Republicans have launched a “re-branding” effort for the party. This new ad makes the argument that America is now less safe under President Barack Obama. With a troop surge in Afghanistan and regular aerial drone attacks against jihadist cadre, I’m not sure this is a good ad.
** QUICK HITS. President Barack Obama and his top geopolitical team had more discussions about the deepening AfPak crisis today (See link to my new column below.) … With party ID at a low ebb, national Republicans are rolling out a new “rebranding” effort. See a new ad, which plays like it’s 2004, above. … In California, dueling GOP gubernatorial hopefuls Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner are pursuing different paths, with ex-eBay CEO Whitman forming a women’s support coalition and cell phone tracking mogul-turned-Insurance Commissioner Poizner challenging Whitman and ex-Silicon Valley Congressman Tom Campbell, another hopeful, to debate the state budget-related special election initiatives. Campbell says yes, Whitman no. … He’s exited the Democratic gubernatorial race to pursue a Congressional special election, and Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi has racked up a host of major labor union endorsements.
Edwards stayed in the race after losing must-win Iowa to Barack Obama, getting enough votes in New Hampshire to help Hillary Clinton win there and extend the Democratic nomination fight for months.
Elizabeth Edwards says she learned of Edwards’ affair, which produced a love child, a few days after her husband announced for president. She says she urged him not to continue. But the couple continued on, even after her cancer was announced.
Trippi says he didn’t know about the developments in Edwards’ life, and urged Edwards to continue in the race after losing all contests through Mega Tuesday. Had he known, he says, he would have urged Edwards to drop out immediately.
** DEMOCRATS KEEP SIGNIFICANT ADVANTAGE OVER REPUBLICANS. After 100 days of Barack Obama’s presidency, the Democrats maintain a significant edge of Republicans in national polling.
In the new Gallup Poll, 35% call themselves Democrats, while only 28% call themselves Republicans.
But when self-identified independents are added to the mix, 52% identify more with the Democrats. Only 39% identify with the Republicans.
The immediate outlook for the Republican Party is certainly bleak, with the Democratic Party maintaining significant advantages over it by almost any measure, perhaps most importantly in national party identification. Americans clearly have not reacted in a negative way to Obama’s approach to governing, as he enjoys approval ratings above 60% — better than those of most recent presidents.
** NEW TERMINATOR MOVIE POSTPONED IN MEXICO. Terminator Salvation, the fourth film in the Terminator franchise – which has Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in a cameo role via the wonders of digital imaging technology, as NWN readers learned first in last week’s live video webchat – is being released nearly two months later than scheduled in Mexico on account of the swine flu crisis there. Other movies are also being delayed in Mexico, with theaters closing down. The Mexico City premiere of X-Men Origins: Wolverine was cancelled.
Originally scheduled to be released in Mexico City and elsewhere in the country on June 5th, it’s now coming out on July 31st. It will still be opening across America on May 21st. Mexico has proved to be the epicenter of the swine flu crisis, and remains the hardest hit of all countries. However, Mexico has also significantly downgraded the number of cases and associated deaths.
On the evening of his 100th day in office, President Barack Obama conducted his third prime time press conference in the White House.
** OBAMA’S DEEPENING AFPAK CRISIS.With the appropriate huzzahs for President Barack Obama’s first 100 days still ringing in the air, his new AfPak strategy, for the linked crisis of Afghanistan and Pakistan, is already in deep trouble. Events have accelerated beyond the assumptions underlying it, especially in Pakistan, and much of the past few days in the administration was taken up with re-strategizing, including discussions on Air Force One as the president flew back-and-forth for a Missouri town hall yesterday and a full-scale National Security Council session before that.
This could be a tremendous disaster for America. As we are serially distracted by the various ADD obsessions of our media culture.
What’s wrong? Most immediately, the slow-rolling jihad in Pakistan and a relatively new government there that’s been fighting with functional modernist governmental rivals and cutting deals that don’t work with the Pakistani Taliban. And in the long term, an approach in Afghanistan that leans in the direction of nation-building rather than simply — though it’s not simple — keeping Al Qaeda too disrupted to launch serious attacks on America. …
** MORE CALIFORNIA POLLS. We have three new polls today, two public and one private. The new Field Poll tells us that, in this time of major economic downturn, California voters prefer more budget cuts to more taxes. And that they overwhelmingly oppose a move to change the two-thirds requirement to pass a budget or raise revenues in the Legislature to a simple majority. Which has been a much favored alternative by some on the left to the current budget deal.
But, strangely, California voters support budget cuts in only two of a dozen areas, prisons and parks. Sorry, that doesn’t work, folks.
The new Public Policy Institute of California poll tells us that most voters prefer that education funding be used more efficiently rather than increased. And that the idea of changing the two-thirds vote requirement on taxes is not popular.
It also tells us that President Barack Obama has a whopping 70% job approval rating amongst California voters, while Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is half that, at 34%. And that the Legislature is far less popular than that.
Finally, a private poll from Baselice & Associates for the Schwarzenegger and Democratic legislative leader-backed campaign for state budget compromise-related initiatives indicates there may be some life in them yet. This poll, unlike yesterday’s Field Poll, is based on a low-turnout targeted scenario.
When the question of the overall package is framed in a certain, supportive way, the initiatives have a chance, with 47% approval to 29% disapproval.
So if the advertising prevails, they may have a chance.
On the specific question of Prop 1A, based on the ballot summary, the result is 39% yes and 40% no.
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden welcomed longtime Republican Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania to the Democratic Party yesterday in an event in the White House’s Diplomatic Reception Room.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama has received his daily intelligence and economic briefings and conferred with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
At 10:30 AM Pacific, Obama meets with Senator John McCain, his defeated Republican presidential opponent, Senator Carl Levin, Congressman Ike Skelton, and Congressman John McHugh in the Oval Office. They are the chairs and ranking minority members of the Senate and House committees on the US Armed Forces. Among other topics on the agenda: America’s deepening AfPak crisis.
At 11:30 AM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at the “White House to Light House” Wounded Warrior Soldier Ride on the South Lawn of the White House.
At 12 PM Pacific, Obama meets with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner in the Oval Office. One topic of discussion, the impending bankruptcy of Chrysler.
At 12:45 PM Pacific, Obama meets with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Oval Office.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will speak this morning at the first groundbreaking of an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act-funded transportation project in California.
The event takes place in Fairfield, along the I-80 corridor between San Francisco and Sacramento.
The project will create approximately 200 jobs in the construction industry, making improvements on a 50-year old section of Interstate 80 used by around 200,000 motorists per day.
Schwarzenegger, incidentally, who told me in my live video webchat with him last week that he planned to appear in the forthcoming Terminator Salvation movie if it worked out technologically – he didn’t act on set – will be appearing in the film in a cameo role via the wonders of digital mapping technology. More to follow on that. You can listen to the conversation here.
** OBAMA’S CALIFORNIA: ANGST AND IRONY FOR WINNING DEMOCRATS.It’s a great time in many ways for California Democrats, who just had their annual convention in Sacramento. Barack Obama carried the state with 61% of the vote and the party has a big registration edge over Republicans, as well as a much better handle on the large and growing number of independent voters.
No wonder House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a longtime acquaintance, was so ebullient when I spoke with her over the weekend. But it’s also a time of angst and irony.
I talked with former Governor Gray Davis, the only Democratic governor since World War II not named Brown, who told me: “California may be at a tipping point.” And Democratic delegates were in disarray on what to do about it, even as they enjoyed speeches from their two most likely gubernatorial contenders. … From my April 28th column.
** OBAMA’S EARTH DAY ENERGY DECLARATION: CALIFORNIA MAY BE THE NATIONAL MODEL HE SAYS, BUT IT’S NOT ENOUGH.President Barack Obama made a big show for Earth Day of his commitment to a much greener energy future, and in the process paid a huge compliment to California for dramatically altering its energy path three decades ago. But even though California, as Obama puts it, shows the rest of America what can be done, it’s not enough.
Obama spoke after touring a wind energy equipment factory, once a Maytag washing machine factory, in Newton, Iowa. While he talked up innovation in new technologies, he noted that, in our history, increases in innovation are generally coupled with big increases in consumption. And that that can lead to disaster.
Obama framed the the development of green energy technology — which includes energy efficiency tech as well as renewable sources such as wind, solar, waves, geothermal, and biomass — as the way out of the usual false choice on the environment. … From my April 23rd column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th 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.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in two wars in the region, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** SCHWARZENEGGER’S CALIFORNIA. Here is my series of five columns on the governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger for the Los Angeles Times in debate with Pulitzer Prize-winning former Times reporter/editor Bill Boyarsky, whose columns are also included. 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.
This is up about $17 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, due in part to some positive economic signs and in part to fresh geopolitical jitters over Pakistan.
President Barack Obama, doing a shoot-around with the women’s national champion University of Connecticut basketball team on Monday, today celebrates his 100th day in office with high ratings and an expansive agenda.
** QUICK HITS. I’m prepping a column for tomorrow on Obama’s AfPak (Afghanistan/Pakistan) strategy and crisis. Events there have accelerated beyond assumptions underlying the strategy outlined in March. … The World Health Organization has upgraded the swine flu scare to 5 on a scale of 6. That’s one level short of “pandemic” status, but it is triggered when there is demonstrated passage of disease from one country to another, which we already knew. Mexico has sharply downgradedits earlier estimates of deaths from the flu. … Tomorrow morning I’ll report on three new California polls, two public – one of which comes off embargo late tonight – and one private. None is especially good news for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, but one is better than the others. … California’s new far right Republican state Senate leader says he will have plans for specific additional major budget cuts if the special election initiatives fall on May 19th. His caucus, as a matter of political strategy, has declined to offer actual alternatives for more than a year.
** EXCERPTS FROM OBAMA’S OPENING REMARKS AT TONIGHT’S PRIME TIME PRESS CONFERENCE.
We are continuing to closely monitor the emerging cases of the H1N1 flu virus throughout the United States. As I said this morning, this is obviously a very serious situation, and every American should know that their entire government is taking the utmost precautions and preparations. …
This budget builds on the steps we’ve taken over the last one hundred days to move this economy from recession to recovery and ultimately to prosperity. We began by passing a Recovery Act that has already saved or created over 150,000 jobs and provided a tax cut to 95% of all working families. We passed a law to provide and protect health insurance for eleven million American children whose parents work full-time. And we launched a housing plan that has already contributed to a spike in the number of homeowners who are refinancing their mortgages, which is the equivalent of another tax cut. But even as we clear away the wreckage of this recession, I have also said that we cannot go back to an economy that is built on a pile of sand – on inflated home prices and maxed-out credit cards; on overleveraged banks and outdated regulations that allowed the recklessness of a few to threaten the prosperity of us all.
We must lay a New Foundation for growth – a foundation that will strengthen our economy and help us compete in the 21st century. And that’s exactly what this budget begins to do. It contains new investments in education that will equip our workers with the right skills and training; new investments in renewable energy that will create millions of jobs and new industries; new investments in health care that will cut costs for families and businesses; and new savings that will bring down our deficit. …
So we are off to a good start. But it is just a start. I am proud of what we have achieved, but I am not content. I am pleased with our progress, but I am not satisfied. Millions of Americans are still without jobs and homes, and more will be lost before this recession is over. Credit is still not flowing nearly as freely as it should. Countless families and communities touched by our auto industry still face tough times ahead. Our projected long-term deficits are still too high. Government is still not as efficient as it should be. We still confront threats ranging from terrorism to nuclear proliferation to pandemic flu. And all of this means you can expect an unrelenting, unyielding effort from this administration to strengthen our prosperity and our security – in the second hundred days, and the third hundred days, and all the days after. …
So we have plenty of work left to do. It is work that will take time. It will take effort. But the United States of America will see a better day. We will rebuild a stronger nation. And we will endure as a beacon for all those weary travelers beyond our shores who still dream that this is a place where all is possible.
** GARY HART ON OBAMA’S FIRST 100 DAYS AND THE POLITICS OF TRANSFORMATION. “Last June I urged then-candidate Barack Obama to use his presidency to transform the country for the 21st century world, not simply to repair the damage to our economy, foreign policy, and defenses done by the Bush administration. By that standard, his first three months have been a remarkable success.” … From Senator Hart’s HuffPost column.
** OBAMA SUPPORT HIGH, WITH INTRIGUING GAPS BETWEEN AGE GROUPS AND EXPECTED GROWING GAPS BETWEEN PARTY. In a new Hotline poll, 62% of American voters approve of President Barack Obama’s performance, while 33% disapprove. 55% say he is better than other presidents of the recent past, while 24% say he is not.
What’s interesting about the poll are some of the breakdowns.
Looking closer at Obama’s approval ratings reveals that the group of voters that is largely driving Obama’s high approval ratings are those aged 18 – 34. Obama’s approval rating is 76% among voters which fall within this age group, while it is significantly lower for those aged 35 – 55 (55%) and 55 and over (60%).
The Poll also finds that there has been a mild polarization of opinions with regards to how voters are saying Obama is handling his job as president. Among Democrats, Obama’s approval rating has experienced a 16 percentage point jump from the January Poll (76%) to today’s Poll (92%). Conversely, his approval rating has decreased by 11 percentage points among Republicans from the January poll (42%) to the April Poll (31%).
The Poll also finds that Obama’s approval ratings on most issues are high, with the “War in Afghanistan” (64%), “War in Iraq” (61%) and “energy” (59%) leading the way. Obama’s approval rating on “the economy,” which 69% of voters say is the most important issue facing the country, is also high, at 56%.
While 58% of voters say that Obama has focused “the right amount” on “the economy” thus far, 42% also say that “the economy” is the one issue they would like to see President Obama spend more time focusing on for the rest of 2009. The top issue that voters feel Obama is paying too little attention to is “immigration,” at 52%, followed by “terror” (44%).
** HOUSE PASSES OBAMA BUDGET OUTLINE, SENATE APPROVAL EXPECTED LATER TODAY. As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told me over the weekend would happen, the House of Representatives this morning passed President Barack Obama’s budget outline, setting up a record $3.4 trillion in federal spending and setting the stage for enactment of a new health care reform plan.
The bill passed on a party-line vote. Passage by the Senate is expected later today. The bill forms the basis for negotiations on tax and spending bills among lawmakers, the Obama Administration and interest groups.
