The Morning Delivery

A Brief History of Super Bowl Sunday at the White House

If there is one universal criticism of President Obama’s cool controlled management style, it’s that he appears too detached, acting more like a law professor inspiring his students, never giving vent to his anger or leaping for joy when such emotions might warrant it.

You might be curious, then, if the presidents’ cool indifference is in play on Super Bowl Sunday?

On the surface, it seems like it is. When questioned by ABC’s Diane Sawyer, Mr. Obama said both the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints were terrific teams, but was pulling for the Saints ``partly because’’ Obama told Sawyer, ``when I think about what’s happened to New Orleans over the last several years and how much that team means to them…I’m pretty sympathetic.’’

A typical calm cool as cucumber Obama response

But during last year’s Super Bowl, Obama displayed no such tranquility According to the Washington Post, the president openly rooted for the Pittsburgh Steelers to defeat the Arizona Cardinals and leapt to his feet when Steelers’ linebacker James Harrison sprinted the length of the field for a touchdown just before halftime, telling Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pennsylvania) sitting next to him, ``what do you think about that!’’

Now, perhaps, that’s the kind of unbridled emotion the American people are looking for from their president.

U.S. Presidents and Super Bowls lack a rich tradition equal to the World Series. In fact, no sitting president has ever attended a Super Bowl. The closest came in 1985 during Super Bowl XIX, when President Reagan tossed the coin via satellite from the Oval Office. Vice President George H.W. Bush did attend Super Bowl XVI in Detroit on January 24, 1982, when the San Francisco 49ers narrowly defeated the Cincinnati Bengals; while former presidents Bill Clinton and Bush (the elder), participated in FOX Sports Pregame Super Bowl show in 2005 in Jacksonville Fla.
Former President Jimmy Carter, according to Greg Aiello, NFL spokesperson has also attended a Super Bowl after leaving office.

President Nixon, a part-time Florida resident, openly rooted for the Miami Dolphins during Super Bowl VI, he even phoned in a play to Don Shula (a-down-and in); but changed allegiance the following year, when the Dolphins returned to the Super Bowl to face the Washington Redskins.  ``I always root for the home team’’ Mr. Nixon told The New York Times. ``And my home now is in Washington.’’

During Super Bowl XIII in 1979, President Jimmy Carter put his money where his mouth is by placing a $5 bet with Miss Lillian, his mother, that the Cowboys would beat the Pittsburgh Steelers. Carter lost that bet.

In 1993, President Clinton scheduled his first official dinner on Super Bowl Sunday, bringing together the nation’s governors, including Texas Gov Ann Richards and New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, both of whom had more than a passing interest in Super Bowl XXVII, with the Dallas Cowboys squaring off against the Buffalo Bills.

President Clinton invited the Rev. Jesse Jackson to the White House in 1998, soon after the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke to watch the Super Bowl at the White House Family Theater and seek his spiritual guidance, along with his advice on his upcoming State of the Union address. Jackson strongly advised the president not to mention the scandal in his speech. ``Hold on to the sides of the boat until the morning cometh’’ Jackson told the president ``because the storms will pass over.’’

No one can accuse former President George W. Bush of hiding his emotions during a football game In January, 2002, while watching a playoff game between the Dolphins and Baltimore Ravens, the president stood up and cheered, only to choke on a pretzel, falling face-first to the ground. Bush fainted after a decrease of blood pressure, but quickly recovered and reportedly peeked in on the rest of the game.

That presidential swoon may have been a harbinger of the yet unknown future.

The following year, two months before invading Iraq (2003), Mr. Bush invited Kanan Makiya, an Iraqi exile, and a staunch critic of the Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship to the White House to watch Super Bowl XXVII

-Bill Lucey
WPLucey@gmail.com

 Super Bowl Footnotes:

• The winning team of this year’s Super Bowl will each receive $83,000; $42,000 will be awarded to members of the losing team. The winning share for Super Bowl I, by comparison, was $15,000 for the winner and $7,500 for members of the losing team.

• The Vince Lombardi Trophy, a regulation-size silver football mounted in a kicking position on a pyramid stand of three conclave sides, stands 20.75 inches tall, weighs 107.3 ounces and is valued in excess of $25,000.

• The Indianapolis Colts representing the AFC are considered the home team during this year’s Super Bowl and will occupy the South sideline, giving them the option of wearing their traditional blue jersey’s if the so desire..

• Ticket Prices: for Super Bowl XLIV sold for: $1,000, $900,$800, $500
In Super Bowl I, tickets were:  $12, $10, and $6

• A Roman numeral to designate a Super Bowl wasn’t officially adopted until Super Bowl V.

• Next year’s Super Bowl will take place in North Texas at the Dallas Cowboys’ new stadium.

• Super Bowl XLIII, on February 1, 2009 between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals was watched by an estimated 151,600,000 viewers.

• A 30-second adversiment during this year’s Super Bowl was selling for between $2.6 to $3 million dollars

• 21.5 million people will throw Super Bowl parties; 9.9 million will watch the game in bars and restaurants

• According to National Restaurant Association, 15 percent of Americans order takeout on Super Bowl Sunday, 58 percent of those order pizza, 50 percent chicken wings and 20 percent subs and sandwiches.

• More than 4500 media credentials have been issued for this year’s Super Bowl

• 230 countries and territories will televise this year’s Super Bowl

• The New York Giants, winner of Super Bowl XXI (1987) finished last the following season in the NFC Eastern Division with a 6-9 record. The Denver Broncos met a similar fate, after winning Super Bowl XXXIII (1999), finishing last the following year in the AFC Western Division with a 6-10 record.

• The coldest Super Bowl in Miami was a chilly 57 degrees during Super Bowl X on January 18, 1976. The coldest recorded Super Bowl was in New Orleans on January 16, 1972, registering a frosty 39 degrees.

• The first well known musical star to perform at halftime didn’t come until Super Bowl III (1969) when Carol Channing performed. The tradition of booking a mega musical star, however, didn’t really kickoff until Super Bowl XXVII, when the former king of pop, Michael Jackson, performed at halftime with 3,500 local children, the same year O.J. Simpson participated in the pregame coin toss ceremony.

Source: NFL Media Relations

Gridlock in Congress: Who Will Blink First?

The back-and-forth intransigence between Republicans’ in Congress and President Obama over such polarized issues like health care and deficit reduction must seem to many like watching Kennedy and Khrushchev square off eyeball-to-eyeball during the Cuban missile crisis; which side will blink first?

With Scott Brown soon to become the 41st Republican in the U.S. Senate, and as a result, ending the Democrats’ supermajority, more gridlock is expected to set in, unless someone works some magic awfully soon—leading many to wonder whether any bipartisanship is possible with the 111th Congress?

