SYS-CON Media headquarters is located at the two story marble building where President Richard Nixon maintained his offices between November 1988 and April 1994, at the time of his death. He spent a good portion of every day in this building, deep in his writings. He was visited here by a parade of national and international figures, including President Ronald Reagan. A plaque was erected in the lobby of the building by Mario Paul Perillo of Perillo Tours (you may remember the late Mr. Perillo's "Mr. Italy" TV commercials from the 1980s) in recognition of the important work the President did for peace and freedom throughout the world during those years.

President Ronald Reagan visits President Richard Nixon on May 12, 1992 in his office, in this building

This Independence Day week I was traveling through Europe, where I attended a speech by Thomas M. DeFrank on board "Crystal Serenity" in Venice, Italy. Actually he had two talks on two separate days; in his first talk he went over his new book: "Write It When I'm Gone - Remarkable Off-the-Record Conversations with Gerald R. Ford" which I read. We learn from the book that Ford knew Nixon was on his way out from his Presidency and he would be the next President long before it became apparent. In 1974 DeFrank, then a young correspondent for Newsweek, was interviewing Ford when the Vice President blurted this out to him, came around his desk, grabbed DeFrank's tie, told him he could not leave the room until he promised not to publish it until Ford died.

Tom DeFrank with Fuat Kircaali, author of this blog, on July 4, 2008,
in Venice, Italy

Also in the book, DeFrank writes about Ford's opinion of Bill Clinton's addiction to women. Ford says about Clinton: "He's sick - he's got an addiction. He needs treatment. He's sick. You know there is treatment for this kind of addiction. A lot of men have gone through the treatment with a lot of success. But he won't do it, because he is in denial."

DeFrank saved his thoughts on the upcoming election for a separate speech which he gave the next day. "If Obama wins, he will win by a landslide margin. If McCain wins, it will be a very small margin," thinks DeFrank.

I ran into Tom in the elevator later in the week, where his son Andrew took our picture above.

As a registered republican who participated in Bush / Cheney fund raisers including President's Dinner, the chances are I will vote for Senator Obama in the upcoming elections unless he creates a Howard Dean or an Elliott Spitzer moment between now and November.