The Banquet and the Burrito

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The press class in that ballroom was, for the duration of the threat, physically bound to the men they had long demonized. Cabinet officials and reporters were under the same tables. The political opposition between the two groups was suspended for the length of the attempt by the simple physical fact that both groups were inside the kill radius of the gunman. The physical fact of having been under the same tables, in the same costume, surviving the same attempt, is going to influence the next several years of Washington politics in interesting ways.

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On the Monday afternoon after the assassination attempt, on the South Lawn, at the beehive the White House keeps, the President opened his hand and held a bee in his bare palm. The King of England leaned in to see. The Queen watched from beside him. The First Lady pressed her hand flat against her chest. The bee sat in the center of the President’s palm.

It did not sting him.

The composure that preternaturally turns to miss the bullet is the composure that holds the bee. They are the same composure.

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