72% of Republicans still believe President Obama is not a citizen

By Jack Brummet

"Seventy-two percent of registered Republican voters still doubt President Obama's citizenship, according to a recent NBC News|SurveyMonkey poll conducted in late June and early July of more than 1,700 registered voters. And this skepticism even exists among Republicans high in political knowledge." - MSNBC

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What Donald Trump looks like under the tan and wig

From "God"'s newsfeed on Facebook:  Donald Trump looks almost human!

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John Boehner tears into Senator Ted Cruz

Here's what former SotH John Boehner had to say about the GOP-TP establishment candidate yesterday in a forum at Stanford University.  “Lucifer in the flesh,” Boehner said, “I have Democrat friends and Republican friends. I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life.”

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POTUS 42 and POTUS 45 hopeful dressed up as Dolly & James Madison (ca 1993).

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28%!

By Jack Brummet

An Economist/YouGov poll last Friday showed that Donald Trump is now 28% of registered Republican voters 1st choice, up from 15% in early July.

Why?

a) Novelty. Remember Herman Cain soared in the polls early on too, mostly for also shooting his mouth off. 

b) The GOP rank and file is an aging, and slightly/largely deranged demographic. 

c) They are fed up with lame candidates like McCain and Romney (although this is hardly the solution to that). 

d) Sending a message to the others.

e) People love rich guys. Sure, most of the other candidates are multimillionaires, but Donald TrumpEts it. 

f) They want their own, as Sarah Palin would say, "mavericky" candidate like Bernie Sanders.

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Hillary Clinton about to announce candidacy for President

By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Ed. (illustration by Jack Brummet)

The Big Announcement will probably happen next week. She has two weeks to go official, since it appears she has rented a campaign headquarters in Brooklyn. /Pablo F (illustration by Jack B)

“Mangia, mangia!" — JFK in a restaurant in Rome, ca. 1963

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Future President LBJ a/k/a "Landslide Lyndon" campaigning for the Senate by helicopter in 1948

By Jack Brummet, National Affairs Ed.

LBJ won the 1948 Senate primary by 87 votes, which led to his nickname "Landslide Lyndon."  His rented helicopter, "The Johnson City Windmill," drew crowds to fairs across the state,

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President William Howard Taft's sleeping porch on the White House roof

By Jack Brummet, Presidents Ed.

William Howard Taft was 27th President (1909–13) and later, tenth Chief Justice of SCOTUS. No one else has ever held both offices.   This is his sleeping porch on the White House roof.

photo courtesy of the Library of Congress

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ATIT Reheated - The Johnson Treatment: LBJ's version of persuasion and coercion, with photos and links to 15 previous stories on LBJ and "The Johnson Treatment"

by Jack Brummet, Presidents Editor

 

Here, LBJ, the Majority Leader, puts the strong-arm on Theodore Green, a 90 year old Senator

The Johnson Treatment has been described as having 'a large St. Bernard licking your face and pawing you all over.'   LBJ was a big man, and the original "close talker."  The Johnson Treatment was a singular combination of physical intimidation and coercion, and it was one of his most effective tools as he mastered the Senate, and later, to a far lesser degree, the Presidency.   The phrase "The Johnson Treatment" is sometimes also used to describe being violated by unwanted company.  LBJ would paw you, lean into you, get right up in your grill and ask you for a favor.  Except it wasn't really asking.  Here are a few of our favorite photographs of LBJ giving the Treatment, along with links to fifteen previous article on LBJ, LBJ's War, and, of course, The Johnson Treatment.

LBJ leans on Hubert Humphrey, who would later become his VP

LBJ leaning on his friend Abe Fortas, whom he would later name

to the Supreme Court, and even later attempt to elevate to Chief Justice.

Fortas eventually resigned after four years on the court, due to ethical issues.

LBJ putting the screws to Dan Rather, who had asked an impertinent question

Putting The Johnson Treatment on Richard Russell

LBJ gives soon to be President Dick Nixon the treatment

Whitney Young gets a taste of The Treatment

Eartha Kitt gets a frosty dose of the treatment after she questioned his war

One person to whom he couldn't give the treatment...his boss, Jack Kennedy

The Johnson Treatment

LBJ and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King meet up

LBJ howls like a dog

Another good LBJ photo

And another. . .

