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President Obama Could Use More Female Speechwriters
Tweet Share on Facebook February 19, 2013 CommentPlenty of people have written about the nearly all-male senior staff at the White House, and it's been well documented that the average pay in the Obama White House for female employees is tens of thousands of dollars less than that of male employees. Here's a suggestion for fixing both problems: hire more female speechwriters and pay them as much as the men. There are a number of good reasons for doing so, not least of which is that they may help improve the tone of the President's rhetoric.
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Obama’s Ultra-Liberal State of the Union Address Lacked Credibility
Tweet Share on Facebook February 12, 2013 CommentThis was a Bill Clinton-style State of the Union address: a kitchen sink full of liberal agenda items. True, it didn’t contain a call for school uniforms ... but the president did call for new spending, legislation on climate change, voting rights, gun control, universal prekindergarten, affordable college tuition and a hike in the minimum wage. But unlike President Clinton, President Obama didn’t say the era of big government is over. In fact, it’s back—big time. As with Obama’s inaugural address, this was an unabashedly pro big government speech.
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Paul Krugman Is Wrong About Our National Debt
Tweet Share on Facebook February 8, 2013 CommentPaul Krugman's column in today's New York Times, entitled, "Kick That Can" tries to make the case that it is "irresponsible and destructive" not to kick the can down the road when it comes to fixing our national debt. He says the dangers of cutting government spending isn't a "debatable proposition" anymore, and argues that spending cuts are worse than a fiscal crisis. Better to do nothing at all. Better to kick the can. Here's his main argument:
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John Kerry Shows Grace Praising George Bush in Farewell Address
Tweet Share on Facebook February 1, 2013 CommentPolitical speechwriters enjoy a good farewell address—listening to one is my idea of a good time—and this week we saw departing Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry deliver a very comprehensive one as he left the Senate to become secretary of state. Clocking in at 7,500 words and 50 minutes long, Kerry expressed a lot of opinions about a lot of things. But buried in the middle was this gem:
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Bobby Jindal’s Right and the GOP Is About to Change for the Better
Tweet Share on Facebook January 25, 2013 CommentIn the days since President Obama's inaugural address, I've heard from friends all over the country. Many of them are Republicans, some are not, but all are very alarmed at the direction the president is charting for the next four years: uncompromising and divisive, unabashedly progovernment, unapologetically redistributionist. Worst of all, he's oblivious to the biggest threat our nation faces, which is a looming European-style debt crisis. He seems to care more about "collective action" and expanding government than creating individual opportunity and unleashing innovation.
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The GOP Should Align With Gun Owners, Not the NRA
Tweet Share on Facebook January 18, 2013 CommentThe President's new push for gun control presents an opportunity for Republicans to start rebranding themselves and maybe even win back some of the women's vote. According to the latest polling by Pew Research, support for gun control is lower today than it was when President Obama first came into office. The number of Americans who said it was more important to control gun ownership than to protect gun rights has dropped from 58 percent in April 2008 to only 49 percent today. Meanwhile, those who would rather protect the rights of gun owners has grown from 37 percent in 2008 to 46 percent today. Even in the wake of Newtown, enacting gun control is not a slam dunk.
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Obama’s Inaugural Address Must Offer a Hand to Republicans
Tweet Share on Facebook January 11, 2013 CommentI asked my teenage daughters what they thought the president should talk about in his upcoming inaugural address, and both immediately answered: "the school shootings." They may be right. Not for the predictable political reason of trying to build support for gun control, but because there was a great story buried in the coverage of the latest shooting at Taft Union High School in California. An unarmed teacher and a school counselor confronted the shooter and persuaded him to hand over his gun. So many of these stories end with the death of the shooter; in this case, many lives were saved because two adults were able to listen to the boy and reason with him. The violence we're seeing lately is a symptom of a bigger problem in our society: We're losing our ability to reason with each other. It's shoot first, ask questions later.
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Three Women Who Belong in Obama's Cabinet
Tweet Share on Facebook January 4, 2013 CommentA few days ago, I wrote about five women who could change the face of the Republican Party. If you've seen photos of either the Obama cabinet or the senior staff at the White House recently, you've probably noticed there aren't many women there either. I'll leave the White House staff for another day, but let's take a look at some women who could change the face of the Obama cabinet. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is stepping down, and there are persistent rumors that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Attorney General Eric Holder will as well. Neither Treasury nor Defense has ever been led by a woman, and Justice hasn't had a woman in charge since Janet Reno. Here are my nominees:
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The Fiscal Cliff Shows the Outrageous Incompetence of Washington
Tweet Share on Facebook December 28, 2012 Comment"The most exciting thing you encounter in government is competence, because it's so rare," the liberal senator from New York, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, said in 1976. "This man knows his business," he said as he endorsed Scoop Jackson for president. Moynihan felt he had found one of the rare souls in Washington who knew how to do his job.
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What Government Can and Can't Do About the Newtown Shooting
Tweet Share on Facebook December 21, 2012 CommentThis time last week, we just starting to learn about the awful shooting in Newtown, Conn. As the terrible news unfolded over the next several days, there was an understandable reaction that "somebody needs to do something" to stop this from ever happening again. Like so many times before, that reaction was focused on the White House: The president gave a press conference and a speech, and appointed Vice President Biden head of a task force. Press Secretary Jay Carney said the president would support Sen. Dianne Feinstein's proposal to reinstate the assault weapons ban.
