No politics or punditry for George W. Bush
When George W. Bush says he’s done with politics — believe it.
Not even the queen of daytime TV could draw the former Republican president into commenting on the current political scene when Bush sat down with her to discuss his new book.
He makes it clear he has moved on from politics and that punditry is not his thing.
“I’m through with politics. It’s hard for people to believe. I already said that. I am through. I enjoyed it,” Bush says in excerpts of an upcoming interview with Oprah Winfrey released Thursday.
Winfrey asks if that’s why he’s made no public comment on President Barack Obama’s job performance.
“No. Because I want to treat my successor the way I’d like to have been treated. I don’t think it’s good for a former president to be out there opining on every darned issue. He’s got a plenty tough job. Trust me. And there’s gonna be plenty of critics and he doesn’t need me criticizing him. And I don’t think it’s good for the presidency. Other people have a different point of view,” Bush explains.
The sneak peek of Bush’s sit-down with Winfrey came two days after his Republican Party gave Obama a “shellacking” in Tuesday’s midterm elections, seizing control of the House and picking up a half-dozen seats in the Senate.
Stewart, Colbert rally gets ‘puzzling’ endorsement
First came celebrity endorsements from Oprah and Arianna. Now Jon Stewart’s Washington “Rally to Restore Sanity” has a more puzzling promoter.
Here’s a clue: German summer pants for little William? (10 letters)
Stumped? The answer is ”Will Shortz“. He’s editor of the New York Times crossword puzzle, which today devotes no fewer than eight clues to the Daily Show host, his fellow satirist Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report and the joint rally they’re planning for Saturday on the National Mall.
For anyone flummoxed by the clues to 54 and 65 Across, Colbert’s version of the event is called the “March to Keep Fear Alive.”
The Stewart-Colbert gathering is a reaction to Fox News commentator Glenn Beck‘s “Restoring Honor” rally, which was held at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on this year’s anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Stewart is also a big fan of Shortz and appeared in the 2006 documentary Wordplay, which focused on the Times crossword puzzle editor and the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Do Stewart and Colbert need the fiery presence of thousands of crossword puzzle enthusiasts? Now that’s a question. But the idea may be too inside the box for rally organizers.
“It’s great. But how does this help? That’s not something for us to answer because this is not something we solicited or planned on,” said Steve Albani, spokesman for Comedy Central, the cable TV channel that airs Stewart and Colbert. Folks at the Times were not immediately available for comment. (If they intend to respond via their puzzle, they may miss our deadline.) Meanwhile, Stewart and Colbert are expected to draw about 150,000 people to the National Mall. That’s a Wall Street Journal estimate based on the number of portable toilets ordered by Comedy Central. No _____. (4 letters).
Click here for more political coverage from Reuters.
Obama gives himself a B+
President Barack Obama is giving himself “a good solid B+” from his job performance thus far and is brushing off polls showing his approval rating has dropped below 50 percent.
Obama was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey in a show that was broadcast on ABC on Sunday and the queen of daytime TV wanted to know how Obama would grade himself. Obama said he deserved a B+, which in the U.S. education system, is very good but not up to an excellent A.
He said he reached his conclusion because of the many challenges he had tackled and that if he gets a healthcare bill he can say, his grade would inflate to an A-.
“I think that we have inherited the biggest set of challenges of any president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. We stabilized the economy, prevented the possibility of a Great Depression or a significant financial meltdown.”
“The economy is growing again. We are on our way out of Iraq. I think we’ve got the best possible plan for Afghanistan. We have reset our image around the world. We have achieved an international consensus around the need for Iran and North Korea to disable their nuclear weapons. and I think that we’re going to pass the most significant piece of social legislation since Social Security and that is health insurance for every American,” he said.
(That line about Iran sounded like a little misspeak. As far as we know the U.S. at this point does not think Iran actually has a nuclear weapon, but is trying to develop one.)
As for his approval ratings, Obama said “it was inevitable” that they would fall.
Well there you have it. Time will tell if your cynicism holds up.
So far, everything I have said has come true. This administration and this congress are as foolish as the people who support them.
Which Obama will be Gift Giver-in-Chief?
First lady Michelle Obama’s favorite childhood Christmas present was a dollhouse, a gift that may have presaged her current role as the nation’s tastemaker, admired and followed for her stylish clothing and the mark she is making on the White House.
“It was a metal dollhouse with plastic furniture,” she told U.S. talk show host Oprah Winfrey for her upcoming “Christmas at the White House” television special that airs on ABC at 10 p.m. Sunday. “… I remember I really didn’t know how to set up a house, so I had all the furniture lined up along the walls as opposed to nestled around the fireplace, but I loved that little dollhouse.”
