January 11, 2018--In A Matter of Minutes

After three excruciating hours of trying to stay awake during the Golden Globes--the pervasive feeling of self-congratulations exhausting my willingness or ability to endure--suddenly on screen there was Oprah! 

She was wearing serious eyeglasses so I assumed we were in for a treat. She wasn't about to announce cars for everyone but something better: Hope.

An immediate feeling of hope that she was not running for president but was about to be inaugurated and thereby release us from our long national nightmare.

Immediately, except for the Fox News channel, all of media lit up. They were already talking about what a Trump-Oprah contest would look like and, since they assumed Oprah would win, who she would name to key positions in her administration.  

Forget getting down to measuring the drapes in the Oval Office, would Dr. Oz become Surgeon General? What about Dr. Phil and best friend Gayle King? A new cabinet position, Secretary of Mental Health, for the doctor and maybe chief of staff for her pal? What about Stedman? First Escort?

These feelings of deliverance persist so I should try to calm down and take this seriously. Unlike Trump Ms. Winfrey is an accomplished and self-made billionaire. A real billionaire. And she could have the right personal qualities to be a healing president. Most important, she could actually win. Which, considering the alternative, is a very big deal. During her presidency I could hold my nose for all the self-esteem building preaching. Over my political lifetime I've held my nose for a lot worse.

It took all of eight minutes for this wave of enthusiasm to build during an otherwise dreary awards show. Going viral doesn't begin to tell the story. We almost elected a president in those few minutes.

Then on Tuesday, on live TV, direct from the Cabinet Room in the White House, there was that bipartisan 55-minute meeting about immigration President Trump held with Republican and Democratic members of Congress. 

During meetings of this kind the press is usually allowed to be in the room for a few minutes of innocuous schmoozing. They are then dismissed and the meeting occurs behind closed doors. Tuesday was different.

The purpose of allowing the press to send out a video feed of the meeting was not to showcase transparency but to allow the country and world to see that Trump was in control of his mental faculties. That he was capable of acting like an adult--in this case talking and listening--not the nine-year-old he was represented as being in Michael Wolff's new book, Fire and Fury. With Trump embodying both the fury and the fire.

The subject was DACA, the move to allow a path to citizenship for the 800,000 young people who, through no fault of their own, were brought to America illegally. This should not be too controversial an issue since many Republicans in Congress favor it. Nonetheless, most of the GOP base of voters resist agreeing to even this commonsensical compromise. So it was actually refreshing to see Trump, who has demagogued the subject of "illegals," mostly coherent and seemingly on board for a quick and just fix. 

And, beyond that, more surprisingly, Trump, who wants to build the Wall and deport pretty much anyone here either illegally or without having undergone what he calls "extreme vetting," Trump appeared open to an even more ambitious solution to the problem--a possible path to legal status for all10 million illegal residents. He spoke about "taking the heat," the political heat for such a tricky issue.

Was this simply telling whoever's in the room what he thinks they want to hear? Perhaps. But, then, maybe not, since a version of amnesty is not any Republican's favorite subject.

So, what's going on with this?

It could be that the "liberal," New-York Trump some people thought they were electing has finally appeared. Perhaps made easier for him with the decline and fall of his Svengali, Steve Bannon. If so, for moderates of all persuasions, this could be a rare dose of good news.

Minimally, he once again managed to change the subject when seemingly cornered--no one was talking about the Wolff book, most of the chatter about the dossier and Mueller was on the back burner, he dispelled some of the talk about the need to get ready to roll out the 25th Amendment, and even Oprah was pushed from the headlines. Minimally, as a tactic, this performance was politically adept. 

Rona suggested that perhaps Trump was able to put on such a good show because he was on camera. His favorite place to be. 

If so, let's set up cameras in the Oval Office, Cabinet Room, and in the room in the residence where he watches TV. In other words, have him on camera 24/7.

The first year of his presidency, or in TV terms, the first season, which ends in 10 days has been Steve Bannon & Friends. This coming season, let's hope it will be Oprah.