Speaking early this morning at the University of Michigan, President Barack Obama called for an overhaul of the higher education financial aid system, warning that colleges and universities that fail to control spiraling tuition costs could lose federal funds.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Michigan, Maryland, and Washington.
Obama delivered remarks early this morning at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor expanding on his State of the Union proposals to keep college affordable.
He then flew out of Detroit on Air Force One to Joint Base Andrews.
At 9:25 AM Pacific, Obama arrives Joint Base Andrews, where he boards Marine One and flies to Cambridge, Maryland.
At 10:20 AM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at the Democratic Issues Conference in Cambridge, Maryland. He then flies back to the White House on Marine One.
At 12 noon Pacific, Obama lands on the South Lawn of the White House.
At 12:30 PM Pacific, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Oval Office.
At 1:30 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a fundraiser at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington.
Obama is on Day 3 of his post-State of the Union “An America That’s Built To Last Tour.”
Polls show that his address was very well-received by most voters. And, as you can see in yesterday’s edition of NWN, there is a very good reason for that.
Obama’s speech and message mirror what most Americans think on most issues of concern.
Meanwhile, the Republicans are raging.
Yesterday was not a good day for Newt Gingrich, who has been on the receiving end of an organized establishment conservative political and media gang-up.
He gave a too hot speech, then followed that up with a somewhat subdued debate performance.
Mitt Romney, who has regained a lead in Florida, was very aggressive in last night’s debate, but he was caught in several lies along the way.
He claimed that he didn’t have an ad attacking Gingrich falsely claiming the ex-speaker had called Spanish a “ghetto language.” Not only does he have such an ad, he appears at the end of it saying he authorized the thing.
He claimed that his investments in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are in a blind trust. Which would not be a very good excuse anyway, since his Swiss bank account, also supposedly in a blind trust, was closed at his behest. In any event, the investments are not in a blind trust.
And he attempted to blur his Democratic presidential primary vote for Paul Tsongas in 1992 by saying he’s never voted for a Democrat when a Republican was running. It was a presidential election; obviously a Republican was running.
Prior to the debate, Romney was forced to acknowledge that he has several offshore investment accounts that are not on his financial disclosure forms, including one in an outfit called “Barracuda Investments.”
But Gingrich didn’t make a lot of hay on these points. He did better than much of the media, which hates to be shown up — as it has been both in the take-down of CNN host John King last week and in the supposedly dead Gingrich’s “surprise” win in South Carolina — but had only a slight edge over Romney in my view.
Romney and his forces have accelerated their spending in Florida, with more than $15 million accounted for, just a few days after the total looked like $13 million.
Gingrich and his backers are spending far less than half that.
Unless Gingrich makes some adjustments, as I discussed in the essay linked below, he will lose Florida. Not that he has to win it, but it’s certainly advisable.
As the UN Security Council considers today what to do about the deteriorating situation in Syria, rebels have seized a suburb just outside the center of Damascus, Syria’s capital city.
Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta outlined a plan yesterday for absorbing $487 billion in defense cuts over the coming decade. It can be done, said the veteran California political figure, by shrinking U.S. ground forces (principally the Army and less so, the Marines), slowing the purchase of a next generation stealth fighter, and retiring older planes and ships.
While US politics play out, the situation in Syria is rapidly deteriorating.
The UN Security Council is discussing moves now in New York, with Russia still standing by its longtime ally in the Assad regime.
But it’s not clear how much control Assad has left. After repeatedly dunking agreements with the Arab League, and then railing against increased sanctions, Assad is faced with a country that is near civil war.
In fact, a key city just outside the capital has apparently fallen to the so-called Free Syrian Army, about which remarkably little is known.
Given Syria’s longstanding position at the center of gravity in the Arab world, and its alliance with Iran, this is a combustible situation.
Obama is monitoring a variety of geopolitical crises, mostly related to the Arab awakening, AfPak, Iraq, Iran and Israel.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is eleven hours ahead of Pacific time, and Afghanistan is twelve and a half hours ahead of Pacific time.
** 10:15 AM PACIFIC UPDATE: The California Supreme Court ruled this morning that the Citizens Redistricting Commission’s districts for the state Senate will be used in the 2012 elections. This is a big and not unexpected defeat for conservative Republicans.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Southern California and Northern California today.
The California Supreme Court is expected to rule this morning on whether or not to deny the Citizens Redistricting Commission’s state Senate maps as counting of signatures for a referendum on the matter continues.
Last night at the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce dinner, Brown laid out what he’s dubbed a “Call To Action” to LA business leaders to stand with him on his public pension reform plan and his balanced budget plan, which includes his temporary tax hike initiative.
Alarmed by Brown’s work with the business community, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association joined forces with the National Federation of Independent Businesses, a fixture in far right circles, to urge business leaders not to succumb to Brown’s blandishments.
Brown appeared last night on the NBC Nightly News in an exclusive interview with former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw on his new/renewed governorship and national political dynamics.
Early this morning, he appeared on KGO and KCBS radio in the San Francisco Bay Area to discuss his budget and public pension reform plans.
** NEWTONIAN MOTION: WILL GINGRICH BLOW IT (AGAIN)?Most in the media and political worlds are now adjusting to the reality that Mitt Romney is not “inevitable.” But that doesn’t mean that Newt Gingrich can’t blow it. Again.
After all, as I pointed out last week here on the Huffington Post, before Gingrich’s landslide win in South Carolina, the supposedly politically dead ex-House speaker has blown golden opportunities to put Romney away before.
Romney is a hollow man, whose only consistent ideology is radical capitalism, as he showed when he denounced any criticism of his financialized capitalism as tantamount to socialism, and notions of his own success. He’s been an accident waiting to happen for a long time, notwithstanding endless hype to the contrary.
But Gingrich is a political Bibendum, a Michelin Man, someone who, too frequently, becomes puffed up like an alarmingly over-inflated tire at high speeds.
Now he’s racing with Romney in Florida, having suddenly overcome the ex-leveraged buyout artist’s huge lead there despite weeks of massive advertising on Romney’s behalf.
Gingrich doesn’t have to win Florida, since this contest comes with an asterisk. There’s been a lot of early voting there by people who were hearing only the Romney message. And there is the massive spending for Romney, some $15.4 million, to $6 million or so on Gingrich’s behalf. …
** NEWTONIAN MOTION: UNDERLYING THE DECIDEDLY UNDEAD.Back from the dead. Again. Newt Gingrich. Amazing, isn’t it?
What’s actually amazing is that Gingrich was “dead” in the first place.
The fact is that the ex-House speaker had the Republican race in his hands last month and then proceeded to blow it.
And Mitt Romney is one of the most hollow, and hyped, political figures to come down the track in some time. He’s a consultant culture dream candidate: Big money and heavily into “messaging.” However, messaging, i.e., constantly repeating crafted talking points, is often not the same as having a message, which is why what he says is so malleable and chameleon-like. It’s obvious that there is very little that interests Romney besides success.
It’s a combination of unforced Gingrich errors, erroneous media coverage, and Romney’s nature peeking out all too often from behind the slick facade that has led to these seemingly shocking twists and turns. … From my January 20th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in three wars in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti. While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil is trading around $100 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $66 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $14 from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta outlined a plan today for absorbing $487 billion in defense cuts over the coming decade. It can be done, said the veteran California political figure, by shrinking U.S. ground forces (principally the Army and less so, the Marines), slowing the purchase of a next generation stealth fighter, and retiring older planes and ships.
** QUICK HITS. The big Republican presidential debate is at 5 PM Pacific in Jacksonville, Florida on CNN.Here is the live link. … Tonight at the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce dinner, Governor Jerry Brown lays out what he’s dubbed a “Call To Action” to LA business leaders to stand with him on his public pension reform plan and his balanced budget plan, which includes his temporary tax hike initiative. … Alarmed by Brown’s work with the business community, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association joined forces with the National Federation of Independent Businesses, a fixture in far right circles, to urge business leaders not to succumb to Brown’s blandishments. … Brown also appears tonight on the NBC Nightly News in an exclusive interview with former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw on his new/renewed governorship and national political dynamics.
** NEWTONIAN MOTION: WILL GINGRICH BLOW IT (AGAIN)?Most in the media and political worlds are now adjusting to the reality that Mitt Romney is not “inevitable.” But that doesn’t mean that Newt Gingrich can’t blow it. Again.
After all, as I pointed out last week here on the Huffington Post, before Gingrich’s landslide win in South Carolina, the supposedly politically dead ex-House speaker has blown golden opportunities to put Romney away before.
Romney is a hollow man, whose only consistent ideology is radical capitalism, as he showed when he denounced any criticism of his financialized capitalism as tantamount to socialism, and notions of his own success. He’s been an accident waiting to happen for a long time, notwithstanding endless hype to the contrary.
But Gingrich is a political Bibendum, a Michelin Man, someone who, too frequently, becomes puffed up like an alarmingly over-inflated tire at high speeds.
Now he’s racing with Romney in Florida, having suddenly overcome the ex-leveraged buyout artist’s huge lead there despite weeks of massive advertising on Romney’s behalf.
Gingrich doesn’t have to win Florida, since this contest comes with an asterisk. There’s been a lot of early voting there by people who were hearing only the Romney message. And there is the massive spending for Romney, some $15.4 million, to $6 million or so on Gingrich’s behalf.
But winning Florida, which Gingrich can do, would certainly be best, and could end up putting Romney’s candidacy down for good.
** NEW SURVEY: OBAMA’S STATE OF THE UNION ALMOST ENTIRELY IN LINE WITH VOTERS’ VIEWS. A new breakdown of polling data by the Gallup Poll reveals a very good reason why President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday night found very widespread favor with voters.
It was essentially structured along lines that they have already approved.
I wonder if they look at polls in the White House. Hmm …
Here are the issue areas in which Obama was largely or even entirely in line with popular opinion:
Getting out of Iraq. People were tired of this war, one of the biggest geopolitical mistakes in American history, a long time ago.
Killing Osama bin Laden and prosecuting the war on terrorism. This is a big winner for Obama.
Pride in the US Armed Forces. It’s the most admired institution in the US.
Changing the corporate tax code to reward job creation at home. Voters are getting hip to the off-shore/out-source issue in a big way.
Trade policy with China. More favor playing tougher with a rising China economic power.
Job training. Big majorities for increased job training programs. When is there not?
Illegal immigration. While most want stronger border security, a big majority favors steps to allow illegal immigrants already here to remain, and a smaller majority wants the children of illegals to gain legal status automatically by attending college of joining the armed forces.
Oil and gas exploration. Most want more oil and natural gas development in the US.
Alternative energy development. Big majorities favor more government intervention to help the renewable energy industry, and agree with Obama that it should be preferred over the traditional oil industry which has reaped a century of big government subsidies.
Infrastructure. Big majorities agree with Obama that more infrastructure spending is needed, and that it is a good source of good jobs in the process.
Tax fairness. Most agree with Obama that the tax system is unfair, and that the wealthy need to pay more.
Government gridlock. Most everyone agrees that Washington is dysfunctional. Trick question to see who’s napping.
Governmental efficiency. Negative views of the federal government, its size, power, and efficiency, have grown to near record levels. Most agree with Obama that it needs to become more efficient, even as many continue to fear it.
Defense. Obama is pushing a plan for an improved yet leaner military. That tracks with popular attitudes. Most are pleased with the armed forces in terms of strength and preparedness, while mindful of possible future threats such as cyberwar. But voters are torn on the question of military spending, with a 39% plurality saying we spend too much, 35% saying the right amount, and 22% too little. The latter group is the one being addressed by the Republican presidential candidates, who claim that Obama is eviscerating our military strength.
The only areas not so much?
Economic fairness. Gallup has polling indicating a split over whether or not the US economy is unfair in general, even as it has other polling showing a strong desire to tax the rich more heavily, with strong distrust of the financial sector.
The improving state of the Union. You’ve seen the numbers here on that. Widespread dissatisfaction with the economy, even as economic confidence rises.
At 2:30 PM Pacific, President Barack Obama delivers remarks on energy security at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, Colorado. At 10 AM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks on the new energy economy in Las Vegas, Nevada. The events are netcast live here on New West Notes. If you want to mute the audio, click on the pause button.
** LIVE FROM THE WHITE HOUSE.
With massive geopolitical events swirling and the 2012 presidential race unfolding, the White House is increasingly a pivot point for the day’s events. Live streaming of key presidential events is now available as a matter of course here on New West Notes. You can mute the audio by clicking on the pause button.
NWN will continue to present other live netcasts in full streaming mode, as it did with the Ronald Reagan Centennial events from the Reagan Library, as they emerge and are technically available and as significance dictates.
President Barack Obama visited Conveyor Engineering and Manufacturing in Cedar Rapids, Iowa yesterday on his “An America That’s Built To Last” post-State of the Union tour, reminiscing some about the state that gave him his breakthrough victory in 2008.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Nevada, Colorado, and Michigan.
At 10 AM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at UPS Las Vegas South about the new energy economy.
This event will be netcast live here on New West Notes.
At 12:05 PM Pacific, Obama departs Las Vegas on Air Force en route Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, Colorado.
At 1:35 PM Pacific, Obama arrives Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, Colorado.
At 2:30 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at Buckley Air Force Base on American energy and the steps his administration is taking to promote energy security.
This event will be netcast live here on New West Notes.
At 3:15 PM Pacific, Obama departs Aurora, Colorado on Air Force One en route Detroit, Michigan.
At 5:30 PM Pacific, Obama arrives in Detroit.
Obama is on Day 2 of his post-State of the Union An America That’s Built To Last Tour.
Polls show that his address was very well-received by most voters.
Meanwhile, the Republicans are raging.
In Congress, they are trying to take away Obama’s power to approve the Keystone XL pipeline project, hoping instead to vest it in an industry-friendly regulatory body.
This is a desperation move, since they’ve been acknowledging Obama and the State Department’s authority all along.
And battles are raging in the Republican presidential race. The Republican presidential field debates tonight in Jacksonville on CNN.
The Drudge Report and other right-wing media fixtures are launching a coordinated assault on Newt Gingrich. Their problem, aside from the merits or demerits of their case, is that if he wins they become far less relevant as a lobbying force in the Republican Party.
Angry Congressional Republicans are trying to strip President Barack Obama of his authority over the controversial proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to Texas. The attempt is probably unconstitutional.
The race is quite volatile now, with signs that Mitt Romney has recovered some of his past position in the Florida primary.
Gingrich vowed yesterday in Florida, historic home of the manned space program, that he will establish a Moon base by 2020. The crowd was favorably disposed. Rival Mitt Romney likes to make fun of the space program.
Romney and his forces have accelerated their spending in Florida, with more than $15 million accounted for, just a few days after the total looked like $13 million.
Gingrich and his backers are spending less than half that.
Obama is monitoring a variety of geopolitical crises, mostly related to the Arab awakening, AfPak, Iraq, Iran and Israel.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is eleven hours ahead of Pacific time, and Afghanistan is twelve and a half hours ahead of Pacific time.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Southern California.
At 12:30 PM, he celebrates the 50th anniversary of San Juan Capistrano at an event at El Adobe De Capistrano Restaurant.
At 7 PM, he attends and addresses the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce Inaugural Dinner at the JW Marriott at LA Live.
Some higher ed leaders are starting to get it in California. The California State University board of trustees voted yesterday to set some limits on new campus president salaries. Top staff pay and perks have been going up in the CSU and UC systems while big cutbacks hit elsewhere.
** NEWTONIAN MOTION: UNDERLYING THE DECIDEDLY UNDEAD.Back from the dead. Again. Newt Gingrich. Amazing, isn’t it?
What’s actually amazing is that Gingrich was “dead” in the first place.