The move comes on the 100th day of Obama’s young presidency. That’s an artificial media milestone, a cliche long honored since it actually meant something following Franklin D. Roosevelt’s inauguration during the Great Depression in 1933. FDR vowed dramatic action in the first 100 days of his administration, and delivered with the New Deal. Though much of the most important stuff happened later, and Roosevelt was not dealing with two ongoing wars at the same time.
Richard Armitage, former deputy secretary of state in the Bush/Cheney Administration and longtime advisor to Colin Powell, tells Al Jazeera that the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan could spiral out of control.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … OBAMA’S AFPAK CRISIS. For the 101st day of the Obama Presidency. See my report in the Obama Today segment below that the president will be focusing on the slow-rolling jihad in Pakistan during his Air Force One flight today, and that the administration has had constant meetings on the crisis over the past two days, including one unpublicized full-fledged National Security Council meeting.
You’re noticing I’m not doing a special column or feature on President Barack Obama’s first 100 days. For a couple of reasons. It’s an artificial milestone, dating back to FDR’s promise to hit the ground running during the Great Depression in 1933. It’s being done by everyone, and I feel no need to be part of a cacophony. It’s actually easy to sum up, as Obama has been heavily covered here every day. And I’m doing something else, the column mentioned above, for tomorrow, on what could be a tremendous disaster for America. As we are serially distracted by swine flu, Somali pirates, and the various other ADD obsessions of our media culture.
** CALIFORNIA SPECIAL ELECTION INITIATIVES IN BIG TROUBLE. A new Field Poll shows the six state budget compromise-related initiatives on the May 19th special election ballot in serious trouble. Only the least significant and most symbolic, Prop 1F, which would prohibit legislative pay increases in budget deficit years, is passing.
One oddity of the poll is that it seems to posit a 47% turnout, which seems far too high. But would a low turnout benefit the initiatives?
Most initiatives are actually passing when Democrats and independents are counted. But the key ones are overwhelmingly opposed by Republicans.
A plurality of voters, likely or not, say they understand that choosing to defeat the initiatives will make the the state’s chronic budget crisis – which spiraled out of control with the global economic downturn – worse. But even more are simply tired that state government isn’t solving problems and is turning things over to the voters. Whether the system – governmental and political – is designed to fail in time of extraordinary crisis is another matter.
President Barack Obama welcomed the latest and final member of his Cabinet, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, confirmed yesterday by the Senate. Just in time for the swine flu scare. The former Kansas governor, a key Obama backer in the primaries, saw her appointment held up by anti-abortion forces.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama has received his daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
He and Vice President Joe Biden conferred with Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter and made a joint statement with him in the White House Diplomatic Room.
On this 100th day of the Obama Administration, Specter is the newest Democrat in the U.S. Senate, having just switched from his longtime membership in the Republican Party. With the expected seating of comedian Al Franken, once the legal machinations around the Minnesota recount are exhausted, Democrats will have 60 seats in the 100-seat Senate, enabling them to shut down threatened filibusters on most key issues.
Obama is making it clear that he supports Specter and will fundraise and campaign for him. Some on the netroots left have been calling for a Democratic primary challenge to the former Republican. This is a tremendous boost for Obama psychologically. (Specter was a frequent ally as a moderate Republican.) Because it casts the refusal of Republicans to work with Obama not as sign that Obama is insufficiently bipartisan/post-partisan but that Republicans are so extreme that one of their top members has now become a Democrat.
Obama is now en route on Air Force One to St. Louis, Missouri.
Obama will be discussing the worsening situation in Pakistan during his flight on Air Force One. His administration has held nearly non-stop strategy sessions on the slow-rolling jihad in Pakistan for the past two days, including one full-fledged – and unpublicized – meeting of the National Security Council.
At 8:20 AM Pacific, he holds a town hall meeting at Fox High School in Arnold, Missouri.
At 11 AM Pacific, Obama is wheels up on Air Force One making the return flight from St. Louis to Andrews Air Force Base.
At 12:45 PM Pacific, Obama lands at Andrews Air Force Base and travels on Marine One to the White House for scheduled arrival 15 minutes later.
At 5 PM Pacific, Obama holds a prime time press conference in the East Room of the White House.
This will be the third prime time press conference of his presidency, coming on the 100th day of his presidency. Presidents Bush and Clinton held a total of eight prime time press conferences during the 16 years they collectively served in the White House.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has no planned public events today. He holds private meetings and discussions in Orange County.
Schwarzenegger showed off a new Honda hydrogen-fueled vehicle yesterday afternoon in Capitol Park. He’s pushing alternative vehicle fuels, of course, and hydrogen is one of his pet projects.
He’s trading in his electric-powered Tesla roadster, a very high-end two-seater sports car, for Tesla’s new sedan model. Why? Too small. Too small, as he puts it, for First Lady Maria Shriver to cart any of the family around in. And, though he didn’t say it, probably too small for him. I’ve been inside one myself, Schwarzenegger is rather larger than me, and it’s like being in a Ferrari, that strapped-in fighter jet feel.
Schwarzenegger, incidentally, who told me in my live video webchat with him last week that he planned to appear in the forthcoming Terminator Salvation movie if it worked out technologically – he didn’t act on set – will be appearing in the film in a cameo role via the wonders of digital mapping technology. More to follow on that. You can listen to the conversation here.
** OBAMA’S CALIFORNIA: ANGST AND IRONY FOR WINNING DEMOCRATS.It’s a great time in many ways for California Democrats, who just had their annual convention in Sacramento. Barack Obama carried the state with 61% of the vote and the party has a big registration edge over Republicans, as well as a much better handle on the large and growing number of independent voters.
No wonder House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a longtime acquaintance, was so ebullient when I spoke with her over the weekend. But it’s also a time of angst and irony.
I talked with former Governor Gray Davis, the only Democratic governor since World War II not named Brown, who told me: “California may be at a tipping point.” And Democratic delegates were in disarray on what to do about it, even as they enjoyed speeches from their two most likely gubernatorial contenders. … From my April 28th column.
** OBAMA’S EARTH DAY ENERGY DECLARATION: CALIFORNIA MAY BE THE NATIONAL MODEL HE SAYS, BUT IT’S NOT ENOUGH.President Barack Obama made a big show for Earth Day of his commitment to a much greener energy future, and in the process paid a huge compliment to California for dramatically altering its energy path three decades ago. But even though California, as Obama puts it, shows the rest of America what can be done, it’s not enough.
Obama spoke after touring a wind energy equipment factory, once a Maytag washing machine factory, in Newton, Iowa. While he talked up innovation in new technologies, he noted that, in our history, increases in innovation are generally coupled with big increases in consumption. And that that can lead to disaster.
Obama framed the the development of green energy technology — which includes energy efficiency tech as well as renewable sources such as wind, solar, waves, geothermal, and biomass — as the way out of the usual false choice on the environment. … From my April 23rd column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th 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.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in two wars in the region, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** SCHWARZENEGGER’S CALIFORNIA. Here is my series of five columns on the governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger for the Los Angeles Times in debate with Pulitzer Prize-winning former Times reporter/editor Bill Boyarsky, whose columns are also included. 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.
This is up about $17 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, due in part to some positive economic signs and in part to fresh geopolitical jitters over Pakistan.
These figures are well above those for Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton at a comparable moment in their presidencies, and approach Reaganesque levels of popularity.
43% see America as being on the right track, up 17 points since Obama’s inauguration, while 43% see it on the wrong track.
Some warning signs. Growing numbers worry that Obama is trying to do too many things. And he is increasingly seen as an ideological liberal.
As I keep saying, America is a center/left country, not a center/right country. And not a left/liberal country.
** SPECTER AND THE J.F.K. ASSASSINATION. Something most people don’t know about Senator Arlen Specter is that he came up with the “magic bullet” theory of the John F. Kennedy assassination. Then a young researcher for the Warren Commission charged with investigating the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Specter solved a principal conundrum for the commission by positing that one bullet caused several wounds in the late president and Texas Governor John Connally, ending up, oddly enough, little the worse for all that wear when it was found on a stretcher at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. Absent the magic bullet, you have more than one shooter.
** OBAMA’S CALIFORNIA: ANGST AND IRONY FOR WINNING DEMOCRATS.It’s a great time in many ways for California Democrats, who just had their annual convention in Sacramento. Barack Obama carried the state with 61% of the vote and the party has a big registration edge over Republicans, as well as a much better handle on the large and growing number of independent voters.
No wonder House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a longtime acquaintance, was so ebullient when I spoke with her over the weekend. But it’s also a time of angst and irony.
I talked with former Governor Gray Davis, the only Democratic governor since World War II not named Brown, who told me: “California may be at a tipping point.” And Democratic delegates were in disarray on what to do about it, even as they enjoyed speeches from their two most likely gubernatorial contenders. …
Officials around the world are scrambling to contain the swine flu outbreak, which is nonetheless short of pandemic status. Cases are reportedly declining in Mexico, where the outbreak began.
** SCHWARZENEGGER DECLARES SWINE FLU STATE OF EMERGENCY, OBAMA PRESSES FOR EMERGENCY FUNDING. Following two deaths of people with swine flu-like symptoms in the LA area, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency. (One of the two turns out to have reportedly died of something else.)
While this sounds very dramatic, it isn’t that dramatic, and Schwarzenegger adds “there is no need for alarm” in the statement accompanying the proclamation. Basically, it cuts through red tape to coordinate and assist public health personnel. Schwarzenegger also advises some common sense things about sneezing, washing one’s hands, avoiding sick people, and so on.
Meanwhile, President Barack Obama has asked Congress for $1.5 billion in emergency funding for flu prevention. There are 65 cases across the country, 10 of them in California. As Marc Cooper points out, the emergency funding is necessary because Maine Senator Susan Collins, one of the Republican moderates needed to avoid a filibuster on the Obama economic recovery program, succeeded in stripping out $1 billion in flu prevention funding.
** BROWN ORDERS CHANGES IN MAYWOOD POLICE DEPARTMENT. Former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown this morning announced the results of a 16-month Department of Justice investigation into the police force in Maywood, a south LA city. The city of 30,000 is 96% Latino.
Brown declared that the DOJ found “gross misconduct and widespread abuse including unlawful use of force against civilians,” with the department operating outside the control of the city manager and city council. He announced that he is seeking an immediate stipulated court order to ensure reforms and place the department under ongoing oversight by the Attorney General’s office.
It’s the latest in a series of high-profile moves by Brown, who has signaled his interest in a return to the governorship and whose off-the-cuff address was very warmly received by delegates to last weekend’s state Democratic convention. Brown has also recently sued Wells Fargo for $1.5 billion in allegedly fraudulent investments and, at the request of the state Supreme Court, issued a legal opinion that the Prop 209 anti-affirmative action initiative was unconstitutional.
This reminds of Obama’s wisdom in blocking the expulsion of Joe Lieberman from the Senate Democratic caucus, which many on the left wanted. Lieberman, who sharply criticized Obama while campaigning with his friend, John McCain, has been singing Obama’s praises and providing key votes to the Obama Administration in moving the major elements of its agenda.
By a 51% to 42% margin, Americans want an investigation into the the use of torture, a crusade-level issue for much of the left.
But by a 55% to 36% margin, Americans say that torture was justified in defense of national security.
I think the poll is a little too broadly framed. I don’t believe that 55% support torture as a matter of national policy. A better way of asking would focus on the question of torture as a national policy, which it became in the Bush/Cheney Administration, as distinguished from torture in certain circumstances, and of course a strict abolition on torture in any circumstances. But either way, the results probably wouldn’t make a lot of liberals happy.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama has received his daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
He meets at 8 AM Pacific with Federal Bureau of Investigations Director Robert Mueller and other top officials at FBI headquarters in Washington. Afterwards, he addresses the FBI staff.
At 11 AM Pacific, Obama meets with the Congressional Progressive Caucus in the East Room of the White House.
At 12:05 PM Pacific, he presents the National Teacher of the Year award in the Rose Garden.
At 1:30 PM Pacific, Obama meets with Defense Secretary Bob Gates in the Oval Office.
At 4:30 PM Pacific, Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama hold a reception with members of the Cabinet in the Blue Room.
Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius is expected to be confirmed today by the Senate as US health and human services secretary. Her appointment has been held up by a Republican filibuster over abortion and her support of the pro-choice position on the issue.
The administration has decided not to close the border with Mexico, adopting a passive surveillance policy instead.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will hold state budget-related discussions in and around the Capitol.
He holds a press conference this morning in the Capitol Rotunda with former state Senate Minority Leader Dave Cogdill to urge passage of higher education-related legislation that will benefit members of the California National Guard.
This afternoon, Schwarzenegger will hold a press availability on the East Steps of the Capitol while viewing the Honda FCX Clarity. This is the world’s first hydrogen fuel cell vehicle built from the platform up and was researched, designed and co-developed by engineering teams in Tochigi, Japan and Torrance, California.
Schwarzenegger, incidentally, who told me in my Tuesday afternoon live webchat with him that he planned to appear in the forthcoming Terminator Salvation movie if it worked out technologically – he didn’t act on set – will be appearing in the film in a cameo role via the wonders of digital mapping technology. More to follow on that. You can listen to the conversation here.
A Russian tanker crew repelled a band of Somali pirates yesterday in the Indian Ocean.
** OBAMA’S EARTH DAY ENERGY DECLARATION: CALIFORNIA MAY BE THE NATIONAL MODEL HE SAYS, BUT IT’S NOT ENOUGH.President Barack Obama made a big show for Earth Day of his commitment to a much greener energy future, and in the process paid a huge compliment to California for dramatically altering its energy path three decades ago. But even though California, as Obama puts it, shows the rest of America what can be done, it’s not enough.
Obama spoke after touring a wind energy equipment factory, once a Maytag washing machine factory, in Newton, Iowa. While he talked up innovation in new technologies, he noted that, in our history, increases in innovation are generally coupled with big increases in consumption. And that that can lead to disaster.
Obama framed the the development of green energy technology — which includes energy efficiency tech as well as renewable sources such as wind, solar, waves, geothermal, and biomass — as the way out of the usual false choice on the environment. …
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th 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.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in two wars in the region, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial.
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.
This is up about $16 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, due in part to some positive economic signs and in part to fresh geopolitical jitters over Pakistan.
President Barack Obama, speaking early this morning at the National Academy of Sciences, said that the swine flu outbreak is a cause for concern, but not alarm.
