Just before noon Jan. 14, Mitch Daniels ceased to be governor of Indiana. By 2 p.m. he was in West Lafayette conducting a meeting as the soon-to-be president of Purdue University. A true Hoosier calls that a promotion. But his elevated new stage is a smaller one. And as national Republicans contemplate the second half of the Obama era, they wonder what might have been. …
Even his strongest critics don’t deny that “big stuff” has been achieved. Daniels was arguably the most ambitious, effective conservative governor in America. He managed to ride a recession that bucked other leaders — balancing a series of budgets without increasing taxes. He left Indiana with a $500 million yearly surplus and $2 billion in reserves while awarding taxpayers a substantial refund on his way out the door. During eight years in office, he shed 6,800 state government jobs — 19 percent of the total — while improving public services. He passed legislation ending mandatory union dues. He created the largest school-choice program for low-income parents in the country. He privatized a toll road and the state lottery and busted cable monopolies.
In the process, Daniels demonstrated two paradoxes of conservative governance. First, it often requires a strong executive to encourage limited government. Margaret Thatcher, for example, used executive power to break up existing arrangements favorable to calcified liberalism. Daniels came into office promising a “freight train of change” directed at state bureaucracies that had grown comfortable in dysfunction and mediocrity.
Second, Daniels demonstrated that a smaller, more focused government can restore the reputation of government. Grasping, ineffective bureaucracies cultivate public disdain. Daniels is a man of libertarian leanings who improved the public standing of the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Revenue by making them more efficient and responsive. …
Daniels’s parting observations on the state of the Republican Party are broadly consistent with those of a rising generation of conservative reformers. On immigration, the GOP needs an approach “that embraces those who are here, not castigates them.” He remains an advocate for a “truce” on social issues — “leaving aside some irreconcilable debates to focus on a few priorities, such as the fiscal crisis” — and notes that most Republicans have implicitly adopted this approach already. And he believes Republicans should be speaking more directly to “people seeking to rise. To young people. To poor people. I never went to a GOP dinner without saying: ‘We should be proud of the success of people in this room. But we really need to do something for people who would like to come to dinners like this someday.’ ”
Daniels is just the sort of leader most needed in a Republican revival: an upbeat, tolerant, conviction politician. A surprisingly effective, RV-cruising populist. And the most compelling GOP critic of the red menace. “I stubbornly adhere to the view,” he told me, “that Americans can be talked to like adults about the deficit problem. They can be told the pure arithmetical facts of life — the injustice that current policies are doing to the poor, the young and minorities.”
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Five o’clock having arrived on Inauguration Day, Fox News Business brings us a prospective list of presidential mixed drinks:
The Willard InterContinental Washington’s Round Robin Bar is serving up cocktails fit for a commander in chief. In addition to their inauguration-inspired specialty drinks, the bar has a drink named after and honoring each leader of the United States — based on research of their drink of choice.
Round Robin bartender and history buff Jim Hewes, who has been at the Willard since 1986, has crafted an impressive menu that goes from the George Washington (Madeira wine) to the Barack Obama (a tequila with blue curacao and fresh lime juice). …
If he couldn’t nail down how a president whet his whistle while in office, Hewes says he considered the tastes of the times, what was socially acceptable and what was available during that era when creating the drink.
“They drank socially all day long,” Hewes says of the presidents.
I do not know if Obama drinks the drink named for himself. (He is apparently a tequila drinker at least.) If he does drink that drink, that demonstrates his gross lack of judgment and misjudgment that is his (mis)administration. Blue drinks? That’s something you should stop drinking when you leave college.
As for Obama’s predecessors, here are the drinks named for the presidents of my lifetime, plus one:
42. William J. Clinton – Tanqueray Gin and Tonic: A standard on the Washington cocktail circuit
41. George H. Bush – Absolut Vodka Martini: Always politically correct, with or without garnish.
40. Ronald Reagan – California Sparkling Wine: Introduced to Washingtonians at his first Inaugural
39. Jimmy Carter – Alcohol Free White Wine: served, much to the dismay of the fourth estate, throughout his four years in the White House.
