Guess who's on the phone?

At the moment I'm fielding calls for a company downtown. I started only yesterday. Today I got a call from a guy I'd never heard of, John Spellman. As per my instructions, I asked what company he was from. He said, "Well, I'm trying to reach the Director of the company, and I'm the President of the Board of Directors." I immediately went downstairs to look for the director. On the way, one of my co-workers half-joked that I should definitely hurry, as "the Guv'ner" was on the line. I thought it an odd joke.

Till I looked John Spellman up. Turns out it wasn't a joke. John Spellman was governor of the State of Washington from 1981 to 1985. Now he's President of the Board of this nonprofit.

It looks like there are only six degrees of separation in politics too. Two days prior I just read up on the last time a nomination had been really close, as the Clinton-Obama nomination may be at the convention. That was in 1976, when Ford beat out Reagan by 1187 to 1070 delegates, in part because Reagan had taken the liberal Richard Schweiker as his running mate, a full three weeks before the convention. Ford took Bob Dole, rather than Daniel Evans. Evans was Governor of Washington at the time. In 1983 Governor Spellman appointed Governor Evans to be Senator for Washington State- a move the Democrats decried because Evans was replacing Democratic Senator Henry Jackson. In the special election three weeks later Senator Evans beat out his challenger Congressman Mike Lowry. But in 1992 Mike Lowry became governor, and in 1993 he appointed his previous bitter rival Governor Evans to the U Dub Board of Regents. Which I just think is a very heartwarming story of political reconciliation- exactly what Obama is calling us to as a nation.

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