Breaking news, literally: After helping both candidate and chief executive deliver weighty words countless times on the campaign trail, on the road to, from and within the White House, the beloved teleprompter of Democratic President Barack Obama died Monday night.
The fragile, overused speech aid was little more than 2 years old. No immediate cause of death and no autopsy were announced.
The passing of the celebrated speech-giving helper happened suddenly and unexpectedly. The president was looking right at the teleprompter, giving remarks in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next door to the White House. He was rigorously defending his economic stimulus package, which has been rigorously criticized recently for being like many political speeches, not very stimulating.
Virtually everywhere he's gone in recent years, the teleprompter has been faithfully at Obama's side, and slightly to the front.
Through a transparent glass plate, it shows the text of even his briefest remarks, enabling the president to appear to make eye contact with eager, attentive audience members without looking down to ...
"She wasn't as outgoing and I just
didn't see the spark in her eyes about being the governor anymore,"
said Johnston, who lived with his then-fiance Bristol Palin and the Palin family at the time. "She became quiet, she would come home and just hang out in a
room, you could tell something was wrong."
Johnston's conclusion: "The fame got to her head."
Admittedly, the 19-year-old Johnston is hardly the kind of character
witness anyone would summon to their cause. An aspiring model who posed bare-chested with his infant son Tripp for GQ magazine, Johnston is routinely derided by Palin spokesmen for exploiting his 15 minutes of fame.
But Johnston may be on to something when he says Palin's sudden
resignation on July 3 was fueled by a desire to
cash in on her fame -- and to end the stress that her sudden catapult to national fame had created, complete with myriad ethics charges she has derided as bogus and a Legislature no longer enchanted.
Last week, as pundits and political reporters stumbled around trying to account for Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's odd decision to resign before the end of her term, a couple of young journalists who are writing a book about her listened and shook their heads.
"They literally all admitted they have no idea why she did this, but Scott and I do," said Shushannah Walshe, 30, who is co-writing "Sarah from Alaska" with Scott Conroy, 26. It's all about the White House.
Though Walshe was coy about revealing any bombshells in the book, she and Conroy did post a juicy e-mail exchange last week between Palin and McCain's campaign strategist Steve Schmidt about Todd Palin's membership in the secession-driven Alaska Independence Party that called into question Palin's truthfulness.
(Palin urged the campaign to address the issue by making up a story about how Todd accidentally checked the wrong box when he was registering to vote. Schmidt also knocked down her claim that two reporters had asked her about Todd's involvement with the party.)
Walshe said Palin's abrupt exit was traceable to her deteriorated relationship with....
Despite the nation's pop paralysis over the death of sad singer Michael Jackson, the Democratic National Committee's Change Commission begins its complicated work tomorrow of reforming the procedures, timing and rules of that party's convention delegate selection process.
What comes from this series of meetings, that sprouted from the long bitter struggle last year between Barack Obama and a New York senator, could radically alter the way Democrats pick their presidential candidates for many elections starting in 2012.
As The Ticket reported here in March, it's a delicate delegate process because certain states -- we'll call them Iowa and New Hampshire -- believe they have a right handed down by Thomas Jefferson to go first in the selection process, which is deemed to make them more important. Or at least help fill the state's hotels and restaurants and empty the rental car lots during a normal winter's months when inbound flights to Des Moines often have vacant seats.
At the "suggestion" of its nomineeat last summer's Democratic National Convention in Denver, delegates voted to establish a commission to examine everything including improving the caucus process, which can seem even longer than Iowa winters, reducing the number of unpledged delegates and quite possibly tinkering with the calendar window for the caucuses and primaries for the 2012 presidential election cycle.
Co-chairs of the Change Commission are Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina. There'll be a lot of talking starting Saturday at 9:30 Eastern in the Capitol Hilton. They'll start with history lessons and a speech by DNC ChairTim Kaine, who isn't the governor of New Jersey despite VPJoe Biden'scomments.
Ahh, nothing says good times in the Windy City like the thwack of a police baton on a demonstrator's head or the stinging smell of tear gas on a hot summer's night.
That was the scene in Chicago 41 summers ago when a very proud but soon very angry Mayor Richard J. Daley hosted his party's Democratic National Convention to show off his city that works.
The convention was held at the International Amphitheater on the city's South Side where the fragrance of thousands of frightened cattle about to be slaughtered wafted across the street from the famous Stockyards.
The silly idea in those turbulent times was to peacefully nominate Hubert H. Humphrey and his running mate (whose name was what, btw? Answer below) for a third consecutive Democratic White House.
But thousands of protesters -- anti-war, anti-establishment, anti-old-timers running everything, anti-rules, anti-you-name-it -- also assembled there. And they were rowdy and dirty and foul-mouthed and had long hair and were looking for a fight.
And in the name of good, old-fashioned law and order, Daley's police corps gave it to them. Tear gas. Beatings. Arrests. Horses pushing demonstrators through store windows.
