By BOB DRIVER (Tampa Bay News, Dec 31, 2019)
If you have even the slightest interest in who will be elected president next November, I have a suggestion: Beg, borrow or call your local library for a copy of “Listen Up, Mr. President.” It was published back in 2009 or
so, but it’s still a perfect recipe for clear thinking voters, no matter what their political beliefs are.
The authors were — and are — two veteran journalists, Helen Thomas and Craig Crawford. You may recall Ms. Thomas as the woman who called out “Thank you, Mr. President “ at the close of the hundreds of White House press briefings between 1960 and her retirement a few years ago. Crawford was a longtime reporter for the Orlando Sentinel, and worked as a columnist for the Congressional Quarterly.
The book’s subtitle is “Everything You Always Wanted Your President to Know and Do.” Most of the chapter headings are advice for future presidents. Such as: Read the Constitution; Open up — the
people have the right to know; Tell the Truth; Have courage, even if it hurts; Give us vision — it’s your legacy; Do the right thing — you’ll never be wrong.
If there’s either a liberal or conservative slant to what Thomas and Crawford have written, I haven’t detected it. The book is filled with anecdotes and incidents that both praise and criticize the
presidents. I learned things that I had not been aware of, such as JFK’s unwitting contribution toward his own death by insisting he would ride in an open car in Dallas. His security people had begged him to
choose the bullet-and-bomb proof limousine, to allow Secret Service agents to at least stand on the running boards of the convertible to be used, and not to allow the motorcade route to be published in advance. Before the event, one aide said, “He’s not coming down here to hide.”
Indeed not. And Lee Harvey Oswald was waiting for him. This reinforced the advice to all presidents: “Listen to your protectors.”
The authors cite the strengths and victories of some of the White House occupants, but they also compiled a list of what they believed were the most shameful mistakes various presidents made.
In the presidential terms beginning in 1960, the alleged king-size goofs were:
• Bill Clinton’s dalliance with Monica Lewinsky.
• Lyndon Johnson’s allowing the unwinnable Vietnamese war to continue, rather than resort to peaceful negotiations.
• Ronald Reagan’s clumsy handling of the Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages affair, keeping it on the ront pages longer than it warranted.
• John Kennedy’s failure to squelch the CIA’s Bay-of-Pigs invasion before it even took place, thus contributing to the Cuban missile crisis of 1962.
• Richard Nixon’s involvement in the Watergate break-in coverup.
The “worst mistake of all time,’’ according to the authors, was:
• President James Buchanan’s failure to oppose the South’s efforts toward secession from the Union. The result: Civil War.
Although he did not quite make the “10 worst” list, George W. Bush came close, mostly because of his belief in the wisdom of invading Iraq and overthrowing its imaginary cache of WMD — weapons of mass destruction. As was the case with other presidents, Bush paid too much attention to advisers who believed that military action was, or could be, the ultimate solution to Mideast problems. Or so Thomas and Crawford felt.
The friendly-enemy warfare between presidents and news media deserves a separate book, or several of them. Incoming presidents usually promise to be open and available to journalists, but that’s seldom what happens.
In the “Listen Up” book, Lyndon Johnson was described as especially devious in his attempt to outwit the press. Example: he might gather a small group of reporters around him, but then speak so softly that no one could be sure of what he said.
The book was completed and published just as the Obama years began. The authors took a generally positive view of Obama, hoping that his admittedly limited political experience would be balanced by his willingness to learn from his predecessors.
I felt a kind of sadness as I read about the presidencies that spanned the Helen Thomas years of 1960 to 2008. Whatever the highs and lows of those who occupied the Oval Office during that period, there was a sense of a possible limit to the depths to which they would descend in pursuit of their goals. Or so it seems to me. Whatever that limitation was or might have been, it ended in November 2016.
Thomas and Crawford end their book with a sober but hopeful summary entitled “Listen Up, Voters — It’s Up to You.” Their verdict: We are who we elect. To which many readers will surely reply, “God save us all!”
good review.
craig, had you and helen written the book just a few years later, long enough to see the resulting economic and other damage to everyone concerned, i bet the bush Iraq invasion would surely have made your top 10 worst list.
NYTimes:
They come in the night: Drones — lots of them — flying in precise formations over the Colorado and Nebraska prairie.
Whose are they? Unknown.
Why are they there? Unclear.
“It’s creepy,” said Missy Blackman, who saw three drones hovering over her farm outside Palisade, Neb., on a recent evening, including one that lingered right above her house. “I have a lot of questions of why and what are they, and nobody seems to have any answers.”
Since before Christmas, sheriff’s departments in the region have been bombarded with reports of large drones with blinking lights and wingspans of up to 6 feet flying over rural towns and open fields. The drones have unnerved residents, prompted a federal investigation and made international news, even though they may be perfectly legal. And still, they remain unexplained.
