​Correct The Record Wednesday October 22, 2014 Afternoon Roundup

From:burns.strider@americanbridge.org To: CTRFriendsFamily@americanbridge.org Date: 2014-10-22 15:51 Subject: ​Correct The Record Wednesday October 22, 2014 Afternoon Roundup

*​**Correct The Record Wednesday October 22, 2014 Afternoon Roundup:* *Headlines:* *Mediaite: WSJ Reporter: Hillary’s 2016 ‘Family’ Theme Will Suffer from ‘Drama’ <http://www.mediaite.com/print/wsj-reporter-hillarys-2016-family-theme-will-suffer-from-lewinsky-drama/>* "Nicholas’ theory is a new one. A bad one, but new nonetheless." *Washington Post Opinion: A call to action from ‘Patient Zero’ <http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ruth-marcus-patient-zero-monica-lewinsky-goes-public-against-cyberbullying/2014/10/21/593a20fc-5951-11e4-b812-38518ae74c67_story.html?hpid=z7>* "...Patient Zero” claim is more than a little overblown." *San House Mercury News Opinion: Eugene Robinson: The case for Warren to run for president <http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_26777614/eugene-robinson-case-warren-run-president>* “The Massachusetts Democrat has become the brightest ideological and rhetorical light in a party whose prospects are dimmed by -- to use a word Jimmy Carter never uttered -- malaise. Her weekend swing through Colorado, Minnesota and Iowa to rally the faithful displayed something no other potential contender for the 2016 presidential nomination, including Hillary Clinton, seems able to present: a message.” *People Magazine: An Early Halloween Fright for Wall St.: Elizabeth Warren for Treasury Secretary? <http://www.people.com/article/elizabeth-warren-interview-youtube-treasury-secretary-hillary-clinton>* “So, if not chief executive, how would Warren feel about being Treasury Secretary under a President Hillary Clinton? Warren belts out a big, Clinton-caliber belly laugh. ‘Well, THAT'S a fun thought!’” *The Hill: Jay Leno: Bill Clinton era was ‘golden age of comedy’ <http://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/221450-jay-leno-bill-clinton-era-was-golden-age-of-comedy>* “The veteran comic says two potential 2016 contenders could give comedy a boost in the coming years. ‘It’s got to be fun getting that Bush/Clinton back together again,’ Leno told us, apparently referring to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) and Hillary Clinton.” *Articles:* *Mediaite: WSJ Reporter: Hillary’s 2016 ‘Family’ Theme Will Suffer from ‘Drama’ <http://www.mediaite.com/print/wsj-reporter-hillarys-2016-family-theme-will-suffer-from-lewinsky-drama/>* By Eddie Scarry October 22, 2014 10:27 a.m. EDT It’s nearly universally accepted that should former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton run for president in 2016, the affair between her ex-president husband and Monica Lewinsky will be rehashed, especially now that Lewinsky is publicly speaking about it. It’s also nearly universally accepted that the icky details might hurt Clinton because they’re embarrassing and nobody looks good when they’re faced with embarrassing details from their past.Wall Street Journal White House reporter Peter Nicholas has another theory, though: “Is this trouble for the Clintons? Could it complicate Hillary Clinton‘s likely presidential bid?” he asks in a Wednesday blog post at the Journal. “Yes — though not for reasons you might think.” Do tell! *Family will be a major theme in a Clinton presidential bid. She is advancing policy ideas aimed at fortifying families who are struggling in a tough economy.* *With Ms. Lewinsky back on the scene, voters are inevitably reminded of the drama and stresses in Mrs. Clinton’s own family.* According to Nicholas, it’s not the embarrassment of the affair itself that will hurt Hillary. It’s that family history that includes an extramarital affair is simply incompatible with a campaign centered on policies to financially advance other families. That’s like saying should Vice President Joe Biden decide to run in 2016, a campaign theme involving kids from broken homes own’t work because his own son liked cocaine. Nicholas’ theory is a new one. A bad one, but new nonetheless. The Lewinsky affair won’t help Hillary. But — and this might be going out on a limb — she’s probably okay to campaign on financially helping families if she wants to. *Washington Post: A call to action from ‘Patient Zero’ <http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ruth-marcus-patient-zero-monica-lewinsky-goes-public-against-cyberbullying/2014/10/21/593a20fc-5951-11e4-b812-38518ae74c67_story.html?hpid=z7>* By Ruth Marcus October 21, 2014 8:47 p.m. EDT Monica Lewinsky is trying to make