THE BUCK STOPS...

The night hasn't finished its long and restless vigil quite yet. No poetic thunderstorms or Clintonian phone calls at 3:00 a.m. Just a sleepless and disturbing expanse of darkness and silence which refuses to produce much-needed refreshment to a troubled President.

Finally acknowledging the night as the winner of the battle, the President slips on his slippers and robe and shuffles from the room to the sanctuary of the living quarters where a glass of juice quenches his dry throat. Thumbing through a pile of required reading doesn't appeal to him, so he crosses to the window to gaze out on an empty garden, illuminated only for security. The winter's surprise of a blanket of snow has obscured every shrub and tree, refusing to allow even the beauty of a well-preened garden to bring peace to his troubled heart.

"Gets a little lonely, doesn't it?" the voice from the shadows asks.

Jolted by the sound, the President's heart skips a beat and a moment of fear grips his otherwise unshaken demeanor.

"Who's there?" he manages to speak.

"Just a fellow traveler who thought a late-night conversation might be in order," the voice responded. The speaker stepped from the shadows into the dim light of the single illuminated lamp on the table hugging the sofa. "To use a phrase I hear a lot these days, 'Been there...done it.' "

The President couldn't believe his eyes.

"President Truman? Is that you?"

"Oh come on, Barack, let's drop the formalities. I know that it bothers you as much as it did me to have all that 'Mr. President' stuff. I'm Harry, for God's sake."

A slight smile crosses Obama's face, only superficially masking his anxiety at experiencing a ghost. It isn't exactly in his theological makeup to acknowledge the existence of such beings. But at this moment, it is clear that he is sharing a space with the long-deceased former President and former resident of this same house.

"Why are you here?" he manages to stammer.

"That's not the most hospitable thing I've ever heard," Harry stated bluntly, "but I'll forgive you this time. I suspect seeing me like this isn't something that you would expect. I thought it was time to drop in on you, and the others agreed that the timing was right. I was selected to bring the message."

"The others? There's a group of you?"

Harry nodded and took off his straw fedora and placed it on a chair.

"Yes, we get together all the time. It's amazing how we have found that we have so much in common now that we are away from the battleground of politics. I think it's fair to say that we are more alike in our thinking than anyone would believe...even you."

Barack gestured to a chair and then allowed himself to collapse onto the sofa, his legs feeling a little queasy.

"What did you mean when you said, they thought the timing was right?"

"Well," Harry said, "we wanted to wait until the glamour of your election wore off and you were able to hear my words in your head and your heart. That first year is a tough one, sorting out all that crap that came up during the campaign. We think you've been handed enough reality lately to be open to a suggestion or two."

"By all means. Let her rip," Barack quipped. "I'm always open to suggestion."

"A little too much, as a matter of fact," Harry responded without a moment's pause. "That's one of the points they want me to make. Cut the bipartisan baloney and get on with the business of being the elected Chief Executive of this crazy country. You're wasting your time trying to create a legacy of mediator between the right and the left. It ain't gonna happen, as we used to say in Missouri."

"I'm beginning to get that picture," President Obama agreed.

"You could never tell it from what you're saying out there, Barack. Your words and your gut don't seem to be in sync. It's like you don't believe you were elected. For God's sake, it was a landslide! The people of this country were serious when they voted for you in massive numbers. You excited a part of this country that has never spoken out before. But it feels like you've forgotten the sound of their voices and the tears in their eyes when you were elected. They think you've forgotten them."

Barack slumped into the cushions of the sofa. For the next twenty minutes the former President pummelled him with advice, much of which smarted beyond anything anyone had said to him in a long time. Finally, however, it was time for Truman to go. The light of day was emerging, and soon the room would be filled with the sound of children's voices and a staff prepared to provide for Obama's every need.

"One last thing...a personal note," Truman said. "Get on with that stupid 'Don't ask, don't tell' thing. If necessary, use your executive privilege to make it happen. Don't wait for everyone to agree with you. They never will. I had to swallow and take the abuse when I signed the document allowing Negroes to serve openly. Best thing I ever did. Your people are waiting, and you're the only one who can give them what they want. Too much rancor in the Congress, and that isn't going to change right away, I'm sorry to tell you."

