The West Wing Teaches Real Civics

In the late 1990's though 2006, one television show foreshadowed this historic election. President Matt Santos' race for the presidency is chronicled in the last two tense seasons of The West Wing. His character came into being after a real life electrifying speech given by a state senator from Illinois running for a US senate seat to be the third African American elected to the senate in the history of the nation. To understand Matt Santos requires understanding the towering intellect of Nobel Laureate Josiah "Jed" Bartlet as a president from the Live Free or Die state that made no concessions for the viewing public to get up to speed about a presidency or politics.
This year in politics is often accompanied by statements about how much The West Wing as a TV show lived in the real life quest of the presidency in the 2008 campaign. Rahm loved the show so much he actually has an on camera extra spot in the episode, The Wedding. While Rahm may have inspired the creation of the Josh character, the actual job he will take is the one Leo McGarry played to much acclaim on the show, knuckle brawling super-smart marine, former alcoholic and Cabinet Secretary divorcée, Leo Thomas McGarry. The McGarry & Bartlet families were long time friends as are the Obamas & the Emanuels.

Others say the take-no-prisoners partisan nicknamed Rahmbo is a perfect fit for the him if he is to push through the radical changes he seeks.

The inspiration for The West Wing’s fictional deputy chief-of-staff, Josh Lyman, the most unlikely moments in the character’s story are plucked straight out of Mr. Emanuel’s reality.

When Lyman reads a Washington Post profile of him which tells how he sent a congressman a rotting fish in the post, he asks his assistant, Donna, if she was the source. In fact, it was Mr Emanuel – who reportedly once sent a pollster he had fallen out with the same gift – as a warning never to cross him again.

A man who is a cross between a practical yet politically savvy George Washington and a hip, edgy to the max Chris Rock is going into the White House. But first, one has to prepare to be the head of state. Up until 1936, elections happened in November and ascendancies and transfers of power came about on March 4. In one of the rare historical facts The West Wing show ever got wrong is in a scene in the East Room with Jed and his wife Abbey as they say goodbye to such a grand old house the morning of his successor's inauguration, stating why elections and the date happened. The subsequent versions of The West Wing have that error edited out.

Staff work will make or break a presidency. Presidential transitions require minute attention to detail while drinking water from a thousand freely flowing water hoses all at once in public. Mistakes are magnified and have world wide implications. Secrets must be kept for the Common Good while remaining open to deserved criticisms. During chaotic transitions like Bill Clinton, the culture of DC seeped in to taint the cabinet picks. In the middle of his 1992 transition, President-elect Clinton and the future First Lady, held a two day US economic summit with a wide diversity of guests. President-Elect Obama will send emissaries to the global economic summit next weekend held by the current president in deference of the immutable fact that there is only one president at a time.

In West Wing episodes, the amount of staff and advance work to create the right presidential look and feel and the detailed policy positions is done by a security clearance staff, known since 1939 as the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP), knowing what is needed. So far Barack Obama has only three direct reports, a VP, a Chief of Staff and his campaign strategist turned Senior Adviser, David Axelrod, with over a thousand left to hire to cram into a small amount of space in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. We are awaiting Michelle Obama's staff choices for the East Wing. The staff work on The West Wing delivers a great description of balancing multiple burning clouds of toilet paper in a public windstorm that has to be explained every day to the co-equal partners in Government - the Judicial branch, the Legislative branch and most of all the American people. Sausage making is much cuter.

The beneficiary of this year's election are regular people who believed they have a stake in the outcome. It was a Children's Crusade amped up 21st century style for a member of my generation, Generation Jones or Gen X, to become president by engaging the young. Without the young as partners, no major changes take place. But the young have to be determined, persistent and knowledgeable. It was not an accident that Boomer parents became introduced to the intensity of this election through their GenX or GenY children. What is a tremendous change is the amount of intellectual firepower the young packed in understanding the issues, the candidates, but most importantly the civic responsibility of service. It was noted by the entire world as a 180 change in direction from the eight year dictatorship of George W. Bush who plundered and pillaged America's Constitution because so many people had a lapsed understanding of the founding documents and principles of Democracy.

