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The Abraham Lincoln 200th Birthday—Where to Celebrate
Tweet Share on Facebook February 12, 2009 Comment (4)By Mary Kate Cary, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
President Obama commemorated Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday today at the United States Capitol, and there are ceremonies all across America as well. Newspapers and magazines are full of recommendations for Lincoln books (the best of which is Bill Safire's review of the best of the Lincoln books in last Sunday's New York Times Book Review). Few people know it, but Bill spent eight years writing a Lincoln biography.
Sure you can go to the Lincoln Memorial or the newly re-opened Ford's Theater. But if you want to commemorate the Lincoln Biennial in a place that's off the beaten path, go to the newly-restored Lincoln Summer Home in Washington, DC. The Summer Home opened last year in time for Presidents' Day, and I was lucky enough to chaperone a school field trip there recently. Here's a good AP article on it that ran the day it opened if you'd like to learn more.
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Why The Bad Geithner Bailout Speech Falls on Deaf Ears
Tweet Share on Facebook February 11, 2009 Comment (2)By Mary Kate Cary, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Secretary Geithner's speech yesterday unveiling the plan is being met with universal distain: almost every major American newspaper, television news show, and cable talkfest led with a bad review of the speech, followed by the verdict from Wall Street when the market dropped.
Maureen Dowd, in a particularly tough piece in this morning's New York Times, makes fun of his voice quality during the speech. On MSNBC's Morning Joe, Mike Barnicle said that Secretary Geithner announced the plan "with the eyes of a shoplifter." Here's a video of the speech as well as a written transcript of the speech, so you can judge for yourself.
I'll leave aside analysis of the policies themselves and just talk about the rhetoric and his delivery, because I believe it's playing into why the plan is bombing.
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Obama Explaining Geithner Plan to Save Banks Will Pay Off in Consumer Confidence
Tweet Share on Facebook February 10, 2009 Comment (6)By Mary Kate Cary, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Today's a big day at the Treasury Department, where Secretary Geithner will be unveiling the new Financial Stabilization Plan (or TARP Two, as it's also known). Last night the president held his first prime-time press conference from the East Room of the White House, and took his case for the administration's stimulus plan to the American people. When it came time to answer a reporter's query about the Financial Stabilization Plan, however, the president ducked the question and said he didn't want to steal the spotlight from the Secretary's announcement today.
It's too bad he didn't answer the question, because it was a great opportunity to explain to viewers the fundamentals of what happened in the banking industry and why this plan is better than TARP One. He gave long and detailed—and understandable—explanations on other issues. Why not this one? One thing about President Obama: he speaks with clarity, and people love it.
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Obama and a Conservative, Pro-Life Case for Embryonic Stem Cell Research
Tweet Share on Facebook February 9, 2009 Comment (34)By Mary Kate Cary, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Immediately after the election, top Obama aides indicated that one of the new president's first actions would be to sign an executive order reversing the Bush administration's ban on embryonic stem cell research. President Obama signed a slew of executive orders his first few days in office, but he has yet to deliver on this one. Advocates for those suffering from Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, cancer, spinal cord injuries, and diabetes are starting to get nervous.
I'm often asked as a mother of a child with type 1 diabetes who would benefit from a cure found though stem cell research—but also as a pro-life conservative—what my position is on stem cell research.
I think there's a good case for pro-life conservatives to support embryonic stem cell research.
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If Obama Had Run on the Stimulus Plan, He Would Have Lost
Tweet Share on Facebook February 6, 2009 Comment (14)By Mary Kate Cary, Thomas Jefferson Street Blog
The Obama administration is hoping that senators will see the new jaw-dropping unemployment rate of 7.6 percent, which was just released this morning hours before the Senate is scheduled to start voting on the stimulus bill. The new unemployment numbers add some urgency to the already-rushed vote Sen. Reid wants to hold before lawmakers leave on recess.
But here's the video I'd like the senators to see before they vote on the stimulus:
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Obama Stimulus Op-Ed in Washington Post Was Partisan and Not Presidential
Tweet Share on Facebook February 5, 2009 Comment (33)By Mary Kate Cary, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
In the White House Office of Media Relations—where I once worked—staffers like me used to line up third-party advocates to support Administration policies. "Surrogates," they're called, such as Congressmen, Governors and the like and they are persuaded to to sign op-eds pieces in local newspapers. Longer magazine profiles and think pieces by the president can serve a strategic purpose, but short hits in newspapers on specific bills are "not Presidential." Leave the street-fighting over legislation to the surrogates, it goes, and keep the president above it all. But in a world of Twitters, YouTube and Blackberries, that has all changed.
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Barack Obama Shouldn't Apologize for Daschle, Geithner Taxes
Tweet Share on Facebook February 4, 2009 Comment (11)By Mary Kate Cary, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
“Did I screw up in this situation? Absolutely. I’m willing to take my lumps,” President Obama told Brian Williams yesterday as part of five different afternoon interviews he gave, referring to recent troublesome cabinet nominations. -
Michael Phelps Drug Use Is a Shame—but Adults Defending His Pot Smoking Are Shameful
Tweet Share on Facebook February 3, 2009 Comment (122)By Mary Kate Cary, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
I just stopped by the gym, where the photos of Olympic gold-medal swimmer Michael Phelps smoking pot were all over the wall of televisions. It was the talk of the treadmillers. Yesterday, I was at a gathering of mothers of middle- and high-school-age kids. It was the talk of the moms, too. "Can you believe that?" they all said, shaking their heads and talking about their teenage Phelps Phans. How could he have been so stupid?
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Tax Problems For Daschle, Geithner and Other Obama Nominees Show Need for Reform
Tweet Share on Facebook February 3, 2009 Comment (11)By Mary Kate Cary, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
I'm not going to comment on the specifics of the tax problems that have faced some of our political leaders over the last six months, because I don't know all the facts. And I'll leave aside the questions raised about the vetting process, and about the business-as-usual aspects of the confirmation process. I'll let others tackle those issues.
But let's take a look at the big picture.
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Obama, SNL, and the Stimulus: Skewering Dooms Intemperate Democrat Pork Package
Tweet Share on Facebook February 2, 2009 Comment (6)By Mary Kate Cary, Thomas Jefferson Street Blog
Two hundred and twenty-one years ago, the writer of Federalist Paper No. 62—historians still argue whether it was Hamilton or Madison—warned Americans of the propensity of the House "to yield to the impulse of sudden and violent passions, and to be seduced by factious leaders into intemperate and pernicious resolutions." The House's passing of the $819 billion stimulus bill this week was all that: impulsive, sudden, violent, intemperate, and pernicious.