The fact is that the ex-House speaker had the Republican race in his hands last month and then proceeded to blow it.
And Mitt Romney is one of the most hollow, and hyped, political figures to come down the track in some time. He’s a consultant culture dream candidate: Big money and heavily into “messaging.” However, messaging, i.e., constantly repeating crafted talking points, is often not the same as having a message, which is why what he says is so malleable and chameleon-like. It’s obvious that there is very little that interests Romney besides success.
It’s a combination of unforced Gingrich errors, erroneous media coverage, and Romney’s nature peeking out all too often from behind the slick facade that has led to these seemingly shocking twists and turns. … From my January 20th column.
** STATING THE STATE: JERRY BROWN GETS DISCIPLINED AND LAYS IT OUT.Straighten out the chronic crisis of the present and move the state forward into the future. That’s Jerry Brown’s mission as governor of California this time around, which he laid out rather clearly in his new State of the State address.
He’s also making progress early on in clearing the field for his revenue initiative in November.
Brown has articulated everything he said in this speech before. But he hadn’t framed it up and put it all together in a coherent way, preferring too often to rely on his improvisational rhetorical skills. And he certainly hadn’t ventured out from the capital in the North in any sustained manner to push his program around the state, yet he followed this State of the State address by, in essence, bringing the State of the State to several communities across Southern California on Wednesday and Thursday. … From my January 19th feature.
** EXTREMISM IN DEFENSE OF IRONY: BY ROMNEY’S RADICAL DEFINITION HIS OWN CHIEF STRATEGIST IS “ANTI-FREE ENTERPRISE.” … From my January 15th essay.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in three wars in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti. While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil is trading around $100 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $66 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $14 from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
This anti-Newt Gingrich attack ad has just started running in Nevada in advance of the February 4th Republican presidential caucuses there.
** QUICK HITS.Newt Gingrich vowed today in Florida, historic home of the manned space program, that he will establish a Moon base by 2020. The crowd was favorably disposed. Rival Mitt Romney likes to make fun of the space program. … Some higher ed leaders are starting to get it in California. The California State University board of trustees voted today to set some limits on new campus president salaries. Top staff pay and perks have been going up in the CSU and UC systems while big cutbacks hit elsewhere. … Governor Jerry Brown announced the streamlining of some environmental regulations. More to follow. …
** ROMNEY TRIES TO ARREST SILVER STATE SLIDE. There hasn’t been a public poll in Nevada, the next contest in the Republican nomination race, for over a month. But something must be telling Mitt Romney, who led then, that things are going south there in advance of the February 4th presidential caucuses, because today his campaign put this TV ad on the air in the Las Vegas and Reno media markets.
As you’ll see, I think Newt Gingrich has a real opportunity to win Nevada, which, if he wins Florida, would be another crackling blow to a reeling “inevitable” candidate. Romney took Nevada in 2008 and has long been favored there. But he’s vulnerable.
Romney’s argument, of course, is that it’s the government’s fault for the financial crisis for encouraging the expansion of home ownership, not that lenders enticed vulnerable consumers or that high finance types turned mortgages into unsustainable but highly lucrative financial products.
And he neglects to mention that he’s already been revealed as an investor in Freddie Mac, the outfit that engaged Gingrich’s consulting firm for years, or that he favors having underwater mortgage holders drown.
VOICEOVER: “While Nevada families lost everything in the housing crisis, Newt Gingrich cashed in.
Gingrich was paid over $1.6 million by the scandal-ridden agency that helped create the crisis. An historian. Really?
Sanctioned for ethics violations.
Gingrich resigned from Congress in disgrace.
And then cashed in as a DC insider.
If Newt wins, this guy would be very happy.” (over photo of Barack Obama)
At 3:30 PM Pacific, President Barack Obama delivers remarks at Intel’s Ocotillo Campus outside Phoenix, Arizona. At 9:55 AM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at Conveyor Engineering & Manufacturing in Cedar Rapids. The events are netcast live here on New West Notes. If you want to mute the audio, click on the pause button.
** LIVE FROM THE WHITE HOUSE.
With massive geopolitical events swirling and the 2012 presidential race unfolding, the White House is increasingly a pivot point for the day’s events. Live streaming of key presidential events is now available as a matter of course here on New West Notes. You can mute the audio by clicking on the pause button.
NWN will continue to present other live netcasts in full streaming mode, as it did with the Ronald Reagan Centennial events from the Reagan Library, as they emerge and are technically available and as significance dictates.
The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that it is unlikely to raise interest rates before late 2014, extending a period of record-low rates.
** NEW SURVEY: FINANCIAL WORRIES AS HIGH AS ANY IN PAST TWO DECADES. A new Gallup Poll survey indicates that, even though economic confidence has gone up some, financial worries continue to be widespread.
Whether it’s accurate or not, half the people in the country think they are worse off financially now than they were a year ago.
These worries are equivalent to what they were 20 years ago, when incumbent George Bush was defeated by Bill Clinton.
Of course, one big difference is that times were good when Bush took office. Whereas Obama inherited the worst economy since the Great Depression.
Americans’ worries about maintaining their standard of living (51%), or being able to pay medical bills (43%) or losing their job (34%) in the next 12 months are among the highest Gallup has measured in the past 20 years, on par with the levels seen in 1991 and 1992. …
Since 1991, Gallup has periodically asked Americans whether they are worried about each of these financial events happening to them. The trend includes updates in January of four presidential election years — 1992, 2004, 2008, and 2012.
Americans’ economic anxiety today is most similar to what it was in 1992, though Americans are slightly less worried about not being able to pay medical bills now (43%) than they were then (48%). The economic angst at that time helped contribute to George H.W. Bush’s re-election defeat that year. Far fewer were worried in 2004, when George W. Bush won a second term.
The late January/early February 2008 survey was conducted as the U.S. was in the beginning of an economic recession and Americans were becoming increasingly worried about the economy, but before the financial crisis unfolded later that year. Americans were less worried at that time than they are now about losing a job (23% versus 34%) and paying medical bills (33% versus 43%), but about as worried about not being able to maintain their standard of living (50% versus 51%).
Gallup did not ask this question in the immediate aftermath of the financial crisis, so it’s possible the levels of financial worry were higher then. However, the January 2011 update showed that economic concerns were elevated in all three areas nearly two years after the recession officially ended. Importantly, Americans’ financial concerns remain high even as economic confidence is improving. …
US Navy SEALs, parachuting into Somalia, rescued two aid workers, an American woman named Jessica Buchanan and a Danish man, being held by jihadists. The raid went down last night around the time time of the State of the Union address. The operation was carried out by SEAL Team Six, the unit which carried out the Osama bin Laden raid. There were no American casualties.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … NEWTONIAN MOTION: WILL GINGRICH BLOW IT (AGAIN)?
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington, Iowa, Arizona, and Nevada.
Obama has received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
He then departed Joint Base Andrews on Air Force One route Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
At 9:20 AM Pacific, Obama arrives in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
At 9:40 AM Pacific, Obama tours Conveyor Engineering & Manufacturing in Cedar Rapids.
At 9:55 AM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at Conveyor Engineering & Manufacturing in Cedar Rapids.
The event will be netcast live here on New West Notes.
At 11:30 AM Pacific, Obama departs Cedar Rapids on Air Force One en route Phoenix, Arizona.
At 2:35 PM Pacific, Obama arrives in Phoenix, Arizona.
At 3:30 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at Intel’s Ocotillo Campus.
The event will be netcast live here on New West Notes.
At 5:35 PM Pacific, Obama departs Phoenix on Air Force One en route Las Vegas, Nevada.
At 6:30 PM Pacific, Obama arrives in Las Vegas.
Obama delivered a well-received State of the Union address last night, focusing on the end of the war in Iraq, the demise of Osama bin Laden and much of Al Qaeda and his themes of economic revival and modified populism.
The optics of Obama’s case were aided by having representatives of the two most popular businesspeople in the country — investor Warren Buffett and the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs — on hand in the gallery with First Lady Michelle Obama.
Laurene Powell Jobs, an icon of a famous fortune based not on financial manipulation but great products, was joined by Warren Buffett’s secretary, Debbie Bosanek, who pays a higher tax rate under the system now in place than her mega-billionaire boss does.
Now he is on a three-day/five-state tour playing up his key sub-themes of ramping up American manufacturing, the new energy economy, and technological innovation and worker skills.
These tour events have a new theme, incidentally. “An America Built To Last.”
The Obama campaign, and of course these really are re-election events, is contrasting Obama’s approach to capitalism with what they see as the clearly unsustainable model promoted by conservative Republicans.
While the State of the Union played out, US Navy SEALs executed a daring raid inside Somalia to rescue two Western aid workers, an American woman and a Danish man, who were kidnapped by jihadists seeking to block efforts to clear mine fields, which the jihadists style as Western imperialism.
The American woman, Jessica Buchanan, in captivity for three months, had a serious medical condition which prompted Obama’s decision to launch the raid.
Obama had baffled some observers just before beginning last night’s State of the Union address when he grasped Defense Secretary Leon Panetta by the hand, telling the veteran California political figure: “Good job!”
There were no Blackhawks down this time in Somalia. The SEALs parachuted in and killed the jihadist guards, most of whom were evidently sleeping off a bout with khat, a popular narcotic in that part of the world.
If it’s a fair fight, something has gone wrong.
Prior to these events, we a wild day in Republican presidential politics.
A part of that wild day in Florida with a California connection saw Palm Springs Congresswoman Mary Bono’s husband, Florida Congressman Connie Mack, crash a Newt Gingrich event trying to embarrass the ex-speaker on “unanswered questions” about his consulting work for Freddie Mac. The outfit is positioned in conservative lexicon as the cause of the financial crisis, at best a very incomplete view.
President Barack Obama delivered the State of the Union address last night at the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
Of course, in the course of going through Mitt Romney’s release of tax information since 2010, it emerges that he invested in Freddie Mac. But there are bigger fish to fry in that catch, and the DNC is focusing heavily on the fact that Romney is studiously not revealing much about his finances during his leveraged buyout heyday, from which he gained the fortune which yields him more than $40 million in investment income in two years while he was running for president. (But still a Bain Capital partner.)
The big news of the day on the Republican side was the release by Romney of his 2010 tax returns and 2011 tax estimate. Of course, he is avoiding revealing his records from the time in which he acquired most of his vast wealth, revealing only his dealings while a full-time candidate for president, presumably the most sanitized time of his life financially.
There’s plenty of coverage of this, but it seems obvious to me that Romney making well over $40 million off of investments, paying at a rate of less than 14%, with evidence of large holdings in Caribbean off-shore havens, and even a Swiss bank account, played in perfectly to Obama’s themes of fairness in the SOTU.
Obama is monitoring a variety of geopolitical crises, mostly related to the Arab awakening, AfPak, Iraq, Iran and Israel.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is eleven hours ahead of Pacific time, and Afghanistan is twelve and a half hours ahead of Pacific time.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Los Angeles.
At 1:30 PM, he speaks at the California District Attorneys Association Roundtable at the Sheraton Delfina in Santa Monica.
Brown has several additional events in Southern California today and tomorrow.
The poll showed what we’ve already discussed here quite a few times.
Brown’s numbers are still pretty good, with a job approval of 46% and disapproval down in the 30s.
Better yet, there is very strong support for his revenue initiative, with upwards of two-thirds in favor.
But the trigger cuts are unpopular.
California voters always want to cut except when it comes to realistic specifics.
All they want to cut is unspecified waste, fraud, and abuse, and corrections, a tiny sliver of the budget which is being cut heavily by Brown.
They of course have no idea where most of the money is spent, i.e., on education.
Is this because of mediocre media coverage, or a persistent ignorance?
Meanwhile, California Democratic legislators are showing their special tone deafness with a lawsuit attempting to take away the ability of state Controller John Chiang to block their paychecks until they produce a legitimate budget, as he did to great acclaim last June.
The Democratic legislators are more reality-based than their Republican counterparts, but it is, unfortunately, all relative.
The state auditor issued a report saying that the Brown Administration has not finished fixing the previous management problems at the High-Speed Rail Authority. I’ll have more on that.
** NEWTONIAN MOTION: UNDERLYING THE DECIDEDLY UNDEAD.Back from the dead. Again. Newt Gingrich. Amazing, isn’t it?
What’s actually amazing is that Gingrich was “dead” in the first place.
The fact is that the ex-House speaker had the Republican race in his hands last month and then proceeded to blow it.
And Mitt Romney is one of the most hollow, and hyped, political figures to come down the track in some time. He’s a consultant culture dream candidate: Big money and heavily into “messaging.” However, messaging, i.e., constantly repeating crafted talking points, is often not the same as having a message, which is why what he says is so malleable and chameleon-like. It’s obvious that there is very little that interests Romney besides success.
It’s a combination of unforced Gingrich errors, erroneous media coverage, and Romney’s nature peeking out all too often from behind the slick facade that has led to these seemingly shocking twists and turns. … From my January 20th column.
** STATING THE STATE: JERRY BROWN GETS DISCIPLINED AND LAYS IT OUT.Straighten out the chronic crisis of the present and move the state forward into the future. That’s Jerry Brown’s mission as governor of California this time around, which he laid out rather clearly in his new State of the State address.
He’s also making progress early on in clearing the field for his revenue initiative in November.
Brown has articulated everything he said in this speech before. But he hadn’t framed it up and put it all together in a coherent way, preferring too often to rely on his improvisational rhetorical skills. And he certainly hadn’t ventured out from the capital in the North in any sustained manner to push his program around the state, yet he followed this State of the State address by, in essence, bringing the State of the State to several communities across Southern California on Wednesday and Thursday. … From my January 19th feature.
** EXTREMISM IN DEFENSE OF IRONY: BY ROMNEY’S RADICAL DEFINITION HIS OWN CHIEF STRATEGIST IS “ANTI-FREE ENTERPRISE.” … From my January 15th essay.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in three wars in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti. While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil is trading around $98 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $64 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $16 from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
At 6 PM Pacific, President Barack Obama delivers the State of the Union address at the United States Capitol. Following the address, White House advisors will take part in an interactive online town hall. The event is netcast live on New West Notes. If you want to mute the audio, click on the pause button.
** LIVE FROM THE WHITE HOUSE.
With massive geopolitical events swirling and the 2012 presidential race unfolding, the White House is increasingly a pivot point for the day’s events. Live streaming of key presidential events is now available as a matter of course here on New West Notes. You can mute the audio by clicking on the pause button.
NWN will continue to present other live netcasts in full streaming mode, as it did with the Ronald Reagan Centennial events from the Reagan Library, as they emerge and are technically available and as significance dictates.
** QUICK HITS. With the State of the Union, netcast live here on NWN, coming up shortly, it’s been a big day in presidential politics. There were even a few developments in California politics. … A part of a wild day in Florida with a California connection saw Palm Springs Congresswoman Mary Bono’s husband, Florida Congressman Connie Mack, crash a Newt Gingrich event trying to embarrass the ex-speaker on “unanswered questions” about his consulting work for Freddie Mac. The outfit is in conservative lexicon as the cause of the financial crisis, at best a very incomplete view. … Of course, in the course of going through Mitt Romney’s release of tax information since 2010, it emerges that he invested in Freddie Mac. But there are bigger fish to fry in that catch, and the DNC is focusing heavily on the fact that Romney is studiously not revealing much about his finances during his leveraged buyout heyday, from which he gained the fortune which yields him more than $40 million in investment income in two years while he was running for president. (But still a Bain Capital partner.) … Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Steve Jobs, will be sitting with First Lady Michelle Obama tonight as the president delivers his speech which will provide a meta-context for Romney’s views that no criticism of financialized capitalism is legitimate. … Speaking of what is and is not legitimate, California Democratic legislators are showing their special tone deafness with a lawsuit attempting to take away the ability of state Controller John Chiang to block their paychecks until they produce a legitimate budget, as he did to great acclaim last June. … The Democratic legislators are more reality-based than their Republican counterparts, but it is, unfortunately, all relative. … The state auditor issued a report saying that the Brown Administration has not finished fixing the previous management problems at the High-Speed Rail Authority. I’ll have more on that.
