"It used to be said that no one runs for vice president. Gerald Pomper exposed the fallacy of that old dictum in his 1966 article, The Nomination of Hubert Humphrey for Vice-President , which recounted the steps Humphrey took to position himself to be selected for the second spot on Lyndon B. Johnson’s ticket in 1964. Most vice presidential campaigns remained relatively short and obscure in those days because, absent a situation like 1964 where a known presidential nominee had a vice presidential opening, no one really focused on the second spot until after the presidential nomination was decided at the convention. That pattern remained for another cycle or two after 1964 until the change to a new presidential nominating system, based on primaries and caucuses, accelerated the selection of presidential candidates and created the current vice presidential selection season, which runs for two to five months every leap year. Certainly, no one observing the behavior of various Republican politicians this year would assert that no one runs for vice president. Many are clearly auditioning, either to be Gov. Mitt Romney’s running mate in 2012, his successor in 2016, or both ...One of the myths that has gained credence this year is that vice presidential selections should not be exciting. 'The first lesson is that vice presidential picks should be boring,' wrote prominent historian Julian Zelizer in an early column. Others have echoed that theme. The 'Boring VP' chorus reacts in part to Sen. John McCain’s effort to ignite his campaign by choosing an exciting, but unpresidential, running mate. Professor Zelizer’s point was largely that a running mate should be substantial. But the fact that vice presidential candidates should be substantial doesn’t mean they also must be boring. Some effective vice presidential choices have been substantial and exciting, perhaps not exciting in the Kardashian or Jon Bon Jovi fashion, but politically exciting nonetheless." (SabatosCrystalBall)
"Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said this week that President Obama never made a sincere effort to reach out to him after the 2008 election. McCain was once seen as a potential ally of Obama. But far from becoming a partner — as the left hoped for and the right feared — McCain has turned into one of Obama’s thorniest adversaries. Let’s get real here,' McCain told The Hill. 'There was never any outreach from President Obama or anyone in his administration to me.' McCain disputes the notion that he has rejected entreaties to cooperate with the White House because he is bitter from his defeat four years ago.He said he expressed eagerness to work with the president on immigration reform and the line-item veto, but has been left out in the cold.McCain, the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee, also said Obama failed to consult with him on national-security issues. 'He never asked for advice on national-security nominees,' McCain said. Some Republicans thought the Arizona Republican would emerge as a bipartisan dealmaker who could help Obama achieve his goal of bringing Democrats and Republicans together to address major policy problems.In a 2009 op-ed, former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) described McCain as Obama’s 'ace in the hole.'Santorum’s analysis seemed prescient when Obama honored McCain at a candlelight dinner before taking the oath of office. McCain, however, said the gesture was not backed up by actions." (TheHill)
"The criticism over her efforts to land a job and university placement for a top press aide to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad won’t stop Barbara Walters from making waves at ABC about staying at the very top of the news doyenne tree. Sources say Walters was 'notamused'when Katie Couric was chosen by news chiefs to do the interview with British PrincesWilliam and Harry for the Diamond Jubilee earlier this month, and one source said she “made sure ABC News bosses knew the interview should have been hers.'But publicly Barbara only has glowing praise for Couric. She told us, 'total baloney. I always have been a strong supporter of Katie’s and have said she reminds me of me.” (PageSix)
"Last night The Huffington Post held a garden party to celebrate the launch of its new iPad magazine, 'Huffington.' FishbowlNY was there at the Gramercy Park Hotel rooftop bar, along with a few hundred of Arianna Huffington‘s friends, staffers and a few famous faces. We spotted Huffington Post Media Group editorial director Howard Fineman, Huffington Post editor Roy Sekoff, HuffPost’s Pulitzer Prize winning reporter David Wood and NBC News president Steve Capus in the crowd, among other well-dressed and well-heeled guests. Huffington and Tim O’Brien, who is overseeing the venture for the company, made brief remarks." (FishbowlNY)
"I went down to Michael’s, surprise surprise. It was to lunch with Mary Horner whom as you may have read a few weeks ago, I had a kind of reunion lunch with, and an old friend of hers whom I had never met but had heard much about, Midge Richardson who was editor-in-chief for 18 years of Seventeen magazine. Midge who has been retired for sometime, was there when the magazine was the property of Enid Haupt (after whom the Conservatory at the New York Botanical is named) ... Michael’s rez list reflected the midtown traffic: Peter Brown, Desiree Gruber, Nikki Haskell, Gillian Tett – the brilliant managing editor of the American edition of the Financial Times. Gillian’s frequent financial column is the only one in the mainstream media that is really about The Way Things Are and What Exactly Are We (NOT) Doing About It. She has a very leveling, and incisive voice. She started out life as an anthropologist, not an economics major; maybe that’s way ...Last night, John Demsey hosted a book party for his friend Cornelia Guest at his East Side townhouse. John is one of the great welcoming hosts of the fashion/media/young social world of New York. Soft-spoken, unassuming in presence, people love going to John’s house because it’s a home, up close and personal and comfy. Incidentally, between his and Cornelia’s guest lists, the place was jammed and I never saw John. I don’t even know if John was there. Among those I saw moving through quickly (with another reception on the calendar too): were Boatie Boatwright, Jill Brook, Chris and Grace Meigher, Carolina and Reinaldo Herrera, Aileen Mehle, Todd Romano, Leslie Stevens, William Ivey Long, Eleni and Randall Gianopoulos, Mark Gilbertson, Iris Love, Leonard Lauder, Christina Green Gerry, Alexis Graham, the most dapper Hassan el Garrahy – Hassan to thousands of New Yorkers and Euro-New Yorkers– of Bar Italia and Orsay, and his beautiful wife; and what seemed like a cast of thousands upstairs and down." (NYSocialDiary)
"One evening in late March, the entrepreneur H. Christopher Whittle found himself in a large conference room in Renda Fuzhong, an elite Chinese academy in Beijing’s Haidian district, rattling off his pitch for Avenues, the bilingual for-profit New York preparatory school set to open in September in a former warehouse building on 10th Avenue in Chelsea. istening intently to the presentation were 20 Renda ninth-graders who were already committed to Avenues in the fall and about 100 parents and grandparents. Mr. Whittle explained that a decade hence, Avenues: the World School would comprise an international network of 20 academies, serving K through 12, spanning the globe from Doha to Moscow, and Mexico City to Johannesburg. Every student in the network will have an “automatic transfer right” to any other school—whether to expand his or her own educational horizons or due to the globe-trotting habits of their parents. (In that sense, it’s a little like a pedagogic timeshare, offering an array of comfortable home bases to the next generation of rootless cosmopolitans.) He talked about the intense competition for Ivy League spots, and how it would only get worse. And he talked about the spectacular new facility taking shape beside the High Line." (Observer)
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