• 14Feb

    Bring Back Phil Donahue (& Intellectual Talk)

    Public Policy & Politics No Comments

    I get my dose of sensational news from the likes of Chris Matthews and the Sunday shows. But my preferred talk show hosts include Charlie Rose and Bill Moyers. My favorite show used to be Donahue on MSNBC at 8pm. Phil Donahue was the network’s original liberal going up against Fox’s Bill O’Reilly night after night. Phil was doing really well and was higher rated than even Chris Matthews but his anti-war message was too big of a risk for MSNBC at the time. He was shitcanned and the Keith Olbermann era followed soon thereafter.

    Phil Donahue used his show to go after the truth and to press strongly those who try to spread misinformation. Donahue’s guests were scientists, scholars, leaders in their respective fields and, yes, politicians. The point of Donahue’s show was to cut through the bullshit to understand the issues we face; the conversation was casual but engaging.

    I learned recently that MSNBC is looking for an anchor to hold down the 10pm slot, someone to round out what is becoming recognized as a liberal offering including Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, who came from the liberal radio network Air America, which rose to prominence during the 2004 election.

    The liberal blogosphere is not unexpectedly generating lots of creative ideas about what to do with that time slot from signing another big liberal radio personality like Ed Schultz to a riskier move like giving a regular like Eugene Robinson his own show. Two candidates particularly have risen to the (unofficial) top and both are being promoted through facebooks: Air America’s Sam Seder and the Young Turks’ Cenk Uygur.

    The idea behind the facebook groups I suppose is just to build a big enough membership that somehow MSNBC notices them. Both the Sam Seder and Cenk Uygur groups now also have petitions of some sort set up.

    So in the interest of promoting intelligent, productive conversation on television, I have set up a facebook group: Hey MSNBC - Bring Phil Donahue To 10:00PM ET

    I don’t ask much of you modern anachronists but, if you can spare a moment, please join the Phil Donahue group. I wonder if we can get it rolling.

    Phil Donahue, recognized primarily as the former king of daytime talk (and as someone who pushed barriers in that area), most recently co-directed a film about the wounded soldiers coming home from Iraq, Body of War. I couldn’t find any online footage from his MSNBC show but watch Donahue bodyslam Bill O’Reilly…

    All of this, of course, without knowing if Phil Donahue would do it.

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  • 21Jan

    On Portraits of Heads of State

    Public Policy & Politics 1 Comment

    Around the world, it is very common for the portraits of heads of state to be mounted in places of official business. This is more prevalent, obviously, in monarchies and countries where dictators enjoy a cult of personality. In Great Britain, the Queen’s portrait hangs in households even. When I was in Morocco, I noticed the same portraits of the king AND his son over and over - probably a portrait released by the state. We can have no doubt that at some point in history - maybe even now - a dictator of some banana republic has a law obligating citizens to live under his portrait or suffer grim consequences.

    Growing up in a predominantly Catholic part of America, I remember there was always John Kennedy and the Pope… and sometimes Jesus and Mary. John Kennedy’s portrait was everywhere but I saw it mostly in homes and at school.

    To this day, federal offices hang the portraits of the President and maybe even the department’s Secretary. I presently work in the same building as the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation; peeking out the elevator, I can see the portraits of Governor Paterson and Mayor Bloomberg displayed prominently over the reception.

    I respect naysayers to this tradition who warn against cult of personality and the trappings of unquestioned leadership. But this page believes that it should be more acceptable for young folks to display portraits of leaders who they feel have earned that honor. To that end, as I have a tremendous amount of trust and respect for President Obama, his portrait now hangs in our living room.

    Obama’s transition team released his official Presidential photograph last week. The resolution was good enough to print a poster from it. I put the file on a disk, brought it to the photomat and in an hour had a 8×12 photo-quality portrait of President Obama. I took the portrait down to the frame shop and it matted and set in a mahogany frame et voila… an Inauguration Day present for Caitlin!

    For you anachronists who are inclined to do the same, you can find Obama’s portrait here. You might want to just download it now in case; the transition team has slowly begun taking their website down.

    PS - And that’s where we’ll wrap this page’s coverage of America’s peaceful transfer of power.

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  • 19Jan

    Remembering Martin Luther King

    Public Policy & Politics No Comments

    Today is a very special Martin Luther King Day that culminates with the inauguration of the first black President. (Doesn’t it feel like Christmas Eve?) We remember him now as much as ever…

    I have a lot of respect for those - first among them, Barack Obama - who are trying to transform this day into a National Day of Service. It’s an appropriate way to recognize King every year: trying to give as much to your community as you can.

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  • 17Jan

    All Aboard!

