President Obama News Thread

[Bugs]

It is a bit of an embarassment to Obama to have to have had three withdrawals from senior posts, and frankly a blow with respect to Daschle- who seemed just perfect for healthcare. I must admit, I've got mixed feelings about this- he's been slapped with back taxes which he has to pay, is that really considered a serious enough offense to withdraw a nomination to a government post? Heck, that means myself and most people I know wouldn't stand a chance- with taxes you push the envelope here and there, see what you can get away with, and if something is disallowed as a deduction, or some perk is judged to be a taxable benefit you just take it on the chin- all part of the game, I thought.

Actually I don’t think the tax issue should have derailed the Daschel nomination, mainly because I think plenty of people walk a fine line when it comes to tax issues and he was going to be working on the health care issue and not specifically on the budget or other direct fiscal issues (outside of course of the cost side of the health care issue). I don’t understand why the tax issue derailed Daschel but did not derail the Geithner nomination?

And from what I read I don't think Daschel was simply pushing the envelop when it comes to taxes. I might be wrong but from what I heard/read I think he knew about the tax issue months and months ago, but waited until Obama asked him to be part of his team before he addressed the issue. In my mind this says to me he was not going to pay until he was forced to pay - even after he knew he was in error.

For my two bits pushing the envelop as it relates to taxes is when folks interpret the tax code in such a way that it reduces the amount of tax they need to pay. I think this is OK to an extent because the tax code is not really all that simple and is open to interpretation in various areas. I think Daschel did this, but then he took the next step after he found out that he had indeed not paid enough/sufficient taxes and then paid up only after he got the nod from Obama.

Otoh, Obama publicly set high ethical standards for his team so I guess I can't fault him for sticking by them- it just seems a bit tough for this to include an income tax wrangle- not like he was running an organised tax avoidance scam or sumfin.

When you run a campaign and make ethics one of the center points of your campaign, you don’t later get to pick and choose what you feel are major vs minor breaches in ethical standards. Granted IMHO the main focus of the Obama campaign as it relates to ethics was lobbyist and their place in politics, but he by no means limited his ethics campaign to issues related to lobbyists only.

Obama himself said that part of the reason he felt he made a mistake on the Daschle issue was that he did not want to send a message to people that those in power have one set of rules to follow and the rest have another set to follow. The natural follow-up to that of course is OK so why does he feel the Daschle nomination was sending this message, but the Geithner nomonation does not? - or does it?

[Jet Gorgon]

Tax the folks, but I'm outside the law... Geithner, Daschle...never mind the lobbyists that were waived for top jobs.
Oops, marshmallow prez.

[Boon Mee]

I can't believe it!

Today's Rasmussen survey, President Obama's approval rating is down to 61 percent.

[Panda]

I can't believe it!

Today's Rasmussen survey, President Obama's approval rating is down to 61 percent.

And thats in the USA!

He needs to bomb someone to get back in the good books.
Maybe start a war somewhere. Iran of North Korea would be good for a second term. Too much navel gazing always gets the US public into a panic.

[DrivingForce]

Intent is a major point in tax matters, and usually hard to prove.

I'm not concerned with guilt or innocence, nor am I naive or oblivious. I'm concerned with impropriety and naivety as for a position of cabinet post appointee or any elected government official for that matter it is unacceptable and unconscionable..

[HermantheGerman]

I can't believe it!

Today's Rasmussen survey, President Obama's approval rating is down to 61 percent.

As a true American you should support Obama and hope that the U.S. get's back on its feet.
In the mean time have one of these:

[blackgang]

he was going to be working on the health care issue and not specifically on the budget or other direct fiscal issues (outside of course of the cost side of the health care issue). I don’t understand why the tax issue derailed Daschel but did not derail the Geithner nomination?

Still got a fox guarding the hen house tho dude, but all politicians are Lawyers first so that is an oxy to ask if they are honest 555

[chitown]

The golden boy is not looking so golden these days. Buyer's remorse so soon??? How long has he been in office?

Obama losing the stimulus message war



At this crucial juncture in the push to pass an economic recovery package, President Obama finds himself in the most unlikely of places: He is losing the message war. Despite Obama’s sky high personal approval ratings, polls show support has declined for his stimulus bill since Republicans and their conservative talk-radio allies began railing against what they labeled as pork barrel spending within it.
The sheer size of it – hovering at about $900 billion — has prompted more protests that are now causing some moderate and conservative Democrats to flinch and, worse, hesitate.


