from the Chicago campaign office to the White House, will maintain the president's daily schedule. The personal secretary is typically a low-profile job - or was until Clinton's, Betty Currie, was called as a witness in the Monica Lewinsky affair. She will sit at a desk just outside the Oval Office, next to Reggie Love.

3. Personal aide to the president

Reggie Love. In The West Wing: Charlie Young

Love, 26, the handsome young "body man" to Obama during the campaign, will be at the president's side for much of the day. He will keep the president in snacks, chewing gum and drinks, and tend to his personal needs from a desk in a small office beside the Oval one. A former Duke University basketball player, Love introduced the president to the fist-bump and the rapper Jay-Z.

4. Press secretary

Robert Gibbs. In The West Wing: CJ Cregg

Gibbs, 37, a travelling companion to the president during the campaign, will be the man behind the podium at news conferences. Aside from Obama's, his is the public face of the administration. Gibbs was a top strategist during the campaign, and is said to be close to Obama - a plus for reporters seeking better access to the president's thinking and deliberations

5. Communications director

Ellen Moran. In The West Wing: Toby Ziegler

Moran, 42, is former executive director of Emily's List, an abortion-rights advocacy group that incidentally endorsed Hillary Clinton during the primary campaign. She also worked for the AFL-CIO, a coordinated advertising efforts for the Democratic National Committee in 2004. She will occupy tiny office, barely the size of a broom closet, but one on the first floor of the west wing.

6. Deputy communications director

Dan Pfeiffer. In The West Wing: Sam Seaborn

Pfeiffer, 33, was a travelling press secretary and communications director for the presidential campaign, and is married to Sarah Feinberg, a top aide to Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. He also will sit in a tiny office beside his boss Moran. He previously worked for several Democratic senators, and Al Gore's 2000 campaign for president.

7. Deputy national security adviser

Thomas E Donilon. In The West Wing: Kate Harper

Donilon is a governing partner of O'Melveny & Myers, a giant international law firm. He was a state department aide under Clinton, and was involved in Bosnia and Middle East peace negotiation, Nato expansion, and US-China relations. He will occupy a cubbyhole on the first floor of the west wing, in the opposite corner from the Oval Office.

8. National security adviser

James Jones. In The West Wing: Nancy McNally

Jones, 65, a retired marine corps general, will brief Obama daily on intelligence reports deemed vital to national security (a key paper that went overlooked was entitled "Bin Ladin [sic] determined to strike in US"). In times of crisis he will operate from the White House situation room. He will occupy a large corner office down the hall from Rahm Emanuel.

9. Vice-president

Joseph Biden

10 and 11. Deputy chiefs of staff

Mona Sutphen and Jim Messina. In The West Wing: Josh Lyman

Sutphen, 41, is a former foreign service officer who worked on the National Security Council under Clinton, at the US mission to the United Nations, and at the embassy in Bangkok. Messina, 39, was chief of staff to the presidential campaign, and was a top aide to two Democratic senators and a congresswoman. The two will occupy tiny, windowless offices in the middle of the Oval Office's first floor.

12. Senior adviser

David Axelrod

The man credited with shaping the media message that helped put Obama in the White House is following him there. David Axelrod, 53, a former political reporter and Chicago political consultant, was Obama's chief strategist during the campaign and also led his 2004 senate campaign. He is a trusted political adviser and will occupy a tiny office next to the president's private study.

13. Senior adviser

Pete Rouse

Rouse, 62, another in Obama's close coterie of "senior advisers", was chief of staff in Obama's senate office. Before that he was a top aide to Democratic senators Tom Daschle of South Dakota and other Democratic politicians. He is one of the small group of advisers who helped Obama through the decision to run for president. He will occupy an office next to Axelrod.

14. White House chief of staff

Rahm Emanuel. In The West Wing: Leo McGarry

Emanuel, 49.a former political aide to Bill Clinton, Illinois congressman and investment banker, takes the job described as "chief javelin catcher" in the White House. He will maintain a gruelling work schedule, tasked with briefing the president, managing the White House staff, and acting as gate keeper to the information and people that reach the Oval Office. He will occupy a large corner office down the hall from the Oval Office.

