Cursey McCurserson

By Ed Walsh (WHWG)
August 7, 2009 – 4:54 pm

earmuffsI’m glad Vinca broke the profanity barrier on Podium Pundits yesterday – and did it with such humor and class.

I agree that “judicious” use of profanity can have “a positive, constructive effect” on a tense situation. For instance, when driving through Washington at rush hour, or when WordPress screws up all your formatting just before you hit “Publish.”

It can also be useful in cutting right to the chase when describing certain people or expressing extreme confusion and dismay at their bone-headedness.

Our expanding texticon makes concise cussing possible. For instance, “WTF?” has become an essential method of communicating an array of emotions.

And most writers are familiar with the need to sometimes run through a litany of curse words before hitting on just the right turn of phrase to make a speech or article or screenplay sing.

Despite all the benefits, there still exists a bit of a taboo when it comes to using profanity in public. Read More »

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Haloed Be Thy Name?

By Ed Walsh (WHWG)
August 7, 2009 – 11:21 am

*Aug 04 - 00:05*Shepard Fairey, the “street artist” who designed those iconic red and blue Obama posters during the campaign, is back with another portrait of Mr. Obama for the August 20th issue of Rolling Stone.

As the New York Daily News reports, “the portrait [pictured here] depicts Obama with a brow knit in determination, surrounded by a halo of stars. ‘Will he take bold action or compromise too easily?’ asks a headline enshrining the President’s head.”

But Fairey denies the halo effect: “Rather, the picture he worked from showed Obama standing in front of the presidential seal, he said. ‘It’s one thing to be running for president and it’s another to be President and I think this new illustration that I did hopefully captures the complexity and the weight of his new role,’ Fairey said.”

I agree with the artist. Perhaps I’m hopelessly naive, but I didn’t see a halo when I looked at the cover. I saw a president profiled in front of a presidential-style seal.

What struck me more was the slight pursing of the president’s lips, which reminded me of Jimmy Carter (certainly a comparison almost no one is hoping for).

And then there’s the cover text teasing “A Roundtable” with David Gergen, Paul Krugman, and Michael Moore discussing “Obama So Far.”

Maybe that’s where the halo comes in.

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The Power of Profanity

By Vinca LaFleur (WWW)
August 6, 2009 – 2:31 pm

swearingA minor scandal erupted in the UK last week when aspiring Tory prime minister David Cameron used some obscenities in a “jokey, blokey” radio interview.  Worse than the vulgarity, for which Cameron immediately apologized, some critics suspected a calculated ploy — that he got “sweary,” as one blogger put it, to boost his cool-factor with younger voters.

In my experience, getting sweary has the opposite effect — at least when the younger folks in question are my kids.  I remember one morning when my children and I were scrambling to get ourselves together, out the door, and into the car to drive to school and work, and I spilled my travel mug of coffee all over my white trousers.  I remember the morning not so much for the coffee stain on my clothes as for the horror on my daughter’s face when I unleashed a torrent of expletives.

I apologized.  But I think obscenities have gotten a bad rap as “bad” words.  They are powerful words, and when used judiciously — in the privacy of one’s own minivan, for example, when one’s white, wool trousers are covered with steaming coffee — can have a positive, constructive effect.

I suspect that anyone who has ever stubbed his or her toe will agree.  And here’s the proof:  Read More »

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Dang, This Guy’s Good

By Ed Walsh (WHWG)
August 6, 2009 – 11:02 am

smiley beachSenator Barack Obama, June 3, 2008:

I am absolutely certain that, generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment … when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.

Bloomberg, August 6, 2009:

Hurricane Outlook in Atlantic Cut to as Few as Three, NOAA Says

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration cut the number of Atlantic hurricanes it expects this year to a range of three to six of the storms.

The Atlantic has yet to produce a named storm this season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. This is the longest the Atlantic has gone without a named storm since 1988.

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A Symphony and a Meal!

By Mark W. Davis (WHWG)
August 5, 2009 – 10:43 am

Sen. Max Baucus, after leaving lunch with the president yesterday, had this to say to Roll Call.

“It was a, really, a wonderful meeting, led by a terrific man, our president, Barack Obama.  And one of the Senators was saying to me as we walked out, ‘You know, it’s just so wonderful to hear him speak.  You know, it’s like a symphony.  It’s like just a great meal.”  

