The Gipper had several secrets to keeping his movie star good looks, like going for the youthful wet look and skipping the conspicuous hair dye.
One of the most intriguing secrets that former President Ronald Reagan took with him to his grave was whether he dyed his midnight-black hair. We now have the answer from his former image-maker, Michael Deaver, whose own oral history of the Gipper was kept under lock and key until he died in 2007, three years after Reagan. The skinny: "He never dyed his hair," said Deaver in his recorded recollections, which were just released by the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs.
Deaver revealed that for years doubters thought Reagan's hair was touched up, even sneaking into barbershops to steal his locks to confirm their suspicions. The reason people thought it was dyed, Deaver said, was that through his career and early presidency, Reagan's hair was full, tall, and shiny. The secret to his silver-screen good looks: a little dab of Brylcreem, the men's hair pomade. "He had that wet look, and when I finally got the Brylcreem away from him, people stopped writing about him dying his hair. It was the Brylcreem," Deaver told UVA's Ronald Reagan Oral History Project.
Of course, Reagan knew exactly what he was doing because, even more than Deaver, he was a master image-maker. And apparently nothing earned his attention more than his head. Deaver recalled how people would always remark on how tall and broad-shouldered Reagan was when, in fact, he was just six-feet tall. And, Deaver added, "he had a little head." Reagan had a movie studio trick to make up for it. His shirts were made with an oversized collar. "Well," Deaver recalled Reagan explaining, "they told me in Hollywood that if I had a wide spread up here [in his collar], it would make my head look larger on my shoulders."
Another time, when Reagan was governor of California and visiting New York, Deaver arrived at Reagan's room to rush him to a meeting. Nancy Reagan directed Deaver to the bathroom where Reagan was combing his hair. "It was all wet, and he had it parted, and he had combed it down over his forehead before he combed it up. Honest to God, it just shocked the hell out of me because it was like the portrait of Dorian Gray. This was when he was 60-something, you know—he looked 80 years old."
But the more he watched Reagan whip that comb through his hair, the more Deaver noticed how much younger Reagan looked. "I never realized how much your face is changed when you comb your hair up in that pompadour," he told Reagan, who replied: "Oh yes, it takes all the lines right out of my face."
US News
Monday, September 20, 2010
O'Donnell Makes Light of Witchcraft Comment
LINCOLN, Del. — Republican Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell is making light of comments she made more than a decade ago about having dabbled in witchcraft when she was in high school.
"How many of you didn't hang out with questionable folks in high school?" she asked fellow Republicans at a GOP picnic in southern Delaware on Sunday.
Click here to find out more!
"There's been no witchcraft since. If there was, Karl Rove would be a supporter now," O'Donnell jokingly assured the crowd.
Rove, the former GOP strategist and adviser to President George W. Bush, has suggested that O'Donnell's win in last week's GOP primary cost Republicans a chance to retake the Senate seat long held by Democrat Joe Biden before he was elected vice president.
O'Donnell, a conservative Christian activist, rode a surging tide of tea party activism to an upset victory over GOP moderate Michael Castle, Delaware's longtime congressman and former two-term governor. She faces Democratic county executive Chris Coons in November.
O'Donnell's comments about witchcraft were made during a 1999 taping of comedian Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrect" show.
"I dabbled into witchcraft. I never joined a coven," she said on the show, a clip of which hit the Internet as O'Donnell canceled Sunday appearances on two national news shows, citing commitments to attend church and the GOP picnic in Delaware.
"I hung around people who were doing these things. I'm not making this stuff up. I know what they told me they do," O'Donnell told Maher.
"One of my first dates with a witch was on a satanic altar, and I didn't know it. I mean, there's little blood there and stuff like that," she said. "We went to a movie and then had a little midnight picnic on a satanic altar."
Russ Murphy, executive director of the 9-12 Delaware Patriots, a group that joined in the tea party effort to propel O'Donnell to Tuesday's primary victory, said the focus on her comments about witchcraft was just another attempt by pundits and political opponents to discredit her.
"They're going to be pulling for straws from the sky to do anything to stop this momentum, and they don't realize it's not going to work," he said.