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word ``gridlock’’ was first used in Paul Theroux’s 1981 novel ``Mosquito Coast’’ (``I tell you Charlie, it’s an imperfect world, America’s in gridlock’’). The Financial Times caught onto the word two years later when on May 2, 1983 they wrote: ``The political `gridlock’ in Congress might mean that no budget resolution could be passed for fiscal year of 1984.’’

Since then, ``gridlock’’ has become a common term to describe Congress locked into a stalemate over passing any legislation.

 Though Democrats and Republicans in the present 111th Congress have reached agreement during the financial crisis on areas affecting the tumbling economy, such as with the stimulus bill and banking reform, other areas, more ideological, like health care and deficit reduction have run into choppy waters, with both sides refusing to give an inch.

 Voices from the right say jittery voters are at odds with Democrats and health care reform, along with their recklessness in running up the deficits to alarming heights, while voices from the left say Republicans just want to run out the clock on the Obama administration, and deny him a historic legislative victory with midterm elections scheduled for the end of the year.

 Was this what the Framers had in mind when they wrote the Constitution, making it virtually impossible for drastic reform to take place with a bicameral legislature?

 It sure looks that way.

 According to Sarah A. Binder’s book ``Stalemate: Causes and Consequences of Legislative Gridlock’’,   ``James Madison bequeathed to us a political system designed not to work, a government of sharply limited powers.’’ Binder goes on to write the Framers had a profound appreciation for gridlock, designing a system that would in fact guarantee gridlock.

 Other legal scholars point out the gridlock component of the Constitution is there to hold legislators accountable to the changing mood of voters over public policy.

 With the Democrats controlling both houses of Congress and a popular president in the same party, why hasn’t the 111th Congress been able to seal the deal on health care reform?

 On reason for this may be attributed to the fact that most Democrats are on one extreme, Republicans on other far end, without any coalition from both parties occupying the center.

 Congressional scholars, for example, point to the 83th Congress (1953-55) during the Eisenhower administration, when Republicans’ held a single-vote majority in the Senate and less than a dozen in the House. Those on the right were able to come together with a large bloc in the middle, leaving those on the far left with little leverage. This centrist Congress successfully passed a Social Security Expansion Act, the Housing Act of 1954, the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, the Agriculture Act of 1954, and the Communist Control Act of 1954, which banned the Communist party, a move spearheaded by the Democratic Party.

As Charles M. Cameron writes in ``Veto Bargaining'' ``Southern Democrats, moderate Democrats, and liberal-progressive Republicans could find a working majority to support the creation of national infrastructure, the development of national resources, and anticommunism abroad and at home.''

Despite being saddled with a Republican Congress, Harry Truman during the 80th Congress was able to build a bipartisan foreign policy coalition in containing communism and rebuilding Europe through the Marshall Plan.

And the most recent example of a bipartisanship at its best came when the Republicans, running under the banner of ``Contract with America’’ won control of Congress during in 1994, in one of the largest midterm gains since 1946, which added 52 GOP seats to the House, while capturing eight seats in the Senate.

In 1996, the Clinton White House and a Republican controlled House of Representatives found it in their best interest to agree on important legislation rather then lock horns in an ideological stalemate.   It was in 1996, remember, when Welfare Reform was passed, the line-item veto was passed, as was the Anti-Terrorist Act, the Health Insurance Portability Act, Immigration Reform, as well as Telecommunications Reform.

David Mahew, professor of Political Science at Yale University, points out the Republicans don’t exactly hold a monopoly on acting like obstructionists or being labeled the party of no.

``Party polarization, Mayhew writes in an email, has been the norm for at least twenty years, especially in the House’’.  ``I don't see the Republicans as being especially responsible for this.  Both parties have a large paw print on it’’

 Mayhew in his 1993 book:  ``Divided We Govern’’ argues it matters little whether one party controls the White House and Congress. Historic legislative innovation has been accomplished in both unified and divided control. What usually leads to successful legislation being passed, according to Mayhew, is the shift of political moods guiding policy, along with the rise of issues that cut across ideological differences.

 Binder echoes this sentiment in her article ``Elections and Congress’s Governing Capacity’’ when she writes: `` our political system requires broad, and usually bipartisan, coalitions to adopt major policy change—coalitions that are easier to build when legislators occupy the political center.’’

Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute tells me last June, only 37 percent of independents disapproved of President Obama. In January of this year, by comparison, 48 percent of independent voters now disapprove of Mr. Obama’s performance.

This might suggest that it matters little if Democrats control both the White House and Congress; if they’re losing the center of the country, their majority is a fragile one unless some kind of bipartisanship begins filling the air.

The only question is: who will blink first?

 -Bill Lucey
 WPLucey@gmail.com

 Productive Congresses:

• The 80th Congress (1947-48) was the most productive Congress, when Democrat Harry Truman was in the White House and the Republicans controlled the Congress.  During this period, Congress passed the Taft-Hartley act, (an anti-union rollback of the Wagner Act); approved aid to Greece and Turkey, passed the National Security Act of 1947 (when military branches of government became unified under one Defense Secretary), passed the 22nd Amendment, (limiting the president to two-terms), passed the Marshall Plan (European Recovery Plan), passed an income tax cut (over Truman’s veto), and passed the Water Pollution Act of 1948.

• Another highly productive Congress was the 88th Congress (1963-64), with Democrat John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson in the White House and a Democratic controlled Congress. During this period, the followings bills passed: the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was ratified, aid to medical schools (student loans, buildings), Clean Air Act of 1963, Equal Pay Act of 1963 (outlawing gender discrimination), Civil Rights Act of 1964, (banning discrimination in public accommodations), Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 (LBJ’s anti-poverty program), JFK’s tax cut (to spur economic growth), the Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964, and the Food Stamp Act of 1964.

• The last Congress to coalesce and pass major legislation came with the 89th Congress (1965-66) during Johnson’s ``Great Society’’. Bills passed during the period, included: Medical Care for the Aged, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD was established); regional medical centers for cancer, disease, stroke in the form of federal grants, Immigration Reform (ended quotas), the National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities was established, Higher Education of 1965, (scholarships and insured loans for college students), Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965, Excise Tax Reduction Act of 1965,  Department of Transportation established, Air pollution control (aid to states and locales), and a minimum wage increase.

Source: ``Divided We Govern’’, by David R. Mahew

Under the Gun, Obama Mounts His Comeback

He’s ``erratic," "out of touch," "angry," "losing his bearings"

No, I’m not describing the meltdown of President Obama since Scott Brown was elected to the U.S. Senate; those were actually the words used by the Obama campaign to describe the grumpy, ill-tempered John McCain, the Republican nominee during the bruising 2008 presidential campaign.

Who would have thought that over a year since the three presidential debates took place, McCain would look like the sensible sage; while Obama appears the one out of touch to the needs of mainstream America and at a loss on how to solve a ballooning budget deficit?

