I have to confess, I am not a collector.  I don’t save stamps or coins or autographs. I don’t keep old programs from plays or ticket stubs.  Well, not usually.

Seems that put away in an old wallet, long since forgotten, was the ticket stub to the Beatles very first concert in the U.S., 50 years ago today. The picture you see above is that ticket. I had just turned the ripe old age of 16 and went to the concert with my best friend, Forrest Church. That night, a couple of nerdy guys could even get dates!

Girls did outnumber boys at the Washington Coliseum and the screaming did drown out the music, for sure, but it didn’t matter. We knew all the words. We had been singing the songs for weeks and came off the excitement of the Beatles’ “Ed Sullivan Show” performance just two days before.

[Check out our gallery of political cartoons.]

Forrest and I were into music and would line up to get the newest releases but we were also into politics.  His father was a Senator, mine worked in the JFK White House.

The previous two months since Nov. 22, 1963 were pretty rough for our country and for two political kids growing up in Washington D.C. For our generation, the Beatles lifted us up, they helped give us an outlet, they provided us with a reason to be young again. The age of innocence was over with the events of Dallas, but we were still pretty young and pretty innocent.

Vietnam had not really begun to seriously enter our consciousness, the civil rights struggle was building, the turmoil of the 60’s was just starting.

The Beatles took the kids by storm but they also took the country and our parents by storm  —  we had protest music gaining in popularity with Dylan and Baez and Peter Paul & Mary; we had blues and rock ‘n roll and Presley, but the timing and staying power of the Beatles produced a wave that carried us out of the despair of Nov. 22. It lasted through the decade of the 1960s and, in fact, helped define the protests and the turbulence of that time.

A local D.C. disk jockey named Carroll James managed to get a copy of the hit record “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and played it incessantly on WWDC radio. He was the MC at the concert at the Coliseum on Feb. 11, 1964 and he played a big role in getting the Beatles to Washington.

[Check out our special report: The Beatles 50 Years Later]

Without Twitter, or Facebook, or cell phones, their music spread like a wild fire. Later, Carroll became a VoiceOver talent and did many of my political commercials up until his death in 1997. We loved talking about the “old” days when it all started.

I am glad we had the Beatles and I am glad we are able to celebrate them 50 years later.  I am glad that they were a part of our generation’s coming of age and that they lifted us out of that tough time.

I am glad I still have that ticket and those memories of my best friend for nearly half a century, Forrest Church. He sadly didn’t reach the age of 64, but for the two us we will always have the Beatles. They made us feel young, when we needed it.

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February 11, 2014, 03:03 pm

Two very big concerns for Republicans

A Public Policy Polling survey found only one in three Kentucky voters would want Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., in the 2016 presidential race.

The Republicans just can’t get enough. More and more Lone Rangers are out there deciding that they will be in the klieg lights to respond to President Obama’s State of the Union Address. 

The “official” responder, if that notion even still applies, will be Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington state. She will get the network air-time immediately following the president’s address to a joint session of congress. Since the Republicans have a serious and continuing “women problem,” this probably makes sense. Better than Mike Huckabee, right?

But, not to be out-done, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, will be this year’s illustrious tea party responder. This will follow on the heels of Michele “looking at the wrong camera” Bachmann in 2011, Herman “the pizza man” Cain in 2012 and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul last year, who will stay in the limelight and give another response this year all on his own.

[See a collection of political cartoons on the tea party.]

And let’s not forget the pre-SOTU activities by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. He didn’t even want to wait for the speech to respond. Thus, a pre-emptive strike was his tactic du jour.

I get that political parties have trouble speaking with one voice, but this is ridiculous. Why put forth this collection of your worst spokespeople (I won’t pre-judge Rodgers) and muddle your message. I think this is called putting your worst foot forward.

The latest Washington Post poll shows that a miniscule 19 percent have confidence that Republicans will make the right decisions for the country. So my question is, why would Republican leadership allow this free-for-all?

[See a collection of political cartoons on the Republican Party.]

To quote Republican Mark McKinnon from today’s New York Times:

“There is no clear leadership in the Republican Party right now, no clear direction or message, and no way to enforce discipline,” said Mark McKinnon, a veteran Republican strategist who has become an outspoken critic of his party. “And because there’s a vacuum, and no shortage of cameras, there are plenty of actors happy to audition.”

There you have it.

As Goldilocks said, not too hot, not too cold but just right. President Obama was not overly political or focused on scoring points in his State of the Union address tonight, but rather focused on a vision of the future and a respect for the past. From the shout out to Speaker John Boehner at the beginning to the truly unifying and emotional end with Sgt. Cory Remsburg, the president struck the right tone.

I have been watching State of the Union speeches for 50 years and I can not remember a more poignant moment. Ronald Reagan citing Lenny Skutnik who helped rescue passengers in a cold icy Potomac after a plane crash used to be the standard, but this far surpassed it in the chamber and in living rooms across America.

[Check out our editorial cartoons on President Obama.]

Strong and serious, yet sprinkled with humor, the president once again showed Americans why they like him and believe in his policies.

This was about real people and real problems and real solutions. Not empty rhetoric.

This was one of his best speeches and best presentations. It’s a lot to move forward with, whether you are a Democrat of Republican.