Commentary

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gets questioned about her political future wherever she goes. She says she plans to get off the "high-wire" of politics after she wraps up her tenure as secretary of state, but her trips sometimes feel like she's campaigning — for America's image and for her own legacy. NPR's Michele Kelemen has this behind-the-scenes reporter's notebook of Clinton's most recent swing through Asia.

Clinton certainly has stamina. She's traveled more than 770,000 miles, meeting leaders of dozens of countries. But she really comes to life in those events that rarely make news.

This weekend is commencement for spring graduates at both Colorado State University and the University of Colorado. The University of Northern Colorado graduated their spring class last weekend. Congratulations to all of the graduates!

Most Americans give politicians low marks for sincerity and see every decision they reach as a cold, poll-driven calculation. Often enough, it is. Politicians, after all, have asked pollsters where they should spend their summer vacations.

Yet when pundits and interest groups urge politicians to change their minds and they do, they're assailed for flip-flopping.

Both President Obama and Mitt Romney have faced that charge several times, on several issues, including the president's new support for gay marriage, and Romney's current opposition to abortion. Journalists always have to be skeptical. But I wonder if it's too easy to automatically see political calculation as the only force that changes a politician's mind or heart.

Is there anything more frustrating than seeing your perfect green lawn suddenly sprouting with yellow dandelions? They're pretty but pesky, and controlling them isn’t an easy thing.

Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

A story about Mitt Romney's behavior in high school has his campaign in the defensive. The Washington Post has published a long story that details incidents of bullying by Romney when he was a senior at the Tony Cranbrook boys prep school in Michigan. Five former classmates spoke about an incident when Romney led a posse that targeted a student with long bleached-blond hair, tackled him, pinned him to the ground and hacked off his hair as he cried and screamed for help.

It's the first topic for our weekly political chat with columnists E.J. Dionne of The Washington Post, who joins us today from Pittsburg, and David Brooks of the New York Times here in the studio.

DAVID BROOKS: Good to be here.