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Jason Reed / Reuters
Sometimes the cliché “we are at a turning point,” wheeled out at every new presidential era, turns out to be true.
Is something going on in this town? There seem to be an awful lot of people around. The Acela train from Penn Station to Washington yesterday morning was stuffed to the gills with anchor people toting even more luggage than I was. And when I arrived to check in at the Ritz-Carlton on 22nd Street, an ABC camera crew pursued me to the elevator, asking me what I thought of “all the hoopla.” “I am the hoopla, darling,” was all I could think of to say.
What is immediately apparent as soon as you step off the train is the epic cold. It’s like a knife at the throat every time you sally forth to brave the next event. It’s one more thing to bond about in the reigning atmosphere of almost gooey good will. The new president will be toasted more in hot chocolate than in champagne.
Everyone is in permanent motion. It’s as if only the number of events you attend sufficiently registers how deeply you want this new presidential era to arrive.
For years we’ve fantasized with vindictive glee about what it would be like when we finally sent President Bush on his merry way into a dark page of history. But now that the moment has finally arrived, the joy among the assembled multitudes is not a yelp, or a whoopee—it’s more a deep collective exhalation that carries us into conversation with perfect strangers. The days after 9/11 were filled with instant bonds, too, but then the bond was tragedy. Now it’s about starting over.
The British Embassy reception for the Illinois delegation, hosted by the ambassador, Sir Nigel Sheinwald, and Lady Sheinwald, was a jubilant mix of incoming Obama folk, former Clinton folk, Washington power fixtures, and stiff-upper-lip Brits. In such a festive atmosphere, it seemed almost impolite to mention the other currently famous personage from Illinois politics, but even Blago seemed to be getting the benefit of the doubt in this room.
“The governor isn’t what he’s painted,” one prominent delegate told me. “He’s been fixed because he wouldn’t do business as usual with the old machine guys. This whole thing started when his father-in-law—an important alderman—wanted a dumping contract and didn’t get it, and he was mad about that and fed the press. I don’t know how I’ll vote on his impeachment.”
Are we about to see a revisionist pushback on how Hot Rod has already been hanged, drawn, and quartered?
Many of the Illinois delegation were still trying to process the idea that Obama, their Obama, has transmuted into the magic man now appointed to save the world. “In the Senate, he was just another guy,” state Senator James Clayborne Jr. told me wonderingly. “We played golf. We knew he was very bright, but…he was just another guy.”
That was then. Now the aura of the incoming 44th president permeates everything. You could feel his presence as we pulled into Philadelphia and knew that very soon he would follow us down the line on his special slow-rolling train with a 1930s caboose (Let’s hope it’s a clue that some of the new billions he has to spend will go into the railways.)
At the embassy, an official’s wife told me how on Friday night, her manicurist at a Georgetown salon suddenly got a call from Blair House to come over and do Michelle’s and her mother’s nails. The manicurist had just finished administering the polish to Michelle when there was a knock on the door, and there he was! The president-elect himself, come to pick up the first lady-to-be for dinner! She said she would remember his smile for the rest of her life.
There are 30 things going on every night leading up to the big moment with the Lincoln Bible, so everyone is in permanent motion. It’s as if only the number of events you attend sufficiently registers how deeply you want this new presidential era to arrive. So many guests poured into the elevator on the way up to Slate’s inaugural bash at writer Christopher Hitchens’ Columbia Road apartment that when Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee squeezed in with his wife at the last moment, the car gave an asthmatic cough, rose all of one foot, and stopped. Nobody seemed to care. It was a cocktail party in an elevator, and you felt like a downer to suggest the alarm might be pressed.
“Women and bloggers first!” The Times’ Mark Leibovitch at last declared. The door was prised open by the editor of The American Prospect, Michael Tomasky, and we all spilled out, still furiously bonding.
That's why it was a bit hard to fathom the sepulchral tone of Marty Peretz, chairman of The New Republic, introducing a celebration concert at the Sidney Harman Hall by the Silk Road Ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma. Rahm Emanuel, Barney Frank, and Larry Summers had been arraigned to bless the magazine’s inaugural musical celebration. Rahm and Barney were clearly squeezing this in as another fly-by, but Summers reminded us of something we all feel so deeply: that sometimes the old cliché “we are at a turning point,” wheeled out in every new presidential era, happens to be true.
One first ray of new beginnings was Peretz’ announcement of a cease-fire in Gaza. Exiting into the harsh cold, Summers’ words about the turning point stayed with me. So much is at stake, it’s not optimism we feel—that word sounds almost too callow, and too risky—but a profound yearning, a solemn hope. So much is resting on the slim shoulders of the Magic Man.
