State of their unions: Candidates' marriages

As you're gearing up to decide which presidential candidate to trust with running the country, Barbara Kantrowitz, for Tango magazine, investigates their romantic relationships and the spouses who trusted them with their hearts:

One presidential election. Six frontrunners. You may know their stands on abortion, the Iraq war, and whether two men should be allowed to say “I do.” But what do you know about their romantic relationships? Barbara Kantrowitz investigates which couple is most likely to captivate American voters—and which union is best equipped to survive four years in the White House.
Not so long ago, what happened behind closed doors in the White House was nobody’s business. Some of most celebrated presidents in U.S. history—Thomas Jefferson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy—enjoyed a little action on the side without having to worry about paparazzi hiding in the bushes. But in the last few campaigns, every aspect of a candidate’s life has become fair game. “The line between public and private lives had gotten progressively blurred,” says family therapist Terrence Real, author of The New Rules of Marriage. “The flag that everybody waves is that it’s a character issue.” We’ve come to believe that a man who respects his marriage vows will treat the country well and provide a higher quality of moral leadership than a serial philanderer.
That’s the theory anyway. The most obvious flaw in this line of reasoning is how little we really know about even the most famous relationships. “Most of the information that we have about what a marriage looks like on the inside is just public relations,” says Frank Pittman, a psychiatrist and family therapist in private practice in Atlanta and the author of Private Lies: Infidelity and the Betrayal of Intimacy. Any couple can smile for the cameras, but that doesn’t tell us much about their internal dynamics. And even if a couple is indeed happy, there’s no guarantee of wise leadership.
By all accounts, George and Laura Bush have been loving, faithful partners for nearly 30 years. That hasn’t prevented his approval rating from sinking because of the disastrous Iraq war. On the other hand, Bill and Hillary Clinton certainly had a far more troubled relationship during their White House years. Yet, even after the 1998 impeachment vote, Clinton’s approval rating skyrocketed to 73 percent—not only his personal best, but also higher than Ronald Reagan’s peak. Voters evidently thought the Monica mess mattered far less than the fact that Clinton presided over the greatest period of economic prosperity in modern American history.
As the 2008 election begins to heat up, we’re once again being barraged with slick presentations of a new set of marital histories. From the Clintons’ purportedly repaired relationship to Mitt and Ann Romney’s fairy tale love story, they’re all carefully packaged to highlight the positive. But this time around, there are a few new twists. When Bill and Hillary first appeared on the campaign trail in 1991, their dual-career relationship was groundbreaking. She was as well-educated as he was, prompting the campaign slogan: “Buy One, Get One Free.” This year, the other major Democratic candidates could make that same two-for-one claim. Barack Obama’s wife, Michelle, is a hospital executive, who, like her husband, has a degree from Harvard Law School. John and Elizabeth Edwards met when both were students at the University of North Carolina Law School; she is also the author of a well-received autobiography, Saving Graces, about her battle with breast cancer and the emotional struggle to overcome the death of their 16-year-old son.
Here’s something else these three pairs of accomplished Democratic spouses share: no divorces. In contrast, two leading Republican candidates have more complicated marital histories. John McCain and his first wife, Carol, divorced in 1980; soon afterwards, he married Cindy Hensley, heiress to a major Anheuser-Busch distributor. And Rudy Giuliani’s marital history could inspire a soap opera. His marriage to his first wife (and second cousin), Regina Peruggi, was annulled by the Catholic Church after 14 years on the grounds that the couple had not received the church dispensation required when second cousins marry. His second marriage, to actress and journalist Donna Hanover, produced two children but ended in tabloid hell when Giuliani, then mayor of New York City, announced in a press conference that the couple was kaput. Reportedly, he neglected to tell Hanover first, who fired back with her own tearful press conference.

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“Giuliani definitely has a screw loose when it comes to marriage,” says Pittman. “You’ve got to see this guy as defective.” In 2003, Giuliani married divorcee Judith Nathan (he maintains they became involved only 12 months before his divorce, but gossipmongers say they had been an item for years). His current campaign website gives no clue of any of this romantic complexity, presenting Wife No. 3 as his one and only.
Soap operas aside, spouses still play a major role in voters’ views of the candidates. Electing a First Lady (or First Husband) is not unlike electing a vice president. The spouse is a president’s most intimate advisor, and the public image of a relationship can make or break a campaign. In the last election, Teresa Heinz Kerry’s outspokenness was widely viewed as damaging. “I think she was a nut and an abrasive nut at that,” says Real. “What kind of guy would be married to this? Is he in it for the dough?” Teresa also tended to talk a lot about her first husband, ketchup heir John Heinz, who was killed in a plane crash. That made her current husband appear to be a poor substitute. “She was still in love with her first husband,” says Pat Love, a marriage therapist and coauthor of How to Improve Your Marriage Without Talking About It. “She made it really clear that ‘this isn’t my real husband.’” What lesson should spouses take from her devastating performance? “Never miss an opportunity to shut up,” advises Love.
Each First Lady—from Martha Washington to Laura Bush—has interpreted the job through the prisms of her personality, life experience, and the tenor of the times. Eleanor Roosevelt was both a beloved and reviled figure as she traveled the world on behalf of her husband, who was disabled by polio. Just a few years later, the country embraced Mamie Eisenhower, known for her thriftiness (she clipped coupons for the White House staff), her recipe for “million dollar fudge,” and her love of ultra-feminine clothes. Jackie Kennedy personified an international glamour as the U.S. grew into the role of global superpower. And Betty Ford courageously decided to use her struggles against breast cancer and later, substance abuse, to educate the public; her openness about her own problems saved many thousands of lives.
In these media-intense days, the ideal political spouse does her (or his) most important work behind the scenes. “I think that the greatest source of happiness is a happy marriage, and I think a happy person will do a better job of governing,” says Cloe Madanes, coauthor of Love & Passion: The Ultimate Relationship Program. “Ronald and Nancy Reagan definitely had a good marriage. She put him in front of her as more important, always.” So who in the current crop fits that bill? And what can we expect from the spouses of the current frontrunners? Here’s the rundown.
Barack Obama and Michelle Robinson Obama
Married Since: 1992
Family Album: Two daughters
They met in 1989,while he was still a student at Harvard Law School (where he was the first black president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review). Barack was interning for a Chicago law firm, and Michelle was his summer supervisor. She later told a reporter that she fell for him “for the same reason many other people respect him: his connection with people.” Throughout his political career, she has been an asset. A Princeton grad, she’s a Chicago native from the city’s South Side. That association helped him win seats both in the Illinois legislature and the Senate. Now an executive at the University of Chicago Hospitals, she’s savvy in dual roles as career woman and political wife. In an interview in The New Yorker, she was frank about the stress of the latter role: “It’s hard, and that’s why Barack is such a grateful man.”

