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Assessing the Inauguration Speech of Barack Obama
Tweet Share on Facebook January 21, 2009 Comment (13)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Unlike most Americans, who watched Barack Obama on their flat screens at home, or on the giant Jumbotrons erected on the Mall, I was in the press seats at the Capitol and saw him take the oath of office not as an image, but in person, though from some distance away.
And his inaugural address was not, I decided, a great speech.
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'Post' and 'Times' a World Apart in Reporting on U.S. Policy Toward Israel, Iran
Tweet Share on Facebook January 16, 2009 Comment (8)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
This business of diplomacy is all about nuance.
Aside from, perhaps, the Federal Reserve, there may be no place in Washington where more is done with winks and nods, and reporters are required to read the tea leaves.
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Left Out in the Cold as Barack Obama Dines With Michael Barone
Tweet Share on Facebook January 15, 2009 Comment (37)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
I am pulling no punches. I will say it directly.
Barack Obama is an ingrate.
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On the Economic Stimulus: Conservative Ideas Worth Listening To
Tweet Share on Facebook January 14, 2009 Comment (44)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Some honeymoon. The cons and neocons at the American Enterprise Institute gave their own State of the Union report yesterday afternoon, offering a critique of Barack Obama's policies before he takes office and a rundown of the crises he will have to tackle.
Danger around the world. Economic ruin at home. What they had to say wasn't pretty.
But two proposals caught my attention.
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Tina Fey, Golden Globes, Not-So-Funny Jokes, and the Demise of Copy Editors
Tweet Share on Facebook January 12, 2009 Comment (12)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
One of the first casualties in the demise of newspapers was the copy desk.
The copy editors were the unsung heroes of journalism. Their encyclopedic knowledge of grammar, facts, and spelling saved me, and many other reporters, from making fools of ourselves on a daily basis.
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Jimmy Carter 1970s and Today: Angry Iran, Aggressive Russia, Energy Crisis
Tweet Share on Facebook January 9, 2009 Comment (12)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Maybe it was the sight of Jimmy Carter back at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. But all week I've been fighting déjà vu.
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Pork-Barrel Spending on a New D.C. Metro Line Could Cost Democrats
Tweet Share on Facebook January 8, 2009 Comment (14)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
I am not going to lampoon those who want to build a $1.2 billon east-west rail line from one Maryland suburb to another that will not take many cars off congested roads.
I am not going to call it the Train to Nowhere.
I am merely going to point out some facts, to my Democratic friends on Capitol Hill, before they pack the economic stimulus bill with projects like the Metro Purple Line.
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Capturing Roland Burris and Washington, D.C., Politics
Tweet Share on Facebook January 7, 2009 Comment (4)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
That's a typically great photograph on the front page of the New York Times today by the newspaper's Pulitzer Prize-winning Stephen Crowley.
I have spent a lot of time on White House pool duty with the photo dogs over the years, which generally requires that one linger in a van for hours while the president enjoys his morning jog or bike ride, spends the afternoon playing golf, or attends a fundraising dinner in the evening—all off camera.
Typically, the best a White House photographer can hope for is that there are some speeches to be made or foreign dignitaries to greet, with the requisite ceremonial presidential stiffness. The thrown shoes are rare indeed.
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Smart Politics by Barack Obama: Middle-Class Tax Cuts Are Good for Democrats, the Economy
Tweet Share on Facebook January 5, 2009 Comment (5)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
As I have reasoned here before, Barack Obama's now unofficially announced decision to put a popular middle-class tax cut in the upcoming economic stimulus package looks like smart politics.
He's keeping his campaign vow to cut taxes.
He's stimulating the economy.
He's using the tax cut as an offering to win Republican votes for the stimulus deal—or, if they turn him down, to appear to the country as a reasonable centrist bedeviled by GOP extremists.
He's making the package more appealing to conservative Democrats, whose ranks have swelled in the last two elections, and will have this to take home to their more moderate constituencies in the purple states and districts.
And by packaging the tax cut with other sweeteners in a time of fiscal crisis, Obama may avoid a months-long war (with the media ruthlessly keeping score) with GOP obstructionists over every obscure clause and comma of a stand-alone tax bill.
The key, of course, is to get it done quickly.
And I'm thinking that this puts the ladies from Maine—and maybe our old pals John McCain and Joe Lieberman—in mighty good bargaining positions.
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James Webb Shows Leadership Regarding Prison Reform
Tweet Share on Facebook January 2, 2009 Comment (18)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia has never been afraid to march to the beat of his own drum.
The decorated Vietnam War veteran who served as Secretary of the Navy under Ronald Reagan, then got elected to the Senate as a Democrat in 2006, has his own views on things, and his own way of stating them.
