Special Olympics competitor Kolan McConiughey has offered President Obama a perfect public relations opportunity: He’s challenged the president to a bowling match. According to celebrity news site TMZ, McConiughey has bowled three perfect games (scoring 300) and averages 266, compared with Obama’s 129 (and my own high score of 11 — I can only imagine […]
March 20, 2009 – 10:12 am
President Obama apologized to Nancy Reagan for a wisecrack about seances. He apologized for last night’s thoughtless “Special Olympics” jibe on the Tonight Show. He has also “taken responsibility” for the AIG fiasco. Earlier, he took responsibility and apologized for several missteps in the appointment process. There is a lesson here for every corporate executive. […]
March 19, 2009 – 11:03 pm
President Obama rolled an ugly gutter ball during his Tonight Show appearance. ABC’s Jake Tapper explains: The first appearance by a sitting president on “The Tonight Show” may well end up being the last. President Obama, in his taping with Jay Leno Thursday afternoon, attempted to yuk it up with the funnyman, and ended up insulting the […]
Former president Bush (sigh) in the news again today, as an announcement was made about his upcoming book, tentatively called Decision Points. The memoir will not be a chronological history of Bush’s life and experiences in the Oval Office. Rather, it will highlight significant decisions he made personally and politically. According to the publisher’s press release: […]
Nice bit of rhetoric from President Obama in Costa Mesa last night, as reported in today’s Mike Allen Playbook. On the AIG situation (sorry, “outrage”), Obama said: Listen, I’ll take responsibility. I’m the president. So — we didn’t draft these contracts. And we’ve got a lot on our plate. But it is appropriate when you’re […]
Further on the perils of executive teleprompting — the Irish Prime Minister was embarrassed yesterday as he launched into his remarks at the White House St. Patrick’s Day reception, only to discover, to his mortification, that he was reading the President’s speech. President Obama tried to help him recover, saying as he stepped to the […]
Former president George W. Bush (still gets me choked up) gave his first post-White House speech yesterday, regaling invited guests in Alberta (the Texas of Canada) with stories about being president, about not being president, and about all the big topics you would expect in a GWB speech (Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo, oil). Protestors, of course, made an […]
March 16, 2009 – 11:29 am
ABC News is out today with some pretty striking results from its survey of Iraqis’ opinions about life in their country: While deep difficulties remain, the advances are remarkable. Eighty-four percent of Iraqis now rate security in their own area positively, nearly double its August 2007 level. Seventy-eight percent say their protection from crime is […]
March 14, 2009 – 11:57 am
The Washington Post reports on President Obama’s “inherited” tic in an article today. It begins: In his inaugural address, President Obama proclaimed “an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics.” It hasn’t taken long for the recriminations to return — or for […]
Much of the media and blogosphere have proclaimed today “Jon Stewart Day” in honor of the Daily Show host’s skewering of CNBC’s Jim Cramer last night. Commentators have made a habit of slobbering over Stewart in the last few years – promoting him as the antidote to boring old news, the guy who’s able to […]
March 13, 2009 – 11:09 am
President Obama had a good appearance yesterday before the Business Roundtable, a collection of CEOs from top companies. In his remarks, and particularly in the Q and A, the president sounded like the pragmatic, facts-first leader that drew many non-traditional Democratic supporters to him. His remarks on cap-and-trade were especially encouraging. While his insistence that […]
West Wing Writers had the pleasure of meeting with a visiting delegation of Swedish and Danish progressives earlier this week, and talking about political communications in anticipation of upcoming electoral campaigns in Scandinavia. Among the topics we debated was whether things were “different” for female candidates — looking back at the Clinton-Obama primary contest and […]
March 12, 2009 – 12:43 pm
I don’t know much about the Charles Freeman saga that recently ended with Freeman’s withdrawing his name from consideration to be chairman of the National Intelligence Council. I never heard of the man before last week and I only read brief highlights of the arguments at The Atlantic and The Weekly Standard. David Broder published a […]
March 12, 2009 – 10:25 am
Michael Steele’s interview with GQ, posted online today, has generated buzz because of Steele’s remarks on abortion. He uses the word “choice,” which triggered alarms across the right-wing and mainstream media. In context, Steele’s remarks on abortion may be a little looser than one expects from a Republican Party chairman, but they are in line […]
Yesterday was a big day for women’s issues in Washington. President Obama announced the formation of an interagency advisory council on women and girls, headed up by Valerie Jarrett to help coordinate policy across government; the official release states that “The mission of the Council will be to provide a coordinated federal response to the […]