I take you to the first presidential debate at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi on September 26, 2008, an event which took place on the heels of the financial crisis. Earlier that month (September 7, 2008), the federal government took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which owned or guaranteed about half of the U.S.'s $12 trillion mortgage market

Moderator Jim Lehrer grilled both candidates to explain what they would do to solve the financial crisis.

Roll tape please!

Obama: ``We've got to make sure that none of that money is going to pad CEO bank accounts or to promote golden parachutes.’’

McCain: ``Let me point out, I also warned about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and warned about corporate greed and excess, and CEO pay, and all that. A lot of us saw this train wreck coming.’’

McCain: ``Somehow we've lost that accountability. I've been heavily criticized because I called for the resignation of the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. We've got to start also holding people accountable, and we've got to reward people who succeed.’’

Later in the debate, Lehrer asks how this crisis will affect the country and what approach they will take if elected president.

Roll tape please!

MCCAIN: ``Well, the first thing we have to do is get spending under control in Washington. It's completely out of control. It's gone -- we have now presided over the largest increase in the size of government since the Great Society.’’

MCCAIN: ``How about a spending freeze on everything but defense, veteran affairs and entitlement programs.’’

LEHRER: Spending freeze?

MCCAIN: I think we ought to seriously consider with the exceptions the caring of veteran’s national defense and several other vital issues.’’

OBAMA: ``The problem with a spending freeze is you're using a hatchet where you need a scalpel. There are some programs that are very important that are under funded. I went to increase early childhood education and the notion that we should freeze that when there may be, for example, this Medicare subsidy doesn't make sense.’’

So as the Congressional Budget Office reports in its budget outlook released Tuesday that it projects the budget deficit to rise to a troubling $ 6 trillion in the next decade, a level considered unsustainable by many, while unemployment isn’t expected to stabilize until 2014, maybe Mr. McCain’s tough love prudence during the campaign wasn’t as old-fashioned as many believed at the time.

It took a crushing defeat in Massachusetts, charges of pandering to Wall Street, a steep drop in public opinion polls, and a watered down health care bill, so watered down many have stopped caring—before the administration realized they needed to change course immediately and reconnect with middle America and win back a large chunk of independent voters, many of whom have grown disillusioned with the administration’s empty promises and bridge to nowhere rhetoric.

Before ripping a page out the McCain playbook, and announcing a three-year spending freeze on domestic discretionary spending (excluding defense and national security), President Obama proposed a new tax on some of the biggest banks, an announcement celebrated by many voters, who think Wall Street has been rewarded for reckless behavior under the present administration.

But when President Obama rolls out his new domestic policy during his State of the Union address on Wednesday in hopes of demonstrating fiscal responsibility to a skeptical public, the president will now have to contend with a new bloc of cynics: members of his own party, many of who have already think the president has abandoned them. “As much as I want to support the president, I have doubts'', Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee told ABC News, while Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI): said her ``first priority is creating jobs.  I don’t want a spending freeze on anything that is focused on jobs.”

 Even New York Times’ columnist Bob Herbert questions what has become of Obama, the progressive candidate, who promised so much to the urban poor, the downtrodden and abandoned under previous administrations.  The unofficial unemployment rate for blacks is 16.2 percent, Mr. Herbert points out, while citing a recent study which shows that college-educated black-men are twice as likely to be unemployed as their white (college-educated) counterparts.

 Herbert writes:``Black Americans are going backward economically, and right now no one is stepping up to stop the retreat.’’

 While most keen observers of the swelling federal deficit applaud the president’s spending freezes, many wonder if it could be extended to other programs, such as defense, homeland security and veterans, which, according to Tom Schatz, President of
Citizens against Government Waste are programs that can be reduced or terminated.

 Despite being encouraged by Obama’s spending freeze, Schatz still maintains the White House missed three golden opportunities to demonstrate fiscal discipline. ``First, Shatz says, he [Obama] has not vetoed a single spending bill.  ``Second, he [Obama] blamed the earmarks in the omnibus appropriations bill for fiscal year 2009 that he signed last March on the prior administration.  ``Third, he [Obama] signed an omnibus appropriations bill in December that had an average 12 percent increase in spending for the six separate appropriations bills that were contained in the legislation, along with about 5,000 earmarks.  ‘’

The Committee For a Responsible Federal Budget, meanwhile, posted a statement on its website, which cautions that Congress will need to widen their net to other programs and save appreciably more money if they hope to slice the debt to a more manageable level.  ``But at least, CRFB writes, the President is moving in the right direction.’’

Unfortunately for the White House, it doesn’t matter much if ``The Committee of a Responsible Budget'' or ``Citizens against Government Waste'', think the president is moving in the right directions.

In November, when midterm elections are to be held, voters, the ultimate judge, will let the administration know whether their party is moving in the right direction.

From now until November, President Obama and the Democratic Party might want to brush up on notes from John McCain’s ``Straight Talk Express'' handbook.

-Bill Lucey
WPLucey@gmail.com

Democrats Prepare for the 2010 Midterm Storm

Republicans still seem downright giddy from their improbable come from behind win in the Massachusetts special election on Tuesday, a state which is sending its first Republican senator to Washington since 1972.

In fact, not since Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge narrowly defeated seven-time Boston mayor, John F. ``Honey Fitz’’ Fitzgerald for the U.S. Senate in 1916 have the Republicans been so drunk with joy in the Bay state.

So when Scott Brown gassed up his green pick-up truck and proceeded onto Interstate 90 (Massachusetts Turnpike) in route to the nation’s capital, the Obama administration knew they had to switch gears in a hurry and reconnect with a wide swath of frustrated independent voters at odds with what’s going on in Washington.

On Thursday, for example, President Obama, hoping undoubtedly to tap into voter discontent over the administration perceived pandering to Wall Street, announced new restraints on the size and trading activities of U.S. banks.

``If these folks want a fight, Mr. Obama said from the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House, it’s a fight I’m ready to have,”

So begins chapter one of a new book of the White House’s plans to win back the hearts and souls of the nearly 70 million voters who elected Obama to improve a battered economy and bring to a screeching halt the business as usual mood that was poisoning Washington during the Bush years.

After a year in office, a majority of voters, if the Senate election in Massachusetts is any guide, think the economy has gotten short shrift at the expense of Mr. Obama’s (win at all costs) determination to cement his legacy by becoming the first U.S. president to pass a comprehensive health care bill.

Most irksome to voters has been the lack of transparency with how the bill was being advanced without hearings on C-Span (transparency and openness, remember, were themes Obama campaigned on) with backroom deals cooked up for the Cornhusker state and the labor unions in exchange for their support of the health care bill.

If voters from the second most liberal state in the nation, could elect a Republican Senator, (as they did Tuesday) could you imagine what this portends for Democrats in the 2010 midterm elections?

Only three times since 1862, did the President’s party gain seats during midterm elections; that was in 1934, 1982, and 1998.