The Obamas live in a $1.6 million house on the South Side, and he tries to make it back every weekend. Family life is a priority, which is why they haven’t moved to Washington. “We made a good decision to stay in Chicago, so that has kept our family stable,” Michelle told a reporter for The Chicago Tribune. “There has been very little transition for me and the girls. Now he’s commuting a lot, but he’s the senator. He can handle it. That’s really helped in keeping us grounded.”

The tidbits of their private life that the public does get to see indicates a normal family. She’s on his case to stop smoking and do more around the house. He recently told Ebony magazine that he sometimes leaves his socks on the floor. “As Michelle likes to say, ‘You are a good man, but you are still a man.’ She lets me know when I’m not acting right.” But there are barriers to the public’s right to know all about them. When it comes to fidelity in marriage, Michelle told Ebony that she doesn’t worry about it. “That is between Barack and me,” she said, “and if somebody can come between us, we didn’t have much to begin with.”
Michelle still isn’t widely known outside of Illinois, but the current campaign will change that. “She would be far and away the most beautiful First Lady we have ever had,” says Real. And the marriage is a plus. “It’s coming across as quite solid,” he adds. “There’s a real love there.” Although Michelle is every bit as accomplished as Hillary was when her husband first ran for president, Michelle’s résumé (at least so far) appears to be an asset. “I think she will get better treatment—not because we are more accepting of a First Lady with a career but because she’s nicer, more feminine, more traditional as a woman,” says Love. “Plus they obviously love and respect one another.”
Although she’s untested in a grueling national campaign, Michelle promises to be a 21st century Jackie Kennedy, sophisticated and stylish, with an Ivy League education and a high-powered career.
Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bill Clinton
Married Since: 1975
Family Album: One daughter
Bill’s philandering was humiliation on a global scale—but there was an unexpected benefit: Hillary got the chance to fire up her own political ambition. “The country was most favorable toward Hillary when she was being victimized,” says Real. “Her difficulty is the public perception of her as an ice maiden. When she opened up, it rebalanced her and made her someone that you could feel something for.” In 2000, Clinton rode that wave of sympathy to the Senate. But if she captures the White House, will Bill be able to keep his own ego in check and become the supportive spouse a president needs?

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Despite endless commentary from fans and foes, the Clinton union remains a tantalizing mystery. It’s hard to tell whether this is a marriage of passion, or simply a partnership based on political convenience. Both Clintons have said they have benefited from marital counseling, and Hillary has admitted to extensive soul-searching about her marriage. In her 2003 memoir, Living History, she wrote: “The most difficult decisions I have made in my life were to stay married to Bill and to run for the Senate from New York.” She hasn’t said much about the subject since then. Even longtime Clinton advisor James Carville, not shy with his opinions, refuses to dish. “It’s uranium-242,” he told The Washington Post. “You pick that stuff up and it’ll blow up in your face.”
But the couple earns kudos from marriage experts for sticking it out. “We know more about the Clintons than anybody—and the more I know about each of them, the more enthusiastic I am about what they have been able to do,” says Pittman. “I admire their ability to hold a marriage together.” Even if it is now only a marriage of convenience, the bond is powerful. “They shared a mission, ideals, and common knowledge,” says Madanes. “That’s what made it possible for her to overcome all that stupidity. They were best friends.”
Since leaving the White House, Bill, now 60, has survived major heart surgery—often a powerful incentive to rethink priorities. If Hillary wins the Clintons a do-over in the White House, he’ll be motivated to behave. “We have every reason to assume he has learned the function of a zipper,” says Pittman. “He’s a smart guy.”
On the plus side, Bill Clinton would be the most charismatic spouse since Jackie Kennedy, and could help soften his wife’s icy image. A poll last fall showed that his favorable rating was six points higher than hers. His political expertise will be invaluable, and he’ll certainly be uniquely sensitive to the demands of the job. Her campaign strategists insist he is an asset. And in her speeches, Hillary told The New York Times, she subtly invokes their relationship by saying things like “When Bill had his heart surgery,” or “Bill used to love Dunkin’ Donuts.” The message is clear: He may be offstage, but he’s waiting in the wings.

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John McCain and Cindy Hensley McCain
Married Since: 1980
Family Album: John has a daughter and two sons from his first marriage. John and Cindy have two daughters and two sons together
He was a war hero, a former prisoner in North Vietnam; she was the daughter of a wealthy beer distributor and almost 20 years his junior. They met in 1979 at a reception in Honolulu. “We both lied about our ages,” Cindy told a reporter. “I made myself older and he made himself younger.” Before they could marry, he had to divorce his first wife (although they still remain on good terms).