“In terms of aircraft flying at night and not being identified, this is a first for me personally,” said Sheriff James Brueggeman of Perkins County, Neb., who has worked in law enforcement for about 28 years and who saw the drones while on patrol Tuesday night.
He said he had heard rumblings about people wanting to shoot down a drone, and had urged residents to report the sightings to law enforcement instead. “I think it’s kind of a joke, but you have to remember the part of the country we live in,” the sheriff said. “People here don’t like their privacy to be invaded.”
The flights have drawn attention just as the Federal Aviation Administration last week proposed sweeping new regulations that would require most drones to be identifiable. Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the F.A.A., said that the timing of the proposed rule was coincidental, but that the agency had opened an investigation of the sightings in Colorado and Nebraska.
“Multiple F.A.A. divisions and government agencies are investigating these reports,” Mr. Gregor said in an email. He declined to discuss the inquiry in detail, but said investigators were trying to determine who was operating the drones and the purpose of the flights.
On Facebook, 911 dispatch lines and local newspaper columns, the drones have been the talk of rural Colorado and Nebraska. And as sightings increase — people in four counties said they had seen them on Tuesday — so too does the urgency of residents’ questions.
Some have suggested they might be part of a simple mapping operation, or a land survey conducted by an oil and gas company — but why would such flights run at night?
[…]
Unmanned drones, which have exploded into popular usage in recent years and can be used for everything from mapping to photography to farming, can be difficult to track. Operators of all but the smallest drones have been required to register with the federal government since 2015, but there is no straightforward, legal way for state and local officials to identify the owner of a particular drone or to track that drone’s location.
“Like in many other areas of drone regulation, the statutory and regulatory framework is lagging the technology,” said Reggie Govan, a former chief counsel to the F.A.A. who now teaches at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. “It’s just that simple.”
[continues]
Sanders raised 34.5 million this last qtr and Buttigieg raised 24.7?
anyone checking donors? anyone gonna tell us in time?
remember last time when Bernie & Jill got a little help from some comrades? yeah those guys who later (much too long after the fact) were exposed and 19 eventually indicted.
also something very fishy about Bern’s extra ten million just after Pete announced his surprise.
XR, wasn’t yesterday fun? Winning football capped off by Linda. Life is good.
Pat, money may be the mother’s milk of politics, but Major Pete is showing that while it may be necessary it is not sufficient.
Craig
Excellent review of your book. Isn’t it time for another book to update or is the field about the era since.
I didn’t get that book… don’t know why. Hopefully it’s still available on Amazon.
Pogo… Rick and I watched some football and capped the night off with Linda too. We indulged in some of OldSeaHag’s popcorn drizzled with dark chocolate also… yup… life is good!
by George, how did we miss this one? from now on he’s IMpotus for sure. thanks, George.
12/30/19 the hill via msn:
George Conway, a conservative attorney and White House counselor Kellyanne Conway’s husband, created a new nickname for President Trump that went viral Thursday after he lashed out online.
“An Update on IMPOTUS (IMpeached President Of The United States),” Conway, a frequent, and often fiery critic of the president tweeted Thursday night.
POTUS is a common acronym that stands for president of the United States. The new acronym sought to combine the two ideas of impeachment and the presidential office into one. The House voted to impeach Trump on two articles of impeachment earlier this week, including abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
“Okay, you want a hashtag, you got it. #IMPOTUS,” Conway later added.
#IMPOTUS quickly went viral on Twitter, shooting to the top of the trending hashtags Friday. Several Twitter users used the trend to criticize the president.
[continues]
RR, I’d be happy to send you a copy.
I hate to break itto George, but the IMPOTUS acronym didn’t arise on 12/20/19. I’ve seen it (and used it) in comments at Wapo for at least the last 6 months, although it was not referring to SFB’s impeachment.
Has it really been 11 years since I read “Listen Up”? Man oh man, how time flies.
patd – next up will be stories about cattle mutilations.
Another book to read (for those who imbibe a bit) – Mint Juleps with Teddy Roosevelt: The Complete History of Presidential Drinking
I was tied-up with end-of-the-year stuff the last couple of days so just now paged thru the posts and comments.
I consider myself an Eleanor Roosevelt Democrat. If Helen were to admit to a political bent, I wouldn’t be surprised to see her marching along with us.
Didn’t we spend a freaking fortune on the Baghdad Embassy so that it would be impenetrable?
I’m starting to get the writing itch to do another book and casting about for ideas if you have any. Top of my list is one everyone is trying to talk me out of, which is a proper biography of Grover Cleveland, which strangely has never been done, considering how much he accomplished.