38. Gerald R. Ford – Glenfiddich Whisky, over ice, served in the spirit of bipartisanship. Gerry also favored Budweiser “longnecks” in the bottle
37. Richard M. Nixon – Bacardi Rum and Coke: Dick would relish mixing and stirring, for his guests aboard the presidential yacht Sequoia.
36. Lyndon B. Johnson – Cutty Sark and Branch Water: A post war favorite of “Cactus Jack” Garner and Sam Rayburns’ most famous protégé.
35. John F. Kennedy – Beefeater Martini up with olives served regally in the White House to those in the good graces of America’s “Camelot”.
Clinton drinks Tanqueray? One more of the few points in his favor. (Another: His old El Camino.) Ford is assigned whiskey, but a book chronicling his post-White House years listed him as a gin and tonic drinker.
This is no one’s idea of an adult drink, but PT 109, the book about Kennedy in the World War II Navy, lists South Pacific sailors’ drink of availability as pineapple juice and distilled torpedo fluid.
Before JFK …
33. Harry S. Truman – Maker’s Mark and Soda: An aficionado of Kentucky’s finest, both he and Bess enjoyed this long-drink while playing poker at the White House.
32. Franklin D. Roosevelt – Plymouth Gin Martini: “oh… so cool, so clean, so awfully civilized!” Often scolded by Eleanor for his penchant for the highball, this elegant elixir was served at the most important political party in D.C. — the cocktail party.
So FDR and I have two things in common — gin-drinking and (once upon a time in my case) being our Episcopal church’s senior warden, which FDR was while president.
30. Herbert Hoover – Long Island Iced Tea: Prohibition conscious imbibers relished this enticing tall drink, which contained everything on the bar except “the kitchen sink.”
A Long Island Ice Tea — rum, gin, vodka, triple sec, sour mixer and cola in Wisconsin college towns — doesn’t seem very presidential, does it? Drink enough of them, though, and you’ll forget what the economy’s doing.
28. Warren G. Harding – Seven and Seven: Popular highball among the “Ohio Gang” especially when served at Speaker “Nicky” Longworth’s poker games. …
26. Theodore Roosevelt – Ward 8: Politically-charged concoction, brought to D.C. by “Big Stick” Republicans from New York.
Supposedly, however, the Ward 8 — whiskey, lemon juice, orange juice and grenadine — was invented not in Noo Yawk, but in Bahstan. And it seems to me that TR should be associated with something from Cuba — say, a Cuba Libre. Roosevelt also once claimed “I have never drunk a cocktail or a highball in my life,” admitting only to drinking white wine, whiskey or brandy “under the advice of a physician,” and very occasionally mint juleps.
25. William McKinley – Gin Rickey: Lime infused long drink made popular at the Chicago Exposition.
24. Grover Cleveland – Sazarac Cocktail: New Orleans sensation, which swept the nation in the 1880’s.
A Sazarac, by the way, is rye whiskey, bitters, a sugar cube or simple syrup, and absinthe. This apparently was before N’awlins bars invented the Hurricane.
23. Benjamin Harrison – Ramos Gin Fizz: Popularized a block from the White House after construction of the first ‘soda fountain’ at the Willard Hotel. …
A Ramos Gin Fizz is gin, lemon juice, lime juice, an egg white, sugar, cream, orange flower water and soda water. Apparently you can’t drink more than one or two because it takes so long to make. Also apparently raw egg whites were more popular in Harrison’s day than now.
19. Rutherford B. Hayes – Orange Blossum: Washington’s pressmen spiked the oranges with gin
at the tea totalling Hayes inaugural in 1877.18. Ulysses S. Grant – Roman Punch: It was so cold in D.C. that this fruit and Champagne refresher froze solid in the bowl.