One of Al Gore's laments was the number of minds that were blank blackboards on basic facts about how the machinery of the US government worked. Budget cuts and apathy accomplished the kneecapping of many US Government classes or a clogging of mental synapses as a result of wet noodle versions taught in some social studies classes. Gore expounded on the topic of the disengagement of detached parent and apathetic student alike, enumerating the dire consequences of such an illogical mindset in the opening pages of his excellent primer, The Assault on Reason. Elections have consequences. The most tremendous two year presidential campaign of all time is rendering a lack of civics knowledge obsolete with the events of 4 November, 2008. Barack Obama uses the term the Joshua generation for all those who are essentially a part of Generation Obama. A side benefit is the entire world that held America in eight years of disdain is now signing up for introductory classes via newscasts, newspapers and the internet right alongside enthusiastic Americans of all ages to understand the intricate plumbing of our Democracy. My love of history has to go back to a Frenchman, Alexis de Tocqueville, who wrote the seminal two volume travelogue political theory books, Democracy in America or De la démocratie en Amérique (1835 & 1840) on a young American nation to find something remotely comparable.

Jonathan Alter, roving senior editor for Newsweek, wrote his book, The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope, about the heralded first hundred days of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidency. That has been the measure the press obsesses about ever since to see if brand new presidencies can sparkle like FDR's. Barack Obama is planning on an accomplished first 100 days, but not one presidency has been successful without a planned focused transition. Mr. Obama sees this book as required reading.

This post is part of The Transition Series to the presidency of Barack Obama
(Please note, posts listed by date)

Presidential Transitions & the Arc of History

Presidencies begin in strange places. Some people look in a mirror and admire a future president others believe some Deity gave them a Divine Right while more knew enough to take advantage of the right time with favorable circumstances. All eventually come to the judgment of scholars who mine or dumpster dive in multi-million dollar library archives for scraps of obscure papers, have a command of the bald facts underneath the lipsticked pretty version and are far more fearful of the wrath of their peers than some former president, usually long dead. The presidency that still causes the most fights, yet sells the most books is Abraham Lincoln. Honest Abe laid down some lessons that stay true while modern presidencies understand their term in office begins as the Obamarella clock strikes 12 on election night while people set up his outdoor stadium today.

This will be the first wartime presidential transition in 40 years and the first in the age of terrorism anxieties after Sept. 11, 2001. Government planners worry about a window of vulnerability in the first days and months of a new presidency when thousands of administration jobs have not been filled yet and a newly elected Congress is just settling in.

"Don't worry about jinxing the campaign or being too presumptuous," urges White House transition expert Clay Johnson, who says post-election planning should have been under way for months. "It is irresponsible for anybody who could be president not to prepare to govern effectively from day one."

The country — and the world — will be watching.

Tuesday, 4 November, will see a historic fanfare and a mandate not seen in decades as Barack Obama streaks to the finish line clutching the title of president-elect. John McCain will be a grumpy bestselling author that brings a rout for the second time for an Arizona Senator. Historians will start loading up on all of the newspapers as they will be the first draft of history. As soon as excitable news anchors shriek the winner in southern states like Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia on election night at 5PM PDT the presidency will have started in earnest. Paging Cassandra Butts, come out into the open now. She has been the sub rosa leader of the secret Obama transition team that has 77 days to get it all together.

Presidential campaigns rate their own bookshelf. There is much about the Obama Campaign of energetic septuagenarian and barely twenty one year old volunteers, the vaunted ground game, polls and GOTV that will fascinate campaign scholars and political junkies for Ages. But who the president is will be foreshadowed as the transition heats up. Tens of thousands of political supporters will call and seek demand jobs in the new administration for less than 8000 appointed jobs of which the senate must confirm 1,177. But the roles that will capture the history writers and watchers are the appointments that get announced with a press conference involving the president-elect. It will be a display of judiciousness to see who lands what role. Question will revolve around organizational design and if it appears ad hoc, rewards cronies or does it have an overarching purpose that reflects the president's agenda. The press will race off to seek dirt on the nominees and the senators will grumble they are being rushed to confirm so many while they are planning the inauguration and their holiday. But the time of testing will have commenced.

