The Taliban stronghold of Marjah in southern Afghanistan has been declared captured by U.S., British, Canadian, and Afghan troops. Now begins the process of a successful civilian administration of the city, where some 2000 American and 1000 Afghan troops will be stationed for the next few months. The next target will be the other longtime Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.
** OBAMA TODAY – SUNDAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington and Maryland today.
Obama received his daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
He then visited military personnel wounded in action in Afghanistan and Iraq at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
Obama also underwent a physical examination. Doctors pronounced him to be in excellent health.
He is contemplating the path forward on national health care reform in the wake of Thursday’s summit at Blair House, and will have an announcement to make in the coming week.
Obama is also managing geopolitical crises in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Iran.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE – SUNDAY. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is out of state.
He has no scheduled public events today.
Schwarzenegger announced the California is ready to help Chile in the aftermath of its massive earthquake, just as it helped with rescue efforts in Haiti. California under Schwarzenegger has a sister state relationship with Chile, and Chilean President Michele Bachelet has visited Schwarzenegger in California.
Schwarzenegger also decried recent racist and anti-semitic incidents on University of California campuses in Davis, Irvine, and San Diego.
In his weekend video/radio address, President Barack Obama discusses the Olympic spirit, the great success of the American team in these Winter Olympics, and hopes for bipartisan action and health care reform.
** OBAMA TODAY – SATURDAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington and Maryland today.
He has received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
Obama has no scheduled public events today.
But he and First Lady Michelle Obama will attend their daughter Sasha’s basketball game in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
Obama is figuring out his path forward on national health care reform in the wake of Thursday’s big bipartisan summit at Blair House.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who would have to come up with some now missing votes, is sounding confident that something major can be done. She will go on a couple of Sunday chat shows, where she will undoubtedly have to expound further on this.
Thursday was the big national health care reform summit with leading members of Congress from both parties at Blair House.
As the national health care maneuvering continues, Obama is also managing geopolitical crises in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Iran.
The Afghan Taliban reacted to a string of setbacks yesterday by launching another strike in the heart of Kabul. This is a classic pattern, a reminder that the group is very much alive and able to dispense death.
As most of the dead were Indian workers, this is raising some tensions between Pakistan and India. something which is not hard to do. Pakistan has justified its support for the rise of the Taliban movement in Afghanistan, several years after the Soviets were beaten there, in part as a counter to Indian involvement in the failed state.
Today in Marjah, U.S. Marines and allied forces linked up in the remaining pockets of resistance. This means that the city is now actually cleared of Taliban fighters, or that the remainder have faded into the civilian population.
This is a very positive development. But it’s best not to pop the champagne corks just yet.
In Iraq, hundreds of Sunni candidates remain barred from running in next month’s national parliamentary elections. Officially, this is due to supposed ties to the late Saddam Hussein. In reality, those doing the banning, led by former U.S. neocon fave rave Ahmed Chalabi, are very close to Iran and seek to heighten the power of Shiite politicians courted by Tehran.
Today another move was made, this one in the opposite direction. 20,000 former military officers, Sunnis who were ousted by short-sighted American officials in the wake of the 2003 invasion of Iraq for their membership in Saddam’s ruling Baath party, have been reinstated.
In Iran, where the opposition has been, as expected here, brutally put down, last year’s leading opposition presidential candidate Mir Hussein Moussavi said today that the ruling clique is a dictatorial cult subverting the founding principles of the Islamic republic. The opposition’s planned rallies on February 11th, Revolution Day, were much smaller than promised.
The Pacific Basin is bracing for tsunamis caused by last night’s massive earthquake in Chile, measuring 8.8 on the Richter scale. Last month’s earthquake in Haiti was 7.0 in magnitude. So far, the reported loss of life in Chile is “only” in the hundreds.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE – SATURDAY. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is out of state.
He has no scheduled public events today.
** SO WHO IS THE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL FRONTRUNNER ANYWAY? PALIN, ROMNEY, PAUL (!) …Okay, so exactly who is the Republican presidential frontrunner now? Sarah Palin, the Tea Party darling/best-selling “author?” Mitt Romney, the moneybags ex-Massachusetts governor knocked out in the 2008 California and Florida primaries by John McCain? Mike Huckabee, the creationist talk show host who was the distant runner-up of 2008? Ron Paul, the cranky libertarian who embarrassingly actually won this past weekend’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) over previous winner Romney? … From my February 23rd column.
** THE BIGGEST SPENDING RACE IN AMERICA IS UNDERWAY! (WELL, SORT OF.)The biggest spending race in America is fully underway! Or not.
That would be the California governor’s race. With billionaire Meg Whitman, the ex-eBay CEO and national co-chair of the McCain/Palin campaign, spending like a Russian oligarch, it’s inevitable that this will be the most expensive race in the country. But aside from Whitman blanketing the state for months with her robotic ads, it’s not there yet. … From my February 19th column.
** THE MACHINATIONS OF MEG WHITMAN: BEHIND HER ATTEMPTS TO ELIMINATE COMPETITION AND HER WHOPPER ABOUT HOW LONG SHE’S LIVED IN CALIFORNIA. … From my February 10th column.
** SELLING MEG WHITMAN: GLITCHES EMERGE IN THE BILLIONAIRE’S PLAN TO ACQUIRE THE CALIFORNIA GOVERNORSHIP.What would Don Draper do? … From my February 2nd column.
** WHAT A DIFFERENCE TWO MONTHS MAKES AS THE FATE OF OBAMA’S PRESIDENCY PLAYS OUT FAR FROM WASHINGTON. … From my January 29th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti. While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 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.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil closed on Friday at $79.66 per barrel. Energy markets are closed on the weekend.
This is up about $46 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
New York Governor David Paterson announced today that he will not seek re-election as it emerged he had intervened in a domestic violence scandal involving a close aide. Paterson is the second New York governor to go down in the past two years. And they say that California politics is dysfunctional.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … THE CALIFORNIA AS FIRST “FAILED STATE” DEBATE: SCHWARZENEGGER, DAVIS, WHITMAN, AND JERRY BROWN.
** QUICK HITS.What’s next on national health care reform following yesterday’s big Blair House summit? President Barack Obama is working it out and will have more to say next week. … Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, in Washington today for meetings and speeches, said that the US doesn’t see the Iranian nuclear program as the same sort of existential threat as the Jewish state does. But that a tough new sanctions regime will be helpful. … After no small amount of huffing and puffing (and no large amount, either) during an emergency session, the California Legislature ends up sending less than 10% of the needed $20 billion in solutions to the state’s chronic budget crisis down to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Exciting. …
** WHITMAN STARTS ATTACK TV ADS AGAINST … POIZNER. Evidently billionaire Meg Whitman has stopped trying to clear the Republican primary field for governor of California. With super-rich rival Steve Poizner, the state insurance commissioner, filing his papers on Monday, the former McCain/Palin campaign co-chair and eBay CEO has four short (15-second) TV ads attacking Poizner up and running.
The move comes only a few days after Whitman rolled out her second TV ad of the campaign, a gauzy positive spot featuring various people who’ve been on her payroll, who go unidentified in the spot, extolling her virtues as a corporate executive. Now she’s going negative on a candidate who hasn’t run any advertising yet, over whom she has a large lead in primary polling.
After learning of Whitman’s new tack from a report last night on Bay Area TV station KTVU, which had received the ads to air this weekend, the Poizner campaign preemptively attacked Whitman in a press release as a liberal masqueraging as a conservative for supposedly backing Barbara Boxer and Al Gore. Whitman denies any involvment with Gore, though contemporaneous press reports have her as a Gore supporter. She could not have voted for Gore as she was not registered to vote during the 2000 presidential election.
Of course, the Whitman ads attack Poizner for much the same thing, supposedly being a liberal disguised as a conservative.
The ads, which you can view here on Whitman’s new anti-Poizner web site, cantruststeve.com, are evidently meant to be funny and memorable. They make broad charges in an arguably humorous way about Poizner.
Frankly, they looked to me like fake ads, er, web ads. But they really are on the air.
Each appears to be running by itself, they are not back-to-back, though some are apparently sandwiching an unrelated non-political spot. So what the viewer sees, amidst the cacophony of regular 30-second TV ads, is something out of the blue, gone before he or she can focus in, perhaps followed by another hitlet.
Since Poizner is not on the air, and is not really very well known, the context for these ads seems elusive.
But one thing is for sure. Nobody gets a commission on a web ad. Jai alai, anyone?
** WHITE HOUSE SOCIAL SECRETARY, CRITICIZED OVER INFAMOUS PARTY CRASHING INCIDENT AT OBAMA’S FIRST STATE DINNER, IS LEAVING. This past Thanksgiving, I wrote this column — “Heads Should Roll Over Obama State Dinner Security Breach” — about the outrageous gatecrashing incident at the then just held first White House State Dinner of the Obama Administration. I didn’t name any names, but one of the obvious folks was White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers.
Rogers had acted more as a guest than a staffer at the dinner, neglecting as it turned out to station White House staff at the first internal security checkpoint.
** NEW POLL: AMERICANS THINK MILITARY DOMINANCE WILL SLIP AWAY AND ARE BECOMING USED TO A PERMANENT WAR FOOTING. A new Gallup Poll today shows that while most believe the U.S. Armed Forces to be the premiere military power on the planet, most believe that will not be the case in 20 years.
The results also indicate that Americans are getting used to the nation being on a permanent war footing.
An overwhelming majority believes that U.S. forces will be engaged in combat in various parts of the world for the next 20 years.
The poll does not indicate, nor ask, which nation or organization is believed to be in position to match or surpass the U.S. in military power.
While 64% of Americans believe the U.S. is the No. 1 military power in the world today, many fewer (36%) believe that the U.S. will be No. 1 militarily in 20 years. At the same time, most Americans believe the U.S. will continue to have combat troops regularly involved in fighting around the world over the next two decades. …
In addition to assessing Americans’ views of the status of U.S. military strength in 20 years compared with today, the poll asked Americans about their expectations of U.S. military involvement in combat situations over the next two decades.
Given a choice between the two scenarios outlined in the question, more than two-thirds of Americans (67%) say they believe active military involvement of U.S. combat troops will be the norm over the next two decades. That’s more than twice as many as believe there will be long periods of time in which the U.S. is not actively involved in combat (30%). …
As was the case for views of U.S. military involvement in the decades ahead, there are few partisan differences in views of the U.S. military’s “No. 1″ status, either current or future.
Given the nature of these findings, it might be tempting to hypothesize that Americans’ pessimism about the nation’s military superiority is connected to their beliefs that the U.S. will be engaged in continuous combat situations over that period.
This does not, however, appear to be the case. Analysis shows that Americans who think the U.S. will be regularly involved militarily are no less likely to say that the U.S. will be No. 1 militarily in 20 years than are those who believe the U.S. will not be regularly involved in combat.
The deep divide between Democrats and Republicans was on sharp display in yesterday’s national health care reform summit.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington today.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
At 8:35 AM Pacific, Obama meets with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
At 11 AM Pacific, Obama and Biden meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Oval Office.
At 1:40 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks and signs an executive order for the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the East Room.
On his own, Biden meets today with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak in the Roosevelt Room and then has lunch with geopolitical experts.
