The exiting president, in a final visit to Baghdad yesterday marked by Bond-like secrecy, had an Iraqi reporter throw shoes at him in the gravest sign of disrespect in the Arab tradition.
** CALIFORNIA G.O.P. FINALLY RELEASES BUDGET PLAN. AS IT WERE. After nearly two years of futzing around, pretencing a tuff stance and avoiding any real answers, California’s legislative Republicans, by their own design a permanent minority, have finally released their plan to “balance” the state’s chronically deficient budget.
Does it work? No.
It’s based on silly slashes in education and nonsensical borrowing from other funds.
Kids. It does not add up.
Period.
I don’t see Assembly Minority Leader Villines’ car tax hike there.
Yet.
There’s big league politics. There is minor league politics. And there is California GOP politics. Not counting Schwarzenegger, who is ahead of it all. Mostly.
** OBAMA WINS ELECTORAL COLLEGE VOTE BY OVER 2 TO 1. As already reported here, early on, however it is now official … the Electoral College vote taken in state capitals in America today: Barack Obama wins, 365 to 173.
Shock!
Yes, politics is full of rituals which tell us what we should already know.
I have met her on occasion and think she’s a good pick, and a great story.
Since her father’s election to Congress in 1946, a Kennedy has held federal office for the past 62 years. Her uncle, Senator Ted Kennedy — first elected to the Senate in 1962 — who is all for the nod for his niece, has terminal brain cancer.
The president-elect has a 76% approval rating, up from 67% three weeks ago. Notwithstanding the Blago scandal and the hopes of various medioid and hyperpartisan types. Who want to burn time in the pre-holiday period.
The Morning Column: MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK
The last full week before Christmas finds many things up in the air. President-elect Barack Obama has key sessions this week with his national security and economic leadership teams, and appoints most of his green team. (See below.) However, the Blago scandal keeps distracting, though there is nothing to suggest Obama involvement in it, and the Detroit deal stays elusive, in perhaps a final test of the relevancy of the Bush/Cheney crew.
In geopolitics, the Mumbai crisis keeps percolating, with Indian jets repeatedly violating Pakistani airspace over the weekend and Pakistan proving short of a crackdown on internal Islamic jihadists linked to the attack. OPEC gets together this week in Algeria, hoping to prop up the oil price with the assistance of new participant Russia.
In California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger looks to some action at last from the Legislature. Which may at last go into a lock-down over the holidays to force a vote on the state’s deepening, chronic budget crisis.
It will be interesting to see how Assembly Minority Leader Mike Villines, presumably back from Washington, handles reports of his secret call for a car tax hike.
Russia, participating in this week’s OPEC meeting, may officially join the cartel to try to help push oil prices back up.
** OBAMA TODAY. President-elect Barack Obama has private meeting in Chicago with his top national security team, including Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton and the new national security advisor, General Jim Jones, who doesn’t need Senate approval, Defense Secretary Bob Gates, Attorney General-designate Eric Holder, UN Ambassador-designate Susan Rice, and Homeland Security Secretary-designate Janet Napolitano. Gates, who is staying on, was in Iraq over the weekend, having visited Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf earlier in the week.
Current Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen, current National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell, incoming chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and new White House counsel Greg Craig will also attend.
Obama also appoints his new energy/green team.
The president-elect will hold a press conference on the country’s energy and environmental future Monday at Chicago’s Drake Hotel. Scheduled to start at 2 P Pacific Time. He is expected to name Carol Browner to lead a new White Hose council on the environment and energy; Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu, head of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab as energy secretary; New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine’s chief of staff Lisa Jackson as EPA chief; and LA Deputy Mayor Nancy Sutley as head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger holds private talks in LA and the Capitol. He and First Lady Maria Shriver preside over the yearly California Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. At 6:45 PM, the two walk the red carpet at the California Museum for History, Women and the Arts in Sacramento. At 7 PM, the ceremony begins.
Dave Brubeck, Jane Fonda, Robert Graham, Quincy Jones, Jack LaLanne, Jack Nicholson and Alice Waters will participate with Schwarzenegger and Shriver, along with family members for the posthumous awards to Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel, Dorothea Lange, Julia Morgan, Linus Pauling and Leland Stanford.
** HAPPY THANKSGIVING, MR. PRESIDENT-ELECT!While Barack Obama promised “a new and brighter day yet to come” in his Thanksgiving address, an old and darker day yet to leave reminds that events — and perhaps political fate itself — can turn on a dime in presidential politics. …
For a political operation that prefers to focus on its preferences, it’s a sharp reminder to Team Obama that the presidency can be every bit as reactive as it is proactive. … From my November 28th Huffington Post column.
** 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 new 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, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, 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.
Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. After crashing over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, crude oil is trading between $48 and $49 per barrel. This is above the four-year low of $40.89 per barrel reached on December 5th .
The drop of $99 per barrel since the record high over the summer comes on acknowledgment that the weak US economy will cut future demand and on the easing of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. It is clear that that, contrary to much chatter, neither the US nor Israel is about to launch a strike against Iran. And the Russian war with Georgia, confounding much speculation and reporting to the contrary, actually decreased the geopolitical risk premium in the oil market.
President-elect Barack Obama delivered his weekly video/radio address on Saturday and named New York city official Shaun Donovan as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
** OBAMA TODAY — SUNDAY. President-elect Barack Obama holds private talks in Chicago. Vice President-elect Biden holds private talks in Delaware. No public events on tap.
Obama is prepping for a Monday meeting in Chicago with his top national security team, including Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton, his new national security advisor, General Jim Jones, and Defense Secretary Bob Gates, who is staying on. Gates was in Iraq yesterday, having visited Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf earlier in the week. He signaled again that the troops will be withdrawn by the end of 2011.
The soon-to-be-ex-president made a surprise trip to Iraq today, evidently the last of the Bush era, perhaps to try to declare victory. The actual terms of American withdrawal are, however, acceptable to most of our dear friends in Tehran.
Still no word on a revamped Detroit deal.
In other action, Obama’s general election opponent, John McCain, defended Obama this morning on ABC’s This Week from RNC efforts to link him to the Blago scandal. He said that he’s confident that any relevant information on their relationship will be revealed.
“I think that the Obama campaign should and will give all information necessary. You know, in all due respect to the Republican National Committee, and anybody, right now, I think we should try to be working constructively together.”
Defense Secretary Bob Gates, at a gathering of Persian Gulf leaders in Bahrain, warned that opponents should not test the new president.
** OBAMA TODAY — SATURDAY. President-elect Barack Obama holds private talks in Chicago. He’s considering a bigger stimulus, far larger than the two-year, half-trillion-dollar plan under consideration two weeks ago, according to people familiar with the team’s thinking.The president-elect is expected to be briefed on the broad parameters of the plan next week, with aides still hoping for Congress to pass a bill by the time Mr. Obama takes office Jan. 20.
With the unemployment rate now expected to hit 9% without aggressive intervention, Obama aides and advisers have set $600 billion over two years as “a very low-end estimate,” one person familiar with the matter said. The final number is expected to be significantly higher, possibly between $700 billion and $1 trillion over two years.
Obama is also prepping for a Monday meeting in Chicago with his top national security team, including Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton and the new national security advisor, General Jim Jones, who doesn’t need Senate approval. Defense Secretary Bob Gates, who is staying on, is in Iraq today, having visited Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf earlier in the week.
Here’s Obama’s weekly video/radio address, excerpted: Earlier this week, we learned that the number of Americans filing their first claim for unemployment insurance rose to a nearly 30-year high. This news reflects the pain that’s been rippling across our entire economy. Jobs are being cut. Wages are being slashed. Credit is tight and people can’t get loans. In cities and towns all across this country, families enter a holiday season with unease and uncertainty.
