For political junkies it's nice to see today's Wisconsin primary important again. Wisconsin, of course, was a big state for John F. Kennedy's campaign in 1960, when they beat Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota in that primary. Humphrey's people, and the press, for the most part, tried to say that Kennedy's victory was due only to the large Catholic population in the state, which enraged both Jack and Robert Kennedy. And so the Kennedy's went at West Virginia with a vengeance, spreading around plenty of Joe Sr.'s dough--Protestant ministers were a favorite beneficiary of Kennedy "donations"--and destroyed Humphrey.
By the way, it's fun too see a nice little plagiarism scandal today, with Hillary accusing Obama of stealing some juicy lines from his friend, Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts. It might have been nice had Obama given Patrick a little nod, but as plagiarism goes, this is chump change. I don't usually agree with Obama's "Oh, my god, these horrible mean Clintons are saying nasty things about poor,poor me!" stance, but in this case he's right to dismiss it. Politicians are not a notoriously original lot, as we know--stolen words and ideas are their currency.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
Not-Quite-Presidents-Day
While I realize it’s the custom for us to celebrate the lives of our most illustrious chief executives on this day, I like to observe a moment of silence for those also-rans who, er, also ran—the obscure would-be presidential candidates of history.
And so a tip of my hat to….
Lewis Cass, former Michigan governor, who ran as a Democrat against Zachary Taylor in 1848. Cass was a nice enough fellow, but his name rhymed with both “ass” and “gas.” Predictably enough, he was satirized in cartoons as “General Gass,” with cannons farting noxious fumes out of his belly and ass, or as “The Gas Bag,” with an enormous rear end, ready to lift off into the sky, hot air balloon style. It was claimed that Cass had sold white men into slavery, not true. Whigs also said that he was guilty of graft in a previous job as Superintendent of Indian Affairs, but this was false. Finally, they just gave up and called him a “pot-belied, mutton-headed cucumber,” which seemed to sum it all up….
Winfield Scott, one of the most pompous men ever to run for president—that includes Mitt Romney. Scott, who lost to Democrat Franklin Pierce in 1852, spoke to his listeners with the all unctuousness of the most politically correct twentieth-first-century Presidential candidate: “Fellow citizens. When I say fellow citizens I mean native and adopted as well as those who intend to become citizens.” When Scott heard an Irish accent he would exclaim: “I hear that rich brogue. It makes me remember the noble deeds of Irishmen, many of whom I have led to battle and victory….”
Let us not forget poor Horatio Seymour and Horace Greely, who were destroyed by Ulysses S. Grant in 1868 and 1872, respectively. Seymour, a governor of New York, was so nervous at his nomination that he actually mounted the stage at the Democratic convention and declined the honor in inadvertent A-B rhyme (“God bless you for your kindness to me, but your candidate I cannot be.”), then burst into tears backstage (“Pity me! Pity me!”) before finally accepting.
Republicans gleefully seized on Seymour’s tentative acceptance of the Democratic nomination by mocking “The Great Decliner” in what became a famous little ditty:
“There’s a queer sort of chap they call Seymour,
A strange composition called Seymour,
Who stoutly declines,
Then happiness finds
In accepting, does Horatio Seymour.”
Greeley, in 1872, was a bald, rotund, atheist, vegetarian newspaperman running against a famous war hero. Need we say more? After 31 out of 37 states went for Grant, Greeley declared “I am the worst beaten man who ever ran for high office,” Shortly after the election, Greeley began to suffer from hallucinations and was taken to a private sanitarium. “Utterly ruined beyond hope,” as he wrote, he waited for “the night [to] close its jaws on me forever.” He died November 29. Grant attended his funeral…
I’d like to put in a word here for the Reverend Silas C. Swallow, Prohibition Party candidate in 1904, just because I love his name….
