It was "Fox News Sunday" this morning, and "GOP strategist" Karl Rove was asked whether Donald Trump's appearance on "Saturday Night Live" helped or hurt him. Rove says:
It helped. Everybody got their moment last night. He got to be marked by the Saturday Night Live crowd, and he got a chance to say he's a good sport and could take it in stride. I think we ought to go back and blame this, however, all on Calvin Coolidge, who was after all, the first president to appear on the White House lawn in an Indian headdress. And since then presidents have felt compelled to go out and occasionally mock themselves, and now presidential candidates have gotten in the habit of mocking themselves. It was, however, I have to say, not very funny.There's laughter, and the moderator Chris Wallace says "Are you talking about Calvin Coolidge?" and Rove says, "No, I'm talking about last night."
Now, maybe some home viewers said: "The first president to appear on the White House lawn in an Indian headdress — were there others?" But I said: "That wasn't on the White House lawn! That was in South Dakota!"
Calvin Coolidge famously posed in a headdress:
This happened on June 23, 1927:
Coolidge, who was celebrated for signing the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, spent the summer of 1927 in the Black Hills region of South Dakota, working out of an office in Rapid City High School. When Sioux Chieftain Chauncey Yellow Robe, a descendant of Sitting Bull, learned the President would be there, he suggested he be adopted into the tribe. The Sioux County Pioneer, a weekly publication that came out every Thursday, reported that Yellow Robe... said: “The Indians are like anybody else, they are also anxious to see him come. Our population of more than 20,000 Sioux Indians, the first people of the Hills, will also open their hearts with most sincere and hearty welcome of President Coolidge to the land of the Dakotas and if the occasion should permit, President Coolidge will be adopted into the Sioux tribe. We hope he will find in these beautiful Pahasapas (Black Hills) rest, peace, quiet and friendship among us.”Why, exactly, is it supposed to be funny for him to wear that headdress? In any case, this did not take place at the White House and it has nothing to do with present-day appearances in pop culture settings like "Saturday Night Live."
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61 comments:
Rove's comment simply tells us Trump hit it out of the park (or pretty close), which hurts Jeb Bush.
Re the descent of presidential dignity, I think it started with Betty Ford's cameo appearance on the Mary Tyler Moore show. We were all certain my mother would need smelling salts.
It was during this 1927 stay in the Black Hills of North Dakota that Coolidge shocked his party, and the world, by announcing, simply: "I do not choose to run for President in Ninteen Twenty-Eight."
Calvin Coolidge was a great President. Maybe instead of Indian Headdresses, Rove et al should be focusing the discussion on what made Silent Cal so great? Just a thought.
By the way, I very highly recommend the impeccably written new biography Coolidge by Amity Shlaes (2013). He was an amazing public servant, and the last of his kind in the way he viewed the limited scope of the Executive's powers under the Constitution.
Well Hillary posed with a fake southern accent down in Alabama. So what's wrong with Silent Cal wearing an Indian headdress? And did you see Dukakis in an Army tanker helmet? Or John Kerry in a faux astronaut suit? Or that big bad hombre Barack Six Shooter Obama in a black western hat? Or Jimmy Carter with a killer rabbit?
A tip for Obama--you can't be seen wearing a black western hat if you've previously been photographed wearing a metrosexual bicycle helmet. Just sayin'.
"The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, also known as the Snyder Act, was proposed by Representative Homer P. Snyder (R) of New York and granted full U.S. citizenship to America's indigenous peoples, called "Indians" in this Act. While the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution defined as citizens any person born in the U.S., the amendment had been interpreted to restrict the citizenship rights of most Native people. The act was signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge on June 2, 1924. It was enacted partially in recognition of the thousands of Indians who served in the armed forces during World War I."
"Well Hillary posed with a fake southern accent down in Alabama. So what's wrong with Silent Cal wearing an Indian headdress?"
You are missing the point. Coolidge didn't run for reelection. He was showing respect to the Sioux who were showing respect to him. There is no appropriate comparison.
Coolidge ON THE WHITE HOUSE LAWN with Sioux in [their] full headdress:
http://cantonasylumforinsaneindians.com/history_blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Calvin-Coolidge-Meets-with-Sioux-Indians-from-Rosebud-Reservation-on-Lawn-of-White-House-1925.jpg
Althouse isn't clear on why she is so hacked off about Karl Rove's comment, and I'm not clear either on why she'd be so bothered.
"It was enacted partially in recognition of the thousands of Indians who served in the armed forces during World War I."