There will be $8.5 million worth of high tech office space to handle a cast of thousands and a discreet place to hide the budget wars. There is a new A much noted meeting of the president and president elect. The future first lady will get a tour that will make her gulp from the current first lady as her brain plays toss with educational choices for the kids. Speaking of the kids, cough up the dog quickly please Michelle & Barack, Sasha & Malia will not have as many friends as they do in Chicago! Will the kids bedrooms be on the third official floor with Mom & Dad or will they want to be up near the solarium? Who will be the Poet Laureate needs a check the box decision and what other themes will be stressed in advance. The transition means every aspect of the president-elects life gets turned upside down while tough decisions need to be made that will disappoint many supporters as some may not get the coveted job but a lesser role or none at all. Others may find their full access suddenly restricted as the campaign detritus is shunted aside for the seasoned political professionals. Will Obama succumb to micromanaging or will he rise above it with a first class chief of Staff who jealously guards the gates or will it be a more time consuming consensus collaborative effort.

Speech writers will be intravenously sucking those blasted energy drinks as they yell at all the policy shops to get it together for the inaugural address. People will have to know who gets to sign off on what sections and they are not even in the White House yet. The sense of urgency will amp up as all realize OMG, simultaneously we have to work on the president's very first State of the Union address which is due the following week. Meanwhile everyday an obscure highly secretive person from the Director of National Intelligence or Langley will visit the president elect, briefing him on all of the ongoing & latest intelligence and black ops. With two wars, there will be a majority of time given to setting the national security operation up to ensure continuity and a new direction. The whole Homeland Security portfolio is ripe for a reorg.

A new White House scheduler will turn up along with protocol specialists who will explain the world's interest in the new president. This will be expressed separately from an inundated communications operation as they see an avalanche of requests for press credentials because of the historic nature of events. The scheduler will separate out the need to plan inaugural activities, look at time to interview candidates and future major ambassadors, and sort calls from heads of state rushing to be Nation/Monarchy Number 1 to be the first State Dinner recipient and getting a portrait taken that goes into every federal outpost. An official representative from the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies will have something to say or a question to ask every single day. They will be listened to as $19,000,000 was set aside by Congress for transition purposes. The complicated schedule will also need time to understand the complexity of the football - the briefcase with the codes to the US nuclear arsenal. The Secret Service will sit the Obamas down collectively and individually to say here are the new and improved security rules you will have as a head of state. Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs wants money and more troops as the Secretary of the Treasury says nyet and here is what we must do on the domestic front to forestall a Depression era economy. Lurking in the background are all those sparkly campaign promises which the public, the press and the president-elect's political enemies will remember and recite.

The policy shop needs clear lines of authority. Historians will be watching with eagle eyes to see how the transition is managed and what it bodes for the nation. That's important because each network will load up on Pulitzer Prize winning authors and Nobel Laureates to discuss the decision making of the transition and what it means during the nonstop coverage of the inauguration. Michelle's hat, should she choose to wear one will be an intense topic of discussion for a panel of milliners as if they were discussing when will President Obama get us out of the Iraq debacle. Next comes lots of gray hairs for Obama as he gets on the 44th roller coaster ride as soon as he knows he has 270 electoral college votes, not on Tuesday, the 20th of January at one minute before noon because the historians are already deep into all of the notes and clues you gave while setting up shop.

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

The second book Barack Obama said he would take into the Oval office first day is from Doris Kearns Goodwin look at Abraham Lincoln's ability to get his thoughts together as he took the train east from Springfield Illinois to his inaugural. Lincoln invited prior bitter competitors into his presidential orbit and used his gifts to manage the clash of personalities. Barack Obama wants the extraordinary book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln as a template.

This is part of The Transition Series to the presidency of Barack Obama
(please not the posts at the link above are stored by date)

An Epic Primary Season for Democrats

US presidential primaries are fought for the right to contest a general election to become America's head of state and live in a giant white house.

First, there were so many Democrats on the stage it took on the sobriquet of Hillary and the Seven Dwarves. Elderly Alaskan, MikeGravel, embraced YouTube by throwing a rock in a pond and calling it a whimsical campaign commercial. Chris Dodd and Joe Biden had the best send up of their natural forms from Saturday Night Live canonizing their run as twin costumed SpongeBob SquarePants for Halloween. Meanwhile, Dennis Kucinich perfected the best political rhetoric bar none on health care while sending people into 360 head whirls with his discussions of his personal UFO sighting. Son of a mill worker guy, John Edwards, had two Americas resident in his own life being a millionaire lawyer who had the world's most discussed $400 haircut and a house that includes an inside basketball court while his campaign had to go on the public financing dole. The Governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, is a master international negotiator who went so far as to threaten to import the Great Lakes water to the drought stricken southwest. Starting out with the most painful uh, uh, uh problem on a national stage came Barack Obama, turning up some of the most sage and soaring rhetoric heard from an American politician.