O'Donnell's victory in the primary came after a bruising campaign in which her supporters and Castle's, led by state GOP chairman Tom Ross, traded attack ads, with Ross saying O'Donnell was a liar and a fraud who couldn't be elected dogcatcher.
Ross did not attend Sunday's Sussex County Republican Committee picnic. Sussex County GOP chairman Ron Sams said Ross was in Washington trying to drum up support from the national GOP campaign committees.
Despite her improbable primary victory, O'Donnell sounded upbeat about her chances in November.
"We're going to win this by uniting the party," she told supporters. "I'm very confident that we're going to win this election."
US News
"How many of you didn't hang out with questionable folks in high school?" she asked fellow Republicans at a GOP picnic in southern Delaware on Sunday.
Click here to find out more!
"There's been no witchcraft since. If there was, Karl Rove would be a supporter now," O'Donnell jokingly assured the crowd.
Rove, the former GOP strategist and adviser to President George W. Bush, has suggested that O'Donnell's win in last week's GOP primary cost Republicans a chance to retake the Senate seat long held by Democrat Joe Biden before he was elected vice president.
O'Donnell, a conservative Christian activist, rode a surging tide of tea party activism to an upset victory over GOP moderate Michael Castle, Delaware's longtime congressman and former two-term governor. She faces Democratic county executive Chris Coons in November.
O'Donnell's comments about witchcraft were made during a 1999 taping of comedian Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrect" show.
"I dabbled into witchcraft. I never joined a coven," she said on the show, a clip of which hit the Internet as O'Donnell canceled Sunday appearances on two national news shows, citing commitments to attend church and the GOP picnic in Delaware.
"I hung around people who were doing these things. I'm not making this stuff up. I know what they told me they do," O'Donnell told Maher.
"One of my first dates with a witch was on a satanic altar, and I didn't know it. I mean, there's little blood there and stuff like that," she said. "We went to a movie and then had a little midnight picnic on a satanic altar."
Russ Murphy, executive director of the 9-12 Delaware Patriots, a group that joined in the tea party effort to propel O'Donnell to Tuesday's primary victory, said the focus on her comments about witchcraft was just another attempt by pundits and political opponents to discredit her.
"They're going to be pulling for straws from the sky to do anything to stop this momentum, and they don't realize it's not going to work," he said.
O'Donnell's victory in the primary came after a bruising campaign in which her supporters and Castle's, led by state GOP chairman Tom Ross, traded attack ads, with Ross saying O'Donnell was a liar and a fraud who couldn't be elected dogcatcher.
Ross did not attend Sunday's Sussex County Republican Committee picnic. Sussex County GOP chairman Ron Sams said Ross was in Washington trying to drum up support from the national GOP campaign committees.
Despite her improbable primary victory, O'Donnell sounded upbeat about her chances in November.
"We're going to win this by uniting the party," she told supporters. "I'm very confident that we're going to win this election."
US News
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Unapologetic Jim DeMint Spurring GOP Infighting
WASHINGTON — Sen. Jim DeMint proudly recalls the moment he became a thorn in the side of the Republican establishment.
In the gloomy weeks following the party's throttling in the 2008 elections, the first-term South Carolina senator urged GOP leaders to shake up the seniority rules that he felt were perpetuating a broken culture of parochial spending within the party.
Click here to find out more!
"I was told eye-to-eye ... 'DeMint, you can't change the Senate,'" he said in an interview in his Capitol Hill office this week. "I said, 'Well, we'll see.' And that's been my challenge ever since."
Two years later, DeMint has done as much as anybody to incite the tea party uprising and bitter infighting that has roiled GOP primaries this year. He's used a newfound political celebrity and resulting fundraising strength to fuel a string of upstart conservatives who were opposed by the party as too extreme or unelectable. He's burned bridges, infuriated party leaders and helped defeat some of his colleagues in the traditionally tight-knit Senate.
He's also become one of the more influential Republican power brokers in Washington, an unlikely leader with a loyal following of conservative activists and a goal of purging the party of what he calls weak-kneed Republicans.
"Some of my establishment friends are not real happy with me," DeMint told a wildly supportive audience Friday at the conservative Values Voter Summit in Washington. "It's got a lot of people here in Washington scared."
The sometimes blunt former advertising executive is not one for small talk or backslapping. Diplomacy is not his strong suit, although his mom once ran a school of dance and decorum out of his boyhood home in Greenville, S.C.
