Commander In Chief

WASHINGTON - The overwhelming congressional support voted for President Bush on the war - by 392-11 in the House and 99-0 in the Senate - is a measure of the recognition that once American forces go into combat, Congress has no alternative but to close ranks behind them, and him. But the debates that ensued over the wording of the latest war resolutions revealed continuing strong doubts, especially among Democrats, about Mr. Bush's political wisdom and...

President Barack Obama awarded Navy's football team with the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy on Thursday afternoon in the East Room at the White House. Here are the president's remarks: Hello, everybody.  (Applause.)  Hello.  Please, everybody have a seat.  Well, good afternoon.  Welcome to the White House.  I want to start by recognizing Coach Ken Niumatalolo, my fellow Hawaiian, for being here once again -- where is he?  There he is right here.  (Laughter.)  Hard to miss him.  Give him a big round of applause.  (Applause.)

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton may not have served in the armed forces, but he has been commander in chief for two years now and has learned how to handle an insubordinate Marine.The presidential put-down came at the expense of Oliver L. North, the former Marine colonel and Iran-contra figure who is the Republican candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in Virginia.Mr. North asserted recently that Mr. Clinton had offered former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder an ambassadorship in return for Mr. Wilder's endorsement of incumbent Democrat Sen. Charles S. Robb.

Rarely, if ever, will a game between a team with a modest 7-4 record and its 2-9 opponent be as meaningful as the one scheduled to play here at Lincoln Financial Field on Dec. 8. Then again, this year's meeting between Navy and Army has more at stake than usual. It marks the first time since 2005 that the Commander in Chief's Trophy — given to the winner of the round robin played out among the nation's service academies — will be handed to the team that emerges victorious from this iconic rivalry.

As Bosnia heats up, we see more proof that what goes around does eventually come around. For our nation's president and, unfortunately, also the armed forces.In every one of these services, from the NCO schools for the youngest corporals to the command-and-staff schools for the officers of flag rank, the first law of leadership is laid down early and often:Never ask your people to do anything you would not be willing to do, to take any risk you would not take yourself.The present commander in chief, sad to say, does that every time his orders put any American soldier, sailor, airman or Marine in harm's way. It is the main reason he is held in such low regard throughout the armed services, why he is morally crippled in any attempt to lead them.

THERE IS A NEW WOMAN ON television this fall. Defined more by intellect and competence than by physical beauty or her relationship to men, she belies depictions of women that have dominated prime-time television for more than 50 years. In several of the new fall programs, including ABC's Commander in Chief or Fox's Bones, the New Woman can be found in the Oval Office and the most rarefied realms of science and math, places few female characters have gone before. Yet, this empowered New Woman owes her existence in part to five inarguably sexy suburban housewives living on a TV cul-de-sac called Wisteria Lane, the five neighbors of ABC's Desperate Housewives.

50 years ago The brigade of midshipmen from the Naval Academy will join in welcoming a 1905 alumnus from the Pacific when Fleet Commander Chester W. Nimitz, commander in chief of the Pacific fleet, returns to Washington. The mids will serve as an honor guard at the Capitol. -- The Sun, Oct. 4, 1945.The separation center at Fort George G. Meade has discharged its 50,000th serviceman, Tech 4/g George H. Smith of Greensboro. -- The Sun, Oct. 21, 1945.

Yeah, so maybe she's tiny enough to shop at GAP Kids. And true, she's got enough sass to give figure skating's top brass a bundle of nightmares. But is there any Olympian as cool as Sasha Cohen? Doubtful. After all, Friday night, there she was, grinning away on a cold Utah night, handing President Bush her cell phone -- in the middle of the opening ceremony, no less! -- asking if he wanted to chat with her mom. She even shared a smirk with the Commander in Chief in the process. It's really no surprise.

50 Years Ago* Navy defeated Penn State at Annapolis in football by a score of 55-14, the most points registered by either team in their long football series. -- The Sun, Oct. 8, 1944.* Governor O'Conor announced that so far 22,727 absentee ballots have been received at the State House in Annapolis from Maryland servicemen and women serving in all parts of the world. Some 848 ballots are registered from Anne Arundel County. -- The Sun, Oct. 16, 1944.* Rear Admiral L. D. McCormick of Annapolis was decorated with the Legion of Merit and Capt.

Hail to the chief -- Commander in Chief that is, the new ABC series starring Academy Award-winner Geena Davis as the first female president of the United States. As drama, tonight's pilot has its flaws, but it is, nevertheless, one of those electrifying TV productions that instead of simply seeking to divert or amuse, challenges viewers to imagine a reality other than the one they have been conditioned to accept. For all the talk of television "dumbing down" its audience, such programs have the capacity to do exactly the opposite as they create a different vision of American life and invite millions of viewers to spend an hour exploring that new reality each week.