Cindy has always supported her husband’s political ambitions; her father reportedly helped bankroll John’s first congressional race in 1982. But his first presidential campaign, in 1999, meant revisiting hard times in her life—particularly her addiction to the painkillers Percocet and Vicodin, which she started taking in 1989 after experiencing back pain. She hid her addiction, stealing the drugs from a charity she’d established to provide medical aid to developing countries. Her parents finally confronted her, and she quit “cold turkey” in 1992. No charges were filed, but she repaid the charity as part of a deal with prosecutors. These issues don’t seem to have affected most voters’ views of her—or him. In fact, Cindy was more often considered a political asset.
Cindy has made medical relief to impoverished countries a major focus of her energy. Her frequent missions produced an unexpected benefit. In 1991, on a visit to Bangladesh, she visited an orphanage where more than a hundred infants were living in poor conditions. At the request of the nuns who ran the orphanage, she brought home one of them, a 10-week-old girl who was severely disfigured by a cleft palate and needed medical care. The McCains gave her that care and eventually adopted her. Now 15, Bridget McCain is currently a high school student in Arizona.
If she became First Lady, Cindy has said that she would make adoption, foster care and health care her issues. She also hopes she could be a role model for people who want to fight drug addiction. “I’m in recovery,” she told Newsweek during the last campaign. “If I can do it, then maybe they can too.” As First Lady, she would be part Eleanor Roosevelt and part Betty Ford.
John Edwards and Elizabeth Anania Edwards
Married Since: 1977
Family Album: Two sons (one died in 1996) and two daughters
On the surface, Elizabeth Edwards would seem to be the exact opposite of the ideal political spouse. Hardly meek, she’s a smart and independent attorney who doesn’t spend too much time worrying about her appearance, and talks openly about her struggles with weight loss. Yet she’s often described as her husband’s “secret weapon.” “She’s presumably very bright, very competent, and she knows how to keep from upstaging him,” says Pittman. In the 2004 election, “Elizabeth was very much there as someone who had suffered and who had stood by her guy,” says Real. “It was kind of like the clean version of Hillary.” Women of all backgrounds seemed to identify with her, and her reputation soared as Teresa Heinz Kerry’s popularity sank.
During her 2006 book tour for Saving Graces, Elizabeth was embraced as a celebrity—a remarkable accomplishment for the spouse of a defeated vice presidential candidate. She’s appealing on her own and as a partner in what seems to be an exceptionally loving marriage. Surviving hard times—especially the death of their oldest son, Wade, in a car accident—appears to have strengthened the couple’s bond. When they talk about each other, even a casual viewer senses genuine passion. “You feel about them that this isn’t just phony baloney,” says Real.

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In his run for the White House, John Edwards appears to be taking the slow and steady route, letting Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama fight it out at the top of the polls. His wife seems in tune with that more reflective approach. Not long after the diagnosis, Elizabeth talked to a People reporter about how her worldview had changed. “There is an odd place after losing a child, where you think somehow your life is worthless,” she said. The diagnosis “is a reminder that this is the life you’ve got and you’re not getting another one. Whatever has happened, you have to take this life and treasure and protect it.” When she and her husband announced in March that they would continue campaigning even though her cancer has returned, she was the role model for grace under pressure, and many cancer survivors have applauded her decision. “We’re going to look for the silver lining,” she said. “It’s who we are as people.”
Rudy Giuliani and Judith Stish Nathan Giuliani
Married Since: 2003
Family Album: Giuliani has a son and a daughter from his second marriage. Nathan has a daughter from her second marriage.
The tabloid ink expended on this union rivals headlines about the Clintons. Years before their divorce scandal, Rudy Giuliani’s second marriage to Donna Hanover was major gossip fodder in New York. There were persistent rumors—vehemently denied—that he was having an affair with his attractive female communications director, Christyne Lategano. The gossip took a toll. In 1997, Hanover refused to answer when asked if she had cast her vote for Rudy as mayor. She later hosted many women’s networking dinners at Gracie Mansion, New York’s mayoral home, without mentioning her husband. After their dueling press conferences, the Mansion became a battleground. His lawyer alleged that while Rudy was ill with the side effects of his chemotherapy treatment for prostate cancer, she relegated him to a small bedroom and kept the master suite. He also accused her of waking him up early in the morning by exercising in the room over his head. A year later, Rudy moved out and stayed with friends. She, in turn, accused him of “open and notorious adultery.” After the battle ended in 2002 with a $6.8 million settlement for Hanover, her lawyer called it a “spectacular win,” adding that the former mayor has admitted “cruel and inhuman treatment” based on his open relationship with the twice-married Judith Nathan.
None of this is, of course, mentioned on his campaign website. In fact, the only family cited is the third Mrs. Giuliani, described as “a registered nurse with an extensive medical and scientific background.” His son, Andrew, 21, recently told reporters that he is estranged from his father because of the divorce and remarriage.
The couple is openly affectionate. In an interview in Harper’s Bazaar, Judith described Rudy as the “Energizer Bunny with no rechargeable batteries.” Not bad for a 63-year-old cancer survivor. “I’ve always liked strong, macho men and Rudy—I’m not saying this because he’s my husband—is one of the smartest people on the planet,” she said. She also described him as surprisingly romantic. “We love watching Sleepless in Seattle,” she said. “Can you imagine my big testosterone-factor husband doing that?”
Will such lovey-dovey images counteract the bad divorce memories? Rudy’s already in trouble with the GOP’s evangelical base for his support of abortion rights. Recently, one Southern Baptist leader said Rudy’s messy personal life added to the doubts. “This is divorce on steroids,” said Richard Land, head of public policy for the Southern Baptist Convention. “To publicly humiliate your wife in that way, and your children? That’s rough. I think that’s going to be an awfully hard sell, even if he weren’t pro-choice and pro-gun control.” His heroic leadership during 9/11 won’t be enough to erase the scandal. “He’s great at running frantically through ruins, acting like he’s in charge of something,” says Pittman. “But he couldn’t go home, since his wife had kicked him out because he was having an affair with somebody else.”
Judith is still a novice on the campaign trail, but her style appears to be Mamie times 10. She’s feminine, flirty, and completely faithful to Rudy. No word on her fudge recipe—yet.
Mitt Romney and Ann Davies Romney
Married Since: 1969
Family Album: Five sons, 10 grandchildren
As Mitt tells it, the Romney marriage is a real love story. “We met in elementary school,” he said in a 2006 speech that is posted on his campaign website. “I was a Cub Scout, and she was riding a horse bareback over some railroad tracks. What do Cub Scouts do when they see a little girl on a horse? We picked up stones and threw them.” Years later, in 1965, he refined his style and asked her out to see The Sound of Music, which had recently opened. After that, Romney said, “I didn’t want to be anywhere else but with Ann.” He proposed at the senior prom, and she accepted. They were married in 1969, on the fourth anniversary of that first date. In the speech, he lists the reasons he loves her. First is her honesty. “There’s no shading, there’s no guile,” he says, adding that “she has an incomprehensible capacity to love, and because she’s honest, people recognize that she cares for them.” And after all these years, “her love for me, of course, is the greatest source of joy I could possibly have.”
Ann was raised Episcopalian, but converted to Mormonism after meeting Mitt, who comes from a prominent Mormon family. His faith is a problem for evangelicals, who are also mistrustful of his flip-flops. He supported abortion rights and gay rights in his 1994 Senate campaign, but changed these positions when he decided to run for president. Mitt sometimes battles skepticism about his religion with humor, and even jokes about polygamy, repudiated by the Mormon church more than a century ago. “I believe marriage should be between a man and a woman…and a woman…and a woman,” he cracked at the 2005 St. Patrick’s Day breakfast in Boston.
Ann has generally kept a low profile, devoting her time and energy to raising their sons. But in 1998, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Since then, she has been active in raising awareness of the disease as well as funds for advocacy and research. “Ann is an angel,” her husband says. “She’s a hot angel, but she’s an angel nonetheless.” If her husband wins, she could be the next Nancy Reagan—loyal to her man, but willing to wield her influence behind the scenes. Above all, she’ll keep Mitt happy.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Howard Martell is the President of HOMEPROFITCOACH.COM and has worked online for well over 12 yrs part time while holding down a full time career of  over 18 and half years active duty US Navy. For the past year, with World Profit online, he has helped people create residual income using automation.
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Home Business Experts.  Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell MCEC http://HomeProfitCoach.com

