February 10, 2009 – 12:47 pm
Last night during his opening remarks, President Obama said: “[A]s we’ve learned very clearly and conclusively over the last eight years, tax cuts alone can’t solve all of our economic problems, especially tax cuts that are targeted to the wealthiest few Americans. We have tried that strategy time and time again, and it’s only helped […]
February 9, 2009 – 8:19 pm
I tuned into President Obama’s East Room statement/press conference this evening mainly to see if he’d use the teleprompter. He did use it during the first segment of his remarks and I think it hurt him. The prompter, as I noted earlier, is designed to help the speaker look at his audience more naturally. In a large […]
February 9, 2009 – 12:40 pm
On Friday I noticed that President Obama used a teleprompter when delivering his remarks on the economy in the East Room. I thought it was unusual because the East Room is a pretty intimate venue. I usually associate the teleprompter with bigger crowds and bigger spaces. I can’t think of a time when President Bush […]
February 6, 2009 – 4:27 pm
Keeping an audience’s attention is the top goal of every speaker. Be relevant, be engaging, be funny, be scary, be theatrical – the list of recommendations goes on and on. What doesn’t usually appear on the list: Unleash bugs on the audience. Bill Gates used this last technique to great effect in his talk at this […]
February 6, 2009 – 1:02 pm
The power of the podium was in evidence this morning as President Obama announced his new team of economic recovery advisors. The president jumped on today’s dismal labor report to urge action on a stimulus bill. He also got in a few lashes at obstructionists in the Senate. While he did not identify Republicans explicitly, […]
February 5, 2009 – 6:22 pm
Maybe I’m just used to hearing President Bush talk about Iraq all the time, but it seems like President Obama has been awfully quiet about Iraq’s provincial elections. To recap, on Saturday Iraq undertook what have to be considered spectacularly violence-free elections for provincial councils across the country. Prime Minister Maliki, once written off by […]
February 5, 2009 – 10:24 am
Former vice president Dick Cheney sat with Politico for a wide ranging interview earlier this week, going on the record more forcefully than I expected to see just two weeks after the new team’s inauguration. Cheney asserted that the Bush Administration’s controversial post-9/11 security policies were responsible for preventing attacks on the United States, and suggested that in […]
February 4, 2009 – 2:53 pm
The AP recently examined President Obama’s efforts to shift away from the phrase “War on Terror”: Since taking office less than two weeks ago, President Barack Obama has talked broadly of the “enduring struggle against terrorism and extremism.” Another time it was an “ongoing struggle.” He has pledged to “go after” extremists and “win this […]
February 4, 2009 – 11:35 am
I don’t want to be nitpicky, but I think it’s important to set the record straight on an issue that frequently gets misremembered, including in Thomas Daly’s post earlier this morning. I’ve written before about how “Mission Accomplished” became a message nightmare for the Bush Administration. But it’s important to note that “Mission Accomplished” was […]
February 3, 2009 – 10:47 pm
Tuesday afternoon President Obama tackled head-on the question of who’s to blame for the problems surrounding some of his nominees, including Tom Daschle. “I think I messed up,” the president told Katie Couric. “I screwed up in not recognizing the perception that … ordinary people are out there paying taxes every day and whether it’s […]
February 3, 2009 – 5:52 pm
With Tom Daschle now a victim of, among other things, his unreported use of a car and driver over the last few years, this video is making the rounds and getting laughs.
February 3, 2009 – 2:25 pm
Here’s a web site sure to make Josh happy. StimulusWatch.org provides a list of projects around the country considered “shovel ready” by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Every single project the mayors included in their “Main Street Economic Recovery” report is on the list, which is sortable in a variety of ways. The projects aren’t […]
February 3, 2009 – 12:51 pm
Quick follow up to my post on Tom Daschle yesterday. The New York Times today called for Daschle to step aside, citing both his tax screw-ups and his close, enriching ties to the health care industry. Daschle would be a big bird for the Times to take down. We’ll see how things develop. UPDATE: As of 12:50 […]
February 2, 2009 – 5:59 pm
Over the weekend I had dinner with a couple of friends, one of whom is a Senate Republican staffer. We were discussing how the public might react to a potential policy proposal and found ourselves getting pretty into the weeds (yep, sometimes Saturdays in Washington are almost too much fun). My staffer friend stopped the discussion and […]
February 2, 2009 – 2:44 pm
Is President Obama’s good government message running off the rails? As much as the president may be trying hard to back up his words with actions, he seems to be falling short of the mark now that two Cabinet nominees have been caught playing fast and loose with their tax returns. Latest victim: Tom Daschle, […]