The drink froze? Not enough alcohol, U.S.
17. Andrew Johnson – Brandy Toddy: Johnson relied on this potion to cure “various, vicarious, vapors” known to afflict residents of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
16. Abraham Lincoln – Apple Cider: Although known to have acquired a taste for corn whiskey in his earlier years, fresh pressed apple juice would revive his constitution. …
10. John Tyler – Southern Style Mint Julep: Henry Clay mentored our 10th Chief Executive in the fine art of building this compromisingly elegant elixir. …
7. Andrew Jackson – Rye Whiskey straight: A two- finger pour of Tennessee’s Democratic, frontier finest.
6. John Quincy Adams – Hot Buttered Rum: a New England toddy with the spiced flavor of the West Indies.
5. James Monroe – Sherry Cobbler: This cool long drink is often called America’s first cocktail, popularized during the Revolution. …
2. John Adams – Bitter Sling Cocktail: made with a mix of rum and brandy, two of New England’s finest distilled products.
This list is interesting because a number of these drinks are a bit effete by the standards of (1) alcohol and (2) water or soda.
Three presidents were known to be teetotalers — Hayes (but the press fixed that for inauguration), Calvin Coolidge (for whom cranberry juice and soda was listed) and George W. Bush (a Diet Pepsi drinker). Carter supposedly wasn’t a teetotaler; perhaps he decided to stick it to the media by serving non-alcoholic wine.
How do we know there has never been a president from Wisconsin? Because the brandy old fashioned sweet is nowhere on this list. I have never ordered one outside of Wisconsin, and I never will, because I assume no bartender outside the state line is able to make one.
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In the wake of the Sandy Hook shootings, we are suffering from a very American malady: Post-Traumatic Stupidity Syndrome.
Folks in the throes of PTSS are so traumatized by a tragic event that they immediately demand something – ANYTHING – be done to prevent it from ever occurring again. Even if the chances of it happening are one in a million. Even if the “preventative measures” proposed are wacky, wasteful, ridiculous – or worse.
On my blog, Free-Range Kids, I asked readers to tell me what their districts were doing in reaction to the Newtown shooting and thus I heard about lots of schools reviewing their lockdown drills – which makes sense, like reviewing a fire or tornado drill. But then I also heard from readers whose school administrators seem to have lost their minds.
One school, for instance, proceeded with its first grade Christmas concert…except that all the parents attending had to hand in their car keys to the office before entering the auditorium.
Because guns don’t kill people … people with car keys kill people?
At another school, this one just about as far away from Newtown, Connecticut, as possible – Anchorage, Alaska – the kiddie Christmas concert also was allowed to go on, but this year all the attendees had to sign in. …
Other schools around the country have posted cops outside, sometimes in cars. But if those cops are really ready for mayhem, shouldn’t they at least be on their feet? Meantime, a school district in rural Iowa announced on its Facebook page that from now on the doors to every school in the area would be locked. If a particular school does not have a buzzer system in place (because we’re talking rural Iowa!), well then visitors, volunteers and parents must make a phone call to the school’s office and wait for the secretary to come open the door.
Another reader wrote that her child’s school now requires all students to wear their identification tags. (Because…why?) But my favorite post-traumatic stupidity involves a day care center that has asked all parents from now on to slam the door on other parents behind them. As the director explained in a note home: “One of the biggest concerns at this center is how often parents ‘piggyback’ on the parent in front of them, thus bypassing the need to enter the security code.”
Expect a fellow parent to hold the door open for you just because you’re standing there with a baby in one arm and a briefcase in the other? No way! This is a safecommunity, and a safe community treats all people, even the ones cradling their own children, as potential psycho-killers!
And so it goes, after Sandy Hook. Distrust. Panic. Terror. This feeling of being besieged on all sides used to be considered paranoia.
Doing the wrong thing(s) is worse than doing nothing.
