Friday Follies: 5 Most Embarrassing Presidential Moments

George HW Bush throws up on Japanese Prime Minister:

In January 1992, while at a formal dinner in Japan, then president George Bush became ill, vomiting on the Prime Minister of Japan, Kiichi Miyazawa, then fainting. Earlier in the evening, Bush had told his physician he was feeling unwell. This all happened at a presidential news conference and dinner in Tokyo. It was later famously parodied by Dana Carvey on Saturday Night Live.

3 and 1/2 Reasons Republicans Should Be Glad They Lost

Okay, my Republican Friends: enough with the predictions of gloom and doom.  What Would Reagan Do, people?  Reagan wouldn't talk about the country being awful these days, and he wouldn't despair.  Let's try to find the bright side here, folks.  And there really is one.  Three and a half, even.

Seriously, Grover.

1. The Game of Tax-Raising Chicken Can End.  A.K.A. Grover K. Norquist: will you please go now?


Grover Norquist (founder of Americans for Tax Reform or ATR) has been holding the Republican Party hostage for years now.  He's bullied almost all Republicans running for any national office to sign his no-raising-taxes-ever pledge.


And then he puts together a highly-biased yearly rating based on his own estimation of what votes should count as "raising taxes" and which should not.  He threatens legislators with rating given votes in his yearly tally.  And he has been very successful in keeping Rs in his line...

3 Ways Romney Is Worse Than W, and 1 Way They Are Both Lame

Yes, I mean it.  Romney is worse than W.


Last night was a good night for fans of the President.  But there was a question asked in the debate that underscored something I've been thinking about a lot lately: how are you (Mitt Romney) different than George W. Bush?  Romney prattled on about how he was better on trade (I doubt it), while the President talked about immigration and Medicare (referring to Medicare Part D, presumably).  But this is a larger and more important story than those answers give you.

Better than Romney?

Long-time readers will remember that a few months back I made the claim that George H.W. Bush is underrated.  I still think that.

But let's look at some of the ways that even George W. Bush was better than Mitt Romney.

Empathy and Politics: See Me, Feel Me, Touch Me, Heal Me

I've been thinking a lot about empathy lately.

The subtext of this campaign seems - to me - to be about empathy, in two ways.


1. Empathy and Likability.

Yes, empathy is often considered a girly emotion (in a dismissive way), but I'm going to posit that what pollsters are testing when they talk about "likability" is actually largely a measure of a candidate's actual or perceived ability to empathize with other people.


Take Bubba.

Classic, textbook empath.  He "feels your pain."  He could read a phone book and sound interesting because he would stop and tell you stories about the people and businesses as he read their names and addresses.   

Scandals that would fell other politicians barely leave a dent on Bubba.  People get mad at him for his policies or actions, he says stupid things on occasion, but in the end he pulls out a speech or an interview and most people remember why they like him.  He understands people.  He understands how to explain complex policies to people, he understands what people are thinking.  He's empathic. 

(Grammatical note: I'm using "empathic" differently than "empathetic," because of the extra meaning of empathic to describe a person who "is very in tune with the feelings of others," rather than "of or related to empathy" - for which I'll use "empathetic.")

And that quality leads to large likability numbers, which rebound after an appropriate time whenever he faces criticism.