Epiphanies come in many forms. Some are personal, like the one I had after being invited to a hot tub party in Southern California: “I better start going to the gym.”
My political epiphany occurred there, too. (No, not at the hot tub party. In California.)
Read More
A flashback, or you might say, a relapse. Anyway, it’s a true story.
January, 1985. My little non-profit had been contracted to bring thirty exotic visitors from as many countries, to attend Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration. The idea had been cooked up by Charles Z. Wick, President Reagan’s trusted friend who boasted of having Thanksgiving dinner every year with the first family.
Read More
“At this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first.”
So said Abraham Lincoln as he began his second inaugural address in 1865. And then he gave one of the greatest presidential orations ever, pledging, “with malice towards none, with charity towards all … to bind up the nation’s wounds.”
Read More
David Brooks said it best. Mitt Romney’s comment about the nearly half of Americans who don’t pay income taxes and are thus government dependents was “depressingly inept.”
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Agreement of 1987 was one of the few dramatic advances for human survival in an otherwise murderous twentieth century. I didn’t make any of it happen, but I was a fly on the wall in its various phases.
Read More
Sequester This, Mr. Obama!
Jim, as was his wont, replied to this rather absurd pronouncement with appropriate tact and politeness. But when we got back to his office, he was fuming. “Bone and marrow!” he muttered. “Bone and marrow! Why that…”
Spotting a chance to ingratiate myself with my new boss, I piped up, “I think you’ve got a pretty good speech right there, Jim.”
“How’s that?” he asked, a tad suspiciously.
Read More »