On January 19, 2010, in a speech from the White House yard, the president sank to a new low. In a speech more appropriate to the back door of a mansion than the Rose Garden, he resorted to the age-old technique of begging… not on one’s own behalf – that would be embarrassing – but on the behalf of family, friends, or other worthies. I’m reminded of the gaggles of panhandlers famous in the piazzas and town squares of Europe. When last I visited my ancestral home town of Pizzo Calabro, I was warned to beware of Calabria’s omnipresent families...