"Among Navy SEALs, More Native Americans Than Blacks"
"Pentagon’s elite forces lack diversity" (OMG!!!)
“You know, everyone complains about the weather but nobody does anything about it. Calvin Coolidge said that.”
I think Althouse has done us all a favor by digging up some interesting, true history on a Sunday-morning talking head point (pointy head talk?) It's one virtue of this blog I like--the digressions and information.
Althouse isn't clear on why she is so hacked off about Karl Rove's comment
Like most Lefties, she will never forgive Rove for getting Bush elected.
Rove does often remove all doubt, as an admirer of Mark Hanna, you would think he wouldn't do so,
Chuck, I know that picture, but it is not a picture of Coolidge in a headdress. Did you look at it?
"the impeccably written new biography Coolidge by Amity Shlaes (2013)."
It is excellent. If you don't want to buy the book, you can read my series of posts on Coolidge at Chicagoboyz.
He was the first media savvy president and used radio even more successfully than Roosevelt who came along later.
His dry humor was ridiculed by dopey leftist Progressives who wrote the history of the time and whose misrepresentation is only now coming to light,
Rove is showing us he knows this now obscure fact about Coolidge as an attempt to show that he, Rove, has a consummate mastery of American presidential politics. It is fact dropping, like name dropping. Amusing he got it so wrong!
yes, it was a very good portrait of his life and times, interesting were his roots in New England progressivism, before the Boston police strike, made him reconsider his views,
Why, exactly, is it supposed to be funny for him to wear that headdress?
Not to defend Rove, but the revered American Indian culture is uniformly risible. Rove has his facts wrong, but that's where the funny comes from.
Let me just chime in with another recommendation for Schlaes' bio of Coolidge. Excellent, two thumbs up, 5 stars etc and so on.
And if you have not read her book about the depression, FDR, the NRA, the New Deal and Schecter vs (mumble) definitely do so.
If you like presidential bios, Hoover's autobiography, 4 volumes, is highly readable. Available free from the Hoover library.
John Henry
Rove is so far over the hill that he has become invisible except as Fox News (Rupert Murdoch's) pretend EXPERT in the Bush Family's subtle nasty tactics.
Blogger Michael K said...
He was the first media savvy president and used radio even more successfully than Roosevelt who came along later.
He may have been good with radio, but while he was doing radio, FDR was doing fireside talks on TV in 1929.
Top that, Calvin!
My source is the always impeccably accurate Joe Biden so you know it is impeccably accurate.
John Henry
traditionalguy said...
Bush Family's subtle nasty tactics.
I understand that Papa Bush's new book unloads on Jeb and Dubya with both barrels.
I'm buying a copy for my son, who expressed an interest. Maybe he will lend it to me when he gets finished.
John Henry
and he was vetted by Holder and Caroline Kennedy, he also believed we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, it's arguable what would have happened, to the downturn in '29, sans Smoot Hawley and the accompanying regulatory tightenings, also the worthless Reconstruction Finance Corporation,
those were remarks, supposedly made in 2008, Scowcroft and Baker, haven't really covered themselves in such glory as to avoid judgements, for their embrace of the Saud's more nettlesome associates,
Karl Rove is, and always has been, a dick. Some political consultants are good because they believe in something. Others, like Rove, are good because they believe in nothing.
Rove was not on Reagan's side of the ledger, as much as he pretends to be a protege of Atwater, he like 'dr. evil' Schmidt, think you can make an honorable deal with the Democrats, how often has that proven false,
Never speak ill of the dead. No class. But I knew that. Boomer.
No, Professor; I understand your complaint. Karl Rove said what he said. I was watching the program live myself. Rove said something about "Coolidge in a headdress on the White House lawn.
That wasn't quite accurate. Instead, what we know is that Coolidge posed wearing a headdress. (Your photo.) He also posed with the Sioux chiefs wearing their headdresses on the White House lawn.
The gist of the line from Rove is that it was all on the borderline of an historically bad photo op (Politico thinks that was indeed the case) or some Presidential self-effacement on an historic level.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/gallery/2013/11/photo-oops-historys-worst-political-photo-ops-000157?slide=0
Either way, I don't see anything bothersome about the reference. I got the point and I think it's a valid one.
I've never understood why people think that Rove is a political genius (or evil genius). GW Bush should have won in a cake walk over Gore in 2000, instead it was a cliff hanger. 2004 against Kerry (Kerry! for gosh sakes) should have been a blow-out, but it was also close.
BYW, I second all the praise for Amity Shlaes' bio of Coolidge, as well as for The Forgotten Man.
De mortuis nil sed bonum.