lemonade out of 16-year-old lemons. Good for her, and good, ultimately, for us. Not so good, of course, for Hillary Clinton’s nascent presidential campaign, but not fatal either. Lewinsky’s decision to reemerge as a public figure, this time committed to alleviating the scourge of cyberbullying, is awkward. Still, it is inevitable, even without Lewinsky front and center, that Bill Clinton’s deplorable conduct in office will come up as a topic during his wife’s campaign, assuming she gets to the general election this time. The earlier it’s talked about, the more old-newsy the whole mess will seem by the time Clinton’s opponents try to make it relevant. In the meantime, Lewinsky is making an important point about the role of the Internet and accompanying modern technology as an accelerant in the destruction of personal reputation and the associated harm caused by online exposure. “Overnight, I went from being a completely private figure to a publicly humiliated one. I was Patient Zero,” Lewinsky said in a speech Monday to Forbes’s Under 30 Summit in Philadelphia. “The first person to have their reputation completely destroyed worldwide via the Internet.” Lewinsky’s “Patient Zero” claim is more than a little overblown. Even without the medium of the Internet, without the Drudge Report to break the news on the Web or dial-up connections to let readers access the Starr report in all its detail, the story would have emerged, and it would have been huge. Ask Donna Rice and Gary Hart. As Matt Bai has recently reminded us, Hart’s presidential campaign was instantaneously destroyed and Rice’s name became a household word, back when a mouse was a rodent and blog was a typo. “Somehow, political and personal lives had collided overnight to create what was, in hindsight, the first modern political scandal, with all the attendant satellite trucks and saturation coverage and hourly turns in the narrative that Kafka himself could not have dreamed up,” Bai writes in his book “All the Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid.” In truth, politics has always had its tabloid aspect. Grover Cleveland’s critics chanted “Ma, Ma, where’s my pa?” referring to an illegitimate child during the 1884 presidential campaign. And reputations have always been susceptible to overnight ruin. But Lewinsky is also correct when she says that “the experience of shame and humiliation online is different than offline. There is no way to wrap your mind around where the humiliation ends — there are no borders.” She described how it felt “to watch yourself — or your name and likeness — be ripped apart online . . . For me, that was every day in 1998. There was a rotation of worsening name-calling and descriptions of me. I would go online, read in a paper or see on TV people referring to me as: tramp, slut, whore, tart, bimbo, floozy, even spy. The New York Post’s Page Six took to calling me, almost daily, the Portly Pepperpot. I was shattered.” This is where Lewinsky’s effort can be most helpful. Few of us, thankfully, will be subjected to a Lewinsky-level public shaming. But many of us, and many of our children, will suffer the cyber slings and arrows of Internet-enabled humiliation and abuse. Since Lewinsky’s moment, the mechanisms for humiliation and the venues for abuse have multiplied. Imagine Linda Tripp with a webcam and smartphone. Imagine the episode in the age of Twitter and Facebook. Lewinsky says she was moved to come forward by the experience of Rutgers freshman Tyler Clementi, who committed suicide after his roommate secretly taped and streamed video of Clementi kissing another man. “Having survived myself, what I want to do now is help other victims of the shame game survive too,” Lewinsky said. “What we need is a radical change in attitudes — on the Internet, mobile platforms and in the society of which they are a part.” Indeed, the response to Lewinsky’s speech — and to her decision, either courageous or foolhardy, to join Twitter — only serves to underscore the ugliness she decries. “#HereWeGo,” Lewinsky wrote in her maiden tweet, and so the Twitterverse did, in all its predictable coarseness. If Lewinsky’s solution to this “compassion deficit” feels unformed — well, she’s not the only one who is struggling with how to re-civilize society. Simply going public may be Lewinsky’s greatest service. A parent trying to comfort a teenager victimized by cyberbullies can point to Lewinsky and say: If she can survive, so can you. *San House Mercury News Opinion: Eugene Robinson: The case for Warren to run for president <http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_26777614/eugene-robinson-case-warren-run-president>* By