Obama losing the stimulus message war - Yahoo! News

[Texpat]

Obama criticized his opponents for trying to use fear to get what they wanted.

Obama is trying to leverage fear as a reason the US citizens should give him everything he wants.

No we can't!

[Bugs]

No one in the Obama crew could be bothered to even pick up a phone and tell the bloke has was no longer going to get the job - nice...

General Zinni gets undiplomatic treatment from Obama team - By Laura Rozen | The Cable

When retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni told the Washington Times that he was offered the job of U.S. ambassador to Iraq before being passed over in favor of diplomat Christopher Hill, he did not say that one of the outrages of the experience was that his friend of 30 years, fellow former Marine Corps commandant and now national security advisor James L. Jones, had offered him the job, and then failed to tell him when the decision was changed.

"Jones had called me before the inauguration and asked if I would be willing to serve as ambassador to Iraq or in one of the envoy jobs, on the Middle East peace process," Zinni told Foreign Policy. "I said yes."

"Then two weeks ago, Jones called," Zinni continued, "and said, ‘We talked to the secretary of state, and everybody would like to offer you the Iraq job.' I said yes.

"The [vice]* president called and congratulated me," Zinni said.

Then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked for a meeting last Monday night, Zinni said. He said he went to the meeting in her office at the State Department, where Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Williams Burns were also in attendance.

"She thanks me, asked me my views on Iraq," Zinni recalled. "She said to Burns and Steinberg, ‘We've got to move quickly, Crocker is leaving, we've got to get someone in there and get the paperwork done and hearings... Lots to do to get ready to go."

Zinni said he expected a call from Burns the next day. Not hearing from him, he called him.

"To make a long story short, I kept getting blown off all week," Zinni said. "Meantime, I was rushing to put my personal things in order," to get ready to go.

"Finally, nobody was telling me anything," Zinni said. "I called Jones Monday several times. I finally got through late in evening. I asked Jones, ‘What's going on?' And Jones said, ‘We decided on Chris Hill.'"

"I said, 'Really,'" Zinni recalled. "That was news to me."

And this is my favorite part:

Jones asked him if he would like to be ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Zinni said. "I said, 'You can stick that with whatever other offers,'" Zinni recalled, saying he had used more colorful language with Jones. Asked Jones's response and if he was apologetic, Zinni said, "Jones was not too concerned. He laughed about it."

Zinni said particularly galling is that had he not managed to get through to Jones on Monday night after repeated calls, he would have found out about the Chris Hill appointment in the Washington Post the next day with everybody else.

"You know, I would have appreciated if someone called me and said, 'Minds were changed,'" Zinni said. "But not even to get a call. That's what's really embarrassing."

[Jet Gorgon]

Obama transparency...

[Bugs]

Ok, this ain't about Obama, but it is about his right... err... maybe left hand man - Biden.

Biden muffs Clintons oath:

Oath-muff mocker Joe Biden muffs Hillary Clinton's oath | Top of the Ticket | Los Angeles Times

As everyone knows, Vice President Joe Biden is usually one of the planet's most circumspect when it comes to the spoken word.

So that same world was stunned when on the Obama administration's first afternoon in office, Biden stepped up to administer the oath of office to some staffers and made a sarcastic crack about needing the text to read because his memory wan't as good as that of Chief Justice John Roberts, who had muffed Barack Obama's presidential oath the previous day in front of a few hundred million people.

Obama quietly reached out and squeezed Biden's left elbow to say, "Enough." And Biden later phoned the chief justice to apologize.

Today, with no foreign funerals ready yet, Biden was sent over to the State Department to re-administer the oath of office to Hillary Clinton. She actually took the oath just off the Senate floor moments after being confirmed last month. But a new administration can never have too many happy photo ops showing everyone getting down to work.

So in front of an eager pro-Clinton audience Biden stepped up to the new secretary of State with her oath on a piece of paper in hand.

And you just know what happened.

See it on video here.

Bubbling, fumbling, Biden - we should all be so proud of our new VP. He almost reminded me of GW.

First he pokes fun at the Chief Justice, and then when he takes a crack at it (even with the oath right in front of him on a piece of paper) he bubbles it - fucking classic.

[Toptuan]

Barely three weeks into his presidency and Obama follows the path of the usual politician--already breaking campaign promises. It's on CNN today.

Why would we expect that a politician bred from the most politically corrupt district (Chicago) in the USA would show us any real change from the usual?