To end this economic crisis, we must end the mortgage crisis where it began. This all started when Americans took out mortgages they couldn’t afford. Some were reckless, aware of the risks they were accepting, but many were innocent, tricked by lenders out to make a quick buck. With banks creating securities they could not value, and regulators looking the other way, the problem began infecting the whole economy, leading to the crisis we’re now facing. One in ten families who owns a home is now in some form of distress, the most ever recorded. This is deeply troubling. It not only shakes the foundation of our economy, but the foundation of the American Dream. …
To stem the rising tide of foreclosures and strengthen our economy, I’ve asked my economic team to develop a bold plan that will dramatically increase the number of families who can stay in their homes. But this plan will only work with a comprehensive, coordinated federal effort to make it a reality. We need every part of our government working together — from the Treasury Department to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the agency that protects the money you’ve put in the bank. And few will be more essential to this effort than the Department of Housing and Urban Development. …
That is why we cannot keep doing things the old Washington way. We cannot keep throwing money at the problem, hoping for a different result. We need to approach the old challenge of affordable housing with new energy, new ideas, and a new, efficient style of leadership. We need to understand that the old ways of looking at our cities just won’t do. That means promoting cities as the backbone of regional growth by not only solving the problems in our cities, but seizing the opportunities in our growing suburbs, exurbs, and metropolitan areas. No one knows this better than the outstanding public servant I am announcing today as our next Secretary of Housing and Urban Development — Shaun Donovan.
As Commissioner of Housing Preservation and Development in New York City, Shaun has led the effort to create the largest housing plan in the nation, helping hundreds of thousands of our citizens buy or rent their homes. Prior to joining Mayor Bloomberg’s administration, Shaun worked both in business, where he was responsible for affordable housing investments, and at one of our nation’s top universities, where he researched and wrote about housing issues. This appointment represents something of a homecoming for Shaun, who worked at HUD in the Clinton administration, leading an effort to help make housing affordable for nearly two million Americans. Trained as an architect, Shaun understands housing down to how homes are designed, built, and wired. …
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in LA this weekend.
Schwarzenegger will participate in the 27th Annual Miracle on 1st Street Christmas Toy Giveaway at the Hollenbeck Youth Center in East Los Angeles at 9:15 AM.
** HAPPY THANKSGIVING, MR. PRESIDENT-ELECT!While Barack Obama promised “a new and brighter day yet to come” in his Thanksgiving address, an old and darker day yet to leave reminds that events — and perhaps political fate itself — can turn on a dime in presidential politics. …
For a political operation that prefers to focus on its preferences, it’s a sharp reminder to Team Obama that the presidency can be every bit as reactive as it is proactive. … From my November 28th Huffington Post column.
** 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 new 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, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, 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.
Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. After crashing over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, crude oil closed on Friday at $46.28 per barrel. This is above the four-year low of $40.89 per barrel reached last Friday. Energy markets are closed on the weekend
The drop of $101 per barrel since the record high over the summer comes on acknowledgment that the weak US economy will cut future demand and on the easing of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. It is clear that that, contrary to much chatter, neither the US nor Israel is about to launch a strike against Iran. And the Russian war with Georgia, confounding much speculation and reporting to the contrary, actually decreased the geopolitical risk premium in the oil market.
President-elect Barack Obama appointed Tom Daschle secretary of health and answered questions about the Blago scandal yesterday in Chicago.
** LATEST LAT.LA Observed calls on LA philanthropists to save the Los Angeles Times and other conventional Los Angeles properties. Hint: Way too much overhead, absent insight per dollar.
** JAPAN ENDS IRAQ MISSION. Japan today began closing down its operations in Iraq. All personnel from the land of the rising sun will have been withdrawn by March 2009. To neoconservative friends … it’s over.
** FRANKEN GETS A BREAK. Al Franken’s chances of winning Minnesota’s Senate seat are better with the state’s canvassing board saying that uncounted absentee ballots should be counted. It’s a blow to GOP incumbent Norm Coleman. Franken is barely behind. Winning this race would give the Democrats an eight seat gain in the Senate.
** LAT: VILLINES SECRETLY BACKED CAR TAX HIKE.Now this is interesting. It sees Assembly Minority Leader Mike Villines secretly backed an increase in California’s vehicle license fee, or car tax. With an eye to pinning the hike on Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
In private negotiations over the state’s budget crisis, a top Republican legislator has broached the most dreaded idea in GOP circles: taxes.
The leader of the Assembly’s Republicans, Mike Villines of Clovis, has publicly maintained the GOP’s hard line against any tax increases. But last month, he volunteered to other legislative leaders and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that he might support an increase in the vehicle license fee and persuade other GOP lawmakers to go along, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions.
Two of the sources were in the budget meeting where Villines spoke, in the governor’s office on the first floor of the Capitol. …
The Assembly member, a Republican, said Villines indicated that hiking vehicle fees was preferable to raising the state sales tax, as Schwarzenegger has proposed.
The car fee would bring in more money, Villines said, and Schwarzenegger would take much of the political heat for his reversal on it, allowing GOP lawmakers to “hang it around his neck,” the source recounted.
As readers know, Villines earlier this week presented a list of demands, mostly unrelated to the state’s chronic fiscal crisis, before even considering a compromise.
** BIG BACKING FOR OBAMA PLAN.A new poll shows big backing for the president-elect’s massive infrastructure plan. His plan is to create 2.5 million jobs in America through massive infrastructure projects including rebuilding roads and bridges, modernizing schools, and developing renewable energy sources.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that Americans overall think the plan will be a good thing for the struggling economy. Sixty percent (60%) of adults favor the mega-infrastructure plan, while 24% are opposed. Another 16% are undecided. Even a third of Republicans (34%) are in favor of the plan, along with 83% of Democrats and 61% of unaffiliated voters.
** OBAMA STATEMENT ON DETROIT BILL COLLAPSE. “I am disappointed that the Senate could not reach agreement on a short-term plan for the auto industry. I share the frustration of so many about the decades of mismanagement in this industry that has helped deliver the current crisis. Those bad practices cannot be rewarded or continued. But I also know that millions of American jobs rely directly or indirectly on a viable auto industry, and that the beginnings of reform are at hand. The revival of our economy as a whole should not be a partisan issue. So I commend those in Congress as well as the Administration who tried valiantly to forge a compromise. My hope is that the Administration and the Congress will still find a way to give the industry the temporary assistance it needs while demanding the long-term restructuring that is absolutely required.”
** CALIFORNIA’S CLIMATE CHANGE PLAN ADOPTED. The state Air Resources Board yesterday adopted a plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Highlights include 85% of the reduction to come via a cap-and-trade program, 33% of electric power to be renewable energy, the state’s tailpipe emissions law ust be approved by the feds. The plan goes into effect in 2011.
** OBAMA TODAY. President-elect Barack Obama holds private talks in Chicago. Yesterday he called on the governor of Illinois to resign for trying to sell his Senate seat. The governor was very unfriendly toward Obama, saying he doesn’t “play ball,” on the FBI tapes.
Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden are following the Detroit bail-out sitation, which collapsed last night in the Senate.
There’s a good chance the White Hose will relent and use TARP money for a bridge loan to Detroit car companies.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger holds private talks in the Capitol today.
At 11:30 AM, he joins elected officials from around the state to launch Bank on California, making California the first state in the nation to launch a program designed to help working Californians without checking or savings accounts open starter accounts. Former President Bill Clinton, who was originally expected, will deliver a video message.
** HAPPY THANKSGIVING, MR. PRESIDENT-ELECT!While Barack Obama promised “a new and brighter day yet to come” in his Thanksgiving address, an old and darker day yet to leave reminds that events — and perhaps political fate itself — can turn on a dime in presidential politics. …
For a political operation that prefers to focus on its preferences, it’s a sharp reminder to Team Obama that the presidency can be every bit as reactive as it is proactive. … From my November 28th Huffington Post column.
** 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 new 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, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, 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.
Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. After crashing over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, crude oil is trading between $45 and $46 per barrel. This is above the four-year low of $40.89 per barrel reached on Friday.
The drop of $102 per barrel since the record high over the summer comes on acknowledgment that the weak US economy will cut future demand and on the easing of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. It is clear that that, contrary to much chatter, neither the US nor Israel is about to launch a strike against Iran. And the Russian war with Georgia, confounding much speculation and reporting to the contrary, actually decreased the geopolitical risk premium in the oil market.
Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, campaigning last month in Colorado, is expected to be appointed as secretary of health and human services today.
** TOM HAYDEN IS 69. The very well-known ’60s SDS anti-war leader Tom Hayden is 69 today. Hayden served 18 years as a California state legislator – 10 in the Assembly and eight in the Senate – chairing committees on labor and education. The state didn’t go down the drain …
** CALIFORNIA: BIG 5 CRASH. Okay, you saw my new piece called “California Cracking,” linked below, and now we have a new thing. Today’s confab of the state’s governor and legislative leaders didn’t go so very well. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called out the various folks on the legislative front. The GOP leaders — who well over a year on have yet to present anything of note in this crisis — didn’t take it well. Well, even worse than their Democratic counterparts. Later, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass made the following statement after Republican leaders refused to consider any new revenue solutions in Big 5 budget negotiations: “They said that they came up here because of what they believed in and they believed that there should never be a tax increase. All of us came up here for what we believed in. I came up here to make sure that I would protect programs that now I have to recognize have to be cut. We all have to do things that we never thought we would do because California is in a catastrophic situation.”
Hey, whatever, right?
NWN. All good news, all the time …
** SENATE G.O.P. KILLS DETROIT PLAN. Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell today killed the Detroit bail-out plan worked out between Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Bush. He says he doesn’t want to reward “failure.” Which does not explain his backing of the massively larger Wall Street bail-out. Now we’ll see if all three of the Big 3 make to the end of this presidency.
Which raises a question. Has the Senate minority leader thought through the meaning of Detroit going belly up during a Republican presidency? The party will never escape that taint, if it happens.
In January, Pelosi will have seven more senators — or eight — to work with. If Detroit makes it that far.
** VERY HIGH APPROVAL FOR OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION. The new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows the president-elect looking very good with the voters.
Overall, a majority of Americans are confident in Mr. Obama’s ability to govern and unify the country, with many who didn’t vote for him now seeing him in a positive light. The poll found that 73% of adults approve of the way he is handling the transition and his preparations for becoming president. … Polling indicates that the nation is more unified around Mr. Obama than it was for either Bill Clinton in 1992 or George W. Bush in 2000. Americans say the challenges, too, are greater, with 77% of those surveyed predicting Mr. Obama will face bigger problems than most recent presidents have.
So far, Americans are buoyed. Mr. Obama is viewed favorably by more Americans than ever, and three of four say they can relate to him as their president. … Much of the warmth toward Mr. Obama stems from frustration with the status quo, the poll suggests. Nearly half of those surveyed said 2008 will go down as one of the worst years in U.S. history — 20 percentage points higher than the poll has found in past years. And 90% of Americans say the economy has gotten worse in the past 12 months. …
The survey also offers a final report card on Mr. Bush, who leaves office with near-record-low popularity. Just 18% say they are going to miss him when he is gone, half the number Mr. Clinton recorded on his way out of office. Asked to compare Mr. Bush with the past several presidents, half of those surveyed said he will go down as worse than most.
** OBAMA TODAY. President-elect Barack Obama has private talks today in Chicago. At 8 AM Pacific, he holds a press conference on “the future of the nation’s health care system.” He’s expected to announce the nomination of Senator Daschle as Health and Human Services Secretary.
Then he will get a lot of questions about the Blago mess.
The president-elect will also meet with former Secretaries of State James Baker and Warren Christopher, chairmen of the National War Powers Commission, at their request.
On the green appointments front — they were to have been revealed after the Al Gore event — it looks like they won’t be announced till next week. The favorites? Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Director Steven Chu as energy secretary, ex-EPA chief Carol Browner, a Gore favorite, as head of a new National Energy Council, and LA Deputy Mayor Nancy Sutley, the first openly gay or lesbian appointee with the new crew, as head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
Chu is a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, ex-head of the Stanford physics department and a champion of renewable energy research and developent.
Vice President-elect Joe Biden has a long working breakfast in Washington with Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton and the new national security advisor — who does not need Senate approval — General Jim Jones.
Jesse Jackson, Jr. in Chicago’s Grant Park on Election Day. He’s swept up in the Illinois crisis, as one Senate contender who might have played along with Blago, which he denies.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger holds private talks in the Capitol today.
Then he holds a Capitol press conference at 2 PM Pacific to appoint a new commission on California’s fiscal structure.
** OBAMA’S NEW POWER TROIKA FACES CRISES OLD AND NEW.Well, so much for the notion, constantly bruited about by the fantasists of the far right, that Barack Obama was the most radical major presidential candidate in history. If his top economic management team hadn’t disabused them of that nonsense, his national security leadership surely does.
Does this mean that Obama was a closet center-rightist, as some of the unintentional comedians performing on Fox News, not recognizing the irony, now claim?
Or is Obama forging a new center in American politics with refugees from the failed Bush/Cheney era? …
But it will be up to the trio that were nowhere near right from the start with Barack Obama to handle the emerging crisis springing from the terrorist siege of Mumbai, which I expected in this Huffington Post piece last week, along with other crises centering on Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Iran, and Russia. … From my December 3rd column.
** HAPPY THANKSGIVING, MR. PRESIDENT-ELECT!While Barack Obama promised “a new and brighter day yet to come” in his Thanksgiving address, an old and darker day yet to leave reminds that events — and perhaps political fate itself — can turn on a dime in presidential politics. …
For a political operation that prefers to focus on its preferences, it’s a sharp reminder to Team Obama that the presidency can be every bit as reactive as it is proactive. … From my November 28th Huffington Post column.
** 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 new 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, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, 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.
Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. After crashing over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, crude oil is trading between $45 and $46 per barrel. This is above the four-year low of $40.89 per barrel reached on Friday.
The drop of $102 per barrel since the record high over the summer comes on acknowledgment that the weak US economy will cut future demand and on the easing of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. It is clear that that, contrary to much chatter, neither the US nor Israel is about to launch a strike against Iran. And the Russian war with Georgia, confounding much speculation and reporting to the contrary, actually decreased the geopolitical risk premium in the oil market.
President-elect Barack Obama met with Nobel Peace Prize-winner and former Vice President Al Gore yesterday in Chicago to discuss energy policy.
** SCHWARZENEGGER SAYS CALIFORNIA FACES FISCAL “ARMAGEDDON,” STARTS CLOCK. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, answering Assebly Minority Leader Mike Villines’ list of non-fiscal demands before “considering” a compromise, at a swiftly called press conference late in the morning, said that California’s budget is nearing $15 billion out of balance. He unveiled a bdget clock, showing the cost of legislative inaction on a second-by-second basis.
** JINDAL NOT A CANDIDATE FOR 2012. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal says he won’t try for the GOP presidential nod in 2012, instead opting to go again for governor in 2011. The governor is a rising star in GOP ranks. However, there are at least two other strong social conservatives likely going in 2012, Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin.
** GIBBS: HASTA LA VISTA, BLAGO. Robert Gibbs, the president-elect’s press secretary, said: “The President-elect agrees with Lt. Gov. Quinn and many others that under the current circumstances it is difficult for the governor to effectively do his job and serve the people of Illinois.”
#1. “If [Hillary Clinton] gets a race against John Edwards and Barack Obama, she’s going to be the nominee. Gore is the only threat to her, then. … Barack Obama is not going to beat Hillary Clinton in a single Democratic primary. I’ll predict that right now.” —William Kristol, Fox News Sunday, Dec. 17, 2006
Weekly Standard editor and New York Times columnist William Kristol was hardly alone in thinking that the Democratic primary was Clinton’s to lose, but it takes a special kind of self-confidence to make a declaration this sweeping more than a year before the first Iowa caucus was held. After Iowa, Kristol lurched to the other extreme, declaring that Clinton would lose New Hampshire and that “There will be no Clinton Restoration.” It’s also worth pointing out that this second wildly premature prediction was made in a Times column titled, “President Mike Huckabee?” The Times is currently rumored to be looking for his replacement.