Eugene Robinson October 22, 2014 10:13 a.m. PDT WASHINGTON -- Sen. Elizabeth Warren says she isn't running for president. At this rate, however, she may have to. The Massachusetts Democrat has become the brightest ideological and rhetorical light in a party whose prospects are dimmed by -- to use a word Jimmy Carter never uttered -- malaise. Her weekend swing through Colorado, Minnesota and Iowa to rally the faithful displayed something no other potential contender for the 2016 presidential nomination, including Hillary Clinton, seems able to present: a message. "We can go through the list over and over, but at the end of every line is this: Republicans believe this country should work for those who are rich, those who are powerful, those who can hire armies of lobbyists and lawyers," she saidFriday in Englewood, Colo. "I will tell you we can whimper about it, we can whine about it or we can fight back. I'm here with (Sen.) Mark Udall so we can fight back." Warren was making her second visit to the state in two months because Udall's re-election race against Republican Cory Gardner is what Dan Rather used to call "tight as a tick." If Democrats are to keep their majority in the Senate, the party's base must break with form and turn out in large numbers for a midterm election. Voters won't do this unless somebody gives them a reason. Warren may be that somebody. Her grand theme is economic inequality and her critique, both populist and progressive, includes a searing indictment of Wall Street. Liberals eat it up. "The game is rigged, and the Republicans rigged it," she said Saturday at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn. The line drew a huge ovation -- as did mention of legislation she has sponsored to allow students to refinance their student loans. Later, Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn. -- a rare Democratic incumbent who is expected to cruise to re-election next month -- gave a heartfelt, if less-than-original, assessment of Warren's performance: "She's a rock star." In these appearances, Warren talks about comprehensive immigration reform, support for same-sex marriage, the need to raise the minimum wage, abortion rights and contraception -- a list of red-button issues at which she jabs and pokes with enthusiasm. The centerpiece, though, is her progressive analysis of how bad decisions in Washington have allowed powerful interests to re-engineer the financial system so that it serves the wealthy and well-connected, not the middle class. On Sunday, Warren was in Des Moines, Iowa, campaigning for Democrat Bruce Braley, who faces Republican Joni Ernst in another of those tick-tight Senate races. It may be sheer coincidence that Warren chose the first-in-the-nation nominating caucus state to deliver what The Des Moines Register called a "passion-filled liberal stemwinder." There once was consensus on the need for government investment in areas such as education and infrastructure that produced long-term dividends, she said. "Here's the amazing thing: It worked. It absolutely worked." But starting in the 1980s, she said, Republicans took the country in a different direction, beginning with the decision to "fire the cops on Wall Street." "They called it deregulation," Warren said, "but what it really meant was: Have at 'em, boys. They were saying, in effect, to the biggest financial institutions, any way you can trick or trap or fool anybody into signing anything, man, you can just rake in the profits." She went on to say that "Republicans, man, they ought to be wearing a T-shirt. ... The T-shirt should say, 'I got mine. The rest of you are on your own.'" The core issue in all the Senate races, she said, is this: "Who does the government work for? Does it work just for millionaires, just for the billionaires, just for those who have armies of lobbyists and lawyers, or does it work for the people?" So far this year, Warren has published a memoir, "A Fighting Chance," that tells of her working-class roots, her family's economic struggles, her rise to become a Harvard Law School professor and a U.S. senator, and, yes, her distant Native American ancestry. She has emerged as her party's go-to speaker for connecting with young voters. She has honed a stump speech with a clear and focused message, a host of applause lines and a stirring call to action. She's not running for president apparently because everyone assumes the nomination is Clinton's. But everyone was making that same assumption eight years ago, and we know what happened. If the choice is between inspiration and inevitability, Warren may be forced to change her