1904 also featured Democratic nominee Judge Alton Parker, running against Theodore Roosevelt. The extremely colorless Parker is probably the most obscure major Presidential candidate of all time. Parker—whom Roosevelt (who could be quite mean) referred to as “the neutral-tinted individual”—lacked almost any campaigning or speaking skills and spent much of his time riding off alone on his Hudson Valley farm. The best the Democrats could claim for their man was that, if elected, Parker would “set his face sternly against Executive usurpation of legislative and judicial functions.”
Another obscure candidate was Democrat John Davis who ran against the popular Calvin Coolidge in 1924. I love this quote from him: “I went all around the country telling people I was going to be elected and I knew I hadn’t any more chance than a snowball in hell.”
One or two current candidates feel just that way, I’ll bet….
Finally, a nod to Republican Alfred “Alf” Landon, Kansas governor. Not all that obscure perhaps, but I’ve always loved the guy. He ran against FDR in 1936 and lost by just a horrendously embarrassing margin—11 million popular votes, and 523 to 8, if you can believe it, in the Electoral College. Alf was a kind of rumpled, shaggy guy, a bit like his name. In one of the first uses of a candidate groomer, the Republicans hired a film director named Ted Bohn to teach Landon not to smile with his mouth hanging open, to walk slightly ahead when in a group in order to dominate pictures, and to shake hands with his chin up to give the impression of firmness. All to no avail, of course.
One of my favorite stories from this campaign is how the Republicans tried to manipulate the media, asking the Associated Press to always identify Landon in its stories with the tag “budget-balancer.”
The AP said it would, but only if it could tag Roosevelt as “humanity’s savior.”
And so a tip of my hat to….
Lewis Cass, former Michigan governor, who ran as a Democrat against Zachary Taylor in 1848. Cass was a nice enough fellow, but his name rhymed with both “ass” and “gas.” Predictably enough, he was satirized in cartoons as “General Gass,” with cannons farting noxious fumes out of his belly and ass, or as “The Gas Bag,” with an enormous rear end, ready to lift off into the sky, hot air balloon style. It was claimed that Cass had sold white men into slavery, not true. Whigs also said that he was guilty of graft in a previous job as Superintendent of Indian Affairs, but this was false. Finally, they just gave up and called him a “pot-belied, mutton-headed cucumber,” which seemed to sum it all up….
Winfield Scott, one of the most pompous men ever to run for president—that includes Mitt Romney. Scott, who lost to Democrat Franklin Pierce in 1852, spoke to his listeners with the all unctuousness of the most politically correct twentieth-first-century Presidential candidate: “Fellow citizens. When I say fellow citizens I mean native and adopted as well as those who intend to become citizens.” When Scott heard an Irish accent he would exclaim: “I hear that rich brogue. It makes me remember the noble deeds of Irishmen, many of whom I have led to battle and victory….”
Let us not forget poor Horatio Seymour and Horace Greely, who were destroyed by Ulysses S. Grant in 1868 and 1872, respectively. Seymour, a governor of New York, was so nervous at his nomination that he actually mounted the stage at the Democratic convention and declined the honor in inadvertent A-B rhyme (“God bless you for your kindness to me, but your candidate I cannot be.”), then burst into tears backstage (“Pity me! Pity me!”) before finally accepting.
Republicans gleefully seized on Seymour’s tentative acceptance of the Democratic nomination by mocking “The Great Decliner” in what became a famous little ditty:
“There’s a queer sort of chap they call Seymour,
A strange composition called Seymour,
Who stoutly declines,
Then happiness finds
In accepting, does Horatio Seymour.”
Greeley, in 1872, was a bald, rotund, atheist, vegetarian newspaperman running against a famous war hero. Need we say more? After 31 out of 37 states went for Grant, Greeley declared “I am the worst beaten man who ever ran for high office,” Shortly after the election, Greeley began to suffer from hallucinations and was taken to a private sanitarium. “Utterly ruined beyond hope,” as he wrote, he waited for “the night [to] close its jaws on me forever.” He died November 29. Grant attended his funeral…
I’d like to put in a word here for the Reverend Silas C. Swallow, Prohibition Party candidate in 1904, just because I love his name….