#4. “[A]nyone who says we’re in a recession, or heading into one—especially the worst one since the Great Depression—is making up his own private definition of ‘recession.’” —Donald Luskin, The Washington Post, Sept. 14, 2008
#9. “It starts with the taking over of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which has already happened. It goes on to the destruction of the Georgian armed forces, which is now happening. The third [development] will probably be the replacement of the elected government, which is pro-Western, with a puppet government, which will probably follow in a week or two.” —Charles Krauthammer, Fox News, Aug. 11, 2008
Krauthammer immediately followed this inaccurate forecast (Russia eventually agreed to a cease-fire and pulled out its troops several weeks later, leaving Mikheil Saakashvili’s government in place) by predicting that Ukraine would be next on Russia’s hit list and suggesting that the United States station troops there. As for Saakashvili, his approval rating was at 76 percent in September.
** DETROIT DEAL VOTE TODAY? A short-term bailout for Detroit automakers, $15 billion worth, pushed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others, may come to a vote today.
The White House and congressional Democrats sought to quickly finalize an agreement in principle struck Tuesday night on conditions for providing $15 billion in low-interest loans to avert a threatened industry collapse if one or more of “The Big Three” U.S. automakers were to fail. But some issues remained unresolved, apparently including a Democratic demand that automakers drop lawsuits against states seeking to reduce tailpipe pollution.
This is only a stopgap, however, to keep Detroit afloat. Real answers will have to come next year.
Gov. Ted Strickland’s job approval rating has fallen to 54 – 25 percent, but he remains in strong position for re-election, while U.S. Sen. George Voinovich faces a tougher 2010 fight for a third term, with 36 percent wanting to give him another term and 35 percent backing an unnamed Democratic candidate, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.
Strickland is a Democrat. Voinovich is an ex-Ohio governor.
Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich the day before his arrest by the FBI: “If anybody wants to tape my conversations, go right ahead.”
** OBAMA TODAY. President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden hold private talks today in Chicago. They are finalizing the picks for top green policy posts. There are no scheduled public events.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger holds private talks in the Capitol today. He has no scheduled public events.
Schwarzenegger needs to figure out how to get talks on California’s chronic budget crisis, now very serious, unstuck. Assembly Minority Leader Mike Villines yesterday released a list of demands that must be met — mostly unrelated to the fiscal crisis, sort of a conservative business wish list on economic and environmental matters — before he will consider revenues, which are obviously needed as part of the answer.
There’s a certain lack of seriousness, let’s say, about the Republican stance. Since this has been going on for over a year and there’s no alternative GOP budget and no agreement to a compromise.
** OBAMA’S NEW POWER TROIKA FACES CRISES OLD AND NEW.Well, so much for the notion, constantly bruited about by the fantasists of the far right, that Barack Obama was the most radical major presidential candidate in history. If his top economic management team hadn’t disabused them of that nonsense, his national security leadership surely does.
Does this mean that Obama was a closet center-rightist, as some of the unintentional comedians performing on Fox News, not recognizing the irony, now claim?
Or is Obama forging a new center in American politics with refugees from the failed Bush/Cheney era? …
But it will be up to the trio that were nowhere near right from the start with Barack Obama to handle the emerging crisis springing from the terrorist siege of Mumbai, which I expected in this Huffington Post piece last week, along with other crises centering on Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Iran, and Russia. … From my Wednesday column.
** HAPPY THANKSGIVING, MR. PRESIDENT-ELECT!While Barack Obama promised “a new and brighter day yet to come” in his Thanksgiving address, an old and darker day yet to leave reminds that events — and perhaps political fate itself — can turn on a dime in presidential politics. …
For a political operation that prefers to focus on its preferences, it’s a sharp reminder to Team Obama that the presidency can be every bit as reactive as it is proactive. … From my November 28th Huffington Post column.
** 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 new 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, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, 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.
Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. After crashing over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, crude oil is trading around $44 per barrel. This is above the four-year low of $40.89 per barrel reached on Friday.
The drop of $104 per barrel since the record high over the summer comes on acknowledgment that the weak US economy will cut future demand and on the easing of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. It is clear that that, contrary to much chatter, neither the US nor Israel is about to launch a strike against Iran. And the Russian war with Georgia, confounding much speculation and reporting to the contrary, actually decreased the geopolitical risk premium in the oil market.
President-elect Barack Obama talks about Iran and Russia on the December 7th edition of Meet the Press.
** OBAMA MEETS WITH GORE, CONFIRMS CLIMATE COMMITMENT. The president-elect talked with Nobel Peace Prize-winner Al Gore today in Chicago and, as he did a few weeks ago with his video address to Governor Arnold’s Schwarzenegger’s global climate change summit in LA, reiterated his pledge for big action to cut greenhouse gases.
“The purpose of this meeting today was to listen and learn from Vice President Al Gore on the extraordinary work that he has done around the issue of climate change. All three of us are in aggreeent that the time for delay is over. The time for denial is over. We all believe what the scientists have been telling us for years now, that this is a matter of urgency and national security, and it has to be dealt with in a serious way. That is what I intend my administration to do.”
Obaa did not announce appointments today, and the event was overshadowed by the arrest of Illinois’ governor on charges of trying to sell the president-elect’s now vacated Senate seat.
** ARNOLD BIOGRAPHER ON CAROLINE KENNEDY. Larry Leamer, who I know rather well and who wrote a key biography of Arnold Schwarzenegger, along with other key books on the Kennedys, has an interesting Huffington Post piece on Caroline Kennedy. He thinks she wants the Senate appointment to replace Hillary Clinton, but won’t get it due to New York politics. My sources, however, tell me she has a good shot.
Caroline Kennedy does nothing publicly without thought and calculation. Her name is being bandied about as the new Junior Senator from New York State for only one reason. She is seriously interested in having Governor Paterson appoint her to Hillary Clinton’s seat. But she is doing it in such a way that if it doesn’t work out, she will be able to say that it was all somebody else’s doing.
Senator Ted Kennedy probably has less than a year left to live. When he passes, it will be an enorous event for the nation. He’s pushing hard for his niece’s appointent. I believe the president-elect prefers it, as well.
Caroline Kennedy has a great deal of power over the American subconscious. I met her at her the first Schwarzenegger Inaugural. She is rather shy, althogh nonetheless strong. She was a strong backer of the president-elect’s bid.
NOTE: My Internet service has been very spotty for the past few weeks. Early today it went out entirely for a few hours, just as I was about to publish NWN. This is probably not the time to invest in Earthlink, which seems to be doing too much cost-cutting, although I do get to have long talks with nice people in India.
** ILLINOIS SHOCKER.Governor Rod Blagoevich was arrested early today for allegedly trying to sell the president-elect’s vacated seat in the Senate. He has sole power of appointment. Which will cast his pick beneath a big shadow. The governor has been in hot water for a long time. If he goes to prison, there will be two ex-Illinois governors in the clink, the other being George Ryan.
** OBAMA TODAY. President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Biden talk with Nobel Peace Prize -winner and ex-Vice President Al Gore today in Chicago. Gore won the 2000 presidential election in terms of actual votes cast.
Obama is getting set to finalize his picks for the green policy posts.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger holds private talks in the Capitol today. He gives out 42 Medals of Valor to state staffers this afternoon.
Then, at 5:15 PM Pacific, he and First Lady Maria Shriver host the yearly lighting of the Capitol Christmas Tree today.
** OBAMA’S NEW POWER TROIKA FACES CRISES OLD AND NEW.Well, so much for the notion, constantly bruited about by the fantasists of the far right, that Barack Obama was the most radical major presidential candidate in history. If his top economic management team hadn’t disabused them of that nonsense, his national security leadership surely does.
Does this mean that Obama was a closet center-rightist, as some of the unintentional comedians performing on Fox News, not recognizing the irony, now claim?
Or is Obama forging a new center in American politics with refugees from the failed Bush/Cheney era? …
But it will be up to the trio that were nowhere near right from the start with Barack Obama to handle the emerging crisis springing from the terrorist siege of Mumbai, which I expected in this Huffington Post piece last week, along with other crises centering on Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Iran, and Russia. … From my Wednesday column.
