Presidents Without Executive Experience
Jonathan Bourne, my unindicted coconspiritor on the Drudge Retort, answered an interesting question on his blog: Which presidents ran for the job with no prior government experience as an executive?
Below is a list of Presidents were never a U.S. Vice President, a major Cabinet Secretary, governor or mayor.
- John F. Kennedy
- Dwight Eisenhower
- (Herbert Hoover prior to becoming President had served as Secretary of Commerce)
- (William Howard Taft prior to becoming President was Provisional Governor of Cuba)
- Benjamin Harrison
- James A. Garfield
- Ulysses S. Grant
- Abraham Lincoln
- Franklin Pierce
- Zachary Taylor
- (Andrew Jackson prior to becoming President was the first Military Governor of Florida -- I'm not sure if that's more a military position or an Executive position)
- George Washington prior to becoming President was our nation's first Commander In Chief, but this was at the time a military position. Washington had Legislative experience -- he was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses and was elected president of the Constitutional Convention of 1787.
Unlike Sara Palin, I think America benefited from the service of Executive branch novices like Lincoln, Eisenhower and Kennedy.
Whomever our next President is, one thing's for certain -- he'll be the first President in over 40 years to have had no Executive Branch experience.
I'm glad the next president is going to come from the Senate, where they'll have working knowledge of how Washington functions. Governors are overrated.
Rogers Has Four Alma Maters
Sarah Palin switched colleges six times in six years: the University of Hawaii-Hilo (a few weeks), Hawaii Pacific University (one semester), North Idaho College (two semesters), University of Idaho (two semesters), Matanuska-Susitna College (one semester) and then back to the University of Idaho (three semesters), where she graduated in spring 1987 with a degree in journalism.
I thought I was insane for attending four colleges: Stephen F. Austin State University (one semester), Richland Junior College (one semester), University of Texas-Arlington (two semesters), and finally the University of North Texas (nine semesters), where I also graduated with a degree in journalism four years after she did.
Taking a path that circuituous through college had serious drawbacks, but I met my future wife at University of Texas-Arlington and we ended up at a great school by transferring to UNT. You have no idea how many credits you lose by switching schools so often. I earned 24 credits my first semester at Stephen F. Austin and it still took me six years to earn another 104 credits and graduate.
Deployment Details Put Sarah Palin's Son in Jeopardy
Back in February, the British press ripped Matt Drudge for revealing a secret they'd been keeping: Prince Harry was stationed in Afghanistan, deployed with the British Army in Helmand Province. The secret had gotten out in an obscure Australian magazine and German's Bild newspaper, and Drudge passed the news along to his audience of millions. Brits were so outraged that they mistakenly started sending me a flood of hate mail.
Given this, it's worth noting that the British press is now putting another high-profile soldier in danger by reporting details of his service in a war zone. Two major British newspapers have reported where Track Palin, the son of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, will be serving when he's deployed to Iraq.
Track Palin, son of the potential US vice-president, will be heading for the Middle East next week to prepare for military service in one of the most dangerous corners of Iraq.
A year after enlisting in the US Army on the sixth anniversary of 9/11, Private First Class Palin will fly to Kuwait next Thursday for acclimatisation, and will be deployed a few weeks later to an area of Diyala province teeming with al-Qaeda insurgents.
It will not be an easy tour for the 19-year old, who is assigned to 1-1 Bravo Company, 52nd Infantry, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, based at Fort Wainwright, Alaska.
The Daily Mail also told its readers that Palin will train in Kuwait and serve in Diyala.
I'd omit these details if the stories weren't already widely reprinted all over the web and in news syndication, showing up on places like Yahoo News and Lucianne.Com. Jon Soltz, an Army captain previously stationed in Iraq, writes that revealing specific details of a soldier's deployment, such as dates and locations, is a violation of operational security:
It is simply impossible that any reporter could figure this out on their own. Just by knowing Track's name and the date he is heading to Kuwait, one could not figure out specifically where Track and his company would be going in Iraq. There's a reason it's impossible to figure that out -- because the military doesn't want that information out there. It only serves to aid the enemy to know where are troops are moving. ...
If the McCain-Palin campaign has disclosed details about Track's company's movements to gain stories in the press about it, they will have put many American lives in danger -- not the least of which would be Track's.
The amount of detail in the Daily Mail suggests that someone close to the Palins revealed the information about Track's deployment, but it's filed by reporter Tim Albone from Combat Outpost Zaganiyah in Diyala Province, so it's possible that a military source in Iraq revealed these details. In any case, it seems to me that whoever did it painted a target on his back, and the military should adjust its plans accordingly.
