It Came From Wasilla (Why Can’t It Go Back?)

By Paul Orzulak (WWW)
June 30, 2009 – 3:35 pm

palin-winkI’m having a hard time deciding whether Todd Purdum’s exhaustive profile of Sarah Palin in the new issue of Vanity Fair just isn’t that interesting, or if she’s just not that interesting.  I think it’s the latter.

Every revelation here, aside from the news that Mark McKinnon helped prepare the Governor for her debate against Joe Biden, just smacks of small-town back-biting and petty jealousies from old friends disillusioned by her sudden fame and national prominence.   After all, the state of Alaska has fewer people than the District of Columbia–the political establishment is a pretty small group.

There’s not really much new here–thematically, that is, if not factually. Didn’t we already know that the McCain loyalists didn’t like her within weeks of her convention speech?  Didn’t we already know that she hated to prepare?  Didn’t we already know that she once wrote an email to friends and relatives about Trig signed not in her own name, but in God’s, signing it, “Trig’s Creator, Your Heavenly Father (okay, actually, we didn’t know that last part, but it hardly suggests a God complex — more just a weird attempt to remind recipients that all children are created in God’s image.  No?)

Actually, now that Purdum has this piece out of his system, I’d love to see him do a profile of the people who still believe Governor Palin should be the next President–the so-called “values voters” of the GOP–and why her thin resume and lack of interest in issues foreign and domestic don’t really bother them, as it does more traditional conservatives.   This chasm has existed in the GOP for more than a decade–Governor Palin may finally be the candidate that causes it to split for good.  That would be an interesting read.

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American Idol?

By Vinca LaFleur (WWW)
June 30, 2009 – 9:23 am

Check out the latest World Public Opinion poll on the popularity of various global leaders among their own publics and abroad.  President Obama is the hands-down “winner” — though Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan, and the Palestinian Territories rate him significantly lower than does much of the rest of the world.

Also of note:  Gordon Brown inspires significantly more confidence in the United States than he does in his own country, or in Europe, whereas Americans and the French seem to share roughly the same middling opinion of Nicolas Sarkozy.

Read More »

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An Interesting Talk by Jeff Immelt

By Paul Orzulak (WWW)
June 29, 2009 – 3:10 pm

immelt-2What comes to mind when you hear the words, “manufacturing economy?”

If you said, “China today” or “the United States, 30 years ago,” you’d be in the mainstream.   Conventional wisdom long ago abandoned the idea of America as a manufacturing economy.  We’re a consumption-led, services-based economy now.  Right?

In this speech before the Detroit Economic Club (transcript here), GE CEO Jeff Immelt introduces a novel concept:  that America cannot make it as a services-led economy alone–that instead, America should refocus on rebuilding our manufacturing base and becoming, in his words, a leading exporter once again.

Immelt delivered the speech the same day GE announced the opening of a new Advanced Manufacturing and Software Technology Center just outside Detroit, which will create more than 1,100 jobs.

Good stuff.  Immelt reportedly wrote this one himself.  Could have used a bit more practice, though.  The delivery is choppy.  The guess here is that if he did practice it, he practiced wearing reading glasses, and then decided to deliver the speech without them.

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Not Just Left, But Right

By Paul Orzulak (WWW)
June 29, 2009 – 2:04 pm

reich-picture1Ed Walsh has quickly become one of my favorite conservatives.  Of course, I disagree with him about 94 percent of the time, too, but he’s always thoughtful, and he’s always entertaining.

Ed makes good points about a public health plan option, but I guess I have more faith in the private sector than he does.  When we get past all the “sky-is-falling” rhetoric about how a public plan will bring ruin to private insurance companies, I think we will see some terrific innovation from health insurance companies over the next few years.

One area where private companies will always have an advantage over the government is in coordination of care, which everyone agrees is essential to getting health costs under control.    The much-maligned Medicare Advantage plan is a good example.

Traditional Medicare is a payment system — it receives claims, and pays claims.  Medicare Advantage (which is Medicare delivered through private insurers, funded with public money), on the other hand, is a health delivery system which actively manages the care of our seniors.