Obama nodded in agreement. "One question. Did you really say 'The buck stops here?' "

"Doesn't matter, Barack. You know it's true. Get on with it."

President Obama looked out the window at the growing light of day. When he looked back at President Truman, there was no one there. Message delivered.


Graphic credit: www.ng.mil/.../presidential/truman.html

OVERABUNDANCE: too much!

We wanted to say "Thank You" to our hosts. Thanks for hospitality is something for which there is no real easy way to show gratitude. People have disrupted their lives, opened their privacy to invasion, and above all...have worked hard to make sure our comfort needs have been met. This was an exceptionally good experience for us; the sacrifices on our behalf have been visible.

To show our thanks we took the family out to dinner. We settled on a restaurant that our hosts had not frequented, but the reports were good. They turned out to be accurate. It was a fun place, filled with lots of appreciative customers, with a great bar, attractive surroundings, and filled with the smells of good food. Our noses didn't let us down. The food was excellent. Overall, it was a very successful evening...and the check was much less than we expected.

However...and this is a big however...the quantity of food served each of us was unbelievably excessive. We should have been suspicious when the appetizers came and they were the size of a small mountain. Great food, but way, way too much.

Then the entrees arrived and I began to look around to see who else would be joining us for dinner. My chicken parm could have fed three people. We all started laughing at the overabundance of food and the likelihood that Seamus, the family dog, was going to be the recipient of great "doggie boxes." In the end, the boxes we took back to the house were huge...enough meals for several days.

As we were packing the left-over food into the take home boxes, we commented that we wished we could ship it off to Haiti. It was not really as flippant a comment as you might expect. We in the group had some experience with poverty and disaster and knew that having this excess food from one meal was obscene when balanced against the needs of people in earthquake-ravaged Haiti. Of course the idea of sending it to Haiti was impossible, and served more as a comment than anything else. But there was a sense of guilt in all of our commentary.

Someone commented that Michelle Obama, who has just undertaken an initiative to address childhood obesity, would be horrified to think that someone might actually eat all the food that was served. The only children at the table were adult, professional children, but the point was not lost.

Opulence in a society takes many forms. Living into the overabundance of food without recognizing its destructive quality is one way in which opulence affects us with such ease. I'm not sure how we make that point without sounding sour and bitchy. Maybe a note in the mail to the management of the restaurant? A letter to the editor? A boycott of a great restaurant which may only need a comment to correct its practices?

The reality is that some people want that overabundance and may frequent that restaurant specifically because they want those "doggie boxes" at the end of the meal. I have to be careful about judgment. And this restaurant is not the focus of my comments. It is our society as a whole which lives into overabundance and the unhealthy, obscene results of it.

The bottom line about last night is that it was an enjoyable evening which, I believe, adequately expressed our thanks to the host family. We laughed at jokes, enjoyed the restaurant, and ended the evening with a feeling of well-being. My words this morning are just after-thoughts which needed to be spoken, probably to ease my guilt. Every good thing doesn't need a negative comment to balance it out. But it's hard these days not to be aware of the contrast between opulence and poverty.


Photo Credit:www.pdphoto.org/PictureDetail.php?mat=&pg=6924

ASIDE FROM THE WORDS

There is an abundance of opportunity for you to read the words of President Obama's State of the Union Address on the web, in the papers, and elsewhere today. I won't duplicate those opportunities here.

Rather, I thought I'd share a few "asides" which caught my attention. Please bear with me.

+ It always bothers me to have to watch the VP and the Speaker reacting. Very distracting.

+ Just once I'd love to hear a President say something like: "Look, folks, this annual event has become a circus. Let's hold the applause until after the speech and can the standing and sitting for the sake of the cameras. It makes this into a political ping pong match, and this stuff is too serious for that."

+ I know the rules don't allow the Supreme Court to react to the words of the President, but if that's the case, move them away from the front row and can the robes. Incidentally, I don't remember hearing a President take a jab at the SC before. They deserved his comment.

+ Bill Livingood,Sergeant-at-Arms of the House, who announces the presence of the President and then acts as his guide through the crowd, is a friend of mine. He never seems to age.