White House counsel

Greg Craig, 64, a former aide to Bill Clinton and Ted Kennedy, will be the lawyer to the president, advising Obama on legal prerogatives and authority. As a civil and criminal attorney, Craig has had a hand in some of the most important national affairs in recent decades. He represented the father of Elian Gonzalez, the refugee child who was repatriated to Cuba over demands he stay in the US.

Director of the White House military office

Louis Caldera, 52, will run the White House military office, which handles the day-to-day operations of the White House - keeping its occupants fed and medically sound. In past administrations has been charged with handling the "nuclear football", the briefcase of nuclear launch codes. Caldera was secretary of the army under Bill Clinton, and is former president of the University of New Mexico.

White House social secretary

Desiree Rogers, 49,is a New Orleans native and former insurance executive. She is a long-time Chicago friend to the Obamas. She will be responsible for planning galas and state dinners at which Obama will host heads of state, governors, the world's cultural elite, and other VIPs. It is a enormous task - in one year alone, the Clinton White House threw 400 events.

Director of scheduling and advice

Alyssa Mastromonaco, 32, was responsible for scheduling virtually every minute of Obama's time during the presidential campaign. Her role in the White House will be even more complex, as organisations like the secret service and speech writing offices will have a say in the president's day-to-day activities. She will oversee a staff of about 35 that will include a "diarist" to record the president's moves.

Senior adviser

Valerie Jarrett, 52, is senior adviser and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Relations and Public Liaison. A real estate executive, lawyer and former Chicago city hall aide, Jarrett is a close confidante of Obama - he celebrated her birthday in Chicago in the days after the election. Jarrett occupies the second-floor office once used by Hillary Clinton when she was first lady.

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Clinton and Obama at the State Department

Must not get teary...must not get teary...


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Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Hillary Clinton Confirmed As Secretary Of State

Hillary Clinton Confirmed As Secretary Of State: "The Senate has confirmed Hillary Rodham Clinton to become secretary of state. The Senate vote was overwhelmingly in favor of the former first lady despite lingering concerns by some Republicans that her husband's charitable fundraising overseas could pose a conflict of interest.

Republicans and Democrat alike say her swift confirmation was necessary so that President Barack Obama could begin tackling the major foreign policy issues at hand, including two wars, increased violence in the Middle East and the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran.

Immediately after the vote, Clinton was to be sworn in during a private ceremony at the Capitol."

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Thursday, December 18, 2008

Cabinet Scorecard

Almost complete. Electoral-vote.com lists the score on Obama Cabinet Appointments and the colleges and universities they went to. The list so far includes:

Attorney General: Eric Holder
Secretary of Agriculture: former Gov. Tom Vilsack
Secretary of Commerce: Gov. Bill Richardson
Secretary of Defense: Robert Gates
Secretary of Education: Arne Duncan
Secretary of Energy: Steven Chu
Secretary of Health and Human Services: former Sen. Tom Daschle
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: Shaun Donovan
Secretary of Homeland Security: Gov. Janet Napolitano
Secretary of the Interior: Sen. Ken Salazar
Secretary of Labor: ?
Secretary of State: Sen. Hillary Clinton
Secretary of Transportation: Rep. Ray LaHood
Secretary of the Treasury: Timothy Geithner
Secretary of Veterans Affairs: Gen. Eric Shinseki



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Monday, December 15, 2008

Caroline Kennedy for Hillary's Senate seat?

Hmmm...

Caroline Kennedy, the deeply private daughter of America’s most storied political dynasty, will seek the United States Senate seat in New York being vacated by Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Ms. Kennedy ended weeks of silence with a series of rapid-fire phone calls to the state’s leading political figures, including Gov. David A. Paterson, in which she emphatically and enthusiastically declared herself interested in the seat, according to several people who received the calls.

“She told me she was interested in the position,” Mr. Paterson said at a news conference outside Albany on Monday. He added, “She’d like at some point to sit down and tell me what she thinks her qualifications are.”

The governor, who has sole authority to fill the Senate vacancy, insisted that he had not yet chosen a successor to Mrs. Clinton and said that Monday’s conversation with Ms. Kennedy was the first he had had with her since an initial discussion almost two weeks ago.

