(05-01-2017 10:03 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(05-01-2017 08:46 AM)baker-13 Wrote:  

(05-01-2017 06:45 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(05-01-2017 12:47 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  This morning, on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopolous, these two quotes were offered, the first from Lincoln and the latter a dialogue held between Kennedy and Eisenhower at Camp David about three months after JFK was inaugurated.
1. "The Presidency, even to the most experienced politicians, is no bed of roses. No human being can fill that station and escape censure".
2. JFK, to DDE: No one knows how tough this job is until he's been in it a few months.
DDE: Mr. President, if you will forgive me, I think I mentioned that to you three months ago.
JFK: I certainly have learned a lot since then.

The second quote is an indication of how things have changed. Can anyone imagine GWB and Obama, or Obama and Trump, having a friendly sit-down at Camp David three months after either turnover of power?

IMO we would be well served by getting back to the days of this, or of Ike and LBJ and Mister Sam getting together over bourbon and branch water to run the country, but I don't see how we get there.

I actually can kinda see it with GWB/Obama, just because I think that while Obama may have disagreed with W's re-election tactics and policies, I think he found W the person likeable.

At the very least, they were friendly enough toward the end of the term that they gave rise to my favorite CNN B-roll clip ever (which I can't find right now)...

It was at the dedication/opening of the Smithsonian Museum of African-American History and Culture (W was there since he signed the organizing legislation for the museum). After all the speechifying was done (while it was just collecting live B-roll), you can see a woman on the dais ask to take a selfie with W. He agrees, they get in position, and then she can't find a good angle for it...

...so he offers to take the phone, starts moving it around, can't find a good angle for it either...

...so he looks up, sees Obama nearby in the middle of a conversation, and goes [and you can read his lips while he says it] "Hey, Barack!"

And Obama turns, sees what's up, and takes the picture for them.

It's pretty fantastic, as B-roll goes.

(Sorry for the tangent.)

Pretty good tangent.