1960

Two of our bravest classmates, Steve Carroll and Shelly Gisser, were willing to put their reputations for political acumen on the line by predicting the results of the Democratic primary in their respective states 10 days in advance of the March 4 votes. Steve, who lives in Baytown, Texas, outside Houston, said he thought Barack Obama would win Texas. Shelly, who lives in Pepper Pike, Ohio, outside Cleveland, predicted Hillary Clinton would win Ohio.

Of course, by the time this reaches you, the results will be known.

Steve and Shelly are, like most of us, fascinated observers of this years scintillating presidential election campaign. A few classmates have already been actual participants in the struggle.

Bob Farmer, the national treasurer of four past Democratic presidential campaigns, wrote an op-ed page article in The Washington Post January 8, the day of the New Hampshire primary, announcing his switch from Obama to Clinton. Bob said he had concluded that Clinton, rather than Obama, had the best chance to resist what he predicted will be a vicious Republican attack campaign this fall. (Bob served in the Clinton administration as U.S. consul general in Bermuda).

Tom Trimarco, an aide to Mitt Romney when he was governor of Massachusetts, serving as a manager of the state budget, said he had volunteered in the last days of Romney's New Hampshire campaign and had contributed the maximum permitted to him. Tom said he had been disappointed to observe that Romney's Mormon religion had apparently cost him heavily with some voters. After Romney quit the race and endorsed Sen. John McCain, Tom, when he talked to me, said he felt like a Republican for Obama, and predicted this would be a strong Democratic year.

Tony Roisman sent messages to his friends late in 2007 endorsing John Edwards for president and saying he was disappointed Edwards never gained traction in the race. Tony then backed Clinton, but would vote "two or three times" for Obama if he got the nomination.

Mort Kondracke, a longtime political reporter and commentator for Fox News, said he did not agree with Bob Farmer that Obama would be unable to effectively resist Republican attacks. He opined that Obama could well be a stronger Democratic candidate than Hillary. Mort, by the way, said this would be his last presidential campaign as a commentator, and he may now write a book.

Peter Crumbine, an elected selectman and deputy mayor of Greenwich, Connecticut, said that as a Republican he had first supported Rudolph Giuliani and then shifted to McCain when Giuliani bowed out. He predicted Obama would win the Democratic nomination.

This note will get to you at the end of April, just after the deadline for signing up and paying to come to our 70th birthday celebration in Boston. But Gene Kohn assures me that he and co-chair Dick Foley will still seek to get someone in at the same price if they are contacted by email. Gene is at jgkohn@rcn.com and Dick is at dfoley@ewingfoley.com.

5522 Nagle Ave., Sherman Oaks, CA91401; (818) 994-9231; kennethireich@yahoo.com