Tina Brown is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast. She is the author of the 2007 New York Times best seller The Diana Chronicles. Brown is the former editor of Tatler, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Talk magazines and host of CNBC's Topic A with Tina Brown. She has written for numerous publications, including The Times of London, The Spectator, and The Washington Post.
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Paul Schrodt is a writer living in New York City. He has contributed to New York magazine, Radar, and Esquire.com.
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As vice chairman of Public Strategies and president of Maverick Media, Mark McKinnon has helped meet strategic challenges for candidates, corporations and causes, including George W. Bush, John McCain, Governor Ann Richards, Charlie Wilson, Lance Armstrong, and Bono. McKinnon is co-chair of Arts & Labs, a collaboration between technology and creative communities that have embraced today's rich Internet environment to deliver innovative and creative digital products to consumers.
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Tina Brown is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast. She is the author of the 2007 New York Times best seller The Diana Chronicles. Brown is the former editor of Tatler, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Talk magazines and host of CNBC's Topic A with Tina Brown.
Introducing Beast Books
Tina Brown is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast. She is the author of the 2007 New York Times best seller The Diana Chronicles. Brown is the former editor of Tatler, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Talk magazines and host of CNBC's Topic A with Tina Brown.
Politicians Gone Crazy
Tina Brown is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast. She is the author of the 2007 New York Times best seller The Diana Chronicles. Brown is the former editor of Tatler, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Talk magazines and host of CNBC's Topic A with Tina Brown.
Banjo1
I don't ask much. I'll be satisfied with a spot of competence now and then.
michaelslevinson
Tina,
That is such a fabulous article. What a great piece of reportorial writing! Yeah, there is a profound yearning.
I met Barbara Bush in 1988. I was a candidate for president on the ballot in New Hampshire and New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner suggested to me I go to the Town of Derry to campaign on primary day.
I did and met Liddy Dole. Before I could get out a sentence saying "Good Morning I'm. . . " she interrupted me and said, "I know who you are." I'd given a 30 minute 'campaign' speech on NHPTV (New Hampshire Public Television), and though they listed "Motorweek" in the newspapers instead of Michael S. Levinson, presidential candidate, the major political players, the Doles and Bushes were informed and they watched my presentation.
The speech, with 50 seconds edited out around the nine minute mark where the college student camera person brought in for the night to work can be heard screaming "He's moving he's moving - what do I do,?!" is on youtube after dot com type poetprophet. See my description of the ice caps melting, in the prophetic Television Scripture, and what I had to say about Global Warming in 1988.
The 50 seconds missing is where I called Bush a wimp and said his LAN Lord uh pin Heaven blasphemy was a reason not to vote for him - that's missing though I don't know how it was edited out.
George, the Elder, Bar Donna Bush-Corleone, and their son George F. Bush (might the F. stand for fascist) watched my speech together in their hotel suite. I was critical of Bush, the Elder for taking the Lord's name in vain and said we couldn't vote for someone to hold the most powerful office in the world who talks like that. (I'm the guy who was on the ship 40 days and 40 nights many years ago when I was given words for all man kind to perform on whirled wide television from dusk until dawn, so I have been super stitched).
My program is above barky Obama's pay grade.
One of my programs is the four day week, the six hour day, the seven month year with enough coming in to support a spouse and two kids. That, as president, is what i am going to do for you. What are you going to do for me. (A potential voter said to me, "That's great. What do I have to do for you"
Good quest yin. In exchange for that, world wide, I need to get every country to what . . give one day to the LAN Lord uh pin Heaven and Keep the Sabbath Holy. Fair deal. 4 day week six hour day 7 month year in exchange for that one day a week no stores open no cars running no planes flying AC off houses lit by candle read and give thanks to God that His lowly prophet fulfilled his obligation and delivered His world to peace, producing live, a twelve 'our' video trans crypt for everyone to replay once yearly and argue about for another thousand years.
Were I to call anyone on the phone - to see about a job - or even send an email - before I get there for an interview Hoover's minions the govt creeps who subscribe to this day to that fascist pervert of dirt, the followers of J. Edgarina get there first to insure I am shut out so the only steady work I can get is washing dishes in a Hotel for a days pay. Boring, except the dishes don't talk back.
This is what happened to me after Bush got elected. Before that I knew Ef-be Eye was listening and watching me but not interfering with my life - at least not that I could detect.
I'm jealous you were at a party at chris Hitchens place. I'd have loved to have been there, a fly on the wall.
I'm working on a huge Order To Show Cause an ultimate v. abc, nbc, cbs, pbs and flocks. The day I deliver the petition is the day I want to post the whole document on the Beast. In my situation publicity is protection.
