The 3 a.m. phone call

Posted at 11:12 AM on March 6, 2008 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)

Much has been made of the TV ad from Hillary Clinton about those 3 a.m. phone calls at the White House, signaling the start of something big. So how important is 3 a.m. in the annals of American history?

Feel free to submit your own but here are a few of the major U.S. news stories of the last several decades and the time a phone call might've been made to the presidential bedroom:

6/5/67 - The six-day war begins - 7:15 p.m.

4/11/70 - "Houston, we have a problem." - 2:13 p.m.

8/27/78 - The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan - 9:15 a.m.

11/4/79 - Iran militants takeover the U.S. embassy in Tehran. - 12 a.m.

4/18/82 - U.S. Marine compound in Beirut bombed. - 10:20 p.m.

12/20/89 - U.S. invades Panama - 1 a.m.

4/19/95 - Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City bombed - 10:01 a.m.

8/7/98 - U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania bombed. - 3:45 a.m.

10/12/2000 -- Attack on the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen - 2:22 a.m.

9/11/2001 - Attack on World Trade Center - 8:46 a.m.

3/20/03 - War in Iraq begins. - 9:45 p.m.

8/29/2005 - Hurricane Katrina makes landfall. - 5:10 a.m.

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Comments (3)

those are some fancy pajamas. and she wears a necklace to bed too.

Posted by c | March 6, 2008 11:21 AM

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From the looks of it 3am is about the time things go horribly wrong in the Mid-East timezones.

Posted by corwin | March 6, 2008 3:08 PM

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Given that Vice President Cheney has apparently made his office more powerful and influential
than the President's, one wonders what Mr. Obama and Ms. Clinton are achieving in their
continued efforts for the presidential nomination.

Obama consistently polls higher than Clinton against McCain. Clinton displays the "attack dog" characteristics desired in vice presidential candidates. And it keeps Bill out of the Oval Office.

What's not to like?

Posted by LimaBN | March 7, 2008 7:01 AM

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