President Barack Obama’s favorite present? A basketball given by his father, who was absent for most of his childhood, and which the president later realized probably had a lot to do with his lifelong love for the sport.
“I do remember the one time I met my father he was visiting during Christmas and he gave me a basketball and – the degree to which I came to love basketball – it wasn’t until much later in life that I realized, ‘Actually, he gave me that basketball’,” Obama said. “I think there was some cause and effect there in terms of the degree to which I just ended up taking up the sport as a kid who didn’t know his dad.”
But this year, the pressure is on the president, the first lady joked, after Winfrey asked whether Obama felt more pressure to give a better gift because of his new position. This holiday season is the couple’s first in the White House.
“You should feel pressure,” Michelle Obama said.
The First Draft: Palin Phenomenon
We can think of no other losing vice presidential candidate who has captured so much media coverage a year AFTER losing the bid for the White House.
The Palin phenomenon perseveres (this week anyway).
The Washington Post has TWO columnists writing about her today — Eugene Robinson’s “Our Evita,” and Richard Cohen “Time for some Palintology.”
The front page of the Post showcases a quote from Sarah Palin’s book “Going Rogue” which is out in bookstores today: “I always remind people from outside our state that there’s plenty of room for all Alaska’s animals — right next to the mashed potatoes.”
The New York Times op-ed page carries a column from Michael Carey of the Anchorage Daily News in which he flips the viewpoint to why Alaskans are fascinated by Palin — “how a woman who takes pride in calling herself a homemaker from Wasilla brought celebrity culture to the Last Frontier.”
She’s been interviewed by Oprah Winfrey and Barbara Walters. CNN’s Larry King had a whole discussion about Palin last night. And David Letterman has been having fun on his late-night show by coming up with things that are more fun than reading Palin’s memoir (number 61 – getting run over by a lawnmower).
james. It is fun watching the left get all in a fit over Governor Palin.
The First Draft: Palin for President?
Is she running for president? Seeking a coffee summit with Hillary Clinton? Or just selling her book?
The only clear answer about Sarah Palin’s intentions is that the questions are drawing lots and lots of U.S. media attention. This week, the former Republican vice presidential candidate and Alaska governor is on the cover of Newsweek magazine. She’s also going on-air for separate interviews with TV’s Oprah Winfrey and Barbara Walters of ABC News. It’s all about promoting her new memoir, “Going Rogue: An American Life,” which goes on sale Tuesday. But the notion that she also might be testing the waters for a 2012 presidential run is what’s drawing the serious attention. Supporters liken her to a populist 21st century Ronald Reagan or Barry Goldwater. But not all the coverage is as she’d like it. Newsweek, which pictures her on its cover as an attractive young woman in running shorts, scoffs at the idea of a Palin 2012 presidential campaign. “Her brand of take-no-prisoners partisanship is not good for the Republicans in the long run and not good for the country,” Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham told MSNBC. “When you have a kind of ‘death panel’ ideology, where you make pronouncements that are factually untenable and tend to inflame the conversation … that’s not good for governance.” She got a warmer reception from another woman of the campaign trail, former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, whom Palin thinks she might like to meet over coffee. “I absolutely would look forward to having coffee. I’ve never met her. And I think it would be, you know, very interesting to sit down and talk with her,” Clinton, now U.S. secretary of state, said over the weekend. But the last word is likely to be Palin’s. Her book promotion is expected to draw huge crowds across the country. And while a Washington Post/ABC News poll shows that 60 percent of Americans don’t think she’s qualified to be president, a similar percentage of Republicans say she is.
Photo Credits: Reuters/Nathaniel Wilder (Palin); Reuters/Jason Reed (White House); Reuters/Jonathan Ernst (Clinton)
getplaning. Once again you can’t see the forest for the trees.
That’s fine in your one dimenional world. I understand you aren’t smarter than a 5th grader.
NY 23. I won’t repeat what the electorate is saying behind your squeaker of a win for your liberal liar (I do not support the public option…then the day after the election says he is for the public option…yeah, typical liberal…). He beats someone who was in the election for only 3 weeks, was down 15 points and now….as the votes are still being counted is within 2 points. Yeah, go ahead and keep your head in the sand. You know your side is on a sinking ship. I makes me smile at your ignorance.
This is all what makes this article interesting. Palin is a real threat to this administration and congress. If she were to run, she would likely beat Obama because Americans are fleeing from his socialist agenda. The independents are saying they made a mistake to elect this bunch. They are destroying this country as we speak. Yes, destroy…
It’s not quite dishing, but Palin chats to Oprah about Levi, Couric
Apparently all is forgiven.
Sarah Palin tells Oprah Winfrey she wants to welcome Levi Johnston back into the fold.
Her daughter’s ex-fiance and father of her grandchild has been all over TV shows and in print media making unflattering comments about Palin, but the former Alaska governor says he’s part of the family.
