Posts Tagged ‘Washington’
January 5th, 2012 by John Feehery
Hip To Be Square
Will the hippest President we ever had be replaced by the squarest President we ever had?
That is the big question as Mitt Romney readies himself to roll through New Hampshire.
Presidents, by and large, aren’t that hip.
Before BHO, our hippest President was Jack Kennedy.
He had the glamorous wife, the youthful visage, the promise of a new generation of leadership, and all the other accouterments of hipness.
He brought in poets to give poems, he threw great parties, and he had all kinds of pals in Hollywood.
Bill Clinton replicated the hip mystique of Kennedy’s Camelot. He memorably played the saxophone on the Arsenio Hall Show (remember that one?), he had the wife who wasn’t going to be making any cookies, and he too had hip Hollywood friends.
But no President has been as hip as Barack Obama. Obama is a jazz guy, and jazz guys are very, very hip. Obama fills his iPod with all kinds of hip-hop music, too, and he scatters in the hip-hop language in some of his campaign speeches.
Hipness has its limits. Hipness wears thin after a while. It is not easy to always be the cool guy. Read more...
Tags: hip, Huey Lewis, Kennedy, Nixon, Obama, Romney, square, Washington
Posted in Theory | No Comments »
September 28th, 2011 by John Feehery
I was talking to a Democratic friend of mine this morning, and he told me to expect the President’s people to go after Mitt Romney on the jobs issue. “There is a lot more that hasn’t come to the surface,” he told me confidently.
I’m sure there is. There is always more on just about everybody. I wish we knew more about Obama before the American people elected him three years ago.
The issue that my friend talked to me about had to do with Romney’s time at Bain Capital.
Bain Capital is a private equity firm that buys undervalued companies and turns them around so they can become profitable. They have had a lot of success. You can wake up with a Bain Capital company (Sealy), check out the weather (they own the Weather Channel), get a cup of coffee and a donut (Dunkin Donuts), go to the store and buy some running shoes to work off the donut (Sports Authority), buy some office supplies (Staples), grab a burger (Burger King), buy a present (Brookstone), catch a movie (AMC Entertainment), and then get home in time for dinner (Domino’s Pizza). Read more...
Tags: America, Bain Capital, Barack Obama, Congress, Democrats, Economy, election, Government, Mitt Romney, Politics, Presidential election, private sector, public sector, Republican, Republicans, spending, taxes, Ted Kennedy, Washington, White House
Posted in Economy, Financial Crisis, Government, History, Laws, Politics, Presidential election, Promises, Theory, election, spending | No Comments »
August 31st, 2011 by John Feehery
Hurricane Irene blew in to Washington over the weekend and the biggest casualty was the Martin Luther King Memorial ceremony.
It turns out that the weather was pretty nice on Sunday afternoon, and the event could have still occurred, but it is hard to predict the weather.
It’s also hard to predict the future.
Are we as a country moving forward on the whole concept of racial harmony or are we moving backward?
Congressman Andre Carson said today that certain members of the Tea Party want to see black lawmakers “hanging on a tree.”
I wonder if Alan West and Tim Scott, two of the most influential Tea Party members of Congress (who coincidentally happen to be black), want to hang their fellow Congressional Black Caucus members up a tree.
I doubt it.
Carson believes that the Tea Party is to blame for the fact that unemployment is so high in the black community.
I find that hard to believe.
I guess it is far easier to blame a bunch of white conservatives than it is to blame the nation’s first black President.
The Tea Party hasn’t really had much of an impact on the President’s policies, not yet anyway. Read more...
Tags: affirmative action, African-Americans, Al Sharpton, Alan West, America, Barack Obama, Congress, Congressman Andre Carson, Conservatives, Democrats, Economy, election, first black President, George W Bush, GOP, hurricane Irene, Martin Luther King Memorial ceremony, Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn, Msnbc, Obama, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, Politics, racism, raising taxes, Republicans, spending, taxes, Tea Party, Tim Scott, Washington
Posted in Bad Decisions, Economy, Financial Crisis, Government, History, Media, Politics, Presidential election, Religion, Theory, bad news, election, poverty, spending, taxes, terrorism | No Comments »
August 26th, 2011 by John Feehery
Our family car is a relic. It doesn’t have XM radio. It doesn’t have sync capabilities with the iPhone. It doesn’t have a satellite navigation device. It does have an AM/FM radio and a CD player, but since my wife threw out all of our compact discs, that isn’t much of an option on a long ride.