    Public Policy & Politics 1 Comment

    Barack Obama is riding a surge of approval right now and he took advantage of it with some tried and true political theater today: the whistle stop tour. Since railroad tracks began crossing our great land, politicians have taken advantage of trains. Most commonly, they’ve been used by state and national candidates who want to cross swaths of a region by stopping in several towns in a day.

    Whistle stop tours are particularly popular in the north. Most every President in the modern era has campaigned from the back of a train including Obama who did a couple whistle stop tours this year in Pennsylvania. Today, Barack Obama is the first President-elect to arrive in Washington, DC, for his inauguration by rail since Harry Truman. But I’m sure it was Abraham Lincoln, who took a 12-day train ride to Washington, who influenced Obama in this case.

    Whistle stop tours make for great show and can generate a lot of press - especially if you have a captive audience like Obama. Cable news this afternoon was one long story about Obama’s trip… and therefore about him. In fact, any sample of today’s cable news chatter doesn’t sound far different from that Roosevelt news reel I shared with you the other day.

    CNN had an eight-hour segment of programming today dubbed “Obama Express”. And the Obama team gave them a full day of reporting. The Presidential Inaugural Committee had major events planned at a few stops along the way including Wilmington, Delaware, where they picked up Joe Biden, and Baltimore.

    I don’t think today’s news, however, portends anything special for the future of rail in this country. That subject has come up on cable quite a bit today largely in part because of Biden’s Amtrak commute. Both Obama and Biden are committed to the success of rail as a clean, efficient form of transportation. Transportation legislation is something that this page will watch very closely over the next four years.

    Roosevelt had a great love of trains (not as much as ships) and traveled very frequently by rail.

    As did Teddy Roosevelt.

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  • 16Jan

    The Oath of Office

    Public Policy & Politics No Comments

    On Tuesday, America’s celebrated peaceful transfer of power will take place again as Barack Obama sets his hand on the bible and takes the oath of office. Obama will be the first President to be sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts and the second sworn in on Abraham Lincoln’s bible (see picture).

    The President’s oath of office is taken directly from the Constitution:

    I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.

    Many Presidents of the last hundred years have added the phrase “so help me god” to the oath as George Washington had supposedly. Obama will continue this tradition. Teddy Roosevelt added “and thus I swear”. Only Franklin Pierce has affirmed instead of swearing. Only Roosevelt has been sworn in without a bible (after President McKinley’s death).

    Most Presidents use their full name when taking the oath: “I William Jefferson Clinton do solemnly swear…” This year, Obama will continue that tradition and take the oath as Barack Hussein Obama.

    That will be the moment for me on Inauguration Day. It is certainly an achievement for this country to elect a black man. But I, personally, still can not believe they elected a President whose middle name is Hussein. It’s a symbol of the change that’s taken place.

    Or maybe the real indicator of how far we’ve come is how bizarre and out of touch the reactions sound:

    [Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa)] doesn’t like the fact that the president-elect will be sworn in using that middle name during Tuesday’s Inauguration.

    After telling the Associated Press last year that Obama’s middle name was among the reasons Islamic terrorists would rejoice over his election, King says he’s since been careful to avoid using it. Thus he found Obama’s decision to allow it be mentioned on the steps of the Capitol “bizarre” and “a double-standard.”

    “Is that reserved just for him, not his critics?” King asked.

    The congressman says he doubts Obama’s sincerity when he explained that he chose to use his middle name so as to be historically consistent with past inaugurations, when America has heard the full names of its presidents echo from the inaugural stand.

    “Whatever his reasons are,” King said, “the one he gave us could not be the reason.”

    He continued: “The society is a little strange about this. If you’re speaking the truth and in an effort to be objective, there should be nothing off limits in a free society, [but] there are many biases building and clearly a double-standard.”

    Take it from this Modern Anachronist, some things don’t change.

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  • 13Jan

    “Action and action now.”

    Public Policy & Politics No Comments

    When searching youtube for my favorite Inaugural speech (Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s in 1933), I found this good-quality newsreel about Roosevelt’s inauguration. Newsreels always give me a warm fuzzy feeling but, moreover, this is basically a highlights reel of Presidential inaugurations - precisely what’s our alley this week.

    Referred to as Roosevelt’s “Action and action now” speech, his Inaugural address rallied the nation to its feet. (It wasn’t until folks wised up that Roosevelt’s secret was his unwavering confidence did it become the “fear itself” speech.) The real backdrop of this day is booming unemployment, major runs on the banks and widespread bank collapses. Listen to the proud language of The Talk of the World:

    You may have heard Roosevelt’s comments about “broad executive power”. There was a very strong sense in America that the President should assume dictatorial power to end the Depression. The word dictator was not yet unfashionable and even a hot-selling car at the time was the Dictator. William Randolph Hearst commissioned an odd movie, “Gabriel Over the White House” about a man who runs for president during a crisis and assumes emergency powers to save his country. (I must find this movie no matter what format.)