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Thursday, December 4, 2008

Obama approval rating at 78%

Obama has a 78% approval rating before he even takes office according to a poll released today by USATODAY.com and Gallup:

"President-elect Barack Obama gets soaring marks for his handling of the transition and his choices for the Cabinet, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, even at a time the public is downbeat over the economy.

More than three of four Americans, including a majority of Republicans, approve of the job Obama has done so far — broad-based support he'll need as he faces tough decisions ahead.

By 69%-25%, those surveyed approve of his pick of New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, his former Democratic primary rival, as secretary of State.

By an even wider margin, 80%-14%, they favor his decision to ask President Bush's Pentagon chief, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, to stay on the job."

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Monday, December 1, 2008

Obama's National Security Team







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Wednesday, November 26, 2008

An interesting thought

Hmmmm... a peculiar, yet interesting suggestion from WaPo:
"Amid the blizzard of resumes blanketing Washington as the Obama era dawns, there is a superbly qualified candidate for full employment whose name has been overlooked. We refer, of course, to William Jefferson Clinton, America's 42nd chief executive and commander in chief. Yet now, by a wonderful combination of circumstances, comes an opportunity to harness his unquestioned political talents to benefit his country, the Democratic Party, New York state and his spouse. If, as is expected, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton becomes secretary of state, New York Gov. David Paterson could send her husband to the U.S. Senate."
Who better than Bill Clinton to deepen and energize such a tradition? Why shouldn't former presidents continue their political lives in Congress? The British have long benefited from a tradition whereby former prime ministers acquire a seat and voice in the House of Lords. In today's unusual circumstances, surely beyond the imagination of any novelist, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would not have to fret about suitable protocol for dealing with her spouse on foreign trips were he occupied, full time, with senatorial duties.


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Friday, November 21, 2008

Madame Secretary...

From the NY Times...so it's gotta be fit to print, right? Clinton Is Said to Accept Offer of Secretary of State Position:
"Hillary Rodham Clinton has decided to give up her Senate seat and accept the position of secretary of state, making her the public face around the world for the administration of the man who beat her for the Democratic presidential nomination, two confidants said Friday."


As secretary of state, Mrs. Clinton will have had a powerful platform to travel the world and help repair relations with other countries strained after eight years of President Bush’s policies. But at the same time, she will now have to subordinate her own agenda and ambitions to Mr. Obama’s and sacrifice the independence that comes with a Senate seat and the 18 million votes she collected during their arduous primary battle.

Driving Mrs. Clinton’s deliberations in part, friends said, was a sense of disenchantment with the Senate, where despite her stature she remained low in the ranks of seniority that governs the body. She was particularly upset, they said, at the reception she felt she received when she returned from the campaign trail and sought a more significant leadership role in the expanding Democratic majority.

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Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Hillary as SOS

The NY Times weighs the idea of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. Let the frenzy of speculation begin...
I have to say, I'm not against the idea, especially after it was pointed out that Kennedy shot down Hillary's bid to head a sub-committee on health care... Perhaps it would be better to use her skills in the vast frightening arena of world politics...:

"In reality, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama are much closer to each other on the global issues that will confront the Obama administration. While Mrs. Clinton voted to authorize the Iraq war in 2002, so did a majority of her Democratic colleagues in the Senate. Since then, she and Mr. Obama, who opposed the Iraq war, have found their way to similar positions on a timetable for withdrawing American troops. They both support sending additional troops to Afghanistan, and agree on climate change and Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.

And while they publicly sparred during the primary over whether Mr. Obama, as president, should meet with Iranian leaders without preconditions, Mr. Obama has since said that such an outreach would first involve lower-level preparatory work, a position that is closer to Mrs. Clinton’s."


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Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Codename: FunnyFace

Thanks to Dana for the tip on Secret Service codenames on wiki.

Somebody at the Secret Service Code Naming Office has a sense of humor. So, we know the Obamas' codenames, but here are some other winners through the years. Notice how the names for Sasha and Malia are the same as for two of the Reagan kids...

