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Marines, White House Herald Iwo Jima’s 65th Anniversary
Tweet Share on Facebook February 19, 2010 Comment (12)By Paul Bedard, Washington Whisper
On the stage at the National Museum of the Marine Corps across from the Quantico Marine base, retired Lt. Gen. Larry Snowden, the senior ranking Iwo Jima veteran still alive, turned over his 1945 orders for the invasion. Snowden told a crowd of about 600 in the main museum hall that he stashed the papers in a seabag back when he was a captain and company commander in the 4th Marine Division at Iwo Jima. He never really looked in the bag, forgotten after the battle and the atomic bombings of Japan, for which Iwo Jima opened the door, until he finally retired more than a dozen years ago.
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Zogby Poll Says Obama Would Lose Re-election
Tweet Share on Facebook February 19, 2010 Comment (9)Pollster John Zogby updates our weekly Obama Report Card with a grade on the president's performance. Zogby uses his polling, expert analysis, and interaction with major players to come up with a grade and some comments that capture how he sees the president's week ending.
John Zogby on Week 57:
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Coalition Urges Rebates for Blizzard and Mudslide Home Improvements
Tweet Share on Facebook February 18, 2010 CommentBy Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
West Coast mudslides and East Coast blizzards could have a payoff for homeowners. A coalition called SmarterSafer.org is urging Congress to include in the developing jobs legislation rebates of up to $3,000 for home improvements aimed at shoring up dwellings against natural disasters and severe weather. How does it fit into a jobs bill? SmarterSafer says every $1 million spent in construction creates 27 jobs. Eli Lehrer, a senior fellow with coalition member Heartland Institute, says the feds should adopt a "balanced approach" that helps the entire nation, not just the coasts.
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Bush and Carter's Nuclear Pronunciation Might Be Right
Tweet Share on Facebook February 18, 2010 Comment (8)Elites mocked former President Jimmy Carter—and George W. Bush long after him—when he drawled the word nuclear into a funny-sounding "nukular" and "nukeer." That he'd served on a nuclear sub in the Navy made no difference to his critics. And neither did the fact that two other prominent Americans, former President Dwight Eisenhower and Edward Teller, the father of the H-bomb, also said "nukular." Now comes a new book that defends them. In Physics for Future Presidents, Prof. Richard Muller of the University of California says the pronunciation "has been a tradition at some of our weapons labs since World War II." He says it derives from the "combination of 'nuke' with the ending '-ular' inspired by similar words such as spectacular, popular, and molecular." So there.
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Tip O'Neill and Reagan and Model for Breaking Partisan Gridlock
Tweet Share on Facebook February 17, 2010 Comment (74)By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
Bipartisanship in Washington for the common good is never easy to find, even when the president has majorities in Congress as Barack Obama does. Just ask allies of Ronald Reagan, who arrived with an Obama-size agenda and a split Congress—a tiny Senate majority and a very Democratic House. There were fights galore. House Speaker Tip O'Neill made sure of that. But there were also a lot of successful deals because the friendship that the Gipper and Tip built trumped partisanship.
Now, as both sides grapple with a Grand Canyon-size political divide, some are looking to the O'Neill and Reagan model for guidance. "You have to develop the relationship before bipartisanship," says moderate Virginia Rep. Frank Wolf, who was one of 54 Republicans swept into office with Reagan in 1980. "A lot of it was done after hours. They got together, they broke bread, they told stories, and they did things that I think helped us do things to make some accomplishments," says Wolf.
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Huckabee Gets Michelle Obama on Fox
Tweet Share on Facebook February 17, 2010 Comment (68)By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
Michelle Obama and Fox News are sort of going to break bread this weekend. That's because former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has wooed the obesity-fighting first lady onto his weekend show to talk about food, fat, and kids.
Huckabee, who famously lost over 100 pounds and wrote about it in Quit Digging Your Grave With a Knife and Fork: A 12-Step Program to End Bad Habits and Begin a Healthy Lifestyle, tells our Suzi Parker that he agrees with the first lady that childhood obesity is a major threat to kids.
Huck says he "commends" Michelle Obama for taking on the problem and recognizing that it is not a "crisis of the month."
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C-SPAN’s Brian Lamb’s 5 Favorite Presidential Grave Sites
Tweet Share on Facebook February 16, 2010 Comment (2)Brian Lamb, who founded C-SPAN, isn't just a Congress buff. He's likes all history, even that of dead presidents. After all, he and C-SPAN just reissued their Who's Buried in Grant's Tomb? A Tour of Presidential Gravesites with a new note from historian Richard Norton Smith.
And while Lamb is a famous nonpartisan, we got him to pick his five favorite presidential grave sites in honor of Presidents Day. But first, a little background. Like his pal Smith, Lamb has visited all of the presidential graves, but he has one-upped the historian. Lamb has also visited all but one vice presidential site. The missing one: the private grave of Nelson Rockefeller.
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Calling for a National First Ladies Day
Tweet Share on Facebook February 16, 2010 Comment (4)By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
Flags have a national day. Patriots too. There's even a National Spaghetti Day. So as the nation this month celebrates Presidents Day, isn't it time to acknowledge the women of the White House? We're proposing a long-overdue National First Ladies Day, of course. The idea came to us when we read first lady Michelle Obama's foreword in the newly reissued First Ladies of the United States of America from the White House Historical Association.
Sure, Obama pens, she and the 44 before mostly play hostess, "but they have increasingly seized the opportunity to contribute to the continuing advancement of the nation outside the White House as well." It's a potential holiday that has many friends. "Most Americans don't realize that we've always gotten two for one in the White House," says Karen Finney, who worked for former first lady Hillary Clinton, now secretary of state. "Our nation has benefited from the wisdom of this amazing group of women who serve without ever getting the recognition they truly deserve," she adds.
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Zogby: Obama Still on an Upswing
Tweet Share on Facebook February 12, 2010 Comment (13)Pollster John Zogby updates our weekly Obama Report Card with a grade on the president's performance. Zogby uses his polling, expert analysis, and interaction with major players to come up with a grade and some comments that capture how he sees the president's week ending.
John Zogby on Week 55:
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Obama's Inspiration: Washington, FDR, and Lincoln
Tweet Share on Facebook February 11, 2010 Comment (5)By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
As he runs a nation at war, in economic turmoil, and struggling for unity, President Obama now reveals that he finds direction from three other presidents who faced those challenges straight on: George Washington, FDR, and Abraham Lincoln. Writing the foreword in the latest edition of the White House Historical Association's book The Presidents of the United States of America, Obama also takes inspiration from classic national initiatives, including the planned repeat of one he snuffed out in his new budget: NASA's moon landing.
