Unsurprising 3:00 pm update: Governor Sanford acknowledges he was having an affair with a woman in Argentina. Original post: To the relief of apparently no one who knows him well, South Carolina governor Mark Sanford returned from his magical mystery tour today. While staff had told the press and other public officials that the governor was AWOL […]
There is no question—as Clark states in his latest post—that President Reagan’s words helped empower Soviet freedom fighters in the early 1980s. But as the last administration demonstrated on more than one occasion—from “wanted dead or alive” to “mission accomplished” to “axis of evil”—there is a big difference between talking tough and projecting strength. To […]
A guest posting today from the latest addition to our West Wing Writers team, Julia Lam: Thirty-seven years ago today, President Richard Nixon signed Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 into law, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program or activity. While Title IX applies to nearly […]
I want to offer a counterpoint to Clark’s latest post, in which he argued that the president’s response to the dramatic events unfolding in Iran have “sharpened the growing impression that he is not a man of strength.” Scott Wilson, in this morning’s Washington Post, has a front page story describing the apparent partisan divide […]
In this blog and in columns before Election Day 2008, I have warned that Mr. Obama was in danger of being seen as congenitally weak. For some time now, he has needed to take actions — even actions that might cut against his grain — to establish that he will be resolute in the face […]
Are President Obama’s declining poll numbers on his handling of the economy a result of overexposure? Earlier, I, too, argued that the President is grossly over-exposed in the media. I am beginning to rethink that traditional take. As in social media and so many other venues, Mr. Obama is rewriting the rules. For this year, […]
Last week, I had the pleasure of attending Melanne Verveer’s the swearing-in ceremony as our first-ever Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues. It was a lovely occasion — full of both rejoicing and resolve, as Secretary Clinton and her newest ambassador reaffirmed their commitment to “make sure that the concerns of women and girls remain central […]
Today’s New York Times includes an article about Republican leaders who say the party needs to move beyond the invocation of Ronald Reagan. I largely agree. In the 2008 campaign, every GOP candidate sought to capture the mantle of Ronald Reagan. The result was a field that occasionally seemed focused on returning to the past rather […]
We’re nearing the end of commencement season, and reviews are rolling in. Fletcher Dean offers up his faves and flops on Ragan.com; Joe Biden and Tom Brokaw get big props, along with environmentalist Paul Hawken, but he thinks Ellen DeGeneres missed in her appearance at Tulane. I admit, I cringed at the same section of […]
The leaders of France, Canada, the UK and the US have just finished back-to-back orations at the D-Day commemorative ceremonies. We have witnessed many such anniversary observances over the years — every one moving, not simply for what has been said there, in Normandy, but far more for what so many did there, all those […]
Thanks to Mark for his post on the President’s speech in Cairo, which I agree was terrific. I was also impressed by the forethought the White House gave to the speech’s distribution; same-day versions were available in Arabic, Chinese, Dari, French, Hebrew, Hindi, Indonesian, Malay, Pashto, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Turkish, and Urdu — which means […]
President Obama’s speech in Cairo elicited a whirlwind of accusations from my fellow conservatives, many of whom have labeled it an “apology tour.” Marc Thiessen, former George W. Bush speechwriter, said on Fox News that the president had thrown “our military under the bus in front of a Muslim audience.” When it comes to opportunities […]
Today’s Wall Street Journal takes a humorous look at the proliferation of acronyms in stimulus-era Washington. They include the ugly (RAT Board), odd (LUST Trust), and potentially profane (FCCCER). But the Commerce Department (AKA DOC) takes the cake: Some government departments have described their stimulus plans almost entirely in acronyms, such as the Department of Commerce, […]
Editor’s Note: Today’s guest post is by Tom Daly, editor of Vital Speeches of the Day. I was recently made aware by way of an excellent speech in the June issue of Vital Speeches of the Day, that we are slowly but surely leaving the sound bite era. The speech was by former George H.W. […]
I heard a story this morning on NPR in which listeners had been invited to submit recession-inspired haikus. Some were heartbreaking; others darkly hilarious. All in seventeen syllables. It got me thinking about the economy of words — and how the best speechwriters make every sentence as meaningful and muscular as possible, given the limited […]