** “AMERICA’S SHERIFF” GETS FIVE-AND-A-HALF YEARS IN PRISON.Former Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona, once a major mover in the Republican Party, was sentenced this afternoon to 66 months in prison and a $125,000 fine for witness tampering. He had been charged with conducting a systematic conspiracy to sell his office, but was acquitted on that.
Carona was a key figure in the Orange County conservative machine, close to former state Republican chairman Mike Schroeder, and long employing veteran party official and far right Flash Report publisher Jon Fleischman as his PR man. The Flash Report, which seeks to dictate hyperpartisan doctrine to Republicans, was launched while Fleischman worked on Carona’s public payroll, ostensibly published in the publicist’s spare time.
CNN talk show host Larry King dubbed Carona “America’s Sheriff” in 2002 for helping track down the murderer of a 5-year old girl.
** OBAMA VIEWED AS CHANGE AGENT, NOT TYPICAL POL. A new CBS News/New York Times poll coming out tonight shows that over two-thirds of Americans view the new president as an agent of change, rather than a typical politician.
More than two-thirds of the poll’s respondents call Mr. Obama a different kind of politician, while just 1 in 4 say he is a typical politician. When those who called him different were asked what sets him apart, most said it was more a matter of his style of governing and his personal qualities than his policies.
Majorities of Americans regardless of gender, age, race, education or income view the president as a different sort of politician. But political partisanship does come into play.
The poll was completed yesterday and will be out tonight.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … OBAMA’S AFPAK CRISIS.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … OBAMA’S CALIFORNIA: ANGST AND IRONY FOR SUCCESSFUL DEMOCRATS.
As you may have gathered, I came to that conclusion months ago.
** SCHWARZENEGGER REASSURES ON SWINE FLU. In a press conference late this morning, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger sought to reassure Californians about the swine flu outbreak, which has shut down public events in Mexico City.
The former action superstar noted that there are only seven confirmed cases thusfar in California, four of them in San Diego County, and all who came down with the flu have recovered.
But I will tell you, NWN is not your go-to site on swine flu. I barely know what it is.
MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK.
A big week in presidential politics, though not so big in California politics.
President Barack Obama celebrates his 100th day in office on Wednesday. Oddly enough, he is having a prime time press conference – third of his young presidency – on that very day.
Things are going very well for Obama, as NWN readers have known all along, though he has many challenges.
This week his administration will be dealing with a swine flu outbreak that has shut down public events in Mexico City, the ongoing crisis with the banks, and a gigantic crisis in Pakistan, which has a huge impact on the Afghan War.
I’ll be writing a lot more about the Afghanistan/Pakistan situation, as I have right along.
Democrats are celebrating a notable win in an upstate New York congressional special election. Despite a 75,000-vote Republican registration advantage, and supposed huge inspiration amongst the right-wing base due to the activist Obama Administration, the Democrat emerged victorious in a recount for Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s old House seat. And he didn’t even have to be a champion of the NRA, as she was.
Pressure will mount this week on Republican Norm Coleman, the outgoing senator from Minnesota, to concede his race to comedian Al Franken. The former Saturday Night Live star has prevailed in a couple of recounts, the latest overseen by a special judicial panel, and two-thirds of Minnesota voters now say it’s time for him to be seated. But Coleman, egged on by national Republicans, is appealing to yet another court.
In California, former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown, with a minimal effort, easily fended off San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s weekend bid to be the star of the California Democratic Party convention. Newsom, a national co-chairman of the Hillary Clinton campaign, tried to cast himself as a California version of Obama in his longshot bid for the governorship. Despite a big, expensive effort, this son and grandson of Brown family retainers, who first gained office by appointment to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, fell short of the mark.
The 2010 California governor’s race returns this week to its customary undramatic mode.
Meanwhile, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his bipartisan allies continue mobilizing for the May 19th special election on six state budget compromise-related initiatives.
And we wait to see if the strange bedfellows opponents coalition of right-wing and left-wing antes up some serious dollars.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama spoke early this morning to the National Academy of Sciences. He talked up his administration’s sci/tech initiatives on energy, computing, and biology and discussed the swine flu outbreak.
Later this morning, he has his daily intelligence and economic briefings and meets with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
At 11 AM Pacific, Obama hosts the University of Connecticut’s women’s national collegiate basketball championship team in the White House and on the South Portico.
At 2 PM Pacific, Obama participates in a reception with various finance and environmental ministers from around the world in the Blue Room of the White House.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine looks like the first big pop culture movie of the year. The movie opens across America on Friday.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appears at the Milken Institute’s annual global conference today at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in LA.
Schwarzenegger will participate in a panel discussion moderated by Michael Milken with Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and Utah Governor Jon Huntsman on the challenges facing states.
Schwarzenegger will do a press conference afterwards at 10:45 AM at the Beverly Hilton on moves he is making around the swine flu outbreak.
Schwarzenegger, incidentally, who told me in my Tuesday afternoon live webchat with him that he planned to appear in the forthcoming Terminator Salvation movie if it worked out technologically – he didn’t act on set – will be appearing in the film in a cameo role via the wonders of digital mapping technology. More to follow on that. You can listen to the conversation here.
** OBAMA’S EARTH DAY ENERGY DECLARATION: CALIFORNIA MAY BE THE NATIONAL MODEL HE SAYS, BUT IT’S NOT ENOUGH.President Barack Obama made a big show for Earth Day of his commitment to a much greener energy future, and in the process paid a huge compliment to California for dramatically altering its energy path three decades ago. But even though California, as Obama puts it, shows the rest of America what can be done, it’s not enough.
Obama spoke after touring a wind energy equipment factory, once a Maytag washing machine factory, in Newton, Iowa. While he talked up innovation in new technologies, he noted that, in our history, increases in innovation are generally coupled with big increases in consumption. And that that can lead to disaster.
Obama framed the the development of green energy technology — which includes energy efficiency tech as well as renewable sources such as wind, solar, waves, geothermal, and biomass — as the way out of the usual false choice on the environment. …
** THE REPUBLICAN CHOICE: REACT OR MODERNIZE.It’s been a strange week for the Republican Party, with noisy events pushing the old-time religion, a speech by a prominent consultant urging a new moderation, and back-to-the-future reactions to President Barack Obama’s friendly gestures to Hugo Chavez and other critics of America.
Who will prevail? The reactors or the modernizers? …
** THE STATE OF PLAY OF STATE OF PLAY.State of Play is a political thriller wrapped inside a journalistic thriller that works better as the latter.
It’s a good film with a strong cast that is based on a better BBC miniseries which is better cast than this American remake. Which is not the same as having a better cast.
The big bad here is a Blackwater-like security outfit called Pointcorp. In a sign of how the mighty have fallen, Blackwater already had to change its name to the faintly prepostereous Xe, so bad has its reputation become in the wake of being banned from Iraq. In a further sign, a Blackwater equivalent is the big bad — so far, at least — on this season of the longtime hit thriller series 24.
Which starts to get at a problem with the movie. There’s something very familiar about it, which may be inevitable as the story gets condensed into the customary thriller elements.
In the 2003 British miniseries, the big bad was an energy corporation. Which may actually be more timely than poor old Blackwater at this point, though it probably seemed very timely a few years ago when the American remake was being conceived. … From my April 18th column.
** OBAMA AND MEXICO: MANAGING INCIPIENT CHAOS.Another country, another crisis. President Barack Obama summited yesterday in Mexico City with President Felipe Calderon, pledging to help Mexico’s elected government beat back the challenge of powerful drug cartels that increasingly out-gun Mexican security forces. But Obama’s measures will only manage the incipient chaos, not end it.
Which has actually long been typical of America’s policies with regard to Mexico.
In his 1981 book “The Nine Nations of North America,” author Joel Garreau referred to the Border Patrol as “a regulatory agency.” In the sense that it was not set up to halt illegal immigration from Mexico but to manage it. To make it difficult enough to prevent an open border scenario, but not so difficult as to prevent American businesses from benefiting from the efficiencies of an influx of cheap labor, even as American social institutions struggled to provide services. … From my April 17th column.
** EARL GREY, ANYONE? A CALIFORNIA CAPITOL TEA PARTY. Before a crowd that organizers claimed was 15,000 to 20,000, but these experienced ex-advance man’s eyes saw as about 3,000, a parade of right-wing personalities used tax day to decry taxation, government, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and President Barack Obama with a rally outside California’s state Capitol in Sacramento.
The event, like other so-called tea parties around the country, was heavily promoted by the Fox News channel, right-wing talk radio hosts, and the right-wing blogosphere. …
If you are wondering what Fox News is doing organizing anti-administration rallies around the country, its obvious strategy is to aggregate all the already existing opponents of Obama into one audience. … From my April 15th column.
** OBAMA’S CRISIS MANAGEMENT: OF PIRATES AND MISSILES.Barack Obama’s management of two flashpoint crises — both relatively minor but caught up in the now typical hysteria of our media culture — gives us some good clues about his crisis management style.
The just concluded hostage crisis off the coast of Somalia and the launch early this month of a new North Korean missile showed Obama in “no drama” mode, determined to avoid distraction and continue with his core messaging strategy.
Obama actually took a lower profile public role with the more consequential of the two crises, the Somali pirate hostage crisis, than he did with the North Korean missile launch. But he seems to have spent more time behind the scenes on the crisis on which he spent the least amount of time before the cameras. … From my April 13th column.
** OBAMA’S NEW GEOPOLITICS: 10 KEY TAKEAWAYS.President Barack Obama’s just concluded big international tour is part of a major reshuffling in geopolitics. Here are 10 key takeaways from happenings in and around his trip. … From my April 9th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th 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.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in two wars in the region, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial.
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.
This is up about $16 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, due in part to some positive economic signs and in part to fresh geopolitical jitters over Pakistan.
In his weekend video/radio address, President Barack Obama talks about doing away with “old habits and stale thinking” in government.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … OBAMA’S AFPAK CRISIS.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … OBAMA’S CALIFORNIA: ANGST AND IRONY FOR SUCCESSFUL DEMOCRATS.
** IN SUNDAY VOTE FILLED WITH ANGST AND IRONY, CAL DEMS BACK TWO OF THE KEY SPECIAL ELECTION INITIATIVES, GO NEUTRAL ON OTHERS. Although all five of the key state budget compromise-related initiatives on the May 19th special election ballot received majority votes to sustain the recommendation of the party’s resolutions committee during a floor fight at the California Democratic Party convention, only two were endorsed.
That’s because the floor vote required a super-majority for endorsement, 60% of those delegates voting. Ironically, the opponents to the initiatives all oppose the super-majority requirement in the Legislature on budget and revenue votes.
Prop 1A, the state spending limits and rainy day fund measure which also extends temporary tax hikes, looked at first like it won in a show of delegate cards on the convention floor. But it fell just short, with 58% in favor. Props 1D, shift of funds tobacco tax revenues from special purpose early childhood development, and 1E, shift of high-income taxpayer revenues from special mental health programs, both redircted for general fund uses, received smaller majority votes, also falling short of the party endorsement.
The delegates, in their wisdom, voted by big supermajority margins to endorse Prop 1B, which carves out big bucks for the education budget, and Prop 1C, which would “securitize” future lottery earnings to provide billions more in revenue. But Prop 1B doesn’t work without Prop 1A. So angst, understandable or not, trumped logic.
The party also endorsed Prop 1F, a totally symbolic measure which would block legislative pay increases during budget deficit years.
** INTO THE NIGHT WITH CAL DEMS. The terribly dramatic California Democratic convention continued into late Saturday, naturally, and will culminate on Sunday with an expected floor fight over the proposed endorsement of all six state budget compromise-related initiatives on the May 19th special election ballot. The party’s resolutions committee overwhelmingly endorsed the initiatives, despite opposition on the left to the new state spending limits in the budget agreement worked out by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders.
First to recap some some convention business, then a bit on parties. Between this convention stuff and the Formula One race in Bahrain, it’s not good for my frequently battered sleep cycle.
Former state Senate President Pro Tem and Congressman John Burton (Barbara Boxer started out in his district office) was overwhelmingly elected state party chairman, as expected, with some 76% of the vote. A salty, classic character who is either a coolly casual or utterly atrocious dresser, take your pick, Burton said something especially memorable when he was arrested for bookmaking from a San Francisco parking lot payphone in the 1960s. Use your imagination.
He’ll provide endless color, of course (I’ve written a lot about him), and pledges to push the party to repeal the two-thirds vote requirement for passage of a state budget and revenue measures and to oppose the open primary initiative, which the Republican Party leadership also hates.
Burton replaces Art Torres, the former state senator and ex-United Farm Workers lobbyist who has been party chairman since 1996. Torres, who chaired the Joint Legislative Committee on Science & Technology (he was a member when I was its chief consultant) and the Assembly Health Committee, moves on to help lead the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state’s groundbreaking stem cell research program. Under Torres’s leadership, the party has made huge advances in California, winning the governorship twice following the Republican Pete Wilson era, along with three presidential elections in California, and driving Democratic registration to a big edge over the Republicans even while learning how to flourish in the age of the rising independent voter.
Torres was honored at the party banquet last night, which was attended by a fairly glittering array of party notables, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who closed out the festivities.
I talked with Pelosi, who I’ve known for a long while, at the banquet. She’s in great spirits with Barack Obama, the candidate she not so privately liked in the primaries, in the White House. And quite serious about the torture issue.
Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom were there, of course, with Brown and wife Anne Gust Brown, his special counsel in the Attorney General’s office and 2006 campaign manager, having come over from their spirited “recession reception” and tour of the historic Governor’s Mansion.
Newsom and wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom, an actress, were seated at the California Strategies table at the party banquet. CalStrat is the premier corporate consulting firm in the state, headed by former Governor Pete Wilson’s former longtime chief of staff, Bob White. Newsom chief strategist Garry South, also at the table with the Newsoms, works for California Strategies now.
Some thought Newsom was late to his own high-energy party late Saturday night, but he was never supposed to arrive till 10 at the earliest, due to the banquet honoring Torres. Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson closed off a small stretch of road for the Newsom block party and concert with hip hop star Wyclef Jean.
Perhaps a thousand enthusiastic fans crowded into a cramped space to enjoy the high-energy performance. Newsom, who took his tie off after the banquet, spoke for only a few minutes and no politics was committed. Gavin and his guys held court in a bar next to the stage during the concert, greeting various well-wishers and party-goers. It was a nice show, with Wyclef Jean having moved beyond rap per se, thankfully, as I got my fill circa Bulworth.