The best Medicare Advantage plans out there assign care managers to each patient–to ensure, for instance, that doctors talk with one another, and get on the same page when prescribing medication or treatment.  That’s why the best Medicare Advantage programs have markedly better outcomes.

Of course, Medicare Advantage has a lot of problems overall, which is why it’s being targeted for cuts.  But the point is:  these are the same insurance companies that will be competing against the public plan, and the best of them have proven they can do something the government isn’t capable of doing.  In the end, the good ones will prosper, the bad ones will fall behind, and Americans will be the beneficiaries.  Isn’t that what competition is supposed to be all about?

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Best of the Left

By Ed Walsh (WHWG)
June 24, 2009 – 1:07 pm

reichRobert Reich is my favorite liberal. I don’t know him from Adam, and I disagree with his take on policy roughly 94 percent of the time. But I generally find him to be congenial on television and well thought-out in print.

When I saw that he had written an op-ed about health care reform in today’s Wall Street Journal, I knew it was a must-read. And it was classic Reich – almost completely wrong (from my perspective), but nicely done.

Especially effective was his decision to paint a public (sorry, “government-run”) health care plan as simply another competitor in the fight for health care dollars. Of course he elides the fact that a government health plan would be able to legislate its costs, which private plans can’t do, and that it would force health care providers to shift their costs to private plans, thus making the “competition” a foregone conclusion.

But who doesn’t like competition and all the benefits it brings? What self-respecting American – especially an American reading the Wall Street Journal – would turn down a plan to make the health care market more competitive?

I’ve touched on President Obama’s use of right-of-center rhetoric to sell his left-of-left-of-center policies. Here, Robert Reich shows how to do it masterfully.

You’re speaking my language, Mr. Secretary. If only you were singing my tune.

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A Fresh Look at the “Evil Empire”

By Paul Orzulak (WWW)
June 24, 2009 – 11:11 am

evil-empire1


A guest post today from another new addition to the West Wing Writers team, David Litt:


As a 22 year-old, I’ve always associated the phrase “Evil Empire,” with the New York Yankees, not the USSR. I’m embarrassed to say that I had never even read President Reagan’s “Evil Empire” speech. I’d meant to, but, like The Brothers Karamazov and the fourth season of Weeds, I just hadn’t gotten around to it.

But Iran got the lion’s share of coverage in yesterday’s press conference, and with John McCain (and others) arguing Barack Obama should adopt an “Evil Empire” attitude, it seemed like a good time to take a first look at the speech.

It didn’t surprise me to find that the speech was extremely well written (kudos to you, White House Writers Group), or that it bridged the gap between policy and values. But three things did surprise me. Here they are: Read More »

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Did I Say Appalachia? I Meant Argentina.

By Ed Walsh (WHWG)
June 24, 2009 – 10:04 am

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 on the Appalachian Trail, it turns out he was actually driving along the coast of Argentina (maybe).

I feel bad for his staff, who had to perpetuate the Appalachia story while apparently being ignorant of the real situation. But still, how many times do we have to be reminded of rule #1 of crisis communications: it’s not the “crime,” it’s the coverup.

If the governor and his staff had simply left a Post-it note on the lieutenant governor’s door (Off to Argentina — CU soon!!), the whole mess might have been avoided.

Perhaps Sanford’s team simply got complacent, since he’s known to wander off on his own from time to time. In fact, this isn’t even the first time he’s made a run for the border. Read More »

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No Exceptions

By Ed Walsh (WHWG)
June 23, 2009 – 10:55 pm

President Obama today issued some of his strongest words about the situation unfolding in Iran. Opening his 378th press conference, the president said:

The United States and the international community have been appalled and outraged by the threats, the beatings, and imprisonments of the last few days. I strongly condemn these unjust actions, and I join with the American people in mourning each and every innocent life that is lost….

[W]e must also bear witness to the courage and the dignity of the Iranian people, and to a remarkable opening within Iranian society…. In 2009, no iron fist is strong enough to shut off the world from bearing witness to peaceful protests [sic] of justice….

