February 11, 2010 – 12:35 am
If the embattled OBama Administration wants a lesson in how to handle public communications, they could do no better than to watch and copy the First Lady.
In a recent interview Mrs. Obama was asked to opine on former Alaska governor and Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. This came days after White House Press Secretary Robert [...]
January 31, 2010 – 1:30 pm
Roger Ailes and Arriana Huffington went head to head on today’s edition of ABC’s “This Week”. Ailes decked Huffington in Round One. She struggled back to her corner, went after him again for Round Two, and he decked her again. She didn’t come out for a third round.
Ailes was prepared. With [...]
January 28, 2010 – 12:23 am
Mr. Obama’s first State of the Union Address: good speech — and not so good.
On one hand, the President can be extremely appealing. Numerous times in the evening, I found myself liking him — particularly when he seemed to break from text and, with a smile, remind both parties of their common [...]
January 28, 2010 – 12:08 am
One commenter — “Pedro” — suggested that Ed write under a pseudonym. I’m for it. I tried to persuade him to stay on as a contributor. I thought, well, some say WHWG is a kind of think tank as well as a communications and policy consulting firm — so why not create [...]
January 19, 2010 – 9:01 pm
Hey kids, see if you can pick the correct line in tomorrow’s talking points for White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.
Will it be” “Last night’s election was a fluke”? Or? “It was indicative of nothing more than a single vote on a single night.” Or? “It was a snapshot.” Or? “We had a bad candidate.” [...]
January 14, 2010 – 7:19 am
As any PR flak knows, the best way to knock your client’s bad news off the front pages is for worse news to catch reporters’ attention. Less scrupulous hucksters will fabricate rumors and stories to help move the media. But sometimes events just fall into place.
So it’s been for Harry Reid. When news broke over [...]
January 12, 2010 – 6:38 pm
When faced with intellectual theft or subversion by the regime in Beijing, many Fortune 500 have spines of Jello. This is bad enough when a company quietly allows its hard-earned competitive products to be lifted. It is immoral when companies cooperate with Chinese authorities by helping them crack down on democratic dissidents.
One company has found [...]
January 11, 2010 – 1:24 pm
Washington is getting a case of the vapors over Michael Steele’s new book, Right Now: A 12-Step Program for Defeating the Obama Agenda. The Republican establishment heaped coals over Steele’s head in a front-page Washington Post article for getting the GOP off message in the face of what should be a historic midterm rebuke of [...]
January 3, 2010 – 12:17 pm
As Ed’s piece (immediately below) on Nigel Lawson reflects, December saw the transformation of climate change discussion. By month’s end, dismissing so-called “deniers” was out. Honoring skepticism was in.
Why? Two events, of course: the outcome (more aptly non-outcome) of the Copenhagen summit and the release of the University of East Anglia emails.
Despite [...]
December 22, 2009 – 10:44 am
‘Tis the season for family, and what better way to celebrate family than to bear witness to the diverse expertise of one prominent British house?
So today we have former UK Chancellor Nigel Lawson on the Wall Street Journal op-ed page. Lord Lawson (indeed!) writes on the folly of Copenhagen – and carbon-control initiatives in general – [...]
December 14, 2009 – 3:24 pm
At last, we have been recognized.
For years, my wife and I have driven Volvos. We go to a liberal church, vacation in liberal places, once lived in San Francisco, and watch Showtime’s Californication. And yes, we shop at Whole Foods.
Something about our consumer profile prompts liberal activist groups and Democratic precinct captains to come knocking [...]
December 3, 2009 – 10:41 am
Tiger Woods screwed up and now, like flies on regurgitated honeydew, public relations experts are flocking to the media to explain how they would have helped him handle the situation much more effectively. (I’d link to some, but just Google “Tiger Woods PR fail” and you’ll get the gist.)
Most of the Monday morning quarterbacking centers [...]
December 2, 2009 – 2:51 am
Despite pronouncing the word “Taliban” as if he were a calypso singer, President Obama sounded and looked strong and confident in his Afghanistan-themed address last night.
The optics were right, as the president was joined by row upon row of sharply dressed officers-in-waiting. The pace of the speech was good – the president not getting too [...]
November 26, 2009 – 1:43 am
In October 1863, with his country mired in civil war, President Lincoln directed Americans to set aside the last Thursday in November as a day to give thanks for their “bounties.”
Turkey was not mentioned, nor was one pardoned. Wal-Mart Black Friday sales, including Vizio HDTVs for as little as $349, still lay in America’s magnificent future, [...]
November 15, 2009 – 12:10 pm
We don’t generally do up-to-the-minute news here, but I thought it worth following up on two points I raised yesterday regarding President Obama’s trip to Asia.
First, it appears that even with George Bush out of the way, international leaders are still having trouble reaching agreement on a climate change accord with teeth.
Consensus is forming now [...]