He's been in Washington for a decade — he also served six years in the House — but claims to not even like politics. He largely avoids the cameras and regularly turns down appearances on Sunday talk shows. He says he had at one time decided to give up his seat after this year, forgoing an all-but-certain re-election.
That was until his frustrations boiled over and he decided to challenge the status quo, forming a fundraising committee with the idea of highlighting candidates he considers true conservatives, and calling out those he doesn't. His Senate Conservatives Fund ranks his colleagues on their positions, often with unflattering scores.
DeMint calls the Bush years embarrassing, saying he knew the party would lose power in 2006 when it drove up spending and debt even though it controlled both chambers of Congress and George W. Bush was in the White House.
"We betrayed the trust of the American people, and I don't want to be a part of a majority that does that again," he said.
That's why he's not concerned that the candidates he's helped catapult to primary victories might lose in the general election. He says he'd rather be in the minority than an unprincipled majority.
He's given more than $3 million to upstart campaigns. While he has some losses, he has often been more prescient than his party in picking winners, providing early backing to underdogs such as Marco Rubio in Florida, Rand Paul in Kentucky and Ken Buck in Colorado.
His latest and most hostile feud with the party machine came in Delaware, where DeMint openly fought with Republican leaders in a contest between moderate Republican Rep. Michael Castle and tea party favorite Christine O'Donnell. While Republican leaders openly attacked O'Donnell's campaign — the state party chairman called her a fraud who couldn't get elected dogcatcher — DeMint gave her money and a key endorsement.
She pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the year, just after another stunning result in Alaska in which underdog Joe Miller beat Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
While Democrats welcome running against so many unconventional candidates, many of DeMint's fellow Republicans view him with skepticism, questioning his motivations or criticizing his strategy. None would speak on the record about a fellow senator but behind the scenes are angry that he has so willingly helped divide the party and jeopardized a prime opportunity for the GOP to retake the majority.
DeMint's South Carolina colleague, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, said he admires what DeMint has accomplished but questioned the argument that a hardline minority is better than a big-tent majority.
"To really be in charge up here matters; 50 senators is a lot better than 49," Graham said. "At the end of the day it's a math problem. If you want to repeal Obamacare, you gotta have the votes."
DeMint maintains that the only way for Republicans to regain the majority is to stand more firmly by its beliefs, not to shy away from them, even if that means short-term losses.
He faces token opposition in November from surprise Democratic nominee Alvin Greene, freeing him to focus on national ambitions.
DeMint, who turned 59 earlier this month, insists he has no interest in leadership or higher office. He says he would rather be back home in Greenville writing, sailing and working in advertising or advocacy.
At the same time, he seems genuinely surprised that his crusade has gained so much traction, and curious as to where it might lead.
"I didn't expect it to get this big," he said.
US News
In the gloomy weeks following the party's throttling in the 2008 elections, the first-term South Carolina senator urged GOP leaders to shake up the seniority rules that he felt were perpetuating a broken culture of parochial spending within the party.
Click here to find out more!
"I was told eye-to-eye ... 'DeMint, you can't change the Senate,'" he said in an interview in his Capitol Hill office this week. "I said, 'Well, we'll see.' And that's been my challenge ever since."
Two years later, DeMint has done as much as anybody to incite the tea party uprising and bitter infighting that has roiled GOP primaries this year. He's used a newfound political celebrity and resulting fundraising strength to fuel a string of upstart conservatives who were opposed by the party as too extreme or unelectable. He's burned bridges, infuriated party leaders and helped defeat some of his colleagues in the traditionally tight-knit Senate.
He's also become one of the more influential Republican power brokers in Washington, an unlikely leader with a loyal following of conservative activists and a goal of purging the party of what he calls weak-kneed Republicans.
"Some of my establishment friends are not real happy with me," DeMint told a wildly supportive audience Friday at the conservative Values Voter Summit in Washington. "It's got a lot of people here in Washington scared."
The sometimes blunt former advertising executive is not one for small talk or backslapping. Diplomacy is not his strong suit, although his mom once ran a school of dance and decorum out of his boyhood home in Greenville, S.C.