This is what we’ve witnessed. We’ve seen the timeless dignity of tens of thousands of Iranians marching in silence. We’ve seen people of all ages risk everything to insist that their votes are counted and that their voices are heard. Above all, we’ve seen courageous women stand up to the brutality and threats, and we’ve experienced the searing image of a woman bleeding to death on the streets. While this loss is raw and extraordinarily painful, we also know this:  Those who stand up for justice are always on the right side of history.

As I said in Cairo, suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. The Iranian people have a universal right to assembly and free speech. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect those rights and heed the will of its own people. It must govern through consent and not coercion. That’s what Iran’s own people are calling for, and the Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government.

You have to admit, it’s getting better. But it’s interesting that President Obama continues to eschew words like “freedom” and “liberty.” He gets right up to the edge there, near the end, kind of sketching out what freedom and liberty consist of – right to assembly and free speech, will of the people, government through consent – but he doesn’t go all the way.

Why? Is there a diplomatic reason President Obama doesn’t like to talk about freedom and liberty? Read More »

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Taking Exception, Take II

By Paul Orzulak (WWW)
June 23, 2009 – 1:36 pm

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 much of the world, the very fact that Barack Obama is President of the United States says more about the strength of America—our willingness to back up our values and ideals with action—than any two-bit tough talk tailored for the evening news.

For the past three decades, leaders in Iran and across the Muslim world have relied upon a very specific stereotype of Americans—as loud, overbearing, and arrogant imperialists unwilling to listen or work with the Arab world—to drive unrest.

It is worth remembering that a few weeks after the Iranian hostage crisis began in 1979, the hostage-takers released 13 women and African Americans from captivity, declaring their solidarity with “oppressed minorities.”

What does it do to the case of the mullahs and ayatollahs—and the hate speech of the fundamentalists—that the people of America voted to have one of those “oppressed minorities” to be the voice and face of America to the rest of the world?

What projects more strength—refusing to engage in a dialogue with the Muslim world, or being so sure of your own values that you are willing to go to Cairo to begin a new conversation?

What projects more strength—turning a blind eye to Israeli settlements, or calling on our good and old friend Israel to stop building settlements and make peace?

What projects more strength—being toyed with by enemies who wish America harm, or sending in a team of Navy Seals to take out enemy leaders with three shots?

President Obama understands that any tough talk right now will just embolden those in Iran who are desperately seeking a caricature of the old America to help sink Moussavi. In the end, actions will speak louder than words.

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Paying Tribute to Title IX

By Vinca LaFleur (WWW)
June 23, 2009 – 11:05 am

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 all aspects of federally funded education programs, it has most often been evoked in the context of athletics.

Before Title IX, one girl in 27 played high school sports; now it’s one in 2.5.  The number of women participating in college sports has increased more than fivefold.

However, women receive $148 million less in athletic scholarship funds each year.  Women represent only 18.3 percent of college athletic directors.  And beyond athletics, women earn just 78 cents for every dollar men make, represent only 16.8 percent of Congress, and make up only 17 percent of tenure track faculty in the sciences.  There is still more work to be done. Read More »

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Taking Exception

By Vinca LaFleur (WWW)
June 23, 2009 – 8:41 am

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 approval of President Obama’s approach.  He quotes Nile Gardiner of the Heritage Foundation, who says “It’s almost as if the president lacks confidence in the greatness of his own nation.  He seems unwilling to aggressively project American global power, as if it were something to be ashamed of,” and follows it with a senior administration official’s retort: “We’re trying to promote a foreign policy that advances our interests, not that makes us feel good about ourselves.”

Not surprisingly, perhaps, I am more drawn to the latter of these two perspectives.  I don’t see any reason to think President Obama lacks confidence in the greatness of our nation; and as a speechwriter, it’s easy to point to examples in which he uses his public communications at home to laud our nation’s strength, greatness, and goodness — repeatedly and forcefully.  But what would be the foreign policy value of trumpeting those ideals in Iran?  Do we think the Iranian people have any doubts about America’s position on freedom?  Even in the absence of more overt U.S. allegiance with the protesters, the Iranian authorities are trying to blame the U.S. for fomenting the demonstrations. Read More »

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A Show of Weakness

By Clark S. Judge (WHWG)
June 22, 2009 – 11:04 am

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 of challenges.