Palin, who ran for vice president on the Republican ticket with Senator John McCain last year, also had nice things to say about Oprah, who had supported the other party’s candidate — Barack Obama.
The interview with Oprah Winfrey will air Monday to kick off a book tour for Palin’s memoir, “Going Rogue: An American LIfe.”
Last year, Palin was skewered for fumbling a question about what she read, and she tells Oprah she knew that interview with CBS anchor Katie Couric had gone badly.
“The campaign said ‘Right on, good. You’re showing your independence. This is what America needs to see’ and, of course, I’m thinking ‘if you thought that was a good interview, I don’t know what a bad interview was.’ So I knew it wasn’t a good interview,” Palin says in a clip of the taped Oprah interview released Thursday.
I am having a difficult time figuring out whether J. VanA is pro-Obama or pro-Palin. The early remarks suggest the latter, but after attempting to visualize (as the invitations go) the future under Obama, I can’t help but see 1) a thoughtful, carefully considered and effective military presence in Afghanistan, one that allows more American soldiers to avoid the massive trauma of armed conflict while providing the necessary support to that country’s own autonomy and safety, 2) a society in which, though the value of the dollar admittedly declines, the basic needs of all Americans are met to a much fuller degree than they have been for decades, 3) a newly self-consistent, fair and humane legal system in which justice is served without the use of impulsive, desperate techniques that have more in common with terrorist tactics themselves than with a humane and enlightened society, 4) a society in which people do not feel like the act of purchasing a fire-arm is their only guarantee of personal safety, security, and control, 5) industries that operate efficiently, honestly, and with the intent of generating the highest quality products, not simply of undermining the competition, of maintaining a strangle-hold on the market, or of serving the bottom line, and 6) a society in which all voices are heard, considered judiciously and weighed before final decisions are made, not a society in which all differing opinions and contributions are stamped out by a stubborn reliance on single principals, very few of which would ever apply singly to a given decision.
I’m in agreement that Sarah Palin is a woman of principle, and I also agree that the ability to answer televised questions extemperaneously does not make or break a person’s decision making or leadership ability; the skill is obviously one that requires serious practice and drill, neither of which Palin had time to recieve during the campaign.
But I have never understood the argument that supports “principle” as the sole factor upon which to base decisions that will affect many people of diverse backgrounds. Not everyone, after all, believes in the same principles as everyone else. The best decisions seem clearly to be those that weigh several different principles and include elements or shadings of each in a well thought out way. The trade-mark of a good decision maker is the ability to see and understand as many of these existing principles as possible, and to arrive at a decision that combines the most valid and compatible elements of each. The process takes time, requires a very open mind and a strong sense of empathy, and often results in a decision that advances no one particular view point or principle completely, but that somehow manages to advance the greater good by a little rather than the smaller good by a lot. This seems to me the very meaning of “The Democratic Process,” and it is not only a skill that a given person can have, but a skill built into the operation and structure of our government.
It is also a skill that, as best I can see, Sarah Palin does not have, and one that she in fact seems to diminish as much as possible despite being a self-described fan of a country built on the democratic process. In a country in which there has never been complete national support for any one cause or value or system of beliefs, shouldn’t we continue to have a president who acknowledges that debate and due process are essential, that having many beliefs, opinions and voices actually makes us stronger instead of weaker, and that no single governmental decision should ever be a simple appeal to something as safe from scrutiny and debate as a one person’s private principle?
The First Draft: Could Obama’s Olympic sprint be a preview of a Copenhagen climate trip?
OK, so President Barack Obama’s lightning jaunt to Copenhagen last week was less than successful. Even with Oprah along, the Cheerleader-in-Chief couldn’t clinch the deal for Chicago to host the 2016 Olympics. It happens.
But now that he knows the way to Denmark, might the American president consider arguing the U.S. case at international climate meetings in Copenhagen in December? The White House said he might, if other heads of state showed up.
“Right now you’ve got a meeting that’s set up for a level not at the head of state level,” presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters on Air Force One last week. “If it got switched, we would certainly look at coming.”
Those climate talks might need a bit of a boost from the United States. White House climate czarina Carol Browner has said it’s unlikely Obama will be able to sign any U.S. legislation to curb climate change before the December meeting. And that sets up a familiar Catch-22: if there’s no U.S. law in place before Copenhagen climate talks, can the United States commit to anything? And if there IS a U.S. law in place, does the United States have the flexibility to maneuver in these international negotiations?
Climate negotiators already know the answer to the first part of that conundrum; they agreed to the Kyoto Protocol without backing from the U.S. Congress and came home to find no support for this 1997 carbon-capping deal. The United States is still the only industrialized nation not to ratify it.