About the dead the less said the better.
Corollary to the Gell-Mann effect: nearly anything you hear on TV related to anything you know anything about will be wrong.
"GW Bush should have won in a cake walk over Gore in 2000, instead it was a cliff hanger."
One of the worst political decisions of the past 50 years, no 75 years, was to conceal Ws drunk driving case. The late disclosure drove down evangelical turn out and caused a tie in the election.
Politico has been a joke in the past to be used as conformation, but even more the past couple of days.
I'm not seeing the humor. There were sporadic outcroppings of the Indian Wars all the way into the 1920s. Wikipedia places the end of the Indian Wars as 1924. So the Indian Citizenship act isn't just a legal formality, it's actually settling a conflict that has been going on for centuries. And three years later the Sioux, who were one of the last tribes to be pacified, are inducting the President as a member of the tribe and he's accepting.
It seems to me that there are some cases where a photo op is a good idea. Like longtime adversaries shaking hands and being friendly. That's exactly what a President ought to be doing, if he gets the chance.
Bay Area Guy said...
"Calvin Coolidge was a great President. Maybe instead of Indian Headdresses, Rove et al should be focusing the discussion on what made Silent Cal so great? Just a thought."
Calvin Coolidge also actually reduced government spending and actually paid down federal debt over his tenure. The last president to do so. By the end of his presidency taxes were lowered several times until by the end only the top 2% of taxpayers were paying taxes and they were still paying down the federal debt.
The only knock on Coolidge was he didn't run for his second term because he took over mid-term and was re-elected. If he was president instead of Hoover the depression would have been just another recession.
The depression consolidated power and wealth as increased government intervention always does. Rove knows that Coolidge reduced government. Rove doesn't want smaller government. Rove is a parasite that lives off of government. Of course he is going to throw stones at Coolidge.
Would people actually be unaware in this day and age that such ceremonies and formal/ceremonial/ritual attire like the headdress, as with medals and swords worn with uniform on the deck of the USS Missouri in 1945 in Tokyo Harbor, have serious temporal and spiritual power?
And that CC was nothing loth to honor foreign/Indian customs? Where is the sensitivity? Safe spaaace!
I always thought that Bush 43's nickname for Rove was spot on.
"Turd Blossom" fits perfectly.
Rove is the Republican Truman Capote. I can imagine Rove's dumbass on the Carson Show, telling his pathetic country club stories.
"The only knock on Coolidge was he didn't run for his second term because he took over mid-term and was re-elected. "
Much of this was the death of his son which placed him in depression until he died. The son, Calvin Jr, died of sepsis from an infected blister on his toe from playing tennis.
Tempest in a wine bottle.
Calvin Coolidge was one of our better presidents. Not great, because his time didn't demand greatness. It required competence, and he had it. He was very able and he was also a good, decent man. His responses to the economic and political crises of the 1930s (had he been president in those years) would certainly have differed from FDR's, and I think it likely that the country would have been better served by them. However, I can't imagine him leading the country through the travails of the Second World War, possibly because he was so much a man of of an earlier age and a time that was gone, utterly and forever, when the events of September 1939 unleashed hell upon the world.
Our host says I am missing the point re Shrillary's adoption of a fake Southern accent vis a vis Silent Cal's donning an Indian headdress. She thinks that Silent Cal was showing respect for the Indians. Since Shrillary has never had respect for the voters--as in "Watch me fool them with this next lie"--well maybe Ms. Althouse is correct.
But the truth is that most every politician will, sooner or later, pander to his or her audience. And for that matter, the fact that they are not running for the next election doesn't mean much. See Obama--termed out--and finally coming out against the Keystone Pipeline on Friday. That's about as big a pander as you can get.
IIRC JFK very carefully avoided the wearing of the headdress when honored by some Indian tribe, Rather, to avoid being thought buffoonish, he only allowed photos of himself holding/accepting it..
@ Virgil: JFK was given a 10-gallon cowboy hat at the conclusion of his speech to the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, minutes before his assassination, but declined to wear it, remarking, "No, you put it on!" to the local moderator who'd handed it to him. But the crowd called, "Put it on!" To which Kennedy responded, "I'll put it on -- in the White House, on Monday, and you'll have a chance to see it if you come up there."
"entirely undefended person"
Your abortion support irks you and you don't know why because a definition of person that you must believe (and 'believe in' if the difference to you is meaningful in ways other than stroking an ego's well-worn demands) is as faulty as other's god or dogma without the Lord Jesus Christ.