In describing the emotions that will accompany his players onto the field Saturday when they play Air Force at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, Navy coach Ken Niumatalo joked at this week's luncheon that the Midshipmen get so excited for the Falcons that "they forget their parents' names. " Air Force quarterback Tim Jefferson, whose two-touchdown heroics last season in Colorado Springs, Colo., helped end Navy's seven-game winning streak over the Falcons and a 15-game service academy winning streak with a 14-6 victory, said this week that "your adrenaline never leaves you, you're always jacked up throughout the game.

President Obama chose the time, method, and strategy for addressing the terrorist threat posed by Osama bin Laden. He was responsible for the decision, and he was accountable for the results. No matter what point of view you might hold, this president must be credited for effective leadership and management as a commander-in-chief, consoler-in-chief, comedian-in-chief and educator-in-chief. Very few individuals could deal with a weather-related catastrophic situation on Friday morning, provide an inspirational speech at a college commencement on Friday afternoon, attend and actively participate in a formal White House Correspondent's dinner on Saturday evening, play golf on Sunday morning and all the while manage a major event impacting the safety of civilized society by Sunday night.

Normally on display in the rotunda of the Naval Academy's Bancroft Hall, the Commander in Chief's Trophy this week rested smack dab in the center of the football team's locker room. Conspicuous placement of the hardware — presented annually to the service academy with the best head-to-head record among the three — was at the top of coach Ken Niumatalolo's motivational checklist in advance of the Midshipmen's game at Air Force on Saturday. It also was a rare instance this decade in which the trophy changed locations.

As he prepared to resign his commission as commander in chief of the Continental Army, Gen. George Washington traveled to Annapolis. While staying at Mann's Tavern, he drafted the speech he would give on Dec. 23, 1783, to Congress, which was then meeting in the Old Senate Chamber in what is today the State House. "Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of action and bid a fine and affectionate farewell to this august body," he wrote. Washington did not seem to consider higher office, concluding with "I take my leave of the employment of public life.

Navy fullback Adam Ballard echoed the sentiments of every senior on the Midshipmen football team yesterday when he said: "We don't want to be the ones to lower the bar." Navy, you see, has started a tradition - a four-year tradition now - of winning seasons, going to bowl games and being the winner of the Commander in Chief's Trophy that goes to the team winning the series among the three service academies. "The thinking here has changed a lot since my freshman year," senior center Antron Harper said.

BOSTON -- Remember when we were told that a woman who wanted the top job had to be twice as good as a man? The first woman in any post would be inspected with a microscope and dismissed for the smallest flaw. Now the first female president of United States of Television has failed to get a second term, excuse me, a second season, because she was too good to be true. Is this progress? Or is it yet another double bind? This week is the last episode of Commander in Chief. Geena Davis' star turn as the first female president was heralded as a breakthrough last fall.

Navy fullback Adam Ballard echoed the sentiments of every senior on the Midshipmen football team yesterday when he said: "We don't want to be the ones to lower the bar." Navy, you see, has started a tradition - a four-year tradition now - of winning seasons, going to bowl games and being the winner of the Commander in Chief's Trophy that goes to the team winning the series among the three service academies. "The thinking here has changed a lot since my freshman year," senior center Antron Harper said.

AT THE END of the first war with Iraq, in 1991, American intelligence agencies were caught by surprise when it became clear just how close Saddam Hussein was to developing a nuclear weapon. Understandably, they weren't going to make that mistake again, so when the idea took hold that the Iraqi dictator was once more pursuing weapons of mass destruction in the early years of this decade, who would have been so foolish as to downplay the threat? Virtually the entire intelligence community jumped over the cliff together on that one, and now a commission named by President Bush has helpfully pointed out that they were all "dead wrong."

CHICAGO -- Sen. Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, thinks President Bush broke the law with his secret program to eavesdrop on Americans, and he wants Congress to censure Mr. Bush. He's right about the lawbreaking but wrong to think censure is the answer. That might give Americans the impression that Congress is something more than a supine slave of partisan interests. Nothing could be further from the truth. Republicans on Capitol Hill, presented with the censure resolution, practically trampled each other to prove their slobbering devotion to the president.

LOS ANGELES -- There's that old Canadian joke," Donald Sutherland is saying, "about the Brit, the Frenchman and the Canadian, who are going to be executed. And they're given a last wish. The Brit says he'd like a cup of tea with milk and sugar. The Canadian says he'd like 15 minutes to talk about Canadian identity. And the Frenchman says he'd like to be shot before the Canadian." Sutherland, who has played his share of iconic Americans -- Hawkeye Pierce in Robert Altman's M*A*S*H, the father in Ordinary People, the pot-befogged professor in Animal House and, right now, nefarious House speaker Nathan Templeton in TV's Commander in Chief -- is himself Canadian.