Readers, this is your chance to match the president to the right symphony and meal.  Opening suggestions: Beethoven’s Ninth (Schiller’s An die Freude) and a Philly cheese steak with Cheese Whiz,  a diet Pepsi and a furtive cigarette?  Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection,” with a Five Guys and a Coke?  And another furtive cigarette?

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Lots of Words, but is Anyone Listening?

By Ed Walsh (WHWG)
August 5, 2009 – 9:13 am

Jennifer Senior’s New York magazine article analyzing President Obama’s ubiquitous media presence contains one superb observation: Rahm Emanuel is, she says, “so profane he’d embarrass a toilet.”

But as I read Senior’s depiction of a White House fully comfortable using every communications method available, I found myself wondering to what end.

The president’s poll numbers have been steadily falling (while still holding just over 50%), and he has no major victories to speak of. He continues to outsource his big domestic initiatives to Congress. As a result, health care reform, if it passes, will be a much different beast than he envisioned; the House-passed cap and trade bill has drawn criticism from both environmentalists and business interests; and the president’s been trying to convince a skeptical public that his $800 billion shot-in-the-arm is having a positive effect on the economy. On foreign policy, he seems again and again to swallow hard and accept that George W. Bush was right about a lot.

So is the massive amount of content produced by the president reaching its intended audience? Is it a force for change?

Millions of web hits and viewers and readers make it sound like it is. But if the goal is useful audience – driving public opinion in your favor to score political victories – the results are decidedly negative.

People whose business is to watch, cover, or participate in politics may find the president’s facility with new media impressive (he Twitters!), but if the president’s not expanding beyond the DC-NY echo chamber, the content is just content; just words and air. Read More »

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The Multiplatform President

By Mark W. Davis (WHWG)
August 4, 2009 – 2:12 pm

I’ve asked here in much earlier posts if President Obama is grossly overexposed.  Contrary to the Reagan Method, Obama seems to be always “stepping on his message.”

In the days of the Great Communicator, the administration always had one clear message of the day or the week, reinforced by Michael Deaver’s imagery and the speechwriters soaring prose.  Given only a few seconds of unfiltered time with the American people, Ronald Reagan had to do this–underscore his message with a big visual and compelling soundbite.

An insightful piece by Jennifer Senior in New York magazine argues that Obama is pioneering a radical new approach enabled by the multiplatform nature of the Internet.

She shows how Barack Obama in short order orchestrates radio, op-eds, YouTube posts, Twitters, interviews and speeches to sell the same message using different language in different formats for differing slices of the American public.  What has changed since the Reagan era?  That was an age of media scarcity.  This is an age in which more media expands the public’s appetite for more access.

Senior also argues that with YouTube, a president today can afford to give a deep and complex policy speech, knowing that the Internet can now aggregate a large enough audience to justify the effort.

Finally, she offers advice that any executive should keep in mind.  Senior quotes Danah Boyd, a social-media expert at Microsoft.  How do I maintain my reputation when this stupid thing I did/wrote/said keeps resurfacing online?  Any reader of Groundswell knows that trying to suppress a nasty post will, like blowing on a dandelion, only spread it (the so-called Streisand Effect.)

The answer, Boyd tells Senior, is keep producing.  If you can’t suppress it, bury it.

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Laying the Groundwork for VAT?

By Ed Walsh (WHWG)
August 3, 2009 – 10:58 am

Earlier this summer, a friend who keeps his ear to the ground on these things told me he’d heard that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, during his trip to China, told Chinese officials concerned about rising US deficits that the Administration is gearing up to propose a value-added tax targeted specifically to debt reduction following the 2010 midterm elections (assuming Democrats maintain their majorities).

While the Administration certainly doesn’t lack in the chutzpah department, I thought the idea sounded a little dead in the water. After all, a brand new consumption-based tax on pretty much everything would be about as popular as a wool suit at the beach.

But of course people are getting antsy about these federal deficits, which have gone from psychologically uncomfortable to brow-furrowingly worrisome. In pitching a VAT, President Obama would likely call on all Americans to share in the sacrifice of paying down our debts, being fiscally responsible, and not burdening our children (oh, the children!) with our profligacy.