In the last few days he has sharpened the growing impression that he is not a man of strength.  Whether it is his apparent lack of action against the ship carrying suspect North Korean cargo or — even more so — his by-far-too-measured statements about the upheavals in Iran, his actions and statements are raising a dangerous question… not dangerous simply for his political standing at home but for America’s position in the world.  The question is, will Mr. Obama take a stand, a clear stand in favor of U.S. interests and values?

Serving in the White House as the Soviet Union crumbled, I know very well the imperative of measured statements.  But I also know how heartening and how essential an American president’s words can be for those who are putting their lives, fortunes and sacred honor on the line for freedom and popular sovereignty, as so many are now in Iran.  Every speechwriter for President Reagan has at one time or another received thanks from former Soviet or Soviet-satellite dissidents for the speeches that assured them that they were not alone and not unheard, during the years of oppression that preceded the fall of the Soviet state.  As things stand today, Mr. Obama’s speechwriters — and Mr. Obama himself — are unlikely to ever receive such thanks from those now risking their lives in the streets of Tehran.

Mr. Obama knows how to communicate — and as a former community organizer he knows how much courage it takes for ordinary people, even in as benign a jurisdiction as Chicago, to stand up to authorities.  Even if there is little in the way of material aide we can offer, it is time he used his words to say that the United States stands, as at its best it has always stood, with those who seek freedom and democracy in their own land.  It is time Mr. Obama showed a little strength.

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Missing: Obama Eloquence on Iran

By Ed Walsh (WHWG)
June 20, 2009 – 3:55 pm

President Obama has been reserved in his comments about the situation unfolding in Iran, and politicians and commentators across the political spectrum are urging him to say more.

The president’s low-volume strategy is undergirded by two assumptions: first, that public support from the US president will feed the Iranian regime’s efforts to pin the protests on American interference; second, that being too critical of the Ahmadinejad government and the religious leadership will make it impossible to talk about nukes down the line.

Yesterday, with CBS’s Harry Smith, President Obama made his clearest statements to date: Read More »

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Say My Name, Say My Name

By Ed Walsh (WHWG)
June 18, 2009 – 12:41 pm

I don’t want to get into name-calling, but some people in Washington have become VERY sensitive about how they’re addressed.

Yesterday Politico tattled on Elizabeth “For the love of God, don’t call me Liz” Becton, a Congressional scheduler who teed off on a K Street executive assistant for mistakenly using the L-word in an email. In a bit of refreshing staff-awareness, her boss’s office issued an apology for the outburst.

Then, RealClearPolitics posted video of SENATOR Barbara Boxer asking Brigadier General Michael Walsh (no relation, though we share a name) to please not call her “Ma’am.”

Members of the military are wont to call any woman — from a newborn girl to a decorated admiral — Ma’am, as a show of respect. But the honorifc sounded pretty horrific to the SENATOR, who “worked so hard to get that title.”

Yuck. If your ego is so fragile that you need to be reminded you’re a senator, it’s time to seek new employment.

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Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better

By Ed Walsh (WHWG)
June 18, 2009 – 10:05 am

One of the quirks of Republican speechmaking is that for all their bluster about small government, Republicans often define their achievements by how much money they spend. President Bush, for instance, touted the extra education funding he doled out alongside the reforms of No Child Left Behind.

I’ve always thought it’s a bit of a losing battle, because no matter how much a Republican wants to spend on something (save defense), a Democratic opponent is likely to offer more. President Obama, for instance, spent the 2008 campaign accusing President Bush of penury when it came to education – and then essentially doubled education funding when he signed the stimulus bill into law.

But now that Democrats are in power, and using that power pretty aggressively, President Obama has been copping a Republican line — making sure people know he doesn’t really like all this big-government stuff.

So we have his assurance that he doesn’t want to be running the auto companies and that his health reform proposal won’t actually change very much at all about the present system (assuming you like it).

When unveiling financial regulation reforms yesterday, he said Read More »

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