Brown’s scene earlier at the Governor’s Mansion was rather different. An operation magically appeared, as always happens with the Browns even when they’re not officially running, to move the crowd lined up on the sidewalk onto the historic grounds and keep the delegates adequately lubricated with beer and white wine. There were about 800 people there, with many repeatedly enjoying the Brown trademark chips and salsa. Brown, who wasn’t sure if he’d give another speech, having just given a mostly off-the-cuff address to the same people earlier at the convention, did end up giving one of his typically ironic, teasing impromptu talks.
Anne Gust Brown showed off the infamous “blue Plymouth,” the cheapskate official gubernatorial car during Brown’s first two terms as governor, which was towed over for the occasion from the California Automotive Museum. For his part, Brown, who hadn’t known his old state car would be there, seemed more engaged by a typewriter upstairs, which he said served him in good stead studying for the bar exam, which the Yale Law grad took glee in reminding that he’d flunked the first time out.
But what about the car? Brown told me he is going to get it tuned up. “So it’ll be fired up and ready to go!”
** OBAMA TODAY – SUNDAY. President Barack Obama has no public events today. He will play his first round of golf as president this morning on a course at Andrews Air Force Base.
There will be a White House briefing today on the swine flu outbreak with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and acting Centers for Disease Control director Richard Besser.
Obama, naturally, is monitoring that situation – which has led to the cessation of public events in Mexico City – as well as the crisis in Pakistan.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Lebanon, on an unannounced visit, following her surprise trip yesterday to Iraq.
** CAL DEMS: THE BIG SATURDAY MORNING SPEECHES. So, the morning session has come and gone. And while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks this afternoon, the main show was in the morning.
US Senator Barbara Boxer, not surprisingly, formally announced her bid for a fourth term in a rousing speech to the convention. There was a huge demonstration for her, and lots of obvious enthusiasm. What did she say? Well, lots of good stuff for the convention. Like what a night and day experience it is to have Barack Obama as the president rather than George W. Bush. Boxer is feisty, smart, and charming, and is Californians’ designated fighter in the Senate. She says she will have a tough race. But with Schwarzenegger having no interest in running, and the Republicans seemingly relying on either far right Orange County Assemblyman Chuck DeVore or former Hewlett-Packard CEO (and McCain campaign official) Carly Fiorina, it’s hard for me to do anything other than describe her as a mortal lock for re-election.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and his team have been working for months to organize a strong convention presence. And some would have it that this kept Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who also may run for governor, home for the weekend. Ostensibly to work on his city’s big budget crisis. But, while Newsom’s operation impressed in the context of a start-up operation, if Villaraigosa stayed away because of that it was probably a mistake.
Newsom had a loud cheering claque up at the very front. But I roamed across the convention hall filming while he spoke, and the reaction in most of the crowd was tepid at best. Newsom, perhaps coincident with his name, emphasized the “new.” (On Monday I’ll recount what one of his aides had to say, rather amusingly, about signs, positioning, buttons, and “Secret Service-like” pins for backers.)
Looking over his prepared text here, I recall that Newsom called for “a new direction for California,” which happens to be the title of the speech. A new direction in … health care, education, government (extolling his city’s fiscal health, though actually San Francisco has a larger budget deficit for its size than LA has for its size), and economy.
Newsom is running on his record in San Francisco, brandishing the City by the Bay as a sort of paradise. He’s also running as NEWsom, in contrast to the old ways of doing business. Taking some shots at, presumably, former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown, Newsom closed by asking if Democrats will “take a stroll down memory lane, or a sprint into the future? … Will we choose the past, or will we embrace the future? … We’re not a state of memories, we’re a state of dreams. We’re not content to re-live history, we’re going to keep making it.”
When that famed avatar of the past and champion of the status quo, the aforementioned Brown, got around to taking the stage some time later, he ignored Newsom. Speaking mostly off-the-cuff, sans moveable cheerers with signs, he talked about the new day under Barack Obama without torture as national policy.
He noted that Obama, in his Earth Day address, praised California as the model for the rest of America on energy, for policies that Brown put into place and that other governors have since followed. He talked about his work as attorney general on greenhouse gas reduction around the state and in suing the Bush/Cheney Administration. He talked about the corruption of the economy, and moves he is making as attorney general to bring corporate wrongdoers to heel. And he spoke philosophically about education, decrying the one-size-fits-all mentality. He also said some other stuff the delegates liked.
And so the not-so-great drama drew to a close.
Brown hosts a reception for delegates tonight at the historic Governor’s Mansion in downtown Sacramento. The Eagles won’t be there. And Newsom hosts a concert and block party featuring Grammy-winner Wyclef Jean.
** CALI DEM CONVENTION QUICK HITS. On Friday … The Democrats’ resolutions committee endorsed the package of state budget compromise-related initiatives by a wide margin. Opponents were spirited, but didn’t bring a strong fight. Not one but two reps from the college faculty union spoke in opposition, and were easily countered by the state building trades. Opponents of the measure were in a minority in the audience crowding into the committee room. But there will be a convention floor fight on Sunday. …
Before the convention started, I had a long talk Thursday night with former Governor Gray Davis. How does this very shrewd figure view the overall California political scene? I’ll have more on that to follow, but here’s his take on the undramatic California governor’s race. The obvious favorite to succeed Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor? Former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown. Davis was his gubernatorial chief of staff, though they’re not buddies.
Davis thinks highly of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who was speaker of the state Assembly during many of Davis’s gubernatorial successes, and the former governor thinks he would be a formidable candidate if he runs. Which he thinks he wants to do. Davis also thinks San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom might catch fire, if he can make a connection in the popular mind with President Barack Obama. (Newsom was national co-chairman of the Hillary Clinton campaign, working against Obama in the primaries.)
Davis doesn’t think much of the Republican candidates, but thinks they could be dangerous if very well-funded. Ex-eBay CEO Meg Whitman doesn’t impress him. State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner has enough seasoning to be a threat against a candidate who isn’t combat-ready. …
Villaraigosa isn’t at the convention, of course, as discussed here on Friday. Newsom is omnipresent, resplendent in a silvery tie, rolling with a large staff and a moveable visibility/cheering claque, which I kept running into yesterday afternoon as they were receiving instructions. Brown is here, naturally, though he says he’s not a candidate yet. He rolls with himself. …
Brown came to the so-called “Hacks and Flacks” dinner last night at Lucca, a popular Sacramento eatery, That dinner is a fixture at state Democratic and Republican conventions, drawing the press and top political operatives. This year’s was organized by former San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury-News editors Jerry Roberts and Phil Trounstine, who wrote it up here at their CalBuzz blog.
It drew key remnants of the California political press corps and various well-known operatives and strategists. Brown showed up by himself and stayed till the event ended, talking at length with everyone there. And presumably dumbfounding Newsom strategist Garry South, who is trying to push the line that Brown has a very early bed time. …
Like Brown, Newsom made the rounds of the party caucuses in the afternoon. I caught him at the party’s computer and internet caucus, which I walked over to with former state Controller and top Obama backer Steve Westly, who chaired the Obama contingent of the California delegation to the Democratic National Convention and was a national finance co-chair for Obama. Newsom did well, talking about his “proud failure” of trying to get a municipal wifi program in place in San Francisco. The plan was blocked by liberals who didn’t want Google and Earthlink to dominate the system.
Westly was in good form, meeting with Obama backers during the day. The ex-eBay honcho, now a top Silicon Valley greentech venture capitalist, has considered a second race for governor following his near-miss run in the 2006 primary, but almost certainly will not make the race in 2010. He has a couple of young children. …
Had an interesting encounter with Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi, who this week dropped from the governor’s race to become frontrunner in a likely special election for Ellen Tauscher’s East Bay congressional seat. In front of a small crowd, he declared, amusingly, that it all would have been different for him had I not convinced him in the 1980s not to have Arnold Schwarzenegger headline a big fundraiser for him.
I’ll tell the full story another time, but the short form is that I told Garamendi it was a very bad idea because, among other things, Schwarzenegger would never, ever be a big movie star. A story that Schwarzenegger finds more amusing than Garamendi …
Some big speeches on Saturday morning coming up …
** MORE THOUGHTS COMING ON THE CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION … After a late night of it.
** STEVE SCHMIDT ON THE STATE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. The former John McCain and Arnold Schwarzenegger campaign director says: “It is near-extinct in many ways in the Northeast, it is extinct in many ways on the West Coast, and it is endangered in the Mountain West, increasingly endangered in the Southwest. And if you look at the state of the party, it is a shrinking entity.”
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … OBAMA’S AFPAK CRISIS. Meanwhile, I’ll be spending a fair amount of time roaming around the California Democratic convention, gathering information.
** OBAMA TODAY – SATURDAY. President Barack Obama receives his daily intelligence and economic briefings this morning and meets with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
He has no public events today.
Obama has dispatched Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on a surprise trip to Iraq. She’s meeting in Baghdad now with top Iraqi leaders. There’s been a recent spurt in terrorist violence there, and Clinton is delivering the message that the US remains committed to Iraq even as it prepares to withdraw troops.
Clinton goes to Kuwait after Iraq.
Obama will be spending a good deal of time focusing again on the deteriorating situation in Pakistan. Under the new administration, which replaced that of General Pervez Musharaff, the Pakistani Taliban have metastized through much of the country, and are edging perilously close to the capital of Islamabad.
Readers will recall reports here earlier this month of a virtual shutdown of activities at the US Embassy there, and subsequent arrests of 350 suspected jihadists in and around the capital in preemption of major terrorist strikes.
Obama is about to dispatch Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to Islamabad to confer with the Pakistani leadership.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Baghdad early Saturday morning on a surprise trip to Iraq.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has no planned public events this weekend.
Schwarzenegger, incidentally, who told me in my Tuesday afternoon live webchat with him that he planned to appear in the forthcoming Terminator Salvation movie if it worked out technologically – he didn’t act on set – will be appearing in the film in a cameo role via the wonders of digital mapping technology. More to follow on that. You can listen to the conversation here.
** OBAMA’S EARTH DAY ENERGY DECLARATION: CALIFORNIA MAY BE THE NATIONAL MODEL HE SAYS, BUT IT’S NOT ENOUGH.President Barack Obama made a big show for Earth Day of his commitment to a much greener energy future, and in the process paid a huge compliment to California for dramatically altering its energy path three decades ago. But even though California, as Obama puts it, shows the rest of America what can be done, it’s not enough.
Obama spoke after touring a wind energy equipment factory, once a Maytag washing machine factory, in Newton, Iowa. While he talked up innovation in new technologies, he noted that, in our history, increases in innovation are generally coupled with big increases in consumption. And that that can lead to disaster.
Obama framed the the development of green energy technology — which includes energy efficiency tech as well as renewable sources such as wind, solar, waves, geothermal, and biomass — as the way out of the usual false choice on the environment. …
** THE REPUBLICAN CHOICE: REACT OR MODERNIZE.It’s been a strange week for the Republican Party, with noisy events pushing the old-time religion, a speech by a prominent consultant urging a new moderation, and back-to-the-future reactions to President Barack Obama’s friendly gestures to Hugo Chavez and other critics of America.
Who will prevail? The reactors or the modernizers? …
** THE STATE OF PLAY OF STATE OF PLAY.State of Play is a political thriller wrapped inside a journalistic thriller that works better as the latter.
It’s a good film with a strong cast that is based on a better BBC miniseries which is better cast than this American remake. Which is not the same as having a better cast.
The big bad here is a Blackwater-like security outfit called Pointcorp. In a sign of how the mighty have fallen, Blackwater already had to change its name to the faintly prepostereous Xe, so bad has its reputation become in the wake of being banned from Iraq. In a further sign, a Blackwater equivalent is the big bad — so far, at least — on this season of the longtime hit thriller series 24.
Which starts to get at a problem with the movie. There’s something very familiar about it, which may be inevitable as the story gets condensed into the customary thriller elements.
In the 2003 British miniseries, the big bad was an energy corporation. Which may actually be more timely than poor old Blackwater at this point, though it probably seemed very timely a few years ago when the American remake was being conceived. … From my April 18th column.
** OBAMA AND MEXICO: MANAGING INCIPIENT CHAOS.Another country, another crisis. President Barack Obama summited yesterday in Mexico City with President Felipe Calderon, pledging to help Mexico’s elected government beat back the challenge of powerful drug cartels that increasingly out-gun Mexican security forces. But Obama’s measures will only manage the incipient chaos, not end it.
Which has actually long been typical of America’s policies with regard to Mexico.
In his 1981 book “The Nine Nations of North America,” author Joel Garreau referred to the Border Patrol as “a regulatory agency.” In the sense that it was not set up to halt illegal immigration from Mexico but to manage it. To make it difficult enough to prevent an open border scenario, but not so difficult as to prevent American businesses from benefiting from the efficiencies of an influx of cheap labor, even as American social institutions struggled to provide services. … From my April 17th column.
** EARL GREY, ANYONE? A CALIFORNIA CAPITOL TEA PARTY. Before a crowd that organizers claimed was 15,000 to 20,000, but these experienced ex-advance man’s eyes saw as about 3,000, a parade of right-wing personalities used tax day to decry taxation, government, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and President Barack Obama with a rally outside California’s state Capitol in Sacramento.
The event, like other so-called tea parties around the country, was heavily promoted by the Fox News channel, right-wing talk radio hosts, and the right-wing blogosphere. …
If you are wondering what Fox News is doing organizing anti-administration rallies around the country, its obvious strategy is to aggregate all the already existing opponents of Obama into one audience. … From my April 15th column.
** OBAMA’S CRISIS MANAGEMENT: OF PIRATES AND MISSILES.Barack Obama’s management of two flashpoint crises — both relatively minor but caught up in the now typical hysteria of our media culture — gives us some good clues about his crisis management style.
The just concluded hostage crisis off the coast of Somalia and the launch early this month of a new North Korean missile showed Obama in “no drama” mode, determined to avoid distraction and continue with his core messaging strategy.
Obama actually took a lower profile public role with the more consequential of the two crises, the Somali pirate hostage crisis, than he did with the North Korean missile launch. But he seems to have spent more time behind the scenes on the crisis on which he spent the least amount of time before the cameras. … From my April 13th column.
** OBAMA’S NEW GEOPOLITICS: 10 KEY TAKEAWAYS.President Barack Obama’s just concluded big international tour is part of a major reshuffling in geopolitics. Here are 10 key takeaways from happenings in and around his trip. … From my April 9th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th 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.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in two wars in the region, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial.