One of the heroes and villains paintings

LBJ In A Characteristic Pose

Running Mates: Senators Lyndon Johnson And JFK

The Johnson Treatment, Part 6: The Hump and Senator Russell get the treatment

The Johnson Treatment, Part 5: Senator Richard Russell (Dem., Georgia) Undergoes The Treatment

The Johnson Treatment, Part 4: President Johnson Gives The Treatment To Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas

The Johnson Treatment, Part 3: LBJ Gives Eartha Kitt The Treatment

The Johnson Treatment, Part 2: Richard M. Nixon, Republican Presidential Front-runner Gets The Treatment

He's Not Close Enough To Give Him The Johnson Treatment, But LBJ Appears To Be Answering A Pointed Question From Dan Rather

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JFK & Jackie, 1953

Photographer unknown

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This photographer stole Richard M. Nixon's soul. . .

By Pablo Fanque
National Affairs Editor

This is a rare photograph of President Richard M. Nixon—one of the few I've ever seen (and I've seen many) that captures his heart and soul:

Several recent ATIT articles on President Nixon:

Visiting Richard Nixon

Fun with Richard Nixon's Ghost

Nixon's Back Pocket speech in case of a space disaster

RMN's Comedy of Errors

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A great quote from Don't Rock The Boat (the 2000 film starring Jefff Bridges as President Jackson Evans

A quote from Don't Rock The Boat (Jeff Bridges as President Jackson Evans):

"You've got five apes in a cage. You've got a banana hanging by a string in the middle of the cage. You've got some stairs going to the banana. Now pretty soon one of those apes is going to go for the banana and as soon as he hits the stairs you take a hose and you spray all five apes with freezing cold water for five minutes. Now, some time passes and pretty soon another one of the apes is going to make the same attempt with the same result. All five apes get sprayed with a cold water. Now you turn off the cold water. You never use it again. One of the apes is going to go for the banana. He hits the stairs, the other four apes pounce on him and beat the shit out of him. Right? Okay, understandable. Now you replace one of those original apes with a new ape. After a while that new ape is going to spy that banana and when he goes for the stairs, the other four apes are going to jump on him and beat the shit out of him. Right? Now, time passes, you replace another one of the original apes with a new ape. That new ape is going to go for the banana. The other four apes beat the shit out of him. Right? Including the first new ape who has no idea why he's so enthusiastically beating the shit out of this poor guy nor why he himself had the shit beat out of him. Okay? Now you keep replacing these original apes with new apes until finally you've got a cage filled with fives apes who have never had the freezing cold water sprayed on them and never the less not one of those apes will never attempt to climb those stairs again. Why not? Because that's the way it's always been done around here."  - Presidenr Jackson Evans, The Contender

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America, you've been Trumped -- Donald Trump surges ahead in the polls

By Pablo Fanque
ATIT National Affairs Correspondent

We now know that Donald Trump has the same sort appeal to the knuckleheads as Sarah Palin once did, and as, say, Ross Perot did when he was running strong.

In a stunning poll released yesterday by the Wall Street Journal/NBC polling organization, Ex-Governor Mitt Romney was running in first place, but real estate "tycoon" Donald Trump surged into a surprise tie with Ex-Governor Mike Huckabee for second place.

In the poll of likely Republican primary voters, Romney snagged 21% of the vote in the field of nine candidates.  Trump was tied for second with Huckabee, with both drawing 17%.  Ex-House Speaker Newt Gingrich polled 11% and just nosed out Ex-Governor Sarah Palin at 10%.  Ex-Governor Tim Pawlenty-- a favorite with the milktoast crowd-- that most pundits think will come on strong (even as he continues to languish in obscurity) pulled only 6%.  Congressperson Michele Bachmann of Minnesota had 5%, Ex-Senator Rick Santorum Drew 3%, and Mississippi Gov. Haley "KKK" Barbour drew an awesomely pathetic and wonderful 1%,

The pollsters say a big factor in Trump's numbers was his 96% recognition.  We also think it is because the public perceives him as a truth-teller (despite his execrable recent conversion to raising the flag for the "birther" "movement).  He's the guy who yells "You're fired!"  And the American public loves people who make money, especially when they've done it more or less honestly.  Nevermind that he started out with all his dad's money and property and has racked up one failed venture after another.  He has said publicly that he'd be willing--if he decided to make a run--to spent $600 million of his cash cache on the campaign. 