I'm Starting to Feel Inadequate
I spent some time last night putting the genie back in the bottle, lest more bloggers make the mistake I did and believe in a world in which fathers talk on cell phones from the future and express "private fisherman thoughts" with their young and unnaturally gifted cinematographer daughters. I went around some of the blogs that mentioned the Todd Palin hoax video and indicated that Alaskan politician Andrew Halcro told me that it was "not only fake but insulting." I also entered into the record that I am a gullible dork.
I posted the same correction as a comment for the YouTube video itself, but Fake Todd Palin deleted it. He is now my new official nemesis, replacing the middle-aged woman at Target who called me a bad parent.
On the right-wing blog Ace of Spades HQ, a commenter named Stace writes:
Rogers, you shouldn't have had to email around about that. Any adult with critical thinking skills is nailing that even without any knowledge of who the Palins are.
I don't know how old you are, but the phone, the phony way the dude is talking to his daughter, the gray hair on the guy -- you folks are really gullible.
Get over your hate and your fear, Rogers, and get used to saying this: Madame Vice-President.
We middle-aged women are gonna kick. your. ignorant. ass. You lefty guys are incredibly stupid, and you do NOT know what you are messing with.
You only WISH that video were real, because you don't want a woman who could gut you, skin you, and make Slim Jims out of you to win this election.
If I wasn't already married ...
Alleged Palin Family Video Turns Up on YouTube
Sarah Palin's either going to turn out to be the boldest vice presidential choice in American history or the worst. So little is known about the charismatic and unseasoned Alaska governor that the next 70 days will be a massive public version of This is Your Life, much of which will be a total surprise to the McCain campaign. There are numerous media reports that Palin and her family were not comprehensively vetted prior to her selection as running mate.
Sam Stein alleges on Huffington Post that the first person to pore through the archives of Palin's hometown newspaper, the Valley Frontiersman in Wasilla, Alaska, was a researcher for Barack Obama's campaign this weekend.
The paper's (massive) archives are not online. And when he went to research past content, he was told he was the first to inquire.
"No one else had requested access before," said the source. "It's unbelievable. We were the only people to do that, which means the McCain camp didn't."
Andrew Halcro, an Alaskan politician who ran for governor against Palin as an independent in 2006, wrote yesterday on his blog that the McCain campaign is just now sending staffers to Wasilla:
The campaign of John McCain has sent a staff of eight people into Alaska to conduct background checks and vetting on Governor Sarah Palin.
Word is they have have eight rooms reserved at a Wasilla hotel.
Gail Collins, a Republican and former speaker of the Alaska House, told an Anchorage Daily News reporter that she didn't hear from any party leaders in the state who had spoken to McCain vetters about Palin prior to her selection:
"I said to [my husband] Walt, 'This can't be happening, because his advance team didn't come to Alaska to check her out," Phillips said.
Phillips has been active in the Ted Stevens re-election steering committee and remains in close touch with Sen. Lisa Murkowski and other party leaders, and she said nobody had heard anything about McCain's people doing research on his prospective running mate.
"We're not a very big state. People I talk to would have heard something."
As I said Saturday, I expect a flood of colorful stuff to come out about the Palins, who've never been subjected to scrutiny one-thousandth as intense as what they'll be facing now. This morning, an Alaskan named Steven Oaks posted a 1996 family video on YouTube that's purported to be Todd Palin talking to his daughter Bristol on the day he learned Sarah was elected mayor of Wasilla. Oaks claims the video was in a camera donated to Iditarod Elementary School by the Palins when Bristol was a student in his mother Mary Oaks' class.
The video allegedly shows Todd Palin awakened from bed to hear that his wife has won the election, news he either doesn't take well or jokes with his daughter about. I don't know that it's really Palin, but there's a decent resemblance to a 2007 photo from an Alaskan TV station story and another photo on Flickr.
In the six-minute video, Todd Palin gets a call from his wife where he learns she won. "I know I said you'd never be mayor," he tells his wife. "Of course I'm thrilled. Yes, I'm thrilled. I'm glad. Congratulations." After the call, he tells his daughter Bristol as she operates the camera, "Your momma is the mayor and I didn't think she was gonna win. How can your momma be the mayor and I'm a fisherman?"
He continues, in a sleepy stream-of-consciousness ramble, "How can daddy be the boss if your momma's the mayor? Miss Whale Blubber 1996 is now the mayor. That kinda makes me feel uncomfortable, honey."