Harry Truman might back the idea. He once said, “A president who really made an impression on me was Grover Cleveland in his first term from 1885 to 1889. He did some wonderful things in that period”
Pogo, I went back to school after I retired from the AF at the end of ’83. Jan ’84 I was back in school picking-up needed credits at the local community college. Got those then immediately entered into the upper division of USF and received my BA with a major in Finance at the end of the Summer term of ’86 and immediately entered their sterling Executive MBA program. We had a marvelous group including everything from small business owners, to physician-entrepreneurs, corporate executives, PhDs spreading their wings, and poor old me. I finished at the top of our class in the Spring of ’88. Most importantly, I developed the skills to become totally self-sufficient without depending on outside employment.
As we sweat out the Dem primaries and consider the 2020 election, it might be good to keep this in the back of our collective minds. In 2019 9 states that voted for IMPOTUS elected Dem governors – KS, KY, LA, MI, MT, NV, NC, PA, and WI. Of those 9, 3 were the states that had voted for Obama in 2012 but flipped to SFB in 2016 with the 78,000 votes that elected him. The other 6 are traditionally Rep. states. In total 8 states flipped their governorships from Rep to Dem in the 2018-19 cycles. And while they don’t figure into the Presidential elections, 2 of the 3 territories also elected Dem governors when they were previously held by Reps. As ole Bob said, you don’t need a weatherman to see which way the wind blows. Let’s just hope it keeps blowing that way.
Craig…. what a nice offer… thanks!.. I’ll gladly accept.
And if you don’t mind… would you please sign it.
Flatus, I found going back to school 15 years after finishing my previous degree and having gone through one career and one paid avocation between the two gave me a lot of perspective on what did, did not matter in law school. I was out to get a new career and a decent job but had no designs on big firm law – and those are the guys who care about upper 1/3, upper 1/10, etc. I wasn’t willing to forego a decent life in order to try and compete with highly stressed, overly competitive 22-25 year olds who wanted to (a) get a big firm, big pay job or (b) want to transfer to UVA law school. I enjoyed spending lots of time on my bicycle and playing a little golf here and there. They got library tans. We all ended up as lawyers – well most of us anyway.
I know someone once suggested you write a book on Imus and you didn’t want to bite, Craig.
You might think about writing one on your experiences with him and maybe include interviews from other D.C. pundits. Because of his recent death, I’d bet it would sell better than the one you’re thinking of writing. Course… if your heart is set on Grover Cleveland…. than go for it!
Well, Julian folded his tent.
Send me your address RR. Thought I had but can’t find.
Grover was the first Democrat elected after Lincoln. Even Mark Twain switched parties to vote for him. He was a reformer who battled Gilded Age corruption, subdued the railroad and shipping barons, his reforms pissed off his own party bosses who defeated his reelection but he was so popular with the public he came back later for a 2d term, which no other president has done. And the “scandal” of his illegitimate child? Turns out as a bachelor in Buffalo he took the hit for a married friend, child wasn’t his. One of our most interesting presidents but mostly forgotten.
A tell-all biography of Moscow midge might be fun.
Or, a tell-all bio of the junior senator from Florida.
go grover! sounds like there’s quite a good book there, craig. keep it down to earth if possible, forego inside political wonkiness and bring out the real person.
but this time though, don’t let them talk you into a book cover that cuts off a guy’s head.
pogo, I thought that I had seen IMpotus used before somewhere on the trail – like from you maybe? but still, good ole George gives it new life now that impeachment has become a fact and not just a fanciful fantasy.
patd, it could have been from me – I’ve used IMPOTUS, SCROTUS, and a few others, but IMPOTUS is not one I came up with – I stole it. I’ve got a couple in the “bank” I haven’t withdrawn yet, but will do so soon.
Grover is a very good president to cover.
I think he would be interesting as well. He had an interesting VP in his first term.
renee also has a good idea on doing something on the imus interviews. in between researching and writing on grover, perhaps you could knock off a script and story board to sell to cnn/MSNBC/faux for a kinda limited poli-bio documentary where they can replay relevant segments with his more interesting political interviewees.
I think Imus’ affinity for veterans and his support for/from the Bushes is noteworthy.
Mr Pogo, I agree. That was a wonderful way to start the New Year. Let’s keep the good news rolling in.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/dont-look-now-but-goldman-sachs-is-saying-the-economy-is-nearly-recession-proof/ar-BBYv77I?ocid=spartanntp
This kind of hubris is usually a sign that it’s time to start selling stuff off.
More has been written about Imus than I could add.
Write a political crime novel ? Take a portion of history and just change the names. Here’s an idea.
A bio of mob lawyer-turned-Attorney General john newton mitchell would be cool. He invented ‘moral obligation’ bond (MOB) finance to help the mob invest all the shady gains that they couldn’t export. MOB washes money clean in the suds of government projects. You might call it sud-sidized building. Without MOB, Florida might still have a mere two million residents and Nevada could be stuck at a half million. Mob-funded, mob-built, and government sort-of guaranteed, but not really.
steve king, the present diplomat, was the crooked FBI agent who kidnapped Martha Mitchell and held her captive in a California motel.