1904 also featured Democratic nominee Judge Alton Parker, running against Theodore Roosevelt. The extremely colorless Parker is probably the most obscure major Presidential candidate of all time. Parker—whom Roosevelt (who could be quite mean) referred to as “the neutral-tinted individual”—lacked almost any campaigning or speaking skills and spent much of his time riding off alone on his Hudson Valley farm. The best the Democrats could claim for their man was that, if elected, Parker would “set his face sternly against Executive usurpation of legislative and judicial functions.”
Another obscure candidate was Democrat John Davis who ran against the popular Calvin Coolidge in 1924. I love this quote from him: “I went all around the country telling people I was going to be elected and I knew I hadn’t any more chance than a snowball in hell.”
One or two current candidates feel just that way, I’ll bet….
Finally, a nod to Republican Alfred “Alf” Landon, Kansas governor. Not all that obscure perhaps, but I’ve always loved the guy. He ran against FDR in 1936 and lost by just a horrendously embarrassing margin—11 million popular votes, and 523 to 8, if you can believe it, in the Electoral College. Alf was a kind of rumpled, shaggy guy, a bit like his name. In one of the first uses of a candidate groomer, the Republicans hired a film director named Ted Bohn to teach Landon not to smile with his mouth hanging open, to walk slightly ahead when in a group in order to dominate pictures, and to shake hands with his chin up to give the impression of firmness. All to no avail, of course.
One of my favorite stories from this campaign is how the Republicans tried to manipulate the media, asking the Associated Press to always identify Landon in its stories with the tag “budget-balancer.”
The AP said it would, but only if it could tag Roosevelt as “humanity’s savior.”
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Counting Change
There's the feeling in the air that we could on the verge of something historic here, as Barack Obama pulls down the states--Washington State, Lousiana, Nebraska and Maine--and today goes into primaries in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia. It is beginning to feel like excitement of 1968, when Robert Kennedy jumped into the Democratic primaries, fueled by young people desperate for a change, or 1932, when Franklin Roosevelt stepped in, also running as a candidate of transformation. Hillary in the meantime is saying that it is all a counting game--that the delegates of Texas and Ohio, on March 4, will be what she needs to carry her over the top,but politics is never simply about counting. If it was, Harry Truman would not have won in 1948.
It still isn't over yet and there are a significant number of people who think Hillary Clinton is the most qualified Democratic candidate, but numerous Democrats are making their choices on who they think can beat John McCain in the fall, and a goodly percentage of them have decided that Obama is that person.
At my daughter's elementary school yesterday, the principal told a gathering of young students that they might do well to pay attention to what was going on in the national political scene, that they were living in historic times. They are not too young to understand this. When I was ten years old, John F. Kennedy beat Richard Nixon (by a hair) for the presidency and even my brother and sister and myself knew that he was something different than the grey old Eisenhower, the only president we had ever known. On the morning after the election, my mother opened the bedroom door and said, rather grumpily, "Well, your friend Kennedy won." For me, that morning was the beginning of the 1960s, an extraordinary era of change.
It still isn't over yet and there are a significant number of people who think Hillary Clinton is the most qualified Democratic candidate, but numerous Democrats are making their choices on who they think can beat John McCain in the fall, and a goodly percentage of them have decided that Obama is that person.
At my daughter's elementary school yesterday, the principal told a gathering of young students that they might do well to pay attention to what was going on in the national political scene, that they were living in historic times. They are not too young to understand this. When I was ten years old, John F. Kennedy beat Richard Nixon (by a hair) for the presidency and even my brother and sister and myself knew that he was something different than the grey old Eisenhower, the only president we had ever known. On the morning after the election, my mother opened the bedroom door and said, rather grumpily, "Well, your friend Kennedy won." For me, that morning was the beginning of the 1960s, an extraordinary era of change.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Across the Country
Sorry for not writing for a while, but I have been touring a lot in the last week promoting Anything for a Vote. Or at least taking the modern-day author's version of a tour--sitting in my bathrobe in my ancient desk chair up in my attic study talking to radio stations on the phone. Perhaps 50 in all, and my voice, a hoarse rasp, now reflects it.