He's been in Washington for a decade — he also served six years in the House — but claims to not even like politics. He largely avoids the cameras and regularly turns down appearances on Sunday talk shows. He says he had at one time decided to give up his seat after this year, forgoing an all-but-certain re-election.
That was until his frustrations boiled over and he decided to challenge the status quo, forming a fundraising committee with the idea of highlighting candidates he considers true conservatives, and calling out those he doesn't. His Senate Conservatives Fund ranks his colleagues on their positions, often with unflattering scores.
DeMint calls the Bush years embarrassing, saying he knew the party would lose power in 2006 when it drove up spending and debt even though it controlled both chambers of Congress and George W. Bush was in the White House.
"We betrayed the trust of the American people, and I don't want to be a part of a majority that does that again," he said.
That's why he's not concerned that the candidates he's helped catapult to primary victories might lose in the general election. He says he'd rather be in the minority than an unprincipled majority.
He's given more than $3 million to upstart campaigns. While he has some losses, he has often been more prescient than his party in picking winners, providing early backing to underdogs such as Marco Rubio in Florida, Rand Paul in Kentucky and Ken Buck in Colorado.
His latest and most hostile feud with the party machine came in Delaware, where DeMint openly fought with Republican leaders in a contest between moderate Republican Rep. Michael Castle and tea party favorite Christine O'Donnell. While Republican leaders openly attacked O'Donnell's campaign — the state party chairman called her a fraud who couldn't get elected dogcatcher — DeMint gave her money and a key endorsement.
She pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the year, just after another stunning result in Alaska in which underdog Joe Miller beat Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
While Democrats welcome running against so many unconventional candidates, many of DeMint's fellow Republicans view him with skepticism, questioning his motivations or criticizing his strategy. None would speak on the record about a fellow senator but behind the scenes are angry that he has so willingly helped divide the party and jeopardized a prime opportunity for the GOP to retake the majority.
DeMint's South Carolina colleague, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, said he admires what DeMint has accomplished but questioned the argument that a hardline minority is better than a big-tent majority.
"To really be in charge up here matters; 50 senators is a lot better than 49," Graham said. "At the end of the day it's a math problem. If you want to repeal Obamacare, you gotta have the votes."
DeMint maintains that the only way for Republicans to regain the majority is to stand more firmly by its beliefs, not to shy away from them, even if that means short-term losses.
He faces token opposition in November from surprise Democratic nominee Alvin Greene, freeing him to focus on national ambitions.
DeMint, who turned 59 earlier this month, insists he has no interest in leadership or higher office. He says he would rather be back home in Greenville writing, sailing and working in advertising or advocacy.
At the same time, he seems genuinely surprised that his crusade has gained so much traction, and curious as to where it might lead.
"I didn't expect it to get this big," he said.
US News
Zogby: Polling Shows "Small Bump" In Obama Approval Ratings
Pollster John Zogby updates our weekly Obama Report Card with a grade on the president's performance. Zogby uses his polling, expert analysis and interaction with major players to come up with a grade and some comments that capture how he sees the president's week ending.
John Zogby on Week 87:
"The larger dynamics of the midterm elections have not have changed, but at least the president and his party may have begun shifting things in a more positive direction. By directly taking on the GOP leadership (particularly would-be House Speaker John Boehner), Obama is getting the attention of a Democratic base that has longed for him to come out fighting. Democrats have the Republicans off-balance on tax cuts. If the Democrats stand united in extending middle class relief while ending tax breaks on income above $250,000, they might force the GOP to choose between blocking the whole package or giving Obama a popular legislative win right before the election. And Republican primary voters continue helping the Democrats, this time choosing Tea Party favorite Christine O'Donnell over Rep. Mike Castle in the Delaware Senate race, who would have been a sure winner in November. Finally, our polling showed a small bump in Obama's approval."
This week's grade: C+
Last week's: C-
John Zogby is president and CEO of Zogby International, a public opinion, research, and business solutions firm with experience working in more than 70 countries around the globe. Founded and led by Zogby since 1984, Zogby International specializes in telephone, Internet, and face-to-face survey research and analysis for corporate, political, nonprofit, and governmental clients. The firm is headquartered in Utica, N.Y. John Zogby is also the author of The Way Well Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream (Random House).
