Michael Shear and Stephen Grand are our guests this week.
Show produced by Katherine Caperton.
Original Air Date: July 12, 2014 on SiriusXM “POTUS” Channel 124.
PoliOptics airs on POTUS on Saturdays at 8 am & 6 pm, Sundays at 4 am & 5 pm and Mondays at 2 am.
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Show also available for download on Apple iTunes and other streaming services.
President Obama and Texas Gov. Rick Perry
This week saw a real polioptical kerfuffle break out. (That is likely the first time those words, one of them a neologism, have ever appeared in a sentence.) Republicans (and one Democrat) attacked President Obama for his failure to take part in a photo-op. In particular, they were exercised over the White House decision not to send the President to see the crisis in unaccompanied children crossing the border as part of his trip to Texas. All kinds of fulminating ensued.
We talk about this question that goes to the heart of polioptics with Mike Shear, a longtime political reporter who is now a White House correspondent for the New York Times. Before arriving at the Grey Lady, Mike was at the Washington Post for many years, covering Obama, the 2008 Republicans (Remember them? They were a hoot.), and Virginia politics. Mike got to cover then-Senator George Allen’s own polioptical catastrophe – the infamous “Maccacca Moment.”
Our second guest is Stephen Grand, an academic, think tank denizen, Hill staffer, book author, and all-around expert on 
Steve’s new book offers a fascinating look at the often messy process when democracies are born at what that might mean in the wake of the Arab Spring (and now, alas, the Arab Winter).
We cap off the show with a visit from founder, guiding light, and host Josh King with a special announcement about the future of Polioptics.
This week we are joined by the man the Boston Globe once dubbed “The Aristotle of American Politics,” Bill Schneider. Bill is now a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Third Way and a Professor at George Mason, but he’s best-known of course for his 19 years of service on CNN as a political analyst. Bill sports an Emmy, a Peabody, and an encyclopedic knowledge of politics. He talks about Red and Blue America, the future of the Tea Party, the prospects for immigration reform, and his picks for the 2016 nominees. (It is NEVER too early.)
Then we turn to Reid Cherlin, a man who has played at a high level on both sides of the Steno pad. Reid started his career as a political flak, working in the Senate and the House as a press aid, on a House race and the Clark Campaign. Then he joined the big time as Obama’s New Hampshire Press Secretary and later as an Assistant Press Secretary in the White House. He handled health care reform, among other things, but it’s not his fault.
There she is in 2007, on her way to winning $100,000. She reveals on Polioptics the path she took to get to that chair and the $250k question that stumped her. SPOILER ALERT: It involves Harry Potter.
Then we shift gears and move from the Ghosts of Politics Present and Future to the Ghost of Politics Past and the Clinton presidency. David Bennett, a professor emeritus at Syracuse University, joins us for a look at his forthcoming book, “Bill Clinton: Building a Bridge to the New Millennium.” Bennett, who has taught at Syracuse for 52 years (a school record), is an historian who has lived, researched and taught the Clinton era. Now, he’s the first academic out with a book about that historical moment. His book—and this interview—are packed with new insights from Bennett’s original research, including interviews with many of the major players at the top of the Clinton team.