But there is something wonderful about what they call a "Satellite Media Tour." Put on hold and inevitably listening to the local news for about a minute before talking to the host, one gets the sense of skimming across the country, just below the cloud cover. You hear about snow closings in New England, traffic snarls in New York, county road construction in Iowa, pouring rain in Portland. Of course, the commercials--there was Planned Parenthood in the east, Bible Belt church announcements in the West. Plus a lot of pitches for home real estate seminars, debt management, used cars, telephone sales--harbingers, perhaps, of a reeling economy.
Coming into the actual talk program there is usually a blast of rock music, a whoosh as if an airplane engine is taking off. On the more conservative stations, a particularly popular sound effect this week has been the clip of Hillary laughing, echoing endlessly, like The Wicked Witch of the West. But the hosts, whether liberal or conservative or ideologically neutral (at least professionally) were unfailingly interested and courteous, except for one national Fox radio personality whose name rhymes with "sow" and who acted like it (sorry, don't mean to insult pigs). And I had one poor host in Indiana who was horrified to learn that Davy Crockett was anything but a frontier hero of epic proportions (Davy was the Congressmen who, in 1836, infamously claimed that Martin Van Buren wore women's clothes).
But Super Tuesday had callers and hosts incredibly excited -- I have never seen so much interest in an American election campaign. Will Obama and Hillary destroy each other in their quest for victory? (There seems to be a longing in some liberal circles that the two, like squabbling spouses, unite and form one team, although there is little consensus on who would be Pres, who Vice-Pres.) Will John McCain, especially now that Mitt Romney has dropped out and Mike Huckabee made an unexpectedly strong showing, be able to placate the conservative wing of the party? On one station there was speculation about a third party run within the GOP, which caused me to relate an anecdote from 1912. Then, Teddy Roosevelt's Bull Moose candidacy split the Republican party in two, leading one Republican to quip: "The only question is, which corpse gets the flowers." (Woodrow Wilson's Democrats, naturally, won over a divided GOP.)
Back from radio tour of the country, I can only say that we've never seen an election like this one. There is so much more to come.
But there is something wonderful about what they call a "Satellite Media Tour." Put on hold and inevitably listening to the local news for about a minute before talking to the host, one gets the sense of skimming across the country, just below the cloud cover. You hear about snow closings in New England, traffic snarls in New York, county road construction in Iowa, pouring rain in Portland. Of course, the commercials--there was Planned Parenthood in the east, Bible Belt church announcements in the West. Plus a lot of pitches for home real estate seminars, debt management, used cars, telephone sales--harbingers, perhaps, of a reeling economy.
Coming into the actual talk program there is usually a blast of rock music, a whoosh as if an airplane engine is taking off. On the more conservative stations, a particularly popular sound effect this week has been the clip of Hillary laughing, echoing endlessly, like The Wicked Witch of the West. But the hosts, whether liberal or conservative or ideologically neutral (at least professionally) were unfailingly interested and courteous, except for one national Fox radio personality whose name rhymes with "sow" and who acted like it (sorry, don't mean to insult pigs). And I had one poor host in Indiana who was horrified to learn that Davy Crockett was anything but a frontier hero of epic proportions (Davy was the Congressmen who, in 1836, infamously claimed that Martin Van Buren wore women's clothes).