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. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, crude oil closed on Friday at $51.55 per barrel. Energy markets are closed on the weekend.
This is up about $18 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, due in part to some positive economic signs and in part to fresh geopolitical jitters over Pakistan.
President Barack Obama, flanked by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Bob Gates, held his first official Cabinet meeting earlier in the week.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … OBAMA’S AFPAK CRISIS. Meanwhile, I’ll be spending a fair amount of time the next few days roaming around the California Democratic convention, gathering information.
** CALIFORNIA 2010. Pakistan, merely one of America’s most critically important topics of concern, may be going critical, but I’ll spending most of the next couple of days at a California Democratic Party convention. Counter-intuitive, no?
Actually, I wouldn’t be writing a column over the weekend anyway, and I always attend these conventions. Though after dozens of state party conventions, and quite a few national conventions, the thrill of the events has largely dissipated.
They are good for networking and string-gathering, as well as updating scouting reports.
This convention focuses on the early stage of an underwhelming gubernatorial race, and the party’s angst over the state budget compromise-related initiatives on the May 19th special election ballot. Angst because the party’s elected leaders are, however, reluctantly, for them and some activist opponents, who hate constraints on government, have no real world alternatives to them.
As for the prospective candidates for governor, we have the obvious frontrunner, former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown. Who is not a candidate yet, you see, because he hasn’t declared and hasn’t hired a retinue of aides and advisors. What he is doing is raising a lot of money, far more than his prospective rivals, and, as attorney general, involving himself in key issues that have ongoing public resonance.
As for the retinue of aides, I don’t know that he’s into that at all. He certainly doesn’t have to carry a big consulting payroll to tell him how to win elections, either in California, or in the various states in which he’s won presidential primaries. Brown usually shows up for key events by himself, or with a driver.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, running second behind Brown in most of the polls, won’t be on hand this weekend. There’s been a twitter or two of excitement about what it means, with most of it centering on how Villaraigosa supposedly can’t compete with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s months-in-the-making convention organization – he’ll hold a block party Saturday night sponsored by College Democrats featuring rap star Wyclef Jean – or Brown’s reception and somewhat sardonic tour of his father’s Governor’s Mansion.
Villaraigosa took a shot at Newsom in canceling, with an aide saying the mayor isn’t going to “Twitter while Rome burns.” Newsom, of course, formally announced his candidacy the other day with a tweet to followers – with a big assist from Newsom’s friend Ashton Kutcher, the King of Twitter (who tweeted to his more than one million followers about Newsom’s virtues) – and an appearance at Facebook headquarters.
The LA mayor and former Assembly speaker’s express reason for not attending is that he has a big city budget crisis to attend to. But San Francisco’s city budget crisis is proportionately bigger than LA’s, and that’s not stopping Newsom.
It may be, as I’ve suspected, that Villaraigosa, who would very much like to run for governor, has some hesitation about his ability to come from second (or third, in a new private poll put out by some consultants using a lot of pro-Newsom analysis) to first over Brown.
Villaraigosa is not a terrific platform speaker, as I noticed when he gave a speech at my invitation at a conference I helped organize some years ago.
Brown will give his usual strong speech. Newsom will give his usual good, charismatic speech. And I expected Villaraigosa to suffer some in comparison. It’s interested me that Villaraigosa has passed up other convention speaking opportunities.
But it’s far too early to count Villaraigosa out, as I’ve noticed some in the business are trying to do. Though both he and Newsom were hurt by personal scandals in their first terms as mayor, Villaraigosa is mayor of the state’s most important city, he’s charismatic and shrewd, he had success as Assembly speaker so he’s not a beginner at the state level, he has a bully pulpit in the LA media market, and he’s very popular with Latinos. (Though Brown, who was a close friend of Latino icon Cesar Chavez, has long been a champion of Latinos, he’s not actually Latino himself.)
Although he’s dropped out of the race, the first to declare, Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi, will also speak. He’s running for Congress now. He was always going to find it very hard to break through, especially since fundraising – always an achilles heel for him – was not going well.
So, another state Democratic convention. I just hope the Taliban don’t take Islamabad while I’m listening to Gavin Newsom sing the praises of a Grammy winner.
Incidentally, I had a long talk about all this stuff – well, not the Pakistan or Twitter stuff – last night with former Governor Gray Davis. More to follow on that.
Schmidt, the father of hundreds of attacks on Obama, spoke of the president’s political skills with unabashed admiration.
“This was, in my view, the unfinished Bobby Kennedy campaign – the idealism, the passion, the inspiration he gave to people, it was organic and it was real and it wasn’t manufactured at a tactical level in the campaign.”
The McCain campaign, Schmidt said, was “the strategic equivalent of throwing a football through a tire at 50 yards,” an analogy that Plouffe agreed with – though he said he hadn’t seen it that way at the time. …
Plouffe was not quite content to grant Schmidt that the campaigns’ managers had nothing to do with the outcome. In fact, he said, he sympathized with Schmidt’s position of seeing only one, narrow path to victory because he’d faced it himself – in the primary. “We thought that nine times out of ten Hillary Clinton would probably win the primary,” he said. “If we made one big mistake we’d be out of the race.” …
What Schmidt was, mostly, was resigned: He recounted the frustrations and desperation of the campaign, culminating with the decision that insiders continue to debate: To nominate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, rather than McCain’s first choice, Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, for vice president.
After taking soundings on Lieberman, Schmidt said, “It was communicated back to us very clearly from within the party that not only was Senator Lieberman not acceptable, but any pro-choice nominee was not acceptable, [and] it would lead to a floor fight at the convention with an alternate nominee for Vice President put into play.” …
Plouffe, still a key advisor to the White House political operation, also reflected on Obama’s first hundred days, and argued that his agenda is as ambitious as promised, and brushed off the notion that Obama is doing too much.
“Only in Washington would this be a credible debate – that maybe we should wait to make our country more energy independent and create cutting-edge green jobs, maybe we should wait to cut healthcare costs that are strangling business and families, maybe we should wait to create more graduates in math and science,” he said. “This isn’t even a decision for [Obama].”
“One of the tough things about this politically is that a lot of the progress we make in these areas won’t always be evident in the next election or the one after that or the one after that,” Plouffe said.
“In 20 or 25 years when we have wind turbines all over this country and solar panels and we’ve figured out how to deal with coal emissions and we’ve figured out how to deal with nuclear storage and we’re exporting jobs and technology around the world,” Plouffe said, it will be clear “that at this moment Washington for the first time in a long time answered the call and did the right thing.”
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama receives his daily intelligence and economic briefings this morning and meets with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
Obama then has his weekly working luncheon meeting with Vice President Joe Biden in the Oval Office.
At 10:30 AM Pacific, Obama speaks on higher education and help for the middle class in the Diplomatic Room of the White House.
Which is a rather limited public schedule for this president.
Obama will be spending a good deal of time focusing again on the deteriorating situation in Pakistan. Under the new administration, which replaced that of General Pervez Musharaff, the Pakistani Taliban have metastized through much of the country, and are edging perilously close to the capital of Islamabad.
Readers will recall reports here earlier this month of a virtual shutdown of activities at the US Embassy there, and subsequent arrests of 350 suspected jihadists in and around the capital in preemption of major terrorist strikes.
Obama is about to dispatch Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to Islamabad to confer with the Pakistani leadership.
The deterioration of the state and rolling Talibanization of Pakistan is a huge challenge to America’s “AfPak” strategy.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE: HAPPY ABOUT IMPLEMENTATION OF HIS LOW-CARBON FUEL STANDARD. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has no public events today. He is engaged in private meetings and discussions around the state budget compromise-related initiatives on the May 19th special election ballot.
Schwarzenegger was very heartened by the California Air Resources Board’s adoption of regulations late yesterday to implement his 2007 executive order establishing the first low-carbon fuel standard in America.
Schwarzenegger issued his executive order to further the state’s greenhouse gas reduction program. President Barack Obama has also called for a low-carbon fuel standard at the national level.
The Air Resources Board adopted regulations over objections from some business interests and corn-based ethanol producers, with a phased-in reduction beginning in 2011 and culminating in 2020 with the carbon content of fuels reduced by 10%.
Schwarzenegger, incidentally, who told me in my Tuesday afternoon live webchat with him that he planned to appear in the forthcoming Terminator Salvation movie if it worked out technologically, will be appearing in the film. More to follow on that. You can listen to the interview here.
** OBAMA’S EARTH DAY ENERGY DECLARATION: CALIFORNIA MAY BE THE NATIONAL MODEL HE SAYS, BUT IT’S NOT ENOUGH.President Barack Obama made a big show for Earth Day of his commitment to a much greener energy future, and in the process paid a huge compliment to California for dramatically altering its energy path three decades ago. But even though California, as Obama puts it, shows the rest of America what can be done, it’s not enough.
Obama spoke after touring a wind energy equipment factory, once a Maytag washing machine factory, in Newton, Iowa. While he talked up innovation in new technologies, he noted that, in our history, increases in innovation are generally coupled with big increases in consumption. And that that can lead to disaster.
Obama framed the the development of green energy technology — which includes energy efficiency tech as well as renewable sources such as wind, solar, waves, geothermal, and biomass — as the way out of the usual false choice on the environment. …
** THE REPUBLICAN CHOICE: REACT OR MODERNIZE.It’s been a strange week for the Republican Party, with noisy events pushing the old-time religion, a speech by a prominent consultant urging a new moderation, and back-to-the-future reactions to President Barack Obama’s friendly gestures to Hugo Chavez and other critics of America.
Who will prevail? The reactors or the modernizers? …
** THE STATE OF PLAY OF STATE OF PLAY.State of Play is a political thriller wrapped inside a journalistic thriller that works better as the latter.
It’s a good film with a strong cast that is based on a better BBC miniseries which is better cast than this American remake. Which is not the same as having a better cast.
The big bad here is a Blackwater-like security outfit called Pointcorp. In a sign of how the mighty have fallen, Blackwater already had to change its name to the faintly prepostereous Xe, so bad has its reputation become in the wake of being banned from Iraq. In a further sign, a Blackwater equivalent is the big bad — so far, at least — on this season of the longtime hit thriller series 24.
Which starts to get at a problem with the movie. There’s something very familiar about it, which may be inevitable as the story gets condensed into the customary thriller elements.
In the 2003 British miniseries, the big bad was an energy corporation. Which may actually be more timely than poor old Blackwater at this point, though it probably seemed very timely a few years ago when the American remake was being conceived. … From my April 18th column.
** OBAMA AND MEXICO: MANAGING INCIPIENT CHAOS.Another country, another crisis. President Barack Obama summited yesterday in Mexico City with President Felipe Calderon, pledging to help Mexico’s elected government beat back the challenge of powerful drug cartels that increasingly out-gun Mexican security forces. But Obama’s measures will only manage the incipient chaos, not end it.
Which has actually long been typical of America’s policies with regard to Mexico.
In his 1981 book “The Nine Nations of North America,” author Joel Garreau referred to the Border Patrol as “a regulatory agency.” In the sense that it was not set up to halt illegal immigration from Mexico but to manage it. To make it difficult enough to prevent an open border scenario, but not so difficult as to prevent American businesses from benefiting from the efficiencies of an influx of cheap labor, even as American social institutions struggled to provide services. … From my April 17th column.
** EARL GREY, ANYONE? A CALIFORNIA CAPITOL TEA PARTY. Before a crowd that organizers claimed was 15,000 to 20,000, but these experienced ex-advance man’s eyes saw as about 3,000, a parade of right-wing personalities used tax day to decry taxation, government, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and President Barack Obama with a rally outside California’s state Capitol in Sacramento.
The event, like other so-called tea parties around the country, was heavily promoted by the Fox News channel, right-wing talk radio hosts, and the right-wing blogosphere. …
If you are wondering what Fox News is doing organizing anti-administration rallies around the country, its obvious strategy is to aggregate all the already existing opponents of Obama into one audience. … From my April 15th column.
** OBAMA’S CRISIS MANAGEMENT: OF PIRATES AND MISSILES.Barack Obama’s management of two flashpoint crises — both relatively minor but caught up in the now typical hysteria of our media culture — gives us some good clues about his crisis management style.
The just concluded hostage crisis off the coast of Somalia and the launch early this month of a new North Korean missile showed Obama in “no drama” mode, determined to avoid distraction and continue with his core messaging strategy.
Obama actually took a lower profile public role with the more consequential of the two crises, the Somali pirate hostage crisis, than he did with the North Korean missile launch. But he seems to have spent more time behind the scenes on the crisis on which he spent the least amount of time before the cameras. … From my April 13th column.
** OBAMA’S NEW GEOPOLITICS: 10 KEY TAKEAWAYS.President Barack Obama’s just concluded big international tour is part of a major reshuffling in geopolitics. Here are 10 key takeaways from happenings in and around his trip. … From my April 9th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th 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.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in two wars in the region, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial.
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.
This is up from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, due in part to some positive economic signs and in part to fresh geopolitical jitters over Pakistan.
President Barack Obama discussed his somewhat tense White House meeting with financial executives.
** QUICK HITS.Word out of the Obama White House is that the government of Pakistan “is being bucked up” to fight back against the slow-rolling jihad rolling towards the capital. The Pakistani army is still formidable, and no US troops are anticipated. … President Obama will do the third prime time press conference of his presidency next Wednesday, which coincides with the 100th day of his tenure. Presidents Bush and Clinton did only eight prime time pressers during the 16 years of their presidencies. … Former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown sued Wells Fargo today for what he called $1.5 billion of deceptive and fraudulent securities sold to the public. … Brown has a big lead for a 2010 California Democratic gubernatorial primary in a new private poll released by pollster Ben Tulchin, who says he’s unaligned. (He does not work for Brown, who has longtime pollsters.) It’s Brown 31%, SF Mayor Gavin Newsom 16%, LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa 12%, Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi 11%, and Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell 6%. In other polling, all of which shows Brown in the lead with strong favorables, Villaraigosa runs second, with Newsom a more distant third. Garamendi, a favorite of older Dems, has dropped out, and I can tell you that O’Connell isn’t going to run. Brown is the only likely contender who did not campaign against Obama.
** OBAMA’S EARTH DAY ENERGY DECLARATION: CALIFORNIA MAY BE THE NATIONAL MODEL HE SAYS, BUT IT’S NOT ENOUGH.President Barack Obama made a big show for Earth Day of his commitment to a much greener energy future, and in the process paid a huge compliment to California for dramatically altering its energy path three decades ago. But even though California, as Obama puts it, shows the rest of America what can be done, it’s not enough.