** HAPPY THANKSGIVING, MR. PRESIDENT-ELECT!While Barack Obama promised “a new and brighter day yet to come” in his Thanksgiving address, an old and darker day yet to leave reminds that events — and perhaps political fate itself — can turn on a dime in presidential politics. …
For a political operation that prefers to focus on its preferences, it’s a sharp reminder to Team Obama that the presidency can be every bit as reactive as it is proactive. … From my November 28th Huffington Post column.
** 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 new 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, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, 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.
Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. After crashing over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, crude oil is trading around $44 per barrel. This is above the four-year low of $40.89 per barrel reached on Friday.
The drop of $104 per barrel since the record high over the summer comes on acknowledgment that the weak US economy will cut future demand and on the easing of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. It is clear that that, contrary to much chatter, neither the US nor Israel is about to launch a strike against Iran. And the Russian war with Georgia, confounding much speculation and reporting to the contrary, actually decreased the geopolitical risk premium in the oil market.
President-elect Barack Obama appointed General Eric Shinseki as secretary of veterans affairs on Pearl Harbor Day.
** A DEAL FOR DETROIT? There’s a possible deal to get Detroit out of the ditch. At least for a little while. Since the White House refuses to use the already approved TARP funds to save Detroit, Congress is looking to delve into an already existing $15 million pot, originally intended to help Detroit cars be greener. The deal may happen later today. And the feds and labor may get 20% stakes in the reeling companies.
** SCHWARZENEGGER TALKS TO CLIMATE SUMMIT IN POLAND … VIA VIDEO. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today addressed participants in the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznań, Poland. This is the last big confab prior to next year’s try for a Copenhagen Accord to replace the Kyoto Accord. Schwarzenegger described California’s plan, an emerging model for others around the world. He dispatched top state officials to the talks, as I reported the other day.
** L.A. TIMES’ PARENT CORPORATION FILES. The other shoe dropped this morning when the Tribune Corp., the Chicago-based parent of the West’s largest newspaper and other media properties, as LA Observed notes, filed for bankruptcy.
The corporation was very heavily leveraged after last year’s take-over. The parent company of the LA Times and KTLA has nearly $13 billion in debt and $7.6 billion in assets, according to a court filing. The newspaper has been significantly downsizing for awhile now, even before this.
The Times was known in its heyday as the “Velvet Coffin.” Writers often weren’t asked to do a lot. There were those who wrote only a few pieces a year. Those days, which still existed in the ’90s, are long gone now. In recent years, the paper’s reach, while still great, has declined sharply. The slashing approach taken by waves of management groups hasn’t helped.
Here are excerpts of chairman and CEO Sam Zell’s statement to the staffs at the LA Times and KTLA, as well as other Tribune properties.
From: Talk to Sam
Sent: Monday, December 08, 2008 10:53 AM
Subject: Today’s Announcement
We just announced that Tribune is restructuring its debt under Chapter 11 protection. I’m sure you saw the speculative coverage last night and this morning. I would have preferred everyone get the news from me first, but since our debt is publicly traded, we had to keep this decision confidential until we had a formal board decision. The Cubs franchise is not part of the filing.
Most importantly, I want to stress that we will continue to operate our business as usual. That includes meeting payroll and covering benefits (such as healthcare, disability and others), and paying vendors for all goods and services they provide to us going forward. …
You are also most likely wondering about the other aspects of your compensation. The 401(k) is unaffected by the filing, and in general, the existing benefits in the pension and cash balance plans are also unaffected by the filing. The ESOP is part of the ownership structure, so its value and role long-term will be determined in the restructuring. We believe the structure is a valuable asset to the company and that there are strong reasons to preserve it.
So, how did we get here? It has been, to say the least, the perfect storm. A precipitous decline in revenue and a tough economy have coupled with a credit crisis, making it extremely difficult to support our debt. All of our major advertising categories have been dramatically impacted.
By restructuring our debt, we will reduce the pressure on the company’s operating businesses, enabling us to pursue our vision of creating a sustainable, cutting-edge media company that is valued by our readers, viewers, and advertisers, and that plays a vital role in the communities we serve. …
** CONFIDENCE HIGH IN PRESIDENT-ELECT. A Gallup poll released at the end of last week shows high confidence in President-elect Barack Obama’s ability to be a good president. 65% of the voters have that confidence. The only group in which confidence in the Big O has gone down is liberal voters. From 91% the prior week to a still stratospheric 84%.
The Morning Column: MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK
The fastest presidential transition I can recall rockets forward this week with picks expected on key energy and environmental posts as well as the trade representative, and with help expected for Detroit. On the geopolitical front, the India/Pakistan crisis goes on in the wake of the Thanksgiving terror attacks. However, one crisis point abates as NATO backs away from eastward expansion. And in California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger tries anew on the state’s chronic budget crisis while the new Legislature is in learning mode.
President-elect Barack Obama was clear in yesterday’s TV appearance that Detroit needs to be helped and that the nation’s economic crisis will get worse before it gets better. What that will be, however, at least for now on Detroit, looks like a stopgap. We’ll see that plan this week.
The new president is getting criticized by part of the left for not appointing enough liberals. We’ll see if that abates this week.
There is a lot of activity on the India/Pakistan crisis. And plenty of conflicting signals as to how it will be resolved. That will get a lot of attention this week. NWN will keep a close eye on it.
One of the new president’s headaches ay lessen with NATO stalling the plan to expand to Russia’s borders We’ll see if there is a shift in Moscow’s frosty stance this week.
As for California’s deepening fiscal woes, well, this is a story that keeps writing itself. Over and over again.
NATO has stalled its eastward expansion.
** OBAMA TODAY. President-elect Barack Obama holds private talks today in Chicago and Vice President-elect Biden holds private talks in Washington. Neither has any public events. The president-elect is finalizing top picks for green posts.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, with federal, state and local officials from the US and Mexico, holds a press conference to announce the issuance of a federal permit that clears the way to create a new California-Mexico border crossing in Otay Mesa.
Granted by the US Department of State, the federal permit is intended to accommodate projected trade growth and improve economic activity between this region and other parts of the world. This is the first time in over a decade that a border crossing has opened between California and Baja California, Mexico.
** OBAMA’S NEW POWER TROIKA FACES CRISES OLD AND NEW.Well, so much for the notion, constantly bruited about by the fantasists of the far right, that Barack Obama was the most radical major presidential candidate in history. If his top economic management team hadn’t disabused them of that nonsense, his national security leadership surely does.
Does this mean that Obama was a closet center-rightist, as some of the unintentional comedians performing on Fox News, not recognizing the irony, now claim?
Or is Obama forging a new center in American politics with refugees from the failed Bush/Cheney era? …
But it will be up to the trio that were nowhere near right from the start with Barack Obama to handle the emerging crisis springing from the terrorist siege of Mumbai, which I expected in this Huffington Post piece last week, along with other crises centering on Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Iran, and Russia. … From my Wednesday column.
** HAPPY THANKSGIVING, MR. PRESIDENT-ELECT!While Barack Obama promised “a new and brighter day yet to come” in his Thanksgiving address, an old and darker day yet to leave reminds that events — and perhaps political fate itself — can turn on a dime in presidential politics. …
For a political operation that prefers to focus on its preferences, it’s a sharp reminder to Team Obama that the presidency can be every bit as reactive as it is proactive. … From my November 28th Huffington Post column.
** 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 new 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, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, 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.
Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. After crashing over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, crude oil is trading at $44 per barrel. This is above the four-year low of $40.89 per barrel reached on Friday.
The drop of $103 per barrel since the record high over the summer comes on acknowledgment that the weak US economy will cut future demand and on the easing of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. It is clear that that, contrary to much chatter, neither the US nor Israel is about to launch a strike against Iran. And the Russian war with Georgia, confounding much speculation and reporting to the contrary, actually decreased the geopolitical risk premium in the oil market.
