Weird Halloween Costumes From The All This Is That Inbox

Over the last week, these strange and unsettling costumes have hit our inbox. At least two are profoundly disturbing (the grinning kid wearing a Keffiyeh [an Arab or Turkish head-dress...although I never saw one in Turket last summer]), and the two- or three-year old dressed up as Hitler. Goldilocks and the bears doesn't rate much lower on the disturbing scale, either. The most interesting is the costume of the dolls, looking like some sort of bizarre Katamari.

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POTUS 31, President Herbert Hoover. . .the scapegoat

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As I've said before about Hayes, Taft, Coolidge, Bush, Ford (who barely qualifies), et al, my second favorite variety of President is the one-term Republican defeated for re-election. My favorite configuration is, of course, the two-term Democrat. I am sad to report that in my now lengthy lifetime, I've seen--and voted for--only one: POTUS 42 William Jefferson Clinton.

Run from office on a rail in 1932 by the FDR juggernaut, President Hoover's star has risen over the years.

In the book, The Herbert Hoover Story, Eugene Lyons writes: "A Fantastic Hoover Myth. . .It presents our thirty-first President as a heartless ogre, inept and callous and reactionary, who 'caused' a depression, then 'did nothing' to mitigate its horrors."

President Hoover is no longer blamed for causing the Depression. However, he was trounced by FDR and the nation then began the excruciatingly slow march toward recovery, and, a decade later, war with the Axis.

Years later, in 1947, President Truman enlisted Hoover to help with various issues, including flying to Europe to fix the food production pipeline in defeated and occupied post-Hitler Germany.

Flags in the classrooms at Kent Elementary were draped with black bunting for a month when Hoover died in the fall of 1964. It was a relief I think, going back to a time when Presidents died in bed, of old age.
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POTUS 30 - President Calvin Coolidge,

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President Coolidge was a quiet, sober and somber man, whose pained expression concealed a dry wit. In the middle of the night in 1923, he was informed of the death of Warren Harding. Coolidge's father, a justice of the peace, gave Coolidge the Oath Of Office, and he immediately went back to bed! He finished Harding's term, and ran for one on his own. Although he was eligible to run for an additional term (like LBJ), he chose not to.

Although he was a well-loved President, after leaving office his policies were increasingly blamed for the events that led to the Great Depression.

On being told of Calvin Coolidge's death, Dorothy Parker famously remarked of the taciturn President, "How could they tell?"
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Bad books for the kids at Christmas...

I don't know where these came from. . .they turned up in my inbox this week...

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POTUS 29 - President Warren G, Harding, who didn't quite live to rue the day

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A Democratic leader, William Gibbs McAdoo, called Harding's speeches "an army of pompous phrases moving across the landscape in search of an idea."

President Harding is often considered the most corrupt President ever (check out "The Teapot Dome Scandal"), in a close horse race with POTUS 38, President Richard M. Nixon. Like Nixon, he was probably less an actual crook than a chronic and pathetically inept judge of associates. He was a machine politician and came to Washington with baggage: an army of wardheelers and bosses. Many were indicted and convicted and served prison time.

President Harding never had to face total ignominy, alas; he died on a west coast trip two years into the 29th presidency.

Some writers and historians believe he was poisoned by his wife, who was fed up with his infidelities. Some scholars give this credence since she would not agree to an autopsy.

President Harding was succeeded by his Vice-President, Calvin Coolidge. Keep cool.
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POTUS 28: President Woodrow Wilson - The President Who Short-Circuited & POTUS 28A: President Edith Wilson

President Wilson started out as an academic, working his way up to President of Princeton in 1902. He ran for governor, and won, in 1910, and was nominated for President at the democratic convention in 1912.

After winning re-election in 1916 on the premise that "he kept us out of war," he asked congress to declare war on Germany in 1917. The American presence in the war eventually helped tilt the balance in favor of the allies. After the Germans signed an armistice, Wilson went to Paris to work on the Treaty of Versailles and The League of Nations. Alas, in the midterms, the balance in Congress had tilted toward the Republicans. The Treaty died in the Senate.

After a long tour on the hustings to drum up support for Versailles and the League of Nations, President Wilson became ill.