Obama spoke after touring a wind energy equipment factory, once a Maytag washing machine factory, in Newton, Iowa. While he talked up innovation in new technologies, he noted that, in our history, increases in innovation are generally coupled with big increases in consumption. And that that can lead to disaster.
Obama framed the the development of green energy technology — which includes energy efficiency tech as well as renewable sources such as wind, solar, waves, geothermal, and biomass — as the way out of the usual false choice on the environment. …
** CALIFORNIA SPECIAL ELECTION: ROBOPOLL SHOWS MOST INITIATIVES IN TROUBLE. The CBS5 station in San Francisco has contracted with the Survey USA outfit for a robopoll on the six state budget compromise-related initiatives on the May 19th special election ballot. The poll shows Prop 1A, the state spending limit and budget rainy day fund that would extend temporary tax hikes, losing, along with Prop 1C, the securitization of future state Lottery earnings to help plug the state’s chronic budget gap. The fate of the other initiatives was unclear.
Of course, some big caveats. I’ve seen other polling with other results. Robopolls are fine for relatively simple questions about personalities or very well-defined issues. And even there, they can be unreliable in my observation. Not so good for complexity.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … OBAMA’S EARTH DAY ENERGY DECLARATION: WHY THE CALIFORNIA PATH IS BETTER THAN THE REST, BUT NOT ENOUGH.
** TERMINATOR ELECTED TO ROBOT HALL OF FAME. The most famous character played by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the T-800 model cyborg from the future in the Terminator series of films, has just been elected to the Robot Hall of Fame.
Should Schwarzenegger be flattered?
The Robot Hall of Fame was launched by the Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science. Its purpose? To “recognize excellence in robotics technology worldwide and honor the fictional and real robots that have inspired and embodied breakthrough accomplishments in robotics.”
Other inductees in this year’s class are NASA’s Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, the DaVinci Medical Robot System, and Huey, Dewey and Louie from the 1971 Bruce Dern film Silent Running.
Schwarzenegger portrayed the Terminator in 1984’s The Terminator, 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and 2003’s Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. NWN readers, and now much of the world, know to look for him, in one guise or another, in next month’s Terminator Salvation. That portion of my webchat with him Tuesday afternoon was picked up by media outlets around the world. More to follow.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the government of Pakistan “is basically abdicating” to Islamic jihadists.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden received the daily intelligence and economic briefings early this morning and met with senior advisors in the White House.
At 8 AM Pacific, Obama attends the Holocaust Days of Remembrance ceremony at the national Capitol and delivers remarks. The event will be roadblocked on all cable news nets.
Back in the White House at 10:05 AM Pacific, Obama meets with leading executives in the credit card industry. Expect a tense time.
At 11:15 AM Pacific, Obama and Biden meet with the congressional leaders of both parties in the White House Cabinet Room. Among the items on tap: Final passage of the budget following agreement between both house versions and health care reform.
At 12:30 PM Pacific, Obama welcomes the University of Florida Gators football team to the East Room of the White House. Florida won the national college championship in January.
At 1 PM Pacific, Obama meets with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Oval Office.
Clinton yesterday complained that the Pakistani government is “basically abdicating” to Islamic jihadists. The Pakistanis have since launched two military operations against the Taliban that I’m aware of.
At 4:30 PM Pacific, Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama host a reception and summer in the White House Blue Room (my favorite) for members of Congress and their spouses.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks late this morning at the annual Bay Area Council conference at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco.
Before this friendly audience of business executives from around the Bay Area, he will be urging a yes vote on the state budget compromise-related initiatives on California’s May 19th special election ballot.
Tonight Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver host a big ticket fundraiser at their home in the Brentwood district of Los Angeles on behalf of the governor’s political committee and the special election initiatives. It costs about $100,000 to attend.
President Barack Obama presented the Commander-in-Chief Trophy to the U.S. Naval Academy football team on Tuesday in the White House. Navy beat the other service academies and went on to play in a bowl game.
** THE REPUBLICAN CHOICE: REACT OR MODERNIZE.It’s been a strange week for the Republican Party, with noisy events pushing the old-time religion, a speech by a prominent consultant urging a new moderation, and back-to-the-future reactions to President Barack Obama’s friendly gestures to Hugo Chavez and other critics of America.
Who will prevail? The reactors or the modernizers? …
** THE STATE OF PLAY OF STATE OF PLAY.State of Play is a political thriller wrapped inside a journalistic thriller that works better as the latter.
It’s a good film with a strong cast that is based on a better BBC miniseries which is better cast than this American remake. Which is not the same as having a better cast.
The big bad here is a Blackwater-like security outfit called Pointcorp. In a sign of how the mighty have fallen, Blackwater already had to change its name to the faintly prepostereous Xe, so bad has its reputation become in the wake of being banned from Iraq. In a further sign, In a further sign, a Blackwater equivalent is the big bad — so far, at least — on this season of the longtime hit thriller series 24.
Which starts to get at a problem with the movie. There’s something very familiar about it, which may be inevitable as the story gets condensed into the customary thriller elements.
In the 2003 British miniseries, the big bad was an energy corporation. Which may actually be more timely than poor old Blackwater at this point, though it probably seemed very timely a few years ago when the American remake was being conceived. … From my April 18th column.
** OBAMA AND MEXICO: MANAGING INCIPIENT CHAOS.Another country, another crisis. President Barack Obama summited yesterday in Mexico City with President Felipe Calderon, pledging to help Mexico’s elected government beat back the challenge of powerful drug cartels that increasingly out-gun Mexican security forces. But Obama’s measures will only manage the incipient chaos, not end it.
Which has actually long been typical of America’s policies with regard to Mexico.
In his 1981 book “The Nine Nations of North America,” author Joel Garreau referred to the Border Patrol as “a regulatory agency.” In the sense that it was not set up to halt illegal immigration from Mexico but to manage it. To make it difficult enough to prevent an open border scenario, but not so difficult as to prevent American businesses from benefiting from the efficiencies of an influx of cheap labor, even as American social institutions struggled to provide services. … From my April 17th column.
** EARL GREY, ANYONE? A CALIFORNIA CAPITOL TEA PARTY. Before a crowd that organizers claimed was 15,000 to 20,000, but these experienced ex-advance man’s eyes saw as about 3,000, a parade of right-wing personalities used tax day to decry taxation, government, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and President Barack Obama with a rally outside California’s state Capitol in Sacramento.
The event, like other so-called tea parties around the country, was heavily promoted by the Fox News channel, right-wing talk radio hosts, and the right-wing blogosphere. …
If you are wondering what Fox News is doing organizing anti-administration rallies around the country, its obvious strategy is to aggregate all the already existing opponents of Obama into one audience. … From my April 15th column.
** OBAMA’S CRISIS MANAGEMENT: OF PIRATES AND MISSILES.Barack Obama’s management of two flashpoint crises — both relatively minor but caught up in the now typical hysteria of our media culture — gives us some good clues about his crisis management style.
The just concluded hostage crisis off the coast of Somalia and the launch early this month of a new North Korean missile showed Obama in “no drama” mode, determined to avoid distraction and continue with his core messaging strategy.
Obama actually took a lower profile public role with the more consequential of the two crises, the Somali pirate hostage crisis, than he did with the North Korean missile launch. But he seems to have spent more time behind the scenes on the crisis on which he spent the least amount of time before the cameras. … From my April 13th column.
** OBAMA’S NEW GEOPOLITICS: 10 KEY TAKEAWAYS.President Barack Obama’s just concluded big international tour is part of a major reshuffling in geopolitics. Here are 10 key takeaways from happenings in and around his trip. … From my April 9th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th 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.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in two wars in the region, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial.
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.
President Barack Obama talked up renewable energy today in his Earth Day address in Iowa. He also praised California as the most efficient user of energy in America, a course charted, as Obama noted, three decades ago.
** THE REPUBLICAN CHOICE: REACT OR MODERNIZE.It’s been a strange week for the Republican Party, with noisy events pushing the old-time religion, a speech by a prominent consultant urging a new moderation, and back-to-the-future reactions to President Barack Obama’s friendly gestures to Hugo Chavez and other critics of America.
Who will prevail? The reactors or the modernizers? …
** OBAMA PRAISES CALIFORNIA’S ENERGY PATH ON EARTH DAY. President Barack Obama praised California today in his Earth Day address in Iowa as a model for the nation on energy, citing the approach pioneered by the Jerry Brown Administration.
My administration has already taken unprecedented action towards this goal. It’s work that begins with the simplest, fastest, most effective way we have to make our economy cleaner, and that is to make our economy more energy efficient. California has shown that it can be done. While electricity consumption grew 50% in this country over the last three decades, in California, it remained flat. Think about this – I want everybody to think about this – over the last several decades, the rest of the country, we used 50% more energy. California remained flat – used the same amount – even though they were growing just as fast as the rest of the country, because they were more energy efficient. They put in some good policy early on, that assured that they weren’t wasting energy. Now, if California can do it, then the whole country can do it.
** CALIFORNIA SPECIAL ELECTION GETS MORE INTERESTING. The proponents of the six state budget compromise-related initiatives on the May 19th special election ballot this morning went on the air with a TV ad.
It’s a bit on the generic side, with an actor playing a dad sitting on his porch, talking about pols not taking care of business and worrying about the future of his son, with whom he agrees to play catch. You see where this is going.
The pro side on the initiatives raised at least $12 million, far more than the opponents, who got a boost yesterday when SEIU contributed $500,000 to the no campaign. But that doesn’t buy much in a statewide election, as John Garamendi noticed when he ankled the governor’s race today.
Will SEIU pony up the funds for a real run of TV ads? As the representative of half the state government’s workforce, the union is, not surprisingly, against a state spending limit. But if the initiatives fail, the converse is true; their members will be among those hit the hardest.
Meanwhile, over on the right, a new group called Californians Against New Taxes has formed. Former LA Mayor Dick Riordan, who ran a bad campaign for governor – I revealed his spectacular blow-up and tirade against an LA Times reporter on his campaign bus – in 2002 before becoming a disastrous member of the Schwarzenegger Cabinet (as education secretary, he insulted a little girl), joins forces with far right figures such as Congressman Tom McClintock, Ventura County Supervisor Pete Foy (who threatens to run for governor), state Senator George Runner (who is running for lieutenant governor), and others. They had a press conference this morning in LA.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … STATE OF THE REPUBLICANS. (In the wake of several things, including last week’s American Tea Parties and Steve Schmidt speech to Log Cabin Republicans.)
I selected a variety of questions submitted by Californians and tried to weave the questions, Schwarzenegger’s answers, and my own thoughts into a conversational narrative.
Among a variety of things, Schwarzenegger revealed that he’s agreed to appear, in a small role, in the new Terminator Salvation movie coming out on May 21st. Assuming that new digital mapping technology works – he wasn’t on set to film the role – and I’m told that the tech does. The movie is set in the future, but a part of the future before Schwarzenegger’s terminator character is sent to the past. In the new movie, a key character encounters Schwarzenegger’s terminator as a prototype. I’ll have more on this as the movie approaches.
I asked Schwarzenegger what his biggest mistake has been as governor, and he gave a revealing answer about the 2005 special election, his not working together with a wider variety of players, and his backfiring decision to embrace the anti-labor “paycheck protection” initiative.
While Schwarzenegger has nearly two more years as governor, we did talk about what he might do in the future, as he is term limited as governor, can’t run for president as he was born in Austria, and doesn’t want to be a senator. He seems undecided and asked for suggestions from the public. But he also talked about more movies, a book about his experiences as governor and in life, a possible foundation, and ongoing work on climate change, renewable energy, and political reform.
We also discussed, at length, the economic crisis, California’s chronic budget crisis, next month’s special election, the politics of water, the gridlock of California’s political system, and greening the auto industry.
** GARAMENDI DROPPING OUT OF CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR’S RACE TO RUN FOR CONGRESS. Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi is, not surprisingly, dropping out of the race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination to run for a Bay Area congressional seat. Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher has been appointed undersecretary of state for arms control by President Obama. Assuming her confirmation by the Senate, that opens up her East Bay seat in a special election that will be called at some future date by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Garamendi was the first candidate to formally announce his candidacy for governor, last year, and today will announce that he is instead going to run for Congress.
He was running fourth in the Democratic field, behind potential candidates Jerry Brown, the former governor-turned-attorney general, and Antonio Villaraigosa, the LA mayor, and announced candidate Gavin Newsom, the mayor of San Francisco.
All the candidates trail Brown in fundraising by a wide margin. Garamendi did only about as well as Newsom in the first go-round through the end of last year, and reportedly dropped further back during the first quarter of this year.
Garamendi is one of the longtime veterans of California politics, having served in both houses of the Legislature, where he was once state Senate majority leader, served two terms as state insurance commissioner, and was deputy secretary of the interior under President Clinton. He’s run for governor several times before, losing to then LA Mayor Tom Bradley in 1982, pulling out of a race in 1986, losing to then state Treasurer Kathleen Brown (Jerry Brown’s sister) in 1994, and briefly dipping his toe into the 2003 California recall, which was won in landslide fashion by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Garamendi also lost a race for state controller in 1986 to Gray Davis, who was Jerry Brown’s chief of staff.
I expect Brown to pick up most of his support in the governor’s race.
As for the congressional race, Garamendi has a lot of experience and is quite knowledgeable about public policy. The race will not be a slam dunk for him, however. State Senator Mark DeSaulnier is already off and running and has the support of the local central labor council, a complicating factor for longtime labor friend Garamendi.
President Barack Obama and Senator Ted Kennedy discussed the Kennedy Serve America Act, a national service program signed into law yesterday by Obama.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama celebrates Earth Day today by linking in his program for new energy sources with a transformed US economy.
Obama travels today to Des Moines, Iowa, where his campaign took off last year following his big win in the Iowa caucuses over Hillary Clinton and John Edwards.
At 7 AM Pacific, Obama departs Andrews Air Force Base on Air Force One. He lands in Des Moines at 9:15 AM Pacific.
At 10:20 AM Pacific, Obama tours the Trinity Structural Towers Manufacturing Plant in Newton, Iowa. Once a Maytag washing machines plant, it is now a wind energy manufacturing plant.
At 11 AM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at Trinity Structural Towers on renewable energy, green jobs, and his economic recovery program.