In Colorado, Wisconsin, Florida, and Ohio, where there are more moderate and conservative leaning voters, Senate and gubernatorial races will be held; not a good sign for the White House during a down economy, Americans struggling to pay their mortgages, and unemployment still at record highs.

It’s becoming clearer by the day that if the White House wants to prevent a bloodbath in the upcoming midterm elections, they need to pivot away from health care and respond to what Americans need the most: jobs.

On Thursday, the Democratic Caucus strategizing on what lies ahead now that they have lost the 60th critical vote that would have secured passage of the health care bill, have concluded that a comprehensive bill is beyond their grasp; leaving them with few options other than to pass legislation with a new scaled down approach, involving passing incremental measures; a change of direction which President Obama has hinted he’s in agreement with.

The Massachusetts stunner, which gave the Republicans Ted Kennedy’s seat, might be the wake up call that Democrats needed all along to pick themselves up off the canvas and start attacking this weak economy and putting Americans back to work before it’s too late.

How the Democratic controlled Congress responds to the cries of the American public in the coming months ahead will largely determine their fate in November.

The White House will be working especially hard to advance a revised domestic agenda that hopes to prevent what happened during the catastrophic 1994 mid-term elections, which gave Republicans control over both the House and Senate for the first time since the Eisenhower Administration. All told, Democrats lost 54 House seats and another eight in the Senate, seven governorships, and nearly one in five state legislative assemblies that year. Worse still for the Democrats, House Speaker Newt Gingrich was selected Time Magazine’s Man of the Year in 1995.

Republicans are well aware what can happen if the party doesn’t live up to the expectations and standards of the voting public.

In 1876, voters lost patience with the Ulysses Grant administration and its chronic scandals and charges of corruption, including the economic depression (triggered in 1873), which led Democrats to chant ``Turn the Rascals Out’’ a popular slogan that paid big dividends during the 1874 midterm elections, which saw the Republicans lose 96 seats in the House; and eight in the Senate.

The Watergate Era probably was the most damaging to party morale, when Republicans lost 48 seats in House and five in the Senate. Of the 91 new House members of the 94th Congress in 1974, 74 were Democrats, 36 of whom defeated incumbent Republicans. So called the ``Watergate Babies’’, this was a new breed of politicians who came to Washington promising to bring reform and restore America’s faith again in politics. The class of 74, by the way, included: Chris Dodd, Max Baucus, John Glenn, Gary Hart, and Patrick Leahy.

So does Scott Brown represent what the Republicans hope is the beginning of a new breed of politicians with a reform-minded spirit and uphold what the senator-elect promised, when he shouted to a throng of jubilant supporters during his victory speech in Massachusetts, that ``We are witnesses, you and I, to the truth that ideals, hard work, and strength of heart can overcome any political machine.’’

Or does the White House and the 111th Democratic Congress heed the voters call and end their shady backroom deals and start addressing ways to put Americans back to work in enough time to prevent another Republican ascendancy?

The clock is ticking.

-Bill Lucey
WPLucey@gmail.com

***

Significant Midterm Election losses for the President’s Party:

• 1874:  Republican President (Ulysses Grant): Republicans lost 96 seats in the House; eight in the Senate.
• 1894: Democratic President-(Grover Cleveland): Democrats lost 96 seats in the House and eight in the Senate.
• 1938: Democratic President (FDR): Democrats lost 72 House seats; seven in the Senate.
• 1946: Democratic President (Harry Truman); Democrats lost 55 House seats; 12 in the Senate.
• 1958: Republican President (Dwight Eisenhower); Republicans lost 48 House seats; 12 in the Senate.
• 1966: Democratic President (Lyndon Johnson): Democrats lost 48 House seats, four in the Senate.
• 1974: Republican President(s) (Richard Nixon/Gerald Ford): Republicans lost 48 House seats; four in the Senate.
• 1994: Democratic President (Bill Clinton): Democrats lost 54 House seats, eight in the Senate
• 2006: Republican President (George W. Bush):  Republicans lost 30 House seats; six in the Senate.

Source: ``Vital Statistics on Congress 2008’’ by Norman J.Ornstein, Thomas E. Mann, and Michael J. Malbin.

GOP's New Mantra: "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job.''

Nearly a month ago, Attorney General Martha Coakley, leading in the polls by a comfortable 30 points, seemed to be cruising over a little known Republican state senator, Scott Brown.

Three days before the Massachusetts special election, the unthinkable has happened: Coakley and Brown find themselves in a foot race, in one of the most Democratic states in the nation, the home state of the ``liberal lion’’ Edward Kennedy whose seat both candidates are vying for in which the stakes couldn’t be higher.

At stake is the decisive 60th vote in passing health care reform; a Brown upset presumably shatters President Obama’s hope of signing into law a historic overhaul of nation’s health care, something the late Senator Kennedy championed during his 47 distinguished years in the Senate.

As far as New England comebacks go, a Brown victory on Tuesday would be akin to the Boston Red Sox storming back from a 0-3 deficit to the New York Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series to advance to the World Series for the first time since 1986.

Edward Brooke, in 1967, was the last Massachusetts Republican elected (re-elected in 1972) to a U.S. Senate seat.

How could this have happened in a state in which Republicans only account for 11.4 percent of the voting population out of a total of 4.1 million voters? More than 37 percent are Democrats in the ``Bay State.’’

Other than Coakley inexplicably taking a six-day breather while her opponent worked the stump like there was no tomorrow, Massachusetts Democrats seemed to have misread the voting bloc that mattered most: the Independent voters or the ``unenrolled’’ who account for 51 percent of voters in Massachusetts.

And this critical slice of the voting population seemed to have grown disillusioned with President Obama and the U.S. Congress, particularly over health care and Mr. Brown’s opposition to the White House decision to try terrorists in civil courts rather than tribunals, an issue that seems to be upsetting a majority of voters.

In a recent CBS News poll, 54 percent of respondents disapprove of the way President Obama has handled health care; a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll, moreover, shows 62 percent think the country is headed in the wrong direction; while a Quinnipiac University poll reports 63 to 25 percent of American voters think the government’s anti-terrorist policies caters to civil liberties at the expense of national security.

This on top of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s awkward and antiquated references (recently disclosed) about the complexion of Barack Obama’s skin and his chances of being elected president, and you have to ask yourself-exactly which party is out of touch?

Responding to the closer than expected Senate race in Massachusetts, Dennis Hale, Associate Professor of Political Science at Boston College, thinks that if the ``Democrats continue to pretend that everyone outside the Democratic party is a loony right-wing extremist who wants to take the nation back to the stone age, then they will continue to lose voters.’’

The fact there only 15 percent registered Republicans in Massachusetts is to misread the political landscape.  Hale points out that the Republican Party hasn’t had much of a presence for decades; which is the reason many voters who would normally register as Republicans in other more balanced states, simply register  as ``unenrolled.’’

