THROWBACK THURSDAY

We now have two candidates for President of the United States as the campaign season begins to heat up. It's 9 months until the first primary election and 19 months until the general election but I guess it's never too early to begin boring the electorate with speeches and campaign commercials.

It took me back, on this Throwback Thursday, to 1968. President Lyndon Johnson had announced that he would not run for another term. His Vice President, Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, then announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination. He did visit Bismarck, North Dakota, where I was news director of a radio and television combine but the picture I have of interviewing him is so faded that I can't reproduce it here.

But I did find a photo of me interviewing Humphrey's son Hubert Horatio Humphrey III,who went by the nickname of Skip. (In Googling him I learned that he gave one of his children the family monicker, making him HHH the Fourth. He went by the nickname of Buck!)

Anyway, Skip and his attractive wife came to Bismarck campaigning for his father and I interviewed him in the North Dakota Governor's mansion.

The older Humphrey did win the Democratic nomination for President that year but, unfortunately, was defeated in the general election by Richard Nixon.

Skip went on to a fairly illustrious career in Minnesota politics, serving as the state's Attorney General for many years but lost his bid for governor to an independent candidate, the former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura.

I went on to other adventures.

JOHN MCCAIN

I have lived in Arizona, off and on since 1972, for a total of 34 years.  So, being 72 years old, and never having lived anywhere else for as long as 34 years . . I consider myself an Arizonan.  But I have to say this: my state's senior U.S. Senator is an angry old man who ought to retire.  76 year old John McCain appears to have never gotten over being drubbed by Barack Obama in his presidential run four years ago.  It seems he picks fights with the President at every opportunity.  Frankly I am sick of seeing his scowling face on my television screen as he delivers another screed.  

Currently he and his buddy from South Carolina, Senator Lindsay Graham, have said they want a Watergate-style investigation of the attack in Benghazi, Libya that took the life of Ambassador Chris Stevens and two other Americans.  The not-so-dynamic duo have also come out saying they absolutely will do everything in their power to prevent Susan Rice from becoming the next Secretary of State because of her early statements about the Benghazi attack.

President Obama, at his news conference today, addressed the McCain and Graham attacks on Rice, saying . . . if they want to pick a fight let them pick it with me.

Numerous administration officials have said repeatedly that Ms. Rice made her statements based on what was known at the time.  She did not, as Graham and McCain would have it, lie to the American people.

But I have wandered.  I realize that up until this election, Arizona has been a reliably conservative Republican state in the last few years.  But I also heard the pundits this year who said Arizona will be a swing state by 2016.  Coincidentally that will be the year we will see if the then 80 year old McCain will run for reelection once again.  For the sake of my sanity, I certainly hope not.

Today's Gratuitous Critter picture reminds me of McCain's scowling glare.

THE GOOD OLD DAYS

Every once in awhile I start thinking about days gone by.  My pal, Tom Cochrun who writes the blog Light Breezes and I worked together for a few years back in the late 60's/early 70's.  Here's how Tom looked when I first met him at WIBC Radio in Indianapolis.

Sort of looks like a Latin salsa musician, doesn't he?

Okay, just to make it up to him, here's how I looked in the previous year.

This was taken in Miami Beach at the 1968 Republican National Convention.  I don't remember who the guy on the left was but he has a look on his face as if he's thinking "Oh, god, here I am covering an important political convention and I have my picture taken with this bozo in a Nehru jacket!"

Well, Tom and I covered a lot of politics in our days in broadcasting.  But this year's Republican primaries so far make me just a bit envious of the Chuck Todd's and the Jake Tapper's of today's news circus.  Seems to me like they're having way too much fun.  But then I remember the hours spent every day, the lack of sleep, the occasional hangovers, the lousy food, and I'm glad all I have to do is read about it in the newspapers and watch it on t.v. 

IT'S ALL POLITICS

Yesterday being off-year election day in America I thought we should have some politics on Oddball Observations today.

And then there's . . .

Hope you didn't forget to vote!

Potpourri

Rumor on the street is that Prescott Newspapers Inc., which prints and publishes the Daily Courier in Prescott and several weekly papers around the immediate area, has laid off 90 employees recently. No confirmation yet but it would not be surprising considering the problems in the industry, the shrinking size of the Courier and the news-stretching going on there. Half a page of new baby pictures? C'mon!

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Prescott restaurant operator Barry Barbe has put down a rumor that he's closing his tapas restaurant El Gato Azul. He says next year he may close it for the winter season because the tiny place with a larger outdoor patio is more of a summer restaurant. But he insists it is successful.

Barbe also operates 129-1/2 An American Jazz Grille and has a new interesting looking lunch menu.

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President-elect Barack Obama tells NBC's John Harwood he's going to try to hang onto his Blackberry, in spite of protests from the Secret Service and Washington lawyers. He also seemed embarassed by questions about his shirtless photos in Hawaii while on his recent vacation.

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Vice-president Dick Cheney told Mark Hollinger of CBS that he's really a warm, lovable sort. He also denies that he called the shots in the White House, saying President George W. Bush always was in charge. I don't know. I just read the Cheney bio Angler and there seems to be too much evidence to the contrary.

Of course there's that old line about politicians: how do you tell when they're lying? If their lips are moving.

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In Cleveland: Blagojevich headed for impeachment.

In Washington: Burris headed for the Senate.

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Addendum:

Granny J has been kind enough to point out, gently, that Cleveland is in Ohio while the Blagojevich impeachment trial is being held in Illinois, where he is the embattled governor (temporarily). Which is to explain why this is being written in the same color as my face. Sorry, Cleveland.