Expressing what he characterizes as "private fisherman thoughts," Palin occasionally pleads with his daughter to shut off the camera. "Your momma is a moose hunter. ... Daddy's starting to feel like a fisherman and that's all."
After asking his daughter whether being a fisherman is better than being a mayor and getting the wrong answer, Palin concludes, "Does daddy like that mommy's the mayor? No. Daddy don't like that. ... Daddy's startin' to feel inadequate."
Update: After it became clear that I was in the distinct minority in believing the video might not be a hoax, I started emailing around Alaska to see if I could find someone who knew what Todd Palin looked like in the mid-'90s. The aforementioned Andrew Halcro watched it and sent this response: "Not only fake but insulting."
Sarah Palin's Questionable Judgment
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's an up-and-coming Republican leader who could've been an interesting presidential or vice presidential candidate in four or eight years. It is reckless insanity to believe she's ready to step in as commander-in-chief now, particularly to serve a 72-year-old president with health concerns after two bouts with skin cancer and five-and-a-half years' mistreatment as a prisoner of war.
Palin, only two years removed from being the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska (pop. 6,700), had to be told two months ago what the vice president does:
Larry Kudlow of CNBC's Kudlow & Co asked her about the possibility of becoming McCain's ticket mate.
Palin replied: "As for that VP talk all the time, I'll tell you, I still can't answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day?"
Because McCain did so little to familiarize himself with Palin -- he only met her once prior to this week -- and she's a little-known and untested politician from a low-populated state, I have a gut feeling that we're headed for another Thomas Eagleton situation where a vice presidential nominee is dropped before Election Day.
Start looking into Palin's life, as thousands of reporters and activists are now doing, and there's a strong undercurrent of weird. Some of it is charming, Northern Exposure stuff -- her parents were out caribou hunting when news broke of her selection as running mate -- but a lot of it makes you wonder how well anybody in the GOP vetted her. Some of McCain's advisers like Karl Rove are the same geniuses who thought Harriet Miers belonged on the Supreme Court.
One bit of weirdness associated with Palin concerns the birth of her youngest child. As the Alaskan media reported, Palin was attending an energy conference in Texas on April 18 when her water broke four weeks before her due date. After this happened, Palin didn't head to a hospital or even leave the conference, even though the premature rupture of fetal membranes is normally a cause for an immediate examination by an obstetrician, who will observe the fetus on a monitor to guard against infection and other life-threatening complications. Two other reasons for heightened concern were Palin's age, 43, and the fact that prenatal testing indicated the child had Down syndrome.
Palin stayed at the conference and delivered a 30-minute speech, then boarded a 12-hour Alaska Airlines flight from Dallas to Anchorage, neglecting to tell the airline her water had broken -- most airlines won't fly a woman in labor. The motivation for all of this appears to be the Palins' desire that the child be born in Alaska. Her husband Todd told the Anchorage Daily News, "You can't have a fish picker from Texas."
When she arrived home, Palin was hospitalized immediately and the baby was born prematurely after labor was induced in the middle of the night.
Maybe Palin's actions can be written off as Alaskan grit, since she's a macho hunting governor who jogs in freezing temperatures and dines on moose burgers. But as a parent myself, I think the Palins were extremely fortunate that their reckless stupidity did not end in tragedy. As middle-aged parents who already had four kids, the Palins had to be completely familiar with all the things that can go wrong in a pregnancy. One commenter on the Washington Times laid out the enormous risk she was taking:
Airlines are unequipped to handle most emergencies at 30,000 feet, particularly the kind Palin put her unborn child at markedly increased risk for. These emergencies include birthing a premature infant or uncontrolled maternal bleeding. This was her FIFTH pregnancy and delivery can happen rapidly and unexpectedly. The baby or Palin could easily have died.
In the ADN article Palin downplays her decision to fly, implying traveling was reasonable as she wasn't in labor. If so, then why was she immediately hospitalized after returning to Alaska? Why was there an induced delivery of a 36-week infant by 6:30 am soon after her return? Again, ask any OB doctor. Induced delivery of a premature infant ALWAYS indicates a problem. The two most likely would be fetal infection, (a likely event given her failure to seek meaningful medical attention for her baby) or fetal distress by monitor.
Ask your OB doctor if the risks Palin took with the life of her unborn child are risks they would have advised for ANY reason.