And how can an electorate struggling in a historic recession not blame Washington for what ails them. Rachael Cobb, Assistant Professor in the Government Department at Suffolk University, reminds me of the widely cited Suffolk University Poll, which shows 90 percent of Massachusetts residents still don’t think we’re out of the recession yet.

Concerned about the growing trend of Independent voters tilting to the Republicans corner; and terrified of losing Ted Kennedy’s seat to, (gulp!), a candidate who promises to vote against health care reform, Bill Clinton (on Friday) and President Obama (on Sunday) made mad dashes to Massachusetts to push Coakley over the top and secure the crucial 60th vote in the U.S. Senate.

Obama took a huge gamble, though, personally stumping for Coakley.

Despite his celebrity status from coast-to-coast; his very presence might drive home an anti-Washington sentiment brewing in the country; one that is dissatisfied with the Democratic Party and especially disappointed the president hasn’t rearranged the furniture in Washington like he promised he would do as a candidate. With backroom deals to Ben Nelson of Nebraska (in which the federal government agreed to pick up Nebraska’s tab for the expansion of Medicaid in exchange for his vote); and now another apparent back room deal with labor unions that will shield them from high-end insurance taxes for five years; it must seem to more and more American voters—that nothing has really changed in Washington—only the faces.

On the other hand, should Coakley squeeze out a win on Tuesday, it would be a definite game-changer in that her victory will be attributed to Obama’s 11th hour surge; and more importantly, translated as a referendum on his domestic agenda.

But was it a risk worth taking?

James A. Morone, Chair and Professor of Political Science at Brown University, cautions that if Brown does end up pulling off the upset, the Democrats are in trouble with a capital T.

Morone argues, all things considered, Obama has performed pretty well by the way he’s rallied support for health care reform and cap-and-trade, with an approval rate above 50 percent despite a battered economy.  ``Scott Brown ends all that’’, Morone said. ``And to lose it all now would be one of the greatest examples of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory that I can think of. Truly a historic political disaster.’’

If Brown wins on Tuesday, the Republican Party once thought dead and buried not so long ago-will have new life in knowing if they can win in a Democratic stronghold like Massachusetts—all things are possible.

As Conservative columnist George Will said on ABC’s ``This Week’’ on Sunday``He [Obama] has done more in one year what it took Lyndon Johnson two years (1965-66); which is revitalize the Republican Party.’’

-Bill Lucey
WPLucey@gmail.com

A Roundup of Relief Efforts to Haiti

With the latest death toll estimated to be as high as 50,000 in Haiti, 48 hours after a powerful earthquake ripped through its capital, Port-au-Prince, crushing its infrastructure, leaving bodies submerged in the rubble, and residents without critical electricity, water, and phone service, mayhem, bordering on anarchy, has engulfed this Caribbean state the likes of which it hasn’t witnessed in at least 200 years.

The BBC quoted the director of Port-au-Prince general hospital as saying 1,500 bodies were stacked up inside and outside the mortuary, while wheel barrels of the dead were being dropped off. The New York Times reports 7,000 others have been buried in a mass grave.

Meanwhile, relief efforts worldwide are being put into operation at an accelerated pace.

President Obama has pledged $100 million in emergency aid (more possibly to come later) with 5,500 U.S. troops dispatched to the distressed region.

Most humanitarian international agencies have been raising record amounts of money at lightening speed that will be directed toward relief efforts in Haiti.

In addition the $10 million The American Red Cross has already released, the humanitarian organization received $35 million in donations since the earthquake struck, more than half through online contributions.

According to Eric Porterfield, spokesperson for the Red Cross , ``The response to the emergency in Haiti has been impressive and moving, and the donations to the American Red Cross have exceeded the totals amounts received in the first 48 hours of both Katrina and the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami.''

 Bettina Luescher, chief spokesperson for the World Food Programme, said that they have received $19 million of timely confirmed contributions, which includes $18 million from the United States, $724,000 from Italy, $289,000 from Greece, $200,000 from Luxembourg. ``Food is needed urgently, Luescher said, and we still have substantive needs to fund. ''

The United States Fund for UNICEF has released $3.4 million toward relief efforts but says more funding is needed to provide basic medical and health supplies, family kits/shelter and water hygiene and sanitation supplies.

What follows is a breakdown of other relief agencies, U.S. corporations, and individual countries that have pledged relief to the battered country of the West Indies.

• Walmart operations around the world, along with the Walmart Foundation announced they were donating $500,000 to the Red Cross to their relief efforts in Haiti. Food donations additionally valued at $100,000 will be donated by the discount department store chain.

• Bank of America announced a $1 million commitment to aid the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. The commitment includes a $500,000 grant to the American Red Cross for the Haitian Relief and Development Fund.

• Catholic Relief Services is shipping food and other aid to help families affected by a powerful earthquake. CRS has committed an initial $5 million (US) to help survivors of the devastating quake.

• Direct Relief International has raised $420,000, including sending 40-foot and 20-foot containers containing essential medicine, supplies, and nutritionals.

• Google, the Mountain View, California. Internet search engine company announced on its website that it was donating $1 million to organizations on the ground, those still trapped, while providing clean water, food, medical care, and shelter to UN Organizations and non-governmental organizations.

• Go Daddy, the Scottsdale Ariz. web hosting company sent a $500,000 check to Hope for Haiti, a nonprofit organization based in Naples, Fla, dedicated to improving education, nutrition, and healthcare in Haiti.

• The UPS Foundation has donated $1 millions that will be divided between The American Red Cross, CARE, UNICEF and other organizations; $500,000 in cash and $500,000 of in-kind services for the shipment of needed supplies.

• The General Motors Foundation announced on its website that it has approved $100,000 donation that will be sent to the American Red Cross to help with Haiti’s relief efforts.

• YumiBrands Inc, a restaurant company, based in Louisville Ky, announced it was directing $500,000 from its World Hunger Relief program to provide food for earthquake victims in Haiti.