We drove back from our vacation in Florida, and as you are driving through the Old South, there aren’t many very good radio options on either AM or FM, unless of course, you want to listen to a Baptist preacher telling you how the world is going to Hell in a handbasket, and only your personal contribution to his church can buy your salvation.
With the earthquake and then the hurricane hitting Washington D.C., I could be convinced that the world is going down the tubes, but I probably would never be convinced to give any of my hard-earned money to a Baptist preacher, no matter how convincing he might sound.
Only once did I hear a radio show that didn’t have a religious theme, and it was a North Carolina representative of the NFIB talking about the crushing impact of regulations on small businesses. Read more...
Tags: America, Barack Obama, Commerce Department, Congress, Conservatives, Democrats, earthquake, EPA, House Republicans, hurricane, John Boehner, Justice Department, Obama Administration, OSHA, Politics, small businesses, spending, Tea Party, Washington, White House, XM radio
Posted in Bailouts, Economy, Financial Crisis, GOP, Government, History, Laws, Politics, Religion, spending | No Comments »
August 16th, 2011 by John Feehery
The first thing you notice when you walk into the Best Buy in Sarasota, Florida is how smart the employees are. Bob, a former Marine and probably retired from something else, was a tech nut who knew all about televisions and could recite chapter and verse about the differences between a plasma screen and LED television.
Bob probably didn’t envision himself working at age 65 at a Best Buy, but in Florida – as in other parts of the country – getting a job wasn’t much of an option. We didn’t talk much about his personal life, but my guess is that he saw the value of his nest egg go down and he decided that retirement was something to be put off later.
Bob’s fellow employees weren’t in his age bracket, but they seemed bright, motivated and well-educated. They probably didn’t envision spending all that time in college to end up at Best Buy, but a job is a job when the economy sucks.
Florida has been ground zero when it comes to the lousy economies. The real estate market is still in the doldrums after a terrible crash (talking about best buys, there are plenty of good deals to be had), and despite Florida’s many natural advantages, it still has a way to go before it starts feeling healthy again here. Read more...
Tags: America, Barack Obama, Conservatives, Democrats, Florida, GOP, Government, Politics, real estate market, Republicans, Washington
Posted in Economy, Financial Crisis, GOP, Government, History, Politics, Theory, housing crisis | No Comments »
August 11th, 2011 by John Feehery
So why are so many political reporters traipsing to Iowa this August?
Well, it must be the Ames Straw poll, a tradition like no other.
The Iowa Republican party plays host to this political beauty contest that has little actual bearing on the actual race for the White House.
Since the straw poll was first started in 1979, it has picked exactly one candidate who went on to become President, George W. Bush.
In fact, since 1980, the Iowa caucus system itself has picked exactly one candidate who went on to become President.
If that is the case, then why should we care what Iowans decide at the Ames Straw poll?
Who cares if Michele Bachmann wins? Who cares if Ron Paul comes in second?
Well, to be candid, we shouldn’t care.
Unless, of course, you are Tim Pawlenty. Pawlenty probably needs to do pretty well if we wants to raise enough money to stay in.
But Pawlenty has bigger problems than Ames, Iowa.
Right now, he doesn’t look like he will be able to compete long-term even if he was able to convincingly sweep the straw poll. Read more...
Tags: America, Democrats, Economy, election, George W Bush, GOP, Government, House Republicans, Iowa caucus, Iowa Republican party, Michele Bachmann, Politics, President, Presidential election, Republicans, Ron Paul, The Ames Straw Poll, Tim Pawlenty, Washington, White House
Posted in GOP, Government, History, Media, Politics, Presidential election, Promises, Theory, election | No Comments »
August 3rd, 2011 by John Feehery
The President turns 50 tomorrow, which is a big deal, especially to the President’s fundraisers, who are doing their best to milk it for all it is worth. Apparently, they are throwing a big bash for him in my hometown of Chicago. My invitation must have got caught up in my spam filter.
50 isn’t nearly as old as it used to be (especially if you are 47, like a blogger I know pretty well), and to many old-timers who depend on Social Security and Medicare to survive, 50 is pretty darn young.
I was talking to a neighbor of mine who happens to be a big Democratic activist, and he told me about how panicked his 84-year old mother was over the possibility that she wasn’t going to get her Social Security check.
She comes from a generation where they listen closely to their political leaders, and when the President says that Social Security checks may not be delivered because America can’t pay its debt, that generation takes those threats seriously. Read more...