** CNN POLL ON 2012 GOP PRESIDENTIAL RACE.A brand-new CNN poll shows Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin as the early leaders for the GOP presidential noination. … Huckabee tops the list. Thirty-four percent of Republicans and independent voters who lean towards the GOP say they are very likely to support the former Arkansas governor if he were to become their party’s nominee in 2012. Huckabee surprised many by winning this year’s Republican caucuses in Iowa and seven other contests before ending his run in March.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, John McCain’s running mate in this year’s election, draws nearly as much support: 32 percent of those polled said they would get behind a Palin nomination.
It’s interesting to note that the two top candidates are pro-creationist and anti-abortionist.
** OBAMA TODAY — SUNDAY. President-elect Barack Obama appears as the sole guest on Meet ThePress and holds a press conference in Chicago to commemorate the 67th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. He also appoints retired General Eric Shinseki, ex-chief of staff of the US Army, as secretary of veterans affairs, as reported here yesterday.
The Washington Post reports: Obama confirmed that Shinseki was his choice In an exclusive interview with NBC News, taped for broadcast on “Meet the Press.” Obama called Shinseki “exactly the right person who is going to be able to make sure that we honor our troops when they come home.”
Shinseki, a 38-year veteran, is best known for his four years as Army chief of staff, and in particular his response to congressional questioning in February 2003 about troop levels necessary to protect a presumed military victory in Iraq.
Shinseki told the Senate Armed Services Committee that “something on the order of several hundred thousand soldiers” could be necessary, an assessment that was at odds with the announced determination of Pentagon leaders. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld reacted by telling reporters that Shinseki’s estimate “will prove to be high,” and Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz called the assessment “way off the mark.”
Three years later, Gen. John P. Abizaid, commander of U.S. Central Command and the chief architect of U.S. military strategy in Iraq, told the same Senate committee, “General Shinseki was right.” And in January 2007, President Bush ordered tens of thousands of U.S. troops back into Iraq to stabilize and secure the country.
Obama concurred with Abizaid’s view in the “Meet the Press” interview, saying of Shinseki, “He was right.”
Shinseki retired in the summer of 2003, shortly after the fall of Baghdad. Neither Rumsfeld nor Wolfowitz attended his farewell ceremony.
Notably Shinseki led the Army at the same time that Obama’s nominee as national security adviser, then-Marine commandant Gen. James L. Jones. Both questioned Wolfowitz’s presumptions, before the war in Iraq commenced, about how the fighting would go, and they argued that Pentagon planning was being too optimistic and should prepare thoroughly for worst-case scenarios.
President-elect Barack Obama, in his weekly video/radio address, vows a massive new infrastructure investment program that will create millions of jobs.
** OBAMA TO NAME ERIC SHINSEKI VETERANS AFFAIRS SECRETARY ON PEARL HARBOR DAY. General Erick Shinseki, who retired as chief of staff of the US Army in 2003, will be named on Sunday by President-elect Barack Obama as US secretary of veterans affairs. Obama was already scheduled to hold a press conference in commemoration of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Shinseki is the first Japanse-American to serve on the Joint Cheifs of Staff. The West Pointer, like Obama a native of Hawaii, is also the first Asian-American to serve in that capacity.
Shinseki is well-known for having contradicted then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, testifying before the US Senate prior to the invasion of Iraq that far more troops would be needed to secure the country. Rumsfeld and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, another architect of the Iraq War, publicly rebuked Shinseki, insisting that the job could be done with the number of troops they had in mind. Shinseki was right, they were wrong.
Shinsek has won seven awards of the Distinguished Service Medal. As a combat officer in Vietnam, he was three times awarded the Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts.
The multiple levels of symbolism in this appointment should be apparent.
** OBAMA TODAY — SATURDAY. President-elect Barack Obama is in private meetings and discussion in Chicago. He’s going over appointments on energy and the environment and contemplating having a national energy council and/or a national climate czar.
Obama has no scheduled public appearances today. On Sunday, he appears as the sole guest on Meet ThePress (taping today, host Tom Brokaw’s final appearance) and holds a press conference to commemorate the 67th anniversary of Pearl Harbor.
From Obama’s address, which plays above: We need action – and action now. That is why I have asked my economic team to develop an economic recovery plan for both Wall Street and Main Street that will help save or create at least two and a half million jobs, while rebuilding our infrastructure, improving our schools, reducing our dependence on oil, and saving billions of dollars. …
Today, I am announcing a few key parts of my plan. First, we will launch a massive effort to make public buildings more energy-efficient. Our government now pays the highest energy bill in the world. We need to change that. We need to upgrade our federal buildings by replacing old heating systems and installing efficient light bulbs. That won’t just save you, the American taxpayer, billions of dollars each year. It will put people back to work.
Second, we will create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s. We’ll invest your precious tax dollars in new and smarter ways, and we’ll set a simple rule – use it or lose it. If a state doesn’t act quickly to invest in roads and bridges in their communities, they’ll lose the money.
Third, my economic recovery plan will launch the most sweeping effort to modernize and upgrade school buildings that this country has ever seen. We will repair broken schools, make them energy-efficient, and put new computers in our classrooms. Because to help our children compete in a 21st century economy, we need to send them to 21st century schools.
As we renew our schools and highways, we’ll also renew our information superhighway. It is unacceptable that the United States ranks 15th in the world in broadband adoption. Here, in the country that invented the internet, every child should have the chance to get online, and they’ll get that chance when I’m President – because that’s how we’ll strengthen America’s competitiveness in the world.
In addition to connecting our libraries and schools to the internet, we must also ensure that our hospitals are connected to each other through the internet. That is why the economic recovery plan I’m proposing will help modernize our health care system – and that won’t just save jobs, it will save lives. We will make sure that every doctor’s office and hospital in this country is using cutting edge technology and electronic medical records so that we can cut red tape, prevent medical mistakes, and help save billions of dollars each year.
These are a few parts of the economic recovery plan that I will be rolling out in the coming weeks. When Congress reconvenes in January, I look forward to working with them to pass a plan immediately. We need to act with the urgency this moment demands to save or create at least two and a half million jobs so that the nearly two million Americans who’ve lost them know that they have a future. And that’s exactly what I intend to do as President of the United States.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in private meetings and discussions this weekend, as well as family time, in Los Angeles. He has no publicly scheduled events.
Three million Muslim pilgrims from around the world have gathered in the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia for the annual Hajj.
** OBAMA’S NEW POWER TROIKA FACES CRISES OLD AND NEW.Well, so much for the notion, constantly bruited about by the fantasists of the far right, that Barack Obama was the most radical major presidential candidate in history. If his top economic management team hadn’t disabused them of that nonsense, his national security leadership surely does.
Does this mean that Obama was a closet center-rightist, as some of the unintentional comedians performing on Fox News, not recognizing the irony, now claim?
Or is Obama forging a new center in American politics with refugees from the failed Bush/Cheney era? …
But it will be up to the trio that were nowhere near right from the start with Barack Obama to handle the emerging crisis springing from the terrorist siege of Mumbai, which I expected in this Huffington Post piece last week, along with other crises centering on Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Iran, and Russia. … From my Wednesday column.
** HAPPY THANKSGIVING, MR. PRESIDENT-ELECT!While Barack Obama promised “a new and brighter day yet to come” in his Thanksgiving address, an old and darker day yet to leave reminds that events — and perhaps political fate itself — can turn on a dime in presidential politics. …
For a political operation that prefers to focus on its preferences, it’s a sharp reminder to Team Obama that the presidency can be every bit as reactive as it is proactive. … From my November 28th Huffington Post column.
** SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON: MASTERSTROKE, MOUSETRAP, OR BOTH?Potential Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Masterstroke or mousetrap? Or both? And for whom? … From my November 19th column.
** GLOBAL OBAMA: BIG OPPORTUNITIES, BIGGER CHALLENGES. If he wins, Obama will have the global popularity that no American president has had in a great many years. But what sort of challenges will counter the global opportunity that an Obama presidency might afford America? … From my October 24th Huffington Post column.
TECHNICAL NOTE: The glitch with comments made here using the Microsoft IE 7 browser — all comments appeared as number “1″ — has been fixed.
