Every Thursday, the Spy hosts a conversation with Al From and Craig Fuller on the most topical political news of the moment.
This week, From and Fuller discuss the political impact of dozens of student protests at some of the nation’s leading universities protesting Irasel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
This video podcast is approximately sixteen minutes in length.
To listen to the audio podcast version, please use this link:
Background
While the Spy’s public affairs mission has always been hyper-local, it has never limited us from covering national, or even international issues, that impact the communities we serve. With that in mind, we were delighted that Al From and Craig Fuller, both highly respected Washington insiders, have agreed to a new Spy video project called “The Analysis of From and Fuller” over the next year.
The Spy and our region are very lucky to have such an accomplished duo volunteer for this experiment. While one is a devoted Democrat and the other a lifetime Republican, both had long careers that sought out the middle ground of the American political spectrum.
Al From, the genius behind the Democratic Leadership Council’s moderate agenda which would eventually lead to the election of Bill Clinton, has never compromised from this middle-of-the-road philosophy. This did not go unnoticed in a party that was moving quickly to the left in the 1980s. Including progressive Howard Dean saying that From’s DLC was the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.
From’s boss, Bill Clinton, had a different perspective. He said it would be hard to think of a single American citizen who, as a private citizen, has had a more positive impact on the progress of American life in the last 25 years than Al From.”
Al now lives in Annapolis and spends his semi-retirement as a board member of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University (his alma mater) and authoring New Democrats and the Return to Power. He also is an adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins’ Krieger School and recently agreed to serve on the Annapolis Spy’s Board of Visitors. He is the author of “New Democrats and the Return to Power.”
For Craig Fuller, his moderation in the Republican party was a rare phenomenon. With deep roots in California’s GOP culture of centralism, Fuller, starting with a long history with Ronald Reagan, leading to his appointment as Reagan’s cabinet secretary at the White House, and later as George Bush’s chief-of-staff and presidential campaign manager was known for his instincts to find the middle ground. Even more noted was his reputation of being a nice guy in Washington, a rare characteristic for a successful tenure in the White House.
Craig has called Easton his permanent home for the last eight years, where he now chairs the board of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum and is a former board member of the Academy Art Museum and Benedictine. He also serves on the Spy’s Board of Visitors and writes an e-newsletter available by clicking on DECADE SEVEN.
With their rich experience and long history of friendship, now joined by their love of the Chesapeake Bay, they have agreed through the magic of Zoom, to talk inside politics and policy with the Spy every Thursday.
David A Turner says
I hope Al and Craig got more sleep Wednesday night than I did (late-night television coverage of UCLA’s anti-Israel encampment fight). I stayed awake into the wee hours. Fox’s play-by-play coverage, CNN’s, and News Nations’ were tremendous. But it wasn’t until MSNBC’s also excellent overnight coverage reached the Joe Scarborough program hour that I heard a proper summation. “Trump is eating this up,” said Joe. “He’s beating President Biden on this issue.” Mika agreed.
Scarborough went on to point out that Gov. Gavin and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass completely ducked UCLA in its time of need, and they left the handling of hostile demonstrators to the L.A. Police Commissioner. Not a good look for the Democratic Party’s backup candidate for president. And I’m sorry Craig, I entirely missed any courageous leadership and speech points on the college demonstration issue made by Majority Leader Schumer. Did it get any ink in Thursday’s papers?
There were some heroes in L.A. When rank-and-file L.A. Jewish citizenry attacked the demonstrators’ plywood compound at UCLA on Wednesday, it was momentous. Those dudes charged the pro-Palestine crowd before even the L.A. Police and the University’s administrators. It was a good moment in American Jewish history. Why is it that average joes and policemen have precipitated “ranking officials…” on this struggle. They’ve stepped forward against the Palestinian/Hamas gangs before our governors, college presidents, and mayors. As for the President: I understand from Semafor News that the West Wing staff got an ugly message yesterday from the leaders of the 100,000 national Young Democrats organization — they demanded he “clean up” his pro-Israeli policy before the national convention is held in Chicago this summer. Or else.
Young Democrats aside, Al is correct about Biden experiencing a leadership void. Perhaps, instead of requesting security help from Illinois’ Governor Pritzker for the convention — since the student mob probably will surround the convention hall — he could ask Texas Governor Gregg Abbott to assign some Texas Rangers to the task. I was surprisingly proud of Abbott’s quick handling of the mob encampment at my alma mater, U.T. Austin.