***

Individual Country Contributions

Private (individuals & organizations) $18,251,893 ($10,000,000 in uncommitted pledges)
Australia: $8,992, 806
Brazil: $5,000,000
Norway: $4,939,341
Netherlands: $2,886,003
Germany: $2, 164, 502
Switzerland: $1,941,748
Denmark: $1, 939,394
Finland: $1,803,752
Italy: $1,548,002
Guyana: $1,000,000
Russian Federation: $700,000
Belgium: $651,876
Japan: $327, 154 ($5,000,000 in uncommitted pledges)
Czech Republic: $288,600
Inter-American Development Bank: $200,000
Greece: $144,300
United Kingdom: $96,476 ($10,000,000 in uncommitted pledges)
Slovenia: $72, 150
Sweden: $61,848
United States: $50,000 ($100,000, 000 in uncommitted pledges)
Bolivia $0
Canada ($4,913,295 in uncommitted pledges)
Caribbean Development Bank ($1,000,000 in uncommitted pledges)
Others: ($121,427,946)
Grand total: $57,234, 845 and $258, 191, 241 in uncommitted pledges.
Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

Haiti Facts
• Over 80 percent of people in Haiti live in abject poverty
• Over half the population lives on less than a dollar a day; 76 percent live on $2 or less per day.
• 81 percent of the national population and 87 percent of the rural population do not get the minimum daily ration of food as defined by the World Health Organization.
• Less than 45 percent of Haitians have access to portable water.
• Life expectancy in Haiti is 53 years-old.
• Only one in every 100,000 Haitians have access to a physician
• More than two-thirds of the population do not have formal jobs
• Telecommunications infrastructure is one of the least developed in Latin America and the Caribbean
• Haiti has one million Internet users.
Source: GlobalSecurity.org, CIA Factbook, Congressional Research Service

Earthquake Quick Facts
• The world's deadliest recorded earthquake took place in China in 1556, killing an estimated 830,000 people
• The largest recorded earthquake worldwide was a magnitude 9.5 in Chile on May 22, 1960
• The largest recorded earthquake in the United States was a magnitude 9.2 that struck Prince William Sound, Alaska on March 28 (Good Friday) 1964
• It's estimated that there are 500,000 detectable earthquakes worldwide each year, 100,000 of those can be felt and 100 of them causing damage.
• Alaska is the most earthquake-prone U.S state, which records a magnitude 7 earthquake almost every year
Source: U.S. Geological Survey.

Relief Organizations:

Save the Children

American Red Cross

World Food Programme

MercyCorps

Doctors Without Borders

International Rescue Committee

UNICEF

CARE

Charity Navigator

Websites to keep in mind:

ReliefWeb

Thomas Reuters Foundation

Humanitarian News and Analysis

U.S. Census Bureau: Earthquake in Haiti

-Bill Lucey
WPLucey@gmail.com

Question Time: Should Obama Sell Health Care British Style?

When discussing health care on ABC’s ``This Week’’ roundtable on Sunday and its chances of success, Liz Cheney weighed-in to say ``what I would like to see is President Obama take some questions…he’s not answering questions, he’s not speaking out…’’

And Cheney might have a point.

If the White House expects Congress to pass this bill before his State of the Union address later this month, there are still lingering questions that have yet to be squared, such as taxpayer funding for abortions, the excise tax (taxing high-cost insurance policies), and why Congress will reconcile the final version of this bill behind closed doors, something Mr. Obama pledged he would never do during the campaign. Even California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, once a solid supporter of health care reform, lashed out recently that the bill has ``become a trough of bribes, deals and loopholes.’’

All the question marks hanging over this bill, is starting to take a heavy toll on the President’s approval rating. A recent CBS News poll shows President Obama’s handling of health care at an all-time low, with only 36 percent of Americans approving of his handling of health care, 54 percent disapproving, while six out of 10 Americans disappointed with both Republican and Democrats management of the bill.

So it occurred to me that President Obama and Congress could have saved themselves some grief had they experimented with the British House of Commons ``Question Time’’ ritual, in which the British Prime Minister, as a member of Parliament, answers questions from members of Parliament every Wednesday.

As most probably know, this time-honored British tradition is broadcast on C-Span every Sunday night. The exchanges are spirited, rowdy, disruptive, with lots of political posturing going on, that cannot be denied, but it does put the Prime Minister front and center of any storms that are gathering force and how his or her government plans to solve it.

In a perfect world, I thought, wouldn’t it be great if President Obama selected a neutral turf, such as Georgetown University, with an open invitation to members of the 111th Congress to show up and ask him any questions they might have about the health care bill. This debate, of course, would be broadcast on C-Span.

Margaret Todd, Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania, thinks the House of Commons ``Question Time’’ shows an intellectual liveliness that is lacking in our American system, but wonders whether any U.S. president would have the courage to meet members of Congress face-to-face and answer their questions. Still, Todd is of the opinion that ``if anyone is sufficiently articulate and quick on his feet to manage it, it would be Obama.’’

Maybe I’m a hopeless dreamer, but if President Obama decided to answer questions from members of Congress, especially on details of the murkier provisions of the health care bill, do you realize the potential upside of such an exchange?

First, since this discussion would be broadcast on C-Span, it answers the White House’s lack of transparency criticism, where viewers would see for themselves how the president confronts any discrepancies, while explaining the merits of the bill.

Secondly, and most importantly, such an open exchange might help sell the package to those members of the American public a bit queasy over the bill,  when they see the president not afraid to step to the plate and answer questions, any question posed by Congress over why this bill shouldn’t be passed. After courageously addressing concerns, doubts, and misgivings about the bill, the president can then tell members of Congress that the ball is now in their court. He did his job, now it’s their turn to pass the bill and extend coverage to more than 30 million Americans.

Linda Colley, Professor of History at Princeton University, isn’t sure that any president would be comfortable in such a setting, but the distinguished British historian does point out that think Prime Minister's ``Question Time’’ does keep the Prime Minister on his or her toes, and demonstrates to the public how much on the ball they are’’

So with the clock ticking on whether this bill passes or dies an untimely death, which would deliver a mighty blow to the Obama administration, I think the ball first must be placed in the White House’s court on how best to sell health care to an uneasy bloc of the American public. A presidential town hall meeting with members of Congress might be the best line of attack, even at this late hour.

At least I’m relieved to know I’m not the only dreamer out there.

David Epstein, Professor of Political Science at Columbia University, tells me that he ``often wished that we could have a tradition like ``Question Time’’ that would allow the kind of back and forth’’. ` But Epstein questions how productive such an exchange would be, since ``we (the United States) place so little value on true debate.’’

Still, Epstein thinks, ``it would be worth a try.’’

-Bill Lucey
WPLucey@gmail.com

Old Man Winter is Back: ``Do You Remember the Blizzard of....?''

For those who are nostalgia buffs, this might be your winter.

According to Accuweather, most of the nation should prepare themselves for the worst winter in 25 years, which might stretch well into March.

The artic cold blasts aren’t even sparing the South. The biting cold weather has led to homeless shelters being filled to capacity in Charlotte, N.C.; while The Miami Herald was reporting temperatures dipping into the 30’s, the coldest weather to hit South Florida in seven years, causing fears among citrus growers that crops might be irreparably damaged.

More cold temperatures will likely hit the Midwest through the weekend with Iowa, Missouri and Illinois predicted to receive 4-6 inches of fresh snow. 6 to 12 inches is expected over the mountains of West Virginia and western Pennsylvania and across northwest Pennsylvania, and southwest New York.

What some observers find alarming is that most of the eastern seaboard of the United States, which is expected to receive another couple inches of snow this weekend, is recording unusually cold temperatures, not experienced since 1985.