    Anyhow, you hear instances of dictatorial language throughout his speech. That’s Roosevelt appeasing the “emergency executive power” crowd. Roosevelt, of course, never had any designs to suspend the constitution and was rejecting unofficial opportunities to organize a personal army of veteran and union volunteers. No shit.

    Bonus note about the music from the ceremony: after the new President gives his speech, the Marine band plays Hail to the Chief beginning with the highest honors: four ruffles and flourishes.

    REFERENCE

    Electing FDR: The New Deal Campaign of 1932 by Donald Ritchie is an awesome read and the parallels to 2008 are wild.

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  • 13Jan

    More on the Peaceful Transfer of Power

    Public Policy & Politics No Comments

    Before this page transforms into a celebration of inaugurations past and present for the remainder of the week, I’d like to take a moment to add a couple more words about what’s really important this week and next: the peaceful transfer of power.

    The pomp (the Commander in Chief Ball) and silliness (giant cheesecakes) is, at its core, a nation celebrating its ability to successfully transfer executive power every four years like a perfect grandfather clock. For more on the peaceful transfer of power, start here.

    The first thing I wanted to add is how special that is in this world. Every day, we read in the papers about countries rife with coup and assassination. We read about elections spilling into fighting. We read about rebellion and revolution and civil war.

    Humanity has a long way to go collectively. Just do a google search on “transfer of power” and you’ll be stunned by what you find. Let’s not take this inauguration for granted and celebrate the great thing that we have done. For example, let’s have a giant concert… on free HBO… at the Lincoln Memorial.

    Secondly, I wanted to point out that it has proven dangerous to presume that a country that can hold an election is thus a democracy. The United States made a pageant of elections in Afghanistan and Iraq. (Remember the purple fingertips?) But we did not do more to instill a confidence that is so important to new democracies. By tying successful elections to the definition of democracy, the Bush Administration should not wonder why a “spirit” of democracy isn’t breaking out all over the Middle East.

    I try not to get political on this page but I thought I’d stop by to basically say: Don’t take for granted this peaceful transfer of power! Huzzah!

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  • 12Jan

    The Lame Duck Amendment

    Public Policy & Politics No Comments

    January 20th is almost here and that means we’re about a week from peacefully transferring executive power to a new person. But if the 20th Amendment had never been ratified, we would have to wait until March 4th for the transition of power from George W. Bush to Barack Obama. You might ask yourself: could I wait that long? Could the nation wait that long?

    Well, that is precisely what the 72nd Congress was wondering. In 1932, the country was in the earliest and most hopeless days of the Great Depression. If the country would vote to replace President Hoover, the ability to stop the bleeding of the economy could potentially be impaired by a lame duck Presidency. (Any of this sound familiar?) Congress recognized the risk (at least the dangerous uncertainty) of a four-month executive transition and passed the 20th Amendment to the Constitution on March 2, 1932.

    The 20th Amendment or the Lame Duck amendment moved Inauguration Day from March 4th to January 20th. It also stipulates that Congress would “assemble” on January 3rd; formerly it was the same as the President, March 4th. The Senate Committee on the Judiciary said at that time:

    “Another effect of the amendment would be to abolish the so- called short session of Congress. . . . Every other year, under our Constitution, the terms of Members of the House and one-third of the Members of the Senate expire on the 4th day of March. . . . Experience has shown that this brings about a very undesirable legislative condition. It is a physical impossibility during such a short session for Congress to give attention to much general legislation for the reason that it requires practically all of the time to dispose of the regular appropriation bills. . . . The result is a congested condition that brings about either no legislation or illy considered legislation…”

    As you know, our new Senators and Congressmen are now all seated (excepting Illinois and Minnesota of course) and will not have to suffer “a congested condition”.

    In addition to recognizing that the President and Congress were no longer journeying on a two-horse buggy by the Old Post Road in winter, the Lame Duck Amendment did a lot of other executive transition “in case of death” housekeeping.

    Virginia was the first state to ratify the amendment on March 4 but, by election day, only 17 states of the (then) required 39 had ratified it. The amendment languished in state legislatures for months even after America elected Franklin Roosevelt the next President.

    After the new year, the economy continued to nosedive. Americans began to make serious runs on the banks. In an atmosphere of unemployment and deflation, President Hoover was indeed a lame duck. Hoover spent months trying to get Roosevelt to jointly present legislation and, after Roosevelt’s “one president at a time” decisions, Hoover did nothing. By January 23rd, the 20th Amendment had been ratified.