Yesterday was the big national health care reform summit with leading members of Congress from both parties at Blair House.
Expectations for agreement were low and the event did not fail to live down to those expectations. Which can’t have surprised Obama.
As discussed here on Monday, Obama has rolled out his version of the national health care bill, drawing heavily on the Senate bill with sweeteners through the House to be achieved through the budget reconciliation process, a majority vote procedure which circumvents the Senate filibuster.
Republican leaders rejected that approach in advance of yesterday’s high-stakes health care summit. Now Obama and Democratic congressional leaders are figuring their next moves.
As the national health care maneuvering continues, Obama is also managing geopolitical crises in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Iran.
The Afghan Taliban reacted to a string of setbacks today by launching another strike in the heart of Kabul. This is a classic pattern, a reminder that the group is very much alive and able to dispense death.
In Pakistan, officials are reportedly refusing to turn over recently captured Afghan Taliban leaders to Afghanistan or America. This may mean that they are in a sort of limbo, still enjoying a safe haven in Pakistan albeit one with walls and bars. Or it may mean that Pakistan is using torture to obtain intelligence information.
In Iraq, campaigning for next month’s national parliamentary elections is going forward. But without most of the Sunni candidates disqualified by one-time neocon fave rave Ahmed Chalabi, recently identified by General Ray Odierno as an agent of influence for Iran. Chalabi was the original favorite of the Bush/Cheney White House to be prime minister of Iraq following the 2003 invasion.
That would have been interesting.
The Taliban dealt with the capture of much of their leadership and the U.S.-led offensive against the stronghold city of Marjah by attacking inside the Afghan capital of Kabul. Suicide bombers struck Kabul hotels today. The blasts and ensuing gunbattles killed at least 17 people and injured dozens, many of them Indian citizens.
And in Iran, the regime is close to declaring its pro-democracy protesting opposition as agents of foreign powers. Yesterday it paraded a captured armed opposition leader before the cameras. He proclaimed that the CIA offered him a base and major funding to fight the Tehran regime.
Maneuvering around the Iranian nuclear program continues.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Los Angeles today.
At 9:30 AM, Schwarzenegger will hold a press conference to sign AB 510 by Assemblymember Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) that will raise the requirement on net metering in California, further promoting investment by home and business owners in solar energy.
The event will take place on the roof of Macy’s in Culver City.
** SO WHO IS THE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL FRONTRUNNER ANYWAY? PALIN, ROMNEY, PAUL (!) …Okay, so exactly who is the Republican presidential frontrunner now? Sarah Palin, the Tea Party darling/best-selling “author?” Mitt Romney, the moneybags ex-Massachusetts governor knocked out in the 2008 California and Florida primaries by John McCain? Mike Huckabee, the creationist talk show host who was the distant runner-up of 2008? Ron Paul, the cranky libertarian who embarrassingly actually won this past weekend’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) over previous winner Romney? … From my February 23rd column.
** THE BIGGEST SPENDING RACE IN AMERICA IS UNDERWAY! (WELL, SORT OF.)The biggest spending race in America is fully underway! Or not.
That would be the California governor’s race. With billionaire Meg Whitman, the ex-eBay CEO and national co-chair of the McCain/Palin campaign, spending like a Russian oligarch, it’s inevitable that this will be the most expensive race in the country. But aside from Whitman blanketing the state for months with her robotic ads, it’s not there yet. … From my February 19th column.
** THE MACHINATIONS OF MEG WHITMAN: BEHIND HER ATTEMPTS TO ELIMINATE COMPETITION AND HER WHOPPER ABOUT HOW LONG SHE’S LIVED IN CALIFORNIA. … From my February 10th column.
** SELLING MEG WHITMAN: GLITCHES EMERGE IN THE BILLIONAIRE’S PLAN TO ACQUIRE THE CALIFORNIA GOVERNORSHIP.What would Don Draper do? … From my February 2nd column.
** WHAT A DIFFERENCE TWO MONTHS MAKES AS THE FATE OF OBAMA’S PRESIDENCY PLAYS OUT FAR FROM WASHINGTON. … From my January 29th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti. While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 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.
This is up about $44 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
Senator John McCain and President Barack Obama crossed swords again today, 2008-style, at the national health care reform summit, with Obama telling the Arizona senator, now locked in a primary fight with a far right candidate, that “the campaign is over.”
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … THE CALIFORNIA AS FIRST “FAILED STATE” DEBATE: SCHWARZENEGGER, DAVIS, WHITMAN, AND JERRY BROWN.
** QUICK HITS.Today’s big national health care reform summit was much ado about … positioning. And a little too big. As in too long. The event allows President Barack Obama to reinforce the popular impression, revealed in the Gallup Poll discussed below, that he is much more interested in reaching out to Republicans than they are in reaching out to him. And it gave him the forum to reformat his case for a reform bill moving forward. It was, however, too long for most to stay with or grasp. … The national flag of Afghanistan has been raised over the former Taliban stronghold of Marjah and a civilian administration is now in place nearly two weeks after the U.S.-led offensive there began. But there is still fighting underway, with serious pockets of resistance.
** CALIFORNIA 2010: THE GARRY SOUTH-GAVIN NEWSOM SOAP OPERA. Now here is something very curious. Garry South, the veteran political consultant/lobbyist, has launched a broadside attack against his very recent client, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. South now works for Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who is running for lieutenant governor. A post which Newsom may now run for himself.
Actually, I should say that South has launched another broadside against Newsom.
South, you may recall, was chief strategist for Newsom’s Democratic primary campaign for governor of California. It went badly. Newsom dropped out last year — which was first reported here on NWN — as I expected he would.
Right after that, an “insider” report on the failings of the Newsom campaign, or, more accurately, the purported failings of Gavin Newsom, showed up on a blog called CalBuzz. Which is operated by a former newspaper reporter who worked under South during my old friend Gray Davis’s governorship.
By an odd coincidence, the lengthy, vituperative anti-Newsom screed was exactly what South was telling others about Newsom.
Now, let’s be very clear here. This is not a good thing. Newsom paid Garry South more than Jerry Brown spent in his entire campaign which, in essence, locked up the Democratic gubernatorial nomination last year. But South appeared to be more interested in salvaging his reputation than in honoring the confidences of his very high-paying client.
After this insider “report” appeared — and I think much if not most of it was nonsensical, self-serving spin — Newsom went to Hawaii without telling anyone, causing a tempest in a San Francisco teapot for a few days. I figured that Newsom, about whom I’ve written critically as well as positively, was feeling hurt and let down. Understandably so. So I didn’t get into it.
After all, I had predicted all along that Jerry Brown would clear the Democratic primary field. And I have a lot of things to write about that have nothing to do with the aftermath of a gubernatorial campaign that ended the year before the primary election.
Now, as I told South personally a year ago, Newsom was never going to beat Jerry Brown. And that it was odd that he was running in the first place, given Newsom and his family’s history with Brown and his family. I was very clear. Newsom was not going to win under any scenario, be it multi-candidate or head-to-head. Brown was the winner in all scenarios. South, who I’ve known since the early ’90s — we’ve had both friendly and contentious relations, at one point debating on a talk show about his counsel in his then client then Governor Gray Davis’s handling of the electric power crisis — took umbrage at my assessment, proceeding to roll out some arguments about Brown which I knew to be highly inaccurate. I told him not to bother, that his spin was no longer required.
South later helped force Newsom’s original loyalists out of his gubernatorial campaign, on the basis that they didn’t have the right ideas to win. That was true, but Newsom would have been better off in the long run going with the original ideas, which were quite positive. He wasn’t going to beat Brown anyway, so why not use the campaign to build a positive profile around the state, and perhaps withdraw from the race and run for another office in this year’s election. Another office like, say, lieutenant governor.
South wanted none of that, insisting vehemently both internally and in the press that his client had no interest whatsoever in running for lieutenant governor.
Which made sense from the standpoint of assuring Democrats concerned about Newsom’s staying power against the Brown juggernaut.
Now South is attacking Newsom for following his advice! He’s trotting out Newsom’s dismissive statements about the office of lieutenant governor — made in the context of pursuing a gubernatorial candidacy against an overwhelming favorite — in a bid to embarrass him out of the race for lieutenant governor. He’s also using confidential discussions, for which he was paid $25,000 a month, more than super-rich former state Controller Steve Westly paid him till the end of their 2006 Democratic gubernatorial primary race, against Newsom. (South’s pay was ultimately cut to $20,000 a month as Newsom’s campaign went into “economizing” mode. Such a sad situation.)
While South’s advice to Newsom on dismissing the lieutenant governorship while seeking the governorship was mostly correct, the rest of what he was doing was not.
South pursued a scorched earth strategy against Jerry Brown in the press. What was curious about it was that he was attacking Brown on a personal level, for being “old and out of it,” and he was attacking Brown from the right, never the left. (South, while definitely a bright guy, is far less intellectually adept than Jerry Brown.)
All this in a Democratic primary. A Democratic primary in which older voters would far out-number younger voters, in which there were many liberal votes to be had.
South copied the attacks leveled against Brown by former Reagan chief speechwriter Ken Khachigian in Republican nominee Chuck Poochigian’s landslide loss to Brown for attorney general in 2006.
Which makes no sense in a Democratic primary. It does make sense if one is serving as a stalking horse, witting or unwitting, for the Republicans against Brown.
Of course, it may be that South, seeing his campaign going down big-time, was acting out of a continuing fit of pique.
Using a few longstanding media conduits, South planted arguably embarrassing stories about Brown and tried to engage the two-term governor and two-time Democratic presidential runner-up in the press. Brown, a frequently combative sort, bit at first on the gambit, but then followed his own incredibly good advice and publicly ignored South the rest of the way.
Which must have been even more galling. And which turned South’s imagined scorched earth into a series of nasty potshots. He did get the local press to bite very hard on the silly notion that Bill Clinton hated Brown from their 1992 battle in the presidential primaries and would transform the race with his support for Newsom. But since Newsom was, in reality, only one of dozens of Hillary backers the former president was helping on a payback tour, that heavily hyped nonsense had a short shelf life. Newsom dropped out a few weeks after Clinton’s desultory event on his behalf.
Now we have this unseemly spectacle.
The reality is that Newsom, properly handling himself, could be a very strong asset to the statewide Democratic ticket. More so than Hahn or state Senator Dean Florez, who has also been running for lieutenant governor? That’s for the voters to decide. However, I don’t think there is any question that Newsom is a dynamic, talented figure with the ability to galvanize a lot of people.
Newsom did manage to perturb Jerry and Anne Brown. But it may be that it was more South’s antics — unfortunately sanctioned by Newsom, albeit in the heat of battle, no matter how unwise — that were objectionable, more than what Newsom himself was saying.
There are some very legitimate reasons for Newsom to step away from this race. He has a new marriage and a very young child, which he cited when he withdrew from the governor’s race. Of course, they were not the reason why he dropped out, they were the excuse. In fact, when I learned that his wife was pregnant, I expected him to use that as the excuse when he did drop out of the race.
