Dealing With Tell-All Memoirs: Lessons From The Reagan Playbook
One of my duties as a young aide in the Reagan White House was to prepare responses whenever a former appointee penned a memoir in
Joe Rodota
May 2, 2018
Author: Joe Rodota
CEO of Forward Observer, a public affairs firm with offices in Sacramento and Washington, D.C., a former communications manager in the Reagan White House, and the author of The Watergate: Inside America’s Most Infamous Address
“Sticky” Numbers in California’s Lobbying and Ballot Initiative Wars
To catch on in a crowded marketplace of ideas, say Chip and Dan Heath, authors of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, a
Joe Rodota
January 25, 2017
Tax Reform Kabuki Theater Ready to Take Center Stage
Last month, the Legislature sent 600 bills to Governor Jerry Brown for his signature (or veto). Senator Bob Hertzberg’s SB 8 was not among them.
Joe Rodota
October 6, 2015
Dog Days for Defenders of Plastic Bags
Columnist Katy Grimes recently criticized SB 270, California’s new law banning single-use plastic bags and replacing them with reusable bags and recyclable paper bags, and
Joe Rodota
December 15, 2014
The Lessons of Six Californias
What a fiasco. Tim Draper’s misguided proposal to declare California a failure and break it into six pieces has failed to qualify for the November 2016 ballot, despite his investment
Joe Rodota
September 23, 2014
Decision Time for Tim Draper
I like and respect Tim Draper, the venture capitalist. His investments in start-ups in Silicon Valley and around the world have helped fuel the global economy
Joe Rodota
May 27, 2014
Why Tim Draper’s “Six Californias” Measure is Like a Bad Breakup
How many times in the past few decades have politicians and pundits declared that California is ungovernable in its current state? In the late 1980s,
Joe Rodota
March 20, 2014
Immigration Reformers Must Tell a Better Story
In a recent column, Washington Post Wonkblog writers Ezra Klein and Evan Soltas ask: “Why hasn’t this been immigration August?” Five years ago, they write,
Joe Rodota
August 19, 2013
The California Reform Industry: A Prognosis
Cross posted, Advancing A Free Society, Hoover Institution In the current recession, the ranks of the unemployed in California have swelled by nearly 1.2 million.
Joe Rodota
July 6, 2012