The Obama campaign's "Yes We Can" tagline was one of “best political slogans that any politician has come up with,” CBS News' Bob Schieffer said. "No one knew what he meant ... but it was warm and fuzzy," he said.

Clearly sick of the gloom-and-doom talk about the economy, ad executives offered sustained and lengthy applause after an America-will-get-through-it rallying cry from CBS News' Bob Schieffer. "In the worst of times, we have always found a way to come together and work our way out of it," he said. Remember our ancestors who risked their lives and came over on boats, he said. Americans are a bold and resilient group. The hearty cathartic applause came after Schieffer said, "We must never ever loose faith in ourselves."

CBS News anchor Bob Schieffer tackled new media during the Q&A session following his Friday morning keynote at the Four As media conference, starting off with an old media reference to the au current medium of Twitter. “I was told a twitter question might come up, ann the interest of new technology, I’m going to have to use some old technology and put some glasses on too read it,” Schieffer quipped. “I think blogs are great,” Schieffer continued. “I see more and more moving that way, but many times what we see in blogs is not journalism. Sometimes …

CBS News' Bob Schieffer offers that "the most successful politicians were the ones who mastered whatever the prominent medium of their time was." The founders of the country in the 1770s "were great writers." FDR was able to connect with the American people in spectacular fashion through the radio and his "Fireside Chats." Next came JFK, who understood the power of television, allowing his news conferences to be broadcast live. “He charmed America and he changed forever the way the presidency works,” Schieffer said. After JFK, came Newt Gingrich in the early 1990s who was able to …

Early last year, it appeared Barack Obama -- able to stake ground as the anti-Iraq war candidate as the the country was desperate to end the conflict -- would be able to ride his opposition to the White House. But by September, the economy had become the dominant issue. And CBS News’ Bob Schieffer is highlighting indeed how much the economy has overtaken Iraq as a concern among Americans and political issue (in fairness, the surge has helped stabilize the situation on the ground). But Schieffer asks who would have thought that Obama would hardly mention Iraq in …

An interesting paradox is emerging at the conference: the love me-hate me relationship industry executives have with the trade press. Three â€" the IAB’s Randall Rothenberg, GroupM’s Irwin Gotlieb and 4As chief Nancy Hill -- publicly took shots at Ad Age and Adweek. And conversations with agency heads often lead to very specific and detailed opinions, comments and criticism about coverage. So, they may have problems, but they are reading and very intensely. It leads to the conclusion â€" all self-serving aside â€" that the industry just doesn’t need a robust trade press but wants one. Forget …

Word broke at the conference that Mary Carpenter, who has been with GM Planworks and its successor operations for eight years, has been named a president at Starcom USA. As one of four, she will report to CEO John Muzynski. Carpenter joined GM Planworks, a Starcom MediaVest Group standalone unit in Detroit, when it was launched in 2000. SMG disbanded the group last year and melded the GM buying and planning business into its wider operations. Most recently, Carpenter was chief of strategy and operations on the GM account. In 2004, she became executive vice president and COO …