Debates 22 of them in all were a microcosm of political journalism that mainly sucked. The final debate with ABC news albatross anchor Charlie Gibson and toadying George Stephanopolous caused 22,000 people in less than 24 hours to emphatically state the horrendous degree of their suckitude because of their focus on issues pertinent to about a dozen millionaire "journalists" without a clue. Hark back to Lois Romano's Washington Post wasted space article dedicating column inches to Hillary Rodham Clinton's cleavage and later the passions of the pantsuit. In premature rhetorical spasms of needing relevance, press punditry scraped the bottom of the Velveeta vats declaring they found melting journalistic gold in gotcha questions and gross distortions as they pandered to the press operations of various campaigns rather than befouling themselves with being truthful and objective. CNN's YouTube debate had interesting questions from snowmen about the perils of global warming, singing questions and regular citizens that were more insightful.

Then the crowds showed up in numbers never seen before for primaries. They also turned out in massive numbers to vote. In one case, students at Prairie View A & M marched for seven miles as the registrar decided an early voting booth would no longer be on campus. Students organized and walked the seven miles in a hot Texas sun shutting down the highway as they then stood in line for hours to exercise their American right to vote under circumstances reminiscent of the 1960's. (Photos Courtesy of Ken Basart)

Enter the constant vigilance courtiers, some extremely powerful surrogates and regular people ants from the cracked sidewalks of life. Bill Clinton, former president of the United States, had basked in Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison's characterization as the First black president. He got his status stripped from him unceremoniously for comments equating Barack Obama's tidal wave win in South Carolina as equivalent to Jesse Jackson, notorious civil rights leader with an outsized me me me complex equal to Bill's. Grand entrance from Chelsea Clinton after her Mom's stunning third place loss in Iowa when everybody on the stage behind her who had gray hair remembered Sputnik or Eisenhower as adults. There were surrogates that said monster, others insinuated madrassa educations and drug issues and being black was an advantage, while Bill Clinton resorted to fairy tales. It got U-G-L-Y.

Most powerful woman on the planet with a communications empire, Oprah Winfrey, risked a fair bit by endorsing and stumping for the junior senator from Illinois. Michelle Obama got the ball rolling in Iowa wearing a navy blue headband, no makeup and declaring fear should not be a motivating factor. Notable in all this hoopla is Al Gore's silence, except to castigate them all equally for not bringing climate change to the forefront of the debate.

Then, the children started speaking to their parents from every socio-economic stripe. Many gave the gift of books, especially the Audacity of Hope to persuade them. One private mom and another public mom did something for Barack Obama after insistent consistent hectoring from their children. Missouri senator, Claire McCaskill, was on her couch with tears streaming down her face after a speech by Barack in the coldness of New Hampshire and was told by her teenage daughter to do something - now is the time. Decades passed participating in politics as another private mom was thunderstruck by her kids being steadfast in their support of Barack Obama. She decided to write a powerful piece in support of him for the New York Times. Her name is Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg. On Hillary's behalf, legions of feminists of a certain age came out in full throated support, Gloria Steinem, Erica Jong and Maya Angelou.

The battles raged from primaries to caucuses with Super Tuesday being a Clinton line in the sand. Campaign strategic planning would decide the way forward. Hillary's camp doubled down on going negative with Mark Penn in the Patton PR role leading a media air war. Barack's camp focused on delegates and ground troops going from state to state. Hillary would have won with this campaign in 2004. Barack took the lesson of 2004 and rattled off a dozen straight wins while collecting wheelbarrows of cash. Hillary went broke and busted open her personal piggy bank for millions of dollars while demanding to hang in there until the bitter end. Part of her millions went for a 3 am ad that said she was ready to answer the red phone and Barack was not.