(In reality, of course, a VAT would be just another way to let Congress continue spending like a bored heiress.)

And over the last few weeks, some signs have emerged that this may be exactly what the Administration is thinking. Read More »

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The Making of the Cairo Speech

By Vinca LaFleur (WWW)
August 2, 2009 – 9:11 am

Cairo speechInteresting piece by Christi Parsons in the LA Times, describing the drafting process for President Obama’s landmark speech in Cairo this past June.  Here’s how it begins:

“Reporting from Washington — He sat with his legs crossed in an armchair in the Oval Office, his brow furrowed. Aides clustered on the couches around him. They could see black scratch marks all over their proposal for the most sensitive speech of his young presidency — his long-promised address to the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims.

For weeks, they had toiled over the text. Now, some stole glances at the lead writer of the address, 31-year-old Ben Rhodes, as the lengthening silence confirmed that their best shot had fallen short.”

Evidently, the effort to pull the speech together involved a team within the White House — “the Cairo cell” — and a wide-ranging braintrust beyond it — “scores of experts and advocates” who sent in “memos, polling data and letters in hopes of influencing the speech.”  But Rhodes held the pen, and with it, the executive speechwriter’s familiar obligation to serve as mediator,  negotiator, diplomat, judge, and harmonizer as well.

Yet, the president found the first draft limp, too cautious, too inoffensive.  According to the article,

“he told his staff that he intended to address some of the most sensitive issues in foreign policy — terrorism, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the inflammatory rhetoric of many Islamic leaders — in terms that would grab the world’s attention.”

Some might think it would have been devastating for Rhodes to have labored so hard on such a critical address, only to meet with the president’s disappointment.  But no.  One participant in the Oval Office review session remembered this detail:

“At a certain point, Rhodes had stopped scribbling notes and just focused on the president’s face.

Later, a friend bumped into the young speechwriter. “He looked relieved,” the friend said, “even liberated.””

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Pelosi Delivers Stark Contrast on Health Care

By Ed Walsh (WHWG)
August 1, 2009 – 10:52 am

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi continues to take a strikingly aggressive tone against insurance companies — you know, the entities that make reliable health care available to a couple hundred million Americans.

Politico reports:

“The glory days are coming to an end for the health insurance industry in our country,” Pelosi told reporters Friday afternoon. “This is about inoculating against misrepresentations and educating about what is in the bill,” she said. “We all want bipartisanship … but you’re either with the insurance companies or you’re for something new.” 

I don’t know how much clearer Speaker Pelosi could be: You either want to preserve the system of private health care that delivers excellent care for the vast majority of Americans, or you want to squeeze insurance companies out of the system and turn the health care economy and health care delivery over to the government.

The consequences are huge. I hope the Speaker keeps talking, and I hope Republicans (Chuck Grassley, maybe?) are taking notes.

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House Dems on Health Care

By Ed Walsh (WHWG)
July 31, 2009 – 9:31 am

After yesterday’s posts on beer and football, let’s get back to health care, because President Obama doesn’t want us to get distracted from the big issues.

Politico today publishes a memo from House Democratic leaders advising members on how to gin up support for a government takeover of health care during their August “District Work Period” (colloquially known as “recess”).

Here’s the big message:

Hold the insurance companies accountable. Remove them from between you and your doctor. No discrimination for pre-existing conditions. No dropping your coverage because you get sick. No more job or life decisions made based on loss of coverage. No need to change doctors or plans. No co-pays for preventive care. No excessive out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles, or co-pays. No yearly or lifetime cost caps on what insurance companies cover.

Yes, hold the insurance companies accountable — because heaven knows if a company is making money, it must be doing something wrong.

Remove insurance companies from between you and your doctor … and replace them with the government! That should make it much easier to appeal decisions you don’t like. Read More »

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Brew-ha-ha

By Vinca LaFleur (WWW)
July 30, 2009 – 5:47 pm

beer-toastAs the Wall Street Journal reports today, “The president’s plan to toss back a few cold ones with some high-profile guests at the White House has the American beer industry hopping mad.”  Why?  Because the beers on tap — or at least in the presidential fridge — are supposedly Red Stripe, Blue Moon, and Bud Light, all owned by foreign breweries.