The pro-Newt Gingrich super PAC Winning Our Future has just gone up in Florida with an apparent huge buy for this ad, hitting Mitt Romney for being the intellectual author of “Obamacare,” and for being a self-described “moderate” and “progressive,” complete with footage of President Obama praising Romney.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … NEWTONIAN MOTION: WILL GINGRICH BLOW IT (AGAIN)?
** GOING FOR THE KILL. It’s thermonuclear political warfare in the Florida Republican presidential primary between Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney. The latter, who’s lost his big lead over Gingrich, has been blasting him for weeks on the airwaves in Florida and started an even tougher round of ads after losing in a landslide in South Carolina.
Then Romney tried an oppo dump on Gingrich in last night’s debate in Tampa, even as word came that the $7 million-plus already spent on Romney’s behalf in the Sunshine State would be augmented by another $5.5 million in the next week.
Now the main pro-Gingrich super PAC is getting in the act in a big way. With the ad you see above.
It doesn’t focus on Bain Capital or various other controversies around Romney’s wealth. After all, the big story today in the race is Romney’s limited but still very striking financial revelations. And the Democrats are going after Romney directly on that front now.
This ad seeks to define Romney for all time as what more conservative Republicans call a squish.
I particularly enjoy the still shot of Romney, which makes him look quite Transylvanian.
Here’s the text below. The narrator is female, incidentally. How much is the buy? “Multi-million dollar,” as it’s described to me. Others report $5 million. Or $6 million. But don’t be surprised if the ad mix is adjusted down the stretch.
Announcer: “Think you know Mitt? Think again.”
Romney: Those who follow the path we pursued will find it’s the best path and we’ll end up with a nation that’s taken a mandate approach.”
Announcer: “When Mitt Romney invented government run healthcare, Romney advisers helped Barack Obama write the disastrous Obamacare.
Romney: “We put the two together and exchange and the President’s copying that idea. I’m glad to hear that.”
Obama: “I agree with Mitt Romney, who recently said he’s proud of what he accomplished on healthcare.”
Announcer: “Romneycare sent costs spiraling out of control, hiking premiums, squeezing household budgets.”
Romney: “I’m not a partisan Republican. I’m someone who is moderate and my views are progressive.”
Obama: “I agree with Mitt Romney.”
Announcer: “Now desperate to save his failing campaign, Romney promises to repeal Obamacare. How can we trust him? Think you know Mitt?”
Romney: “I’m not a partisan Republican. I’m someone who is moderate and my views are progressive.”
Announcer: “Think again?”
The head of Egypt’s still ruling military council says the decades-long state of emergency in the country will be lifted on Wednesday, except for cases of “thuggery.” (Is that anything like attacking protesters?) Islamist parties have won over 70% of the vote in national parliamentary elections.
** NEW SURVEY: ECONOMIC CONFIDENCE STILL LOW, BUT BEST IN EIGHT MONTHS. A new Gallup Poll survey on the eve of the State of the Union address indicates that economic confidence has continued to go up.
It’s just not very high at all.
But it is back to what it was a year ago.
U.S. economic confidence is at -25 in the week ending Jan. 22, improved from -29 the prior week and the best since the week ending May 22, 2011. …
The Gallup Economic Confidence Index is an average of two components: Americans’ ratings of current economic conditions and their outlook for the economy. Economic confidence is now not much different than the -23 for the same week a year ago and the -28 of the same week in 2010. Americans have grown steadily more positive about current economic conditions in the past three weeks. They are also now more positive about the future direction of the economy than they were three weeks ago, though these views have shown a less consistent pattern. …
U.S. economic confidence continues to improve, consistent with recent modest improvement in unemployment, positive news on jobless claims, and the general perception that the overall U.S. economy is getting slightly better. This seems like good news for the nation’s businesses as well as for President Barack Obama’s re-election chances as he presents his State of the Union message to the nation on Tuesday.
At the same time, U.S. gas prices have increased since late December and the European economy appears to be entering into a recession. In addition, this presidential election year is not only likely to produce a political stalemate but could lead to some political confrontations. So, current perceptions of the overall economic outlook could change in the weeks and months ahead.
In this regard, Americans are no more optimistic now than they were at this time in each of the past two years. In 2010 and 2011, perceptions of the economy waned as the year progressed. At this point, it is unclear whether that will also be the case in 2012. …
President Barack Obama delivers the final State of the Union address of his first term tonight at 6 PM Pacific. It’s a policy address, of course, which in this election year means it will be highly political.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
Obama has received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
At 6 PM Pacific, he delivers the State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol.
The event will be netcast live here on New West Notes.
Obama is spending much of the day prepping for the State of the Union address, and for his subsequent three-day/five-state tour of the Midwestern state of Iowa and Michigan and the Western states of Nevada, Arizona, and Colorado.
The tour will focus on Obama’s themes of economic revival and modified populism, with sub-themes of developing American manufacturing, the new energy economy, and skills and innovation.
The remaining Republicans who hope to take him on debated last night in Tampa, Florida, with the Florida primary now one week away.
Mitt Romney has long counted it a major redoubt of his candidacy, but he’s lost a huge lead there to Newt Gingrich and now trails in several polls.
So Romney came out of the gate dropping his frontrunner’s pose and unloading a kitchen sink of opposition research on the former House speaker.
He scored some points, too, as Gingrich opted to look more presidential and less junkyard dog-ish last night, not getting into counters and counter-attacks while focusing more on his positive conservative message.
I’m not sure, however, that either man’s change in pose helped him all that much.
Ricn Santorum and Ron Paul were mostly afterthoughts in the debate. Poor Santorum. He was truly robbed by the media’s terrible reporting of Iowa.
The dust-up was only moderately engaging, and the event was a largely low-energy affair, in large part because NBC insisted that the audience remain silent. I don’t think they can really do that, actually, and I suspect that Gingrich, who seemed surprised and taken off his game, won’t allow that to happen on Thursday night.
The big news of the day on the Republican side is not the aftermath of the debate, but the release by Romney of his 2010 tax returns and 2011 tax estimate. Of course, he is avoiding revealing his records from the time in which he acquired most of his vast wealth, revealing only his dealings while a full-time candidate for president, presumably the most sanitized time of his life financially.
There’s plenty of coverage of this, but it seems obvious to me that Romney making well over $40 million off of investments, paying at a rate of less than 14%, with evidence of large holdings in Caribbean off-shore havens, and even a Swiss bank account, will play in perfectly to Obama’s themes of fairness tonight.
And they won’t help much with Republican voters in Florida, either.
Yesterday, prior to all this, there was ample evidence of the new reality in the Republican race.
Clearly alarmed by several polls showing his big Florida lead gone, replaced by a Gingrich lead, Romney attacked the ex-House speaker today on multiple fronts, zeroing in especially on his consulting work for Freddie Mac, which he claims was responsible for the mortgage crisis. Naturally, it turns out that Romney himself invested in Freddie Mac.
Gingrich, challenged to release his Freddie Mac consulting contract, did so late yesterday. It shows him to have been a consultant, not formally a lobbyist. Whatever that means.
Gingrich has been massively out-spent in Florida, with at least $7 million spent there on Romney’s behalf already and another $5.5 million now committed in new spending. That adds up to $13 million. Late yesterday the pro-Gingrich super PAC Winning Our Future received a $5 million contribution from Miriam Adelson, wife of Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who himself previously gave $5 million to the super PAC.
Mitt Romney, now behind in Florida despite more than $7 million having already been spent on his behalf there, launched a flurry of personal attacks against Newt Gingrich in last night’s debate in Tampa, Floria.
Which can raise the specter of why a Vegas casino mogul is essentially floating the Gingrich campaign in the big primaries to date.
But Romney’s super PAC people aren’t revealing where the money supporting his campaign is coming from. It’s been anecdotally reported that much if not most of it comes from Romney’s old partners at Bain Capital.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, working it for Romney, blasted Gingrich as “an embarrassment to the party” for his controversies as speaker. Which prompted Sarah Palin to say that Christie, making a “rookie mistake” is playing into the media’s hands by “getting his panties in a wad” with wild attacks against the potential presidential nominee. Just what Christie needs, a slap fight with Sarah Palin.
In the Iranian crisis, European Union foreign minister Catherine Ashton is in Israel today, meeting with Israeli leaders on the day after the EU adopted a new round of tough sanctions on Iran, including an oil embargo.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak welcomed the EU embargo on Iranian oil, but said more may need to be done to stop the Iranian nuclear weapons program.
Ashton is also trying to help jump-start the Israeli/Palestinian solution.
Meanwhile, our friend India is not only continuing to buy Iranian oil but is also planning to pay in gold, which may help Iran deal with impending banking problems.
Obama is monitoring a variety of geopolitical crises, mostly related to the Arab awakening, AfPak, Iraq, Iran and Israel.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is eleven hours ahead of Pacific time, and Afghanistan is twelve and a half hours ahead of Pacific time.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Northern California.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
** NEWTONIAN MOTION: UNDERLYING THE DECIDEDLY UNDEAD.Back from the dead. Again. Newt Gingrich. Amazing, isn’t it?
What’s actually amazing is that Gingrich was “dead” in the first place.
The fact is that the ex-House speaker had the Republican race in his hands last month and then proceeded to blow it.
And Mitt Romney is one of the most hollow, and hyped, political figures to come down the track in some time. He’s a consultant culture dream candidate: Big money and heavily into “messaging.” However, messaging, i.e., constantly repeating crafted talking points, is often not the same as having a message, which is why what he says is so malleable and chameleon-like. It’s obvious that there is very little that interests Romney besides success.
It’s a combination of unforced Gingrich errors, erroneous media coverage, and Romney’s nature peeking out all too often from behind the slick facade that has led to these seemingly shocking twists and turns.
Gingrich should have taken command of the race in December. Instead, he portentously declared that he would be the nominee and oddly proceeded to avoid any real campaigning, allowing Romney’s super PAC operatives to get the jump on tearing him down, until the tide had turned decidedly against him.
But Romney is Romney, and Gingrich has skills, so between Romney’s radical capitalist contradictions coming to the fore — complete with his bizarre attacks on any criticism of Wall Street ways — and Gingrich’s ability to get back in debates, the undead has risen. No wonder that Romney is now trying to skip future debates. … From my January 20th column.
** STATING THE STATE: JERRY BROWN GETS DISCIPLINED AND LAYS IT OUT.Straighten out the chronic crisis of the present and move the state forward into the future. That’s Jerry Brown’s mission as governor of California this time around, which he laid out rather clearly in his new State of the State address.
He’s also making progress early on in clearing the field for his revenue initiative in November.
Brown has articulated everything he said in this speech before. But he hadn’t framed it up and put it all together in a coherent way, preferring too often to rely on his improvisational rhetorical skills. And he certainly hadn’t ventured out from the capital in the North in any sustained manner to push his program around the state, yet he followed this State of the State address by, in essence, bringing the State of the State to several communities across Southern California on Wednesday and Thursday. … From my January 19th feature.
** EXTREMISM IN DEFENSE OF IRONY: BY ROMNEY’S RADICAL DEFINITION HIS OWN CHIEF STRATEGIST IS “ANTI-FREE ENTERPRISE.” … From my January 15th essay.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in three wars in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti. While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil is trading around $99 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $65 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $15 from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
The European Union, following the lead of Britain, France, and Germany, today approved a long list of new sanctions against Iran, including a ban on oil imports. The EU gets 20% of its oil from Iran.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … NEWTONIAN MOTION: WILL GINGRICH BLOW IT (AGAIN)?
** QUICK HITS. Clearly alarmed by several polls showing his big Florida lead gone, replaced by a Newt Gingrich lead, Mitt Romney attacked the ex-House speaker today on multiple fronts, zeroing in especially on his consulting work for Freddie Mac, which he claims was responsible for the mortgage crisis. Naturally, it turns out that Romney himself invested in Freddie Mac. … Gingrich, challenged to release his Freddie Mac consulting contract, did so late today. … Gingrich has been massively out-spent in Florida, with at least $7 million spent there on Romney’s behalf already. Today the pro-Gingrich super PAC Winning Our Future received a $5 million contribution from Miriam Adelson, wife of Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who himself previously gave $5 million to the super PAC. … New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, working it for Romney, blasted Gingrich as “an embarrassment to the party” for his controversies as speaker. Which prompted Sarah Palin to say that Christie, making a “rookie mistake” is playing into the media’s hands by “getting his panties in a wad” with wild attacks against the potential presidential nominee. … Just what Christie needs, a slap fight with Sarah Palin.
** NEW SURVEY ON THE STATE OF THE UNION: THE DISPLEASURE PRINCIPLE. A new Gallup Poll survey on the eve of the State of the Union provides a wide-ranging profile of American displeasure.
Americans are deeply dissatisfied with the state of the Union in a number of key measures.
Chief among them, of course, is the economy.
Satisfaction with the economy is down a whopping 23 points since January 2008.
Then 36% were satisfied. Today it’s only 13% who are satisfied, with a stunning 83% dissatisfied with the state of the US economy.
But satisfaction is actually up in two key areas: National security from terrorism and military strength and preparedness.
Which makes me wonder why the Republicans bother to rail about the supposed weakness of the Obama Administration on these issues, which historically have been in the wheelhouse of the Republican Party.
As President Barack Obama prepares his annual address to Congress, Americans are broadly dissatisfied with the state of the nation in several specific issue areas, with satisfaction down sharply in some cases since January 2008. However, three issues — the nation’s economy, the size and power of the federal government, and the moral and ethical climate in the country — fit both of these unwelcome criteria. …
Americans’ satisfaction with the state of the nation’s economy has dropped by 23 percentage points since January 2008 to 13%, according to a Jan. 5-8 Gallup poll. These figures represent both the lowest rate of satisfaction and the biggest decline seen for any of 24 issues measured in the survey. Attitudes toward the moral and ethical climate and the size and power of the federal government are similar to each other. Slightly fewer than 3 in 10 Americans are satisfied with each, down from about 4 in 10 in 2008, the last presidential election year and the last time Gallup measured satisfaction on all 24 items. …
Americans’ satisfaction with the size and power of government has declined fairly steadily since January 2002, just months after 9/11 and at a time when Americans were positive about most things relating to the government. Confidence in the economy has dropped sharply since 2008 after fluctuating between 2002 and 2007. Confidence in the moral and ethical climate was flat through January 2008, before falling to the new low. …
On the positive end of things, Americans are the most satisfied with the overall quality of life in the U.S. as well as with two major aspects of U.S. national security: the nation’s security from terrorism and the nation’s military strength and preparedness. Satisfaction with security from terrorism is up 14 points since 2008, while satisfaction has held steady in the other two areas. …
Suddenly trailing in Florida after his landslide defeat in the South Carolina primary, Mitt Romney is going all-in on an all-out negative campaign against the ascendant Newt Gingrich.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … NEWTONIAN MOTION: WILL GINGRICH BLOW IT (AGAIN)?
MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK.
A very big week on tap in presidential politics, and a more low-key but interesting week in California politics.
Following Newt Gingrich’s smashing South Carolina primary win on Saturday night, the four remaining Republican presidential candidates hold two debates this week in Florida, with the first tonight in Tampa.
