Weekend update, March 20
Still no vaccine appointment for me (I am eligible for an appointment, just not yet able to actually get one), but my dad is fully vaccinated and coming to visit next week. My kid hasn’t been able to see any of his grandparents for over a year, and we’re all really excited. It’s nice to see things working.
Press conferences
Controversy raged last week as to why Joe Biden hasn’t scheduled a formal press conference. Then he finally scheduled one for March 25, which is way later into his presidency than any recent president.
The press corps itself tends to get extremely self-righteous about this kind of thing. But a few years ago I read Kathleen Dalton’s book “Theodore Roosevelt: A Strenuous Life,” and one thing that comes through clearly from her is that Teddy Roosevelt invented the press conference as a propaganda tool, not out of some desire for transparency. TR was a big believer in the bully pulpit (as in he literally invented the term), and he thought (rightly according to Dalton) th…
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