The word bitter resonated as Barack explained why elections turned on wedge issues. His twenty year association with black liberation theology within Trinity United Church of Christ came to an end amidst Jeremiah Wright being seen by more Americans on an endless loop without context from the mendacious media. At first, Barack withstood pressure by predominantly white media to disassociate himself from his church and its controversial pastor.

Obama delivered a complex speech on race from a multitude of perspectives to build a more perfect union. This was right before the Pennsylvania Primary that heavily favored Hillary with her advantages of having the patronage machine behind her efforts. Barack fed a baby cow, went bowling for a couple gutterballs and asked for orange juice rather than coffee, which outraged elitist pundit, Chris Matthews. Rev. Jeremiah Wright went on a resurrection/destruction tour starting with Bill Moyers broadcast on a Friday evening , on to preach in Dallas flying the same day to Detroit for a NAACP dinner and BAM - on Monday went over the edge and into hubris and hostility towards the press for a Q & A filled with rowdy and provocative answers from him.

Hillary Clinton, meanwhile repeatedly told a great story of a corkscrew landing under sniper fire in Bosnia where she rushed off in her helmet. Except, she was met at the airport by a little girl with a poem and her traveling companions were Sinbad, Sheryl Crowe and her teenage daughter. Oops and the lie kept mushrooming. Hillary got into a spat saying she was telling the truth - Sinbad said their biggest decision on that trip was when to stop to eat. Bill tried to rescue her by stating she was 60 and forgot a few things undercutting her red phone 3 am ad.

The eventual delegate, popular vote winner, Barack Obama had his head immortalized in butter, been to church to meet folks with the most amazing architectural milliner offerings, and kissed a multitude of burping, smiling and sleeping baby cherubs. There is a wonderful pick of Sasha and Dad are mowing down Malia and Michelle on bumper cars at the Iowa State Fair in August of 2007.

Some of the most amazing images of Barack from the campaign are of him with children, including his own.

On Saturday, 31 May, Hillary's forces staged a hissy fit as they demanded that Barack not get credit in the Michigan primaries as he took his name off the ballot. Hillary's forces wanted to say she was the winner of a popular vote that had 0 meaning in a primary. The guy who had voted to sanction Florida & Michigan, Harold Ickes, became a contortionist and an extortionist reserving the right to challenge the results in Denver at the convention in late August.

And On Tuesday, June 3, 2008 Barack Obama became the presumptive nominee of the Democratic party and the first man of color to ever do so in the industrialized western world. Hillary's wilting finance campaign chairman announced her as the next president of the United States in a bunker room two levels below street in New York City. Barack & his wife come out with a dap that confounded the older watching public - because it was hip and cool.
Saturday, Hillary graciously came out and put her historic exclamation point on the obvious. Congratulations to all who participated in this race of historic and yes, epic battles worthy of a Homeric treatment. Fabulous reading ahead. Gail Sheehy chronicled Hillary from behind the scenes and will fill in several gaps in her upcoming writing.
Obama's story is still being crafted. Woe betide any author that cannot live up to Barack's gifts with a pen or keyboard. It is our time and we have as MLK put it - the fierce urgency of now. May the sun shine on Barack & family's faces and the wind be at his back as he is elected the 44th president of the United States of America.

The Super Delegate March to Inevitability

The Democratic 2008 race for president started in December 31, 2006 with a neo-populist mega millionaire son-of-a-millworker lawyer digging up a black lady's Katrina damaged yard in his attempt to put poverty forefront in the political soup line. A stunning 2004 speech shifted the presidential race and flashbulbs to a buzzworthy bi-racial lawyer in his first term as Senator from the Land of Lincoln who made a few million from two books written while capturing third place in the polls in the Ethanol State upon announcing. Last to enter and first to jet to the top of the poll charts was a world famous white lady with mega millions - hers and everyone else's, an iron grip on the lead and a man that had the affection of hardworking and elite Democrats.

Media pundits, pollsters and professionals adopted the press releases and trite observances of the staff of Hillary Rodham Clinton as their beacons of light to foist upon American voters as the only possible adult reality-based outcome of the Democratic presidential nomination. Her majesty did not need to develop a ground game - she was soaring on the wind beneath her wax wings of Bill Clinton and the tried and true Clinton style of pricey television ad wars. In a nod to the times, she decided to embrace YouTube for a Sopranos video and her announcement of a listening to the people gig. Hillary had her attack pigeons perched in the swivel chairs at all the networks, she rocket launched Bill Clinton to become the talking wall paper of her campaign and learned the art of the Miss America wave, elbow, elbow, wrist-wrist-wrist in the shape of a figure eight and the point - point - clap, clap for large groups.