  • Richard Nixon - Searchlight
  • Ronald Reagan - Rawhide
  • Nancy Reagan - Rainbow
  • Maureen Reagan - Rhyme, Rosebud
  • Michael Reagan - Riddler
  • Patti Davis - Ribbon
  • Ron Reagan - Reliant
  • Doria Reagan - Radiant
  • George H. W. Bush - Snowstorm
  • Bill Clinton - Eagle
  • Hillary Clinton - Evergreen
  • Chelsea Clinton - Energy
  • George W. Bush - Tumbler (I love the double entendres)
  • Laura Bush - Tempo
  • Dan Quayle - Scorecard or Supervisor
  • Marilyn Quayle - Sunshine
  • Al Gore - Sawhorse or Sundance
  • Karenna Gore - Smurfette
  • Dick Cheney - Angler
  • Ted Kennedy - Sunburn
  • Jesse Jackson - Pontiac or Thunder
  • Hillary Rodham Clinton - Evergreen
  • John McCain - Phoenix
  • Cindy McCain - Parasol
  • Sarah Palin - Denali
  • Todd Palin - Driller (How'd they get this one approved?)
  • Henry Kissinger - Woodcutter
  • Zbigniew Brzeziński - Hawkeye
  • John Ehrlichman - Wisdom
  • H. R. Haldeman - Welcome
  • Ron Nessen - Clam Chowder
  • Scott McClellan - Matrix (generic name for White House Press Secretary)
  • Strom Thurmond - Footprint
  • Frank Sinatra - Napoleon
  • Pope John Paul II - Halo



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Friday, November 7, 2008

Commemorative Editions

The Big Issues of Newsweek, Time and well, just about everyone else int he news media, have hit the stands. Newsweek's behind the scenes coverage, which we saw snippets of on HuffPo, is really detailed and intense. It's like a novel. I think they've actually produced an article longer and more in-depth than the ones you find in the New Yorker! And written to much higher than a sixth grade level. Amazing!

