Yesterday’s auto announcement from the White House highlights why it’s imperative that private-sector companies doing business with government-backed enterprises employ a well-calibrated public message strategy. In announcing that Chrysler would enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, President Obama praised various stakeholders – unions, management, creditors, etc. – for making “sacrifices” to keep the company out of court. […]
According to Nielsen, the ratings company, nearly 29 million people watched President Obama’s prime time press conference to mark his first 100 days in office. Pretty impressive. But compared with his own earlier star power, Obama’s wattage appears to be slipping. His second prime time presser, in March, drew 40.4 million people. His inaugural foray […]
President Obama today urged his Cabinet members to find $100 million in savings from their departmental budgets. It’s easy to harass the president about such a miniscule figure compared with the kind of spending he’s enacted and proposed of late. But he rightfully recognized that $100 million is a “drop in the bucket” compared to […]
One of the incontrovertible rules of government PR is that if you want to say something unpopular, say it on a Friday. Latest example: today’s EPA announcement of a proposed finding “that greenhouse gases contribute to air pollution that may endanger public health or welfare.” This isn’t a shock to anyone who’s ever listened to a […]
Sorry for the long post, but I had some thoughts on the Obama Administration’s release of previously classified Justice Department memos on the treatment of detainees, a move that resulted from a lawsuit by the ACLU. On balance, I think it may be a good thing. As the president said in his statement accompanying the […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
Politico‘s Carol E. Lee, who evidently spends more time listening to and analyzing President Obama’s speeches than any other human, wrote today about the president’s habit of injecting personal anecdotes into his speeches: Listen carefully to Obama’s speeches, and there is almost always something personal. It might be a reference to a family member — […]
March 30, 2009 – 11:30 am
President Obama delivered solid remarks on the auto industry this morning, informing us that neither GM’s nor Chrysler’s government-mandated restructuring plan “goes far enough to warrant the substantial new [taxpayer] investments that these companies are requesting” and laying the groundwork for a gut-wrenching period of concessions ahead. I thought he was particularly effective on a couple of […]
