Clinton

When I was in college I checked out from the library a book by Hedley Donovan, a renowned political reporter, entitled Roosevelt to Reagan. It was written in the 1980s, and it described his experiences with 9 Presidents. Based on that experience, Donovan made a list of 32 qualities that he looked for in a person that was running for the Oval Office. I photocopied that part of the book and kept it all these years, looking at it in every Presidential election since 1988, a useful guide to judging the candidates during the primaries. As a liberal Democrat, I’ve always gone for the Democratic candidate during the general elections, but I’ve learned about political leadership qualities that I admire even from Republican Presidents whom I strongly disagreed with. Like Donovan, I would like to reflect upon the qualities that make my favorite Presidents.

Written just after Reagan was reelected to a second term, Donovan gave this evaluation of the 9 Presidents that he presided over:

http://www2.arkansasonline.com/news/2008/jan/30/democrat-edwards-ends-pr...

I didn't expect to hear this today. It seems to me likely that this news plays in Barack's favor. What do you all think?

It's Jan. 30th, so last night must have been Florida.

First off, it's too early for me to be feeling this kind of primary malaise. I haven't even traveled that much campaigning for my candidate, not yet. (Although New Mexico next week looks probable.)

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) wins Florida and Mayor Giuliani is ready to kiss all those millions goodbye after only one race?? Gee, Rudy, you really should have stuck it out until Super Tuesday (it's just a week) because gee, you've already paid for it and all. I wonder what kind of (vice presidential?) promises were made between the two campaigns last night. Sen. "Keating* who?" McCain should also make a note that if he's going to go into attack mode, he really needs to get his facts lined up first. I KNOW there's verifiable dirt on Romney, there's got to be, it wasn't smart to go on the attack with something so easily proven untrue.

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*Keating Five Scandal: For those of you who swear you're too young to remember, this is relatively recent history. Recent enough so I can't even LOOK at McCain without thinking "Keating Five." I guess there may be a few of you just barely out of diapers today to not clearly remember 1989, but I can remember all the banks failing all around me like it was yesterday. Just the tail end of the Reagan legacy.