Michael Stephen Levinson
michaelslevinson
I apologize for not editing the piece above before posting it. after I met Liddy Dole, (in 1988) I went back to the rope line where I was standing inviting all who came to vote for me for president. Then after ten minutes I looked over to Liddy Dole, standing by the door to the school polling place for the day and she was gone.
Ten feet away, all by herself, in a full length mink coat stood Bar-Donna Bush-Corleone. I walked over and introduced myself. She stood stone silent. I told her I was also a candidate for president. She remained silent. Not a peep. Then I asked her to give her husband a message for me. I said, "Tell him I said he should give 'Lev' (me) a chance.
Still not one word. She looked like she was going to burst. It was strange. Nor were there any secret service people near. So I walked away. Two years after Bush, the Elder was retired from office, she was interviewed in Parade Magazine. The interviewer asked her, and I paraphrase, "Over the years you went a lot of places with your husband and met lots of people. What did you do when you were going to meet someone you didn't like?" Bar-Donna answered, "When I meet someone I despise, I remain stone silent."
When people high up like Bar Donna Bush Corleone 'despise' you, your possibilities are vastly diminished. I must get back to work on my Order To Show Cause. Bush nominated Harriet Meirs to the Supreme Court because his mama wanted him to. Bar-Donna orchestrated the whole failed maneuver. When Sandra day O'Conner said she was going to resign, Laura Bush said she wanted him to nominate another woman. That was setting the stage for Harriet's nomination.
Loyalty. Say someone came along and wanted to unseal Bush, the Elder's Executive Orders. They would fight it all the way to the Supreme Court and Harriet would vote to keep everything sealed.
In case I fail at delivering a multi-lingual poem on whirled wide TV for all the world's peoples to participate in together all at once from dusk until dawn, a cultural event billed as the first peaceful night in five thousand years of recorded history, and leave the world with only a pre-recorded hour - what you could of had. . . and you unseal those Bush Executive Orders you will find one of them with my name on it. I believe you will judge it a sinister document. (Also in the above "Barky should have been capitalized).
I love the Beast. It's well done news of the news. For an encore, how about the true story of Harvey Weinstein - how he actually got his start in the music biz before getting into flim. (I know film - not a misspelling). Later guys.
marinago
From the other side of the world, I dropped everything to watch the live coverage of the Presidential election. My colleagues and I sat glued to the television screen, from our 24th floor office, in the middle of Sydney's central business district. We were not expat Americans following our vote - just a bunch of Aussies who care deeply about the state of our world and America's impact on that.
I cried when it became evident that Obama had won. And I will cry with joy when he is finally sworn into office.
The significance of that historical moment will resonate around the world. And not just because Bush and his ridiculous decisions, speeches and facial expressions will finally be removed from the world stage.
Iamadog
I am trying to recover from Mr. Levinson's "commentary" long enough to say: You are an excellent writer Ms. Brown. It is your very strong suit. I eagerly go to your bloggins for the writing as well as the topic. (Sorry to say, I do not feel the same about your editorial skills, having dropped a long term New Yorker subscription for the duration of your tenure.) I am thrilled to see that the Internet has provided you with a venue for writing as I am not likely to run to a bookstore to buy someone's opinion of things drawn out to 300 pages.
Keep it coming. You should have been writing for the New Yorker instead of editing it. I'd have given gift subscriptions.
izerc2009
Blogging from Indianapolis
The Honorables
Catch Inaugural Fever
http://www.izerc.com/?p=284
LexLysianLucifer
When the Ef-be Eye tracks you,
well......you should be suing!
But where's Jennifer Connelly when the Feds
DONT KNOW WHAT THE FUCK THEY'RE DOING?
What can top Fed-watch?
maybe M I B?
They came to my town in 2003
Carrying metal boxes, looking spooked and around
what were they looking for.....something yet to be found?
I quickened my pace, but then saw another
when they pull out the Spectrometer
Oh Michael....! My brother !
the didnt see me(who E.Vere catches my flow?)
spooked a bit myself,
I knew I had to go
America's crap
its a hot stinking pile
why do we trust......
SUNs of SAMford Weill?
Hilly
Barry
Blagojewbych
Little Caesar's they'll be....
like Mikey ill-Ich
Should these ill-noia Pols
really have all the powers ?
that SoS broad should be
GENNIFER FLOWERS
My Ravens got robbed again
and there goes my money
could posh vowles from Tina
sooth my trauma like honey?
Joe is so flaccid
really such a knave
Longer must I burn
ere victoria's my slave?
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
Natalee
I'm dizzy just reading the article...or maybe from all that hope and good feeling that is morphing its way all the way across the atlantic...or maybe it's my inability to get the President-elect's incredible teeth our of my mind...whatever it is may it get banks lending and people spending.
Thank you.
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