At 12:15 PM Pacific, Obama flies out of Des Moines. He’s scheduled to be back at the White House at 2:30 PM Pacific.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom formally announced his candidacy for governor of California yesterday, appearing at the headquarters of the trendy social networking site Facebook.Newsom is a longshot candidate in the Democratic primary to replace Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who’s won two landslide victories but can’t run again due to term limits.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger celebrates Earth Day today with three events.
At 9:30 AM, he joins Walmart officials to tour a solar installation on the roof of a Sam’s Club facility in Glendora (suburban LA) and to make an annoucement about a new solar energy program.
At 11 AM, Schwarzenegger is in downtown LA at the rose garden in Exposition Park to speak at the opening of the Cool Globes exhibit, a public art project consisting of 60 giant globes that showing steps that people can take against the greenhouse effect.
At 1:45 PM, he is in Pleasanton, a suburban San Francisco Bay Area city, at the Shaklee Corp. for the ceremonial planting of the one millionth tree in the company’s tree-planting program.
** THE STATE OF PLAY OF STATE OF PLAY.State of Play is a political thriller wrapped inside a journalistic thriller that works better as the latter.
It’s a good film with a strong cast that is based on a better BBC miniseries which is better cast than this American remake. Which is not the same as having a better cast.
The big bad here is a Blackwater-like security outfit called Pointcorp. In a sign of how the mighty have fallen, Blackwater already had to change its name to the faintly prepostereous Xe, so bad has its reputation become in the wake of being banned from Iraq. In a further sign, In a further sign, a Blackwater equivalent is the big bad — so far, at least — on this season of the longtime hit thriller series 24.
Which starts to get at a problem with the movie. There’s something very familiar about it, which may be inevitable as the story gets condensed into the customary thriller elements.
In the 2003 British miniseries, the big bad was an energy corporation. Which may actually be more timely than poor old Blackwater at this point, though it probably seemed very timely a few years ago when the American remake was being conceived. … From my April 18th column.
** OBAMA AND MEXICO: MANAGING INCIPIENT CHAOS.Another country, another crisis. President Barack Obama summited yesterday in Mexico City with President Felipe Calderon, pledging to help Mexico’s elected government beat back the challenge of powerful drug cartels that increasingly out-gun Mexican security forces. But Obama’s measures will only manage the incipient chaos, not end it.
Which has actually long been typical of America’s policies with regard to Mexico.
In his 1981 book “The Nine Nations of North America,” author Joel Garreau referred to the Border Patrol as “a regulatory agency.” In the sense that it was not set up to halt illegal immigration from Mexico but to manage it. To make it difficult enough to prevent an open border scenario, but not so difficult as to prevent American businesses from benefiting from the efficiencies of an influx of cheap labor, even as American social institutions struggled to provide services. … From my April 17th column.
** EARL GREY, ANYONE? A CALIFORNIA CAPITOL TEA PARTY. Before a crowd that organizers claimed was 15,000 to 20,000, but these experienced ex-advance man’s eyes saw as about 3,000, a parade of right-wing personalities used tax day to decry taxation, government, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and President Barack Obama with a rally outside California’s state Capitol in Sacramento.
The event, like other so-called tea parties around the country, was heavily promoted by the Fox News channel, right-wing talk radio hosts, and the right-wing blogosphere. …
If you are wondering what Fox News is doing organizing anti-administration rallies around the country, its obvious strategy is to aggregate all the already existing opponents of Obama into one audience. … From my April 15th column.
** OBAMA’S CRISIS MANAGEMENT: OF PIRATES AND MISSILES.Barack Obama’s management of two flashpoint crises — both relatively minor but caught up in the now typical hysteria of our media culture — gives us some good clues about his crisis management style.
The just concluded hostage crisis off the coast of Somalia and the launch early this month of a new North Korean missile showed Obama in “no drama” mode, determined to avoid distraction and continue with his core messaging strategy.
Obama actually took a lower profile public role with the more consequential of the two crises, the Somali pirate hostage crisis, than he did with the North Korean missile launch. But he seems to have spent more time behind the scenes on the crisis on which he spent the least amount of time before the cameras. … From my April 13th column.
** OBAMA’S NEW GEOPOLITICS: 10 KEY TAKEAWAYS.President Barack Obama’s just concluded big international tour is part of a major reshuffling in geopolitics. Here are 10 key takeaways from happenings in and around his trip. … From my April 9th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th 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.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in two wars in the region, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial.
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.
President Barack Obama and CIA Director and former California Congressman Leon Panetta yesterday at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
** HARMAN DENIES ALL. LA Congresswoman Jane Harman, embroiled in a major controversy following yesterday’s sensational report in Congressional Quarterly and a new story in the New York Times, today denied that she asked an Israeli intelligence agent to intercede on her behalf in 2006 to become House Intelligence Committee chair in exchange for her helping accused Israeli spies.
Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., wrote Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday, saying she wants to make public all materials involving her — uncensored — so she can verify her claim that she never discussed a deal with anyone and never called the White House or the Justice Department.
Harman says she never interceded in a government investigation of the two lobbyists awaiting trial on charges of passing classified information to reporters and former diplomats. …
She said she learned from news reports that the FBI or National Security Agency secretly wiretapped her conversations in 2005 or 2006 while she was ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee. She urged Holder to investigate possible wiretapping of members of Congress and selective leaks of investigative material for political purposes, calling the recordings an abuse of power.
This is what we call going all in.
** NEW GALLUP POLL: BIG GOVERNMENT STILL VIEWED AS BIGGER THREAT THAN BIG BUSINESS. Perhaps not surprisingly, since big government can become thoroughly totalitarian, the new Gallup poll finds it to be more threatening than big business.
Gallup’s recent update of its long-standing trend question on whether big business, big labor, or big government will be the biggest threat to the country in the future finds Americans still viewing big government as the most serious threat. However, compared to Gallup’s last pre-financial-crisis measurement in December 2006, more now see big business and fewer see big government as the greater threat.
These shifts in attitudes have occurred even as the government has taken on an expanded role in regulating U.S. financial institutions in response to the financial crisis, under the Bush and Obama administrations.
Americans’ responses to these developments vary according to their partisan affiliation.
Now, 80% of Republicans view big government as the biggest threat to the country, up from 68% in December 2006. At the same time, Democrats’ perceptions of the greater threat are completely reversed. In December 2006, 55% of Democrats said big government posed the greater threat, while 32% said big business did. In the latest poll, a majority of Democrats now view big business as the greater threat (52%) while only about one in three think big government is.
Independents’ views did not change much over this period, with solid majorities in both polls saying big government is the greater threat.
This points up the contextual peril for the Obama Administration, should it be seen as overreaching or unsuccessful in its efforts.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … STATE OF THE REPUBLICANS. (In the wake of several things, including last week’s American Tea Parties and Steve Schmidt speech to Log Cabin Republicans.)
Newsom is in his second term as mayor. He was appointed to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors by then Mayor Willie Brown. He was a national co-chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, and campained heavily around the country against President Barack Obama. Newsom became an unwitting key figure in the successful Yes on 8 campaign last fall, which knocked down the mayor’s signature issue, same-sex marriage in California. Newsom’s new wife is expecting a baby.
Newsom’s grandfather was an advisor and confidante to the late Governor Pat Brown. Newsom’s father was appointed to the state appelate court by then Governor Jerry Brown. With that credential, Billy Newsom broke the Getty family trust, leading to a highly lucrative relationship for Gavin Newsom, who gave the most enthusiastic introduction to Jerry Brown at his inauguration as California’s attorney general in January 2007. Brown is the frontrunner, should he decide to return to the governorship he held for two terms in the 1970s and 1980s.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama, back from summitry in Mexico City and Trinidad, has a busy day today.
He’s received his daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office earlier this morning.
He meets twice this morning in the White House with King Abdullah of Jordan.
Jordan has always been a key facilitating country in Middle East peace efforts.
This afternoon, Obama presents the Commander-in-Chief Trophy to the U.S. Naval Academy football team in a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden.
Navy defeated Army and Air Force to win the service academy title last fall, and went on to a post-season bowl game.
Obama will give the commencement address at Annapolis next month.
Following the Navy football ceremony, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden meet with Senator Ted Kennedy and former President Bill Clinton in the Oval Office in the Oval Office to discuss national service. That will be at 11:45 AM Pacific.
This is former President Clinton’s first public visit to the Oval Office since Obama became president.
At 1 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks and signs the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act at The SEED School of Washington, D.C.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE – LIVE WEBCHAT THIS AFTERNOON. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger does a live webchat this afternoon on current issues with me. The discussion will last for a half-hour.
I’ll be selecting a number of questions submitted by the public. Questions must be submitted via Twitter with the hash tag #askGS.
Earlier in the afternoon, Schwarzenegger is in Los Angeles for an event at which AARP (American Association of Retired People), California Forward (the bipartisan reform group co-chaired by former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg), and the California Police Chiefs Association all endorse the state budget compromise-related initiatives on the May 19th special election ballot.
Star Trek, yes, tired old Star Trek, is shaping up as a very cool megahit movie under the direction of J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias). Zoe Saldana, seen in this Russia Today interview, plays Uhura in the film opening May 8th.
** THE STATE OF PLAY OF STATE OF PLAY.State of Play is a political thriller wrapped inside a journalistic thriller that works better as the latter.
It’s a good film with a strong cast that is based on a better BBC miniseries which is better cast than this American remake. Which is not the same as having a better cast.
The big bad here is a Blackwater-like security outfit called Pointcorp. In a sign of how the mighty have fallen, Blackwater already had to change its name to the faintly prepostereous Xe, so bad has its reputation become in the wake of being banned from Iraq. In a further sign, In a further sign, a Blackwater equivalent is the big bad — so far, at least — on this season of the longtime hit thriller series 24.
Which starts to get at a problem with the movie. There’s something very familiar about it, which may be inevitable as the story gets condensed into the customary thriller elements.
In the 2003 British miniseries, the big bad was an energy corporation. Which may actually be more timely than poor old Blackwater at this point, though it probably seemed very timely a few years ago when the American remake was being conceived. … From my new column.
** OBAMA AND MEXICO: MANAGING INCIPIENT CHAOS.Another country, another crisis. President Barack Obama summited yesterday in Mexico City with President Felipe Calderon, pledging to help Mexico’s elected government beat back the challenge of powerful drug cartels that increasingly out-gun Mexican security forces. But Obama’s measures will only manage the incipient chaos, not end it.
Which has actually long been typical of America’s policies with regard to Mexico.
In his 1981 book “The Nine Nations of North America,” author Joel Garreau referred to the Border Patrol as “a regulatory agency.” In the sense that it was not set up to halt illegal immigration from Mexico but to manage it. To make it difficult enough to prevent an open border scenario, but not so difficult as to prevent American businesses from benefiting from the efficiencies of an influx of cheap labor, even as American social institutions struggled to provide services. … From my April 17th column.
** EARL GREY, ANYONE? A CALIFORNIA CAPITOL TEA PARTY. Before a crowd that organizers claimed was 15,000 to 20,000, but these experienced ex-advance man’s eyes saw as about 3,000, a parade of right-wing personalities used tax day to decry taxation, government, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and President Barack Obama with a rally outside California’s state Capitol in Sacramento.
The event, like other so-called tea parties around the country, was heavily promoted by the Fox News channel, right-wing talk radio hosts, and the right-wing blogosphere. …
If you are wondering what Fox News is doing organizing anti-administration rallies around the country, its obvious strategy is to aggregate all the already existing opponents of Obama into one audience. … From my April 15th column.
** OBAMA’S CRISIS MANAGEMENT: OF PIRATES AND MISSILES.Barack Obama’s management of two flashpoint crises — both relatively minor but caught up in the now typical hysteria of our media culture — gives us some good clues about his crisis management style.
The just concluded hostage crisis off the coast of Somalia and the launch early this month of a new North Korean missile showed Obama in “no drama” mode, determined to avoid distraction and continue with his core messaging strategy.
Obama actually took a lower profile public role with the more consequential of the two crises, the Somali pirate hostage crisis, than he did with the North Korean missile launch. But he seems to have spent more time behind the scenes on the crisis on which he spent the least amount of time before the cameras. … From my April 13th column.
** OBAMA’S NEW GEOPOLITICS: 10 KEY TAKEAWAYS.President Barack Obama’s just concluded big international tour is part of a major reshuffling in geopolitics. Here are 10 key takeaways from happenings in and around his trip. … From my April 9th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th 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.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in two wars in the region, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial.
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.
President Barack Obama thanked Central Intelligence Agency staff in a speech earlier today at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. He also discussed his administration’s release of memos detailing the use of torture in past interrogations of suspected terrorists.
** MY LIVE WEBCHAT TOMORROW WITH ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER. I’m doing a live webchat tomorrow afternoon at 3:45 PM Pacific with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger …
From the Schwarzenegger press release: Gov. Schwarzenegger will participate in an “Ask the Governor” webcast Q&A session with the public.
Californians can submit their questions to the Governor through Twitter with the hash tag #askGS. Bill Bradley with New West Notes will serve as the moderator and will select which questions submitted by members of the public will be used. The webcast Q&A is expected to run for 30 minutes and can be viewed at www.gov.ca.gov.
Governor Schwarzenegger’s Twitter updates are posted under the handle “Schwarzenegger” and can be followed at http://twitter.com/Schwarzenegger. The Governor’s Twitter account currently has 290 updates and 46,750 followers.
Regular NWN posters are encouraged to submit questions here, as well. The most important topics are not mysterious.
** TEASER … WATCH FOR A LIVE WEBCHAT TOMORROW INVOLVING YOUR HOST.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … STATE OF THE REPUBLICANS. (In the wake of several things, including last week’s American Tea Parties and Steve Schmidt speech to Log Cabin Republicans.)
** MORE ON THE JANE HARMAN BOMBSHELL … With regard to the Congressional Quarterly bombshell this morning, discussed below, about LA Congresswoman Jane Harman reportedly being caught on a National Security Agency wiretap in 2006 with a suspected Israeli agent discussing trading her influence on behalf of two pro-Israel lobbyists suspected of spying for Israel in exchange for the suspected Israeli agent wielding influence with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to make Harman chair of the House Intelligence Committee.
Harman, as many longtime readers know, is a super-rich pol from the LA area, with wealth deriving from her marriage to industrialist Sidney Harman. She left Congress in 1998 to make a bid for the California governorship, and was immediately dubbed the Democratic frontrunner by many.