US News
John Zogby on Week 87:
"The larger dynamics of the midterm elections have not have changed, but at least the president and his party may have begun shifting things in a more positive direction. By directly taking on the GOP leadership (particularly would-be House Speaker John Boehner), Obama is getting the attention of a Democratic base that has longed for him to come out fighting. Democrats have the Republicans off-balance on tax cuts. If the Democrats stand united in extending middle class relief while ending tax breaks on income above $250,000, they might force the GOP to choose between blocking the whole package or giving Obama a popular legislative win right before the election. And Republican primary voters continue helping the Democrats, this time choosing Tea Party favorite Christine O'Donnell over Rep. Mike Castle in the Delaware Senate race, who would have been a sure winner in November. Finally, our polling showed a small bump in Obama's approval."
This week's grade: C+
Last week's: C-
John Zogby is president and CEO of Zogby International, a public opinion, research, and business solutions firm with experience working in more than 70 countries around the globe. Founded and led by Zogby since 1984, Zogby International specializes in telephone, Internet, and face-to-face survey research and analysis for corporate, political, nonprofit, and governmental clients. The firm is headquartered in Utica, N.Y. John Zogby is also the author of The Way Well Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream (Random House).
US News
Janet Napolitano Amused by Drudge's 'Big Sis' Nickname
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is "amused" at her Drudge Report moniker "Big Sis," she told reporters in Washington Friday afternoon. "I've made it," the Secretary said with a grin in response to a reporter's question. "Drudge has a nickname for me."
The popular news aggregation Web site has routinely christened Napolitano Big Sis, particularly when referencing stories dealing with privacy concerns surrounding Department of Homeland Security programs. Recent stories about Transportation Security Agency body scanners, for instance, have featured the Big Sis naming convention. It's presumably a veiled reference to Big Brother in George Orwell's dystopian police state novel 1984.
US News
The popular news aggregation Web site has routinely christened Napolitano Big Sis, particularly when referencing stories dealing with privacy concerns surrounding Department of Homeland Security programs. Recent stories about Transportation Security Agency body scanners, for instance, have featured the Big Sis naming convention. It's presumably a veiled reference to Big Brother in George Orwell's dystopian police state novel 1984.
US News
No Personal Attacks: Christine O'Donnell Opens Fall Campaign
WILMINGTON, Del. — Tea party favorite Christine O'Donnell fended off jabs from her Democratic Senate rival about her experience Thursday, meeting him at a candidate forum absent the acrimony that overshadowed her upset primary win over a former governor.
Click here to find out more!
O'Donnell, who defeated former governor and veteran U.S. Rep Michael Castle in a bitter Republican primary Tuesday, met opponent Chris Coons at a standing-room only event that ushers in the fall campaign in a nationally watched U.S. Senate race.
Coons declared in his opening statement at the Wilmington forum that Delaware's next U.S. senator should be somebody who is prepared and has concrete ideas.
O'Donnell, who came under withering criticism from Castle and the state GOP — whose chairman said she couldn't be elected dogcatcher — said her goal was for voters to get to know her between now and November.
"It's no secret that there's been a rather unflattering portrait of me painted these days," said O'Donnell, who was criticized by GOP officials for lying about her background, leaving a trail of unpaid bills that included an IRS tax lien and a mortgage default and misusing campaign contributions
for personal expenses.
Coons and O'Donnell focused on such issues as national security and health care reform but there was none of the pointed rhetoric and personal attacks that made the O'Donnell-Castle primary a slugfest.
"I can't tell you how refreshing it is to have an opponent who wants to talk about the issues, so I thank you for that gentlemanly approach," O'Donnell told Coons.
But at one point, midway, when the moderator read an audience question to O'Donnell about her views on government and private sexual behavior, someone in the audience shouted: "It's personal!" That drew a nod from O'Donnell.
"Yes, I have my personal beliefs," said O'Donnell, who stepped into the public spotlight in the 1990s as a conservative activist speaking out against abortion, homosexuality and premarital sex.
For his part, Coons said Delaware residents are interested in what candidates will do to create jobs, reduce the national debt and fix what he called a broken political system in Washington.
"I don't they're particularly interested in statements that either of us made 20 or 30 years ago," said Coons, who has been targeted by Republicans for an article he wrote for his college newspaper as a 21-year-old student that was entitled "Chris Coons: The Making of a Bearded Marxist."
