March 2004 Archives

It is said that a sitting President running in an election is really subjecting himself to a referendum on his Presidency. In other words, the election is largely his to lose. And 20th century history shows that the sitting President rarely loses that election.

But it has happened.

And here's the interesting thing: if it happens that the sitting President loses that election, it is almost always to a man who is himself elected to at least two terms.

This is interesting because it says that we almost always replace a sitting President with someone that we like so much that we elect him again.

Almost always.

So here's the Presidential trivia quiz question of the day:

Only one sitting President in the 20th century was defeated by a candidate who did NOT win re-election himself. Name either the sitting President or the man who defeated him (and who failed to win re-election).

The legendary broadcaster Alistair Cooke has died at the age of 95. Mr. Cooke broadcast his Letter from America for 58 years on the British Broadcasting Corporation.

He was also the host of Masterpiece Theater for twenty years and was the author of the enormously entertaining and enlightening book, America.

He knew everyone and had an interesting and insightful story to tell about them as well. On one of his broadcasts he told the story of how he convinced a young Leonard Bernstein to conduct a performance of Handel's Messiah, which Bernstein (up to that point) was not familiar with. In the very same broadcast, he told of playing golf with Bing Crosby.

Above all, he was a terrific writer. Here is his eyewitness account of Bobby Kennedy's assassination:

“Then. Above the bassy boom of the television there was a banging repetition of sounds. Like somebody dropping a rack of trays, or banging a single tray against a wall. Half a dozen of us were startled enough to head for the swinging doors, and suddenly we were jolted through by a flying wedge of other men. ...

"There was a head on the floor streaming blood, and somebody put a Kennedy boater under it, and the blood trickled down the sides like chocolate sauce on an iced cake. There were splashes of flash bulbs, and infernal heat, and the button eyes of Ethel Kennedy turned to cinders. She was wrestling or slapping a young man and he was saying, ‘Listen, lady, I’m hurt, too.’

"And then she was on her knees cradling him briefly, and in another little pool of light on the greasy floor was a huddle of clothes and staring out of it the face of Bobby Kennedy, like the stone face of a child’s effigy on a cathedral tomb. ...

"Everybody wanted to make space and air, but everybody also wanted to see the worst. By now, the baying and the moaning had carried over into the ballroom, and it sounded like a great hospital bombed and in panic.”

Read Richard Corliss' obit in Time Magazine.

I think it was Chris Matthews who said voters respond most favorably to the candidate who can best articulate the following simple message:

"Follow me!"

This year, POTUS is the first candidate to articulate the reasons why we should follow him: "Steady leadership in changing times." Not the precise message that, say, Reagan had ("Stay the course"), but not bad.

The problem for POTUS is that his credibility is shot. People are skeptical because we've followed him for four years and the best thing we can say is, "Gee we might've been EVEN WORSE off without George W. Bush." That's why you keep hearing Bush apologists begin a sentence, "If the Democrats were in charge, Saddam would still be in power," or "I thank God President Gore wasn't in charge on 9/11." That's pretty weak.

On the Democratic side, Senator Kerry has yet to articulate the reasons why we should follow him. What he has done is similar to POTUS: he's talked about why we should NOT follow President Bush. Obviously, he can highlight POTUS' record ("a trail of broken promises"). Although that will energize the base, that's not going to get him elected. He has to provide a compelling reason to follow him out of this mess. So far, he hasn't done it.

Stay tuned.

From CNN:

With a little divine help, Mel Gibson remained the top draw at the North American box office as the filmmaker's controversial movie, "The Passion of the Christ," topped ticket sales with an estimated haul of $51.4 million in its second weekend, its distributor said on Sunday.

After 12 days in release, the gritty recount of the last 12 hours of Christ's life has soared to $212 million (including $3 million in private group sales the prior two days), said Bob Berney, president of Newmarket Films.

*** SPOILER ALERT ***

The surprise ending doesn't hurt either -- you know, the part where Jesus escapes the mob with the help of a cleverly disguised double (above, left).

Woo hoo!