    After his reelection, Roosevelt became the first President to be sworn in on January 20th. It gives me goose bumps every time I think of it: Barack Obama will be the next.

    REFERENCE

    Full text of the XXth Amendment

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  • 07Jan

    The Inaugural Top Hat

    Public Policy & Politics 3 Comments

    The top hat has long been regarded as the most formal piece of a gentleman’s wardrobe. And as there is no more formal event than becoming a head of state, the top hat has been a tradition of Presidential inaugurations.

    To that end, the Huffington Post today posted a plea to bring back the inaugural top hat with a few photographs of inaugural headgear of days gone by.

    Once upon a time, when men were elected to the highest office in the land, they marked their first day in that office, otherwise known as the Inauguration, by wearing the most formal accessory in the land: the top hat.

    Through photographic research we determined that the last inaugural top hat was worn by Kennedy in 1961 (the only hat at the 1965 ceremony was worn by Lady Bird)… and we think it is high time this elegant tradition came back. Do you agree?

    Yes.

    Elegance is an underappreciated quality in the modern male and, in the way he carries himself, Barack Obama stands to be our first “elegant” President since Reagan but, in my mind, probably Kennedy.

    The top hat first showed up on the scene during Federalist America but didn’t truly rise to prominence until the mid-19th century. President Lincoln, of course, made the stove-pipe top hat iconic; isn’t the top hat among the Presidential iconography that accompanies President’s Day school projects? Since Lincoln, Presidents wore the top hat less and less until it was relegated to the most formal day of a Presidency, the Inauguration.

    Franklin Roosevelt is most-often depicted in his inaugural top hat (and with his cigarette holder). One of the most common images of Roosevelt is his Inaugural Parade, in which he sat beside a dour Herbert Hoover while waving his top hat around. Those photographs are an appropriate metaphor for Roosevelt’s gallant style.

    Truman wore a top hat. Eisenhower settled for the more modern homburg. Kennedy brought back the top hat in 1961. No President has worn a top hat to his Inauguration since.

    Hats just aren’t as popular as they once were. In the early 20th century, a man’s wardrobe was not complete without a few good hats. Today, the most common hat worn by men in public is probably the baseball cap; the trend in American apparel in recent decades has been toward comfort and utility and, therefore, more casual.

    This page is not on a pro-hat crusade. Styles change with the times. But this page shares the opinion of the Huffington Post: if you’re elected President, you should get dressed up. Really dressed up. Top hat dressed up.

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  • 02Jan

    The Peaceful Transfer of Power

    Public Policy & Politics 1 Comment

    After the cable news circus, faux outrages and general hubbub of the 2008 Presidential campaign, it’s easy to overlook the underlying greatness of what we have - yet again - accomplished last year: the peaceful transfer of power.

    People do not give up power easily and the founding fathers recognized this when they designed the Constitution. They also recognized that the urge will exist now and again to “throw the bums out”. Calling for fair and orderly Presidential elections to be held every four years was their way of insuring that America was not only a healthy and thriving democracy but also so that it would last.

    Every four years (without a single exception), the people debate policy and personality at a fever pitch until they go to the polls on the first Tuesday of November to select their next Head of State. While it’s been dampened in recent decades by pre-packaged scandals and media-ready outrages, the national dialogue continues and the lifeblood of American democracy flows.

    America stands out today as the longest sustained democracy in the world. We have successfully transferred power to 44 men over the course of 220 years beginning in 1789 with George Washington. Great Britain would get this distinction in the absence of their Queen. (The English Bill of Rights established parliamentary sovereignty in 1689 and the last monarch to deny royal assent to a bill of parliament was Queen Anne in 1708.) France, of course, is out because of their hiccup with Napoleon. I couldn’t tell you how long peaceful transfers of power continued in ancient Greece or Rome.

    The regularity and seeming simplicity of our elections is the crowning achievement of our Republic and the cornerstone of our democracy. And while we do not think of it every day and, in many ways, may even take it for granted, we will formally celebrate it in all of the pomp and pageantry to unfold in the coming weeks. After weeks of cable news biographies on George W. Bush and Barack Obama, the peaceful transfer of power will be lauded with music and flair on January 20, 2009 when we will get day-long coverage of the swearing in, the speech, the parade up Pennsylvania Avenue, the inaugural balls and I’m sure Obama’s every movement in between.

    Contributing to this national tradition of celebrating our peaceful transfers of power, between now and Inauguration Day, I will share with you the stories of a few Presidential inaugurations as well as detailed looks into the pageantry surrounding the President of the Unites States.

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