Then again, you have to consider his looks.  As we wrote here many years ago, no matter how charming Steve Forbes was (he wasn't), or how smart his flat tax proposal was (it was, sorta), he could never be a serious candidate for President if only because of his looks.  Alas, The Donald falls into that same category.  Not that there aren't at least fifty other reasons why Donald Trump should not be President. . .

Donald Trump is enjoying all this and is not seriously considering a run for the White House.  We also suspect his fame and this popularity bubble will be even more fleeting than, say, the ones Mike Huckabee or Howard Dean experienced.  In what's sure to be a turbulent political season, it will be, at the least, fun to watch.

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Why I won't run for President

By Jack Brummet
Social Mores Editor

Because of my past
Because of my present
Because who knows what might come out
Because I will say almost anything for a laugh
Because who has the time to raise $200 million
Because I would work to repeal the 2nd amendment
Because I would also work to repeal the 22nd amendment
Because most planks of my platform begins "mass involuntary ________"
Because I would order mandatory music at least five hours a day
Because we could never build enough holding tanks, prisons, camps, and islands of exile. . .

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George Bush Unfiltered...I kind of miss him

By Jack Brummet

Arts and Paranormal Editor

One thing I did like about George W. Bush as President (one of the very few) was his--sometimes shocking and often appalling--lack of filters.  I don't know if you remember some of his post 9/11 speeches on waging war, but he was dangerously bellicose. . .and committed.  George didn't quite stray into Curtis LeMay's "Bomb them into the Stone Age" turf either.  Ish.    BHO's carefully nuanced speech makes Dubyah's twisted syntax and rambling seem *almost* charming.

One of President Bush's best wack moments ever came down in a speech he made on  on May 25, 2005 at the Greece Athena Middle and High School in Greece, New York.


"...third time I've said that. [Laughter.] I'll probably say it three more times. See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda. [Applause.]
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The Palin-Bachmann Juggernaut Picks Up Steam

click images to enlarge

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

People rarely agree (except Mona Goldwater) when I say that Ex-Governor Palin is a force to be reckoned with in 2012, either as a candidate, or as king-maker. Note: it's not like I WANT this to happen. Their logic is usually something like "The American people are no way that dumb," or "It can't happen here." But what happens when you put the two tea-party poster gals together into one rolling, perhaps unstoppable juggernaut? We have proved at least twice in the last decade that intelligence is not one of the job requirements for the Presidency. But then, again, perhaps there are limits to that theory and the voting public does have some sort of floor on the qualifications of POTUS?




Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann--the two Tea party favorites--rallied together
recently in Minnesota. "I knew that we'd be buddies when I met her when she
said, 'Drill here, drill now,'" Palin said. "And then I replied, 'Drill baby drill,'
and then we both said, 'You betcha!'"




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It was 64 years ago today that FDR died in office and Harry S. Truman became Presidenrt

On this day in 1845, following the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, the vice president, succeeded to the presidency. Truman's presidency saw a number of major events in world affairs:-- we "won" the war in Europe, and Japan, the UN came alive,  the Truman Doctrine--an attempt to contain Communusm--led to the Cold War,  NATO was born, and the Korean War began.  Needless to say, we also became the first (and, thankfully, last [for now]) country to drop an atomic bomb on fellow humans. 

click to enlarge - Harry got into hot water with First Lady Bess over this photo of Betty Bacall perched on his piano, showing some serious gams and eyes...
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Painting: Link a/k/a Abraham Lincoln

click Link to enlarge...

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painting: First Lady

click to enlarge

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