+ Humor (sometimes cutting as it was) found a home in the speech last night. At times it was more like a fireside chat than a State of the Union Address. That's not all bad.

+ I have never appreciated the "Response" from the other party after the Address. It signals a partisan flavor which I feel is over the top. Having said that, I thought Gov. McDonnell did a decent job of it.

+ We are getting much better at reading lips these days. Side comments by those attending aren't nearly as private as the whisperer thinks.

+ Watching last night made me wonder if maybe more progress would be made in the Congress if Members and Senators were seated by seniority instead of by party. Maybe the days of the other side of the aisle should be relegated to history. Wouldn't it be better if elected people had to talk on a daily basis with those from the other party rather than constantly reinforcing their opinions with colleagues from the same party? Chumminess can go only so far before it becomes a distraction and an excuse for stubbornness.

+ What's with the autograph session at the end? Aren't these people who see the President all the time? Don't they have plenty of opportunity to ask for his signature away from the State of the Union Address?

+ Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg is looking particularly frail these days. I suspect her recent illnesses have taken more of a toll than we have been told.

+ Wouldn't it be strange to have an unmarried President? To whom would the cameras point at those staged moments in a speech when everyone stands and turns (awkwardly) toward the First Lady?

+ Last night I rushed home from a basketball game (where Providence College drubbed Connecticut) to watch the Address. It helped my mood. I was anxious throughout the day anticipating the speech. My basketball euphoria gave the speech a lighter finish.


So...that's my semi-serious take on it for the day after the 2010 State of the Union Address by President Obama. Overall, I think he scored well in a troubled year. I'm curious to see how his expressed plans, hopes, and commitments will fly away from the television extravaganza.

Éminence grise: A person who wields power behind the scenes

An eminence grise exists because there is a gap in leadership. During the George W. Bush administration, for instance, it is understood by many that Vice-President Richard Cheney was the source of policy in the absence of strong leadership by President Bush. Whether that was as true as his critics claim or not, the perception was clear. It would be difficult to eliminate that understanding.

Just thinking about this brought me to the current administration. It would be a natural thing to ask 'Who is the eminence grise, the power behind the throne of President Obama?' I don’t get the sense that anyone speaks for Barack Obama.

The President has surrounded himself with such people as Hillary Clinton, Rahm Emanuel, Nancy Pelosi, and Timothy Geitner. Just let those names roll off your tongue. They, and dozens of others like them, have huge amounts of power in the specific environments where they function. But the operative question is, does any one of these people have the ability to speak for the President or unduly influence him in the creation of policy? I think not. He is a strong, intelligent man with more than a sufficient quantity of self-determination.

That is not to say that The President cannot be influenced. I am convinced that Timothy Geitner and his finance gurus have done a huge amount of teaching and lobbying for decisions over the past year. It would be ludicrous to think that Secretary of State Clinton has not exercised some pressure on the President to develop a perspective on foreign policy which reflects her opinions. Is there anyone who believes that Rahm Emmanuel has not made known to the President some thoughts about governance of the country? And clearly, Nancy Pelosi has run the legislative process with a limited amount of restraint from the White House. But that is not the same thing as being “the power behind the throne.” Those people, whether we like them or agree with them or not, are doing what they were asked to do. And they do it well.

I suspect we might be surprised to know how much influence Vice-President Biden has on the President. He is cast by the media as a bungling, cartoonish character. But he is a wise and knowledgeable diplomat in the area of foreign policy. I suspect his influence is much greater than we might think.

I will risk a little and say that I think Michelle Obama has a significant influence on the decision-making of the President. He respects her intelligence and she certainly has access to him. Pillow talk can be powerful, and I would not begin to imagine that her engagement in pillow talk about issues facing the President has not been influential.

Overall, however, I am confident that the President of the United States, Barack Obama, is a man who establishes the bottom line. I think that is why he is not prone to quick, knee-jerk reactions. He is criticized for taking time to bring forth decisions. Not by me. I suspect that this “lag time” is the opportunity for him to talk in depth with his advisors, weigh their input, and develop a decision that is clear, and that he can promote without hesitation.

I suspect also that at the present time there is no one “behind the throne” who fills the definition of eminence grise.