And President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address on Tuesday night. It’s strictly policy-oriented, of course, which in this election year means it is strictly political, a continuation and expansion of his themes of economic revival and modified populism.
In California politics, Governor Jerry Brown, in the wake of taking his State of the State address to the state, continues pushing his agenda of straightening out the chronic crisis of the present and moving the state forward into the future. That means convincing balky Democrats of the need to enact some more budget cuts sooner than later, and working behind the scenes to advance his big November initiative to raise temporary taxes, as well as further adjustments in the business plan for high-speed rail.
The friends of redevelopment will try to revive the program in the state legislature, where any bills to pass this session must move by the end of the month, but won’t find a receptive audience in the corner office of the Capitol.
A brand new Rasmussen poll featured on Fox News shows Gingrich now leading Mitt Romney in Florida, 41-32, with Rick Santorum third at 11% and Ron Paul a distant fourth with 8%. Less than two weeks ago, Romney, whose forces have spent at least $7 million there, had a 22-point lead in the Sunshine State.
This is yet another sign that Gingrich’s landslide 13-point win over putative frontrunner Romney in the South Carolina Republican presidential primary counts as an earthquake in presidential politics.
With 100% of the precincts counted, it’s Gingrich 40.4%, Romney 27.8%, Rick Santorum 17.0%, Ron Paul 13.0%, and the remainder scattered.
Gingrich trailed by 10 points five days before winning by 13 points, so this is a massive 23-point turnaround in less than a week.
Naturally, most of the news media is scrambling to try to explain this “shocking” development.
Which is not a shock to NWN readers.
Meanwhile, Romney agreed to appear in two debates this coming week in Florida, which his campaign had previously indicated he would not.
And he agreed to release two years of his tax returns, after previously insisting he would wait until April. That’s unlikely to end questioning of his highly lucrative business practices, of course.
Because Romney is only releasing two years of tax returns, which coincide with his running full-time for president. He has not released much information about the height of his career as a leveraged buyout artist — which he prefers to style as a venture capitalist, a very different thing though the Associated Press and much of the news media continues to erroneously describe him as he wishes — and that is at at the crux of the matter with regard to his controversial and enormously lucrative tenure as head of Bain Capital.
Romney declares any criticism of anything goes financialized capitalism to be socialism. An extremist stance which obviously can’t hold up.
Obama is prepping for the State of the Union address on Tuesday evening, which will be followed by a three-day/five-state tour of Iowa, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, and Michigan.
Note that three of the five states Obama will visit post-SOTU are Western states.
Obama won the Nevada Democratic presidential caucuses on Saturday. No surprise, since he is unopposed, as always expected.
Obama lost the Silver State to Hillary Clinton in 2008. Previous Nevada Democratic presidential caucus winners include John Kerry, Al Gore, Jerry Brown twice, and Gary Hart.
Nevada’s Republicans get their turn in the neon lights of a wintry desert, oh, forget the writing thing … anyway, the Nevada Republican caucuses are on tap for February 4th, just a few days after the Florida primary
In very critical action elsewhere, decades long Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who on Saturday appeared headed for Oman, is now headed for the US following what now looks to be a very brief stop in Oman. Ostensibly for more medical treatment but perhaps for a more permanent exile.
Saudi Arabia hosted him for many weeks after an assassination attempt last year left a dozen of his closest associates dead and the dictator himself seriously wounded. But Riyadh declined to take him back, after curiously allowing him to return to Yemen.
The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group, shown here earlier this month arriving in the Arabian Sea to give the US Navy a second carrier strike group in the region, sailed through the Strait of Hormuz late Sunday in defiance of Iran’s warning against any American carriers operating in the Gulf.
Saleh departs with an immunity agreement in place and the US perhaps taking a blow to its sagging prestige in the Arab street.
Iran on Sunday called for more talks on its nuclear program, rather than sanctions.
Tehran has succeeded in getting Russia, China, and India to eschew further tough sanctions against its nuclear weapons program, which it insists is for energy only. But the sanctions already in place are hurting the Iranian economy.
But the European Union today formally agreed to a ban on Iranian oil, this morning adopting an embargo. All new contracts are canceled. Existing contracts can run only through June.
And USS Abraham Lincoln sailed with the rest of her aircraft carrier strike group through the Strait of Hormuz late on Sunday into the Arabian Gulf, defying Iranian warnings that no US aircraft carrier should return to the Gulf.
In Afghanistan, CIA Director David Petraeus met recently with the chief aide to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whose organization is an important operational ally of the Taliban in the fight against US, NATO, and Afghan government forces. Hekmatyar was a recipient of US aid in the Afghan war against the Soviets who then fought a civil war with his erstwhile mujahideen allies for power in Afghanistan, then fought against the Taliban when they arose to provide order. Now he fights with them against the US. Petraeus is trying to win Hekmatyar’s group to a peace process in Afghanistan.
On Friday, France not only suspended training of Afghan troops after four French soldiers were killed by an Afghan soldier under NATO training, it suspended all its activity in Afghanistan.
The Pentagon privately acknowledges attacks by Afghans on NATO troops have been rising. Ominously, it blames hostility toward coalition forces more than Taliban plotting.
Final results are finally available in Egypt’s complex, three-stage parliamentary elections. Islamist parties dominated, with just over 70% of the vote and representation in the new parliament.
The Muslim Brotherhood won 47%, while the more radical Salafists are second with 24%.
What about the secular liberals who sparked much of the revolution itself, especially at fabled Tahrir Square?
Well, they are pretty much nowhere.
Which is why it is so dangerous to assume that chanting crowds dramatically urging democracy means that the crowds represent most of the country and that folks are just like us.
The Muslim Brotherhood says it does not want to form a coalition with the Salafists, however, and the Obama Administration is in talks with them. Still, the center of gravity of Egyptian politics has shifted sharply toward a religious-based politics, a huge development in a country which was once a key ally of Israel.
Here’s what Obama’s public schedule looks like this week.
On Monday, he will will welcome the six-time Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins to the White House to honor the team and their 2011 Stanley Cup victory.
On Tuesday evening, Obama will deliver his State of the Union Address at 6 PM Pacific. The event will be netcast live on New West Notes.
Following the State of the Union address, Obama will begin a five-state, three-day swing across the country. On Wednesday, Obama will begin his trip with an event in the Cedar Rapids area, followed by an event in the Phoenix area. He will then travel to Las Vegas where he will spend the night.
On Thursday, Obama will hold events in the Las Vegas area and the Denver area before traveling to Detroit that evening where he will spend the night.
On Friday, Obama will hold an event in the Detroit area before returning to the White House.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
At 10:40 AM Pacific, Obama welcomes the six-time Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins to the White House to honor the team and their 2011 Stanley Cup victory.
Obama is prepping for the State of the Union address on Tuesday night, and for his subsequent three-day/five-state tour of the Midwestern state of Iowa and Michigan and the Western states of Nevada, Arizona, and Colorado.
Obama is monitoring a variety of geopolitical crises, mostly related to the Arab awakening, AfPak, Iraq, Iran and Israel.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is eleven hours ahead of Pacific time, and Afghanistan is twelve and a half hours ahead of Pacific time.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Northern California.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
** NEWTONIAN MOTION: UNDERLYING THE DECIDEDLY UNDEAD.Back from the dead. Again. Newt Gingrich. Amazing, isn’t it?
What’s actually amazing is that Gingrich was “dead” in the first place.
The fact is that the ex-House speaker had the Republican race in his hands last month and then proceeded to blow it.
And Mitt Romney is one of the most hollow, and hyped, political figures to come down the track in some time. He’s a consultant culture dream candidate: Big money and heavily into “messaging.” However, messaging, i.e., constantly repeating crafted talking points, is often not the same as having a message, which is why what he says is so malleable and chameleon-like. It’s obvious that there is very little that interests Romney besides success.
It’s a combination of unforced Gingrich errors, erroneous media coverage, and Romney’s nature peeking out all too often from behind the slick facade that has led to these seemingly shocking twists and turns.
Gingrich should have taken command of the race in December. Instead, he portentously declared that he would be the nominee and oddly proceeded to avoid any real campaigning, allowing Romney’s super PAC operatives to get the jump on tearing him down, until the tide had turned decidedly against him.
But Romney is Romney, and Gingrich has skills, so between Romney’s radical capitalist contradictions coming to the fore — complete with his bizarre attacks on any criticism of Wall Street ways — and Gingrich’s ability to get back in debates, the undead has risen. No wonder that Romney is now trying to skip future debates. … From my January 20th column.
** STATING THE STATE: JERRY BROWN GETS DISCIPLINED AND LAYS IT OUT.Straighten out the chronic crisis of the present and move the state forward into the future. That’s Jerry Brown’s mission as governor of California this time around, which he laid out rather clearly in his new State of the State address.
He’s also making progress early on in clearing the field for his revenue initiative in November.
Brown has articulated everything he said in this speech before. But he hadn’t framed it up and put it all together in a coherent way, preferring too often to rely on his improvisational rhetorical skills. And he certainly hadn’t ventured out from the capital in the North in any sustained manner to push his program around the state, yet he followed this State of the State address by, in essence, bringing the State of the State to several communities across Southern California on Wednesday and Thursday. … From my January 19th feature.
** EXTREMISM IN DEFENSE OF IRONY: BY ROMNEY’S RADICAL DEFINITION HIS OWN CHIEF STRATEGIST IS “ANTI-FREE ENTERPRISE.” … From my January 15th essay.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
The first of two turnovers in the National Football Conference Championship Game by the San Francisco 49ers’ back-up punt returner let the New York Giants back in the game late in the fourth quarter. The second gave them the winning field goal in overtime. The 49ers also suffered from a very questionable non-call of a New York fumble that should have set up an easy field goal with two minutes left in regulation. Final score: New York 20, San Francisco 17.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in three wars in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti. While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil is trading around $99 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $65 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $15 from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
Newt Gingrich declared victory Saturday night in the South Carolina Republican presidential primary. No candidate who has lost South Carolina has gone on to be the Republican presidential nominee.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … WILL GINGRICH BLOW IT (AGAIN)?
** OBAMA TODAY – SUNDAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
Obama has received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
He has no scheduled public events.
Obama is prepping for the State of the Union address on Tuesday evening, which will be followed by a three-day/five-state tour of Iowa, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, and Michigan.
Obama on Saturday won the Nevada Democratic presidential caucuses. No surprise, since he is unopposed, as always expected. But this was not, let’s say, the main story of the day in presidential politics.
What was?
Newt Gingrich’s landslide 13-point win over putative frontrunner Mitt Romney in the South Carolina Republican presidential primary.
With 100% of the precincts counted, it’s Gingrich 40.4%, Romney 27.8%, Rick Santorum 17.0%, Ron Paul 13.0%, and the remainder scattered.
Gingrich trailed by 10 points five days before winning by 13 points, so this is a massive 23-point turnaround in less than a week.
Naturally, most of the news media is scrambling today to try to explain this “shocking” development.
Which is not a shock to NWN readers.
I have a piece or two coming up on what’s next and why, and today is Championship Sunday in the NFL, so I’ll refer you to what’s been written already for now.
Meanwhile, Romney agreed to appear in two debates this coming week in Florida, which his campaign had previously indicated he would not.
And he agreed to release two years of his tax returns, after previously insisting he would wait until April. That’s unlikely to end questioning of his highly lucrative business practices, of course.
In very critical action elsewhere, decades long Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who yesterday appeared headed for Oman, is today headed for the US following what now looks to be a very brief stop in Oman. Ostensibly for more medical treatment but perhaps for a more permanent exile.
Saudi Arabia hosted him for many weeks after an assassination attempt last year left a dozen of his closest associates dead and the dictator himself seriously wounded. But Riyadh declined to take him back, after curiously allowing him to return to Yemen.
Saleh departs with an immunity agreement in place and the US perhaps taking a blow to its sagging prestige in the Arab street.
With tensions eased somewhat, Iran today called for more talks on its nuclear program, rather than sanctions.
Tehran has succeeded in getting Russia, China, and India to eschew further tough sanctions against its nuclear weapons program, which it insists is for energy only. But the sanctions already in place are hurting the Iranian economy.
Obama is monitoring a variety of other geopolitical crises, mostly related to the Arab awakening, AfPak, and Iraq.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is eleven hours ahead of Pacific time, and Afghanistan is twelve and a half hours ahead of Pacific time.
Here are the final few minutes of last weekend’s NFL play-off game between the San Francisco 49ers and the record-setting New Orleans Saints, in which the 49ers set a record themselves by coming from behind not once, but twice.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES – SUNDAY. Governor Jerry Brown is in Northern California.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
The San Francisco 49ers host the New York Giants this afternoon at Candlestick Park in the National Football Conference Championship Game.
Win this one, and the 49ers, who are slight favorites in Las Vegas, go to the Super Bowl for the first time in 17 years.
The annual NFC championship games began in 1971, after the merger between the National Football League and the American Football League, with the first one ever played in San Francisco’s old Kezar Stadium in the corner of Golden Gate Park. (The stadium is now best remembered as a very key setting in Dirty Harry.)
It was the last NFL game played in the old park, and the 49ers lost to the Dallas Cowboys, 17-10. I was there. It was quite a show.
Today’s game makes 13 NFC title game appearances for the 49ers in the four decades of the conference championship games. But this is the first for San Francisco since 1998, when they lost to Green Bay.
Today’s opponent, the New York Giants, was a .500 ball club on Christmas Eve. They had to beat the ever over-hyped New York Jets and Dallas Cowboys to barely make it into the play-offs. Then they ripped Green Bay last weekend, 37-20, catching the favored Packers looking incredibly flat and off, distracted by the death a few days earlier of their offensive coordinator’s son and probably looking past the Giants, whom they’d beaten in the regular season, to a showdown with the 49ers.
Naturally, the East Coast-based “national” sports media, especially ESPN, has spun up this 9-7 regular season outfit, which lost to the 49ers in the regular season — and was blown away by New Orleans, 49-24 — as one of the most awesome assemblages ever.
Governor Jerry Brown, who ultimately got into the Raiders, somewhat, when he was the mayor of Oakland, has notably not bet with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on the outcome of this game.
He’s just not the sportsman that Arnold Schwarzenegger is.
Of course, he does have a lot going on.
The two mayors have bet, however.
If the 49ers win, New York will re-name 49th Street as 49ers Street and Mayor Michael Bloomberg will send some of New York’s finest bagels to San Francisco.
If the Giants win, San Francisco will drape a cable car in New York Giants’ flags and Mayor Ed Lee will some of San Francisco’s finest sourdough bread to New York.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich won the South Carolina Republican presidential primary Saturday night in a landslide, easily beating putative frontrunner Mitt Romney in a dramatic turnaround from the beginning of the week.
7 PM PACIFIC UPDATE: GINGRICH TAKES SOUTH CAROLINA IN A LANDSLIDE OVER ROMNEY. Despite being out-spent by Mitt Romney better than 2 to 1 (I lump in super PAC totals with formal campaign totals, else the ratio would be far higher in Romney’s favor), former House Speaker Newt Gingrich swept to victory today in the South Carolina Republican presidential primary.
I’ve seen the exit polls throughout the day, and of course had the late polling as reported early this morning, but waited till most of the votes were counted to verify the trend.
With 95% of the votes counted, here are the results:
Newt Gingrich 41%
Mitt Romney 27%
Rick Santorum 17%
Ron Paul 13%
Romney had moved to a 10-point lead over Gingrich heading into the debate this past Monday night, just five days ago.
So this is a 24-point turnaround in Gingrich’s favor over Romney, in less than a week, despite being heavily outspent.
That is an historic blow-out, shattering the myth of Romney “inevitability.” And it happened with Santorum still in the race.