This brew-ha-ha reminds me of a piece my colleague Jeff Nussbaum wrote last year for the New York Daily News called “Let’s Put Patriotism on Tap.”  Cheers!

Let’s put patriotism on tap

BY JEFF NUSSBAUM

Monday, August 11th 2008, 4:00 AM

My father tells the story of a job interview he had in St. Louis. Over dinner downtown, the waiter asked for drink orders. Dad, trying to be a regional diplomat, asked if they served any local beers. His dining companions exchanged smirks as the waiter cocked his head toward the window where, clearly visible and roughly the size of a small airport, the Anheuser-Busch brewery stood.

Today, if asked the same question, that waiter would have to jerk his head, quite violently, eastward. When InBev completes its takeover of Anheuser-Bush, the Boston Beer Co., makers of Samuel Adams, will be the biggest brewer in America.

Read More »

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Brees Blows Through Guantanamo

By Ed Walsh (WHWG)
July 30, 2009 – 12:31 pm

It’s almost August and the smell of pigskin is in the air as teams hit training camps throughout football nation.

(Yeah, I just wrote that.)

While NFL news has focused on players getting out of prison, mostly avoiding prison, or heading to prison, one player is generating some delayed attention for just visiting a very well known prison.

Earlier this summer, New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees took a USO-sponsored trip to Guantanamo. His reaction? Different from President Obama’s. Here are a few examples.

I can say this after that experience — the worst thing we can do is shut that baby down, for a lot of reasons. But I think there’s a big misconception as to how we are treating those prisoners; those detainees over there. They are being treated probably ten times better than any prisoner in a U.S. prison. They’re on a 6500 calorie a day diet whereas a normal U.S. prisoner is on a 2,000 calorie a day diet. I think the international media — there’s just been so much scrutiny over the way that we’re treating these guys, it’s almost like we’re going overboard to treat them so well….

[I]t was interesting because at one point, we were walking from one detention center to another and some of the prisoners saw us. And they started yelling torture! Torture! We teach them English by the way. But they assume since we’re in civilian clothes that we were members of the media so they started yelling torture, torture. So you know, anything that they can do to show a poor light on the U.S. military, they’re going to do it. Because it seems like they’re being treated very, very well over there.

Detractors will point out that Brees is favorably disposed toward the military’s point of view because the military hosted him. But if the detainees have advocates around the world pillorying the US military, why can’t the military have an advocate speaking the truth as he sees it?

Click here for more transcript and the audio.

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Look to Norway

By Vinca LaFleur (WWW)
July 29, 2009 – 10:27 am

In 1942, FDR gave a speech remembered for its peroration:  “Look to Norway!”  Today, as the United States tries to right our economic wreckage, we might well heed that counsel again.

Check out this piece from NPR this morning, which describes how Norway has not only survived but thrived during the current recession.  To be sure, massive oil and gas reserves are a critical part of the Norwegian formula for success (kind of like the old joke, the best way to become a millionaire in Hollywood is to start as a billionaire in Hollywood).

But, as Eric Westervelt argues,

it wasn’t just oil and gas revenue that saved Norway. The nation severely tightened banking oversight after a banking crisis in the early ’90s. Read More »

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Unusual Americans Love Bailouts, Hate Ford

By Ed Walsh (WHWG)
July 28, 2009 – 12:11 pm

I find polls interesting not so much for the top-line issue they seek to illuminate, but for the quirky results that often lie underneath. Like, who are those 3 percent of respondents who can’t even identify the name Dick Cheney?

Another example in today’s Playbook, as Mike Allen calls our attention to a Rasmussen poll on public attitudes of Ford Motor Company:

“Public opposition to the auto bailouts may be translating into consumer buying decisions, with 46 percent of Americans now saying they are more likely to buy a car from Ford because it did not take government money to stay in business. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 13 percent say they are less likely to buy a Ford because the company didn’t receive a bailout, and 37 percent say it has no impact on their car buying.”

Really, 13 percent are less likely to buy a Ford because the company did not get bailed out? These people insist on only supporting companies that are receiving government funds? Do they only buy insurance through AIG and bank exclusively at Citi? Read More »

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