Good morning. It’s Tuesday, January 14, 2014. Congress came back in session with a bang, as a group of bipartisan, bicameral congressional negotiators produced a 1,582-page budget blueprint last night that is expected to pass both the House and the Senate.
The $ 1.1 trillion spending bill restores some cuts to social programs such as Head Start, gives federal workers a paltry 1 percent raise, and keeps the government running through the end of Major League Baseball’s regular season. (And they wouldn’t shut the government during the World Series, would they?)
Speaking of which, the National League team in Barack Obama’s adopted hometown of Chicago has unveiled a new Cubs mascot to scathing reviews. The White House has not yet commented. Meanwhile, the president’s schedule includes lunch with Joe Biden, hosting the 2013 NBA champion Miami Heat in the East Room and meeting early this evening with Maria Shriver to discuss her report on the status of women in America.
As far as tomorrow goes, the president is heading to North Carolina. In his absence RCP is hosting a noon event at the Newseum focusing on America’s energy future with Sen. Joe Manchin as the keynoter. (If you wish to attend, clickhere to RSVP.)
Today’s date is a signature day in the history of television. Sixty-two years ago today, the incomparable Dave Garroway opened a live broadcast from New York City with the words “Well, here we are.”
Sporting a huge lavalier microphone around his neck, he got up from behind his desk and walked around the studio and said, “Good morning to you–the very first good morning of what I hope and suspect will be a great many good mornings between you and I. Here it is—January 14, 1952, when NBC begins a new program called ‘Today.’ And if it doesn’t sound too revolutionary, I really believe this begins a new kind of television.”
And so it did. I’ll have more on the Today Show and Dave Garroway’s influence on the medium in a moment. First, I’d point you to our front page, where we aggregate an array of stories and columns spanning the political spectrum. We also offer a full complement of original material from RCP’s own reporters and contributors, including:
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Top 10 Lawmakers on Energy. As part of RCP’s weeklong focus on the issue, Caitlin Huey-Burns and Tim Hains collaborated on this slide show.
Just 24 Percent of ACA Enrollees Are Under 35. Alexis Simendinger reports on the data, released yesterday, which show a sign-up trend skewing older than hoped for.
A Second Look at Medicaid Enrollment Numbers. Sean Trende revisits the figures he explored last week, only this time using more precise — and revealing — data supplied by one state.
Christie Faces Tall Task in Reasserting Agenda. Amid fallout from last week’s “Bridgegate” revelations, the New Jersey governor will try to change the subject with his state-of-the-state address today. Scott Conroy has a preview.
Brett Baier on Fox News’ Relationship With the White House. Check out the latest installment of “RCP’s Morning Commute.”
Poll: 23 Percent Say U.S. Headed in Right Direction. Adam O’Neal has thenumbers.
Pope Ratchets Up Rhetoric on Abortion. Adam reports on the pontiff’s surprisingly strong words on the subject Monday in his State of the World address.
N.Y. Congressman to Wed Same-Sex Partner. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney of New York is engaged to be married. Adam has the details.
Human Rights Buried Under $ 51 Billion Sochi Games. Mark Cunningham wonderswhether the international community will turn a blind eye next month to Russia’s oppression.
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With his bow tie, horn-rimmed glasses, and everyman looks, Dave Garroway was perhaps an unlikely television star. His secret was his amiable manner and preternatural calmness—on live television, no less, amid a clattering newsroom—and his love of the subject material, whatever that happened to be.
TV critic Tom Shales has ruminated that the early television performers and producers were creators in the truest sense of the word. “Inventing TV—the machine—was not that hard,” he wrote. “Dave Garroway helped invent what you put on it once you’ve got it.”
When Garroway died by his own hand in 1982, Shales penned a poignant obituary. “Dave Garroway was very important to television,” he wrote. “If this were theater we were talking about, his death would be like all the Barrymores dying at once; everyone who’s come after him has owed him something.”
At the NBC studios in New York, they know this. Two years ago, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of “Today,” they paid him due homage.
“Dave Garroway was a master communicator,” said Al Roker. “He could talk to people. He, in a sense, was a showman. You know, the ‘window’ was his ring.”
“I grew up with Dave Garroway; it was a revelation,” added Tom Brokaw. “I lived in such a remote part of the country that we didn’t get television until 1955, and for that to come into our living room—I was going off to school, my mother to work—and we would sit and watch Dave Garroway, who was a maestro at what he was able to do.”
This was a maestro whose cast in the early years included a pet chimpanzee who frequently bit Garroway and was eventually eased off the show. At first, television writers didn’t know what to make of the mishmash of news and entertainment, but the show made money for the network, and Garroway’s relaxed work won over the critics.
“He does not crash into the home with the false jollity and thunderous witticisms of a backslapper,” New York Times critic Richard F. Shepard wrote in 1960. “He is pleasant, serious, scholarly looking and not obtrusively convivial.”
Garroway’s trademark was signing off by saying, “Peace,” while extending the palm of his hand. After this term became devalued by overuse in the political tumult of the times, he switched to “Courage,” something adopted years later by CBS anchorman Dan Rather.
In those early days of live television, Dave Garroway’s official title wasn’t “anchorman” or “host.” It was “communicator,” and it couldn’t have been more apt.
‘”He could look at the camera,” said Barbara Walters, who was hired by Garroway, “and make you feel he was talking only with you.”
Carl M. Cannon
Washington Bureau Chief
RealClearPolitics
Twitter: @CarlCannon
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