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Welcome George H.W. Bush Speechwriter Mary Kate Cary to Thomas Jefferson Street
Tweet Share on Facebook January 26, 2009 CommentBy Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
I am delighted today to welcome Mary Kate Cary to the Thomas Jefferson Street blogging team. Mary Kate's first post went live a little while ago, a look at how Barack Obama's attempt to master the Internet is in keeping with leaders like Lincoln, FDR, JFK, and Reagan in terms of adapting presidential communications to the media of the times. Mary Kate knows a thing or two about White House communications, as she was a presidential speechwriter during the George H. W. Bush administration and has been making her living since then ghostwriting for various political and corporate figures. Web connoisseurs might remember her most recently commentating on the inaugural address on the New York Times's website.
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Where's the Criticism of the Permanent Barack Obama Campaign? Clinton Got It, and Bush Too
Tweet Share on Facebook January 26, 2009 Comment (11)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
I don't as a general rule go in for the liberal media conspiracy meme (unlike, say, Sam), but I am struck at the coverage regarding Organizing for America, the campaign-style effort (first reported, incidentally, in Washington Whispers by my colleague Paul Bedard when it was called Obama 2.0) housed in the DNC and aimed at maintaining the grass-roots movement that swept Obama into White House. Bill Clinton, and to a lesser extent George W. Bush, were criticized for establishing a permanent campaign mentality in the White House. Not so much Obama. I suspect that it's because 16 years later we're used to it; and it may be that once we get more than a week into the Obama administration, criticism of the White House's grass-roots campaign arm will increase. But at the moment the silence is striking.
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Barack Obama, FDR and the Hundred Days: Join the Washington Book Club Discussion
Tweet Share on Facebook January 23, 2009 Comment (2)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
For the launch of our new "Washington Book Club" feature, in our brand, spanking new weekly digital edition, I chatted with Adam Cohen, a member of the New York Times editorial board and author of the fascinating new history Nothing to Fear: FDR's Inner Circle and the Hundred Days That Created Modern America
. We talked about the lessons Barack Obama, his aides and the rest of us can draw from those historic months; and he has some interesting stuff to say about the comparisons between FDR and BHO.
You can read the piece here as part of our free digital edition preview package—I hope you'll subscribe.
And after you've given it a gander, come back here and join the book discussion below in the comment space—weigh in with your take on Cohen's conclusions about FDR, the Hundred Days, and lessons Obama can learn.
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9/11, the Obama Inaugural Address, and the Shared Sacrifice George W. Bush Never Called For
Tweet Share on Facebook January 23, 2009 Comment (7)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
I mentioned earlier in the week the striking absence of any explicit references in Barack Obama's inaugural address to 9/11. Vinca LaFleur, who was a National Security Council speechwriter for Bill Clinton, suggested that the speech's call for a renewal of fundamental American values was an indirect refutation of the notion that "9/11 changed everything."
Another 9/11-related view of the speech strikes me: It's the kind of speech—specifically because of the theme of shared responsibility and shared burden in a long struggle—that we famously did not hear from George W. Bush after 9/11.
He and his gang did talk about a long struggle, but the sacrifice was to be borne by our armed forces while the rest of us at home hugged our children and went shopping. This dichotomy, by the way, nicely set up the troops as a political shield—if you criticized the Bush national security policy, you were attacking the troops who were busy sacrificing for you.
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Was Obama's Inaugural Address Too Mean to George W. Bush? Stop Whining
Tweet Share on Facebook January 23, 2009 Comment (38)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
According to this morning's New York Times, former Bush administration officials didn't like the tone of the Obama inaugural address, thinking it too tough on their ex-boss. Oh, wah!
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Keep Up With the Thomas Jefferson Street Blog on Facebook
Tweet Share on Facebook January 23, 2009 Comment (4)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
I hope you enjoy our blogging lineup here at Thomas Jefferson Street, where we endeavor to bring you a broad spectrum of political thought and argument (and sometimes both). To make it easier to follow us, we've recently launched a couple of presences on Facebook: You can follow TJS through the Networked Blogs program and the TJS Facebook group. So if you're a Facebook member, take a moment to click through and join one or both of these groups so you can more easily keep up with Michael Barone, Jack Farrell, Bonnie Erbe, Sam Dealey, Morgan Felchner, and, of course, me. (And, oh yeah, tell your friends.)
Thanks!
Robert Schlesinger
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Sex, Campaign Money, and Cleaning Up Politics
Tweet Share on Facebook January 23, 2009 Comment (8)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Don't like how our politics are paid for? Some people who agree are pushing what I can only call the Lysistrata campaign finance reform plan. In the ancient Greek comedy, women withheld sex from their soldier husbands until they agreed to end an ongoing war. Substitute sex for money and you have what the folks over at Change Congress are pushing: that donors go "on strike," refusing to give their money to pols until a campaign finance overhaul is passed (specifically, they favor a system whereby people limiting themselves to small donations would get matching government funds).
They say that they've gotten no-contribution pledges from people who gave $400,000 to federal candidates in the last cycle. You can see the list of who got that cash here.
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No Lobbyist in the Obama Administration ... Except When There Is One
Tweet Share on Facebook January 22, 2009 Comment (17)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
So, President Obama (I do enjoy typing that) is going to ban lobbyists from his administration...except when he isn't?
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Dick Cheney in a Wheelchair, Part Deux
Tweet Share on Facebook January 22, 2009 Comment (2)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
I wrote Wednesday about how Cheney in a wheelchair was a sort of pop-culture Rorschach: What villain does he remind you of?
I should have figured that the "Daily Show" would already have gone there (pick up 2:37 in):
In any case, some readers weighed in with their own votes and nominations. I particularly enjoyed "Penguin" from Batman suggestion and the speculation about how he hurt his back—moving all the deleted E-mails?
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Obama Inaugural Address Echoes Bush, Clinton, Carter, JFK, FDR, Lincoln
Tweet Share on Facebook January 22, 2009 Comment (8)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
I was struck a couple of times, listening to and reading Barack Obama's inaugural speech, that he nicely echoed some of his predecessors in office. A more thorough examination reveals the speech practically reverberates with them.