But Super Tuesday had callers and hosts incredibly excited -- I have never seen so much interest in an American election campaign. Will Obama and Hillary destroy each other in their quest for victory? (There seems to be a longing in some liberal circles that the two, like squabbling spouses, unite and form one team, although there is little consensus on who would be Pres, who Vice-Pres.) Will John McCain, especially now that Mitt Romney has dropped out and Mike Huckabee made an unexpectedly strong showing, be able to placate the conservative wing of the party? On one station there was speculation about a third party run within the GOP, which caused me to relate an anecdote from 1912. Then, Teddy Roosevelt's Bull Moose candidacy split the Republican party in two, leading one Republican to quip: "The only question is, which corpse gets the flowers." (Woodrow Wilson's Democrats, naturally, won over a divided GOP.)
Back from radio tour of the country, I can only say that we've never seen an election like this one. There is so much more to come.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
At Last....
Super Tuesday, Tsunami Tuesday, Historic Tuesday, whatever you want to call it, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008, is here. Twenty-four states voting, 3,156 delegates at stake--the biggest presidential primary day ever. Many states are testing new voter ID laws or computerized voting systems, absentee ballots are expected to be at an all time high, since new laws in fifteen states allow for them to be cast without the voter having to provide a reason (such as illness or military service). All of this could complicate the vote tabulation, so it may be a long night before our results are clear.
On the Republican side, most observers are betting on John McCain to be bested by Mitt Romney. The Democratic side is a little bit more difficult to call. Hillary has lost her once-commanding lead, but is still powerful and many politicos think she and Obama will end up roughly even and continue to slug it out in the months to come. I think that, if there is going to be a surprise, it will be that Obama has surged far more than the polls are showing. No reason for thinking this except for gut instinct and more small anecdote: a friend of mine ordered a lawn sign from the Obama campaign ten days ago, and as of Saturday it had still not arrived -- demand was too high. Finally, he went to a local Obama HQ here in New Jersey and managed to snag one, but it was difficult. Quite often insignificant things like lawn signs can be bellweathers in tight elections.
We'll see. In the meantime, anybody with a free moment this AM, please tune into MSNBC at 10:30, where you'll find me talking with Joe Scarborough about dirty tricks present and past on a special extended Election Day "Morning Joe" show.
On the Republican side, most observers are betting on John McCain to be bested by Mitt Romney. The Democratic side is a little bit more difficult to call. Hillary has lost her once-commanding lead, but is still powerful and many politicos think she and Obama will end up roughly even and continue to slug it out in the months to come. I think that, if there is going to be a surprise, it will be that Obama has surged far more than the polls are showing. No reason for thinking this except for gut instinct and more small anecdote: a friend of mine ordered a lawn sign from the Obama campaign ten days ago, and as of Saturday it had still not arrived -- demand was too high. Finally, he went to a local Obama HQ here in New Jersey and managed to snag one, but it was difficult. Quite often insignificant things like lawn signs can be bellweathers in tight elections.
We'll see. In the meantime, anybody with a free moment this AM, please tune into MSNBC at 10:30, where you'll find me talking with Joe Scarborough about dirty tricks present and past on a special extended Election Day "Morning Joe" show.
Monday, February 4, 2008
A Historical Moment
I'm talking about last night's Giant win over the Patriots in the Super Bowl, of course. Those of us who have lived in the region for long years are still wiping the astonishment out of our eyes. It wasn't supposed to happen but it did, against a team filled with supreme talent, who also had themselves a reputation for dirty tricks.
Speaking of which, William Safire's New York Times column "OnLanguage" yesterday featured political dirty tricks and, of course, yours truly and Anything for a Vote. Read it here. Safire's researcher had contacted me a few weeks back to ask about the derivation of the phrase dirtry tricks; with the help of Oxford University Press researcher Ben Zimmer I came up with an answer. Space didn't permit Safire to use my whole reply, so here it is below.
The phrase "dirty tricks" was used in a non-political context as far back as the late 17th century, when Thomas Traherne wrote in "Christian Ethicks": "But a man that is a resolved and stable Friend,..[will] continue to serve and love his Friend, though he shews him some dirty Tricks." (This is a lesson in turning the other cheek not many a politician today could practice.)