Daley called them "hippies" and he said the word as if he could taste them.
Barack Obama was far away in those days, having just celebrated his seventh birthday. It was so long ago that Joe Biden wasn't even a senator yet.
And so naturally, Chicago being Chicago, today in Obama's adopted hometown the aging city policemen who were on duty that violent week and their contemporary colleagues are gathering for a fun reunion for old time's sake at the Fraternal Order of Police Hall out on West Washington.
And you'll never guess what else?
The aging, long-haired protesters who so angered the father of today's Chicago mayor (Richard M. Daley) are also gathering in that city now to -- wait for it -- protest the officers celebrating the reunion for beating up the same folks who were protesting back then.
The protesters protesting the police who beat the protesters held a news conference this week to denounce what they call provocative language used by the police who say they're celebrating officers "for their contributions toward maintaining law and order -- and for taking a stand against Anarchy."
The protesters' news conference this week had folks from the old National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam and relatives of Black Panthers. Lots of old faces were there; and we do mean old.
Even Don Rose was there, a committee spokesman, oh, those many years ago. And he's sure got a whole lot less hair now.
The whole gang of protesters is gonna gather this evening at Union Park and then, you guessed it, they're gonna march out to confront the police at the reunion celebrating their last confrontation last century.
It should be a great time sharing old memories.
Hopefully, someone remembers to bring the tear gas and bags of human excrement so they can have something familiar to throw at each other again just like the old days.
-- Andrew Malcolm
To get Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item, click here. Or follow us @latimestot Photo credits: Associated Press (Angry Mayor Richard J. Daley scowls at the podium of the Democratic National Convention in 1968).
Trivia Answer: Hubert Humphrey's 1968 vice president running mate was Sen. Edmund Muskie of Maine.
She is the granddaughter of Bolton Sullivan, founder of the Skil Corp. of Chicago, which makes electric power tools.
She has a degree in finance from Georgetown University.
She worked on Wall Street for the investment banking firm Lazard Freres & Co.
And she managed her husband's campaigns for Congress and the governor's mansion. She even spoke for him in the last days of the 2006 gubernatorial race when South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford was sidelined after burning his eyes under the bright stage lights at a groundbreaking ceremony.
One day after the governor confessed to having an affair with a woman in Argentina, pundits are having a field day.
Reading the statement she hand-delivered to reporters Wednesday, the one that quotes from Psalms and proclaims "the sanctity, dignity and importance of the institution of marriage," some praised her stalwart convictions and willingness to forgive.
But the Daily Beast's Tina Brown saw it differently. Disappointed that Jenny Sanford did not "set the table for a big-ticket matrimonial lawyer to have a payday on behalf of all the humiliated political wives — ashen Mrs. Eliot Spitzer; pulverized Dina Matos McGreevey; quietly imploding Mrs. Larry Craig; fuming deity Elizabeth Edwards," Brown said the first lady let the governor off the hook.
Photo Credit: Reuters photo of the couple arriving at the Obama White House on Feb. 22, 2009, before South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's wife Jenny wife learned that he was having an affair with a woman in Argentina.
With unusual ubiquity for a losing presidential candidate, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain has been popping up all over the media these days.
So it was probably inevitable that he'd get the same question asked of virtually every breathing Republican in these, the Grand Old Party's Days of Disarray: Will you be running for president in 2012?
First of all, McCain's got to win Senate reelection next year.
Second, the party's conservatives still don't like him, although as long as he lost in November, they've pretty much shut up about it for now.
Third, he'd have to raise an awful lot of money, which he genuinely hates doing.
Fourth, if many Americans thought he was too old last fall, how would they feel when he's 76?
Fifth, Republicans do not generally do well running legislators for the White House. (Yes, yes, Nixon was in both the House and Senate -- and that turned out well, didn't it?)
It's understandable that some might wonder about McCain's political intentions. He remains widely respected for his military and political service, and he's been willingly all over TV in recent weeks, often critical of last November's victor, especially over Iran.
Asked at that news conference if McCain played a role in his Tuesday remarks, Obama, in an obvious bipartisan outreach, replied, "What do you think?"
The assembled media laughed at the dismissive disregard for his defeated opponent. Turning the question back on the questioner is, of course, a standard political ploy to dodge a real reply.
If you really think about it though, what Obama said is not only not an answer. It's not a denial.
Obama went on to acknowledge McCain's "genuine passion" for the issue and a universal desire for justice in Iran. Then, he added, "But only I'm the president of the United States." (Full transcript here.)
Which, McCain calmly concedes in this brief C-SPAN video below, is something he will never be.
It's been a rough year for Mark Sanford, the popular governor of South Carolina touted as a contender for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.
First he made a big national showing of turning down funds from President Obama's $787-billion stimulus package, arguing that he would accept the state's $700 million only to pay down South Carolina's debt -- not for its intended purpose to fund education and law enforcement programs. Sued by an 18-year-old high school senior, he lost in court. He tussled with the state's attorney general over the issue and suffered setbacks in the Legislature, which overrode his vetoes on spending the money.
