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 evaluate Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance’s performance after his first two weeks on the campaign trail. Al and Fuller also discuss former president Donald Trump’s appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists conference in Chicago.
This video podcast is approximately 20 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.
Carolyn L Jaffe says
Craig … I think you fellas skipped over the most startling Trump quote: (it just makes me squirm:)
To his Christian base he declared that this would be the LAST TIME they would ever have to VOTE!!!
Let’s be sure to get that word out … (remember to “believe what he says … that’s what he does!”)
cj
Michael Davis says
Very enlightening civil discussion as always.
I agree that Trump is only tryin to appeal to his base. I’m sure there are many women who will vote for Trump who think they should get more votes because they are mothers, or feel superior to single women, or hate cats. Vance and Trump are throwing them red meat. And per Ms. Jaffe’s comment below, there are millions of Christian Nationalists who don’t want any more elections as long as Trump is a dictator. Just as there are many who work in the fossil fuel industry or are Supreme Court Justices who don’t want any environmental regulations. They don’t care about the future of the Earth as long as they accrue personal wealth.
They have to be defeated in November or America will become exactly what they want. That prospect frightens me but probably gets them all liquored up.
Mickey Terrone says
Trump’s MAGA Moment speaking at the black journalists meeting was no accident. It was a siren signal to his “Base” that racism and bigotry are front and center on his degenerate agenda to make America a white aryan nation. He will rely upon this tactic more than ever now that his opponent is a female of color. Many of those poor white souls are already scared to death of equal opportunity for all Americans. Running against a highly intelligent, younger, more personable and fearless woman of color is forcing Trump to resort to the baser instincts of his macho MAGA mob to spread as much divisive, fear mongering rhetoric as he and his surrogates can.
He seems to be politicizing “Christian” religious memes so he can ignore all the legislative achievements
of the Biden/Harris Administration, his own advanced age, his fascist desire to be a dictator, his criminal convictions and his pending defenses in several courts of law. He wants us to to forget that the Dow Jones Industrial Average has double the value it had when he left the presidency. He wants us to forget his bald faced effort to overthrow the election results of 2020. Of course, he has already announced if the loses the 2024 election, it would have to be because it was rigged against him again.
Between his racist banter, his Project 2025 fascist objectives and his repressive efforts to dominate and control women, Trump’s desperation will become more and more pronounced as time passes. Republicans in highly competitive red states will use their legislatures to foul and cloud the 2024 election results with fraudulent claims of unregistered voters, disqualifying hundreds of thousands of voters, unsubstantiated voting irregularities and throw the outcome in the hands of the Supreme Court to simply hand him the presidency.
I believe that is the Trump Republicans’ plan is to undermine the American values and traditions that have made America great. The entire Republican Party has become nothing less than Trump’s accomplices. I suspect they all think if they cross him, they’ll end up like Liz Cheney facing a military tribunal. In reality, at some point most all of them will cross Trump simply because they didn’t adequately satisfy him. That’s the way dictators work. When will they ever learn?