It’s so nice to have a man around the house”. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s double life up close and really personal.

Smart Tips For Your Personal And Business Success Today……….”It’s so nice to have a man around the house”. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s double life up close and really personal.


by Dr. Jeffrey Lant Author’s note. To get the most from this article, go to any search engine and look for the recording of “It’s so nice to have a man around the house”.Eartha Kitt’s is the best; she was the mistress of steamy insinuations and wanton sensuality, implied, but never quite stated. Every word of her version takes on a whole new meaning when the subject is Arnold Schwarzenegger and his carefully calibrated infidelities.Admit it. You would have liked to have been a fly on the wall the day the governator spilled the beans to the woman he cheated on for such a large chunk of his”perfect” 25-year marriage.  But we can imagine, can’t we? Arnold: “Umm, Maria, have you got a minute?”Maria: “Sure, hon, be right with you…. now what’s up?”Arnold: “Darlin’, I’ve got a little confession to make. Something I’ve been meaning to tell you for a while.”Maria: “Oh, really, sugar babe. What’s that?”Arnold: “Well you see, it’s like this. For the last, er, 15 years or so I’ve been bonking the maid, yeah Patty… and I’ve got a 14 year old son. Yah, funny isn’t  it? He’s just about aweek older than my other son, I mean your son, I mean our son, I mean Christopher. Can you believe it? I kinda thought you’d like to know.”But Maria, who has her lawyer’s number on speed dial, is already on the phone,faster than you can say “community property”. Arnold’s double life ain’t a secret any more.What’s a guy (with a once gorgeous body) gonna do?Have you ever heard of “Pumping Iron”? It was both a (1974) book and (1977) docudrama about the run-up to the 1975 Mr. Olympia bodybuilding competition. The film focuses on Franco Columbu, Lou Ferrigno and, above all, on Schwarzenegger. It gave him just what he most wanted in life: fame, recognition, esteem and — love. These were just the things he didn’t get at home…..Spurned by his father.Schwartzenegger was born in the small village of Thal, Austria, July 30, 1947. His father was local police chief, a tough man who fought with the German army in World War II as a Hauptfeldwebel of the Feldgendarmerie. In 1945 (then 38) he married Aurelia, 23, with a son named Meinhard. Gustav showed a strong bias in Meinhard’s favor, which stemmed from unfounded suspicion that Arnold was not his child. Arnold, then, grew up in an atmosphere of suspicion and lack of fatherly love. Such things reverberate for a lifetime. What goes around comes around…His parents’ aspirations for him were not high. Gustav wanted him to be a police officer;his mother recommended trade school. But Arnold had something bigger in mind; he went to the pictures to see Reg Park, Johnny Weissmuller and his true idol, Steve Reeves.And so at age 14, he started weight training. He was assiduous, dedicated, obsessed in the way of all true champions, so obsessed that, at 18,  during his one-year of compulsory military service in the Austrian army he went AWOL so he could attend a bodybuilding competition. He went to prison for a week…. it showed just how serious he was.At age 20, he had the first great triumph of a life that was to be filled with triumphs. His assiduity paid off and he won the Mr. Universe title.  He had the drive, the beautifully sculpted body, the goofy “boys will be boys” smile and the shaggy do… he had acclaim…but only in the very marginal bodybuilding world. What he needed was what Steve Reeves had:a camera that would love his body and project it, larger than life, on movie screens worldwide.He needed “Pumping Iron”, the film that had ” heart, soul, blood, guts, perspiration and plenty ofmuscle”. To achieve his objective, he needed to keep winning the bodybuilding competitions that kept him in the limelight… and he needed to learn English. He knew these were critical aspects of his success, and he did what was necessary. That is the way of all champions…and Schwarzenegger proved to be one of the best.He pumped iron… and, with the help of such trainers as Joe Weider, Ric Drasin, and”Superstar” professional wrestler Billy Graham… won the big titles, including in 1970,age 23, the first of his seven Mr. Olympia titles.While he pumped iron, he took English classes at Santa Monica City College and earned a B.A. degree by correspondence from the University of Wisconsin — Superior where he graduated in Business and International Economics, in 1979. Oh, yes, and very much as an afterthought, he had women… a lot of women.He liked them… and they, knowing every curve and sinew of that magnificent body…liked him… and wanted a piece of what male perfection could be. He gave… he enjoyed for the moment… but such women were never a part of his grand plan.”I’m going to become the greatest actor!”Despite one bodybuilding title after another (and he bagged them fast and convincingly),he wanted something else, something more lucrative, something that would make hima household name. And at last, in 1982, his wish came true with the sword-and-sorceryepic “Conan the Barbarian”. It was a box-office hit, immediately followed by “Conan the Destroyer” (1984), not quite as successful as the original but keeping the unpronounceable name and very pronounced body before the public while looking for the next triumph.In due course, after a number of unmemorable moments (can you say “Red Sonja”, 1975)he lucked out (in 1984) with the first of three Terminator films, which placed him exactly where he had always wanted to be: at the top of the tree, rich, famous, desired… and finally, fervently  loved by millions worldwide.Maria Shriver, the perfect wife for the man who had everything… and wanted more.On April 26, 1986 Arnold Scwarzengger married one of the beautiful and talented princesses of the Kennedy dynasty, Maria Shriver, niece of President John F. Kennedy. This made him a member of the most famous family in the land. They have four children. But Arnold, being Arnold, was not satisfied… though one didn’t know how unsatisfied until just the other day in May, 2011. Then it was announced that  Conan truly was a barbarian, furtive (like all cheating husbands) but audacious, too — for he never left the confines of his palatial11,000 square foot home in Brentwood, California for his adulteries. He did them under his own roof with the family maid, Mildred Patricia Baena (“Patty”).There for some 15 years he made suitable excuses to the old ball and chain (“honey,I’ve got a little paperwork…”, striding down the corridor… to his mistress Patty’s room.Then right back to the arms of his Maria. With careful  logistics, without much effort but with great audacity, the man renowned for pumping iron and governing ungovernable California (2003-2011), produced a boy by each woman, the births just a week between.Those boys, particularly Patty’s, are the ones needing special attention and care now.Maria will get half of everything, or at least $100,000,000. She and Arnold are separated now. When they divorce Maria will again be a very desirable heiress indeed. Patty won’t do as well, of course; unmarried mistresses never do. But Arnold helped her get a loan from the Federal Housing Administration and ponied up at least some of the $219,224 down payment.But it’s Patty’s son we should worry about. Schwarzenegger has called him an “accident”.We can well believe it. But Scwarzenegger, who grew up under a cloud, his father questioning his legitimacy, Schwarzenegger should have been more empathetic, more kind,considerate.Instead in his most important role as father he proved to be nothing more than a cad who once pumped iron
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell <a href=”http://HomeProfitCoach.com“>http://HomeProfitCoach.com</a>. Check out Massive Auto Traffic ->  http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=hi76Cl4e

