anamariecox

#bidenatcostco, Because It Kept Happening

From: Clark, Lesley

Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2012 11:21 AM

To: Allen, Liz

Subject: VP pool report 5 — more Biden 

Biden is back at the WH for briefings and tonight will speak at a memorial in the Russell Senate Office Building for former Sen. Warren Rudman, R-NH.

Biden was greeted by Costco CEO Craig Jelinek and Co-founder Jim Sinegal, who were at the  grand opening ceremony earlier in the morning.

Biden flashed his membership card as he walked in, and told the crowd it was his.

“In all honesty, I didn’t have my own card, Jill wouldn’t let me have one,” he said. “I went to get my wife’s card, and she said, ‘No, No, get your own card.’ “

After he and Ivey got the cart, Biden told her, “I’m looking for pies,” and they spent some time perusing the baked goods before he dropped a pie in the cart.

It was often hard to hear what he was saying to people, as shoppers at times abandoned their carts for a glimpse of the vice president.

“Four more years,” one man shouted as he saw Biden and a crowd in the bakery department broke out into applause.

He spent some time in the childrens’ book area, looking quickly at the books before dropping at least a dozen in his cart. He told reporters they were bound for a Delaware charity that his wife, Jill, had started, and that he was picking titles based on “things I know my grandkids like.”

Asked if was optimistic about reaching a deal to avoid the fiscal crisis, he said “I am.” And he said, “all these folks in this store, man, it’s going to make a difference. Take $2,200 out of their pockets next year, you have a big problem.”

 At one point, the press was herded toward the registers, but Biden and Ivey sailed past, this time with Biden holding two flowers. He headed for the jewelry department and checked out the watches.

More from his closing: Biden stood with his cart — some of the items were loaded into a box that once carried Jack Daniels, the TV was riding on the bottom of the cart — and joked, “now you know why my wife doesn’t let me shop alone.”

He called the shoppers “hard working folks who don’t need to see their taxes go up.” 

It was hard to hear his entire remarks over the din of excited shoppers, but he extolled Costco and called the new store “the renaissance of a whole neighborhood here.”

“I think it’s important Congress acts now, I mean right now,” he said. “All it has to do is take a single vote to extend the middle class tax cut. If they don’t do that….it’s been estimated that $200 billion less will be spent next year…”

“We have a lot we have to settle, but there’s one thing we should all agree on and that’s the middle class tax cut should be made permanent.”

He closed by thanking the press for “shopping with me,” and added, “And I know you won’t tell anybody what I bought for Christmas.”

 As Biden began filling his cart, Sinegal called the visit “fantastic” and said the company was flattered, “as you can see he draws quite a bit of attention.,” Sinegal said.

He said the store opened at 8 a.m. 

Sinegal said he was optimistic that a deal would be reached on the fiscal cliff, “I think they’re going to solve it, it appears everybody is motivated to do it and I hope they do. It’s so important for the nation.”

He said Costco — which opened a store in Canada on Wednesday — has “sensed” that consumer confidence is rebounding: “We’re looking forward to a reasonably good Christmas.” He said sales were up 7 percent over last year in stores that had been open for a year.

#bidenatcostco VP Pool Report, Because It Really Happened

——- Original Message ——-

From: Lesley Clark 

Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2012 10:36 AM

To: Allen, Liz

Subject: VP pool report 4

Motorcade rolled from  Costco at 10:12 am, w VP stopping to talk toreporters after wheeling a cart filled w among other things, childrens’ books, fire logs, a 32 inch Panasonic tv and a big apple pie to the registers.

He called on congress to extend bush era middle class tax cuts, saying that “consumer confidence is growing, the last thing we need to do is dash that.”

He said that he’d talked to people around the store a that “all the people u meet and see… Folks don’t need to see their taxes go up.”

He said “it’s important congress acts now, right now.”

Unknown if he bought a watch, though he spent considerable time at the counter looking at them, including a $1,200 one, and put in a call to his daughter, Ashley, saying he needed to “get some guidance.”

Before leaving, he placed a call on Ivey Stewart’s phone. Couldn’t hear what he said, but she broke into tears and got a vice presidential hand on the shoulder and a hug.

Biden also availed himself of several Costco food samples, and looked like he enjoyed them.

The store was clogged w shoppers who whipped out cells and iPhones to snap the VP.

There were lots if Delaware natives in the store who got giant Biden hugs and handshakes.

He did a loop of nearly the entire store, including bakery and frozen foods.

But Biden turned down the employees who were trying to lure him to the tire department.

“Hey man I don’t need tires,” he said “I don’t drive anymore.”