Another legitimate reason is that San Francisco, like all cities, is in trouble in the midst of the big economic downturn. Newsom is under some pressure not to step away from the mayoralty because of this. And because San Francisco politics is so inherently chaotic that it’s unclear who his successor would be. Or even if a successor could be chosen by a fractious San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which makes the dysfunctional California Legislature look like a smoothly running machine.
Those are legitimate things for Newsom to think about. Serious things. South’s outburst is non-serious and, frankly, wildly indiscreet.
** NEW POLL SHOWS THAT OBAMA HAS A REAL SELLING JOB TO DO ON HEALTH CARE. One of the oddities of the the national health care reform debate, if that is the right word, is that the individual components of the bill, in its various forms, are significantly more popular than the overall. Which isn’t actually that surprising, since the issue is very complicated and the discussion is being carried out in a cacophonous media environment.
So today’s new Gallup Poll, showing that a plurality opposes the bill, not that people are clear on what’s in it, mind you, and that a majority opposes the majority vote budget reconciliation tactic needed to circumvent the Senate Republican filibuster, isn’t all that surprising.
Americans are skeptical that lawmakers will agree on a new healthcare bill at Thursday’s bipartisan healthcare summit in Washington, D.C. If an agreement is not reached, Americans by a 49% to 42% margin oppose rather than favor Congress passing a healthcare bill similar to the one proposed by President Obama and Democrats in the House and Senate. By a larger 52% to 39% margin, Americans also oppose the Democrats in the Senate using a reconciliation procedure to avoid a possible Republican filibuster and pass a bill by a simple majority vote.
Of course, what other polling shows is that most people don’t understand the filibuster factor which requires a de facto super-majority for big ticket legislation.
Remember that the plan was to have passed national health care reform months ago, and to now be well into the selling-the-benefits phase of the political equation.
That was to have been the centerpiece of Obama’s State of the Union address last month.
But a dawdling Congress — shades of the California Legislature — and the shock election last month of new Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown scuttled all that.
Meanwhile, most think that the health care summit will not produce results.
But they give Obama credit for trying for a bipartisan solution. And the Republicans are seen as obstructionist.
More than three-quarters do not believe that the two sides will reach an agreement on a healthcare bill at Thursday’s summit. Although the bipartisan summit was called by President Obama, more than 7 out of 10 rank-and-file Democrats across the country are pessimistic that an agreement will be reached. Nearly 9 out of 10 Republicans hold this view.
Despite the fact that Americans remain opposed to the passage of the type of healthcare bill President Obama has proposed, the American public gives Obama credit for his efforts at bipartisanship. Fifty-six percent believe that Obama and the Democrats will make a sincere effort at the summit to work with the Republicans in Congress on solutions to healthcare reform; 41% say that the Republicans in Congress will make a sincere effort to work with Obama and the Democrats in Congress.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs appeared this morning on CBS to discuss today’s big national health care summit.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington today.
His day is principally occupied with his high-stakes bipartisan health care summit at Blair House.
Obama received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
He then walked from the White House to Blair House, the official residence for international guests of the president, which is just down Pennsylvania Avenue.
At 7 AM Pacific, Obama kicked off the bipartisan summit on national health care reform legislation.
The summit runs from 10 AM to 4 PM Eastern time, with a 45-minute lunch break. Obama speaks first to open the summit, the Republicans say their piece, followed by Democrats. Then four specific topics are addressed, with Obama discussing cost controls, Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius introducing insurance reform, Vice President Joe Biden handling deficit reduction, and Obama the cleanup hitter focusing on expanding health care coverage.
At 1 PM Pacific, Obama walks from Blair House to the White House.
At 1:30 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks and presents the awards for the 2009 National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal in the East Room.
As discussed here on Monday, Obama has rolled out his version of the national health care bill, drawing heavily on the Senate bill with sweeteners through the House to be achieved through the budget reconciliation process, a majority vote procedure which circumvents the Senate filibuster.
In advance of today’s high-stakes health care summit, Republican leaders have rejected this approach. Since Obama is not backing away — it will be very bad if he comes away from a year’s worth of work on health care with only a near miss — he and his people are figuring out their adjustments going into the event. I suspect the adjustments will be largely rhetorical, buttressed by a Republican idea here and there. The White House is already pointing up the fact that there is no Republican alternative.
Here are the Congressional participants in the health care summit. Four Californians are taking part: The Bay Area’s Nancy Pelosi and George Miller and LA’s Henry Waxman and Xavier Becerra.
Senator Harry Reid, D-Nev., Majority Leader
Senator Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, Republican Leader
Senator Dick Durbin, D-Ill, Majority Whip
Senator Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., Republican Whip
Senator Max Baucus, D-Mont., Chairman of the Finance Committee
Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Ranking Member of the Finance Committee
Senator Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee
Senator Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., Ranking Member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee
Senator Chris Dodd, D-Conn., Member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee
Senator Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Senator Patty Murray, D-Wash.
Senator Kent Conrad, D-N.D.
Senator Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.
Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore.
Senator Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.
Senator John Barrasso, R-Wyo.
Senator Tom Coburn, R-Okla.
Senator John McCain, R-Ariz.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Representative Steny Hoyer, D-Md., Majority Leader
Representative John Boehner, R-Ohio, Republican Leader
Representative James Clyburn, D-S.C., Majority Whip
Representative Eric Cantor, R-Va., Republican Whip
Representative Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., Chairman of the Ways and Committee
Representative Dave Camp, R-Mich., Ranking Member of the Ways and Means Committee
Representative Henry Waxman, D-Calif., Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee
Representative Joe Barton, R-Texas, Ranking Member of the Energy and Commerce Committee
Representative George Miller, D-Calif., Chairman of the Education and Labor Committee
Representative John Kline, R-Minn., Ranking Member of the Education and Labor Committee
Representative John Dingell, D-Mich., Chairman Emeritus of the Energy and Commerce Committee
Representative Xavier Becerra, D-Calif.
Representative Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y.
Representative Robert Andrews, D-N.J.
Representative Jim Cooper, D-Tenn.
Representative Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
Representative Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.
Representative Charles Boustany, R-La.
Representative Peter Roskam, R-Ill.
As the national health care maneuvering ramps up, Obama is also managing geopolitical crises in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Iran.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared this morning on CBS to discuss his health and obesity summit yesterday with former President Bill Clinton and to dissect the fractious state of party politics.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Los Angeles and Sacramento today.
He will have no scheduled public events.
Schwarzenegger is holding private talks in and around the Capitol.
He is focusing on the minuscule legislative progress on the state’s chronic budget crisis, an impasse on job creation legislation, and upcoming elections.
On Tuesday, Schwarzenegger brought his old friend Bonnie Reiss back into the official fold as the new secretary of education. Reiss, a former entertainment lawyer now in merchant banking, directed Schwarzenegger’s after school program before coming on board his gubernatorial campaign in 2003 and serving as a senior advisor in the Governor’s Office until 2007, when she became a member of the University of California Board of Regents.
** SO WHO IS THE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL FRONTRUNNER ANYWAY? PALIN, ROMNEY, PAUL (!) …Okay, so exactly who is the Republican presidential frontrunner now? Sarah Palin, the Tea Party darling/best-selling “author?” Mitt Romney, the moneybags ex-Massachusetts governor knocked out in the 2008 California and Florida primaries by John McCain? Mike Huckabee, the creationist talk show host who was the distant runner-up of 2008? Ron Paul, the cranky libertarian who embarrassingly actually won this past weekend’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) over previous winner Romney?
If it matters, it’s hard to tell.
Palin is at or near the lead in some polls. As are Romney and Huckabee. Paul isn’t. Newt Gingrich, he of the disastrous reign as House speaker in the ’90s, is lower in the polls but in striking distance, armed with flash and frequently false rhetoric. (After complaining about would-be Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab being read his Miranda rights under the Bush Administration and then being reminded that shoe bomber Richard Reid was also read his rights, Gingrich falsely claimed that Reid is an American.) … From my February 23rd column.
** THE BIGGEST SPENDING RACE IN AMERICA IS UNDERWAY! (WELL, SORT OF.)The biggest spending race in America is fully underway! Or not.
That would be the California governor’s race. With billionaire Meg Whitman, the ex-eBay CEO and national co-chair of the McCain/Palin campaign, spending like a Russian oligarch, it’s inevitable that this will be the most expensive race in the country. But aside from Whitman blanketing the state for months with her robotic ads, it’s not there yet.
Her trailing Republican primary rival, super-rich state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, figuring that the primary election is in June, is sitting on a near $20 million campaign warchest. He hasn’t come close to running an ad. State Attorney General Jerry Brown, the storied maverick Democrat who won his party’s nomination by quietly clearing the field last year, is sitting on the $13 million he’s raised. And Democratic independent expenditure committees, launched with a flourish last week — complete with press reports of $40 million in advertising about to be unleashed against Whitman — are, in reality, still getting organized.
Which hasn’t stopped the Whitman campaign — trailing Brown, used to trying to control everything and, faced with a much diminished state press corps, used to getting away with it — from looking rather rattled. For one thing, the aloof former Goldman Sachs board member, no doubt painfully aware that super-rich business people are not exactly wildly popular and that she in no way fits the Scott Brown profile for success in a largely Democratic state, is going to a Nascar race to show her common touch. For another, her operatives reacted to the ballyhooed emergence of what are actually nascent Democratic committees as though they’d been jabbed by a hot poker. … From my February 19th column.
** TONY BLAIR’S GHOST (WRITER). Roman Polanski’s new film, The Ghost Writer, had its world premiere on Friday at the Berlin Film Festival and is getting good early reviews. Count it as more bad news for former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Blair complained last week on Fox News — a few days before the film premiered, in fact — that his widely panned January appearance in London before the Chilcot Inquiry into the origins of the Iraq War stirred up so much negativity because people are hungry for conspiracy involving him.
** THE MACHINATIONS OF MEG WHITMAN: BEHIND HER ATTEMPTS TO ELIMINATE COMPETITION AND HER WHOPPER ABOUT HOW LONG SHE’S LIVED IN CALIFORNIA. … From my February 10th column.
** SELLING MEG WHITMAN: GLITCHES EMERGE IN THE BILLIONAIRE’S PLAN TO ACQUIRE THE CALIFORNIA GOVERNORSHIP.What would Don Draper do? … From my February 2nd column.
** WHAT A DIFFERENCE TWO MONTHS MAKES AS THE FATE OF OBAMA’S PRESIDENCY PLAYS OUT FAR FROM WASHINGTON. … From my January 29th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti. While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 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.
This is up about $44 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
President Barack Obama talked up his economic program this morning before the Business Roundtable in Washington.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … THAT CALIFORNIA “FAILED STATE” DEBATE: SCHWARZENEGGER, DAVIS, WHITMAN, AND BROWN.
** QUICK HITS. The die is cast for tomorrow’s high-stakes Washington summit at Blair House on national health care reform. President Barack Obama has gone through prep, and will have the first and last word in tomorrow’s session with Democratic and Republican members of the House and Senate. The summit runs from 10 AM to 4 PM Eastern time, with a 45-minute lunch break. Obama speaks first to open the summit, the Republicans say their piece, followed by Democrats. Then four specific topics are addressed, with Obama discussing cost controls, Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius introducing insurance reform, Vice President Joe Biden handling deficit reduction, and Obama the cleanup hitter focusing on expanding health care coverage. … I took another look today at Meg Whitman’s new TV ad about what a great corporate executive she was. Yesterday I was transfixed by all the unnamed validators in the spot, and then by the coincidence that they’d all made a lot of money from Whitman. Today I noticed that Whitman speaks on camera for only two seconds in the 60-second ad. … Call me psychic, but my guess is that we will see a lot more of Steve Poizner when Whitman’s rival in the California Republican gubernatorial primary puts his TV ads on the air.