Tags: America, Barack Obama, Congress, Conservatives, Democrats, dollar, Economy, election, GOP, Government, health care, House Republicans, medicare, President Obama, Presidential election, senior citizens, Social Security, Social Security checks, spending, voters, Washington
Posted in Bad Decisions, Economy, Financial Crisis, GOP, Government, History, Laws, Liberal Media, Media, Politics, Presidential election, Reviews, Theory, bad news, election, health care, medicare, spending, taxes | No Comments »
August 1st, 2011 by John Feehery
As we were driving back from the airport, my 5-year old son Jack asked me, “Daddy, what’s the debt limit?”
We had just flown in from Chicago. I had dropped off my son at grandma’s house, and drove up to Milwaukee for my 25 year college reunion.
The debt limit wasn’t just on the mind of my 5-year old. It was also on the mind of many of my friends and some other folks who I didn’t even know.
In the hotel coffee shop Sunday morning, the topic of conversation between two 50-year reunion participants was whether they had a deal on the debt limit or not.
They weren’t asking me. They were talking (loudly) among themselves. Their mood was more than a bit grim and frustrated.
At the reunion, my old classmates mostly traded old war stories and tried to remember who did what crazy thing when. It is amazing we all survived our college years (well, most of us survived at least).
When I first arrived on campus close to 30 years ago, Ronald Reagan was in his first term and the economy wasn’t doing very well. Reagan had an abiding sense of optimism and a hatred of communism, neither of which played particularly well with many of my college professors. Read more...
Tags: Bill Speros, college, Communism, Congress, Obama, Obamacare, Politics, Republican, Ronald Reagan, Tea Party, Washington
Posted in Bad Decisions, Economy, Financial Crisis, Government, History, Laws, Media, Politics, Promises, Theory, gun control, health care, national security, spending, taxes | No Comments »
July 26th, 2011 by John Feehery
President Obama has not been shy lately in trying to use the power of the bully pulpit to get his way on Capitol Hill.
It is not clear that his bully pulpit approach is working.
I listened to the President’s address last night on the radio (yes, I went old school), and predictably, I found his comments to be unconvincing. He talked about his balanced approach (which, to be clear, is different than a balanced budget; which is a pipe dream in his vision of the future), he blamed Republicans for being stubborn, he talked about raising taxes on the wealthy (which nobody in Congress includes in their plan), and then he used the same rhetoric he has used time and again.
I doubt the speech worked well for the President. He has been pounding on these message points for weeks, and if anything, his poll numbers have grown worse. Both Gallup and Rasmussen have found that the President has hit historically high disapproval ratings. Read more...
Tags: America, Barack Obama, Bill Daley, boehner, bully pulpit, Cantor, Capitol Hill, Congress, Congressional Republicans, Conservatives, Economy, gallup, GOP, Government, health care, House Republicans, McConnell, medicare, Obama, Politics, President Obama, raising taxes on the wealthy, Rasmussen, reform, Republicans, Senate Majority Leader, Social Security, spending, Tax cuts, taxes, Tea Party, Washington, White House
Posted in Bad Decisions, Bailouts, Economy, Financial Crisis, GOP, Government, History, Laws, Liberal Media, Media, Politics, Promises, Reviews, Theory, bad news, election, health care, medicare, speeches, spending, taxes | No Comments »
July 13th, 2011 by John Feehery
Mitch McConnell
So what exactly is Mitch McConnell up to?
McConnell offered a solution to the debt limit imbroglio that has been described as cynical, stupid, worthless, traitorous and worse.
It may be all of those things. But it is also brilliant.
Mitch McConnell is perhaps the most gifted political infighter in Washington today.
He knows when to inject himself into a debate and he knows when to keep his mouth shut.
He lets off little bombs every once in a while to let the Tea Party understand that he is really with them in his opinions of Mr. Obama, but most of the time, he protects the prerogatives of the Senate as he promotes the political aspirations of his compatriots.
McConnell’s plan to increase the debt limit puts the entire burden on the President.
He is essentially saying to Mr. Obama: If you want to put more money on the credit card, you can do it, but you also have to shoulder all of the blame.
McConnell’s plan gives Republicans (and more than a few Democrats) the ability to vote against increasing the limit, while at the same time avoiding the economic catastrophe that will come if we don’t increase the limit. Read more...
Tags: America, balanced budget amendment, Balanced Budget Constitution Amendment, Barack Obama, Congress, Conservatives, debt limit, Democrats, Economy, extending the debt limit, GOP, Government, House GOP, House Republicans, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Politics, President Obama, Republicans, Senate, spending, taxes, Tea Party, Washington
Posted in Bad Decisions, Economy, Financial Crisis, GOP, Government, History, Laws, Politics, Promises, Theory, bad news, spending, taxes | No Comments »
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