** 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 new 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, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, 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.
Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. After crashing over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, crude oil closed on Friday at $40.81 per barrel. This is a four-year low. Energy markets are closed on the weekend.
The drop of $107 per barrel since the record high over the summer comes on acknowledgment that the weak US economy will cut future demand and on the easing of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. It is clear that that, contrary to much chatter, neither the US nor Israel is about to launch a strike against Iran. And the Russian war with Georgia, confounding much speculation and reporting to the contrary, actually decreased the geopolitical risk premium in the oil market.
The CEOs of the Big Three US automakers returned to Capitol Hill yesterday in hybrid cars. But it didn’t go much better for them than two weeks ago, when they traveled from Detroit in private jets.
** CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE GOES TO SCHOOL. On Monday afternoon, both houses of the California Legislature will convene in a rare joint session to learn about the state budget. There are dozens of new members who are totally unschooled in the state’s chronic budget crisis. Many would say that some of the veterans aren’t grasping reality, either. The assembled legislators will hear from various budget experts. A wonderful time will be had by all.
** COLEMAN LEADS FRANKEN AFTER MINNESOTA RECOUNT. In that hard-fought Senate race, Republican incumbent Norm Coleman leads comedian Al Franken by 251 votes after the completion of the recount. Now thousands of disputed ballots must be adjudicated.
** PLOUFFE TO WRITE THE BOOK. Obama for President campaign manager David Plouffe, who managed a truly amazing enterprise, will write a book about the campaign. It will be called “The Audacity To Win.” Plouffe will be represented by Obama’s literary agent, Washington lawyer Robert Barnett.
** OBAMA TODAY. President-elect Barack Obama is in private meetings and discussion in Chicago. He has no public events, but will record his weekly address for Saturday. He issued a statement in response to this morning’s new economic statistics, showing that more than half a million jobs — most in 34 years — were lost last month in America. Here’s an excerpt:
Our economy has already lost nearly 2 million jobs during this recession, which is why we need an Economic Recovery Plan that will save or create at least 2.5 million more jobs over two years while we act decisively to maintain the flows of credit on which so many American families and American businesses depend. There are no quick or easy fixes to this crisis, which has been many years in the making, and it’s likely to get worse before it gets better. But now is the time to respond with urgent resolve to put people back to work and get our economy moving again. At the same time, this painful crisis also provides us with an opportunity to transform our economy to improve the lives of ordinary people by rebuilding roads and modernizing schools for our children, investing in clean energy solutions to break our dependence on imported oil, and making an early down payment on the long-term reforms that will grow and strengthen our economy for all Americans for years to come.
Obama is monitoring the hearings on Capitol Hill about a proposed bailout of US automakers. Yesterday’s Senate hearing didn’t go very well for them. Will the House prove more hospitable territory?
Detroit has banked a lot of bad will over the years with its continued refusal to make changes in the face of changing circumstances, environmental, energy, and otherwise, and foreign competition adjusting to those changes. But it’s ironic that these companies are getting far more static than Wall Street, which has gotten vastly more money from the government with relatively few safeguards. And not much in the way of results for the overall economy.
Obama is coming under some pressure from fellow Democrats to do more on the economy now. But he won’t be president for another 46 days yet.
Meanwhile, President Bush has gone largely missing, aside from his new effort to convince us that the US would never have gone to war in Iraq absent the “faulty intelligence” about what turned out to be non-existent WMD. That, of course, is false, as Bush and his allies made plain their determination to invade Iraq as part of a larger design, and manipulated intel for that purpose. And Bush looks worse and worse as a president.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in private meetings and discussions today in Los Angeles. He has no publicly scheduled events.
Schwarzenegger has dispatched a California delegation to the UN climate change conference in Poznan, Poland. This is a follow-up to last year’s meeting in Bali, as leaders from around the world work toward a hoped-for new global accord on greenhouse gases to replace the Kyoto Accord. The final summit will take place next year in Copenhagen.
With UN backing, Schwarzenegger (who addressed the United Nations earlier on climate change at the request of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon) hosted a governors’ global climate summit last month in LA, which featured a video address by President-elect Barack Obama. My report on it is linked to below.
Making the trip to Poland are Environmental Protection Secretary Linda Adams, Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman, climate advisor Margret Kim, Deputy Resources Secretary Tony Brunello, and senior advisor Anthony Eggert. Air Resources Board chair Mary Nichols, most directly involved with the implementation of California’s climate change plan isn’t going; her board is expected to vote next week on the next iteration of the plan.
Schwarzenegger himself won’t be going, though I expect to see him for the final round in Copenhagen next year.
With tensions rising between India and Pakistan following the terrorist siege of Mumbai, people are increasingly fearful in long disputed Kashmir.
** OBAMA’S NEW POWER TROIKA FACES CRISES OLD AND NEW.Well, so much for the notion, constantly bruited about by the fantasists of the far right, that Barack Obama was the most radical major presidential candidate in history. If his top economic management team hadn’t disabused them of that nonsense, his national security leadership surely does.
Does this mean that Obama was a closet center-rightist, as some of the unintentional comedians performing on Fox News, not recognizing the irony, now claim?
Or is Obama forging a new center in American politics with refugees from the failed Bush/Cheney era? …
But it will be up to the trio that were nowhere near right from the start with Barack Obama to handle the emerging crisis springing from the terrorist siege of Mumbai, which I expected in this Huffington Post piece last week, along with other crises centering on Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Iran, and Russia. … From my Wednesday column.
** HAPPY THANKSGIVING, MR. PRESIDENT-ELECT!While Barack Obama promised “a new and brighter day yet to come” in his Thanksgiving address, an old and darker day yet to leave reminds that events — and perhaps political fate itself — can turn on a dime in presidential politics. …
For a political operation that prefers to focus on its preferences, it’s a sharp reminder to Team Obama that the presidency can be every bit as reactive as it is proactive. … From my Friday Huffington Post column.
** SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON: MASTERSTROKE, MOUSETRAP, OR BOTH?Potential Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Masterstroke or mousetrap? Or both? And for whom? … From my November 19th column.
** GLOBAL OBAMA: BIG OPPORTUNITIES, BIGGER CHALLENGES. If he wins, Obama will have the global popularity that no American president has had in a great many years. But what sort of challenges will counter the global opportunity that an Obama presidency might afford America? … From my October 24th Huffington Post column.
TECHNICAL NOTE: The glitch with comments made here using the Microsoft IE 7 browser — all comments appeared as number “1″ — has been fixed.
** 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 new 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, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, 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.
Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. After crashing over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, crude oil is trading down around between $42 and $43 per barrel. This is a three-and-a-half year low.
The drop of $105 per barrel since the record high over the summer comes on acknowledgment that the weak US economy will cut future demand and on the easing of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. It is clear that that, contrary to much chatter, neither the US nor Israel is about to launch a strike against Iran. And the Russian war with Georgia, confounding much speculation and reporting to the contrary, actually decreased the geopolitical risk premium in the oil market.
President-elect Barack Obama yesterday appointed New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson to be US secretary of commerce. Richardson is a former energy secretary and UN ambassador.
** HARDBALL HOST CLOSE IN PENNSYLVANIA SENATE RACE. Hardball host Chris Matthews runs within the margin of error of Republican Senator Arlen Specter, according to a new Rasmussen poll. It’s Specter 46%, Matthews 43%. Matthews, a former top aide to then House Speaker Tip O’Neill and then President Jimmy Carter, is a native Pennsylvanian but lives in Chevy Chase. I saw him in LA two weeks ago. He didn’t sound like he was set on a Senate run. But he’s definitely been making the rounds. Matthews is helped by the great popularity in Pennsylvania of President-elect Barack Obama. Remember when Obama was supposedly dead in Pennsylvania?
** MORE ATTACKS IN INDIA? Some confusing reports today regarding incidents at Indian airports. In one, six gunmen were reportedly shot dead at the main international airport in New Delhi, according to the BBC. A later report said that didn’t happen. In another report, a pair of gunmen fired a few rounds at security personnel from a speeding car. Indian security has been on high alert for the last day in expectation of terrorist attacks on airports.