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On Martin Luther King Day and Inauguration Day, my favorite Martin Luther King quotes that Barack Obama is too dense to understand:
A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.
A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.
A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.
All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.
Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.
He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.
Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable … Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.
Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. … I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.
If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values — that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.
Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.
Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control.
The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.
The quality, not the longevity, of one’s life is what is important.
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
Whatever your life’s work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.
I suppose some genius writers out there will have columns or blogs out today comparing King and Obama. Unlike many writers, I do not put words in the mouths of the dead, so I’m not going to claim what King might have thought about our first mixed-race president. You can read the aforementioned quotes and ask whether our affirmative-action president has fulfilled, or is a good example of, any of them. (Particularly the last one.)
I am not watching the inauguration today. I work for a living, so unlike the government employees who have today off, I have productive things to do. Over the past four years, my respect for government generally, the federal government more specifically and the presidency specifically has dropped like a rock.
And how about that inauguration excitement? What excitement? (From Breitbart)
Just days before his second inauguration, however, a new poll from The Hill finds that the public is much more pessimistic about the next four years.
Just 18% of voters believe that Obama’s first term exceeded their expectations. 80% feel the first term fell below or simply met their expectations. 60% of Americans do not feel they will make economic gains in the next four years of Obama’s presidency.
A good deal of the voters’ pessimism is likely due to the fact that Obama spends most of his time on issues that aren’t relevant to their lives. 39% of voters say Obama should focus his energy on reviving the economy. 38% believe he should focus on dealing with the deficit and the national debt. Those thinking his priority should be immigration, gun violence or other issues are in the single digits. …
Obama won reelection by a narrow, but solid, margin. According to exit polls, however, his victory was due more to personal feelings about him rather than his policies. His policy agenda has not captured the attention of the public.
Nor has Obama’s swaying between incompetence and malevolence, given the Nov. 6 election results. As we should have figured out in the past four years, but undoubtedly will find out the next four years, elections have consequences.
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Today in 1968, Jimi Hendrix recorded “All Along the Watchtower,” musically assisted by Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones and Dave Mason of Traffic:
The number one album today in 1978 was the best selling movie soundtrack of all time:
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The number one British single today in 1966:
The number one single today in 1968:
The number one single today in 1975:
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The number one single today in 1959:
The number one British single today in 1967:
Today in 1971, selections from the Beatles’ White Album were played in the courtroom at the Sharon Tate murder trial to answer the question of whether any songs could have inspired Charles Manson and his “family” to commit murder.
Manson was sentenced to death, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment when the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty.
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A reader of the headline is justified in asking: What the hell is this? (Or, to quote author Dorothy Parker, “What fresh hell is this?”)
Explanation number one dates back one decade, when at the same time I had just started announcing for The Ripon Channel while running for the Ripon Board of Education. One day, the Tigers’ two sectional basketball games (the second of which led to Ripon’s first state tournament berth since 1936) and the school board candidate forum were on the same day. In other words, I was on every Ripon Channel show that day. Which led my wife to call it “Steve TV — all Steve, all the time.”
Explanation number two is the joke that occasionally rears its ugly head about my hosting a radio or online talk show. As you know, I once announced a football game myself because my game partner fell through the stairs of the press box before the game. Does anyone want to hear just my voice for three hours?
Explanation number three is the movie “The Tao of Steve” …
… in which the lead character identifies the three coolest men on the planet as Steve McGarrett …
(now both versions, each of which had theme music originally written by Morton Stevens)
… Steve Austin of “The Six Million Dollar Man …”
… and actor Steve McQueen:
What do I have in common with these three Steves? I have blue eyes. I’m three inches taller than McGarrett 1.0 and two inches taller than McGarrett 2.0.