Secrets of the 2008 Campaign
  • Chapter 1: "In November 2006, Greg Craig sat next to George Stevens, an old friend of the Robert Kennedy clan, at another Obama speech. Stevens leaned over to Craig and said, "What do you think of this guy for president? I haven't heard anybody like this since Bobby Kennedy." Craig instantly replied, 'Sign me up.' Stevens and Craig approached Obama coming out of the speech and asked, 'What are you doing in 2008?' Obama gave them a big grin and said, 'Oh, man, it wasn't that good.' But before long Craig and Stevens were raising money for Obama's political-action committee, the Hope Fund. Obama was amused by the devotion of the two old Kennedy hands. After a while, every time he saw the two men he would say, 'Here come the Kool-Aid boys.'"
  • Chapter 2: "At the time of the 2000 campaign, McCain had pictured himself as Luke Skywalker, going up against the Death Star. Rumbling along with his aides and a gaggle of mostly friendly reporters in a bus called the Straight Talk Express, he had relished the team spirit—the unit cohesion, in the language of his military past—and the teasing back-and-forth. Not long after the 2000 election, he had spoken of the heady time with a NEWSWEEK reporter over a standard-issue McCain breakfast (glazed doughnuts, coffee) in his Senate office. He was sitting at one end of his couch, the purplish melanoma scar down the left side of his face veiled in shadow. 'Yeah, we were a band of brothers,' he said, his voice low, his eyes shining. The 2000 race had been a glorious adventure, a heroic Lost Cause. But the fact was that McCain had lost."
  • Chapter 3: "In the days after his wife's back- from-the-brink victory in New Hampshire, Bill Clinton was full of righteous indignation. The former president had amassed an 81-page list of all the unfair and nasty things the Obama campaign had said, or was alleged to have said, about Hillary Clinton. The press was still in love with Obama, or so it seemed to Clinton, who complained to pretty much anyone who would listen. If the press wouldn't go after Obama, then Hillary's campaign would have to do the job, the ex-president urged. On Sunday, Jan. 13, Clinton got worked up in a phone conversation with Donna Brazile, a direct, strong-willed African-American woman who had been Al Gore's campaign manager and advised the Clintons from time to time. 'If Barack Obama is nominated, it will be the worst denigration of public service,' he told her, ranting on for much of an hour. Brazile kept asking him, 'Why are you so angry?'"
  • Chapter 4: "Throughout the spring of 2008, McCain's uneven speaking style was a source of frustration to his aides. They knew how open and disarmingly honest he could be when he felt like it. But his stubborn integrity (or childish willfulness, depending on your point of view) was as much a liability as a virtue. When McCain didn't like the words he had been given to read, his inner Dennis the Menace would emerge, and he would sabotage his own speech. McCain's subversive instincts had long shown up in his speaking style. Before the 2000 primary in South Carolina, when he spoke in favor of flying the Confederate flag over the state capitol, he would pull a piece of paper out of his pocket and read from it. It was obvious that he didn't really believe what he was saying and was ashamed of his pandering. His aides had trouble coaching him because the very act of telling him what to do could incite a rebellion."
  • Chapter 5: "There wasn't real panic at Obama headquarters on North Michigan Avenue—such emotionalism (normal in most campaigns) was taboo. But Palin was so unexpected a choice that some staffers were rattled. So this aide, a veteran of some nasty campaigns, would go up to staffers and say, 'Get her out of your head! It's McCain!' It was an effort to force the slightly dazed staffers to see that they needed to stay focused on McCain, not his running mate."
  • Chapter 6: "Never one to wing it, Obama studied for the three official presidential debates, scheduled for roughly once a week from late September to mid-October, as if he were taking the bar exam. He memorized details on new weapons systems so he wouldn't look like a neophyte on national defense. But the real challenge, he knew, was not in the details of policy or his mastery of defense-spending arcana. He would need to show something more ineffable but profound—a true command presence. As his aides never ceased to remind him, he would have to look 'presidential.'"
  • Chapter 7: "On the last full day of campaigning, Monday, Nov. 3, Obama walked out onstage and surveyed the crowd for a few extra seconds before giving his stump speech. The crowd was in a festive mood. A middle-aged woman with a silk scarf salsa-danced with a beaming Latino man, holding both hands above his head and flashing the victory sign as he spun and gyrated to the song 'Ain't No Stopping Us Now.' Reporters, who rarely budged from the laptops in the press room to hear Obama deliver his well-worn speech, streamed toward the stage to get a better view of the candidate. They seemed to sense that the long campaign was finally over, that this was their last chance to see the political phenomenon, who rarely came back to talk to the press. 'I have just one word for you, Florida,' Obama declared to the crowd. 'Tomorrow.' He drew on the oratory of the civil-rights movement, intoning, 'We have a righteous wind at our backs.'"

Pick up a copy-- if you can find it.

Oh, and yet one more set of revelations about Palin: "Another reporter asked Steve Schmidt if he was happy with "the pick of Palin." He ducked the question. Schmidt was trying, not very hard, to hide his true feelings. He had been compelled to personally take over Palin's debate prep when she seemed unwilling to engage in the drudge work of learning the issues. McCain's advisers had been frustrated when Palin refused to talk to donors because she found it corrupting, and they were furious when they heard rumors that Todd Palin was calling around to Alaska bigwigs telling them to hold their powder until 2012. The day of the third debate, Palin refused to go onstage with New Hampshire GOP Sen. John Sununu and Jeb Bradley, a New Hampshire congressman running for the Senate, because they were pro-choice and because Bradley opposed drilling in Alaska. The McCain campaign ordered her onstage at the next campaign stop, but she refused to acknowledge the two Republican candidates standing behind her. McCain himself rarely spoke to Palin (perhaps once a week when they were not traveling together, estimated one adviser). Aides kept him in the dark about Palin's spending on clothes because they were sure he'd be offended. In his concession speech, McCain praised Palin, but the body language between them onstage was not particularly friendly. (Palin had asked to speak; Schmidt vetoed the request.)"