On October 2, 1919, Wilson suffered a massive stroke that left him partially paralyzed on his left side. His intellectual capacity remained intact, but his emotions and judgment were shattered. No one suggested that Wilson resign. The 25th amendment was fifty years in the future. His wife, Edith, undertook a massive cover-up of his condition. She controlled access to him and made the decisions for him. In a very real sense, Edith Wilson was the 29th President of the United States (or maybe 28A).

It's a mind f**ker for us in the age of revved up Kleig-light journalism and media scrutiny to imagine keeping a President on ice for two years. Imagine if in 2006, President George W. Bush disappeared from public view, and we never saw him again. We get communiques from him, we never actually see him. He is somewhere behind The Closed Door, like Charlie, of Charlie's Angels, or even Howard Hughes. Any information we do get comes from aides. You no longer really even know who is behind that closed door. No one has the power to peek beneath the covers.

Although President Wilson gradually recovered from the worst effects of the stroke, he never got his game back. In the meantime, the Senate twice rejected the Versaille peace treaty. Wilson had refused to compromise and the United States never joined the League of Nations. President Wilson left the White House in March 1921 a broken man.
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Who do you love? A comparison of John McCain hugs with President Bush and Governor Palin.

No daylight between 'em. A hearty embrace, where Senator McCain even leans his head on The President's shoulder.



Best Friends Forever? Hardly. A most awkward embrace between the Senator and the Governor, who have now almost erupted into open warfare.
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Buyer's remorse:::::::::McCain campaign calls Sarah a whack job:::::Her team fires back::::::::::Palin goes rogue::::::Let the finger pointing begin!

An Awkward Embrace

The wheels have long since fallen off the McPalin bandwagon, and the finger pointing has begun. In public. The McCain camp clearly has a case of buyer's remorse, and the Palin wing feels like they have been kept under wraps and aggressively over-managed.

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, writes about a “demoralized” McCain campaign: “Palin is going to be the most vivid chapter of the McCain campaign's post-mortem. … Those loyal to McCain believe they have been unfairly blamed for over-handling Palin. They say they did the best they could with what they got.”



Anonymous McCain campaign leakers have now called Governor Palin a “diva," and even “a whack job.”

George Stephanpolous also wrote: "The Alaska governor herself has been pushing out on her own against McCain's handlers. In recent days she has been speaking her own mind about what she thought of McCain's strategy in Michigan, and what she thought of his decision not to go after Rev. Jeremiah Wright. "

From Atlantic Magazine: "There's a faction within the McCain campaign has begun to whisper about Gov. Sarah Palin to reporters. The faction includes staff members and advisers who consult with staff members. It does not seem to include any members of the senior staff, although the definition of the senior staff here is a bit elastic. This faction has come to believe that Palin, perhaps unwittingly, subconsciously or otherwise, has begun to play Sen. McCain off of the base, consistently and deliberately departed from the campaign's message of the day in ways that damage McCain."

Politico.com reports: "'She's lost confidence in most of the people on the plane,' said a senior Republican who speaks to Palin, referring to her campaign jet. He said Palin had begun to 'go rogue' in some of her public pronouncements and decisions. 'I think she'd like to go more rogue,' he said … 'These people are going to try and shred her after the campaign to divert blame from themselves,' a McCain insider said, referring to McCain's chief strategist, Steve Schmidt, and to Nicolle Wallace, a former Bush aide who has taken a lead role in Palin's campaign. Palin's partisans blame Wallace, in particular, for Palin's avoiding of the media for days and then giving a high-stakes interview to CBS News' Katie Couric, the sometimes painful content of which the campaign allowed to be parceled out over a week."



The New York Post said: "Things have gotten so tense between Palin and her traveling staff, an insider said, that she's overruling their advice — which was evident last week when she ignored GOP aides piling into waiting cars at a Colorado event and strolled over to the press corps for an impromptu talk."

From the Cable News Network web site: "'She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone,' said [a] McCain adviser. "She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else. Also, she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party. Remember: Divas trust only unto themselves, as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom."

UPI reported yesterday that "At a Tampa rally yesterday, Palin blasted the RNC for buying her a $150,000 wardrobe, calling it "ridiculous." Unsurprisingly, these were not the remarks that were sent to her in the morning by the McCain campaign.

