GOP Power Play, Obamacare, Space Taxis and Newt!
Friday morning’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution headline that screamed “Governor seeks a shake-up” was counter-punched by the next morning’s headline “Critics pound Perdue plan.” The November headline should say “Voters KO GOP Power Grab Plan.” This was a bad idea from the start. And if it’s such a good idea now, why didn’t we hear about this until Sonny Perdue’s eighth year in office?
The basic plan goes like this: Perdue proposed that starting after 2014 elections the governor would appoint four currently elected officials: commissioners at labor, education and insurance, along with state superintendent of education. This will ostensibly make for better, more efficient government and ensure that really good people hold those jobs. Continue reading
The Achilles Heel That Could Engulf Obama
Wednesday morning brought a flurry of discussion about Tuesday elections along with this statement from a newly re-elected politician. “Those who want to work with me are most welcome, regardless of whether they opposed me in the election or whether they supported me in the election.” And with those words, Hamid Karzai began his new term as Afghanistan’s corrupt president.
Politicians and pundits are fairly consumed this week about whether Tuesday election results in New Jersey and Virginia constitute a rebuttal of the Barack Obama administration or some other cosmic signal that predicts the November 2010 future for Democrats and Republicans. Continue reading
Nobel Peace Prize: Hits, Misses, Obama and Gandhi
The Nobel Peace Prize, like other awards shows, often produces strange history. Adolf Hitler was nominated in 1939. That is about as strange as it gets. But there has been controversy about recipients and several who were never honored since the first Nobel Peace Prize way back in 1901.
The foremost example is probably Mahatma Gandhi – the Indian national leader. Gandhi was nominated five times between 1937 and 1948, the fifth nomination coming just days before his murder. Why Gandhi never won remains baffling today and the Nobel Peace Prize Committee has done nothing to correct that oversight in more than sixty years since his death. Continue reading
Health Care Reform: Drink Red Wine!
Everyone is right about health care. It is the biggest, scariest thing out there. This week I attended a health care reform discussion whose panelists included the vice chairman of a prestigious international corporation, a university health care policy researcher, an insurance industry representative and a successful businessman who employs about two dozen people.
None of them expect a really great, game changing result from current Washington paralysis. All four agree health care insurance reform should focus on rewarding preventive health care, but they don’t see that in the current conversation that often resembles a train wreck. They do not trust the process or the likely outcome. Continue reading
“You Lie!” Ignites National Shout Out
My mother used to constantly admonish me, “If you don’t have something nice to say about someone then don’t say anything at all.” Apparently my mother never met Joe Wilson.
Wilson is the white South Carolina Republican congressman and current poster boy for disrespect who shouted “You lie!” during President Barack Obama’s recent health care policy address to Congress. Politicians from both parties roundly booed the red-faced Congressman who later apologized to Obama. The President accepted the apology. Continue reading
Obama Care: More Questions Need Answers
President Barack Obama addressed Congress and We The People last evening with one primary task at hand: Wrestle control of the health care conversation back into his corner. This was, everyone agreed in advance, the most important speech of his fledgling presidency. It was also Obama’s final chance to demonstrate that he could be above the recent fray that made summer very ugly.
While vowing to “build on what works” and promising seniors that he would protect Medicare, the president strongly endorsed the so-called “public option” plan while also advocating for a new “insurance exchange” that could be in place within four years. Continue reading
Obama Must Control His Message
Messaging rules the world. Everything is about how you present content, the focus you create for the target audience, what you want the audience to remember and what you want it to ignore. Do messages right and you sell stuff. Do messages wrong and nobody buys your stuff.
President Barack Obama badly needs to sell stuff but he has world class message problems. This is fairly stunning. First, let’s give credit where due: Obama created the sharpest, high technology, most sophisticated campaign ever. Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton were good. Obama was over-the-top exceptional. He created a new standard that left John McCain flailing. Continue reading
-
Recent
- Westside Atlanta Charter … Changing Lives One Young Life at a Time
- Deal Administration Releases “Opportunity School District” Legislation
- Next Move for Georgia Justice Reform Belongs to Legislators
- The Early Political Education of Richard Woods
- Georgia’s New Justice System Agency Would Have Massive Footprint
- Attacking the Bad Headlines Around Misdemeanor Private Probation
- Georgia Targets Huge Gap with Juvenile Justice Databank Project
- 40 Years Later, Bill Bolling Prepares to Launch Urban Farms and Gardens
- Georgia Approves Aggressive Blueprint for Prisoner Reentry Initiative
- Federal Election Commission “Dark Money” Search Could Hurt Nonprofits
- Isakson: Window of Opportunity for World Peace and Liberty is Closing
- Getting Smart on Georgia Crime Moves Beyond Getting Tough
-
Links
-
Archives
- April 2015 (1)
- February 2015 (3)
- January 2015 (1)
- December 2014 (2)
- November 2014 (1)
- October 2014 (3)
- September 2014 (2)
- August 2014 (6)
- July 2014 (2)
- June 2014 (7)
- May 2014 (2)
- October 2013 (1)
-
Categories
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
Mike Klein Online 