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Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Good Night and Good Luck Edition

"A man is a very small thing, and the night is very large and full of wonders."
--Lord Dunsany

To all my fellow travelers in this election, I thank you. It's been a crazy wild ride, full of the strange, the enraging, the absurd and the wonderful. But one of the most encouraging things I've gotten is the sense that there are so many of us out here, invested in the process, watching, evaluating, and getting involved. In my only medium-long life, I have never seen the kind of energy and enthusiasm that I saw surrounding this election, and it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside to think of all of us, for a few weeks, all of one mind.

How will we get back to our lives? The Wall Street Journal today noted, "The end of the most-followed presidential campaign in recent years will leave many Americans feeling lost, even if their candidate won. The 2008 race provided drama and suspense to a nation hooked on reality television, mystery novels and Hollywood epics.... Seldom in American history has a presidential campaign offered such compelling narratives: The rise and fall of former first lady Sen. Hillary Clinton. The come-from-behind primary performance of war-hero Sen. John McCain. The emergence of Barack Obama, the biracial Harvard Law star raised by a single mother. The moose-slaying Sarah Palin, who proudly embraced her unwed pregnant teenager. The father, Sen. Joe Biden, who raised his young sons alone following the death of his wife and daughter in a car accident. On the morning after the election, however, it's as if "The Sopranos," "American Idol" and "Desperate Housewives" all ended on the same night."

Well, for those who have been, like myself, utterly addicted to the circus and joined at the fingers to your computer/Blackberry/iPhone for lo, these many weeks, I offer a few discoveries that I've made in the last few hours, and which may or may not help you with the transition back to "civilian" life. Firstly, food, bizarrely, can often be consumed slowly and at a "table" --doing so actually does not taste any worse than consuming it hurriedly with one hand on the sandwich and the other on the keyboard. Who knew? I also discovered that hugging your significant other will not "refresh the poll numbers" and petting the cat does not "zoom in on battleground states." Both however, are extremely satisfying.

I have also discovered that it's best to cut back on your newsite surfing slowly. Don't try to cut out all the sites at once. Start by checking HuffPo only once an hour. Eliminate the news blogs-- FirstRead, Caucus, The Note, The Page, The Plank, RawStory, Democratic Underground, Political Browser, Daily Dish, Daily Kos, Politico, Wonkette--one by one, until you sense that the urge to "keep going and going" has abated. You can remove the shortcuts to FiveThirtyEight.com, Pollster.com and RealClearPolitics.com from your iPhones and bookmarks. You may continue to check the NY Times for updates on the Obama Transition team. That's merely being an "informed citizen." But one thing I hope we all keep, is the sense that we are invested in the process of running this country.

Seriously though, folks, I'll miss these daily rants, (I'm going to have to check into my own special twelve-step program to de-bloggerize) although I think my long-suffering husband will be grateful not to find me maniacally pounding away on the keyboard every hour of the day, and he'll be happy not to have to quietly back out of the room upon finding me muttering angry epithets to myself or snarling at the TV screen. But I don't say good-bye, because, well, most of you know you'll see and hear from me again, some of you tomorrow! Hah! But I do want to say again, thank you to all of you for forwarding on your delicious tidbits, for sending me all your emails of support and for sharing your time with me. The thought that we could all stand here in the epicenter of an historic moment, with tornadoes whipping around us, feeling storm-tossed and blown, angry and yet encouraged, outraged and yet still empowered--knowing that there were others out there hanging on for dear life with us in the wide world, well, you just can't beat that. That gives me hope.

We've come so far, and sometimes I feel crushed by the fact that there's so much left to do. But at least now we know that we're not alone --now the real work begins. I, for one, can't wait.

Thanks for reading, everyone, and in the words of Edward R. Murrow, "Good night, and good luck."

ME:)


I think I'll go for a walk outside now,
the summer sun's callin my name
(I hear ya now)
I just can't stay inside all day,
I gotta get out get me some of those rays.
Everybody's smilin'
--Sunshine day
Everybody's laughin'
--Sunshine day
Everybody seems so happy today...
It's a sunshine day

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Thursday, October 30, 2008

Bill's Lines of Reasoning

After the Informercial and the Daily Show, there was one more part to the Obamathon, maybe my favorite part of the night-- his appearance at a rally in Florida with Bill Clinton. In that way that only Bill can serve it up, he gave his four reasons to support Mr. Obama on Election Day next week: his philosophy, his policies, his ability to make a decision and his ability to bring change to people's lives. Watch the old master at work again:

There are four reasons that I can tell you in a way no one else can, because I've been there. And I want you to tell this to everybody. And they don't just have to be your neighbors. You can e-mail people all over America. There are all these exchanges going on where people who are still undecided are fessing-up, at least on the Internet.