In the past, Pakistani authorities have allowed top leaders of the Afghan Taliban safe haven in Pakistan. After all, the Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI, practically created the Taliban in the ’90s as a way of stabilizing an Afghanistan torn by civil war in the wake of the defeat of the Soviet Union there.
Now that is changing.
Pakistan has arrested nearly half of the Afghanistan Taliban’s leadership in recent days, Pakistani officials told the Christian Science Monitor Wednesday, dealing what could be a crucial blow to the insurgent movement.
In total, seven of the insurgent group’s 15-member leadership council, thought to be based in Quetta, Pakistan, including the head of military operations, have been apprehended in the past week, according to Pakistani intelligence officials.
** NEW POLL: AMERICAN SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL NEAR RECORD HIGH. Israel may be increasingly isolated around the world in terms of public opinion — although its leaders have been engaged for months in feverish global diplomacy, which shows signs of paying off — but one place where it is very popular is America. In fact, a new Gallup Poll shows its popular support here near a record high.
At the same time, fewer Americans side with the Palestinians than before, and belief in the Israeli/Palestinian peace process is near a record low.
The 63% sympathizing with Israel today is statistically unchanged from the 58% to 59% seen from 2006 to 2009; however, it is considerably higher than most of the previous readings on this Gallup measure since 1993. The trend includes two 38% readings in 1996 and 1997.
Only in January 1991 — shortly after Israel was hit by Iraqi Scud missiles during the Gulf War — did U.S. support for Israel register as high as it does today.
Over the last five years, support for Israel has increased slightly among Republicans (rising from about 77% for each of the past several years to 85% today) and independents, but has stayed roughly the same among Democrats. Since 2001, however, there has been a more dramatic shift in partisan attitudes: a 25-point increase in sympathy for Israel among Republicans and an 18-point increase among independents. Even on this longer-term basis, support for Israel among Democrats has been relatively flat.
The latest findings come from Gallup’s annual World Affairs survey, updated Feb. 1-3, 2010. In the same poll, Americans were asked to give their opinions of 20 countries, including Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Israel’s 67% favorable rating ranks among the highest and the Palestinian Authority’s 20% among the lowest. …
Additionally, the poll asked Americans about the chances that peace will eventually come to the Middle East. Currently, 30% think “there will come a time” when “Israel and the Arab nations will be able to settle their differences and live in peace”; 67% are doubtful.
Americans’ attitudes about the prospects for peace are little changed from last year, but are among the more pessimistic Gallup has found since initiating the question in 1997. The only time fewer Americans were optimistic about Arab-Israeli peace (27%) was in July 2006, during the Israeli-Hezbollah war in southern Lebanon. While public optimism has since remained low, it has shown longer-term variations, and has a history of rebounding — particularly after U.S.-brokered peace talks in 1999, 2003, and 2005.
** CALIFORNIA 2010: HERE COMES STEVE POIZNER. In an interview late yesterday with the Associated Press, super-rich state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner said that he will soon launch his advertising campaign in his race with billionaire Meg Whitman for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.
Whitman has built a large if gossamer primary lead with an endless series of vague, positive, yet unmemorable ads.
The Whitman camp worked hard for months trying to clear the Republican primary field of rivals Poizner and ex-Congressman Tom Campbell. The latter departed for the presumably greener fields of a third try at the U.S. Senate, with some newfound support. (Though he will not have an easy time of it in that primary, either.) But Poizner’s not going away.
In a 90-minute interview with The Associated Press, Poizner challenged reports that he intends to wait until the month before the June primary to launch his own TV and radio ad campaign.
“That speculation is just false,” Poizner said. “And we’re going to have an aggressive, bold campaign based on a very specific set of core principles and ideas that will get this broken state back on track.”
Whitman, the former chief executive of eBay, has dominated the airwaves for months while avoiding the kind of wide-ranging interview with California political reporters to which Poizner agreed. Her campaign has not agreed to an AP request for a similar interview. …
Poizner acknowledged that Whitman has had free rein to define herself to voters in part because of his failure to launch a paid
media campaign, but he said that would soon end. …
Poizner declined to be specify on when he would begin the advertising, other than to say it would be soon. He said he intends to lay out detailed plans about changes he would make to the way California operates so Republican primary voters can draw clear distinctions between himself and Whitman. He said he believes Californians “have had enough” of having a celebrity in the governor’s office and challenged Whitman’s assertion that her corporate business experience has prepared her for the job.
“If people are looking for that, if they’re looking to rebrand the state, I mean they’re going to be attracted to that,” he said. “But she’s short on details, short on experience. And in contrast, I’m the problem-solver, the engineer, the entrepreneur, with this track record.”
He contrasted Whitman’s background as a “Wall Street type” with his own experience as an entrepreneur who has had varied experiences, including a year teaching U.S. government at a low-income high school and a fellowship in the White House that coincided with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney, President Barack Obama’s harshest critic on security issues, is recovering from his fifth recorded heart attack.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington today.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have received the daily intelligence and economic briefings and met with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
At 10 AM Pacific, Obama addresses the Business Roundtable at the St. Regis Hotel.
At 12:15 PM Pacific, Obama participates in a credentialing ceremony for ambassadors from other nations in the East Room of the White House.
At 1:15 PM Pacific, Obama and Biden meet with Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke in the Oval Office.
At 4 PM Pacific, Biden and Dr. Jill Biden host a reception in honor of Black History Month at the Naval Observatory.
Obama is prepping for tomorrow’s high-stakes health care summit with leading Democratic and Republican members of the House and Senate.
He is also overseeing negotiations on what will almost certainly be the last attempt to pass a major national health care reform bill in the foreseeable future.
As discussed here on Monday, Obama has rolled out his version of the national health care bill, drawing heavily on the Senate bill with sweeteners through the House to be achieved through the budget reconciliation process, a majority vote procedure which circumvents the Senate filibuster.
In advance of Thursday’s high-stakes health care summit, Republican leaders have rejected this approach. Since Obama is not backing away — it will be very bad if he comes away from a year’s worth of work on health care with only a near miss — he and his people are figuring out their adjustments going into the event. I suspect the adjustments will be largely rhetorical, buttressed by a Republican idea here and there. The White House is already pointing up the fact that there is no Republican alternative.
As the national health care maneuvering heats up, Obama is also managing geopolitical crises in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Iran.
In the fall of 2006, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, joined by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, toured Bloom Energy in Silicon Valley.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Los Angeles and Silicon Valley today.
At 8:30 AM, Schwarzenegger will deliver remarks at an event in San Jose hosted by Bloom Energy, a new energy firm which he visited in 2006 while running for re-election. Bloom now has what may be a breakthrough energy device.
At 11:15 AM, Schwarzenegger joins former President Bill Clinton to convene the 2010 Governor’s Summit on Health, Nutrition and Obesity: Actions for Healthy Living in Los Angeles. Schwarzenegger and Clinton will participate in a discussion, moderated by California Endowment President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Robert Ross, on ideas and policies to combat obesity.
Following the discussion with Clinton, Schwarzenegger will hold a press conference to announce specific actions he will pursue to support healthy living.
** SO WHO IS THE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL FRONTRUNNER ANYWAY? PALIN, ROMNEY, PAUL (!) …Okay, so exactly who is the Republican presidential frontrunner now? Sarah Palin, the Tea Party darling/best-selling “author?” Mitt Romney, the moneybags ex-Massachusetts governor knocked out in the 2008 California and Florida primaries by John McCain? Mike Huckabee, the creationist talk show host who was the distant runner-up of 2008? Ron Paul, the cranky libertarian who embarrassingly actually won this past weekend’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) over previous winner Romney?
If it matters, it’s hard to tell.
Palin is at or near the lead in some polls. As are Romney and Huckabee. Paul isn’t. Newt Gingrich, he of the disastrous reign as House speaker in the ’90s, is lower in the polls but in striking distance, armed with flash and frequently false rhetoric. (After complaining about would-be Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab being read his Miranda rights under the Bush Administration and then being reminded that shoe bomber Richard Reid was also read his rights, Gingrich falsely claimed that Reid is an American.) … From my February 23rd column.
** THE BIGGEST SPENDING RACE IN AMERICA IS UNDERWAY! (WELL, SORT OF.)The biggest spending race in America is fully underway! Or not.
That would be the California governor’s race. With billionaire Meg Whitman, the ex-eBay CEO and national co-chair of the McCain/Palin campaign, spending like a Russian oligarch, it’s inevitable that this will be the most expensive race in the country. But aside from Whitman blanketing the state for months with her robotic ads, it’s not there yet.
Her trailing Republican primary rival, super-rich state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, figuring that the primary election is in June, is sitting on a near $20 million campaign warchest. He hasn’t come close to running an ad. State Attorney General Jerry Brown, the storied maverick Democrat who won his party’s nomination by quietly clearing the field last year, is sitting on the $13 million he’s raised. And Democratic independent expenditure committees, launched with a flourish last week — complete with press reports of $40 million in advertising about to be unleashed against Whitman — are, in reality, still getting organized.
Which hasn’t stopped the Whitman campaign — trailing Brown, used to trying to control everything and, faced with a much diminished state press corps, used to getting away with it — from looking rather rattled. For one thing, the aloof former Goldman Sachs board member, no doubt painfully aware that super-rich business people are not exactly wildly popular and that she in no way fits the Scott Brown profile for success in a largely Democratic state, is going to a Nascar race to show her common touch. For another, her operatives reacted to the ballyhooed emergence of what are actually nascent Democratic committees as though they’d been jabbed by a hot poker. … From my February 19th column.
** TONY BLAIR’S GHOST (WRITER). Roman Polanski’s new film, The Ghost Writer, had its world premiere on Friday at the Berlin Film Festival and is getting good early reviews. Count it as more bad news for former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Blair complained last week on Fox News — a few days before the film premiered, in fact — that his widely panned January appearance in London before the Chilcot Inquiry into the origins of the Iraq War stirred up so much negativity because people are hungry for conspiracy involving him.
** THE MACHINATIONS OF MEG WHITMAN: BEHIND HER ATTEMPTS TO ELIMINATE COMPETITION AND HER WHOPPER ABOUT HOW LONG SHE’S LIVED IN CALIFORNIA. … From my February 10th column.
** SELLING MEG WHITMAN: GLITCHES EMERGE IN THE BILLIONAIRE’S PLAN TO ACQUIRE THE CALIFORNIA GOVERNORSHIP.What would Don Draper do? … From my February 2nd column.
** WHAT A DIFFERENCE TWO MONTHS MAKES AS THE FATE OF OBAMA’S PRESIDENCY PLAYS OUT FAR FROM WASHINGTON. … From my January 29th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti. While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 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.