Opinion columns written from the templates of the past with blindness towards the future echoed the selfishly unaware mantra of her woefully wrong chief strategist Penn, SHE WAS INEVITABLE and even the tiniest of numbers proved it, look at the national polls or in the signs of the remains of your Cheerios. A lock with no key. Celestial skies opened and hosannas rained down from pundits and politicians racing to get on the lesser beings gravy train and snag a window seat to watch her perform aerial maneuvers in the presidential Heavens.

Black folks were saying not gonna happen for him, but isn't he cute trying so hard - but we have all seen the science fiction movies where the lone black person perennially faces obliteration by some sort of alien monster. The Clinton campaign spurred the White media elites and they watched with the glee of reporting on their first fatal car wreck as black folks debated amongst themselves the degree to which Barack Obama was actually b-l-a-c-k as opposed to a Morrison-anointed Black president Bill Clinton along with fearing and decrying the level of security needed to protect this American Rorschach test dummy. And then the Benjamin Franklin lightening strike happened. Barack became hickory HRC smoked and charred enough round the edges to be really Black and Hillary turned as white as a sheet.

From the ground to curbs in hog hamlets and Des Moines day spas, the candidate with grit and grime in his slightly larger than normal ears from wallowing on the ground while petting a pig at the Iowa State Fair to eating same day pork chops, smiled and dialed undecided people, asked for votes from farmers and fledgling students finally won a smashing, game changing, history making victory based on two words, Hope & Change in a state that was as white as an ungilded lily. Say What - Inevitability cried and tantrums were had on camera by a former president that lost his electoral mojo binky. A first class volunteer army and ground game built by Americans of every hue and wallet size was just kicking the pant suited ass of the superior B-52 strategic bomber candidate/pilot.

An out of touch Media caught woefully short on the telly and with its fact pants down around their wide stance ankles had to learn the ABC's of proportional delegate distribution and who these anachronistic Super Delegates were, now in a front loaded primary season - and who was the idiot that put this in place? Look no further than Hillary Clinton's supposedly superior finance wizard who had been chairman of the DNC. Super Delegates took provisions and ran for the undisclosed Bunker Hills to escape the carpet bombing and strafing-by-surrogate when the Inevitability Express Shuttle came around every 15 minutes demanding Super Delegates get on board or be left behind in every sense of the Revelations word.

In February, Obama ground troops moved across the United States feeding and strengthening his supply lines with food, fuel, phones and small amounts of folding money. The candidate of Inevitability treated much of America as an insignificant no-fly zone filled with hairy Idaho activists, frothing Mississippi latte sippers, stupid Hawaii 5-0 and unseemly Washington logrolling caucuses, isolated St. Louis eggheads with an extra Volvo, Wisconsin Facebookies and the average Georgian Birkenstock shopper. The math locked in on the ground. Nobody saw it except the truly political astute and Obama supporters. Furiously dog-paddling MIA Super Delegates belly flopped and jumped sans parachutes from the bomber bay splashing into Florida's Keys, deciding it was a better hiding place to secure freedom freedom from the Two Sirens' May Day, May Day radio calls for money.
Super Delegates wanted the WAR of the primary Worlds to be definitive in a quantum mechanics grand unified theory way. Make the remaining states walk the gauntlet under the booming guns of the mad bomber in the sky trying to reach the cool-as-a-cucumber arugula gardener on the ground was the plan while they bit their manicures and occupied the space time continuum bubble warp in federally protected DC. No candidate was going to be in DC anyway. POW Clinton Delegates made a break for enemy lines under sniper fire and announced the Underground Railroad still worked. More are chirping that they are undeclared, not uncommitted, and shall wait to see that the plane with a president and co-pilot husband is actually enshrined in the Clinton Presidential Library like Reagan's before they rush into the sunlight to announce that they were for the Inevitable candidate all along.


Here is where to learn about Barack Obama's life with books and his youthful quest started with books.



The 44th President of the United States of America, Barack Obama and the First Lady, Michelle Obama!