However cold it gets this winter; and however much snow blankets our sidewalks, and covers are windshields, let’s just hope and pray we won’t meet anything like the ``Blizzard of 1888’’, the winter in which New York City (with over two million residents) found itself buried in five feet of snow, leaving 400 dead (including all the East Coast), most of whom were buried in head-high snowdrifts.

 What started out as one of the mildest winters on the East Coast in 17 years, turned suddenly violent, beginning on March 11, 1888, when the storm gathered momentum in New Jersey and rain turned into snow as the temperatures took a precipitous drop. The deluge of snow (50 inches) never settled down until March 14th.  The N.Y. Hearld reported ``the only lights to seen up and down a dreary waste of snow are those shone from the comfortable interiors of several saloons that are scattered along Broadway.’’

 In addition to the heavy snow, strong winds had reached 80 miles an hour (129 km); leaving a million residents along the East Coast trapped in their homes. Public transportation was paralyzed, schools were closed for days, and several funerals had to be cancelled, while a number of dead bodies discovered in snow drifts were kept in snow banks in the city.

 One noteworthy bête noire during the ``Blizzard of 1888’’, was writer John Whitaker Watson, who, oddly enough, composed a poem, ``Beautiful Snow’’ in 1887. A Connecticut newspaper offered a five cents reward for Watson’s arrest and conviction. A group from Hartford reportedly strung up the poet’s effigy in front of a hotel and pelted it with snowballs.

In November, 1950, deep snowdrifts battered Northeast Ohio (some referring to it as the ``Great Thanksgiving Storm’’) the worst storm to hit Cleveland in 37 years, a storm which claimed 11 lives in the Greater Cleveland area, 26 statewide. Most of the deaths were attributed to over exertion from shoveling snow.

 Cleveland Mayor Thomas A. Burke declared a state of emergency; while Ohio Governor Frank J. Lausche  called in the National Guard to bring order to the extensive looting taking place citywide with orders to ``shoot to kill’’ as looters made away with bread, milk, meats, baked goods, and liquor. Jewelry stores were also reportedly pillaged; one jewelry merchant claimed a loss of as much as $5,000 in merchandise.

 An equally serious concern was the loss of electricity, especially at St Luke’s Hospital in Cleveland, which was without power on November 25, 1950 from 9:45 a.m until 7 p.m that evening.  The Cleveland Press, the afternoon daily, wasn’t able to put a paper at all; The Plain Dealer, the morning newspaper, however, did manage to publish an eight page news section on November 26th and 27th.

 The storm of 1950 wasn’t limited to Ohio; it spread over 22 states and caused a total of 250 deaths, according to tallies compiled by The Associated Press.

In 1922, a blizzard turned tragic hit the nation’s capital in what became known as the ``Knickerbocker Storm’’, so named when 28 inches of snow caused the roof to collapse on the wood-beamed Knickerbocker Theater in Washington D.C. during the showing of the motion picture ``Get Rich Quick Wallingford’’, killing 98 patrons and injuring 130 others on January 28th.  Altogether, 100 people died from the storm in the D.C. area from January 27 through the 29th.

 New York City was pounded again, the day after Christmas in 1947, when a heap of snow swept in from the Atlantic on December 26th, dumping 25.8 inches; two feet of it came down in 24 hours, causing airports to cancel flights, while the Long Island Rail Road was forced to suspend service later that evening. All told, 80 died from the blizzard, including 55 from the eight Mid-Atlantic States.

New England, too, usually bears the brunt of ``Old Man Winter’’, never more so than in the blustery winter of 1978, when on February 6th and 7th, 29 New Englanders were reported dead and 339 houses destroyed. 27 inches of snow was reported at Logan International Airport with gusts of wind measured as high as 110 miles an hour.

Hockey fans were stranded for three days at the Boston Garden, surviving largely on hot dogs and free coffee; one man was reported dead after leaving his stranded car, just west of Boston; and in other disturbing report, a five-year old girl was washed out to sea by the towering tides in the South Shore suburb of Scituate. All told, Massachusetts and New Hampshire incurred $300 million in damages.

And the one people still talk about, the ``Blizzard of the Century’’ took place in March, 1993, when record snow assaulted the southern Mid-Atlantic States from Alabama to Massachusetts. 170 people were reported dead with property damage as high as $1.6 billion.

Much of Eastern and Southeastern Kentucky was covered with up to 30 inches of snow, making it a record for single day’s snowfall; Syracuse alone received more than three feet of snow; and in Gordon County, Ga, west of Atlanta, 24 carpet mill facilities collapsed, unable to withstand the heavy weight of the snow. 50 tornadoes additionally swept through Florida at one of the worst times, as the Sunshine State will still trying to recover from the ravages of Hurricane Andrew.

The last major snowstorm, not so long ago, was the chilling ``Blizzard of 1996’’ that descended on the eastern United States and was responsible for well over 100 deaths.

The storm began on January 6th and didn’t let up until January 8th. Philadelphia received 31 inches of snow; 27.8 inches fell in Newark, New Jersey; and 14.4 inches in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Snowshoe Mountain Ski Resort in West Virginia, meanwhile, reported receiving 48 inches of snow. Even U.S. government operations in Washington D.C. were closed for a week The ``Blizzard of 1996’’ caused $3 billion in damages and contributed to  187 deaths, according to the meteorology department at Penn State University.

So let’s all just cross our frost bitten fingers that when ``Old Man Winter’’ does decide to make his presence known that he blows right out of town without setting any major records.

-Bill Lucey
WPLucey@gmail.com

If Obama Gets a B+; What Grade Does Eric Mangini Deserve?

Sometime Tuesday on a cold blustery day in Northeast Ohio, Cleveland Browns’ head coach Eric Mangini will know his future.

Will he go; or will he stay? Of course, that’s entirely up to the organization’s new president, Mike Holmgren, who will meet with the Browns coach to decide whether this woeful 5-11 team needs a new leader; or whether he’ll tell Mangini his late-season surge, winning the last four games of the season, including a shocking win over their arch-rival Pittsburgh Steelers, convinced him that he deserves another year to stay put and continue working his magic next season.

One way or another it’s report card time for Mangini.

President Obama, after a year on the job, and leading the nation through a gloomy bank collapse, record unemployment and a housing crisis, thought he managed the domestic hurricane skillfully enough to merit a B+.

Some considered such a high grade a bit too inflated; others thought given what the president was handed when he entered the White House—a B+ is just about right.

Now it’s Mangini’s turn. Similar to Obama, the New York Jets former head coach inherited one holy mess.

When he took over, the Browns had lost 40 games over their last four seasons; they were 0-8 against the Steelers, and failed to make the playoffs under head coach Romeo Crennel. Worse still, the Browns appallingly dropped the last six games of the 2008 season without ever scoring an offensive touchdown.

As the Browns began the 2009 season, there were no lofty expectations like there was after the team finished with a promising 10-6 record in 2007, which prompted the NFL to schedule five nationally televised games in 2008 with the Browns.