The ex-Pennsylvania senator, who narrowly won Iowa — a victory he was deprived of by a credulous media spun by Romney and an incompetent and frankly duplicitous state Republican party — says he will go on to the Florida primary, which is on January 31st. But he doesn’t have much money, or much hope. Does he want to try to play spoiler and help Romney?
Ron Paul, running out of gas though not out of money, thanks to his zealous cult-like backers, will not play in Florida. He’s looking to acquire more delegates in caucus states, where his enthusiasts can exercise out-size influence.
If it wasn’t obvious before, it is obvious now that Paul has no chance at winning the Republican nomination, which is now clearly a two-person race between Gingrich and Romney.
Romney, the supposedly inevitable frontrunner, has now lost two of the first three contests. Including the one contest, South Carolina, which has never been lost by a Republican presidential nominee.
More to follow, including the upcoming essay I mentioned this morning, referenced below.”Will Gingrich Blow It (Again)?”
4 PM PACIFIC UPDATE: GINGRICH PROJECTED EASY WINNER IN SOUTH CAROLINA. As soon as the polls closed in South Carolina’s Republican presidential primary, Fox News, ABC News, and NBC News all projected former House Speaker Newt Gingrich as a big winner.
Mitt Romney finished second.
More to follow.
The polls opened Saturday morning in the South Carolina Republican presidential primary. Mitt Romney has lost a big lead over the past week to a surging Newt Gingrich. No candidate who has lost the South Carolina primary has gone on to win the Republican presidential nomination.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … WILL GINGRICH BLOW IT (AGAIN)?
** OBAMA TODAY – SATURDAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
Obama has received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
He has no scheduled public events.
Obama is prepping for the State of the Union address on Tuesday evening, which will be followed by a three-day/five-state tour of Iowa, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, and Michigan.
Note that three of the five states Obama will visit post-SOTU are Western states.
The Nevada Democratic presidential caucuses are today. I predict an Obama victory. He is unopposed, as also predicted.
Obama lost to Hillary Clinton in 2008. Previous Nevada Democratic presidential caucus winners include John Kerry, Al Gore, Jerry Brown twice, and Gary Hart.
Nevada’s Republicans get their turn in the neon lights of a wintry desert, oh, forget the writing thing … anyway, the Nevada Republican caucuses are on tap for February 4th.
Today, of course, is the South Carolina primary. No one who has lost the South Carolina primary has ever gone on to win the Republican presidential nomination.
Late polling from Public Policy Polling into Friday night shows Newt Gingrich shrugging off his second ex-wife’s 11th hour claim of his asking for “an open marriage,” as well as days of concerted attacks from the Romney campaign, holding a nine-point lead over Mitt Romney.
That’s a rolling average over three days.
For Friday-only results, Gingrich has a whopping 14-point lead over Romney. Rick Santorum is running slightly ahead of Ron Paul for a distant third place.
Single night tracks, especially on a weekend night, are always at least somewhat problematic, of course.
Having issued that caveat, it seems that voters are not buying what Marianne Gingrich had to say, especially given its timing. And those who do may have already factored Gingrich’s famously caddish behavior of the past into their calculus.
It’s obvious that Gingrich’s stoning of CNN host John King’s decision to open the debate with such a personal gotcha question has redounded spectacularly well for the ex-House speaker.
A few people have asked what I mean by “stoning,” which is why in my HuffPost column during the week I described it as “wrecking.” In football, stoning refers to a tackle that devastates the player on the receiving end of the hit.
Late on Friday, former talk show host Michael Reagan, son of the late president, added his endorsement to Gingrich, who this week racked up nods from Sarah Palin, Rick Perry, Chuck Norris, and quite a few of the South Carolina supporters of the withdrawn Jon Huntsman, who himself issued a rather tepid endorsement of Romney when he withdrew from the race on Monday.
When Norris, one of the best karate black belts and action stars ever, endorsed Gingrich yesterday,Gingrich tweeted in response, saying he’s honored blah blah and “He will make an excellent Secretary of Attack.”
So much for the fun stuff.
Final results are finally available in Egypt’s complex, three-stage parliamentary elections. Islamist parties dominated, with just over 70% of the vote and representation in the new parliament.
The Muslim Brotherhood won a 47%, while the more radical Salafists are second with 24%.
What about the secular liberals who sparked much of the revolution itself, especially at fabled Tahrir Square?
Well, they are pretty much nowhere.
Which is why it is so dangerous to assume that chanting crowds dramatically urging democracy means that the crowds represent most of the country and that folks are just like us.
The Muslim Brotherhood says it does not want to form a coalition with the Salafists, however, and the Obama Administration is in talks with them. Still, the center of gravity of Egyptian politics has shifted sharply toward a religious-based politics, a huge development in a country which was once a key ally of Israel.
On Friday, France not only suspended training of Afghan troops after four French soldiers were killed by an Afghan soldier under NATO training, it suspended all its activity in Afghanistan.
The Pentagon privately acknowledges attacks by Afghans on NATO troops have been rising. Ominously, it blames hostility toward coalition forces more than Taliban plotting.
In his weekend video/radio address, President Barack Obama stays on economic message, talking about his steps during the week to boost tourism, his moves to sidestep Congress, and giving a brief taste of the upcoming State of he Union address.
The US is trying to figure out how to finally get Ali Abdullah Saleh out of Yemen, the principal topic of Obama’s meeting yesterday with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He wants to come here. Obama and company aren’t happy about that, as it would be a PR problem in the Arab world. But Saudi Arabia doesn’t want him, either, and his options are limited.
Today word filtered out that Saleh will go to Oman, where a residence is being prepared for him by the pro-Western sultan who has managed to make his Arab Spring protesters happy. I don’t know how happy they would be to have Saleh in their midst, so his ultimate destination is still vague, with the wily president reportedly still talking about leading the opposition in Yemen or living in the US.
The crises with Iran and Israel continue to percolate. But with the US and Israel postponing an impending major joint exercise till June, and the US Navy making its resolve to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, oil prices eased somewhat in late Friday trading.
US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Martin Dempsey held an intense round of closed door meetings on Thursday evening and all day Friday in Jaffa and Tel Aviv with Israeli military leaders. Afterwards, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that any decision on air strikes against Iran’s nuclear program is still quite a ways off.
Obama is monitoring a variety of other geopolitical crises, mostly related to the Arab awakening, AfPak, and Iraq.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is eleven hours ahead of Pacific time, and Afghanistan is twelve and a half hours ahead of Pacific time.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES – SATURDAY. Governor Jerry Brown is in Northern California.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
** NEWTONIAN MOTION: UNDERLYING THE DECIDEDLY UNDEAD.Back from the dead. Again. Newt Gingrich. Amazing, isn’t it?
What’s actually amazing is that Gingrich was “dead” in the first place.
The fact is that the ex-House speaker had the Republican race in his hands last month and then proceeded to blow it.
And Mitt Romney is one of the most hollow, and hyped, political figures to come down the track in some time. He’s a consultant culture dream candidate: Big money and heavily into “messaging.” However, messaging, i.e., constantly repeating crafted talking points, is often not the same as having a message, which is why what he says is so malleable and chameleon-like. It’s obvious that there is very little that interests Romney besides success.
It’s a combination of unforced Gingrich errors, erroneous media coverage, and Romney’s nature peeking out all too often from behind the slick facade that has led to these seemingly shocking twists and turns.
Gingrich should have taken command of the race in December. Instead, he portentously declared that he would be the nominee and oddly proceeded to avoid any real campaigning, allowing Romney’s super PAC operatives to get the jump on tearing him down, until the tide had turned decidedly against him.
But Romney is Romney, and Gingrich has skills, so between Romney’s radical capitalist contradictions coming to the fore — complete with his bizarre attacks on any criticism of Wall Street ways — and Gingrich’s ability to get back in debates, the undead has risen. No wonder that Romney is now trying to skip future debates. … From my January 20th column.
** STATING THE STATE: JERRY BROWN GETS DISCIPLINED AND LAYS IT OUT.Straighten out the chronic crisis of the present and move the state forward into the future. That’s Jerry Brown’s mission as governor of California this time around, which he laid out rather clearly in his new State of the State address.
He’s also making progress early on in clearing the field for his revenue initiative in November.
Brown has articulated everything he said in this speech before. But he hadn’t framed it up and put it all together in a coherent way, preferring too often to rely on his improvisational rhetorical skills. And he certainly hadn’t ventured out from the capital in the North in any sustained manner to push his program around the state, yet he followed this State of the State address by, in essence, bringing the State of the State to several communities across Southern California on Wednesday and Thursday. … From my January 19th feature.
** EXTREMISM IN DEFENSE OF IRONY: BY ROMNEY’S RADICAL DEFINITION HIS OWN CHIEF STRATEGIST IS “ANTI-FREE ENTERPRISE.” … From my January 15th essay.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in three wars in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti. While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil closed on Friday at $98.33 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $64 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $16 from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
France today suspended training of Afghan troops after four French soldiers were killed by an Afghan soldier. The Pentagon privately acknowledges attacks by Afghans on NATO troops have been rising. Ominously, it blames hostility toward coalition forces more than Taliban plotting.
** QUICK HITS.Another conservative icon endorsed Newt Gingrich today. It’s Chuck Norris, one of the best karate black belts and action movie stars ever. Gingrich tweeted in response, saying he’s honored blah blah and “He will make an excellent Secretary of Attack.” … For his part, Mitt Romney sang “Happy Birthday” today to South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who just turned 40. She’s on the verge of having made an embarrassing endorsement move in her first foray into presidential politics. … Gingrich-hating Romney surrogate John Sununu, the ex-New Hampshire governor and Bush I White House chief of staff who resigned after his private trips on military aircraft were revealed, said today that the Romney campaign is settling in “for the long slog.” … Former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, who memorably tried to cut Governor Jerry Brown off during a 1992 presidential debate for repeating his 1-800 fundraising number, stopped by the Capitol today for a visit. I once sat on his daughter by mistake. Which is another story entirely.
** NEWTONIAN MOTION: UNDERLYING THE DECIDEDLY UNDEAD.Back from the dead. Again. Newt Gingrich. Amazing, isn’t it?
What’s actually amazing is that Gingrich was “dead” in the first place.
The fact is that the ex-House speaker had the Republican race in his hands last month and then proceeded to blow it.
And Mitt Romney is one of the most hollow, and hyped, political figures to come down the track in some time. He’s a consultant culture dream candidate: Big money and heavily into “messaging.” However, messaging, i.e., constantly repeating crafted talking points, is often not the same as having a message, which is why what he says is so malleable and chameleon-like. It’s obvious that there is very little that interests Romney besides success.
It’s a combination of unforced Gingrich errors, erroneous media coverage, and Romney’s nature peeking out all too often from behind the slick facade that has led to these seemingly shocking twists and turns.
Gingrich should have taken command of the race in December. Instead, he portentously declared that he would be the nominee and oddly proceeded to avoid any real campaigning, allowing Romney’s super PAC operatives to get the jump on tearing him down, until the tide had turned decidedly against him.
But Romney is Romney, and Gingrich has skills, so between Romney’s radical capitalist contradictions coming to the fore — complete with his bizarre attacks on any criticism of Wall Street ways — and Gingrich’s ability to get back in debates, the undead has risen. No wonder that Romney is now trying to skip future debates. …
** NEW SURVEY: HALF FEEL WORSE OFF THAN A YEAR AGO. A spate of improving economic news can serve to obscure a deeper reality.
Better is not the same as good.
A new Gallup Poll survey drives that point home, revealing that that half of Americans say they feel worse off financially than a year ago. Less than a third say they feel better off.
So President Barack Obama can hold off on popping the corks on those chilling champagne bottles, whose icy allure is given a greater frisson by the events of this Republican presidential race.
Things did not collapse into depression on his watch, as they threatened to do when he assumed the presidency. But he has not been able to deliver much in the way of a recovery for most Americans, excited as high-income Americans may be about their expanding good fortune.
Nearly half of U.S. adults, 49%, say they are worse off financially today than a year ago, while 29% say they are better off and 21% volunteer that their finances haven’t changed. The percentage rating their current finances negatively compared with a year ago is down from the high of 55% recorded twice in 2008, but is still among the highest in Gallup’s four decades of measuring this attitude. …
The same Jan. 5-8, 2012, Gallup poll finds the majority of Americans feeling optimistic about the direction of their finances, with 56% saying they expect to be financially better off a year from now.
Gallup’s trend shows that the majority of Americans have typically been optimistic about their finances on this measure. However, the 56% currently optimistic matches the average “better off” prediction for this trend since 1977, which is better than the decidedly subpar evaluation of their present finances.
A quarter of Americans, 26%, expect their finances to be worse in a year, while 14% volunteer that they will be the same. …
It is not clear what effect, if any, perceptions of personal finances have on Americans’ presidential vote preferences. However, to the extent they do influence candidate choice, a review of Gallup trends near the start of prior election years finds current attitudes most similar to the mood in 1992 and not far off from where they were in 1980 — two election years in which an incumbent president was defeated in his bid for re-election.
Americans are a bit more negative today than they were in January 1992 about how their current finances compare with a year ago, and they are a bit more optimistic their finances will improve over the next year. However, these differences produce an identical index score of +5, the lowest of the nine presidential election years since 1980. …
Newt Gingrich stoned CNN moderator John King in last night’s Republican presidential debate in South Carolina when the unfortunate journo opened the debate by asking him about his ex-wife’s allegation that he asked her for “an open marriage.” The audience gave Gingrich a standing ovation.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … NEWTONIAN MOTION: UNDERLYING THE DECIDEDLY UNDEAD.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
Obama received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
He then met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Oval Office.
The US is trying to figure out how to finally get Ali Abdullah Saleh out of Yemen. He wants to come here. Obama and company aren’t happy about that, as it would be a PR problem in the Arab world. But Saudi Arabia doesn’t want him, either, and his options are limited.
At 2:05 PM Pacific, Obama meets with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
I thought that Newt Gingrich won the second South Carolina debate of the week last night on CNN in Charleston. It would have been hard for him to lose it after the way it opened.
CNN moderator John King, rather amazingly, opened the debate by asking Gingrich about allegations from his second wife Marianne Gingrich, just aired on ABC less than two days before the pivotal primary, that he had asked her for “an open marriage” over a decade ago when they were still married.
Gingrich proceeded to stone King, saying “No,” he did not want to answer his questions, then did, denying the specific charge in the process and declaring it “despicable” that a presidential debate would be opened in this manner. None of his opponents contradicted him.
The audience went wild for Gingrich, giving him a standing ovation.
Meanwhile, a new Public Policy Polling survey shows Gingrich holding a 6-point lead over Mitt Romney, who had held a big lead at the beginning of this very eventful week.
This is consistent with, in fact better than, what I reported here Wednesday night with an Insider Advantage poll giving the ex-House speaker a smaller edge over the Romney.
It’s Gingrich 35%, Romney 29%, Rick Santorum 15%, and Ron Paul 15%.
A caveat. People are only now beginning to learn of his ex-wife’s dramatic and salacious charges against Gingrich. That could impact his now big lead among evangelicals.
Or it may not. Rick Perry sought to inoculate Gingrich as a reformed sinner yesterday morning when he pulled out of the race to endorse him. And Gingrich has previously acknowledged behavior he regrets, behavior which has been widely reported.
Events are driving President Barack Obama to song. Last night at a fundraiser at the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem, he sang a few bars of Al Green’s soul classic “Let’s Stay Together.”
Romney, who was booed for giving yet another waffling answer about his financial dealings, has big problems of his own. Including yesterday’s revelation that he didn’t really finish first in Iowa, which I’ve been mentioning as a likelihood for quite a while now.
I’m not seeing any mea culpas from the media types who rushed to anoint Romney as the Iowa winner.