Americans had their head in the sand on this one.

[Texpat]

Ain't just Americans Toptuan. He got slightly over 50% of the US vote. In many other countries he was favored by as much as 80%

[Jet Gorgon]

This will be a classic, too.

President Obama is meeting Friday afternoon with the families of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks and the bombing of the USS Cole -- but some invited guests say they worry that the gesture is window-dressing, since the administration has suspended trials of detainees at Guantanamo Bay and a military judge on Thursday dropped charges against a suspect in the 2000 Cole bombing.
...
But at least two Cole families complained to FOX News that Obama should have met with them first, to hear them out, before a final decision was reached on the charges.
Lippold expressed disappointment that he learned from FOX News, not the administration, that the charges in the al-Nashiri case had been dropped.

Gary Swenchonis, a Texas resident whose son, Gary Jr., was killed in the Cole bombing, told FOX News he turned down an invitation from the White House to meet with Obama.
Swenchonis and his wife Deborah wrote a letter to Obama last week expressing their concerns about the halting of military trials at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.
Diane McDaniels, whose son was killed in the Cole bombing, also declined an invitation to meet the president, saying she was too disillusioned with Obama for dropping the charges.
"My son was blown up along with 16 others. I buried body parts for three years," she told FOX News. "I'm still suffering and now he's withdrawing the charges?
"There's nothing he can say to make me feel better," she explained, adding that Obama is sending the wrong message to the American people. "He may be the president but he's wrong."

Mrs McDaniels said she now regrets voting for Bambam. It's on a Fox news vid.
Families of Cole Victims Worry White House Meeting Is Window Dressing - First 100 Days of Presidency - Politics FOXNews.com

[barbaro]

^ Of course it's window dressing. Sorry to sound cynical, but this is politics, after all. GWB did the same thing. Guliani did the same thing. Every candidate for President did the same thing since 9/11.

It's for the masses. Perception.

[Texpat]

But Obama promised, opened his heart, tugged on the sensibilities, made a blood pact ... that he would be different.



I wasn't buying it -- not for a second. Were you?

[barbaro]

But Obama promised, opened his heart, tugged on the sensibilities, made a blood pact ... that he would be different.



I wasn't buying it -- not for a second. Were you?

I already said that I wasn't buying it.

This propaganda is for the dummies. All politicians do it.

I look down upon, but even moreso during election campaigns.

[Norton]

I wasn't buying it

I already said that I wasn't buying it.

What weren't you buying? He promised to close Gittmo and he has!

but this is politics

Dropping the charges is a legal issue pending review of the case. It's not a "political" one. If the review of the al-Nashiri case shows sufficient evidence to prosecute, new charges will be filed and al-Nashiri will be prosecuted.

[raycarey]

Dropping the charges is a legal issue pending review of the case. It's not a political one.

exactly.....some of the usual suspects need to learn how to keep their powder dry.

[barbaro]

I wasn't buying it

I already said that I wasn't buying it.

What weren't you buying? He promised to close Gittmo and he has!

I am not talking about Gitmo at all.

I'm referring to 9/11 families.

[Texpat]

He's already been exposed for what he is...

A slick suit. Fortunately, some of us realize the depth and breadth of a president's reach is limited. Keep spewing Reach Around, I have a feeling we haven seen the depth of your ignorance, yet.

[Jet Gorgon]

^ Of course it's window dressing. Sorry to sound cynical, but this is politics, after all. GWB did the same thing. Guliani did the same thing. Every candidate for President did the same thing since 9/11.

It's for the masses. Perception.

The key issue is that he did not tell the families first that he had cancelled the terrorist's trial until he finds a suitable judge for the case. Some family members of the dead heard the news first on FOX, including one blaoman who voted for BO. She was right PO-ed.

[Boon Mee]

NY Times Dreams of BO in the Shower!

Can't make this shit up, folks!!!

"The other night I dreamt of Barack Obama. He was taking a shower right when I needed to get into the bathroom to shave my legs, ..."

Sometimes a President Is Just a President - Judith Warner Blog - NYTimes.com

[panama hat]

I wasn't aware that the president of the US has to arrange every scheduled event to suit anyone even remotely affected.

After close to 10 days in the PIs and having only FOX'News' as a newschannel . . . amazing, simply amazing the tripe that gets shown there and is then regurgitated almost verbatim by some here.

He didn't and won't release the guy, as was so wonderfully reported by Hannity and his Nazi compatriots . . .