They took a story that was going to be laugh lines for late-night comedians and turned it into a front-page story. There was something in their attitude there that I think is going to have a lingering effect, about how a certain arrogance seemed to have crept into the White House complex.
Stephen Hess
The presidency is a huge echo chamber magnifying every little thing he does.
echo presidency thing
That showed me he'll carry loyalty to a point - which is part of what presidents do
presidents loyalty part
I didn't think much of it at the time.. [but while] other people are burning flags, burning buildings and shooting each other, what the Joint Chiefs did is almost an object lesson in democracy. I would have thought at the time they got too hot under the collar.
people time thought democracy lesson burning hot shooting
The president looks across the cabinet table at the vice president and has to realize, 'The only reason he's there is in case I die.
reason president die vice realize
The party needs him and, for all I know, the nation needs him. There hasn't been an African-American Democrat who has had an appeal broadly beyond his ethnic group.
african-american nation party
He helped himself marginally. He gave a little backbone to a small percentage of wavering Republicans. But I don't think it had any effect on others he didn't have with him in the first place.
small place effect republicans
Had this been handled expeditiously, quickly, it might have been a story on the style page, or limited to the late night comedians and the cartoonists. There's simply no question they fumbled this one.
style story night question
attitude story arrogance laugh complex effect white house
Cindy Sheehan had one glorious shining moment and she took advantage of it and the peace movement took advantage of her as it created the attention that the movement hadn't had previously.
peace moment attention movement
If she had just gone home I think she would have been remembered importantly, but she didn't just go home.
home
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