The crises with Iran and Israel continue to percolate. A top Iranian leader today declared that Israel must be “punished” for last week’s assassination of the head of Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment plant.
US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Martin Dempsey is in the midst of closed door meetings in Tel Aviv with Israeli military leaders.
Obama is monitoring a variety of other geopolitical crises, mostly related to the Arab awakening, AfPak, and Iraq.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is eleven hours ahead of Pacific time, and Afghanistan is twelve and a half hours ahead of Pacific time.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Northern California.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
Brown got good news this morning in the form of California’s unemployment declining for a fifth straight month.
It dropped to 11.1% in December, down from 11.3% the month before.
A year earlier, it was at 12.5%.
On a second day touring Southern California in the wake of yesterday morning’s State of the State address, Brown drew warm reactions from crowds of business executives in Orange County and civic types in San Diego.
But, while Orange County business leaders indicated they would back Brown’s initiative, some of those in San Diego were more circumspect.
Brown said yesterday he may delay the big water bond passed late in the Schwarzenegger Administration to provide a clearer shot for his revenue initiative.
Meanwhile, legislative Democrats not surprisingly reacted with some skepticism about Brown’s proposed budget cuts and legislative Republicans didn’t like the proposed tax hikes. I should have a function key for those stances.
** STATING THE STATE: JERRY BROWN GETS DISCIPLINED AND LAYS IT OUT.Straighten out the chronic crisis of the present and move the state forward into the future. That’s Jerry Brown’s mission as governor of California this time around, which he laid out rather clearly in his new State of the State address.
He’s also making progress early on in clearing the field for his revenue initiative in November.
Brown has articulated everything he said in this speech before. But he hadn’t framed it up and put it all together in a coherent way, preferring too often to rely on his improvisational rhetorical skills. And he certainly hadn’t ventured out from the capital in the North in any sustained manner to push his program around the state, yet he followed this State of the State address by, in essence, bringing the State of the State to several communities across Southern California on Wednesday and Thursday. … From my January 19th feature.
** EXTREMISM IN DEFENSE OF IRONY: BY ROMNEY’S RADICAL DEFINITION HIS OWN CHIEF STRATEGIST IS “ANTI-FREE ENTERPRISE.”
Q. “Do you suggest that anyone who questions the policies and practices of Wall Street and financial institutions, anyone who has questions about the distribution of wealth and power in this country, is envious, is it about jealousy, or is it about fairness?”
A. “You know, I think it’s about envy. I think it’s about class warfare.”
Mitt Romney on The Today Show after his New Hampshire primary victory, reacting to criticism of his record as head of the unfortunately named Bain Capitol.
So much for the idea of Mitt Romney as a moderate. A chameleon or flip-flopper on social and environmental issues, sure, which in some circles counts as “moderate.” But on economic issues, a radical capitalist employing extreme rhetoric.
Shocked by being under fire from fellow Republicans for his work as a corporate takeover specialist, Romney and his allies have reacted with a semi-controlled hysteria, deeming any criticism of the era’s anything-goes financialized capitalism the functional equivalent of socialism. … From my January 15th essay.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in three wars in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti. While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil is trading around $99 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $65 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $15 from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
Despite what the media has been reporting for more than two weeks, and as NWN has warned right along, Mitt Romney did not win the Iowa Republican presidential caucuses. Rick Santorum finished first. Oops. So much for all the commentary about Romney’s historic sweep of the first two contests. This is a good example of why I mostly stopped watching U.S. cable news a long time ago.
7:45 PM Pacific UPDATE: NEW POLL SHOWS GINGRICH UP BY 6 IN SOUTH CAROLINA AS HE WINS ANOTHER DEBATE, STONING A CNN STAR IN THE PROCESS. I thought that Newt Gingrich won the second South Carolina debate of the week tonight on CNN in Charleston.
It would have been hard for him to lose it after the way it opened.
CNN moderator John King, rather amazingly, opened the debate by asking Gingrich about allegations from his second wife Marianne Gingrich, just aired on ABC less than two days before the pivotal primary, that he had asked her for “an open marriage” over a decade ago when they were still married.
Gingrich proceeded to stone King, saying he would not answer his questions, denying the specific charge in the process and declaring it “despicable” that a presidential debate would be opened in this manner. None of his opponents contradicted him.
The audience went wild for Gingrich, giving him a standing ovation.
Meanwhile, a new Public Policy Polling survey shows Gingrich holding a 6-point lead over Mitt Romney, who had held a big lead at the beginning of this very eventful week.
This is consistent with, in fact better than, what I reported here last night with an Insider Advantage poll giving the ex-House speaker a smaller edge over the Romney.
It’s Gingrich 35%, Romney 29%, Rick Santorum 15%, and Ron Paul 15%.
A caveat. People are only now beginning to learn of his ex-wife’s dramatic and salacious charges against Gingrich. That could impact his now big lead among evangelicals.
Or it may not. Rick Perry sought to inoculate Gingrich as a reformed sinner this morning when he pulled out of the race to endorse him. And Gingrich has previously acknowledged behavior he regrets.
Romney, who was booed for giving another waffling answer about his financial dealings, has big problems of his own. Including today’s revelation that he didn’t really finish first in Iowa, which I’ve been mentioning as a likelihood for quite a while now.
I’m not seeing any mea culpas from the media types who rushed to anoint Romney as the Iowa winner.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … NEWTONIAN MOTION: THE UNDEAD!
** QUICK HITS. It’s fight night in Charleston, South Carolina, with the four remaining Republican presidential candidates debating less than two days before voting begins in the South Carolina primary. CNN calls it “a dead heat” between Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, who had to admit today that he didn’t really finish first in Iowa as has been claimed for more than two weeks. Rick Santorum did, with Ron Paul third and Gingrich fourth. You can watch the show at 5 PM Pacific on CNN. … But much of the news media is going wild over Gingrich’s ex-wife taking this occasion to rip him for their decades old marriage, claiming he wanted “an open marriage.” … On a second day touring Southern California in the wake of yesterday morning’s State of the State address, Governor Jerry Brown drew warm reactions from crowds of business executives in Orange County and civic types in San Diego. … Meanwhile, legislative Democrats not surprisingly reacted with some skepticism about Brown’s proposed budget cuts and legislative Republicans didn’t like the proposed tax hikes. I should have a function key for those stances.
** NEW POLL: BIG BUSINESS AND BIG GOVERNMENT EQUALLY DISLIKED. A new Gallup Poll survey as this momentous election year starts getting into full swing shows that the bugaboos of the left and the right are equally disliked in American life.
Big business? Bad.
Big government? Bad.
Too bad life is a little more complicated than that.
Americans’ satisfaction with the size and power of the federal government is at a record-low 29% and their satisfaction with the size and influence of major corporations remains near the all-time low at 30% — making both highly susceptible targets for politicians and presidential candidates in this election year. …
Gallup began asking these questions in its annual Mood of the Nation surveys in 2001. About half of Americans in January 2001 were satisfied with the size of the federal government and of major corporations, and satisfaction with both has generally been declining since. …
Politicians and political groups have criticized the size and influence of both the federal government and big corporations this year, with the former mostly a focus of Republican attacks, and the latter a Democratic target. Rank-and-file Republicans’ and Democrats’ views of these two entities align with the partisan nature of these political attacks.
Republicans in particular are displeased with the size and power of the federal government, with 16% satisfied and 84% dissatisfied. Democrats are more positive about the federal government, but hardly overwhelmingly so, with 49% satisfied and 47% dissatisfied. The politically crucial group of independents is slightly more negative than the national average.
Democrats, as would be expected, are disproportionately displeased with the size and influence of major corporations, with 71% dissatisfied and 23% satisfied. Republicans break even in their views of major corporations, with 48% satisfied and the same percentage dissatisfied. Independents — as was the case in their views of the federal government — are slightly more negative than the national average. …
Taken in the aggregate, both of these big entities appear to be susceptible targets. Republicans are much less negative than average about major corporations. Democrats are much less negative about the federal government. Still, at least half of both of these political groups remain dissatisfied with the federal government and major corporations, signaling some appetite for change among Americans of all political persuasions.
Politicians and other critics therefore run some risk when they target one of these two unpopular entities while appearing to vindicate or support the other. President Obama’s strategists have apparently already recognized this, and Obama recently announced that he plans on reducing the size of six government agencies by consolidating them. Republican presidential candidates may at some point find it useful, likewise, to publicly take positions favorable toward reducing the power of major corporations.
** STATING THE STATE: JERRY BROWN GETS DISCIPLINED AND LAYS IT OUT.Straighten out the chronic crisis of the present and move the state forward into the future. That’s Jerry Brown’s mission as governor of California this time around, which he laid out rather clearly in his new State of the State address.
He’s also making progress early on in clearing the field for his revenue initiative in November.
Brown has articulated everything he said in this speech before. But he hadn’t framed it up and put it all together in a coherent way, preferring too often to rely on his improvisational rhetorical skills. And he certainly hadn’t ventured out from the capital in the North in any sustained manner to push his program around the state, yet he followed this State of the State address by, in essence, bringing the State of the State to several communities across Southern California on Wednesday and Thursday.
Since a fast declining news media doesn’t cover public affairs nearly as well as it used to, especially when it isn’t convenient, a leader has to find ways to make it convenient to cover. Which is why Brown delivered essentially the same speech he gave Wednesday morning at the State Capitol in Sacramento to a packed audience in Los Angeles City Hall — and an accompanying large bank of TV news cameras — on Wednesday afternoon.
As I wrote in “Jerry Brown 2.0 at 1,” marking the first anniversary of his inauguration after talking with him over the holidays, “Brown made it very clear that he intends to keep thinking big even in a time of limits. He wants to push hard for California to continue its leadership role on renewable energy, green tech, and climate change, develop future-oriented transit and water systems, and restructure California government, both by making sense of its sprawling agencies and by realigning services to bring them closer to the people who benefit.
“And all of it in the midst of digging out from under the wreckage of the worst global economic downturn since the Great Depression, in a massively hyper-partisan era, necessitating huge budget cuts and the pursuit of new revenues.”
Brown’s State of the State address ran largely along those lines.
Brown’s Republican opponents, increasingly cartoonish in their reflexive oppositionism, amusingly released their video attacks on his State of the State a day before he delivered it, when the speech was certainly not finished. It was a telling error, allowing Brown to make a joke at the beginning of his speech about their “precognition,” a reference to the Steven Spielberg/Tom Cruise film Minority Report.
Here’s how he defined the agenda, with a link to the full address:
The year 2012 presents plenty of opportunity and, if we work together, we can:
Stimulate jobs
Build renewable energy
Reduce pollution and greenhouse gasses
Launch the nation’s only high-speed rail system
Reach agreement on a plan to fix the Delta
Improve our schools
Reform our pensions, and,
Make sure that prison realignment is working–to protect public safety and reduce recidivism.
Here are several of Brown’s key passages, and what they mean. …
Texas Governor Rick Perry, appearing this morning in Charleston, South Carolina, pulled out of the Republican presidential race and endorsed former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington, Florida, and New York.
Obama received the daily intelligence and economic briefings and met with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
He then flew to Orlando, Florida on Air Force One.
At 9:35 AM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks on a new strategy to promote tourism and travel at
Main Street USA in the Walt Disney World Resort.
At 11:15 AM Pacific, Obama departs Orlando, Florida on Air Force One en route New York City.
At 1:30 PM Pacific, Obama arrives in New York City.
At 2:30 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a fundraiser at Daniel Restaurant.
At 3:30 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at another fundraiser at Daniel Restaurant.
At 4:50 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a fundraiser at a private residence.
At 6:25 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a campaign event at the Apollo Theatre.
At 8:05 PM Pacific, Obama departs New York City on Air Force One en route Joint Base Andrews.
Big developments late last night and this morning in the Republican presidential race. The Republicans debate tonight at 5 PM Pacific on CNN from Charleston, South Carolina.
And, as I reported here last night, Newt Gingrich took a slight lead over Mitt Romney in a new South Carolina primary poll.
The Palmetto State votes on Saturday, and there is a big debate tonight on CNN.
And Gingrich’s presumably still angry second wife is about to appear on ABC News saying very unflattering things about her ex-husband.
You can find this all just as coincidental as you prefer.
Then this morning Rick Perry pulled out of the race and endorsed Gingrich, emphasizing in his statement his belief in personal redemption and faith in Gingrich’s religious belief, an obvious counter to impending remarks from Marianne Gingrich.
Ron Paul is at 15% and Rick Santorum is at 11%, while Rick Perry brings up the rear with 3%.
An Insider Advantage poll taken over the weekend, prior to the debate, had Romney holding a 10-point lead over the ex-House speaker.
In the first TV ad of his re-election, President Barack Obama’s campaign goes after “secretive oil billionaires” for their attacks on Obama’s promotion of green tech.
The Romney campaign spent all of Wednesday attacking Gingrich, with even the see no evil/hear no evil candidate himself chiming in to try to drive points home.
Then the Drudge Report came up with an “exclusive,” read leak, that Gingrich’s second wife will make a highly negative appearance on ABC News to discuss her ex-husband.
Sensing danger in the wake of Gingrich’s Monday night debate win and the controversy over his own financial dealings, Romney yesterday called in reinforcements to help prop up his campaign in the South Carolina primary. Anti-Gingrich surrogates rolled in and TV ads erupted. The best thing Romney has going for him is a split field.
For its part, the Obama Administration turned down the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to Texas, citing an arbitrary 60-day decision deadline imposed by Congressional Republicans as part of the end of year fiscal deal to extend the payroll tax cut. But pipeline promoters can seek a different path for it.
And the Obama campaign rolled out its first TV ad, an attack on “secretive oil billionaires” funding attacks on Obama’s green tech agenda, and a defense of the controversial Solyndra loan.
The crises with Iran and Israel continue to percolate.
Obama is monitoring a variety of other geopolitical crises, mostly related to the Arab awakening, AfPak, and Iraq.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is eleven hours ahead of Pacific time, and Afghanistan is twelve and a half hours ahead of Pacific time.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Southern California.
Governor Jerry Brown essentially repeated his State of the State address yesterday afternoon before a packed crowd, and a big bank of TV news cameras, at LA City Hall. Recognizing that, as may have been mentioned here on occasion, events in the state capital don’t resonate much in the rest of the state, Brown is taking his State of the State message on the road in Southern California.
Today he is in Orange County and San Diego.
At 9:30 AM, Brown addresses the Orange County Business Council in Irvine.
At 12 noon, he addresses the City Club of San Diego in the San Diego Hall of Champions.
** EXTREMISM IN DEFENSE OF IRONY: BY ROMNEY’S RADICAL DEFINITION HIS OWN CHIEF STRATEGIST IS “ANTI-FREE ENTERPRISE.”
Q. “Do you suggest that anyone who questions the policies and practices of Wall Street and financial institutions, anyone who has questions about the distribution of wealth and power in this country, is envious, is it about jealousy, or is it about fairness?”
A. “You know, I think it’s about envy. I think it’s about class warfare.”
Mitt Romney on The Today Show after his New Hampshire primary victory, reacting to criticism of his record as head of the unfortunately named Bain Capitol.
So much for the idea of Mitt Romney as a moderate. A chameleon or flip-flopper on social and environmental issues, sure, which in some circles counts as “moderate.” But on economic issues, a radical capitalist employing extreme rhetoric.
Shocked by being under fire from fellow Republicans for his work as a corporate takeover specialist, Romney and his allies have reacted with a semi-controlled hysteria, deeming any criticism of the era’s anything-goes financialized capitalism the functional equivalent of socialism. … From my January 15th essay.