I didn’t think so, as she was unwilling/unprepared to discuss any California issues unrelated to women’s rights for the first month of her campaign. With Dianne Feinstein, after her usual long flirtation with the race, predictably declining to run, Harman faced another super-rich candidate, then Northwest Airlines turnaround artist Al Checchi, and Lieutenant Governor Gray Davis, Jerry Brown’s former chief of staff.
I thought Davis would win because the other two candidates were unqualified and not especially likable. Harman and Checchi nuked with one another with negative ads, and Davis ran away with the primary, and the general election, against right-wing state Attorney General Dan Lungren.
Harman managed to return to Congress a few years later, taking back her old seat from moderate Republican Steve Kuykendall, for whom the young Adam Mendelsohn, now Arnold Schwarzenegger’s senior political advisor, ran district operations.
Harman quickly became an expert on intelligence and national security matters. Usually going along the same course as the Israeli government on security matters, something not uncommon in Congress, and at times not at all unwise – and at times quite unwise – Harman was a strong backer of the Iraq War and of the secret intelligence practices of the Bush/Cheney Administration.
She became something of a backstop for the administration. Later, when it was fairly obvious that things had gone decidedly south, Harman turned against the Iraq War. But along the way, she had run afoul of San Francisco’s Nancy Pelosi, the future House speaker.
As the Dems headed toward a big majority win in the House in 2006, Harman made it clear that she wanted to chair the House Intelligence Committee. Pelosi made it clear she was against that.
As Pelosi at first had no candidate, then had a candidate who was totally unqualified – Texan Silvestre Reyes – in that he knew far less than close readers of this site about intelligence matters. Perhaps because what he thought he knew was totally wrong. Like, you know, who’s in Al Qaeda. Whether there are Sunni or Shia in Iran. Stuff like that.
This seemed like a bad idea, as Harman is quite smart and knowledgeable. But people associated with Pelosi told me it was not just a matter of the more liberal Pelosi not liking the more conservative Harman. So after making the obvious points about Reyes not knowing, er, which end is up, that was that for me.
Perhaps now we are seeing why Pelosi was so resistant to Harman chairing the House Intelligence Committee. This is going to be fascinating to watch.
Incidentally, it’s impossible to know this now, but it may be that, had Harman, something of a protege of Senator Dianne Feinstein (some of DiFi’s strategists ran her gubernatorial campaign in 1998), been House Intelligence Chair, she would have joined Feinstein in opposing the appointment of Leon Panetta as CIA director. Readers will remember my columns about that in January, strongly supporting Panetta. Panetta was an excellent choice, but Feinstein wanted the deputy director, who naturally had some involvement in the discredited practices of the Bush/Cheney years, to be the new director of CIA.
With the chairs of both intelligence committees opposing Panetta, the outcome might have been in doubt. As it was, Pelosi strongly supported Panetta and Feinstein, as I predicted at the time, quickly dropped her opposition.
** TONY WEST CONFIRMED AS ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL. Tony West, the Harvard-educated Oakland lawyer who was a key early backer of Barack Obama, serving as a California co-chair and national finance council member, was confirmed this afternoon by the Senate to be the new Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. West, who ran Ron Dellums’ campaign for mayor of Oakland, amongs quite a few other things, was one of the earliest top backers of Obama in the Golden State, along with former state Controller and Silicon Valley venture capitalist Steve Westly and San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, who is West’s sister-in-law.
The Obama Administration, concerned about the direction of the conference, had previously pulled its representation from the event. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Holland, Germany, and Israel had also declined to participate.
Meanwhile, jailed Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, a former finalist for Miss America, was visited by her parents, who traveled from America to see her. And top Iranian judicial officials, responding to the urgings of Obama, promised a prompt inquiry into her arrest and jailing on charges of espionage.
Ahmadinejad is in a tough re-election battle at home in a June election, with many questioning his international antics and upset about the regime’s management of the economy. While he is the most visible leader of the Iranian Islamic republic, he actually shares power with factions of very conservative and relatively pragmatic Islamic clerics.
This is a wild story, and will require some serious parsing, but it looks terrible for Harman, who did not get the Intel chairmanship.
According to Congressional Quarterly: Harman was recorded saying she would “waddle into” the AIPAC case “if you think it’ll make a difference,” according to two former senior national security officials familiar with the NSA transcript.
In exchange for Harman’s help, the sources said, the suspected Israeli agent pledged to help lobby Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., then-House minority leader, to appoint Harman chair of the Intelligence Committee after the 2006 elections, which the Democrats were heavily favored to win. Seemingly wary of what she had just agreed to, according to an official who read the NSA transcript, Harman hung up after saying, “This conversation doesn’t exist.”
Harman declined to discuss the wiretap allegations, instead issuing an angry denial through a spokesman. “These claims are an outrageous and recycled canard, and have no basis in fact,” Harman said in a prepared statement. “I never engaged in any such activity. Those who are peddling these false accusations should be ashamed of themselves.”
It’s true that allegations of pro-Israel lobbyists trying to help Harman get the chairmanship of the intelligence panel by lobbying and raising money for Pelosi aren’t new.
They were widely reported in 2006, along with allegations that the FBI launched an investigation of Harman that was eventually dropped for a “lack of evidence.” What is new is that Harman is said to have been picked up on a court-approved NSA tap directed at alleged Israel covert action operations in Washington.
And that, contrary to reports that the Harman investigation was dropped for “lack of evidence,” it was Alberto R. Gonzales, President Bush’s top counsel and then attorney general, who intervened to stop the Harman probe.
Why? Because, according to three top former national security officials, Gonzales wanted Harman to be able to help defend the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program, which was about break in The New York Times and engulf the White House.
President Barack Obama called for the release of Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, jailed in Iran as a “spy.”
MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK
Another busy week in presidential politics, and a week of moderate activity in California politics.
President Barack Obama is back from a second round of summiteering, this time in Mexico City and Trinidad. Now he needs to assess what has been accomplished by the expression of a new attitude, and various probes for opportunity.
Obama also heads back out into the country this week, going to Iowa in the middle of the week.
Obama’s engagement of Iran, which can be helpful with Afghanistan and Pakistan but which is problematic in so many ways, is complicated by the jailing on spying charges of Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi. She was born in the US, and was actually a finalist for Miss America, after winning the Miss North Dakota pageant. Saberi, who has worked for the BBC and other outlets and was writing a book, has a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University and another master’s in international relations from Cambridge University in England.
Iran is in the midst of a complex run-up to national elections in June, with many factions roiling already muddied waters.
Obama also needs to sort out where things are going in Mexico, following his summit with President Felipe Calderon, as well as the state of play with relations with a number of Latin American and Caribbean nations, notably Venezuela and Cuba.
Obama is getting predictable criticism from many conservatives for a friendly handshake with and acceptance of a book detailing exploitation of Latin America from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. He’s also being criticized for sitting through a 50-minute litany of complaint in the form of a speech by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, who was the target of a US-led proxy war in the 1980s, and for the beginnings of an opening of the near 50-year old embargo of Cuba.
Obama will also be assessing the situation in Afghanistan, which hasn’t gottten any worse, and Pakistan, which looks like it has gotten worse.
Then there’s the economic crisis. And the now familiar question of the banks, which were looking healthier as their own entities but which aren’t doing much lending. Until word came of serious losses coming from credit losses.
In California, the low-key campaign for the May 19th special election continues. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his bipartisan allies continue building their campaign for the state budget compromise-related initiatives and rolling out that campaign.
The 2010 governor’s race also continues, in a low-key way.
Former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown, the frontrunner, has done several interviews of late. Fellow Democrat Gavin Newsom, the San Francisco mayor, has continued having his town halls. LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has been pretty quiet after winning only 55% of the vote running against fringe candidates in his re-election and losing a heavily touted solar energy initiative. Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi, who has not been a leading factor, is looking at an open congressional seat.
On the Republican side, ex-eBay CEO and Republican presidential campaign official Meg Whitman and state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, inventor of cell phone tracking devices, continue currying favor with the right-wing on fiscal policy. The two have begun to scuffle over Whitman’s tenure at eBay.
I’ll have more on that stuff later.
President Barack Obama said in his Sunday press conference following the Summit of the Americas that there are promising new signs in relations between the U.S., Venezuela, and Cuba, but that the test “is not simply words but deeds.”
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama, back from summitry in Mexico City and Trinidad, has a busy day mostly focused on national security.
He’s received his daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office earlier this morning. At 8:30 AM Pacific, he meets with members of the Cabinet.
Then Obama goes via Marine One to Langley, Virginia, to the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency.
At 11:35 AM Pacific, Obama meets with CIA Director Leon Panetta and the deputy directors of CIA, along with other top agency officials.
At 12:30 AM Pacific, Obama addresses CIA staffers.
Obama then returns to the White House via Marine One.
At 1:30 PM Pacific, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden meet with Defense Secretary Bob Gates, a former CIA director himself, in the Oval Office.
Obama is going out to CIA in the wake of his administration’s release of very damning memoranda from the Bush/Cheney years detailing many torture practices employed in apparent efforts to gain intelligence. I use the word apparent because in some cases subjects were tortured heavily after their revelations. And in many cases, repeatedly. Much of the information derived seems to have been false.
The practices were justified by legal opinions handed down by Bush/Cheney Administration officials in the Justice Department. Obama has said that his administration will not prosecute CIA officers who engaged in the practices.
Obama, Biden, Panetta, and Gates have plenty to discuss today beyond that.
Iran, which tosses spying charges around very freely, has jailed an American journalist even as the two countries are exploring a rapprochement.
Fresh moves by Cuba and Venezuela over the past few days must be assessed.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a darling of the far left who was notably anti-American during the Bush/Cheney years, exchanged a warm handshake and greeting with Obama and presented him with a book about Latin America, detailing, among other things, a list of grievances against Yanqui imperialism. Chavez, a rather dictatorial figure who does nonetheless win elections in Venezuela, is probably an even more problematic character for Obama to deal with than the Castro brothers in Cuba, proving an apt footsy partner for Russia as it continues its complex negotiations with the US.
The deeply troubled situation in Pakistan appears to be deteriorating. Special envoy Richard Holbrooke is alarmed that jihadist figures who pushed successfully for sharia law in a region a hundred miles from the capital of Islamabad are not keeping up their end of the bargain with the Pakistani government.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. As I mentioned yesterday, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Detroit, Michigan this morning for an address to the 2009 Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress, which is hosted by Honda Motors. This is an annual convention. Schwarzenegger is pushing his agenda of greener and more efficient automotive technology.
The event was not webcast.
Following his talk, which takes the form of a moderated Q&A with a CNBC reporter, toured the exhibit hall to look at green vehicle prototypes.
Schwarzenegger returns to California and at 2:30 PM this afternoon tours the Orange County call center of the state’s Employment Development Department. Following complaints about constant busy signals encountered by unemployed people calling for the state’s benefits and services, Schwarzenegger had over 1000 additional staff brought on to handle the increased load and contracted out some calling services.
** THE STATE OF PLAY OF STATE OF PLAY.State of Play is a political thriller wrapped inside a journalistic thriller that works better as the latter.
It’s a good film with a strong cast that is based on a better BBC miniseries which is better cast than this American remake. Which is not the same as having a better cast.
The big bad here is a Blackwater-like security outfit called Pointcorp. In a sign of how the mighty have fallen, Blackwater already had to change its name to the faintly prepostereous Xe, so bad has its reputation become in the wake of being banned from Iraq. In a further sign, In a further sign, a Blackwater equivalent is the big bad — so far, at least — on this season of the longtime hit thriller series 24.
Which starts to get at a problem with the movie. There’s something very familiar about it, which may be inevitable as the story gets condensed into the customary thriller elements.
In the 2003 British miniseries, the big bad was an energy corporation. Which may actually be more timely than poor old Blackwater at this point, though it probably seemed very timely a few years ago when the American remake was being conceived. … From my new column.
** OBAMA AND MEXICO: MANAGING INCIPIENT CHAOS.Another country, another crisis. President Barack Obama summited yesterday in Mexico City with President Felipe Calderon, pledging to help Mexico’s elected government beat back the challenge of powerful drug cartels that increasingly out-gun Mexican security forces. But Obama’s measures will only manage the incipient chaos, not end it.
Which has actually long been typical of America’s policies with regard to Mexico.
In his 1981 book “The Nine Nations of North America,” author Joel Garreau referred to the Border Patrol as “a regulatory agency.” In the sense that it was not set up to halt illegal immigration from Mexico but to manage it. To make it difficult enough to prevent an open border scenario, but not so difficult as to prevent American businesses from benefiting from the efficiencies of an influx of cheap labor, even as American social institutions struggled to provide services. … From my April 17th column.
** EARL GREY, ANYONE? A CALIFORNIA CAPITOL TEA PARTY. Before a crowd that organizers claimed was 15,000 to 20,000, but these experienced ex-advance man’s eyes saw as about 3,000, a parade of right-wing personalities used tax day to decry taxation, government, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and President Barack Obama with a rally outside California’s state Capitol in Sacramento.
The event, like other so-called tea parties around the country, was heavily promoted by the Fox News channel, right-wing talk radio hosts, and the right-wing blogosphere. …
If you are wondering what Fox News is doing organizing anti-administration rallies around the country, its obvious strategy is to aggregate all the already existing opponents of Obama into one audience. … From my April 15th column.
** OBAMA’S CRISIS MANAGEMENT: OF PIRATES AND MISSILES.Barack Obama’s management of two flashpoint crises — both relatively minor but caught up in the now typical hysteria of our media culture — gives us some good clues about his crisis management style.
The just concluded hostage crisis off the coast of Somalia and the launch early this month of a new North Korean missile showed Obama in “no drama” mode, determined to avoid distraction and continue with his core messaging strategy.
Obama actually took a lower profile public role with the more consequential of the two crises, the Somali pirate hostage crisis, than he did with the North Korean missile launch. But he seems to have spent more time behind the scenes on the crisis on which he spent the least amount of time before the cameras. … From my April 13th column.
** OBAMA’S NEW GEOPOLITICS: 10 KEY TAKEAWAYS.President Barack Obama’s just concluded big international tour is part of a major reshuffling in geopolitics. Here are 10 key takeaways from happenings in and around his trip. … From my April 9th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th 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.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in two wars in the region, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial.
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.
This is up about $13 a barrel since enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, on anticipation of increased economic activity down the line, and on increased implementation of already agreed upon OPEC production cutbacks to support the price.
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