I'm sure that some people will consider raising this subject a cheap shot, since the child was born healthy and it all worked out for the Palins. But you have to question the judgment of a person who took so many risks with her life and that of her baby.
Update: People who are spreading the cruel rumor about Palin's pregnancy and her daughter should read this April 27 blog entry from a woman who shared a commercial flight out of Fairbanks, Alaska, with the governor in March. Elizabeth Eubanks writes that Palin was "pregnant (she has since had her baby) with bags and daughter in tote." A search of Google's cache confirms this entry has been unchanged since April.
Review: 'Netherland' by Joseph O'Neill
Over the years I've become an obsessive Anglophile, following British football and literature with the kind of unvarnished joy that can only come from being completely ill-informed on a subject. I don't know enough about either one to become jaded, though my adoption of Tottenham Hotspur as favorite team is beginning to change that.
My love of British books is exercised by following each year's Man Booker Prize, the most prestigious literary award for fiction in the U.K. The prize goes through a three-stage process with considerable hype in the British press. The Booker begins when a longlist of around 12-20 books is announced in late July. The list is winnowed down to a shortlist of around six titles in early September, then the winner is announced a month later.
Every year, I pick up a few novels on the Booker lists before the prize is awarded, hoping to read the winner beforehand and lord this over friends and family, in spite of the fact that I don't know a single person who would be excited by this accomplishment. This year my first finished Booker nominee is the longlisted Netherland, a powerfully written work by the Irish writer Joseph O'Neill that's being called the latest Great American Novel. The book's an introspective, slow-paced and mournful story of New York City that has the audacity to evoke both 9/11 and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.
The novel concerns Dutch-born financial analyst Hans van den Broek, an affluent denizen of New York's Chelsea Hotel who loses the joy and purpose in his life when his wife Rachel flees both the city and their marriage after the trauma of 9/11, taking their infant son with her. Hans tells his own story, but devotes considerable energy to being the captivated narrator of another man's story -- a fast-talking and grandiose Trinidadian immigrant named Chuck Ramkissoon, a friend whose larger-than-life plan for achieving success and respectability in America is as doomed as that of Jay Gatsby.
This is not a spoiler. Readers learn early on that Ramkissoon has been found tied up and murdered in the Gowanus Canal.
The novel spends a great deal of time on cricket, the only spark in Hans' dark existence after his wife leaves. Although I know nothing of the sport that I didn't pick up from this book, it doesn't detract from the impact of O'Neill's long and lyrical passages about the role of the game in Hans' life, its role in the lives of first-generation American immigrants like Ramkissoon, and the invisibility of the game to most citizens of the United States, where cricket serves as a stand-in for other exotic foreign subjects we might want to know better after 9/11 shrank the planet. I was amused by the notion, held deeply by the cricket players in the book, that the U.S. will not become truly civilized until it embraces cricket. "There's a limit to what Americans understand," one of Ramkissoon's potential investors tells Hans. "That limit is cricket." Ramkissoon's big dream is to build a cricket pitch on an abandoned airfield in Brooklyn, believing it will attract the world's best teams, worldwide TV audiences and the long-withheld affection of Americans.
O'Neill packs the novel's 256 pages with observations about New Yorkers that are worth repeating. Two of my favorites occur in rapid succession when the heartsick and unsociable Hans finally lures a woman home, providing a welcome respite from his morose internal dialogue:
... while I changed, Danielle wandered around my apartment, as was her privilege: people in New York are authorized by convention to snoop around and mentally measure and pass comment on any real estate they're invited to step into. ...
Like an old door, every man past a certain age comes with historical warps and creaks of one kind or another, and a woman who wishes to put him to serious further use must expect to do a certain amount of sanding and planing.
In one conversation Ramkissoon uses a bit of Trinidadian slang that I really like. He derides one of his more obnoxious business associates as a pawmewan, a poor-me complainer who is always feeling sorry for himself. Hans is a huge pawmewan whose personal suffering occupies a majority of the book, but O'Neill describes the grieving and loss associated with failed marriage and parenthood with great skill.
Blogger Janice Harayda believes that Hans is an unreliable narrator, a prospect that adds considerable intrigue to Ramkissoon's murder. I don't know if I buy that, because O'Neill doggedly refuses to make Hans' life dramatic, devoting several pages at one point to an intolerably long day he wastes at the Department of Motor Vehicles.
Although Netherland is by no stretch a thriller, O'Neill manages in Chuck Ramkissoon to create an unforgettable American character -- like Jay Gatsby another dreamer dead in the water.
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