After the Olympic disappointment — Chicago was the first city of the final four to be cut from the running; Rio won — is Obama’s presence something that U.S. climate negotiators actually want? The global environmental community cheered his election last year after eight years of the George W. Bush administration, but he may not be the rock star on climate that he was then.
And let’s just face it: arriving at climate change talks aboard a fuel hog like Air Force One could send a mixed message — unless the White House commits to offsetting the big plane’s emissions by investing in windmills or tree-planting in a friendly developing country.
“Global Warming” is a global con pertetrated to inflict high taxes, penalty fees, and higher utility bills on the population with the sole purpose of making a select few filthy rich.
Obama brings the Olympics to the White House
President Obama deeply disappointed his hometown Chicago when he announced that he would not go to Copenhagen next month to personally make the city’s case for hosting the 2016 Olympics, so he and first lady Michelle Obama, who is going in his stead, on Wednesday brought the Olympics to the White House instead.
Former Olympic and paralympic athletes, Chicago officials and local schoolchildren attended the event on the White House lawn, where the president and first lady both spoke and watched judo and gymnastic demonstrations. The president even joined in with some of the athletes, earning a gentle jibe from his wife.
“You should have seen the president in there fencing,” she said. “It was pathetic, but he passed the baton really well.”
Obama said he was too busy working on healthcare reform to travel to Copenhagen on Oct. 2 to lobby the International Olympic Committee, but offered an excuse.
“The good news is I’m sending a more compelling superstar to represent the city and country we love, and that is our first lady, Michelle Obama,” he said.
Michelle Obama is hugely popular — her approval ratings exceed her husband’s, which have sunk as he works to push through his sweeping healthcare plan — and it is speculated that she may make the trip to Copenhagen with Oprah WInfrey, the Chicago talk show host and media magnate who is consistently rated one of the most popular and admired Americans. But proponents of the city’s bid worry they will not be enough, as the other three finalists are all sending their heads of state to make their cases to the IOC.
King Juan Carlos of Spain is traveling to Denmark to argue on behalf of Madrid. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is making the case for Rio. Japan is sending its new prime minister and its royal family for Tokyo, backers of Chicago’s bid note bitterly.
Politics is an interesting part of life. The president has time to play on the lawn at the White House but not to go and make a bid for Chicago. I don’t see it as a huge deal but his excuse of being to busy with the health care issue is nothing more than a ploy to draw attention to it. With email, phones, teleconferences and every other way that we have to communicate this is a lame excuse and again a way to draw more attention to the Health Care Issue which seems to be all that there is right now. I wonder how are guys in Iraq and Afghanistan are doing?
The History Man
http://wwwhistoryman.blogspot.com/
Oprah introduces the shoulder she cried on
CHICAGO – Oprah Winfrey has introduced her talk-show audience to the mystery man on whose shoulder she wept during President-elect Barack Obama‘s election night victory speech.
”I only saw the back of his head,” Winfrey said of her teary moment caught by TV cameras and flashed repeatedly around the world as she rested her head on the shoulder of a man standing in front of her in a sea of people.
At the taping of Friday’s show in her Chicago studio, Winfrey brought the man – former Reuters reporter Sam Perry — up from the audience for a face-to-face hug.
”We were in the moment,” said Perry, who told Winfrey that her runny mascara did not stain his suit coat.
Perry, who lives in Northern California and worked as communications director of the Obama Silicon Valley campaign office, said his cellphone started vibrating the minute the picture hit the airwaves, with friends from several places around the world “telling me that I was standing with you.”
But Winfrey said earlier this week she didn’t know who he was but was grateful for “Mr. Man” lending her a shoulder.
As to his moment of fame, Perry said, “people were staked out at my house yesterday as well and it just seemed like … we had a moment where the ‘stand up for change’ manifest in this election” was “taking over from Joe the Plumber,” a reference to the “everyman” from Ohio toasted by John McCain during the campaign.
Therese – you clearly didn’t read the whole way to the end of the article. Second to last line: “Winfrey said the crowd was packed in so tight Perry’s was the only shoulder to lean on anyway — and she asked him for permission before she did.”
Toonces – I don’t know about Oprah, but the millions of McCain supporters who started crying last Tuesday will undoubtedly continue until the Kool-Aid wears off…then they’ll start rejoicing for actually having an intelligent, competent, non-war-mongering, non-fear-mongering person as their President. Maybe some of them will start crying anew, but only because they’ll then realize how addled their brains were in trying to push McCain/Palin into the White House.
Lisa – So you’re trying to say Oprah is biased because she didn’t agree with you? Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. If you only want to hear/listen to people that agree with you might I suggest you never change the channel from Fox Noise.
Has the decision maker reached the Winfrey’s level now? Is larry King no longer interested in him. Bill Clinton is still asked by John Stewart!
Rex Minor