George Washington, while still commanding general of American Revolutionary forces, wrote of a British peace proposal, "they are practising such low and dirty tricks, that Men of Sentiment and honor must blush at their Villainy, among other manoeuvres." Washington was able to run unopposed for the presidency in 1789 and 1792 and therefore missed out on some of the dirty tricks leveled at future candidates, but even he complained, by his second term, that he had become, as his vice-president John Adams so nicely put it, "the Butt of Party Malevolence."
Throughout the 19th century it became quite common for loyalists of one party to accuse their opponents of "dirty tricks" during campaign season. In this context, dirty tricks meant slanderous remarks as well as underhanded dealings. On Feb. 5, 1828, the pro-Jacksonian newspaper the United States Telegraph carried a headline accusing its rival paper, "The Intelligencer at its dirty tricks again!" And on Aug. 8 of that year, the Telegraph detailed the worst of "all the little dirty tricks lately played off by the 'moral and religious party,' (as the friends of Adams have the impudence to call themselves)."
Interestingly enough, in the 20th century, "dirty tricks" came to be applied to covert military operations. During World War II, the espionage operations of the Office of Strategic Services (predecessor of the CIA) was known as "the Department of Dirty Tricks" and by the early 1950s, "dirty tricks" were primarily associated with the activities of the CIA. In the 1960s, possibly because of the pervasive cultural influence of the CIA during the Cold War years, the phrase "dirty tricks" was again used in the context of campaign activities, but now having the sense not of slanderous name-calling, however, scurillous that might be, but of secret operations meant to sabotage. The prime example of this--and the election which elevated the phrase "dirty tricks" to the public prominence it now holds, was 1972. There, Richard Nixon's Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP) planned dirty tricks which included the Watergate break-in. And we find, on November 8, 1972, The Washington Post's masthead editorial:, "The Republican Department of Dirty Tricks" ("In the jargon of professional intelligence agents, this is what is sometimes known as a Department of Dirty Tricks").
Speaking of which, William Safire's New York Times column "OnLanguage" yesterday featured political dirty tricks and, of course, yours truly and Anything for a Vote. Read it here. Safire's researcher had contacted me a few weeks back to ask about the derivation of the phrase dirtry tricks; with the help of Oxford University Press researcher Ben Zimmer I came up with an answer. Space didn't permit Safire to use my whole reply, so here it is below.
The phrase "dirty tricks" was used in a non-political context as far back as the late 17th century, when Thomas Traherne wrote in "Christian Ethicks": "But a man that is a resolved and stable Friend,..[will] continue to serve and love his Friend, though he shews him some dirty Tricks." (This is a lesson in turning the other cheek not many a politician today could practice.)
George Washington, while still commanding general of American Revolutionary forces, wrote of a British peace proposal, "they are practising such low and dirty tricks, that Men of Sentiment and honor must blush at their Villainy, among other manoeuvres." Washington was able to run unopposed for the presidency in 1789 and 1792 and therefore missed out on some of the dirty tricks leveled at future candidates, but even he complained, by his second term, that he had become, as his vice-president John Adams so nicely put it, "the Butt of Party Malevolence."
Throughout the 19th century it became quite common for loyalists of one party to accuse their opponents of "dirty tricks" during campaign season. In this context, dirty tricks meant slanderous remarks as well as underhanded dealings. On Feb. 5, 1828, the pro-Jacksonian newspaper the United States Telegraph carried a headline accusing its rival paper, "The Intelligencer at its dirty tricks again!" And on Aug. 8 of that year, the Telegraph detailed the worst of "all the little dirty tricks lately played off by the 'moral and religious party,' (as the friends of Adams have the impudence to call themselves)."