Opening night of Mozart’s ‘The Abduction from the Seraglio’ in thepresence of His Imperial Majesty Joseph II. 16 July 1782. Burgtheater, Vienna.

Here is the music that Dr. Lant recommends below. This is another artice in his series. I bring you these for many reasons but mostly because they are extremely informative and wll wriiten. Dr. Lant is CEO of an internet marketing company. If you want 50,000 visitors to the website of your choice FREE, check us out at www.24hourhomebusiness.com. Now….enjoy the read!

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Important note: To get into the mood for this article and, more importantly, this event, use any search engine and find the overture to “The:Abduction from the Seraglio”. There are many fine recordings to choose from.
Readers: you are about to be ushered into one of the signature cultural events of human history: the opening night of “The Abduction from the Seraglio”. You have arrived at the Burgtheater in Vienna, the cultural capital of Europe… You are in a state of high excitement and nervous, too. You are afraid that you will not be in your seat before the Emperor arrives; (why had the coachman not checked that wheel before?)… and that will never do.
Yes, His Imperial and Apostolic Majesty is even now on his way… for he, like you, has heard the buzz: this is Mozart, wonderful Mozart, sublime Mozart at his best. And the emperor, though an amateur, is a gifted musician, too.  Is he aware that history is being made that night?  Probably. But then wherever the Vicegerent of God Himself goes… history goes, too. That is what being a Hapsburg is all about… and a Mozart, too.
Some background.
The man, Joseph Benedikt August Johannes Anton Michael Adam, who became Emperor Joseph II in 1764, had a pedigree even longer than his name. Unfortunately, that did not prevent him being born under a cloud. For at the very moment of his birth (13 March 1741), the patrimony of his mother, Maria Theresa, was being sundered, pillaged, plundered by Prussia’s King Frederick II who made the creation of mayhem his special talent. As a result, Joseph’s inheritance shrank significantly. becoming less German, more Italian for his empire was both. He wanted vengeance… and Wolferl Mozart was the unlikely device. Just 25, he was, Joseph II was sure, precisely what was needed to show the world that Berlin was nothing more than an outpost of thieves and marauders whilst Vienna was… exalted, lofty. This was music as statecraft… and it was played andante non troppo.
For his weapon of choice, Joseph II was patron of the Nationalsingspiel, his pet project from 1778-1783. Its task was to perform works in the German language and make every German speaking person on earth realize that Vienna, magnificent Vienna, culture-loving Vienna was their true capital, never that cultural backwater, Berlin.
The messy beginning.
Mozart, a young man always in a hurray, wanted Vienna for his capital as much as the emperor did. And so, ever upward aspiring, Mozart befriended Gottlieb Stephanie,  inspector of the Nationalsingspiel and set about the business of turning them into a means of glorifying… Mozart… whatever was necessary.
Relentlessly Mozart lobbied, ultimately impressing Count Rosenberg-Orsini, manager of the opera. The count was impressed enough to ask Steiphanie to find appropriate material for Mozart… and he did: pirating and then altering an earlier work by Bretzner. Bretzner complained long and loud. No one cared. The honor of the nation… the reputation of the emperor was at stake.  Mozart got his libretto, and (so it happened) immortality.
But, first, came the work which even the most gifted must do; something the less gifted never quite understand. Most assuredly work precedes its benefits.
Mozart received the libretto (which he immediately started changing) in July, 1781. At his usual, how-can-he-do-it-so-fast breakneck pace, he wrote three major numbers in just two days. He thought he’d finish the entire opera, the first to be written in German (the job, remember, of Nationsingspiel) in just two months. But even sublime genius often needs more time…
As Mozart wrote, so he thought about just what he was doing. This letter to his father (13 October 1781) gives us an aperture to the creative process at work:
“I would say that in an opera the poetry must be altogether the obedient daughter of the music. Why are Italian comic operas popular everywhere — in spite of miserable llibretti?… Because the music reigns supreme, and when one listens to it all else is forgotten.” But he hadn’t finished…
“An opera is sure of success when the plot is well worked out, the words written solely for the music and not shoved in here and there to suit some miserable rhyme… The best thing of all is when a good composer, who understands the stage and is talented enough to make sound suggestions, meets an able poet, that true phoenix; in that case, no fears need to be entertained as to the applause — even of the ignorant.”
Mozart, the supreme egotist, was of course writing about himself… for by now he had taken on all the necessary roles… the better to create a work of undiluted brilliance. Now the way was clear for Mozart to create a work that would take Vienna by storm and establish him as the ultimate artist of his age… and all the ages to come.
The man and his moment were ready… “The Abduction from the Seraglio” now began to emerge.
It is light hearted and frequently comic, inspired by contemporary interest in the Ottoman Empire,  once Austria’s menace, now the “sick man of Europe” ripe for the taking. The plot takes place in a seraglio, the harem where every delight and debauchery could be found; in short the very symbol of the irresponsible good life we all want.
Mozart delivered it… the action carried forward by spoken dialogue, punctuated by set numbers, including several of the most spectacular and difficult arias he would ever write. He was dazzling… innovative… and cheeky.
Joseph II came to check on the progress of his project. Mozart, of course, asked him how he liked it. The emperor supposedly said, “That is too fine for my ears — there are too many notes.” Mozart, protecting his baby, supposedly responded, “There are just as many notes as there should be.”  But the key word here is “supposedly” for the anecdote may be ben trovato, not truth. Joseph II, after all, was a musician himself; he knew how good Mozart really was.
And now he was on his imperial way to the premier of the work he threw down as a challenge, a gauntlet to his bete noir in Berlin, Frederick II. “We have Mozart as an ornament of our Court!” It was an insult, from one sovereign to another, certified by the raucous applause and huzzahs which resonated  through the ornate Burgtheater the night of 16 July 1782. That applause has never stopped… nor will it ever.
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About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books.
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also a noted historian and author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell http://HomeProfitCoach.com. Check out Commission Maniac -> http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=rb14eOHk