US News
Click here to find out more!
O'Donnell, who defeated former governor and veteran U.S. Rep Michael Castle in a bitter Republican primary Tuesday, met opponent Chris Coons at a standing-room only event that ushers in the fall campaign in a nationally watched U.S. Senate race.
Coons declared in his opening statement at the Wilmington forum that Delaware's next U.S. senator should be somebody who is prepared and has concrete ideas.
O'Donnell, who came under withering criticism from Castle and the state GOP — whose chairman said she couldn't be elected dogcatcher — said her goal was for voters to get to know her between now and November.
"It's no secret that there's been a rather unflattering portrait of me painted these days," said O'Donnell, who was criticized by GOP officials for lying about her background, leaving a trail of unpaid bills that included an IRS tax lien and a mortgage default and misusing campaign contributions
for personal expenses.
Coons and O'Donnell focused on such issues as national security and health care reform but there was none of the pointed rhetoric and personal attacks that made the O'Donnell-Castle primary a slugfest.
"I can't tell you how refreshing it is to have an opponent who wants to talk about the issues, so I thank you for that gentlemanly approach," O'Donnell told Coons.
But at one point, midway, when the moderator read an audience question to O'Donnell about her views on government and private sexual behavior, someone in the audience shouted: "It's personal!" That drew a nod from O'Donnell.
"Yes, I have my personal beliefs," said O'Donnell, who stepped into the public spotlight in the 1990s as a conservative activist speaking out against abortion, homosexuality and premarital sex.
For his part, Coons said Delaware residents are interested in what candidates will do to create jobs, reduce the national debt and fix what he called a broken political system in Washington.
"I don't they're particularly interested in statements that either of us made 20 or 30 years ago," said Coons, who has been targeted by Republicans for an article he wrote for his college newspaper as a 21-year-old student that was entitled "Chris Coons: The Making of a Bearded Marxist."
US News
CNN's John King Gives John Kasich Some Fact-Checking Help
John King doesn't call his CNN news show "John King, USA" for nothing. He really is everywhere, not just chained to his desk in Washington. And this week his drive to cover the nation proved beneficial to front-running Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate John Kasich, accused by a Democratic blogger of making up sappy stories about downtrodden Ohioans he plans to help.
The scene is Tuesday night's Ohio gubernatorial debate between Kasich and Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, who trails the Republican by 17 percent in the latest Quinnipiac poll. At the end of the debate, Kasich told the story of a couple he met at a Bob Evans restaurant—one of the Republican's regular stops--who were balancing their family budget after both of the couple's jobs were downscaled.
To Democratic blogger and critic Anthony Fossaceca of the OhioDailyBlog, the whole thing sounded made up. He wrote:
It is a crying shame that tonight's gubernatorial debate wasn't mandatory viewing for all Ohioans. Had they been forced to watch, they'd have seen a shallow Republican candidate grasping at straws time and time again. They'd have also witnessed the lamest, most cliche closing in debate history. John Kasich told the story of one of the saddest days of his life, as he just happened to be in an undisclosed Bob Evans, eating an undisclosed meal (probably Sausage Gravy or Pumpkin Supreme Pie), when he noticed an Ohio couple balancing their household budget on the back of a napkin. (Yeah, I know...) Legend has it they immediately brushed aside their steaming hot cups of coffee to shake the hand of the wealthy man stopping to interrupt them while they were eating.
He added: "Like much of tonight's debate, the words coming out of John Kasich's mouth were fiction. They aren't true tonight. They weren't true when they were brainstormed over the weekend. And they won't ring true when voters dismiss his candidacy this November. (In fact, someone please send me a photo of the Ohio couple in the Bob Evans with the napkin and I'll personally apologize to Congressman Kasich the next time I'm at his country club)."
Well John King did. Following the debate and the blogger's assault, King did a story on the race and revealed that he and a video crew were with Kasich when he met that couple at Bob Evans. "There they are right there," King said while showing his viewers the video. "He did talk to this couple."
After his story aired, blogger Fossaceca posted his apology and the King story under the headline, "CNN Confirms: I Am A Dumba**." (Though his headline didn't use *s.)