There were no such high expectations this year. Far from it. In fact, in its season preview, Sports Illustrated wrote: ``It'll take a Mangenius to fix all the mistakes by the lake.’’

The Plain Dealer sports writers weren’t expecting any miracles either ``2009 will be another tough season for Cleveland Browns’’ read the PD’s headlines on September 12th, 2009, with three of the five writers predicting Cleveland would finish with a 6-10 record.

Obama, remember, by some political scorecards, is being given high marks after a year in which the national unemployment rate is still hovering around 10 percent, housing prices expected to fall another 10 percent in 2010, and in spite of most economists predicting the chance of a robust economic recovery this year slim at best.

So if a president as competent as Barack Obama couldn’t turn a dismal economy around in a year and still earn the support of the majority of Americans, shouldn’t we extend the same kind of patience to a head coach after a season of coaching one of the sorriest franchises in the NFL?

Finishing the season with a 5-11 record, may not look impressive on paper; and maybe it’s not. Mary Kay Cabot, the Browns beat writer for The Plain Dealer gives the head coach a disappointing C.

Still, its practically miraculous how the Browns turned from rags to riches in a blink of an eye, just when fans had given up all hope-including watching playmaker Josh Cribbs sprint the length of the field, not once but twice- first for 100 yards, the next quarter for 103 yards against the Kansas City Chiefs on December 20th, while Jerome Harrison finished the season with three consecutive 100-yard rushing performances, something no Brown has been able to accomplish since 2004.

And Mangini and Co. were able to beat Big Ben and Co. (the Steelers) for the first time since 2003, and keep their rivals from the playoffs.

When pressed by reporters on what his future holds, Mangini said with equanimity that he was proud of the job he and the Browns have done.

I have to agree.

After all, ``it’s not how you start, as the popular expression goes, its how you finish.’’

-Bill Lucey
WPLucey@gmail.com

Recalling a Few New Year's Eve Traditions

Ring out the grief that saps the mind.
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor;
Ring in redress of all mankind.
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manner, purer laws.

``New Year's Eve'' a poem written by Lord Tennyson, 1850

***

The year dismally known as the Great Recession is almost behind us; (or so they say);  let’s hope 2010 is more prosperous, less stressful, with expectations less people lose their homes and more, many more, find new jobs after such a dreadful year.

As we prepare to ring in the New Year, here are a few historic facts we can mull over while waiting for the ball to come down on a wet frigid night at Times Square in New York.

• In medieval times, the beginning of the New Year was celebrated on March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation or Lady Day until Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian Calendar in 1582, a system used to this day which configured the 365 days of the year to accommodate a seven-day week. It wasn't until 1752, however, that England and America recognized this new system.

• The month of January gets its name from the Roman god ``Janus'', or 'Januarus, a god said to have two heads and two sets of eyes, each facing the opposite direction., one looking back the other forward. From this, the New Year tradition of welcoming the future and saying goodbye to the past was conceived.

• The most popular song associated with New Year's Eve ``Auld Lang Syne'' (which translates to ``old long ago''), was originally an anonymous 15th century poem, when it first turned up in a book of Scottish poetry by George Bannatyne under the title ``Auld Kyndness Forgot''. Another version was published in 1711, ``Old Long Syne'' (believed to be Francis Sempill), and in 1724, Allan Ramsay turned it into a song, Auld Lang Syne'' in the "Tea Table Miscella''; before Scottish poet Robert Burns added two verses (3 and 4), which was then published 5 months after his death in 1796 in a collection entitled Scots Musical Museum.

• In 1837, Charles Dickens ruminating on the ringing in the New Year wrote in Sketches by Boz: ``We measure man's life by years, and it is a solemn knell that warns us we have passed another of the landmarks which stand between us the grave. Disguise it as we may, the reflection will force itself on our minds, that when the next bell announces the arrival of a new year, we may be insensible alike of the timely warning we have so often neglected, and all the warm feelings that within us now.''

• Beginning in 1886, members of the Valley Hunt Club decorated their carriages with flowers while parading through the streets of Pasadena, Calif., in celebration of the ripe orange crop, which was then followed by a polo match, a tug of war, or greased pig-catching competition.

• In 1901, after the Tournament of Roses Association created the idea of having a college football game, Michigan and Stanford squared off on the campus of Throop Polytechnic Institute on January 1, 1902. The Wolverines crushed the Cardinals 49-0. It was such a lop-sided game that polo was once again brought back the following year; and from 1904 through 1914, Roman style chariot races were held.
College football returned to stay beginning in 1916.

• The New Year's Eve tradition of sipping champagne at the strike of midnight is thought to have originated with the French

• Another tradition holds that Wassail, a drink served on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, comes from an old Gaelic word meaning "good health.’

• Christmas and New Year's eve prior to dawn of the 20th century were closely linked; so much so that in 19th century New York, legend has it that Santa Claus often arrived on New Year's Eve and would leave by wishing Happy New Year, not Merry Christmas, according to Stephen Nissenbaum, professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts and author of the book, "The Battle for Christmas." ``What's happened over the past 175 or so years is that alcoholic public revelry once associated with the entire season (including Christmas Eve and Day) has become isolated from the rest of the season and is now limited to New Year's Eve.'' Nissenbaum said.

• December 31, 1906 Adolph Ochs, publisher of the New York Times, dropped an illuminated globe from the top of his new building, Times Tower in Times Square on New Year's Eve. This public relations innovation marked the beginning of an annual ritual.

NOTE: The only time the ball didn't drop from Times Square on New Year's Eve (since 1907) were two years during World War II: 1942 and 1943 due to a wartime dim-out.

• December 31, 1929: Guy Lombardo, age 37, and his band, the Royal Canadians make their debut at the Roosevelt Hotel Grill in New York City, a two-tiered room with a second dance floor while reviving ``Auld Lang Syne; and from that point on, it becomes America's signature song on New Year's Eve. The venue would become a mainstay until the Roosevelt closed in 1959; and Lombardo and the Royal Canadians moved to the Waldorf Astoria.

• December 31, 1948: CBS broadcast's the first televised presentation of a New Year's Eve celebration from Times Square.

• December 31, 1972: For the first time in television history, Guy Lombardo has competition on New Year's Eve, when NBC and Dick Clark, the worlds oldest teenager, debut with New Year's Rockin’ Eve with guests the Three Dog Night, Blood Sweat and Tears, Billy Preston, Al Green, and Helen Reddy.

• December 31, 1976: Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians perform on New Year's eve for the final time; he died November 5, 1977 age 77 from kidney and heart failure.

December 31, 1995: The New Year's Eve ball in Times Square for the first time goes high tech, when a laser lowers the ball, replacing the six man crew using a pulley.

-Bill Lucey
WPLucey@gmail.com