Last Thursday, after the legislative session ended, Sanford left the governor's mansion, driving off in a black Suburban SUV. He did not take his security detail. He did not tell his lieutenant governor where he was going. He told his aides only that he needed to recharge his batteries. Don't call me, he told the staff, explaining that he planned to turn off his cellphone, I'll call you. As for his wife, First Lady Jenny Sanford left for their vacation home where she spent the Father's Day weekend with their four sons.
“He was writing something and wanted some space to get away from the kids,” Jenny Sanford told the Associated Press while vacationing with the couple’s four sons at their Sullivan’s Island beach house.
Now it turns out that Sanford was doing that old walk in the woods routine, hiking along the 2,175-mile Appalachian Trail. Or, anyway, that's what his staff says. "The governor was somewhat taken aback by all of the interest this trip has gotten," spokesman Joel Sawyer said, adding that the governor plans to return to work tomorrow.
Bloggers are having a field day, most connecting the dots between the governor's four-day disappearance and the dimming of his presidential ambitions.
"A president cannot just leave suddenly, to go on a hiking trip," said PoliGazette's Michael van der Gallen. "Can you imagine the ads his opponents will run? Images of people in a panic ... followed by a shot of Humpty Dumpty Sanford taking a hike, with a silly grin on his face."
Added First Draft, "If I were a loony Red Stater, I'd be positing wild conspiracy theories about Democrat cabals taking out Republican presidential contenders before they can get going. First John Ensign (about the only thing he didn't do was dare reporters to follow him, telling them they'd be bored), now Sanford. But I'm not a Red Stater, and I firmly believe that Republican presidential contenders are perfectly capable of imploding all by themselves."
If Sanford's candidacy is imploding, the two-term governor and former congressman might have more time for those solitary walks in the woods.
-- Johanna Neuman
Photo: A hiker pauses on the Appalachian Trail, perhaps having just missed Gov. Mark Sanford. Credit: Robert F. Bukaty / Associated Press</p>
Here's anew video involving the violent events in Iran and the politics they are now forcing within the United States.
The video is from C-SPAN of Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, who over the weekend said he'd like to see the president speak out stronger. Then, on the Senate floor today speaking in stronger terms than Democrat PresidentBarack Obama about the Tehran government's violent reaction to protests of the recent election that allegedly reinstated the existing regime.
The obviously angry McCain, Obama's GOP opponent in last year's presidential election, cites the tragic death of an Iran female protester called Neda whose name has suddenly become known globally as she was shot in Tehran and died in the street, bleeding profusely, on a now viral and very graphic video with friends screaming around her.
McCain's outspoken criticism of Iran's government for its violence mirrors his strong denunciations last summer when Russia invaded the democratic country of Georgia.
Obama, who was vacationing in Hawaii at the time, was more measured initially, calling on both sides to stop fighting. He later changed tone more in favor of the invaded democracy.
On the weekend, before taking his daughters out for ice cream, Obama issued a statement, published here on The Ticket, warning the theocratic regime that the world is watching and it should permit peaceful democratic demonstrations.
The new president is trying to walk a thin line between satisfying homegrown outcries to support democratic outbursts around the world and his promise in a recent Cairo speech not to interfere in other countries and to attempt talking with such regimes.
In recent interviews Obama has pointed to some success with that line, as Iran has instead accused Britain of interference; the UK began evacuating its embassy personnel's families from Iran today.
Third, all of you give a lot of that money to Barack Obama's Democratic presidential campaign.
A new research study by the Center for Responsive Politics confirms what a lot of Washington watchers expected all along: All that Obama talk about changing the way Washington works is also a whole lot of hooey, at least insofar as it relates to United States ambassadors to other countries.
The capitol's decidedly bipartisan tradition for generations has been: Want to live in a foreign place for a couple of years, probably not all that important a place but still foreign, get a nice title for life, luxurious government housing, staff, car and driver and more use for your tuxedo than back home?
Then help the winning White House entrant finance his/her campaign.
And no one throughout American political history ever had a better-financed campaign than Obama with his $750 million.
The CRP has found 19 of Obama's new ambassadors and their families bundled at least $3.4 million for Obama's campaign and an additional $1.4 million just for his inauguration festivities. And you thought the campaigns don't keep track of such generosity? Even some of now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's donors are getting rewarded.
Yes, true, Obama did name Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman as ambassador to China. And Huntsman bundled $500,000 for Obama's defeated Republican opponent, old what's-his-name from Arizona who keeps popping up on the Sunday shows anyway.
But it's apparently worth at least a half-mil to Obama to get Huntsman tied to his Democratic administration, out of the country and far from Iowa in the run-up to 2012.
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Our Bloggers
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the Countdown to Crawford blog here at The Times.
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