This is up about $46 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
General Stanley McChrystal went on national television today in Afghanistan to apologize for Sunday’s wayward air strike on a caravan of civilian vehicles.
** QUICK HITS. In advance of Thursday’s big national health care summit, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid adopted a flinty Nevadan pose and told his Republican colleagues to “stop crying” about the possible use of majority vote budget reconciliation to avoid a filibuster and finally pass a national health care bill. He noted that it has been most frequently used by Republican senators, notably passing big tax cuts. … Former Vice President Dick Cheney suffered his fifth heart attack on Monday. His staff says he will be discharged from a Washington hospital by the end of the week. … Dozens of senior military figures in Turkey, a major U.S. ally, have been arrested in what’s described as an investigation into a potential coup. President Barack Obama gave a major address in the storied city of Istanbul last April.
** CALIFORNIA 2010: GETTING A LITTLE CRAZY FOR FEBRUARY. While state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, the super-rich Republican gubernatorial candidate who trails billionaire ex-McCain/Palin campaign co-chair Meg Whitman, basks in praise for his citing health premium hiker Anthem Blue Cross for hundreds of alleged misdeeds, he also lost another state legislative endorsement. Which won’t matter in the least if his advertising strategy is good.
Speaking of advertising, Whitman rolled out a second introductory TV ad today. She’s in this one less than the first. It also has fewer specifics than the first, which had only her false claim that she’s lived in California for 30 years. (She’s actually lived here less than 20 years, according to her own previous statements.)
But they are not actors. They are all people who worked for her at eBay. One of whom, Rajiv Dutta, still works for her as a campaign consultant. She’s paid his firm, Tokoni, nearly $3 million already managing her web site and doing other Internet stuff.
Whitman also rolled out her latest radio ad today, featuring the endorsement of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. In that ad, lobbyist Jon Coupal says he can’t imagine any other candidate that the late Howard Jarvis would endorse besides Whitman.
Actually, Howard Jarvis did endorse someone else who is running for governor this year.
As Harry Truman put it: “The only thing new in this world is the history you don’t know.”
Speaking of which, the California Republican Party suggested in a statement today that Jerry Brown is “senile.” Citing a couple of writers I’d never heard of and, specifically, a right-wing blog I’d never heard of before called Hillbuzz.
** SO WHO IS THE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL FRONTRUNNER ANYWAY? PALIN, ROMNEY, PAUL (!) …Okay, so exactly who is the Republican presidential frontrunner now? Sarah Palin, the Tea Party darling/best-selling “author?” Mitt Romney, the moneybags ex-Massachusetts governor knocked out in the 2008 California and Florida primaries by John McCain? Mike Huckabee, the creationist talk show host who was the distant runner-up of 2008? Ron Paul, the cranky libertarian who embarrassingly actually won this past weekend’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) over previous winner Romney?
If it matters, it’s hard to tell.
Palin is at or near the lead in some polls. As are Romney and Huckabee. Paul isn’t. Newt Gingrich, he of the disastrous reign as House speaker in the ’90s, is lower in the polls but in striking distance, armed with flash and frequently false rhetoric. (After complaining about would-be Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab being read his Miranda rights under the Bush Administration and then being reminded that shoe bomber Richard Reid was also read his rights, Gingrich falsely claimed that Reid is an American.) …
** ABOUT OBAMA’S SUPPOSEDLY PLUMMETING JOB APPROVAL … I keep hearing talk about President Barack Obama’s job approval supposedly having fallen off a cliff. Actually, that is wrong. It’s been remarkably stable for months.
Obama’s job approval today is 51%, with 43% disapproving of his performance as president.
Obama used to be much higher, of course. The proximate cause of his descent from those Olympian heights seems to have been the fractious, complicated, and very muddled debate over health care reform.
And he certainly isn’t helped by dealing with the worst economy since the Great Depression.
Since mid-November, Obama’s daily approval ratings have ranged from a low of 47% (several times, most recently Jan. 27-29) to a high of 53% (three times, most recently Feb. 12-14).
Obama hopes to jump-start momentum for healthcare reform after it stalled following Republican Scott Brown’s victory in the Jan. 19 special election for U.S. senator from Massachusetts. Obama has for the first time submitted his own version of healthcare legislation, after previously deferring to House and Senate Democrats to put forth a plan.
The most recent weekly approval averages by party nearly match those that Gallup has measured since mid-November — 83% approval among Democrats, 45% among independents, and 17% among Republicans.
Democratic approval of Obama has shown a small but noticeable decline since mid-November. Obama averaged 86% approval from Democrats the first two weeks of November, but his approval rating from his fellow partisans has since averaged 83%.
Independents’ weekly approval averages of Obama have exceeded 50% just once since early August, about the time the debate over healthcare reform intensified. Republican approval of Obama has not exceeded 20% since that time.
Given the reality of the stability in Obama’s job approval rating, arguments to the contrary are just so much hyperpartisan yapping.
Civilian deaths are again a serious problem for U.S. operations in Afghanistan, shadowing gains on the battlefield and in disrupting Taliban leadership.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington today.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have received the daily intelligence and economic briefings and met with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
Prior to this, Biden had breakfast with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Naval Observatory.
At 9:15 AM Pacific, Obama and Biden have lunch in the Oval Office.
At 12 noon Pacific, Obama meets with U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk in the Oval Office.
At 1:30 PM Pacific, Obama and Biden meet with Defense Secretary Bob Gates in the Oval Office.
At 3:45 PM Pacific, Obama has dinner with business leaders in the State Dining Room. Among the guests will be members of the executive committee of the Business Roundtable.
As discussed here yesterday, Obama has rolled out his version of the national health care bill, drawing heavily on the Senate bill with sweeteners through the House to be achieved through the budget reconciliation process, a majority vote procedure which circumvents the Senate filibuster.
In advance of Thursday’s high-stakes health care summit, Republican leaders have rejected this approach. Since Obama is not backing away — it will be very bad if he comes away from a year’s worth of work on health care with only a near miss — he and his people are figuring out their adjustments going into the event. I suspect the adjustments will be largely rhetorical, buttressed by a Republican idea here and there. The White House is already pointing up the fact that there is no Republican alternative.
As the national health care maneuvering heats up again, Obama is also managing geopolitical crises in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Iran.
Today in Afghanistan, the U.S. commander there, General Stanley McChrystal, made a televised apology to the Afghan people for recent civilian deaths caused by U.S. air strikes.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, appearing on ABC’s This Week, said that the Tea Party movement isn’t going anywhere.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Los Angeles today.
He has no scheduled public events.
Schwarzenegger will engage in private talks around the state’s chronic budget crisis and upcoming elections.
Yesterday in the Capitol, the Legislature took a few steps toward dealing with the $20 billion shortfall in the current and projected fiscal year.
But most big moves were deferred. Democratic legislative leaders say they believe they have followed state law requiring the budget to dealt with in 45 days following the governor’s declaration of an emergency session. Which does not seem a reasonable reading of the law.
So why the delays?
The state government took in much revenue than projected in January, leaving some legislative leaders saying, very hopefully, that another round of big cuts should not happen now because there could be a huge turnaround in the revenue picture. But that doesn’t seem very realistic.
** THE BIGGEST SPENDING RACE IN AMERICA IS UNDERWAY! (WELL, SORT OF.)The biggest spending race in America is fully underway! Or not.
That would be the California governor’s race. With billionaire Meg Whitman, the ex-eBay CEO and national co-chair of the McCain/Palin campaign, spending like a Russian oligarch, it’s inevitable that this will be the most expensive race in the country. But aside from Whitman blanketing the state for months with her robotic ads, it’s not there yet.
Her trailing Republican primary rival, super-rich state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, figuring that the primary election is in June, is sitting on a near $20 million campaign warchest. He hasn’t come close to running an ad. State Attorney General Jerry Brown, the storied maverick Democrat who won his party’s nomination by quietly clearing the field last year, is sitting on the $13 million he’s raised. And Democratic independent expenditure committees, launched with a flourish last week — complete with press reports of $40 million in advertising about to be unleashed against Whitman — are, in reality, still getting organized.
Which hasn’t stopped the Whitman campaign — trailing Brown, used to trying to control everything and, faced with a much diminished state press corps, used to getting away with it — from looking rather rattled. For one thing, the aloof former Goldman Sachs board member, no doubt painfully aware that super-rich business people are not exactly wildly popular and that she in no way fits the Scott Brown profile for success in a largely Democratic state, is going to a Nascar race to show her common touch. For another, her operatives reacted to the ballyhooed emergence of what are actually nascent Democratic committees as though they’d been jabbed by a hot poker. … From my February 19th column.
** TONY BLAIR’S GHOST (WRITER). Roman Polanski’s new film, The Ghost Writer, had its world premiere on Friday at the Berlin Film Festival and is getting good early reviews. Count it as more bad news for former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Blair complained last week on Fox News — a few days before the film premiered, in fact — that his widely panned January appearance in London before the Chilcot Inquiry into the origins of the Iraq War stirred up so much negativity because people are hungry for conspiracy involving him.
** THE MACHINATIONS OF MEG WHITMAN: BEHIND HER ATTEMPTS TO ELIMINATE COMPETITION AND HER WHOPPER ABOUT HOW LONG SHE’S LIVED IN CALIFORNIA.In her spend-whatever-it-takes bid to jump from being a billionaire ex-CEO to the governorship of California, Republican Meg Whitman presents herself and her ideas in very simple, straightforward terms. The reality behind the facade, as we see from her attempts to avoid a primary contest and duck debates and the press, as well as her false claim about herself in her introductory TV ad, is different. … From my February 10th column.
** SELLING MEG WHITMAN: GLITCHES EMERGE IN THE BILLIONAIRE’S PLAN TO ACQUIRE THE CALIFORNIA GOVERNORSHIP.What would Don Draper do? … From my February 2nd column.
** WHAT A DIFFERENCE TWO MONTHS MAKES AS THE FATE OF OBAMA’S PRESIDENCY PLAYS OUT FAR FROM WASHINGTON. … From my January 29th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti. While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 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.
This is up about $45 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
President Barack Obama met with the nation’s governors this morning at the White House, discussing how the federal government can work better together with hard-hit state governments. Later Obama met privately in the Oval Office with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
** QUICK HITS.Following his private meeting today with President Barack Obama, Governor Arnold Schwarzengger dismissed demands from other Republicans that the national health care bill start from scratch as “bogus talk.” He said that Obama is committed to job creation and that the economic stimulus program is a success. … Defense Secretary Bob Gates said today that only a serious deterioration in the security situation could slow the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, now slated to go from the nearly 100,000 now in-country to 50,000 non-combat troops by the end of August. … Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Mike Mullen said today that military strikes alone would not be enough to halt Iran’s nuclear program, which is why he favors additional sanctions. … In his first major vote as a U.S. senator following his shock win in last month’s Massachusetts special election, Scott Brown today joined three other Republicans in breaking ranks with the party to support a Democratic jobs bill.
