Albright's Secret: Brooch Diplomacy
Clinton: Good Culture, Bad Brand
If Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton visits New Hampshire anytime soon, she probably won't be sampling the yogurt. That's because her pal, Gary Hirshberg, the "CE-Yo" of New Hampshire's Stonyfield Farm yogurt, says Clinton's "brand" is bad. "I'm afraid that she has extremely high negatives," and that's bad for a 2008 presidential candidate in a nation politically divided, he tells us. Don't get Hirshberg wrong--he really likes Clinton. But, he says, "I don't think that we need to have somebody with high negatives running, just speaking as a brand person."
Stage Right for Candidate McCain
Sen. John McCain is taking action to make it hard for conservatives to write him off in the 2008 presidential race. His office confirms that the maverick moderate recently met with the Rev. Jerry Falwell, a conservative icon who is influential with voters on the right. Also, as McCain prepares a campaign-style trip to South Carolina, critical in the 2008 GOP primaries, a key ally is putting himself in the good graces of conservatives. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is winning kudos from conservatives for backing Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, raising his stature in the state and maybe even making his 2008 endorsement the key to victory. And should McCain win the state that derailed his 2000 bid, Graham would vault to the top of the veep list, say insiders.
Cake and Bones for Bush Birthday Gals
It's been one birthday after another for President Bush these past weeks, with pup Miss Beazley turning 1 and first lady Laura Bush 59. We hear that the little Scottie dog just hung out in the East Wing for her big day, October 28, while the Bushes jumped the gun on the first lady's birthday by one day, celebrating it on November 3 on Air Force One as the president jetted to a summit in Argentina. Aides and the prez sang "Happy Birthday" and ate coconut cake decorated with green icing and pink flowers.
Reid's Wardrobe Malfunction
It wasn't as eye-popping as Janet Jackson 's 2004 Superbowl undressing, but it was still unnerving for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. The scene: Reid is in CNN's green room on October 30 waiting to appear on Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer. He looks good in a blue suit. Then comes a rushed call to get on the set. Reid grabs a suit coat and, with 30 seconds before the cameras go live, he says, "I realized that I had picked up someone else's coat. And he was bigger than I was." Worse, Reid says, it was an "ugly charcoal gray." But nobody noticed, and it turned out OK. Blitzer tells us Reid seemed "very cool about the whole thing" and that he "looked good in the wrong jacket."
With Kevin Whitelaw, Julian E. Barnes, Margaret Menge and Joshua Davidovich
advertisement