With a backhanded flip, he wrote: "CNN ran a fact-checking piece on a story we wrote Tuesday night and, lo and behold, I was apparently (kinda) wrong. Turns out, John Kasich was actually at a Bob Evans recently. And he actually talked to people there. And two of them actually were working on their household budget. And CNN just happened to have video of it. D'oh! Now, after a year or so of listening to one story after another coming out of John Kasich's mouth, you can't blame me for being cynical or suspect of everything this guy says. He was a Wall Street insider for crying out loud. But this time (while he obviously distorted and enhanced his story a bit--and CNN points that out as well) he was still more-or-less repeating something that kind of actually happened. For that, he gets a one day pass here at OhioDaily. And, as promised, he will get a personal apology from me. At his country club. The next time I'm there. (I'll wait quietly for the invitation and the guest pass)."
We caught up with Kasich spokesman Scott Milburn who told us that the campaign makes so many stops at Bob Evans restaurants they simply call them "Bob's." He said, "Chicken-and-noodles at Bob's is almost a food group for the campaign. I think all the Bob's in Ohio are programmed into the Garmin, but it wouldn't matter because John knows where most of them are anyway."
US News
The scene is Tuesday night's Ohio gubernatorial debate between Kasich and Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, who trails the Republican by 17 percent in the latest Quinnipiac poll. At the end of the debate, Kasich told the story of a couple he met at a Bob Evans restaurant—one of the Republican's regular stops--who were balancing their family budget after both of the couple's jobs were downscaled.
To Democratic blogger and critic Anthony Fossaceca of the OhioDailyBlog, the whole thing sounded made up. He wrote:
It is a crying shame that tonight's gubernatorial debate wasn't mandatory viewing for all Ohioans. Had they been forced to watch, they'd have seen a shallow Republican candidate grasping at straws time and time again. They'd have also witnessed the lamest, most cliche closing in debate history. John Kasich told the story of one of the saddest days of his life, as he just happened to be in an undisclosed Bob Evans, eating an undisclosed meal (probably Sausage Gravy or Pumpkin Supreme Pie), when he noticed an Ohio couple balancing their household budget on the back of a napkin. (Yeah, I know...) Legend has it they immediately brushed aside their steaming hot cups of coffee to shake the hand of the wealthy man stopping to interrupt them while they were eating.
He added: "Like much of tonight's debate, the words coming out of John Kasich's mouth were fiction. They aren't true tonight. They weren't true when they were brainstormed over the weekend. And they won't ring true when voters dismiss his candidacy this November. (In fact, someone please send me a photo of the Ohio couple in the Bob Evans with the napkin and I'll personally apologize to Congressman Kasich the next time I'm at his country club)."
Well John King did. Following the debate and the blogger's assault, King did a story on the race and revealed that he and a video crew were with Kasich when he met that couple at Bob Evans. "There they are right there," King said while showing his viewers the video. "He did talk to this couple."
After his story aired, blogger Fossaceca posted his apology and the King story under the headline, "CNN Confirms: I Am A Dumba**." (Though his headline didn't use *s.)
With a backhanded flip, he wrote: "CNN ran a fact-checking piece on a story we wrote Tuesday night and, lo and behold, I was apparently (kinda) wrong. Turns out, John Kasich was actually at a Bob Evans recently. And he actually talked to people there. And two of them actually were working on their household budget. And CNN just happened to have video of it. D'oh! Now, after a year or so of listening to one story after another coming out of John Kasich's mouth, you can't blame me for being cynical or suspect of everything this guy says. He was a Wall Street insider for crying out loud. But this time (while he obviously distorted and enhanced his story a bit--and CNN points that out as well) he was still more-or-less repeating something that kind of actually happened. For that, he gets a one day pass here at OhioDaily. And, as promised, he will get a personal apology from me. At his country club. The next time I'm there. (I'll wait quietly for the invitation and the guest pass)."
We caught up with Kasich spokesman Scott Milburn who told us that the campaign makes so many stops at Bob Evans restaurants they simply call them "Bob's." He said, "Chicken-and-noodles at Bob's is almost a food group for the campaign. I think all the Bob's in Ohio are programmed into the Garmin, but it wouldn't matter because John knows where most of them are anyway."
US News
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