Tag: president obama

Socialism is bad right?

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

AOL Political Machine Blogger Matt Lewis was on Fox News today squaring off with former Mondale campaign manager Bob Beckel. The quote that stuck with Lewis coming away from the segment was Beckel’s defense of socialism: “What is wrong with some form of socialism in certain areas?” Here’s the video:

Beckel poses a valid question. And with the Obama administration less than a week from taking the controls, it’s a question that needs to be answered by opponents of a government controlled economy. If people are struggling to make ends meet, a scheme to nationalize industries will sound more appealing – and without a viable answer, could become a reality.

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Well Excuuuuuuuuse Me!

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

President Bush’s original pick for Secretary of Labor, Linda Chavez, had to withdraw her nomination when it was revealed that she hired an illegal immigrant to help around the house.

Timothy Geithner, President-elect Obama’s Treasury Secretary-designee, was found to have the same issue plus a possible $42,000 unpaid tax bill (never a good qualification for running the IRS). Luckily for Geithner, he has a much better PR team that apparently draws inspiration from Steve Martin, circa 1978:

“You can be a millionaire and never pay taxes!… First, get a million dollars. Now you say, ‘Steve, what do I say when the tax man comes to my door and says, “You have never paid taxes”?’ Two simple words. Two simple words in the English language: I forgot.”

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You have a standing army, but will they march?

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

Normally, I’d be happy to see a sign at the end of a DC Metro escalator that says “Move On,” because my fellow commuters sometimes need help with that concept. This evening, though, I spied this ad at the Farragut West station:

The key message was clear based on the tagline:

MoveOn.org is clearly ready to mobilize a standing army to support Barack Obama. (And that’s before President Obama taps into his own 13 million-person list.)

I saw this just hours after I saw Craig Colgan’s post on TechRepublican that suggested that the legions of left-wing “netroots” activists may be somewhat… shall we say, open to suggestion? MoveOn certainly seems to think they can mobilize their list at the drop of a hat to support the Obama Agenda. Without the pressure of a campaign, I’ll be curious to see if they take action – and, if they do, how effective that action is.

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Open for Questions: Can you Digg it?

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

Change.gov’s “Open for Questions” feature has already attracted over 8,000 submissions. The site is designed to let users choose on which questions are put before the great and powerful President-elect much like Digg allows users to vote on which stories make the site’s front page.

As Mashable’s Mark Hopkins and Politico’s Ben Smith point out, the result is similar to Digg: left-leaning users are voting for questions with pointed criticisms of the current President. (One question urges the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the Bush administration; another calls for the military to stop hiring “mercenary” contractors.) Questions about Obama’s relationship with Gov. Blagojevich are buried deep.

That’s not a bad thing: the past 220 years should have taught us that anytime there is some sort of election, Americans will organize in an attempt to win.

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Dr. Daschle’s Video

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

There’s a lot to like about HHS Secretary-to-be Tom Daschle’s video about the Obama team’s response to comments on their early work on health care reform (released this week on Change.gov):

Granted, Daschle’s glasses make him look like he should be answering the phone for the Ghostbusters. But the video is excellent: apparently unscripted and very conversational. Professional touches like makeup and effective cuts and edits make the footage look good, but the banter between Dr. Daschle and Policy Team Member Lauren Aronson is easy and natural – right down to mentioning that a third team member is still out of the office on Thanksgiving break. They even read from the 3,500 comments they received and mentioned commenters by name – a nice touch.

This comment process is more than just an excuse to post a YouTube video. Consider this word cloud of the 100 term most used in those 3,500 comments:

This gives team Obama an idea of what buzzwords to use when building and pushing their health care plan – in other words, what words and phrases will most resonate with those commenters and inspire them to write their Congressman and Senators to encourage passage.

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Smile and grin at the "change" all around me

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

Every time Barack Obama announces a new cabinet appointment, I get The Who’s Won’t Get Fooled Again running through my head. Obama’s picks seem to echo the song’s classic closing lines: “Meet the new boss / Same as the old boss.” Team Obama is largely made up of Clinton Administration and Democratic Party retreads.

Potential new Commerce Secretary Bill Richardson was President Clinton’s Secretary of Energy. Attorney General-nominee Eric Holder was a key official in the Clinton Justice Department. Clinton Tresury Secretary Lawrence Summers will head the National Economic Council. Reported Secretary of State Hilary Clinton… well, I suppose she didn’t technically serve in the Clinton Administration. Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was a policy adviser in the Clinton White House.

Combined with Tom Daschle’s appointment to be Secretary of Health and Human Services and even dating to the selection of five-term Senator Joe Biden as his Vice President, Obama has demonstrated a consistent preference for surrounding himself with people who are very comfortable inside the beltway. Not that any of these people are unqualified for their positions, but their selections make the campaign mantra of “change” ring a little hollow now.

There’s nothing in the street
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-by.

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The Neverending Campaign

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

I missed some things about change.gov when I talked about the Obama transition online HQ in a previous post. The site is inviting users to share their election stories, according to CNN.

As anyone who has built an email list knows, it is important to keep your online army engaged – and Obama has 12 million names to keep engaged. Sharing testimonials is an easy way to do this. It’s also a way to collect new contacts. (When working with clients to build websites, I always recommend the inclusion of testimonial pages.)

CNN also reports that the Obama administration will hold all non-emergency legislation for a five-day waiting period, where citizens will be allowed to review the legislation and make comments online. Obama now has a stacked deck; with 12 million supporters probably encouraged to visit the online comment page, he can safely assume the bulk of the comments will parrot his stance on any given piece of legislation – thus giving his stances the image of widespread public support.

It also means online Republican activists have a clearly identified battleground to fight on.

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