It isn't turtles all the way down: The bottom is selling baby parts for cash with the taxpayer's duressly-supported-opportunities-forgone only at the threat of the end of a DOE or DEA or EPA gun barrel, and yes, they all have different guns and gun budgets and gun training and gun logistics and gun logistic strategies and gun logistic tactics for themselves, just in case they need to kill civilians more efficiently for any or no reasons declaimed.
All a vastly intelligent brain conjuring can muster when strenuously ethos-wise arguing for literal death and literal dismemberment of innocent human life by abortion method because of locale, treating rape as different because the ultimate seriousness of the charge of rape demands nothing less always, is "a fetus ain't no damn person damnit DAMNIT IT AIN'T" or something even more evilly vacuous that doesn't interrupt the flow of unearned taxpayer working-laywoman's money and sense of security.
Life doesn't mean life because those people who wrote the Constitution, slave-owners okay, couldn't know what the Hell they were talking about. Life must have meant something else, or they then and their supporters now were and are bigots so fuck 'em. Citing that same viewpoint but with different pronouns suits the tax-drainers takings-profits and purposes here and there in Hell.
Realize a fetus isn't "life," otherwise perhaps then you might succumb to abusing unfortunate women like right-wingers are notorious for me repeating that they do that sort of thing, since if a fetus constitutes "life" then your position toward abortion, it is a right of women, would not be supported by anything scientific or dispassionate or even warranted by the reoccurring wisdom shown throughout history. Most importantly you will have based everything about your entire career's stated position's philosophic outlook on the proven, after irrefutable evidence exhibited, murder-for-profit lies sold by the charming Obama and Planned Parenthood.
Indeed, the murdering of innocent babies for gain in reputation, status, income bracket, but mainly, latent smugness masquerading as Knowledge's Winnower, creates Earthly success for many, until it doesn't.
Well, there it is, Karl Rove insulted a turn of the century Reublican. Now Ann HAS to vote for Hillary. We made her do it.
I don't know why this irks me so much.
Because Calvin Coolidge was a man of grace and principle, and here Rove uses him as a mere prop, like Sambo or Clueless Suburban Dad, knowing that for the modern audience he is always a ridiculous Pinocchio figure, the stiff wooden puppet pretending to be a Real Boy, and you can embed "Calvin Coolidge" in almost any sentence and people will laugh.
"Why, exactly, is it supposed to be funny for him to wear that headdress?"
Rarely do I get to answer such questions of refined sophistication with an ultra-organic grass-roots appeal such as to warrant yearning on a scale although global seems too small for, and yet.
Unexactly, if he were to fuck that headress, that would be pornographic if filmed and he could go to jail, not funny.
Unexactly, if he were to claim himself Jim Morrison's dead Indian Ancestor and have physical proof, exactly he could have gone to numerous cities in America on tour and made a go of it, hiring, like Orson Welles did at age 24, the best talent out there (we are talking POTUS not Little Orson Annie ferchrissakes) and had the firewater swiggers voting his way for 200 years, and what's funnier than that?
Exactly, nothing was supposed to be funny about anything ever by anyone if critical thinking means anything contra than learning about some fealty-narrative. The definition used here for funny was unrefined and malleable to the extent it meant and means nothing unless some fools can point and laugh at the monkeys' claiming meaning is contained within, like some Latin.
That's the joke.
You define exactly, and I will define language, species and fauna, light and stars, time and infinite nothing, zero and its division, exactly.
I will change my definitions if that helps me conceivably, including times when in hindsight I might have to conclude my definition-changing just felt good so I did it.
"In any case, this did not take place at the White House and it has nothing to do with present-day appearances in pop culture settings like "Saturday Night Live.""
Yeah but what about that case you didn't know about, that one that has something to do with present-day appearances in cultures of setting's pop?
You understand the concept of not knowing something, I presume.
Even moreso, any case taking place at the White House having anything to do with anyone (cf. Bacon's Law of Degree's' Sixth) involved in pop culture, regardless of setting, can easily make a case that, to be frank, we all know is out there and honesty is the only reason this must for cases resolving only the need for more bureau's and their crats doing any actual thing.
Lack of anticipation of potential cases justifies Dylan, Bobbie's "where justice is a game" slur.
Not because the slur was inaccurate, but because I don't think it helped my cause, and when Judge Bork wasn't confirmed Dylan's lyrics were in fact confirmed, and each kennedy shitfest rape of decency reminds noone.
Cunt Kennedy said "nothing personal" after murdering everything a man, much more accomplished than most and with greater juristic craftsmenship proven at hand than Learned f'ing Hand by God, and justified it as he did killing babies and making Planned Parenthood rich to the point of demanding an entitled Lambourghini.