** BOMBING BAIN: HOW DOES THE POLITICS OF WALL STREET GREED PLAY IN THE G.O.P.?There’s no little irony in the attacks being leveled on Mitt Romney’s adventures in capitalism by fellow Republicans. The Romney crew, and many doctrinaire Republicans in love with market ideology, are reacting with fury to any criticism of capitalism as being strictly out of bounds. A chief irony not yet remarked on is that Stuart Stevens, Romney’s chief strategist and media consultant, attacked Romney protege Meg Whitman for her own adventures in capitalism during the 2010 California’s governor’s race.
For the six years or so in which he has been running for president of the United States, Mitt Romney has been largely allowed by the media and his opponents to position himself as a “venture capitalist.” Which sounds very benign, conjuring up as it does visions of what venture capitalists do; i.e., provide seed capital and early capital and guidance for entrepreneurs with promising new products and services.
But, while Romney’s Bain Capital did some of that, the reality is that he was more of a leveraged buyout artist … From my January 10th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in three wars in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti. While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil is trading around $101 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $67 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $13 from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
Appearing last night on Fox News’s Sean Hannity show, Sarah Palin compared Newt Gingrich to “Smokin’ Joe Frazier” and said that she would vote for Gingrich if she were voting in the South Carolina primary.
8:40 PM PACIFIC UPDATE: GINGRICH TAKES SLIGHT LEAD IN NEW SOUTH CAROLINA POLL, SECOND WIFE TO APPEAR ON ABC NEWS. A brand-new poll by Insider Advantage of the South Carolina Republican primary, taken after Monday night’s debate which was won by Newt Gingrich, shows Gingrich moving into a very slight edge over Mitt Romney, 32% to 29%.
Ron Paul is at 15% and Rick Santorum is at 11%, while Rick Perry brings up the rear with 3%.
An Insider Advantage poll taken over the weekend, prior to the debate, had Romney holding a 10-point lead over the ex-House speaker.
The Romney campaign spent all of Wednesday attacking Gingrich, with even the see no evil/hear no evil candidate himself chiming in to try to drive points home.
And now the Drudge Report has an “exclusive,” read leak, that Gingrich’s second wife will make a highly negative appearance on ABC News to discuss her ex-husband.
** QUICK HITS.Sensing danger in the wake of Newt Gingrich’s Monday night debate win and the controversy over his own financial dealings, Mitt Romney today called in reinforcements to help prop up his campaign in the South Carolina primary. Anti-Gingrich surrogates rolled in and TV ads erupted. The best thing Romney has going for him is a split field. The next debate is tomorrow night. … The Obama Administration today turned down the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to Texas, citing an arbitrary 60-day decision deadline imposed by Congressional Republicans as part of the end of year fiscal deal to extend the payroll tax cut. But pipeline promoters can seek a different path for it. … Governor Jerry Brown essentially repeated his State of the State address this afternoon before a packed crowd, and a big bank of TV news cameras, at LA City Hall. Recognizing that, as may have been mentioned here on occasion, events in the state capital don’t resonate much in the rest of the state, Brown is taking his State of the State message on the road in Southern California. Tomorrow he is in Orange County and San Diego.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … STATING THE STATE: JERRY BROWN GETS DISCIPLINED AND LAYS IT OUT.
On a national level, it’s Mitt Romney 30%, Gingrich 27%, Rick Santorum back down to 15%, Ron Paul 13%, and Rick Perry 4%.
I’m no fan of Rasmussen, as readers know, but the poll is clearly on to something here. The Romney campaign, and even the usually above the fray/don’t know about attacks candidate himself, is spending a lot of energy today attacking Gingrich.
All of which makes Thursday night’s debate in Charleston, South Carolina very important.
As always, the key to beating Romney is for the other conservatives to drop and let Gingrich have a clear shot.
Perry, in particular, was expected by his staff to drop out after Iowa but mysteriously decided to carry on after retreating to Texas and nearly suspending his campaign.
Santorum, who may actually have finished first in Iowa, as I’ve mentioned a few times and which is a whole other story largely unreported by the media, hasn’t been able to get any traction since then.
But the story in the new numbers, taken Tuesday night, is Gingrich’s jump 11 points from 16% two weeks ago. Romney’s support is essentially unchanged from 29% at that time, while Santorum is down six points from 21%. Paul’s and Perry’s support is also unchanged. Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman earned four percent (4%) of the vote at the start of the month but dropped out of the race this week. This suggests that many voters are still looking for an alternative to Romney and currently see Gingrich as that candidate.
Among Republican primary voters nationwide, 34% think Romney is the GOP candidate who would do a better job managing the economy, but almost as many (29%) feel Gingrich would do the better job. Paul’s a distant third at 14%. When it comes to national security and defense, Gingrich is the clear leader: 43% think he would do a better job versus 18% who say the same of Romney.
Indicative of how fluid the race remains, just 41% of likely GOP primary voters nationally are certain of how they will vote at this time. Most (51%) say they could still change their minds, and another seven percent (7%) haven’t made an initial choice yet.
The jump in Gingrich’s support nationally comes after a Monday night debate in which most analysts said the former speaker did very well. …
** “CALIFORNIA ON THE MEND.” GOVERNOR JERRY BROWN’S 2012 STATE OF THE STATE ADDRESS (as prepared):
As required by the state constitution, I am reporting to you this morning on the condition of our state.
Putting it as simply as I can, California is on the mend. Last year, we were looking at a structural deficit of over $20 billion. It was a real mess. But you rose to the occasion and together we shrunk state government, reduced our borrowing costs and transferred key functions to local government, closer to the people. The result is a problem one fourth as large as the one we confronted last year.
My goal then was to balance budget cuts with a temporary extension of existing taxes—if the voters approved. You made the reductions and some very difficult decisions but the four Republican votes needed to put the tax measure on the ballot were not there. So we are left with unfinished business: closing the remaining gap.
Again, I propose cuts and temporary taxes. Neither is popular but both must be done. In a world still reeling from the near collapse of the financial system, it makes no sense to spend more than we have. The financial downgrading of the United States, as well as of several governments in Europe, should be warning enough. It is said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions and digging ourselves into a deep financial hole—to do good—is a bad idea. In this time of uncertainty, prudence and paying down debt is the best policy.
For my part, I am determined to press ahead both with substantial budget cuts and my tax initiative. The cuts are not ones I like but the situation demands them. As for the initiative, it is fair. It is temporary. It is half of what people were paying in 2010. And it will protect our schools and guarantee—in the constitution—funding for the public safety programs we transferred to local government. With enough time, we can and should devise more permanent tax reform but for now we should finish the job of bringing spending into balance with revenues.
Putting our fiscal house in order is good stewardship and helps us regain the trust of the people. It also builds confidence in California as a place to invest and realize one’s dreams. Contrary to those critics who fantasize that California is a failed state, I see unspent potential and incredible opportunity. Every decade since the 60’s, dystopian journalists write stories on the impending decline of our economy, our culture and our politics. Yes, it is fair to say that California is turbulent, less predictable and, well, different. Yet, look at the facts.
After the mortgage bubble burst in 2007, California lost a million jobs, much of it driven by the overleveraged construction industry and its financial partners in the under-regulated mortgage industry. The result is a recovery far slower than after the previous six national recessions. But now we are coming back. In 2011, California personal income grew by almost $100 billion and 230,000 jobs were created—a rate much higher than the nation as a whole.
Contrary to those declinists, who sing of Texas and bemoan our woes, California is still the land of dreams—as well as the Dream Act. It’s the place where Apple, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, QUALCOMM, Twitter, Facebook and countless other creative companies all began. It’s home to more Nobel Laureates and venture capital investment than any other state. In 2010, California received 48% of U.S. venture capital investments. In the first three months of last year it rose even higher—to 52%. That is more than four times greater that the next recipient, Massachusetts. As for new patents, California inventors were awarded almost four times as many as inventors from the next state, New York.
California has problems but rumors of its demise are greatly exaggerated.
The year 2012 presents plenty of opportunity and, if we work together, we can:
Stimulate jobs
Build renewable energy
Reduce pollution and greenhouse gasses
Launch the nation’s only high-speed rail system
Reach agreement on a plan to fix the Delta
Improve our schools
Reform our pensions, and,
Make sure that prison realignment is working—to protect public safety and reduce recidivism.
Last year, I appointed a top advisor with an impressive background in the private sector and charged him with finding out what doesn’t work for business in this state and how to fix it. What he heard consistently was that business needed an effective champion to navigate the state’s plethora of complex laws and regulations which can discourage investment and job creation. You enacted a law to restructure our office of business development and place it in the governor’s office. Under the name GO-BIZ, we now have a point of contact at the highest level for businesses large and small. More than that, the GO-BIZ office is staffed with people who understand what it’s like to be in business and stand ready to intervene and give real help to get businesses open and projects off the ground.
Already California is leading the nation in creating jobs in renewable energy and the design and construction of more efficient buildings and new technologies. Our state keeps demanding more efficient structures, cars, machines and electric devices. We do that because we understand that fossil fuels, particularly foreign oil, create ever rising costs to our economy and to our health. It is true that the renewable energy sector is small relative to the overall economy but it pays good wages and will only grow bigger as oil prices increase and the effects of climate change become more obvious and expensive.
I have set a goal of 20,000 megawatts of renewable energy by 2020. You have laid the foundation by adopting the requirement that one third of our electricity come from renewable sources by that date. This morning I can tell you we are on track to meet that goal and substantially exceed it. In the last two years alone, California has permitted over 16,000 megawatts of solar, wind and geothermal energy projects.
In the beginning of the computer industry, jobs were numbered in the thousands. Now they are in the millions. The same thing will happen with green jobs. And California is positioned perfectly to reap the economic benefits that will inevitably flow.
California also leads the nation in cleaning up the air, encouraging electric vehicles and reducing pollution and greenhouse gases. Our vehicle emissions standards—which have always set the pace—now have been adopted by the federal government for the rest of the country.
Under AB 32, California has stepped out and crafted a bold plan to deal with climate change and foreign oil dependency. The plan will require less carbon in our fuels, more efficient technologies across a broad swath of businesses and a carefully designed cap and trade system that uses market incentives instead of prescriptive mandates.
As a result, California is attracting billions of dollars in clean tech venture capital investments. In 2011, almost 40% of such investments were made in California, making our state not only the leader in the nation but in the world.
My commitment is to continue these innovative programs and build on them in the coming year in every way that I can.
Just as bold is our plan to build a high-speed rail system, connecting the Northern and Southern parts of our state. This is not a new idea. As governor the last time, I signed legislation to study the concept. Now thirty years later, we are within weeks of a revised business plan that will enable us to begin initial construction before the year is out.
President Obama strongly supports the project and has provided the majority of funds for this first phase. It is now your decision to evaluate the plan and decide what action to take. Without any hesitation, I urge your approval.
If you believe that California will continue to grow, as I do, and that millions more people will be living in our state, this is a wise investment. Building new runways and expanding our airports and highways is the only alternative. That is not cheaper and will face even more political opposition.
Those who believe that California is in decline will naturally shrink back from such a strenuous undertaking. I understand that feeling but I don’t share it, because I know this state and the spirit of the people who choose to live here. California is still the Gold Mountain that Chinese immigrants in 1848 came across the Pacific to find. The wealth is different, derived as it is, not from mining the Sierras but from the creative imagination of those who invent and build and generate the ideas that drive our economy forward.
Critics of the high-speed rail project abound as they often do when something of this magnitude is proposed. During the 1930’s, The Central Valley Water Project was called a “fantastic dream” that “will not work.” The Master Plan for the Interstate Highway System in 1939 was derided as “new Deal jitterbug economics.” In 1966, then Mayor Johnson of Berkeley called BART a “billion dollar potential fiasco.” Similarly, the Panama Canal was for years thought to be impractical and Benjamin Disraeli himself said of the Suez Canal: “totally impossible to be carried out.” The critics were wrong then and they’re wrong now.
Another huge issue we must tackle is water. Last week, Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar – met here in Sacramento with those in my administration who are working to complete the Bay Delta Conservation Plan. Together we agreed that by this summer we should have the basic elements of the project we need to build. This is something my father worked on and then I worked on—decades ago. We know more now and are committed to the dual goals of restoring the Delta ecosystem and ensuring a reliable water supply.
This is an enormous project. It will ensure water for 25 million Californians and for millions of acres of farmland as well a hundred thousand acres of new habitat for spawning fish and other wildlife. To get it done will require time, political will and countless permits from state and federal agencies. I invite your collaboration and constructive engagement.
Next, I want to say something about our schools. They consume more tax dollars than any other government activity and rightly so as they have a profound effect on our future. Since everyone goes to school, everyone thinks they know something about education and in a sense they do.But that doesn’t stop experts and academics and foundation consultants from offering their ideas — usually labeled reform and regularly changing at ten year intervals—on how to get kids learning more and better. It is salutary and even edifying that so much interest is shown in the next generation. Nevertheless, in a state with six million students, 300,000 teachers, deep economic divisions and a hundred different languages, some humility is called for.
In that spirit, I offer these thoughts. First, responsibility must be clearly delineated between the various levels of power that have a stake in our educational system. What most needs to be avoided is concentrating more and more decision-making at the federal or state level. For better or worse, we depend on elected school boards and the principals and the teachers they hire. To me that means, we should set broad goals and have a good accountability system, leaving the real work to those closest to the students. Yes, we should demand continuous improvement in meeting our state standards but we should not impose excessive or detailed mandates.
My budget proposes to replace categorical programs with a new weighted student formula that provides a basic level of funding with additional money for disadvantaged students and those struggling to learn English. This will give more authority to local school districts to fashion the kind of programs they see their students need. It will also create transparency, reduce bureaucracy and simplify complex funding streams.
Given the cutbacks to education in recent years, it is imperative that California devote more tax dollars to this most basic of public services. If we are successful in passing the temporary taxes I have proposed and the economy continues to expand, schools will be in a much stronger position.
No system, however, works without accountability. In California we have detailed state standards and lots of tests. Unfortunately, the resulting data is not provided until after the school year is over. Even today, the ranking of schools based on tests taken in April and May of 2011 is not available. I believe it is time to reduce the number of tests and get the results to teachers, principals and superintendents in weeks, not months. With timely data, principals and superintendents can better mentor and guide teachers as well as make sound evaluations of their performance. I also believe we need a qualitative system of assessments, such as a site visitation program where each classroom is visited, observed and evaluated. I will work with the State Board of Education to develop this proposal.
The house of education is divided by powerful forces and strong emotions. My role as governor is not to choose sides but to listen, to engage and to lead. I will do that. I embrace both reform and tradition—not complacency. My hunch is that principals and teachers know the most, but I’ll take good ideas from wherever they come.
As for pensions, I have put forth my 12 point proposal. Examine it. Improve it. But please take up the issue and do something real. I am committed to pension reform because I believe there is a real problem. Three times as many people are retiring as are entering the workforce. That arithmetic doesn’t add up. In addition, benefits, contributions and the age of retirement all have to balance. I don’t believe they do today. So we have to take action. And we should do it this year.
As for prison realignment, we are just at the beginning. The cooperation of sheriffs, police chiefs, probation officers, district attorneys and local officials has been remarkable. But we have much to do—to protect public safety and reduce recidivism—and together, we’ll get it done.
It is one thing to pass a law and quite another to implement it and make it work.
As I see it, that’s my job as governor and chief executive: make the operations of government work—efficiently, honestly and in the peoples’ interest. With your help, that’s what we’ll do in 2012 and prove the declinists wrong once again.
Thank you.
Israel and the US have postponed Operation Austere Challenge, set for the next few weeks, the largest joint exercise ever scheduled by the two countries, ostensibly because Israel is short on manpower.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
Obama received the daily intelligence and economic briefings and met with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
At 12 noon Pacific, he participates in an Ambassador Credentialing Ceremony in the Oval Office.