Ex-New Mexico governor Gary Johnson declares for president. Who dat, as GOP field grows some more.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
I’m going to tell you right up front: I like Gary Johnson. He’s an ultra-personable, plain-talking, gets-things-done kind of guy. But he’s got a fever — Potomac fever — that’s going to upend his life for the next year and more until the next Republican National Convention in 2012.
You see, Johnson wants to be president of these United States… and so he’s taken his near zero name recognition to Concord, New Hampshire where Thursday, April 21, 2011 he declared his candidacy. God help him…
Gary Johnson’s my kind of guy.
Born January 1, 1953 in Minot, North Dakota (a good place to get out of), he ultimately moved to New Mexico and graduated from the University of New Mexico in 1975. We like that school in our family; my brother went there, too. Johnson and his family now live in Taos, one of the most beautiful places on earth.
In 1976 he had one of those “aha” moments that changes lives. Having graduated he was looking around for something he could do that would enable him to use his undoubted entrepreneurial skills. He decided to create a little business that would do all the fix-ups and home repairs all home owners need but which most of us are all-thumbs at doing. Gary had all the right stuff for business success. He was personable, “can-do” oriented, the man who told you what he would do… and then did it! That unstoppable American formula for success… where a person with a good idea and the determination to succeed helps others and earns big.
His first major break with his new firm — Big J Enterprises — was receiving a large contract from Intel’s expansion in Rio Rancho which increased Big J’s revenues to $38 million. Johnson was now a wealthy man, confronting one of the bedrock problems that all successful people must solve: how to find, train, motivate and keep good employees and do everything else you have to do to succeed. Always practical, Johnson went back to school, enrolling in a time management course. This helped him grow Big J into a big-time business with over 1000 employees. At that point, with all the money he and his family needed for life…he sold the business, so he could get started helping fix-up America, which had a host of home problems…. without the skills to solve them. Big J to the rescue…
“People Before Politics”.
Johnson entered New Mexico politics for the first time in 1994. He approached the state Republican Party with the (to them) absurd idea he should run for governor, wresting the state’s government from the entrenched Democratic establishment. They told him to take a hike and run for the state legislature, the most junior of positions.
But Johnson had what you need for success: an idea he believed in, the money to support his belief…. and a slogan that was more than mere words: “People before Politics”. It was just what New Mexico wanted to hear. Johnson became the giant-killer of New Mexico, defeating former Republican governor David Cargill in the Republican primary and incumbent Democratic governor Bruce King in the general election. New Mexico had itself a straight-talking man who said what he meant and meant what he said. It was a revelation to the home folks of Nuevo Mexico.
Johnson, to everybody’s surprise but his own, set about reshaping and reinventing New Mexico’s government. He evaluated what the state was doing by asking two sensible, “get to the bottom of it” questions: what are we spending our money on… and what are we getting in return?
Legislators from both parties and every bureaucrat in New Mexico did what they are good at doing, protecting themselves and their interests, sabotaging everything they could. They were, after all, the haves who took too much for the little they gave. Johnson was their worst nightmare. Mr. “Can Do” became Mr. “You Won’t”. He used his gubernatorial veto over and over again, vetoing more bills and appropriations than all other 49 U.S. governors combined. Yup, he meant what he said… And the people of New Mexico responded by re-electing him in 1998 with 55 percent of the vote. It was an astonishing bouquet from the people he was always honest to and fair; they realized he was about as good a governor as they could get. Politicians of the pandering ilk take notice.
Johnson was retired because of a two-term limit. (Another indication of what a silly idea that is. Let the people decide when to retire their officials.) This gifted, personable guy, with a resume as long as your arm (for instance he left New Mexico with a huge surplus) was at loose ends… for a couple of minutes.
Johnson’s “Our America Initiative”, Founded 2009.
Forced out of the governor’s chair, he responded by creating in 2009 the “Our America Initiative” , a nonprofit political advocacy committee that promotes common-sense business approaches to governing. Gary Johnson meant to do for the people of suffering, fed-up America what he had already done for the long-suffering people of New Mexico…
… which is why he found himself in chill and breezy Concord, New Hampshire on this April day.
He brought with him what has always distinguished the man: practical common- sense gleaned from proven business and high-level governing experience. More than that, he offers the kind of “let’s roll up our sleeves and solve this problem together” approach that is what people crave. Our problems, we know, are not insoluble so long as we work together. A man like Gary Johnson believes he’s the guy best able to work with Americans this way and so, one problem tackled after another, create the nation we want.
Frankly, this approach ought to play well in New Hampshire. The folks in the Granite State are pragmatic, “let’s get it done together” folks. As Gary Johnson goes door to door doing the retail politics winning the primary requires, he’ll find, I think, folks skeptical of course (they’re that way up north) but friendly, curious, and increasingly receptive. In short, this bright-eyed New Mexico boy, with his unfeigned interest in the people of New Hampshire and America could be the dark horse the GOP has been looking and hoping for in a large field which has so far failed to impress and inspire.
These New Hampshire folks take very seriously their task of scrutinizing each and every candidate, doing what every civic-minded American would do given the opportunity: to look carefully, ask thoughtfully, and come to their judgements independently. That is what they do and what their famous primary is for.
I’ll be surprised if he does not do well enough to take his message to other states. So, he decided to launch his campaign by achieving his first New Hampshire goal. That’s why he left Concord following his announcement and went to climb Tuckerman Ravine, a large glacial bowl on 6,288-foot Mount Washington, the tallest mountain in the Northeast.
Johnson’s climbed Mount Everest; Tuckerman Ravine was a “piece of cake”. He’s hoping this is a good omen for the primary. It could happen. The people of New Hampshire, after all, like astonishing the rest of us. We shall just have to wait and see…
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc. , providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses.
Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell http://HomeProfitCoach.com. Check out Commission Maniac -> http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=rb14eOHk

