I really appreciated Ed’s post a few days back about the double standard women leaders face on the wardrobe issue. It’s true that Michelle Obama’s clothes garnered a disproportionate amount of attention during this recent Europe trip. And let’s be honest: she looked fantastic. Her clothes were gorgeous, and so is she. It makes me […]
Arizona State University apparently has the toughest standards ever for being awarded an honorary degree. So tough, in fact, that President Obama doesn’t qualify. The Huffington Post writes: Universities typically confer an honorary degree on commencement speakers, particularly those who have reached the pinnacle of their career or achieved the top of their field. Arizona State […]
April 10, 2009 – 12:57 am
President Obama may have bowed to Saudi King Abdullah at the G20 meeting last week. Or maybe he didn’t. It’s not clear because the footage doesn’t indicate conclusively what happened. Here’s White House press scold Robert Gibbs telling a reporter that he’s stupid for even asking the question. But petty White House press secretaries aside, […]
April 10, 2009 – 12:38 am
Ben Affleck, often considered the moon to Matt Damon’s sun, is out with a new movie, State of Play, in which he portrays a congressman. In this interview with the Wall Street Journal, he demonstrates a more sober analysis of the banking mess confronting Wall Street and Washington than 93.7 percent of Congress: WSJ: Do […]
One of the strange curiosities of modern politics is the totally in-your-face double standard confronting political women: the wardrobe issue. We’ve all heard that clothes make the man. But apparently they absolutely define the woman, as far as DC chatterers are concerned. Whether it’s Hillary’s pantsuits or Condi’s knee-high boots or Sarah’s glasses or Laura and Michelle’s […]
As I noted in an earlier post, I’m a fan of Secretary Clinton. This intel from a recent post on Foreign Policy’s “The Cable” blog helps explain why: Clinton is drawing praise from some State Department officials for making a real effort to show her appreciation for staff. The secretary is doing thank-yous to the […]
A few PodPund-ish items to report from across the Atlantic. First, a new reality TV show on BBC2, called “The Speaker”: With Barack Obama having revived interest in the ancient art of oratory, it’s now time to take a group of awkward kids and teach them to speechify like the greats. But the idea of […]
Who knew President Obama had one more rockstar welcome up his sleeve? AP reports the president was “cheered wildly” today when he spoke to and met with U.S. forces in Iraq. Much better than being fawned over by Europeans, right? About six weeks ago, the president delivered what I thought was a very impressive speech […]
The Awesomeness Tour continued today, with President Obama traveling to Germany and France, where, the Associated Press reports, he was “welcomed with thunderous cheers.” I’m sure it’s fun for the president to be in a place where people just L-U-V luv him! But it’s painful for me to listen to his kow-towing to liberal European […]
When my son asks what good all the math he’s learning will do him later in life, I say it’s a very important skill to master if you want to be a speechwriter. He doesn’t appear to find this argument very compelling. Nevertheless, it’s true, especially when it comes to statistics. Most speechwriters worth their […]
I’ve written before about the struggle for comedians to find a funny trope to rely on when sending up President Obama. So far, the winner seems to be that he’s just awesome — perhaps too awesome, and perhaps too aware of his own awesomeness. As Vinca pointed out, even Joe Biden advanced the legend that the president has […]
President Obama got a little overheated in his global warming rhetoric at today’s G20 closing press conference. Responding to a question from an Indian journalist about his meeting with her country’s prime minister, our president said the two men discussed, among other things, energy issues and the need to develop less carbony sources of fuel. […]
Mark offers the contours of a fascinating chapter in presidential speechwriting history. But where Mark was diplomatic and restrained, I’m going for the big reveal, and assuming that the story to which he alludes is Peter Robinson’s experience writing President Reagan’s celebrated remarks in Berlin — “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” Here’s Peter’s article […]
Jeff posted an interesting piece on people coming out of the woodwork to pose as former White House speechwriters. Speechwriters face a lot of dilemmas when it comes to credit-taking: What credit is owed to the writer of speech? And how can that writer enjoy recognition, without stepping all over his boss? Ted Sorensen famously […]