And I want you to get on there and tell them there are four reasons they ought to be for Barack Obama. The four things that really matter in a president are: number one, the philosophy; number two, the policies; number three, the ability to make a decision; and number four, the ability to execute that decision and make changes in people's lives.

So I've been noticing this philosophical argument on television. You all been seeing that in this election? And Senator Obama asked me to say a word about it on the way up here. He's got the right philosophy which is America works from the ground up, not from the top down.

They talk about redistributing the wealth. They just presided over the biggest redistribution of wealth upward since the 1920s and we all know how that ended. In the last eight years 90 percent of the gains went to 10 percent of the people over 40 percent to one percent. Can you run a great democracy that way? I don't think so. So don't tell me about redistribution. When I served you, you had more than five times as many jobs as you are going to get out of this crowd. You had medium family income across all racial lines going up and now it's down. We paid down the debt. They've doubled the national debt. So don't tell me about redistribution.

What Senator Obama has is a plan that works from the bottom up. If there's a strong middle class and if poor folk can work their way into it and stay in it, there'll be lots of millionaires and billionaires. I know we made more millionaires and billionaires than they did and you just didn't know it because middle class incomes were rising and everybody had a good job and that's what Barack Obama will do again.

So he's got the right philosophy.

The second thing I want to tell you is he's got the right policies. And I've read them all. And I've read his opponent's. People used to make fun of me for being a policy wonk but I take it after the last eight years, we all know it really matters what people advocate. And let me tell you folks, is again something I can say because I'm not running for anything, the historical record shows that virtually every person ever elected president does his best to actually do what they say they're going to do in the campaign and Barack Obama's do-list is the better do-list.

The economic plan is better. The education plan is better. Young people, you read his plan. If you are willing to do community service it doesn't matter how rich or poor you are, you're going to be able to go to college, universal, everybody is included, no ifs, ands or buts.

And his health care plan is light-years better. And I can tell you there are people in this crowd, I know there, are who have lost their health insurance. There are people in this crowd who have children with autistic conditions or other disabilities that need help and nobody is helping them. And we're living in the government, last week one in eight Americans are not going to be able to afford their cancer drugs this year. America drops to 29th in infant mortality and we're spending more than anybody else in the world? They want to defend that.

Barack Obama wants to change that and he has a good plan to do it and we should vote for on Election Day.

And finally let me say his energy plan is better. And don't you be fooled by these oil prices going down because as soon as they can sucker us in to forgetting about being energy independent they'll go right back up again. And he's got the best plan to liberate Americans and create millions and millions and millions of jobs. So he's got the best policy.

Now the third thing he is, is the better decision maker. You know our current President said something that's really true. The President is the decider-in-chief. And in this election you've got a very unusual thing I've never seen happen before. You got to watch the candidates make, not one, but two presidential decisions. You always get one; who they pick as Vice President. He hit that one out of the park, folks, that was a good decision.

OK, then you got to see the reaction to the financial crisis in America nearly coming off the wheels. Having the wheels nearly run off. I saw this up close. You know what he did? First he took a little heat for not saying much. I knew what he was doing. He talked to his advisers, he talked to my economic advisers. He called Hillary. He called me. He called Warren Buffett and he called Paul Volcker. He called all those people and you know why, because he knew it was complicated and before he said anything he wanted to understand.

Folks, if we have not learned anything, we have learned that we need a president who wants to understand and who can understand. Who can understand; yes, he can.

The second thing and this meant more to me than anything else and I haven't cleared this with him. And he may even be mad at me for saying this so close to the election but I know what else he said to his economic advisers. He said tell me what the right thing to do is. What's the right thing for America, and don't tell me what's popular. You tell me what's right and I'll figure out how to sell it. That's what a president does in a crisis, what is right for America. And you know after this election there are going to be a lot of rough times ahead and you know it as well as I do. You have got to have a president who can understand and then has the fortitude to stand up and tell you, you hired me to win for America. I've got to make this decision now. This is the very best I can do. And I'm prepared to be held accountable.