Before we resume: “Stephen” came from the Greek Στέφανος meaning “crown” or “garland.” Variations include “Esteban” (Spanish), “Étienne” or “Stéphane” (French), Styve (Quebec), Stefan (German and Polish), Steffen (Norwegian), Tapani (Finnish), Stefano (Italian), Stefanus (Latin), Istfanous (Arabic), Kepano (Hawaiian), Steafán (Irish) and Stìobhan (French Gaelic), among others. The first Stephen was the saint, the Roman Catholic Church’s first martyr, whose day is Dec. 26. According to Wikipedia, which you know is always correct, there have been nine Popes named Stephen. Stephen was the 19th most popular name for American boys in 1951 and third most popular in Great Britain in 1954, but it slipped to 201st in 2009, according to the Social Security Administration.
So why is Steve my name? It’s because of my grandparents. Stephen is my father’s middle name, because he was born on St. Stephen’s Day. His parents gave him his father’s first name, so to (one assumes) prevent confusion around the house, he was called Steve, something commonplace once upon a time but hardly seen anymore. My first and middle names are the reverse of my father’s, which resulted in both mail and telephone calls going to the wrong Steve once I was old enough to sound like Dad on the phone. Stephen is our oldest son’s middle name, so perhaps there will be a future Steve Prestegard some generations down the line, but neither of us should be getting the other’s mail or phone calls.
Back to our theme: There’s even a superhero named Steve — Captain America, real name Steve Rogers. Wonder Woman’s story began when she rescued U.S. Army Maj. Steve Trevor after his plane crashed.
The single father on “My Three Sons” was aeronautical engineer Steve Douglas.
But there are other Steves of note. Steve Allen, hard to describe because of the breadth of his abilities:
Steve Buscemi:
Steve Carell of “The Office”:
Steve Forrest:
Stephen Lang of “Crime Story,” “Avatar” and “Terranova”:
Steve Martin:
Steve TV would certainly have great movies, featuring not only the aforementioned Steve actors, but the works of Stephen King …
… and Steven Spielberg:
… and, if you want to call him an actor, Steven Seagal, I suppose:
There are a few Steves in music, such as Stevie Wonder …
… Milwaukee native Steve Miller …
… Steve Winwood …
… Stephen Stills of Crosby Stills Nash and (sometimes) Young …
… Steven Tyler of Aerosmith …
… Steve Perry of Journey …
… Steve Lukather of Toto …
… Steve Marriott of Humble Pie …
… Little Steven Van Zandt of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band …
… and Stevie Ray Vaughan (R.I.P.):
To prove that not everyone named Steve is utterly lacking in athletic talent, Steve TV would also have a lot of classic sports, featuring, among others, Heisman Trophy winner and national champion coach Steve Spurrier …
… Steve Carlton …
… Steve Garvey (a member of the 1981 World Series champion Dodgers with Steves Yeager, Sax and Howe) …
… Steve Alford …
… former Packer Steve Odom …
… Steve Young …
… Steve Yzerman …
… former New York Ranger Stephane Matteau, who never has to buy drinks in New York City because of …
… and Steve Nash:
Who scored the game-winning points (as defined by one more point than Stevens Point) in the 1982 WIAA Class A boys basketball championship? Steve Amundson.
Steve TV will have to have news, of course, presented each night by Steve Kroft …
And I think Fox News Channel’s “Forbes on Fox” needs to move off Fox to Steve TV.
Steve TV programs would have to be produced on Macintosh computers, of course, in memory of Steve Jobs.
The third thing that prompted all this was a Wall Street Journal story about companies that made action hero dolls based on the purchaser’s specifications. The graphic accompanying the story had a doll called “SUPER STEVE, MAN OF ACTION!”
http://vimeo.com/54164389#at=13
So what would be the format of a show called “Super Steve, Man of Action”? Tune in next week, same time, same channel.
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The number one single today in 1960 was written by a one-hit wonder and sung by a different one-hit wonder:
The number 45 45 today in 1964 was this group’s first, but not last:
Today in 1974, members of Free, Mott the Hoople and King Crimson formed Bad Company:
Steve Prestegard.com: The Presteblog 