At 12:30 PM Pacific, Obama meets with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner in the Oval Office.
At 2:25 PM Pacific, Obama hosts a reception with U.S. Mayors in the East Room.
Iran yesterday warned Saudi Arabia not to increase its oil production as the US and its allies push for an embargo against Iranian oil as part of the drive to stop Iran from producing a nuclear weapon. The Saudis have said they will up their production by 2.7 million barrels per day to make up for a potential loss of Iranian oil on global markets. The US recently sold 84 advanced fighter jets to the kingdom across the Gulf from Tehran.
The European Union is discussing its plan to start its ban on Iranian oil on July 1st.
India formally announced yesterday what has previously been reported, that it will ignore the US request that it drop Iranian oil. Iran is India’s second largest source of oil, after Saudi.
Iran announced that it has made arrests in the case of last week’s assassination of a top nuclear scientist, which Iranian leaders say was carried out by Israel’s Mossad with the assistance of US and British intelligence.
Meanwhile, the war talk in the Israeli press seemed to abate to a large degree yesterday.
And late in the day, Israel announced a delay until next summer for a massive joint exercise with US forces which have already been moving in the region planned for late this month.
The ostensible reason is a lack of Israeli resources for the exercise, but most believe it’s an attempt to ratchet down the tensions in the region.
The exercise was designed in large part to practice counter-moves to an Iranian missile attack.
The US has a second aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East as the crisis with Iran grows and the Islamic republic’s threat to close the Strait of Hormuz continues, as well as Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Martin Dempsey to meet with Israeli officials.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, the veteran California political figure, has expressed grave concern about the prospect of Israeli air strikes on Iran’s nuclear program.
Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich takes a shot at opponent Mitt Romney, saying he is re-naming his flat tax the “Mitt Romney 15 percent flat tax.” This comes after it was revealed that the super-rich Romney pays about a 15% tax rate.
While these major events play out, the Republican presidential race continues.
Mitt Romney is trying to consolidate a frontrunner position after losing Monday night’s debate to Newt Gingrich.
Romney is on the defensive for his Bain Capital adventures and for his personal finances. He has balked repeatedly at releasing any tax records — a practice in presidential politics that his own father, then Michigan Governor George Romney, pioneered over 40 years ago — and seems to have begun paving the way for spinning their eventual release by letting it be known that he is only paying somewhere in the neighborhood of 15% on his own vast income.
So he is catching some significant fire for this.
And Sarah Palin made a de facto endorsement of Gingrich last night on Sean Hannity’s Fox News chatfest.
Palin said she isn’t “formally” endorsing the ex-House speaker, but ripped Romney and said she would vote for Gingrich if she were voting in the South Carolina primary.
Former “First Dude” Todd Palin has already endorsed Gingrich.
Palin described Gingrich as a “Smokin’ Joe Frazier” for his winning debate performance on Monday night.
Romney still has two great advantages.
A divided and fairly inept set of opponents, though Gingrich is again finding his footing.
And a largely (any mysteriously) supportive news media.
Neither will be in play if he gets the nomination. Even if large elements of the media want to support Romney in the general election, they will get a major pushback from Obama and the Democrats.
Obama is monitoring a variety of other geopolitical crises, mostly related to the Arab awakening, AfPak, and Iraq.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is eleven hours ahead of Pacific time, and Afghanistan is twelve and a half hours ahead of Pacific time.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … STATING THE STATE.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Sacramento and the Los Angeles area.
At 10 AM, Brown delivers the State of the State address in the Capitol.
** EXTREMISM IN DEFENSE OF IRONY: BY ROMNEY’S RADICAL DEFINITION HIS OWN CHIEF STRATEGIST IS “ANTI-FREE ENTERPRISE.”
Q. “Do you suggest that anyone who questions the policies and practices of Wall Street and financial institutions, anyone who has questions about the distribution of wealth and power in this country, is envious, is it about jealousy, or is it about fairness?”
A. “You know, I think it’s about envy. I think it’s about class warfare.”
Mitt Romney on The Today Show after his New Hampshire primary victory, reacting to criticism of his record as head of the unfortunately named Bain Capitol.
So much for the idea of Mitt Romney as a moderate. A chameleon or flip-flopper on social and environmental issues, sure, which in some circles counts as “moderate.” But on economic issues, a radical capitalist employing extreme rhetoric.
Shocked by being under fire from fellow Republicans for his work as a corporate takeover specialist, Romney and his allies have reacted with a semi-controlled hysteria, deeming any criticism of the era’s anything-goes financialized capitalism the functional equivalent of socialism. … From my January 15th essay.
** BOMBING BAIN: HOW DOES THE POLITICS OF WALL STREET GREED PLAY IN THE G.O.P.?There’s no little irony in the attacks being leveled on Mitt Romney’s adventures in capitalism by fellow Republicans. The Romney crew, and many doctrinaire Republicans in love with market ideology, are reacting with fury to any criticism of capitalism as being strictly out of bounds. A chief irony not yet remarked on is that Stuart Stevens, Romney’s chief strategist and media consultant, attacked Romney protege Meg Whitman for her own adventures in capitalism during the 2010 California’s governor’s race.
For the six years or so in which he has been running for president of the United States, Mitt Romney has been largely allowed by the media and his opponents to position himself as a “venture capitalist.” Which sounds very benign, conjuring up as it does visions of what venture capitalists do; i.e., provide seed capital and early capital and guidance for entrepreneurs with promising new products and services.
But, while Romney’s Bain Capital did some of that, the reality is that he was more of a leveraged buyout artist … From my January 10th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in three wars in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti. While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil is trading around $101 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $67 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $13 from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
President Barack Obama welcomed the 2011 World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals, viewed by many as baseball’s greatest comeback team, to the White House today.
** QUICK HITS.Iran today warned Saudi Arabia not to increase its oil production as the US and its allies push for an embargo against Iranian oil as part of the drive to stop Iran from producing a nuclear weapon. The Saudis have said they will up their production by 2.7 million barrels per day to make up for a potential loss of Iranian oil on global markets. The US recently sold 84 advanced fighter jets to the kingdom across the Gulf from Tehran. … The European Union is discussing its plan to start its ban on Iranian oil on July 1st. … India today formally announced what has previously been reported, that it will ignore the US request that it drop Iranian oil. Iran is India’s second largest source of oil, after Saudi. … Iran announced today that it has made arrests in the case of last week’s assassination of a top nuclear scientist, which Iranian leaders say was carried out by Israel’s Mossad with the assistance of US and British intelligence. … Meanwhile, the war talk in the Israeli press seemed to abate to a large degree today.
3:39 PM Pacific UPDATE: Governor Jerry Brown issued this diplomatic statement in response to Think Long’s decision to withdraw its proposed initiative from the 2012 election cycle: “Think Long is doing very important work and I look forward to working with them on the critical issue of more permanent tax reform.”
** JERRY-RIGGING: THINK LONG OPTS TO THINK LONGER. As I wrote over a month and a half ago, the ballyhooed Thing Long Committee’s plans to cut taxes for the rich and big corporations while extending the sales tax to all manner of services was bad politics. And as I revealed on December 12th, based on extensive discussions with well-placed sources, the group of billionaires and prominent former officeholders was looking for a way to proceed without, well, proceeding.
Today the shoe dropped in a formal sort of way, with the announcement by the group that it won’t try to do a November initiative to compete with Governor Jerry Brown’s revenue measure. The group also had proposed a sort of super-committee, amusingly dubbed a “Jedi Council” by one of its boosters, to mess around with initiatives and so forth. There’s more to it, but the idea is so ridiculous I’ve already forgotten most of it.
“It is clear from public reaction, stakeholder meetings and our own public opinion research that Californians are hungry for real reform and are more willing than ever to support a sweeping plan that is fair and will put an end to California’s perpetual financial volatility and suffocating wall of debt,” said Think Long in a statement.
“At the same time, we recognize the practical constraints of the 2012 election calendar – and have come to the conclusion that it will take more time to perfect these proposals, eliminate unintended consequences and provide every stakeholder and everyday Californians a meaningful voice in that process.”
While Think Long couldn’t win, it might have blocked Brown from winning with a well-funded and confusing to the electorate campaign.
This leaves two other potential initiatives dealing with the income tax.
One, the so-called “Millionaires Tax” by California’s second-largest teachers union and a a coalition of left-liberal groups, is still out there but doesn’t have a lot of resources behind it.
Another, by heiress Molly Munger (her father is Warren Buffett’s partner), would raise income taxes on most everybody to principally benefit the schools. As I said as soon as I heard of it, I don’t see an income tax hike on most taxpayers as a good idea politically, and there’s private polling that bears out my rather obvious insight.
But if she wants to waste her money, that’s her prerogative.
** NEW SURVEY: UNEMPLOYMENT DROPS A BIT. A new Gallup Poll survey has some more guarded good news on the economy.
U.S. unemployment dipped to 8.3% in mid-January.
That’s down from 8.5% in December.
And way down from 9.9% a year earlier.
That’s not good for Republicans. Especially if they end up nominating Mitt Romney, who imagined somehow that he would be able to run as an expert job creator but is going to have demonstrate that his expertise is not simply in financial manipulation. And also deal with the fact that there is no substantiation for his own rather fanciful job creation claims — 100,000 jobs! — while there is plenty of evidence of job loss.
But before popping any champagne corks, it’s important to note that the number of people with less than full-time work who want full-time work is actually nearly a percentage point from a year ago.
Too many of the jobs being produced now don’t provide much in the way of income, certainly not replacing what was lost in the great global recession.
Gallup’s mid-month unemployment reading, based on the 30 days ending Jan. 15, serves as a preliminary estimate of the U.S. government report, and suggests the Bureau of Labor Statistics will likely report on the first Friday of February that its seasonally adjusted unemployment rate declined once again in January.
The percentage of U.S. employees who are working part time but want full-time work is at 9.8% in mid-January, the same as in December. The mid-January reading is substantially higher than the 9.1% of January 2011. …
>>>>>>LIVE VIDEO NETCAST
At 9:30 AM Pacific, White House press secretary Jay Carney delivers a briefing in the James S. Brady Briefing Room. The event will be netcast live here on New West Notes. You can mute the audio by clicking on the pause button.
** LIVE FROM THE WHITE HOUSE.
With massive geopolitical events swirling and the 2012 presidential race unfolding, the White House is increasingly a pivot point for the day’s events. Live streaming of key presidential events is now available as a matter of course here on New West Notes. You can mute the audio by clicking on the pause button.
NWN will continue to present other live netcasts in full streaming mode, as it did with the Ronald Reagan Centennial events from the Reagan Library, as they emerge and are technically available and as significance dictates.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, trying to battle back in the South Carolina primary after being decimated by millions in Mitt Romney super PAC ads in Iowa and elsewhere, got the best of things in Monday night’s debate in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have received the daily intelligence and economic briefings and met with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
Obama then met with the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness in the State Dining Room.
At 9:30 AM Pacific, Obama and Biden meet for lunch in the Oval Office.
AT 9:30 AM Pacific, White House press secretary Jay Carney delivers a briefing in the James S. Brady Briefing Room. The event will be netcast live on New West Notes.
At 11:15 AM Pacific, Obama meets with King Abdullah II of Jordan in the Oval Office.
Jordan is a key historic interlocutor for the US in the Middle East, and there are major brewing crises with Iran and Israel to be dealt with.
At 12:05 PM Pacific, Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama honor the 2011 World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals in the East Room.
Today is the first lady’s 48th birthday.
At 1:35 PM Pacific, Obama and Biden meet with Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta in the Oval Office.
The US is dispatching a second aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East as the crisis with Iran grows and the Islamic republic’s threat to close the Strait of Hormuz continues, as well as Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Martin Dempsey to meet with Israeli officials.
The US is about to embark on major joint military exercises with Israel.
At the same time, Panetta has expressed grave concern about the prospect of Israeli air strikes on Iran’s nuclear program.
While these major events play out, Obama’s would-be Republican rivals are fighting it out for Saturday’s South Carolina primary.
In their first of two South Carolina debates this week, the next is on Thursday night, Newt Gingrich prevailed in a Monday night performance that few a couple of standing ovations from the crowd.
Renewed frontrunner Mitt Romney took heavy fire from Gingrich, Iowa dead heat winner Rick Santorum, and Rick Perry, while Ron Paul — who never attacks Romney — put in a listless performance.
Romney was on the defensive for his Bain Capital adventures, and on his refusal to release tax information.
He now says he may release some information … in three months!
He also had some odd things to say about hunting.
Team O must be having a ball watching this spectacle.
Obama is monitoring a variety of geopolitical crises, mostly related to the Arab awakening, AfPak, and Iraq.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is eleven hours ahead of Pacific time, and Afghanistan is twelve and a half hours ahead of Pacific time.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … STATING THE STATE.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Northern California.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
Brown continues working on his new state budget, the upcoming State of the State address on January 18th, and various political plans for 2012, including his big revenue initiative to couple with additional cuts in order to bring the budget into balance.
After his State of the State address in Sacramento on Wednesday, Brown will have several events in Southern California later on Wednesday and on Thursday to amplify and emphasize points made in his speech.
** EXTREMISM IN DEFENSE OF IRONY: BY ROMNEY’S RADICAL DEFINITION HIS OWN CHIEF STRATEGIST IS “ANTI-FREE ENTERPRISE.”
Q. “Do you suggest that anyone who questions the policies and practices of Wall Street and financial institutions, anyone who has questions about the distribution of wealth and power in this country, is envious, is it about jealousy, or is it about fairness?”
A. “You know, I think it’s about envy. I think it’s about class warfare.”
Mitt Romney on The Today Show after his New Hampshire primary victory, reacting to criticism of his record as head of the unfortunately named Bain Capitol.
So much for the idea of Mitt Romney as a moderate. A chameleon or flip-flopper on social and environmental issues, sure, which in some circles counts as “moderate.” But on economic issues, a radical capitalist employing extreme rhetoric.
Shocked by being under fire from fellow Republicans for his work as a corporate takeover specialist, Romney and his allies have reacted with a semi-controlled hysteria, deeming any criticism of the era’s anything-goes financialized capitalism the functional equivalent of socialism. … From my January 15th essay.
** BOMBING BAIN: HOW DOES THE POLITICS OF WALL STREET GREED PLAY IN THE G.O.P.?There’s no little irony in the attacks being leveled on Mitt Romney’s adventures in capitalism by fellow Republicans. The Romney crew, and many doctrinaire Republicans in love with market ideology, are reacting with fury to any criticism of capitalism as being strictly out of bounds. A chief irony not yet remarked on is that Stuart Stevens, Romney’s chief strategist and media consultant, attacked Romney protege Meg Whitman for her own adventures in capitalism during the 2010 California’s governor’s race.
For the six years or so in which he has been running for president of the United States, Mitt Romney has been largely allowed by the media and his opponents to position himself as a “venture capitalist.” Which sounds very benign, conjuring up as it does visions of what venture capitalists do; i.e., provide seed capital and early capital and guidance for entrepreneurs with promising new products and services.
But, while Romney’s Bain Capital did some of that, the reality is that he was more of a leveraged buyout artist … From my January 10th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
A century after Captain Robert Scott arrived at the South Pole on January 17th, 1912, his granddaughter Dafila Scott remembers a risk-taker who advanced scientific knowledge. On their return journey from the Pole, after finding that a Norwegian expedition had preceded them by a month, Scott and his four comrades in the Terra Nova Expediton all perished from a combination of exhaustion, starvation, and extreme cold.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in three wars in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti. While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil is trading around $100 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $66 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $14 from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
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