New York magazine's Daily Intel column online reported that "The idea of Palin as running mate was sprung on McCain at the very last minute by his two strong-willed advisers, Fred Davis and Steve Schmidt. This weekend's New York Times Magazine story reveals just how short a time period it was between when Davis and Schmidt unilaterally presented their case and when the announcement was made by McCain (five days). According to the story, McCain made up his own mind, but in retrospect he may regret the timing and spin."

Whew!

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Digital art: You're Under Arrest!

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The Obama "Infomercial": A knockout, virtuoso performance

By Pablo Fanque, All This Is That National Affairs Editor
Illustrations: Jack Brummet



Barack Obama's televised "infomercial" was politically brilliant--a virtuoso performance that made it's case intellectually, as well as working the retail politics angle. You'd have to be a hard-hearted American to have not been touched by the message. To view this masterful talk and not be emotionally affected, in place of your beating heart would be a lump of bituminous coal.

Despite the never ending mud-slinging from the other side, all the name-calling, accusing him of "not being one of us," and the bitter invective being hurled from the desperate Republicans, Obama rose above it all and connected with the American people. No one needs to be scared of Obama. This was not the talk of a Molotov-cocktail flinging Bolshevik; this was a fellow American who mostly ignored party politics because he was talking along the heartline. Obama was talking to you. He almost completely ignored partisan politics and John McCain and Sarah Palin. He was there to close the deal with the voters.



I have been highly critical of Obama's cool in the past, and his inability to show emotion. He made up for all that tonight, with six days left in the campaign. His performance reminded me of Bobby Kennedy, who also knew how to connect with the people, and who also knew how to put politics aside. Tonight we saw the real maverick in the race. After this showing ( a speech?, a talk?, a message?, a multimedia assemblage?), if I was John McCain, I'd just concede the race tomorrow.
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Contra: Presidents I have voted against

I have had the distinct pleasure of voting against a large number of Republican Presidential candidates over these last years. I am leaving off the names of those I did vote for. . .they were all Democrats, and frequently I had to hold my nose as I pulled the lever, and later filled in the bubble or poked out the chad on the punchcard.

In retrospect, I was right. Even the weakest candidates we Democrats mounted would have made a better President than the hacks, lapdogs of big business, wardheelers, and feebs we ended up electing. Here's the list of who I have voted against since I reached the age of majority.



When I was 19, I got to vote against Richard M. Nixon (a man I would later come to greatly admire, but would never have voted for in any office higher than dog-catcher). I got to vote in this election because 18, 19, and 20 year olds were granted suffrage by the 26th Amendment to The Constitution, which passed in July 1971.



When I was 23, I had the distinct pleasure of voting against Dick Nixon's successor, Gerald R. Ford, a man I also liked, but couldn't stomach as President. He was a good guy and a weak President. He was President a little over two years.




At 27, I was able to vote against Ronald Reagan for the first time. When I was 31, I got to vote against him one more time.

At 35 years of age, I got to vote against Ronald Reagan's successor George H.W. Bush.

When I hit 39, I was lucky enough to vote against President George H. W. Bush again.



At the ripe old age of 43, I most enjoyed casting my ballot against Senator Bob Dole.

When I was 47 years old, I happily cast my ballot against George W. Bush.

When I turned 51 years old, I was able to vote against W. one more time.



And now, in one week, as I enter the voting booth for the very last time (Washington State will be shifting to mail-in ballots in the near future), at 55 years of age, I will most happily cast my vote against Senator John McCain, a man I sometimes admired a few years ago.

Is this a great country...or what?
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POTUS 27: Pres. William Howard Taft - Who Preferred To Be Remembered As Chief Justice

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President William Howard Taft was a judge, Governor of The Philippines, and later The Secretary of War. POTUS 26, Teddy Roosevelt, hand-picked him as successor. President Taft had a fairly uneventful Presidency and lost the re-election to Woodrow Wilson (POTUS 28), which was probably a good thing all around. Wilson was an OK President, and Taft was a good Supreme Court judge.

After leaving the White House, Taft taught law school for years and was eventually tapped to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. President Taft said in later years that he much preferred the bench to the Oval Office.
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