Spell that name, you tax-sucking Lamourghiniers.
Spell it.
you want to best option then content:- goo.gl/zkm51K
In context, it was perfectly nice for Coolidge to pose in that headdress--good for him! And one thing modern presidents could learn from him is the concept of the limited executive, and how to prevent the tyranny of creeping central power. That was a different era; the Depression changed all that.
I thought Trump's appearance obviously helped him--free advertising and SNL just played into his own statements about himself. I suppose you have to do that to keep a guy on your show, but they basically gave him an hour and a half campaign commercial and the material was particularly unfunny (except the dad who thought he had a singing career--it was nicely strange).
On another note--several episodes into the season and the show has yet to take a single shot at Hillary (and McKinnon's impression may play off Hillary's "awkwardness" but that's not a single criticism of her dishonesty, corruption, or incompetence). They clearly don't mind making Sanders look like a crazy old man, joking about how O'Malley is a nonentity and apparently are comfortable taking shots at Carson, but the likely favorite going into next year's election and they can't even try taking a shot at her? Talk about being in the bag for a candidate.
We go from "Big Chief Calvin" in 1927 and citizenship for Indians led by "Yellow Robe) to present day abolishment of the name "Redskins) for a team's name? When and why did it become politically incorrect to not celebrate our relationship with our Indian brothers and sisters? Only in the fevered imaginations of the PC crowd who hate America but suddenly develop the transient and convenient support for Indian nations? Entrepreneurs above all, Indian tribes have done quite well for themselves and most of their casinos names could be translated to "White man lose big bucks in small room." Many of them work on Maintenance of Way gangs on the nation's railroads and have strong family support highlighted by their love of Rodeos back on the reservation. I have worked closely with them and admire their affinity with the earth, celebration of family, and tribal relationships. Maybe the BLM clowns in the nation's ghettoes could learn something from our Indian friends. Brea out of your comfort zones and spend some time with these American's especially at the Slot Canyon's/Antelope Canyon, Page, Arizona. For the truly interested visit the reservation near you learn something!
Ann Althouse said...
"Well Hillary posed with a fake southern accent down in Alabama. So what's wrong with Silent Cal wearing an Indian headdress?"
You are missing the point. Coolidge didn't run for reelection. He was showing respect to the Sioux who were showing respect to him. There is no appropriate comparison.
Back then we called it respect, today it's called cultural appropriation and will get your fraternity kicked off campus.
"spent the summer of 1927 in the Black Hills region of South Dakota, working out of an office in Rapid City High School."
Imagine any modern president doing any such thing.
That picture is iconic.
There's also a picture of Calvin Coolidge greeting Republican leaders of the Sioux Nation on the White House lawn, but he's not wearing an Indian headdress there, but is dressed in a suit (and maybe vest) and tie and has a hat on.
There's a picture in the book "A Pictorial History of American Presidents by John and Alice Durant (A.S. Barnes and Company, 1955) page 244, and it has probably been reproduced in some other books or magazines, too.
You can see a less detailed image here:
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/95500767/
The book describes this as follows:
" One reason the Presidency is such a killing job is that in addition to the continued pressure of official business, the Chief Executive is irced to submit to a series of indignities in the form of welcoming groups of various sorts...On these pages are shown some of the ordeals that Coolidge had to endure.
Above: Cal greets Republican leders of the Sioux Nation.
Left: An unhappy president holds the equally unhappy Louise Sheaffer who has just presented him with a Buddy Poppy on behalf of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Above: Coolidge with members of the Jefferson Memorial Foundation.
Above, right: opening the baseball season.
Right: Cal with the Daughters of the War of 1812.
Below: trout fishing (with worms)
Below, right: Cal's message refusing a third term. "
* is forced to submit
Chuck on 11/8/15, 6:24 PM
Coolidge ON THE WHITE HOUSE LAWN with Sioux in [their] full headdress:
http://cantonasylumforinsaneindians.com/history_blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Calvin-Coolidge-Meets-with-Sioux-Indians-from-Rosebud-Reservation-on-Lawn-of-White-House-1925.jpg
That looks like the same picture that the Library of Congress has smaller, but that's not the same picture that is in my book. It looks like they were taken by separate cameras, and maybe a second or two apart. The Indian on the far left is also misisng from the pictre in my book (as cropped, anyway)
Rove wasn't talking about what Coolidge's intent, but about how that image has been seen over the years by others. You can start something without meaning to.
Once again Althouse hits it out of the park. Rove knows better. Screw him.
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