** CALIFORNIA 2010: THE PLOT THICKENS FOR THE REPUBLICANS. The two super-rich Republicans running for governor, billionaire Meg Whitman and state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, both tried to relate to the working class in the Inland Empire at Nascar races over the weekend. Whitman tweeted a picture of herself wearing what looks very much like a Burberry coat. Very nice. … After pushing for months to clear the Republican primary field — with Poizner sticking around and Tom Campbell taking the hint that the grass is greener in the Senate race — Whitman must be resigned to the fact that she has a primary race with the mobile phone tracking magnate. She won’t debate him at the California Republican Party convention next month, though the pressure is still on, but she will debate a few days later before a private fundraising group in Orange County. And on some sort of Comcast TV debate in May. … The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association endorsed Whitman today, touting her as the only true conservative in the race. The Poizner camp calls that nonsense, saying that he’s the only one for across-the-board tax cuts, and that Whitman backed Barbara Boxer for the Senate and has a budget plan that doesn’t begin to add up. … The Level The Playing Field Democratic committee is pushing Whitman to release her tax returns. Which she evidently will not do, as her campaign says only that it will release a much more vague statement of financial interests.So the group is calling on Whitman’s campaign chairman, ex-Governor Pete Wilson to push the billionaire to do so or resign his post with her campaign. Why call on Wilson? Because demanding that his opponents release their tax returns was a staple of his own campaigns for governor and U.S. senator.
** NEW SURVEY: HEALTH COVERAGE VARIES WIDELY BY AGE AND INCOME. Not surprisingly, a new Gallup survey shows that the penetration of health coverage in America varies widely by age and income. Younger people, and less affluent people, are far less likely to have health insurance.
Perhaps this will help inform the Obama health care summit on Thursday with Democratic and Republican congressional leaders.
I suspect it will just tell them what they already know.
Health insurance coverage is generally lowest in Americans’ mid-twenties and strongly related to income, ranging from a low of 44% among 35-year-olds making less than $24,000 a year to 100% among seniors in their 70s making more than $24,000 a year. …
Nationally, an average of 16.2% of all Americans did not have health insurance when Gallup interviewed them in 2009. This marks a slight uptick from 2008, the first year Gallup collected comprehensive data on health insurance coverage.
As is true with many aspects of American life today, the lack of health insurance is not distributed equally or randomly. There is a distinct age and income pattern when it comes to those who have health insurance. The data also show the role that the government’s national Medicaid, Medicare, and military health insurance programs play in patterns of healthcare coverage, germane to the current debate over healthcare reform.
Among 18-year-olds, the youngest Americans Gallup surveys, 84% have health insurance. This relatively high rate of coverage presumably reflects the fact that these young Americans are still covered under their parents’ insurance policies, something that apparently changes abruptly as they grow into their early 20s. Health insurance coverage reaches the lowest point of the entire age spectrum (66%) at age 22. From age 22 on, the percentage of Americans with health insurance begins to climb, albeit slowly, reaching the 95% level at age 65 when Medicare coverage is officially available. …
President Barack Obama welcomed the governors of America’s 50 states to the White House last night for the 2010 Governors Ball.
MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK.
A very big week in presidential politics is on tap, along with an interesting week in California politics. President Barack Obama, dealing with several geopolitical crises, makes a last stab at moving a big national health care reform bill through, releasing his version of the plan today and holding a summit with Democrats and Republicans on Thursday. And in California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders will see how much can be accomplished in the ending special session on the budget crisis, while billionaire Meg Whitman continues her hide-and-seek campaign for the GOP gubernatorial nod, a game which works especially well in the absence of seeking.
In advance of Thursday’s high-stakes health care summit with congressional leaders, Obama this morning released his proposed plan. It melds elements of the already passed House and Senate national health care reform bills, with a greater emphasis on the Senate version.
In this version, there is no public option, state health insurance exchanges are created, there are more safeguards against big rate increases, the excise tax is cut back, and the Nebraska Medicaid deal is eliminated. The House can pass the bill and the Senate can concur through use of the fiscal reconciliation measure, which requires only 51 votes rather than the 60 needed to overcome a Republican filibuster.
As you’ll recall, Senate and House negotiators were close to agreement on how best to proceed with one final bill when Scott Brown pulled off his surprise that should not have been in the Massachusetts special election to fill the seat of the late Senator Ted Kennedy. That deprived Democrats of the 60th vote needed to avert a Republican filibuster.
Obama is monitoring the U.S.-led offensive against the Taliban stronghold of Marjah in southern Afghanistan and the percolating crisis around Iran’s nuclear program. The Obama Administration is working on international support for a new round of sanctions against the Iranian regime unless it relents.
In a positive sign in the Marjah offensive, some 200 Afghan police were helicoptered into the city over the weekend to help keep order in its secured portions.
The offensive has been underway for a little over a week, and has many days to go. The U.S., British, Canadian, and Afghan forces involved are taking care to avoid civilian casualties, as an Afghan civilian infrastructure management team is waiting to be airlifted in and it will need popular support for the operation to be successful.
But the overall Afghanistan operation suffered a severe setback today when a U.S. fighter jet attacked a convoy in another part of the country that turned out to be civilian, killing some 33 Afghans in the process.
In Iraq, a leading Sunni party is boycotting next month’s national parliamentary elections in the wake of the banning of hundreds of Sunni candidates for supposed past ties to Saddam Hussein. The American commander in Iraq, General Ray Odierno, said last week that the Iraqi politicians driving the bannings are closely tied to Iran.
In Pakistan, where civilian authority is threatened by a conflict between the executive and judicial branches, government officials say they will build their own generation of drone aircraft and missiles to take on jihadist elements.
In Iran, government officlals are coming up with yet another version of having uranium enriched abroad, without shipping out the uranium already in place. Obama is building an international coalition to impose new sanctions on the Tehran regime.
Obama is also confronted with a problem in his appointee as the new special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, a 57-nation group of Islamic nations. Rashad Hussain, the 31-year old deputy associate White House counsel Obama named as special envoy, has had to walk back some intemperate statements he made as a law student in 2004 about Bush/Cheney Administration prosecutions of domestic terror suspects.
Back in California, today is the last day of the emergency legislative session on the budget ordered by Schwarzenegger in early January. Both houses of the Legislature will deal with bills today that will not, however, deal with most of the problem.
For his part, Schwarzenegger meets with Obama today at the White House to discuss a variety of matters. One will be his request for more federal funding.
So far, Schwarzenegger has secured nearly half of the $7 billion in additional federal aid he requested from Obama in his State of the State address last month.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington today.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
Obama and Biden then delivered remarks to the members of the National Governors Association in the East Room.
At 9:40 AM Pacific, Obama meets with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Oval Office.
At 10:15 AM Pacific, Obama meets with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
At 12 noon Pacific, Obama and Biden meet with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in the Oval Office.
At 12:30 PM Pacific, Obama and Biden meet with Labor Secretary Hilda Solis in the Oval Office.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, appearing Sunday on ABC’s This Week, praised the Obama economic stimulus program and slammed Republicans, including presidential candidate Mitt Romney, for their criticism.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Washington today.
He is in Washington for the National Governors Association meeting.
Schwarzenegger participated in the National Governors Association meeting at the White House with President Obama early this morning.
He then did a press availability at the White House Press Stakeout.
At 9:40 AM Pacific, Schwarzenegger meets with Obama in the Oval Office.
** THE BIGGEST SPENDING RACE IN AMERICA IS UNDERWAY! (WELL, SORT OF.)The biggest spending race in America is fully underway! Or not.
That would be the California governor’s race. With billionaire Meg Whitman, the ex-eBay CEO and national co-chair of the McCain/Palin campaign, spending like a Russian oligarch, it’s inevitable that this will be the most expensive race in the country. But aside from Whitman blanketing the state for months with her robotic ads, it’s not there yet.
Her trailing Republican primary rival, super-rich state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, figuring that the primary election is in June, is sitting on a near $20 million campaign warchest. He hasn’t come close to running an ad. State Attorney General Jerry Brown, the storied maverick Democrat who won his party’s nomination by quietly clearing the field last year, is sitting on the $13 million he’s raised. And Democratic independent expenditure committees, launched with a flourish last week — complete with press reports of $40 million in advertising about to be unleashed against Whitman — are, in reality, still getting organized.
Which hasn’t stopped the Whitman campaign — trailing Brown, used to trying to control everything and, faced with a much diminished state press corps, used to getting away with it — from looking rather rattled. For one thing, the aloof former Goldman Sachs board member, no doubt painfully aware that super-rich business people are not exactly wildly popular and that she in no way fits the Scott Brown profile for success in a largely Democratic state, is going to a Nascar race to show her common touch. For another, her operatives reacted to the ballyhooed emergence of what are actually nascent Democratic committees as though they’d been jabbed by a hot poker. … From my February 19th column.
** TONY BLAIR’S GHOST (WRITER). Roman Polanski’s new film, The Ghost Writer, had its world premiere on Friday at the Berlin Film Festival and is getting good early reviews. Count it as more bad news for former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Blair complained last week on Fox News — a few days before the film premiered, in fact — that his widely panned January appearance in London before the Chilcot Inquiry into the origins of the Iraq War stirred up so much negativity because people are hungry for conspiracy involving him.
** THE MACHINATIONS OF MEG WHITMAN: BEHIND HER ATTEMPTS TO ELIMINATE COMPETITION AND HER WHOPPER ABOUT HOW LONG SHE’S LIVED IN CALIFORNIA.In her spend-whatever-it-takes bid to jump from being a billionaire ex-CEO to the governorship of California, Republican Meg Whitman presents herself and her ideas in very simple, straightforward terms. The reality behind the facade, as we see from her attempts to avoid a primary contest and duck debates and the press, as well as her false claim about herself in her introductory TV ad, is different. … From my February 10th column.
** SELLING MEG WHITMAN: GLITCHES EMERGE IN THE BILLIONAIRE’S PLAN TO ACQUIRE THE CALIFORNIA GOVERNORSHIP.What would Don Draper do? … From my February 2nd column.
** WHAT A DIFFERENCE TWO MONTHS MAKES AS THE FATE OF OBAMA’S PRESIDENCY PLAYS OUT FAR FROM WASHINGTON. … From my January 29th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
Space shuttle Endeavour made a rare nighttime landing last night at Kennedy Space Center. It also took off at night on this mission, a two-week foray for critical construction on the International Space Station. Endeavour will fly into space one more time before retirement.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti. While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 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.
This is up about $45 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
Fox News and talk radio raver Glenn Beck delivered the keynote address at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington yesterday. Here he gives a new spin on the Statue of Liberty, claiming that the statue and the Emma Lazarus poem associated with it is not so much a welcome to immigrants as it is a boast about America’s superiority over Europe. Actually, the statue was a gift to America from France, a symbol from one new republic shaking off monarchy to a more established republic. And the poem, which was only attached to the statue years after its completion, is a paean to America’s welcoming nature.
** OBAMA TODAY – SUNDAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington today.
Obama has received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
At 4:10 PM Pacific, he and First Lady Michelle Obama host the Governors Ball at the White House.
The event honors the governors of the nation’s 50 states, who are in Washington for the National Governos Association meeting.
Obama is monitoring geopolitical crises in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Iran.
In Afghanistan, the allied offensive in the southern Afghanistan Taliban stronghold of Marjah continues slowly, so as to avoid civilian casualties.
In Pakistan, government officials say they will build their own generation of drone aircraft and missiles to take on jihadist elements.