Maybe better change a lot of the names in this one.
CREEP & bagman fred larue was about as colorful and nasty as a life form can get. He was proof that you really can kill your dad and inherit all the swag. fred generated enough shit to make a great horror movie.
john mitchell getting the American nazi party to play dirty tricks on ‘Bama Governor george wallace in ’71 & ’72 is especially interesting.
Okay. I’ll siddown & shuddup now.
cc – What about stories of the campaign trails for previous Prezs…and you could lead in with how hard it is to get there (then & now) and your own time in the trail with Jim Webb.
Bernie & Pete can raise all of the money they want. They won’t be able to outspend Mike Bloomberg. The newest ad is on healthcare, which I’ve laughingly given a voiceover: “Mike Bloomberg, giver of all life.” Apparently, so the ad says, infant mortality dropped and lifespan increased when he was mayor. Mayor Pete better head back to the wine cave, cuz he’s gonna need more money.
Biden and Warren seem to be slipping. Yang picking up steam.
Oh, and Julian Castro dropped out today. Today? Thought he was long gone with Beto.
Craig,
Grover would be nice. The only alternate suggestion I would add is the rise of the right wing/Evangelical wing of the GOP. I knew it was coming in the mid 70s in California and spreading east. Watching what should have been the obvious happen decades later and the Trump outcome might be a major piece of history.
You wouldn’t like the experience, but I could give you a name to interview since I’ve been fighting with him for forty years.
History book, tell all (OK, tell some) – both are nonfiction. Hmmm, I wonder which might sell more… I’m guessing tell all. There’s got to be a best seller out there for you, Poobah. How’s about one on the Dem primary growth to 26 or so multi cultural, multi racial candidate field and winnowing down 4or 5 white candidates, a couple white and Asian billionaires, then to three white candidates who won’t throw in the towel (ok, ok, I know I’m one or two – or 6 – months into the future, but sounds about right to me).
What campaign promises were made and who was able to keep them? Anyone? One of the local news channels has a segment called Y’all-Otics. TX is turning purple thanks to those following their jobs here from CA.
A book suggestion.
Last year sometime you said something about a follow up to kill the messenger. Do something you know and you are farther away from the subject matter then when you wrote the previous book so you can probably have a clearer vision.
Suggested title “working the Refs, a journalists’ challenge in the 21st century”.
LOL, it seems like the whole political world has went to the Bobby Knight School of winning. If you are not basketball savy, Bobby Knight is the long time coach at Indiana. Who had a bad habit of harassing and throwing fits to try to get the referees to not blow the whistle on his players. Now a days coaches just call it working the refs and it is a major part of the game.
Jack
Many good ideas, thanks. But my mind is stuck on Grover Cleveland.
Jack, don’t forget chairs. Bobby liked throwing chairs.
Book title suggestion – Fake News, Fake President. You can take it from there.
Ya know in this world of one issue voters each demanding a candidate support his special issue, you get lies. After all there is little cost to lies and if they tell the truth then they lose the voter.
Pogo
There is a picture out there somewhere because a friend of mine had it and loved it (and we are talking 40 years ago) Where the Home school ran a chain through the chairs so Bobby Knight couldn’t throw them.
But we do know why Knight is a Trump supporter. They got a lot in common.
Jack
Craig, I see from Cleveland’s wiki page he had an Uncle who was an Allen who lived in the Buffalo area. My mother is related to Allens from that area too and about the same time. Hey me and Grover, we might be kin.
Jack
I’m watching a retrospective of the Doobie Brothers,which is fun. But more fun is watching Angie Harmon hawking Lifelock. It must be good, right? After all she played an assignment prosecutor on Law and Order so she must know about cyber security, right? Whaddabunchabullshit.
A cyberbandit could swipe your identity in 3 seconds, and make off with your wife and Big Li’l Pogo.
When that happens, don’t blame Angie Harmon’s manager, attorney, or makeup artist.
Yeah, some time I wonder what the bang for buck is on some of this stuff, Some really dumb commercials out there. I hadn’t noticed it because before if I watched TV it was with MrsJack and she always recorded the shows we watched. If she didn’t then I would get bored and wander off before the commercial break was over. But I got rid of the cable and for local stuff got an antenna,
Doesn’t say much for their opinion of the people who watch over the air TV
Jack
The FOOL will get us into a war with Iran! It’s the thing we’ve all been dreading because he and his fellow fools have NO idea how to handle it. Crude is up 3% already. Here we go…..!!!!!
And the revenge begins….
NEW THREAD