Pawlenty of Presidential Politics in the news!…or not!

up!  A GOP candidate did that yesterday! The media was elsewhere when Tim Pawlenty announced his candidacy  for the GOP presidential nomination. Is his running for President that much of a sleeper issue?  Does anybody care?
Columnist Dr. Jeffrey Lant, as usual, has some insight! Read and be entertained. Oh…and please comment when finished! Also read his article on New Hampshire.
It’s official. There is finally a real GOP candidate for 2012: ex-Governor Tim Pawlenty. Did anybody notice?
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Let me tell  you something about presidential candidates: the day they announce for the highest office in the land, they figure they’ll be the top story… their mug on the front page of America’s great dailies, their story featured on the three major commercial networks… and, of course, the object of endless glib commentary on Fox News and CNN.
For Pawlenty, the first announced Republican candidate, it just didn’t happen.
To be sure, there were really major stories being covered  March 21, 2011. Can you say nuclear reactors in Japan? That military dust-up in Libya? But even so, you would have thought Pawlenty would have gotten something.
And what’s got to irk Pawlenty good and plenty is that he has at least some credibility, not least that he was a moderately conservative governor (twice!) of a reliably Democratic state. When Pawlenty looks in the mirror, mirror on the wall… who’s the one he sees most of all? Can you say Ronald Reagan?
But Pawlenty got skunked… his Hollywood style introduction video ignored…  his message to America undelivered. What a revoltin’ development this is. If it had been Tim’s predecessor in the Minnesota governor’s office — colorful ex-wrestler and mouth man Jesse Ventura — you can bet there would have been coverage, lots of coverage.
Tim’s gotta wonder…
“Gentlemen prefer blondes” (1926),  Anita Loos said. In the sequel, she told us “But Gentlemen marry brunettes” (1928). Tim can only hope that he’s seen as the man America wants to marry. If only he can figure out how to get a date to strut his (good boy) stuff…
Minnesota… always the bridesmaid, never the bride.
Pity the state of Minnesota. It has had a respectable number of presidential candidates… but nary even a one-term president amongst them.
Harold Stassen was the hot stuff in 1938 when he was America’s youngest governor. He got a really bad case of Potomac Fever right away (1944) and never did get rid of it. He became a national  joke running for president over and over again, a (bad) joke. Minnesota cringed.
Then there was Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr., who actually got the Democrat’s nomination in 1968… and came within a hair of winning the presidency. “Tricky Dick” Nixon’s most important trick was getting the presidency that year. A profoundly decent man, Humphrey learned the hard way that loyalty (to Lyndon Johnson and his Vietnam policy) isn’t what gets you elected; hard headed realism is. Nixon had it… Hubert didn’t.
The next presidential candidate from Minnesota, Jimmy Carter’s vice president Walter Mondale had this fundamental decency and honesty, too, and it killed him.
Right out of the box Mondale, the very essence of the Minnesota boy next door, you know, the one who carries in your groceries with a smile and declines the tip, slaughtered himself. He told America the truth — that the deficit was unsustainable and there would have to be new taxes. (Deja vu all over again….)
I had to admire the man’s guts…  but you knew, right then, he was a goner. Ronald Reagan crushed him… and went on to GOP sainthood, the prototype of how to finesse the truth and become the Big Winner.
Get the picture?
Now there’s Timmy Pawlenty, and here’s what you need to know about him. His original career choice was… dentist.  I kid you not… and once you know it you can see him in white coat, dazzling smile, personable, confiding manner; the man who says “open wide”, “little pinch”, “spit here.”
He’d have been a cinch for president of the Minnesota Dental Association… and a lifetime achievement award from the Kiwanis.
What’s he bring to the table?
The problem with those Boy Scout types, the nice guys, is that nice is what they’ve got, all they’ve got. Timmie’s got likability all right but anything else?
His ascent.
He was born November 17, 1960, of German and Polish ancestry. You’ll hear about his teamster father; his mother who died of cancer when he was 15. And about his meat packing neighborhood with that all-pervasive dead meat smell. (Don’t mention that bit too much, Tim; it definitely puts people off. Ask not for whom the smell tolls… it tolls for thee.)
Born Roman Catholic, Pawlenty became an evangelical Christian… a fact he will leverage to the max, to get those all important conservative Republican and Tea Party supporters.  Powerful, they’ll demand  a hefty price.
Pawlenty’s political career shows what nice guys are capable of achieving. He was elected to the Egan, Minnesota city council in 1989, age 28. Elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 1992, he was re-elected five times and was chosen House Majority Leader when Republicans became the majority party in the State Legislature in 1998.
He won a hard fought victory in the Republican gubernatorial primary in 2002… then beat aggressive candidates from the Minnesota Democratic- Farmer-Labor Party and the Independence Party. He was re-elected in 2006. Impressive yes. Memorable no! And the high point of his rhetoric was: “We need to be a party of Sam’s Club, not just the country club.” Churchillian, he isn’t. And America likes its presidents to be masters of soaring speech.
Now the nicest guy aims at the highest office. Everyone will like him. Almost no one with think him the Great White Hope of America, and his poll numbers will always be anemic. Just as they are now.
You see Tim suffers from  Minnesotitis… the disease that takes boys next door and turns them into likable cogs in the wheel… always on the team, hardly ever the captain and never ever champion.  Leo Durocher summed up their plight in 1939 with his immortal line, “Nice guys finish last.” Tim Pawlenty is about to discover just how deflatingly true that is, as he joins the list of nice guys from Minnesota who couldn’t wow America.
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About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books.
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Why the New Hampshire presidential primary will and must remain the nation’s first.

