Leadership, Messaging, Speeches, Views on News • February 25th, 2009

Fact-checking

by Chris Lato

One thing that you can count on is that when given a big stage to speak from, most politicians find it mighty hard to avoid using some creativity in their facts, figures and versions of history.  So, while President Obama knows how to deliver a speech, and every reasonable American should be pulling for him to succeed, it’s always good to do a bit of fact-checking.  

Bottom line: last night’s address to Congress and the nation not detail-heavy. In fact, some may have been disappointed by the lack of detail, but all that comes later. Obama was doing nothing new in that sense. And these deep economic problems won’t be solved overnight, no matter how much some want to believe that all our president has to do is wave a magic wand and our national nightmare is over.

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Views on News • February 24th, 2009

Selling the stimulus

by Chris Lato

This is the point where government bailouts are entering some dangerous territory. For example, in Houston they’re considering paying some of the bills for potential first-time home buyers to help improve their credit scores. President Obama is offering a mortgage bailout plan that critics say crosses the line from needed relief to rewarding bad individual economic decisions and irresponsibility.

Tonight, the president will speak to Congress and the American people and address what he’s done so far and what he’s still looking to do.  The basic template will likely include: Bush got us into this mess; more pain is coming; and, we’ll get out of it.

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Views on News • February 23rd, 2009

The devil’s in the details

by Chris Lato

Yes, the title to this one is a cliche, but reporters statewide are now sifting their way through Gov. Doyle’s next budget, and to say it has a lot of potentially controversial components is the understatement of the month – kinda like saying Sean Penn’s political views lean a tad leftward.

Consider the idea of releasing prison inmates early – Republicans are hopping all over this one as an example of former attorney general Doyle being soft on crime. This is fraught with political dangers, as UW-Madison political science professor Charles Franklin rightly notes – heaven forbid an inmate on furlough commits a heinous crime while on the streets. Michael Dukakis can tell you all about how a similar furlough program worked out in his state.

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Views on News, wispundits • February 19th, 2009

Raiding the penny jar

by Chris Lato

Interesting. Gov. Doyle is proposing to get rid of the state’s film tax credit program.

Gov. Doyle may be stinging from the criticism of the tax credits, which brought the upcoming Christian Bale/Johnny Depp flick “Public Enemies” to Wisconsin for filming in 2008. After all, critics - including the state Commerce Department - questioned whether the big tax breaks were worth the resulting economic bump.

Doyle may also be smacking his lite guv down a notch after Barbara Lawton after she stepped into the limelight with very vocal public support of the film tax credits.  

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Views on News • February 13th, 2009

Minimum markup runs out of gas

by Chris Lato

For now, at least, Wisconsin’s archaic minimum markup law is down for the count. The Depression era law, which requires gas stations to markup the wholesale price of gas, was seen as a way to prevent some (read: larger) gas station chains from slashing their prices to drive others out of business, then hiking prices back up.

In reality, the minimum markup is anti-competition and deserves to die, especially at a time when the economy is hurting. Granted, the price savings wouldn’t be huge (estimated at up to 8 cents a gallon) but there will be an impact.

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Views on News • February 12th, 2009

A sign of the apocalypse

by Chris Lato

Russ Feingold and Jim Sensenbrenner agree on something. And when those two get together, it’s a safe bet that a plague of locusts cannot be far behind.

The issue is elections vs. appointments to fill U.S. Senate seats vacated mid-term. As reported by  Wispolitics.com Wednesday:

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Views on News • February 5th, 2009

Quick hits

by Chris Lato

First, my apologies for not checking in as often as usual in recent weeks. Work duties call, and I feel lucky to be able to say I have been keeping busy lately.

Second, please make sure to tune in to Wisconsin Public Radio tomorrow morning from 8-9 a.m. as I join host Joy Cardin to discuss the ‘Week in Review.’ There’s plenty going on - there will be no shortage of things to talk about.

Speaking of, what has happened to President Obama’s communication skills? The same guy who ran a bulletproof campaign that enjoyed relatively positive press coverage has, as an administration, morphed into The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.

The president’s recent fumbles (on the Daschle disaster and economic stimulus meltdown, to name but two) are fuel for the critics’ fire – those who accused Obama of being little more than an empty suit lacking the experience and substance for the big job.

Critics need to cut the new president a bit of slack. He did exactly the right thing by admitting he screwed up on the Tom Daschle nomination (to say nothing of Bill Richardson). A combination of things are at play here, including:

The guy’s brand-new at the job. There are bound to be stumbles.

The unprecedented, fawning coverage of Obama has set up impossibly high expectations.

The press seems to take some delight in building ‘em up, only to tear ‘em down. 

The press likes conflict, and for a change the GOP has united behind a cause that gets the base all fired up: the stimulus package, which critics contend is little more than Democrat pork-barrel spending unbound.

All that said, President Obama is facing his first real test as a leader and a communicator. The game is his to lose. He needs an aggressive, streamlined message on why the stimulus package is needed right now, or else those falling public opinion ratings will continue to plummet.

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