I'm going to tell you something the way he handled this crisis and the way you saw him talk about it in the second and third debate showed that he will be a very, very fine decision maker working for the American people.

The last thing I want to say is this. Here's the last thing I want to say. All over the world I see this where I work now. The world is full of good, honest, smart, hard-working people with the best of intentions that cannot figure out how to turn their good ideas into real changes in other people's lives. If you have any doubt about Senator Obama's ability to be the chief executive, that's what the Constitution calls the president, just think about all of you. Look at this. Has there ever been a campaign that involved so many people, had made so much use of the Internet, that thought about how to solve problems, that gave people so much opportunity to give money, to give their time, to express their opinions, to do things.

He has executed this campaign in a way that is different from modern and forward thinking, something no one else ever could have done. He can be the Chief Executor of good intentions as president.

So I want you to get on the phone, and I want you to stalk your neighbors on the street, and I want you to get on the Internet and say if haven't made up your might you ought to vote for Barack Obama. He's got the best philosophies. He's got the best positions. He definitely has the decision making ability. And he is a great executor.

Folks, we can't fool with this. Our country is hanging in the balance and we have so much promise and so much peril. This man should be our president.



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Friday, October 24, 2008

Latest endorsements

In another one of those gosh-durned funny twists of fate, Scott McClellan, former Mouth of Sauron-- I mean Bush press secretary--endorsed Obama at a taping of D.L. Hughley's new show for CNN. Ooooh, Scott, there's something growing out of your neck... oh wait. I think it's a backbone.

And holy moley, Ron Howard has gotten the Opie wig back on and had a reunion with Andy Griffith and Henry Winkler in this latest ad from Funny or Die.

Obama also picked up the NY Times endorsement, unsurprising because of course that Liberal-bias rag has been in the tank for Obama since the start. Hah.

It will be an enormous challenge just to get the nation back to where it was before Mr. Bush, to begin to mend its image in the world and to restore its self-confidence and its self-respect. Doing all of that, and leading America forward, will require strength of will, character and intellect, sober judgment and a cool, steady hand. Mr. Obama has those qualities in abundance.

Watching him being tested in the campaign has long since erased the reservations that led us to endorse Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic primaries. He has drawn in legions of new voters with powerful messages of hope and possibility and calls for shared sacrifice and social responsibility.

Mr. McCain, whom we chose as the best Republican nominee in the primaries, has spent the last coins of his reputation for principle and sound judgment to placate the limitless demands and narrow vision of the far-right wing. His righteous fury at being driven out of the 2000 primaries on a racist tide aimed at his adopted daughter has been replaced by a zealous embrace of those same win-at-all-costs tactics and tacticians. He surrendered his standing as an independent thinker in his rush to embrace Mr. Bush's misbegotten tax policies and to abandon his leadership position on climate change and immigration reform.

Gallup has gone the extra mile and gotten polling from the rest of the world as to who they would vote for. Not that you couldn't guess, but it's interesting to see what a vote of confidence McCain doesn't get. Of the top ten countries that are most pro-McCain, four of them are not for McCain--but nevertheless, they still qualify as the most "pro" that he's got. Obama, unsurprisingly finds his biggest supporters among African and European countries. It's the companion piece to the similar poll from earlier in the year. Interesting how BLUE everything looks.

Painful. Really painful... Nancy Pfotenhauer, new Mouth of Sauron, is back, this time trying valiantly to defend...er... justify...er... cover up... Sarah Palin's (mis)understanding of the constitutional role of the Vice President, to wit, that "A Vice President has a great job because not only are they there to support the President's agenda, they are like the team member, the teammate to that President. They are in charge of the senate. if they want to, they can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better." Yeah, get in there and be all senator-ey and as to agenda-advancing and good. With smile firmly affixed to her teeth, Nancy has a go, and Chris Matthews, to his credit does NOT let it go.

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