I am used to Iowa and New Hampshire vetting the candidates for all of us. Then South Carolina gives the south a say.
I think it works but never thought of it in the terms Dr. Lant presents below. Do you have an opinion on this? If so let me know. I’ve included New Hampshire’s state song as the song of the day
Thanks
Why the New Hampshire presidential primary will and must remain the nation’s first.
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
They’re at it again.
Picking on the little guy.
Telling you you don’t deserve it… trying to take away your chief claim to fame and fortune.
But this little guy is shrewd, he’s been through all this before, and will, I predict and hope, remain the little guy we want to hold the very first presidential primary every four years.
You are the State of New Hampshire… and I, for one, though from one of the big states with a lackluster primary, support you and salute you for the supremely smart ways you use to retain your crucial #1 primary position.
Unlike the covetous folks from Florida, Michigan, even California who don’t know you. I do; New Hampshire after all is only 30 minutes away from Cambridge, Massachusetts. I know just how tenacious, inventive, clever you are…. and just how much you value and love your place in America’s political history.
You are New Hampshire… and no one is going to take your beloved presidential primary away from you, though this year as always they are trying like the dickens to do just that.
Some background
The first New Hampshire presidential primary was held in 1916. On the Republican side a slate of unpledged delegates was elected. The reigning GOP establishment ordinarily did this when there was no sitting Republican president (like Calvin Coolidge in 1924); they could use these delegates to bargain.
The first named person to win the New Hampshire primary was President Woodrow Wilson. He then went on win a second term.
The primary didn’t begin to take on its current significance until 1952. The Republicans had been out of power since 1932 and were desperate to get the White House back. Senator Robert Taft of Ohio (“Mr. Republican”), son of President William Howard Taft, was expected to net the nomination. But a group of Republicans, including twice defeated (1944, 1948) presidential candidate Thomas E. Dewey, were sure Taft was a loser. They wanted General Dwight David Eisenhower.
Eisenhower was what America loves, a real bona fide hero, scandal free, a household name. “I like Ike,” said the famous campaign button… and everybody else did too.
So likeable, so electable, was Ike that both the Democrats and the Republicans went after him as their preferred presidential candidate. Having simplified its ballot access rules in 1949, New Hampshire was ready to make history in 1952.
Eisenhower
However, was Eisenhower a Democrat… or a Republican? No one, maybe even the General himself, knew…. President Truman, however, offered to forego another run in favor of Eisenhower if the Democrats could get him. The Republicans also wanted him. Eisenhower chose the GOP; Truman threw his hat in again though he had spirited competition in folksy Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver. New Hampshire was poised to make history… and it did.
First Kefauver beat Truman, thereby ending the President’s political career, sending him back, embittered, to Independence, Missouri and his nagging mother- in-law, who still thought he hadn’t been good enough for her dowdy daughter Bess. Then Ike pulverized Taft. New Hampshire woke up to the fact that it was Important, Very, Very Important. And they have never forgotten, making history over and over again; each time enraging other states… who don’t like the power and glory of the pip-squeak.
They say, envy and jealousy unpleasantly apparent, that New Hampshire is too small to have this honor…. its population insufficiently representative of America… its kind of personal politics outmoded in the age of mass media.
New Hampshire’s clipped, New England response? “Nuts” (The celebrated reply of U.S. General McAuliffe when asked in 1944 to surrender.) Here is their more complete response.
On the matter of retail politics being outmoded, New Hampshire says that it provides an absolutely crucial service for both candidates and America. Candidates, they rightly say, need time to perfect their message and learn how to interact with people… and run a better campaign. They learn these skills in New Hampshire and from its citizens, who, remember, tutor the candidates every four years.
Folks in New Hampshire pepper the candidates with every kind of query and remark; the better to know them, the better to educate them. Its citizens come to see and know the candidates well, weighing their merits and demerits, scrutinizing them up close and personal.
Candidates who are not known before the New Hampshire primary are able to use foot power and meagre campaign budgets to gain adherents and become effective persuaders. They couldn’t do this elsewhere, in other states; there the logistics work against this approach.
New Hampshire, advocates of other, bigger states, aver is unrepresentative of America. This criticism roils its citizens.
Have we not paid America’s taxes?
Have we not fought America’s wars?
Have the sons and, yes, the daughters, too, of our Granite State not died to maintain the nation?
Have we not helped America by conscientiously scrutinizing each and every candidate helping to select the best of what this great country offers?
Is all this not enough to keep the institution we have created, protected, built?
No, these covetous, big states say, it is not enough… and never will be. You are small and weak, New Hampshire, we shall eat you and take the presidential primary you have fashioned, with all its emoluments and perquisites, the money, the fame, the storied place in our nation’s legend.
New Hampshire’s ultimate weapon.
For just such states and circumstances, New Hampshire has on its books a purposeful law. This strict law, universally popular and supported by every Granite State citizen of whatever party, mandates that the New Hampshire primary must and shall be held at least one week before ANY other state’s presidential primary.
In this law, the mouse has well and truly roared.
This is why, about a year from today (or earlier if necessary to maintain its primacy) the good citizens of New Hampshire will trek through the snow and mud to exercise one of the chief rights of our democracy; to advance some, to rusticate others, with grave deliberation and forethought. It is New Hampshire’s pride to do so… and they will do whatever is necessary to keep it, “Live Free or Die.”
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