Back at WH at 10:30 w/o incident. [Ed. note: I am guessing the WH has a pretty low bar for “without incident” when it comes to Joe.]

Per WH official: On background:

The Bidens have been Costco members in the past. The Vice President and Dr. Biden’s Costco memberships were re-activated yesterday; they paid the $55 membership re-activation fee to receive their new cards. The Vice President received his own card which he is carrying today while shopping at Costco.

Lesley Clark

White House Correspondent

On the Occasion of Shirley Chisholm Day

“Our representative democracy is not working because the Congress that is supposed to represent the voters does not respond to their needs. I believe the chief reason for this is that it is ruled by a small group of old men.”

“I ran for the Presidency, despite hopeless odds, to demonstrate the sheer will and refusal to accept the status quo. The next time a woman runs, or a black, a Jew or anyone from a group that the country is ‘not ready’ to elect to its highest office, I believe that he or she will be taken seriously from the start.”

“The Constitution they wrote was designed to protect the rights of white, male citizens. As there were no black Founding Fathers, there were no founding mothers — a great pity, on both counts. It is not too late to complete the work they left undone. Today, here, we should start to do so.”

Greatest hits here

#Thankstumbling (Like it’s a tradition or something)

Not in order, except when they are.

• My dad (who would actually be first, if this list were in order), who never gave up on me
• The boyfriend and his incredible family (Jersey tough, Jersey sentimental, Jersey generous), who never gave up, period
• The many, many friends, some of whom I will forget to list: Tracy, Amy, Elise, Chris G., Shannah, Ted, Seth, Choire, Jason, Fabian, Kat, Ross, Olivier, Tyler, Mitch, Marissa, Jake, Jamie, Becky, Cody, Kevin, Chuck, David C., all the Twitter pals (Duke, Delrayser, Ali, MorningMoneyBen, anyone who #ivoted)
• Guardian folks, are and were (Matt, Janine, Gennady, other Matt, Brad, Nicole)
• St. Paul, always vaguely autumnal
• Kitties: the bewhiskered and bewildered Alexander, the plump and pleased-with-himself Moby
• The Republican party for its LULZ
• My friends with conservative beliefs, for their patience with their party and with me
• Obama, for winning
• Everyone who voted for him, even more so
• My neat and square jigsaw-puzzle of an apartment, for the way the dust motes dance in the morning light
• Grizzly Bear, Sharon Van Etten, Frightened Rabbit, Eminem, Yo-Yo Ma, Gorilla vs. Bear, Merle Haggard, Dawes, Old 97s, Silversun Pickups, Passion Pit, Neil Young
• Cuteoverload.com and “How Did This Get Made?” for reliable LOLS and ERMAGERDS in the darkest depths of the campaign season
• Tammy Baldwin and Wisconsin, Maryland, Maine, Washington, Minnesota
• “Freedom,” The Dark Tower series, The New York Times crossword
• Running, which taught me how to be alone
• Readers, who taught me how not to be alone
• My Higher Power, who taught me that I really never am

#iwatchfox: Noonanism

Peggy Noonan probably deserves a post of her own. I’m watching without a DVR and am missing some gems, I’m sure, but here’s something I loved. Start with an acknowledgement of your audience:

I’m hearing the pessimism of the guests but there’s a lot to go yet.

Add a little melodrama:

The way [the Obama team thought] could win was to drive a stake through the heart of Mitt Romney…

Add some mystical-sounding redundancy:

But I have a feeling that it was even more powerful than some of us who thought it was powerful.

End with a cliche:

 ”This cake may have been baked a while ago.”

#iwatchfox: Yes, Vagina

So we come to the part of the evening when the Fox crew must grapple with Virginia not falling neatly into the Romney column. THEY HAD FEELINGS THAT IT WOULD. And now the feelings are hurt.

Tucker Carlson, who is a friend and I suspect also some kind of performance artist, points out — correctly! — that there are a lot of blacks in Virginia! Also in Pennsylvania. He makes this point, too: ”There’s something what went basically unnoticed by the press and that was the Obama campaign making a push of social issues, particularly abortion, and that seems to have worked. I don’t recall seeing a single national TV show taking on abortion.” Later: “If you were a voter in a white, working class state, you had no idea that they were running a campaign based on abortion!”

Dana Perino concurred: Yes, abortion was a thing for Obama, a topic “which NOBODY on the Republican side was bringing up as an issue.” Unless they were were talking about rape, of course.

Yes, this was definitely A SECRET OBAMA PLAN. Not a part of his stump speech or anything. There definitely weren’t ads. Not in, say, a white, working class state such as Missouri. Hey, remind me: Was abortion an issue in the race there?

If Tucker is correct, then we need a new category: no-information voters.