** BECERRA MEETS WITH OBAMA IN CHICAGO. Los Angeles Congressman Xavier Becerra met in Chicago today with President-elect Barack Obama to discuss the Stanford grad and former state assemblyman, a one-time LA mayoral candidate, joining Obama’s Cabinet as U.S. trade representative. As I reported early in the week, the post appears to be his if he wants it.
** STEVE POIZNER LAUNCHES HIS WEB SITE. California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, a likely Republican candidate for governor, launched his web site this morning. You can see it here at www.stevepoizner.com.
Poizner made a fortune in Silicon Valley with technology allowing the tracking of cell phones. After losing a 2004 race for the state Assembly in a Bay Area district, he was encouraged by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to do more. Schwarzenegger appointed him to the Public Utilities Commission, but Poizner’s financial holdings were too complex to pass muster with regard to potential conflicts of interest, so the two worked together on Schwarzenegger’s unsuccessful 2005 redistricting initiative.
In 2006, Poizner won the post of state insurance commissioner, defeating then Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante, who was beset by problems with his own ties to the insurance industry. A state co-chairman of the McCain campaign, Poizner played a leading role in defeating the term limits reform initiative in this year’s primary and has lined up the endorsement of a majority of the Republicans in the state Legislature. His campaign chairman is the crafty former state Senate Republican leader, Jim Brulte
** MEG WHITMAN LOSES BIG-NAME CONSULTANTS. Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, now exploring a Republican race for governor of California in 2010, has lost two big-name consultants. Steve Schmidt and Adam Mendelsohn have decided to end their professional relationship with her.
Schmidt, who ran the 2004 Bush/Cheney war room, managed Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s landslide re-election campaign in 2006 and served as senior advisor and chief strategist in John McCain’s presidential campaign.
Adam Mendelsohn was deputy chief of staff and communications for Schwarzenegger’s gubernatorial office, and most recently senior political advisor to Schwarzenegger overseeing the successful Prop 11 redistricting reform initiative.
The two, partners in Mercury Public Affairs, cite personal considerations — Schmidt has been in campaign mode since 2004 — and the press of other business, as Schmidt is busy with the governor’s political operations.
Whitman had not previously been involved in public affairs prior to becoming a top official of the Mitt Romney and John McCain presidential campaigns. Romney lost the California primary to McCain, and McCain lost California to Barack Obama, 61% to 37%.
** NEW CALIFORNIA POLL EXAMINES PASSAGE OF GAY MARRIAGE BAN, REDISTRICTING REFORM, AND HIGH-SPEED RAIL INITIATIVES, AND DEFEAT OF PARENTAL NOTIFICATION ON TEEN ABORTION. A new post-election poll by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) examines the tendencies underlying the four ballot initiatives mentioned above.
Among the findings on Prop 8, the ban on same-sex marriages: Evangelical or born-again Christians (85%) were far more likely than others (42%) to vote yes. Three in four Republicans (77%) voted yes, two in three Democrats (65%) voted no, and independents were more closely divided (52% yes, 48% no). Supporters of Republican presidential candidate John McCain were far more likely than those who backed President-elect Barack Obama to vote yes (85% vs. 30%). Latinos (61%) were more likely than whites (50%) to vote yes; and 57 percent of Latinos, Asians, and blacks combined voted yes. (Samples sizes for Asians and blacks are too small to report separately.)
Voters without a college degree (62%) were far more likely than college graduates (43%) to vote yes.
While most voters (65%) consider the outcome of Proposition 8 to be very important, the measure’s supporters (74%) are far more likely than those who voted no (59%) to view the outcome as very important.
When voters are asked the separate question of whether they favor or oppose same-sex marriage, they are divided, with 47 percent in favor, 48 percent opposed, and 5 percent unsure—a result consistent with responses in the October PPIC pre-election survey.
“In our surveys, Californians have been closely divided on the issue of same-sex marriage for the last three years,” says Mark Baldassare, PPIC president, CEO, and survey director. “Proposition 8 had highly motivated supporters and a well-funded campaign, and in the end, they prevailed.”
As Baldassare and Field Poll director Mark di Camillo pointed out in their post-election appearance last month before the Sacramento Press Club, commentators who say that Prop 8 passed due to a surge of new Barack Obama voters are wrong.
** OBAMA TODAY. President-elect Barack Obama is in private meetings and discussions today in Chicago. Tonight he and Michelle Obama host a reception for members of the Obama Illinois finance committee, thanking his core home state backers for all they’ve done over the years. Some of them go way back to the beginning of Obama’s political career. In 1996, when he was elected to the Illinois state Senate.
Obama is monitoring the Mumbai terrorism crisis, and is in touch with Secretary of State Condi Rice, who was in India yesterday. She’s in Pakistan now, urging the country’s leaders to fully cooperate with Indian authorities around the many Pakistani suspects in the attack. Also in India: Russian President Dmitri Medvedev.
Iraq’s government finalizes the new status of forces agreement with the US, which provides for a troop pullback to bases by mid-2009 and complete withdrawal by the end of 2011.
The Obama team is also closely watching the Senate Banking Committee hearing today with the heads of the Big 3 US automakers. After showing up in private jets two weeks ago to ask for a blank check bailout of $25 billion, the three drove separately to Washington from Detroit by hybrid car. This time their bailout number is up to $34 billion, but they have more details in their plans.
Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd, who ran in the Democratic presidential primaries but has a good relationship with Obama, kicked off the hearing just now with a statement ripping the vastly larger financial bailout, which has been ineffective in a number of respects and has relatively few safeguards. There may be a move to attach new conditions to the financial bailout.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has private meetings and discussions in and around the Capitol. He has no scheduled public events. The quest to solve California’s chronic budget crisis continues.
** OBAMA’S NEW POWER TROIKA FACES CRISES OLD AND NEW.Well, so much for the notion, constantly bruited about by the fantasists of the far right, that Barack Obama was the most radical major presidential candidate in history. If his top economic management team hadn’t disabused them of that nonsense, his national security leadership surely does.
Does this mean that Obama was a closet center-rightist, as some of the unintentional comedians performing on Fox News, not recognizing the irony, now claim?
Or is Obama forging a new center in American politics with refugees from the failed Bush/Cheney era? …
But it will be up to the trio that were nowhere near right from the start with Barack Obama to handle the emerging crisis springing from the terrorist siege of Mumbai, which I expected in this Huffington Post piece last week, along with other crises centering on Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Iran, and Russia. … From my new column.
One week after the terrorist siege of Mumbai began, many Indians held a candlelight vigil outside the Taj Mahal Hotel.
** HAPPY THANKSGIVING, MR. PRESIDENT-ELECT!While Barack Obama promised “a new and brighter day yet to come” in his Thanksgiving address, an old and darker day yet to leave reminds that events — and perhaps political fate itself — can turn on a dime in presidential politics. …
For a political operation that prefers to focus on its preferences, it’s a sharp reminder to Team Obama that the presidency can be every bit as reactive as it is proactive. … From my Friday Huffington Post column.
** SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON: MASTERSTROKE, MOUSETRAP, OR BOTH?Potential Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Masterstroke or mousetrap? Or both? And for whom? … From my November 19th column.
** GLOBAL OBAMA: BIG OPPORTUNITIES, BIGGER CHALLENGES. If he wins, Obama will have the global popularity that no American president has had in a great many years. But what sort of challenges will counter the global opportunity that an Obama presidency might afford America? … From my October 24th Huffington Post column.
** 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 new 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, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, 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.
Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. After crashing over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, crude oil is trading down around $47 per barrel. This is a three-and-a-half year low.
The drop of over $100 per barrel since the record high over the summer comes on acknowledgment that the weak US economy will cut future demand and on the easing of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. It is clear that that, contrary to much chatter, neither the US nor Israel is about to launch a strike against Iran. And the Russian war with Georgia, confounding much speculation and reporting to the contrary, actually decreased the geopolitical risk premium in the oil market.
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