Interestingly enough, in the 20th century, "dirty tricks" came to be applied to covert military operations. During World War II, the espionage operations of the Office of Strategic Services (predecessor of the CIA) was known as "the Department of Dirty Tricks" and by the early 1950s, "dirty tricks" were primarily associated with the activities of the CIA. In the 1960s, possibly because of the pervasive cultural influence of the CIA during the Cold War years, the phrase "dirty tricks" was again used in the context of campaign activities, but now having the sense not of slanderous name-calling, however, scurillous that might be, but of secret operations meant to sabotage. The prime example of this--and the election which elevated the phrase "dirty tricks" to the public prominence it now holds, was 1972. There, Richard Nixon's Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP) planned dirty tricks which included the Watergate break-in. And we find, on November 8, 1972, The Washington Post's masthead editorial:, "The Republican Department of Dirty Tricks" ("In the jargon of professional intelligence agents, this is what is sometimes known as a Department of Dirty Tricks").
Friday, February 1, 2008
Hitting the Airwaves
Today and next week I hit the airwaves to discuss dirty tricks past and present-- don't you love it that Mitt Romney in Wednesday's debate accused John McCain of falsifying Mitt's ideas about withdrawing from Iraq. The quote:
“I have never, ever supported a specific timetable” for withdrawing troops."[McCain’s accusation] sort of falls into the dirty tricks that I think Ronald Reagan would have found reprehensible.”
Of course, Mitt was standing in the Ronald Reagan Library at the time, with first widow Nancy by his side, but still...Ronald Reagan, saint though the Republicans would have him to be, certainly indulged in dirty tricks, which included having Jimmy Carter's private debate briefing book stolen and may have included a deal with the Iranians holdinng Amerian hostages captive not to release them until Reagan became president.
But nice try, Mitt.
Anyway, if you want to hear me talking more and more about how history repeats itself --insistently and with purpose-- in American presidential elections-- you can find me on radio across the country for the next week. Today's stations and times are:
7:35 am KLPW-AM/metro St Louis MO .
8:05 am WAQY-FM/Springfield MA-Hartford CT
8:35 am BizRadio Network/Houston-Dallas TX
9:00 am WTIC-AM/Hartford CT
9:10 am WBMQ-AM/Savannah GA 9:40 am KFRU-AM/Columbia MO 10:00am KPOJ-AM/Portland OR
10:15 am *WAXY-AM/Miami FL
10:30 am *WZLX-FM/Boston MA 11:00am *Lynn Woolley Show—statewide TX 11:40 am Traders Nation Radio-national
3:00 pm Pippin Productions-national
4:30 pm WINA-AM/Charlottesville VA
“I have never, ever supported a specific timetable” for withdrawing troops."[McCain’s accusation] sort of falls into the dirty tricks that I think Ronald Reagan would have found reprehensible.”
Of course, Mitt was standing in the Ronald Reagan Library at the time, with first widow Nancy by his side, but still...Ronald Reagan, saint though the Republicans would have him to be, certainly indulged in dirty tricks, which included having Jimmy Carter's private debate briefing book stolen and may have included a deal with the Iranians holdinng Amerian hostages captive not to release them until Reagan became president.
But nice try, Mitt.
Anyway, if you want to hear me talking more and more about how history repeats itself --insistently and with purpose-- in American presidential elections-- you can find me on radio across the country for the next week. Today's stations and times are:
7:35 am KLPW-AM/metro St Louis MO .
8:05 am WAQY-FM/Springfield MA-Hartford CT
8:35 am BizRadio Network/Houston-Dallas TX
9:00 am WTIC-AM/Hartford CT
9:10 am WBMQ-AM/Savannah GA 9:40 am KFRU-AM/Columbia MO 10:00am KPOJ-AM/Portland OR
10:15 am *WAXY-AM/Miami FL
10:30 am *WZLX-FM/Boston MA 11:00am *Lynn Woolley Show—statewide TX 11:40 am Traders Nation Radio-national
3:00 pm Pippin Productions-national
4:30 pm WINA-AM/Charlottesville VA
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
