Cody Keenan Quotes
We had Compaqs running Windows 98 or 2000. No laptops. It was like we had gone back in time.
George W. Bush and his White House Staff were of a generation that only thiought of a personal computer as a Word Processing and e-mailing machine. In the 8 years of the Bush Presidency, there were dramatic and dynamic breagthouhs on PCs and digital technology. But they percieved no need for anything more, The younger, much more technoplogically savy Obama and his staff were shocked that the headquarters of the most important leader in the world was so far behind the times in their digital capability, The White House Website that was being used was that developed in teh first Clinton Administration which then was the state of the art. But more than 15 years later, it was ancient and decrepid. The Obama Team leaped into the future with a very sophisticated new website whcih was the backbone of Obama's highly sophisticated digital communications strategy.
Barack Obama, Quoted in "The White House Survival Guide", Time, January 23, 2017
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
George W. Bush and his White House Staff were of a generation that only thiought of a personal computer as a Word Processing and e-mailing machine. In the 8 years of the Bush Presidency, there were dramatic and dynamic breagthouhs on PCs and digital technology. But they percieved no need for anything more, The younger, much more technoplogically savy Obama and his staff were shocked that the headquarters of the most important leader in the world was so far behind the times in their digital capability, The White House Website that was being used was that developed in teh first Clinton Administration which then was the state of the art. But more than 15 years later, it was ancient and decrepid. The Obama Team leaped into the future with a very sophisticated new website whcih was the backbone of Obama's highly sophisticated digital communications strategy.
This is one of the more candid and honest description of the reality of a new Presidential Administration making the transition from the old administration.
Nixon campaign manager and Attorney General-designate John As a result of this kind of experience with a transitioning President, a more formal procedure was developed.
Jordan had worked on the Carter transition team in 1976. When Carter was later defeated in 1980, it was suggested that Jordan should assist with the transition to the Reagan forces since he had transition experience:
This was a very clever play on a slogan that Las Vegas was using at the time to promote tourism and gambeling: “What happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas”
This was the first White House staff member whose duties encompassed recieveing, sorting, analyzing and drafting responses to incoming mail and telegrams
The Professor just connected a telegraph wire to the balloon tether rope and the observer/telegraph operator in the balloon could describe in real time the position, deployment, weapons and strength of the Confederates. The information was picked up by the Union officers on the ground and a few seconds later by Washington where Abraham Lincoln, a brilliant innovator in the use of telegraph technology, had a telegraph office right next to the White House. Observational intelligence was in real time reaching the Commander in Chief and the war planners not unlike the functionality of a modern observational drone. The graphic is a photo of that balloon preparing for launch.
Mead argues that this is a trend that has been operating over many administrations. It could be argued that modern communications and the media have been significant drivers of this phenomenon along with the desire for White House staff to have as much control as they can obtain. Before modern communications, an Ambassador, or a Secretary of Commerce had to make decisions within the philosophical and political umbrella of the President’s general policies. They could not communicate immediately with the President or his staff. But once everyone in the government was connected, the President’s staff could make every important decision. However, with the many different major issues and emergencies of the modern era, the small group in the What House have not been able to deal with them all and the bureaucracy has been instructed not to decide big things without going through the White House. See {642086}.
Despite the insults and harsh language that Dinald Trump and Barak Obama thre at each other in the Presidential Campaign of 2016, when Trump had narrowly beaten Hillary Clinton, Obama gaciously met with him and gave him advice, which Trimp uncharacteristically, grasciously accepted, In ab interview with Time reporters Obama explained his thinking.
This statement was made more than 1/2 a year after he was pushed out of his job of WHite House Cheif of Stafff by President Donald Trump
- Born:
- Nationality: American
- Profession: Political Speechwriter
Cody Keenan is an American political advisor and speechwriter who served as the Director of Speechwriting for President Barack Obama. Keenan studied political science at Northwestern University. After graduation, he worked in the senate office of Ted Kennedy, before studying for a master's in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. After graduation, he took a full-time position on the Barack Obama presidential campaign in 2008. In 2009, he took on the position of Deputy Director of Speechwriting; after Jon Favreau left the White House in 2013, Keenan took over as Director of Speechwriting.
