A Supportive Message to the President, from a Non-Obama Voter

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At President Obama’s post-election press conference today he delivered some opening remarks on the recovering economy and what he believes we should to do ramp up the pace of economic improvement. At the end of this statement, before opening the floor to questions, he read from an email sent to him at the White House after the election had been been decided last week. The writer was Steve Wise of Brentwood, TN, and the entire letter’s been posted on whitehouse.gov. As I invite you to read below, Mr. Wise did not vote for the president. However, he is supportive of him now that it’s clear he’ll be serving another term. What’s most notable is that his message is well-meant, not at all vituperative. He’s what Congressional Republicans are not. I can see why President Obama picked this message to read today, out of what I’m sure were the many thousands sent to the White House last week.

Thank you for your email, Mr. Wise, and your good heart. H/T @jearnest44 whose post of this on Twitter, retweeted by @Froomkin, was the first time I saw it.

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Shields & Brooks, Decent to President Obama this Friday

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Wow, for the first time in months I found the Friday night commentary of Shields & Brooks on the PBS NewsHour fair and reasonable toward President Obama. They weren’t so carping and snarky as usual.

One remarkable piece of information: Mark Shields reported that an Obama campaign staffer told him that following President Obama’s emotional remarks at Chicago campaign HQs, video of which I featured here last night, the president shook hands with and greeted all 700 staffers.

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When Books Take Center Stage in Current Events

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Perhaps because my tutelage in the media world began as as a bookstore owner, it’s been a long time since I’ve been surprise when an author and his or her book lands in the center of a swirl of current events. The latest connection between the book world and current events is the revelation, as reported tonight by Richard Engel on NBC, that the woman with whom David Petraeus had the affair prompting his resignation today as DCIA is his biographer. Her name is Paula Broadwell and in January 2012 Penguin Press published her book  All IN: The Education of General David Petraeus. Last week, she published a piece drawn from the book, in the Daily Beast, as pointed out by Josh Marshall on Twitter.

The romantic link between Petraeus and his biographer, reported by Fred Kaplan of Slate among others, is pretty stunning. If a spy novelist presented me with that plot point in a thriller I’d question its plausibility. On the other hand, there’s something so human–but also predictably tawdry–about a writer being seduced, taken in, by her subject. Yet, there are times when it works differently, so perhaps this is the other way around.  Writers like Janet Malcolm are known for so closely examining their subjects that they are able to write intimate portraits of their biographical subjects, far more revealing than their willing subjects ever imagined or intended.

Please note post below, “NBC’s Richard Engel, on the Petraeus Resignation.” I will continue following the Petraeus story, and the frequent intersection of the book world and current events.

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NBC’s Richard Engel, on the Petraeus Resignation

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Regarding David Petraeus’s abrupt resignation as DCIA, NBC’s Richard Engel just reported on Hardball that the FBI is investigating, and possibly involved is a female biographer of the General, Paula Broadwell. He speculated that agents may be looking at whether Broadwell may have had improper access to classified material Petraeus failed to secure. Over at TPM, one reader with knowledge of national security law, writes to Josh Marshall that Petreaus’s security clearance would have been yanked immediately, and thus made impossible his status as Director. If or when I get a link to Engel’s reporting or this TV appearance, I’ll share it here.

H/T Martha Moran and Chris Kerr for bringing aspects of the Petraeus story to my attention, including this New Yorker blog post by Amy Davidson, linking Petraeus and Benghazi.

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Inspirational Video of the President Meeting with His Campaign Staff

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This is a great piece of video taken Wednesday when President Obama visited his Chicago campaign headquarters to thank staff for all their devotion and hard work. Moving stuff.

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Take that Sheldon Adelson!

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Via TPM, most Jewish voters found Romney’s rhetoric about Israel, the United States and Iran, and that of his surrogates, completely unpersuasive. The president got 70% of Jewish voters, a slight shift down from 2008, but Romney managed only 30%! Can the media now stop shouting for a while about this topic, and enabling shouters like Rudy Giuliani, whose campaign excesses this time were egregious, even for him. It’s remarkable how much of Romney’s attacking rhetoric against the president was unavailing.

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Grateful

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Grateful, relieved, happy, and hopeful for so many things, a handful of them below:

1) Grateful that our president will be returned to office with the support of a majority of the nation’s voters; that so many progressive women will be serving in the Senate; and that marriage equality has been affirmed on the east coast and the west coast.

2) Relieved that the policies and cohort of the challenger won’t be installed in the White House.

3) Happy that I was able to lend my support to the Obama campaign with some phone banking (not as much as in 2008, though I still made some calls); that I connected with the Obama Campaign’s digital outreach staff, especially Teddy Goff and Erica Sackin, and was able to inform this blog with their informed content; and that the curation and writing of this blog spread accurate information and motivating commentary about the campaign to a widening circle of readers and sharers. Thanks to all.

4) Hopeful that four more years of President Obama’s astute leadership will heal our economy with more opportunities for all; nurture civil and human rights; and lead to more global understanding.

As this first day after the 2012 election goes along, I may have more items to list, but for now these will suffice. As always, thank you for subscribing, reading, and sharing from The Great Gray Bridge. If you care to, please share some things for which you are grateful, relieved, happy, and/or hopeful in the comments field below.

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