Analogies: Clinton v. Nixon | Newsweek Scope

DIPLOMACY
No, Really, You Shouldn’t Have
Katie Connolly 3/28/2009 12:00:00 AM
In the world of international diplomacy, small missteps can cause big problems. When George W. Bush gave German Chancellor Angela Merkel a quick shoulder rub—in what he thought was a friendly gesture—he was mercilessly pilloried for weeks. Hillary Clinton's embrace of Suha Arafat dogged her for years. One of the most important tests of a globe-trotting president: picking out just the right gift for your foreign counterpart. Barack Obama is learning this the hard way.
THE TRANSITION
Life With The Secret Service
Katie Paul 11/13/2008 12:00:00 AM
How would you feel if a frowning man in dark sunglasses and wires in his ears grabbed the back of your pants every time you walked into a crowd? That's just one of many less-than-enjoyable aspects of presidential life that the Obama family have been living with, ever since they were christened with their recently-released official Secret Service code names: Renegade (Barack), Renaissance (Michelle), Radiance (Malia), and Rosebud (Sasha).
CAMPAIGN 2008
It’s Not Easy Bein’ Blue
Jon Meacham 10/18/2008 12:00:00 AM
It was a grand evening. On Thursday, Dec. 5, 1985, at the Plaza Hotel, William F. Buckley Jr. rose to toast the president of the United States on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of National Review. Charlton Heston was the master of ceremonies; the audience included William J. Casey, Nancy Kissinger, Roy Cohn and Tom Selleck. Thirteen months earlier Ronald Reagan had been re-elected, carrying every state in the Union except Walter Mondale's Minnesota. "As an individual you incarnate American ideals at many levels," Buckley said to the president. "As the final responsible authority, in any hour of great challenge, we depend on you." Buckley was 19 when America dropped the bomb at Hiroshima, he said, and he had just turned 60. "During the interval I have lived a free man in a free and sovereign country, and this only because we have husbanded a nuclear deterrent, and made clear our disposition to use it if necessary. I pray that my son, when he is 60, and your son, when he is 60 … will live in a world from which the great ugliness that has scarred our century has passed. Enjoying their freedoms, they will be grateful that, at the threatened nightfall, the blood of their fathers ran strong."
The Secret Conversation
Eleanor Clift 6/13/2008 12:00:00 AM
We won't know until long after it matters what transpired between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama when they met secretly after the last primaries. But having just seen a brilliant production of "Nixon's Nixon" at Washington's Round House Theater, elaborating on Henry Kissinger's private meeting in the White House with President Nixon on the eve of his resignation, I have a newfound appreciation for the usefulness of literary license to fill the vacuum until history fills in the facts. Kissinger never discussed what went on between the two men, leaving lots of room for conjecture.
CAPITAL SOURCES
Record Revelations
Daniel Stone 3/24/2008 12:00:00 AM
Aside from the obvious, one of the factors making Hillary Clinton's presidential run so historic is her behind-the-scenes role in another administration: her husband's. Last week a lawsuit from the government watchdog group Judicial Watch compelled the release of more than 10,000 pages of Clinton's schedule as First Lady between 1993 and 2000. The group is now pressing for more, citing the 1978 Presidential Records Act that requires executive branch records to be released within 12 years.
THE ENDGAME
Out and Down
Suzanne Smalley
When does reality—not just the political, but the personal—finally penetrate the emotions of a losing presidential candidate? For Hillary Clinton, it was not last Tuesday night. She had just given a semi-defiant non-concession speech to Barack Obama and had repaired to the 14th floor at Baruch College in Manhattan, where the bar was open and her big money people were milling about, half-watching the cable talk shows on large flat-screen TVs. As CNN's Jeffrey Toobin described "the deranged narcissism of the Clintons," many of the Hillaryites muttered about the press. "A lot of the women, and not just the women, were very emotional about how she'd been treated during the campaign, the sexism, and wanted her not to yield," Clinton's national finance co-chair, Mark Aronchick, recalled to NEWSWEEK. Aronchick says he told the candidate that she needed to get on Obama's ticket. Hillary did not respond, but she seemed calm and grateful for all the support. "She was patting her heart, listening very closely, taking it in," says Aronchick. Hillary's husband "was walking around chewing on a cigar, chatting it up with people," says Aronchick. The ex-president appeared, to Aronchick at least, to be in a great mood.