plans. Eugene Robinson is a Washington Post columnist. *People Magazine: An Early Halloween Fright for Wall St.: Elizabeth Warren for Treasury Secretary? <http://www.people.com/article/elizabeth-warren-interview-youtube-treasury-secretary-hillary-clinton>* By Sandra Sobieraj Westfall October 22, 2014 11:50 a.m. EDT Millions have viewed her now-famous C-SPAN snippets on YouTube with tantalizing – for Senate hearings – titles like "Elizabeth Warren EMBARRASSES Bank Regulators at First Hearing," or "Elizabeth Warren: Classic Takedown…" and supporters are already lining up to back an "Elizabeth Warren for President" campaign in 2016. But is the freshman senator from Massachusetts herself on board with a run for the White House? Warren wrinkles her nose. "I don't think so," she tells PEOPLE in an interview conducted at Warren's Cambridge, Massachusetts, home for this week's issue. "If there's any lesson I've learned in the last five years, it's don't be so sure about what lies ahead. There are amazing doors that could open." She just doesn't see the door of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue being one of them. Not yet, anyway. "Right now," Warren says, "I'm focused on figuring out what else I can do from this spot" in the U.S. Senate. The former Harvard Law School professor whose aggressive oversight of the financial industry after the 2008 economic meltdown not only won her a national reputation as watchdog for average Americans and swept her into national office in 2012, but turned her into an Internet sensation. But when she reviews the clips herself, Warren second-guesses whether she's being tough enough. "I watch and think, 'Damn! I should have gotten that question a little sharper,' " she admits with a laugh. But all that makes for click-bait on YouTube also makes her a lightning rod on Wall Street. "They're scared to death of Elizabeth Warren because she knows not only how banks operate, but she knows all about anti-trust law," says Tufts University political science professor Jeffrey Berry. So, if not chief executive, how would Warren feel about being Treasury Secretary under a President Hillary Clinton? Warren belts out a big, Clinton-caliber belly laugh. "Well, THAT'S a fun thought!" As for Clinton, Warren says of the two women's relationship: "We have talked. It's not much more than that. Not much more." *The Hill: Jay Leno: Bill Clinton era was ‘golden age of comedy’ <http://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/221450-jay-leno-bill-clinton-era-was-golden-age-of-comedy>* By Judy Kurtz October 22, 2014 12:45 p.m. EDT For Jay Leno, nothing tops “men behaving badly” jokes. Or 4,000 of them. Leno made more than 4,600 jokes about former President Clinton — more than any other public figure — during his tenure as host of the “The Tonight Show,” according to a study conducted earlier this year. “That was the golden age of comedy,” Leno told ITK on Sunday, as he was honored in Washington with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. “Men behaving badly is the best, because nobody’s dying. It’s not a 9/11,” Leno told us when we asked about Clinton, who became the topic du jour in 1998, when news broke of his sex scandal with Monica Lewinsky. “There’s nothing funnier than that. Plus, all the hypocrisy that goes with that.” “I think every comedian will probably tell you they did more jokes about that than almost any subject, because it was perfect,” Leno said. The 64-year-old comic, who stepped down from his 22-year late-night gig in February, explained, “Drunken pilot not on the plane: hilarious. Drunken pilot on the plane: not really funny at all. … And it’s the same thing with this. Nobody died. Nobody was injured. So it’s good fodder.” Leno told nearly 1,000 more jokes about Clinton than he did about former President George W. Bush, who came in second on a list of his top political joke targets compiled by the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University. Former Vice President Gore, President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rounded out the top five. Leno says he’s met Bill Clinton “many times,” and the ex-commander in chief never expressed any displeasure about being a favorite punch line. “He’s got a pretty thick skin,” Leno says, although, “I’m sure he didn’t appreciate all of them.” The veteran comic says two potential 2016 contenders could give comedy a boost in the coming years. “It’s got to be fun getting that Bush/Clinton back together again,” Leno told us, apparently referring to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) and Hillary Clinton. “That’ll be fantastic,” he grinned.