In Iraq, a leading Sunni party is boycotting next month’s national parliamentary elections in the wake of the banning of hundreds of Sunni candidates for supposed past ties to Saddam Hussein.
In Iran, government officlals are coming up with yet another version of having uranium enriched abroad, without shipping out the uranium already in place.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE – SUNDAY. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Washington today.
At 12 noon Pacific, he chairs the National Governors Association Economic Development and Commerce Committee meeting at the J.W. Marriott Hotel. The meeting will focus on infrastructure investment and transportation.
At 4:10 PM Pacific, he attends the Governors Ball at the White House, hosted by President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.
He appears today on ABC’s This Week, accompanied by Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell. The show airs at various times around the country. With New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, they co-chair Building America’s Future, a group pushing for more infrastructure investment.
On the show, Schwarzenegger says that the worst is over with the economy and that it is slowly recovering.
He also rips Republicans, who trash the economic recovery act and show up at ribbon cutting ceremonies eager to take credit for specific projects.
In his weekend video/radio address, President Barack Obama, using the shockingly high rate hike by Anthem Blue Cross rolled out in California as a prime example, points to huge premium hikes from health insurance companies already making massive profits as further proof of the need for reform. Looking ahead to the bipartisan meeting with congressional leaders on February 25th, he urges a negotiation in good faith.
** OBAMA TODAY – SATURDAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington today.
He has received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office
He has no scheduled public events.
Obama is monitoring the U.S. led offensive against the Taliban stronghold of Marjah in southern Afghanistan and the percolating crisis around Iran’s nuclear program. The Obama Administration is working on international support for a new round of sanctions against the Iranian regime unless it relents.
In a positive sign in the Marjah offensive, some 200 Afghan police were helicoptered into the city today to help keep order in its secured portions.
The offensive has been underway for a week, and has many days to go. The U.S., British, Canadian, and Afghan forces involved are taking care to avoid civilian casualties, as an Afghan civilian infrastructure management team is waiting to be airlifted in and it will need popular support for the operation to be successful.
Obama is also confronted with a problem in his appointee as the new special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, a 57-nation group of Islamic nations.
On Thursday in the Oregon State Capitol, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger joined U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski for the signing of a hard-won agreement on Klamath River water and fisheries.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE – SATURDAY. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Washington today.
He has no scheduled public events.
He is in Washington for the National Governors Association meeting.
Schwarzenegger appears on ABC’s This Week on Sunday. He and Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell will talk up their Building America’s Future project, promoting infrastructure investment.
In 2006, Schwarzenegger secured the passage of the biggest infrastructure program in California since the 1960s heyday of the late Governor Pat Brown.
On Monday, Schwarzenegger meets with President Barack Obama, both as part of the NGA and individually with the president in the Oval Office.
Meanwhile, back in California, the super-rich Republicans who are trying to succeed Schwarzenegger as governor — billionaire Meg Whitman and state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner — will try to conform a little more closely to the Scott Brown template for appealing to a mostly Democratic state. It’s pretty amusing.
They will do this at Southern California’s Fontana Speedway, where the Nascar circuit has lighted for the weekend.
Whitman will wave the green flag on today’s junior varsity race.
Poizner will ride in the pace car in Sunday’s main event.
Unlike Whitman, who famously posed with a horse last year, and Poizner, Schwarzenegger is no stranger to auto racing. In fact, he’s a racing enthusiast. He’s been to Fontana many times.
Attorney General Jerry Brown was invited also, but is leaving the blue collar posturing to the super-rich candidates.
** THE BIGGEST SPENDING RACE IN AMERICA IS UNDERWAY! (WELL, SORT OF.)The biggest spending race in America is fully underway! Or not.
That would be the California governor’s race. With billionaire Meg Whitman, the ex-eBay CEO and national co-chair of the McCain/Palin campaign, spending like a Russian oligarch, it’s inevitable that this will be the most expensive race in the country. But aside from Whitman blanketing the state for months with her robotic ads, it’s not there yet.
Her trailing Republican primary rival, super-rich state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, figuring that the primary election is in June, is sitting on a near $20 million campaign warchest. He hasn’t come close to running an ad. State Attorney General Jerry Brown, the storied maverick Democrat who won his party’s nomination by quietly clearing the field last year, is sitting on the $13 million he’s raised. And Democratic independent expenditure committees, launched with a flourish last week — complete with press reports of $40 million in advertising about to be unleashed against Whitman — are, in reality, still getting organized.
Which hasn’t stopped the Whitman campaign — trailing Brown, used to trying to control everything and, faced with a much diminished state press corps, used to getting away with it — from looking rather rattled. For one thing, the aloof former Goldman Sachs board member, no doubt painfully aware that super-rich business people are not exactly wildly popular and that she in no way fits the Scott Brown profile for success in a largely Democratic state, is going to a Nascar race to show her common touch. For another, her operatives reacted to the ballyhooed emergence of what are actually nascent Democratic committees as though they’d been jabbed by a hot poker. …
** TONY BLAIR’S GHOST (WRITER). Roman Polanski’s new film, The Ghost Writer, had its world premiere on Friday at the Berlin Film Festival and is getting good early reviews. Count it as more bad news for former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Blair complained last week on Fox News — a few days before the film premiered, in fact — that his widely panned January appearance in London before the Chilcot Inquiry into the origins of the Iraq War stirred up so much negativity because people are hungry for conspiracy involving him.
** THE MACHINATIONS OF MEG WHITMAN: BEHIND HER ATTEMPTS TO ELIMINATE COMPETITION AND HER WHOPPER ABOUT HOW LONG SHE’S LIVED IN CALIFORNIA.In her spend-whatever-it-takes bid to jump from being a billionaire ex-CEO to the governorship of California, Republican Meg Whitman presents herself and her ideas in very simple, straightforward terms. The reality behind the facade, as we see from her attempts to avoid a primary contest and duck debates and the press, as well as her false claim about herself in her introductory TV ad, is different. … From my February 10th column.
** SELLING MEG WHITMAN: GLITCHES EMERGE IN THE BILLIONAIRE’S PLAN TO ACQUIRE THE CALIFORNIA GOVERNORSHIP.What would Don Draper do? … From my February 2nd column.
** WHAT A DIFFERENCE TWO MONTHS MAKES AS THE FATE OF OBAMA’S PRESIDENCY PLAYS OUT FAR FROM WASHINGTON. … From my January 29th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti. While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 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.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil closed on Friday at $79.81 per barrel. Energy markets are closed on the weekend.
This is up about $46 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
In Las Vegas today, President Barack Obama, who has said on a few occasions that it’s a bad idea to take the kids’ college money to Vegas, declared: “I love Vegas!”
** QUICK HITS. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, heading out of state for the Democratic Governors Association meeting in Washington, will meet with President Barack Obama on Monday. On Sunday, he appears on ABC’s This Week. Schwarzenegger has so far secured nearly half the federal assistance he was looking for. … Getting a boost last night and today from Obama in home state Nevada, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid signaled qualified support for using the majority vote budget reconciliation process to pass the public option as part of the national health care bill. …
** THE BIGGEST SPENDING RACE IN AMERICA IS UNDERWAY! (WELL, SORT OF.)The biggest spending race in America is fully underway! Or not.
That would be the California governor’s race. With billionaire Meg Whitman, the ex-eBay CEO and national co-chair of the McCain/Palin campaign, spending like a Russian oligarch, it’s inevitable that this will be the most expensive race in the country. But aside from Whitman blanketing the state for months with her robotic ads, it’s not there yet.
Her trailing Republican primary rival, super-rich state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, figuring that the primary election is in June, is sitting on a near $20 million campaign warchest. He hasn’t come close to running an ad. State Attorney General Jerry Brown, the storied maverick Democrat who won his party’s nomination by quietly clearing the field last year, is sitting on the $13 million he’s raised. And Democratic independent expenditure committees, launched with a flourish last week — complete with press reports of $40 million in advertising about to be unleashed against Whitman — are, in reality, still getting organized.
Which hasn’t stopped the Whitman campaign — trailing Brown, used to trying to control everything and, faced with a much diminished state press corps, used to getting away with it — from looking rather rattled. For one thing, the aloof former Goldman Sachs board member, no doubt painfully aware that super-rich business people are not exactly wildly popular and that she in no way fits the Scott Brown profile for success in a largely Democratic state, is going to a Nascar race to show her common touch. For another, her operatives reacted to the ballyhooed emergence of what are actually nascent Democratic committees as though they’d been jabbed by a hot poker. …
** NEW POLL: CONCERN ABOUT NATIONAL DEFENSE UP SHARPLY OVER THE PAST YEAR. A new Gallup Poll indicates that concern about U.S. national security has increased significantly over the past year.
In Februry 2009, 54% said tht America’s national defense is about right where it needs to be. Now 46% agree with that. A year ago, only 37% said American’s national defense isn’t strong enough. Now that number is up to 45%, on parity with those who believe the situation is okay.
Those who believe that the national defense is stronger than it needs to be are still at the same low level: 6% a year ago and 7% now.
Gallup has asked Americans to evaluate the national defense of the United States periodically since 1984 and yearly since 1999. Americans typically say the U.S. national defense is about right or not strong enough, with relatively few saying it is too strong. Currently, Americans are equally likely to say national defense is about right or not strong enough.
The current figures are similar to the opinions Gallup measured from 2006 to 2008, and the 45% who now believe the nation’s defense is not strong enough is just two points shy of the 2008 high. Last year’s rosier assessment may have been a temporary shift owing to positive feelings toward the new president, as the poll was conducted during the initial weeks of Barack Obama’s administration.
Another factor is likely the near disastrous Christmas Day bombing episode.
When asked about the government’s spending on the military and national defense, Americans do not show a great degree of consensus — 36% say the government is spending “about the right amount,” 34% say “too much,” and 27% “too little.”
Compared with last year, slightly fewer Americans now say defense spending is about right, with small but equal gains in the percentages who say the United States is spending too much and too little.
Gallup has asked this question since 1969, and the current results are similar to the historical average over this time.
The high point in the percentage saying the U.S. is spending too much, 52%, came in that initial 1969 measurement, as the U.S. was engaged in the Vietnam War. The high point in saying the U.S. is spending too little on defense came at the very beginning of the Reagan administration, in January 1981. Reagan campaigned on strengthening the military, and greatly increased defense spending during his presidency. By November 1982, the percentage of Americans who said the U.S. was spending too little on defense dropped to 16%.
Today is Tiger Woods day, the day on which he addresses the controversy swirling around him. To be clear, I don’t care about golf, I don’t care about Tiger Woods, and I don’t care about his private life. The only thing I find interesting in this ridiculous media/cultural circus is the exercise in brand management. (I’m also not a fan of branding.) What would Don Draper do?
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Nevada and Washington, D.C. today.
Obama has received the daily intelligence briefing in Las Vegas.
Obama arrived last night in Las Vegas. He put in an appearance at the Bellagio on the Vegas Strip, then was hosted by Sacramento Kings co-owner George Maloof at a private fundraiser at Maloof’s house in the Spanish Trail Country Club. The event for the Democratic National Committee raised over a million dollars.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was on hand, as were Democratic members of Congress who greeted Obama when he arrived at McCarran International Airport.
Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman was not on hand. He says he won’t see Obama unless the president apologizes for saying that people shouldn’t blow their kids’ college money on trips to Vegas. The flamboyant former lawyer for mob figures also says that Obama has to buy him a martini.
I don’t see that on the schedule.
What is on the schedule is Obama’s announcement of a new program to aid still struggling homeowners. One of the purposes of the Wall Street bailout was to get credit unstuck. That didn’t happen.
So Obama is announcing a $1.5 billion program using TARP funds to aid homeowners and stabilize the housing market.
Nevada is one of the states hardest hit by the housing/credit crunch.
At 10 AM Pacific, Obama holds a town hall at Green Valley High School in Henderson, Nevada. Henderson being the non-glitzy gambling mecca of Southern Nevada.
At 11:55 AM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks to the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority at the epic City Center development. He will be joined there by Reid, who helped quarterback the massive project into existence.
At 1:05 PM Pacific, Obama departs Las Vegas on Air Force One en route to Andrews Air Force Base.
At 5:05 PM Pacific, Obama arrives at Andrews Air Force Base, where he boards Marine One.
At 5:20 PM Pacific, Obama lands on the South Lawn of the White House.
The ongoing U.S. operation in Iraq is being renamed.
Since the fateful 2003 invasion, it’s been called Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Now it is to be known as Operation New Dawn. The new name reflects the plan to have U.S. combat troops withdrawn from Iraq this fall.
Before that happens, the country has to get through next month’s national parliamentary elections. And that won’t be easy.
Earlier this week, in a speech in Washington prior to his meeting with the president, General Ray Odierno, the U.S. commander in Iraq, revealed that the principal politician blocking hundreds of Sunni candidates from running is, according to intelligence, a close ally of the Iranian government. That would be Ahmed Chalabi, the darling of U.S. neoconservatives who provided false intelligence to his patrons in the Bush/Cheney Administration in the run-up to the invasion. False intelligence that helped drive the invasion forward.
Chalabi’s strong ties to Iran are not new news.
Obama is also monitoring the U.S. led offensive againt the Taliban stronghold of Marjah in southern Afghanistan and the percolating crisis around Iran’s nuclear program. The Obama Administration is working on international support for a new round of sanctions against the Iranian regime unless it relents.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Los Angeles today.
He has no scheduled public events.
Schwarzenegger will hold private talks.
On January 6th, Schwarzenegger declared a special legislative session on the state’s chronic budget crisis. Under state law he had enacted early in his governorship, if the budget is not resolved in 45 days all other legislative activity goes by the boards.
As a result, the Legislature, which has done little on the budget this year, is rushing to move other legislation forward this week.
The state Senate yesterday afternoon voted to roll back some Schwarzenegger unpaid furloughs of state employees it had previously approved (those involving agencies mostly funded by non-general fund sources) and to impose a sales tax on online purchases through Amazon.com and other outlets.
With regard to furloughs, Schwarzenegger is looking to save money. With regard to Amazon sales taxes, it’s fairer for local merchants and a new source of revenue. However, it would be very unpopular.
The Ghost Writer had its New York premiere last night. Former James Bond star Pierce Brosnan, who lives in Los Angeles and plays a Tony Blair-like politician in the roman a clef, discusses the film and its controversial director, Roman Polanski.
** TONY BLAIR’S GHOST (WRITER). Roman Polanski’s new film, The Ghost Writer, had its world premiere on Friday at the Berlin Film Festival and is getting good early reviews. Count it as more bad news for former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Blair complained last week on Fox News — a few days before the film premiered, in fact — that his widely panned January appearance in London before the Chilcot Inquiry into the origins of the Iraq War stirred up so much negativity because people are hungry for conspiracy involving him.
** THE MACHINATIONS OF MEG WHITMAN: BEHIND HER ATTEMPTS TO ELIMINATE COMPETITION AND HER WHOPPER ABOUT HOW LONG SHE’S LIVED IN CALIFORNIA.In her spend-whatever-it-takes bid to jump from being a billionaire ex-CEO to the governorship of California, Republican Meg Whitman presents herself and her ideas in very simple, straightforward terms. The reality behind the facade, as we see from her attempts to avoid a primary contest and duck debates and the press, as well as her false claim about herself in her introductory TV ad, is different. … From my February 10th column.
** SELLING MEG WHITMAN: GLITCHES EMERGE IN THE BILLIONAIRE’S PLAN TO ACQUIRE THE CALIFORNIA GOVERNORSHIP.What would Don Draper do? … From my February 2nd column.
** WHAT A DIFFERENCE TWO MONTHS MAKES AS THE FATE OF OBAMA’S PRESIDENCY PLAYS OUT FAR FROM WASHINGTON. … From my January 29th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti. While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 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.
This is up about $45 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
On the sixth day of the battle for the Taliban stronghold of Marjah in southern Afghanistan, U.S. Marines came under heavy fire.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … CALIFORNIA STORY: THE BIGGEST SPENDING RACE IN AMERICA IS UNDERWAY! (WELL, SORT OF.)
** QUICK HITS. The annual Conservative Political Action Conference got underway today in Washington, with Mitt Romney joking that Barack Obama wins the gold for downhill racing and Dick Cheney saying flatly that he is a one-term president. Obama’s job approval rating in the Gallup daily tracking poll is 52%, with 40% disapproving. … Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger got some good news from the Obama Administration today with word that California will get about $700 million more to cover Medicaid payments. … But a poll by Democratic pollster Ben Tulchin has the big state water bond currently set for the November California ballot trailing badly.
** CALIFORNIA 2010: BOXER IS IN, ABOUT RASMUSSEN POLLS, AND THE DISAPPEARING REPUBLICAN GUBERNATORIAL DEBATE. To no one’s surprise, Senator Barbara Boxer today formally filed for re-election. The feisty 69-year old chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee filed her papers in Riverside County, where she and her husband now live (in Rancho Mirage), and had a get-together after at a Mexican restaurant.
Also to no one’s surprise — well, except those state reporters and bloggers who kept on writing that she really might run — Senator Dianne Feinstein told a small fundraising gathering in Orange County on Tuesday that she won’t run for governor.
I wrote that Feinstein wouldn’t run for governor in 2007, 2008, and 2009. I told Arnold Schwarzenegger the day before he announced his candidacy on The Tonight Show that she had decided not to run for governor in the 2003 recall election, and that she would never run for governor. It’s been obvious for approximately ever that Feinstein was comfortably ensconced in Washington, building toward hers chairmanship of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which she at last achieved last year.
Anyhow, no surprise, Boxer is officially running for re-election. She has more money in the bank than any of her prospective Republican challengers. And in my view continues to be a clear favorite to win re-election. None of the Republicans make a credible Scott Brown-type figure, and Boxer is no one’s idea of a disengaged figure.
There is a Rasmussen poll that appears to show Boxer in a close race with either ex-Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina or ex-Congressman Tom Campbell. But I don’t buy Rasmussen polls.
They are robopolls conducted by an outfit owned by a right-wing fundamentalist. I haven’t reported Rasmussen polls since 2008, when they were the only daily tracking poll available in the presidential race. Once that status ended, my interest in Rasmussen ended. His polls under-sampled Democrats. He always had Barack Obama’s unfavorable rating much higher than any other credible poll. Once Obama became president, Rasmussen was the consistent outlier on Obama’s job approval rating, having him much lower than any other poll.
Rasmussen polls are used in the conservative echo chamber and are conducted so frequently that they are then employed by Republican operatives to set campaign narratives.
Not that Boxer is going to win in a landslide, even against a flawed Republican nominee. She’s one of the most liberal members of the Senate. And California, while mostly Democratic, is not a left-wing state.
Now about that gubernatorial debate at next month’s state party convention that so many delegates wanted … The California Republican Party put out an intriguing statement last night, hours after the close of business, saying that it had been decided after discussion at the staff level that there would be no official invitations to debate. Which was a way for billionaire Meg Whitman to avoid turning down a high-profile debate she did not want to have with her trailing challenger, super-rich state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner. Whitman’s camp lobbied heavily against the issuance of state party debate invitations.
Whitman, who ducked every debate last fall after she said she would debate last fall, prefers instead to debate a few days later before the members of a big-money Orange County fundraising group. Clearly a much lower profile venue, and one that many cash-strapped media outlets that will cover the state party convention may not be able to make.
Today the party issued a statement clarifying last night’s statement, saying that party leaders had decided not to invite anyone to debate who did not want to be invited.
That’s very kind.
If Whitman makes it to the general election, she should not expect the same kid gloves treatment.
** NEW SURVEY: CONSUMER SPENDING AT “NEW NORMAL.”A new Gallup survey indicates that consumers are still wary about spending in a slowly improving economy. And that a relatively depressed level of spending is becoming the “New Normal.”
Contrary to the impression given by some recent government reports, Americans’ self-reported spending declined in January 2010 compared with December, returning to the seeming “new normal” levels of 2009. Americans in upper-income households (those making $90,000 or more a year) reported spending an average of $113 per day in stores, restaurants, gas stations, and online in January — down 14% from December’s $132, and essentially matching their $110 average of a year ago.
Middle- and lower-income Americans (those making less than $90,000 a year) likewise reported 13% less spending in January ($54 per day) than in December ($62), and slightly less than in January 2009 ($58). …
To put it in blunt terms, Great Depression II has been averted, but happy days are not yet here again.
Upper-income Americans’ spending in January returned to the relatively tight range ($107-$121) that, with the exceptions of October and December, characterized this group in 2009. Since upper-income households by definition have more disposable income and, thus, tend to do more discretionary spending than other Americans, this return to the 2009 range likely represents a resumption of the “new normal” spending patterns. The slight decline in middle- and lower-income spending confirms this. …
Women are driving this possible New Normal.
Average self-reported spending among women was $49 per day in January 2010 — down 25% from December and 14% from January 2009. In sharp contrast, men spent an average of $75 per day in January — $4 less than in December and $3 more than a year ago.
Spending is down least among the young, most among older Americans.
Spending is especially down in the West.
Year-over-year spending declined in all regions except the South, where it increased by 8%. The greatest decline was in the West (-13%), followed by the Midwest (-7%) and the East (-6%). The South’s improvement and the West’s deterioration are consistent with the relative strength of the two job markets.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington, Colorado, and Nevada today.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden received the daily intelligence briefing in the Oval Office.
They then met with the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform co-chairs Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson in the Oval Office.
After which Obama delivered remarks on fiscal matters and established a national deficit reduction commission headed by former Clinton White House chief of staff Bowles and former Senator Simpson, a colorful Wyoming Republican.
At 8:15 AM Pacific, Obama meets with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in the Oval Office.
China has protested this, as usual, but not all that vociferiously.
At 10 AM Pacific, Obama flies on Marine One to Andrews Air Force Base, where he boards Air Force One.
At 10:15 AM Pacific, Obama departs Andrews Air Force on Air Force One en route to Aurora, Colorado.
At 1:50 PM Pacific, Obama arrives in Aurora, Colorado.
At 2:30 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a fundraiser for Senator Michael Bennet at the Fillmore Auditorium in Denver.
Bennet, who was appointed to the Senate when Obama made Ken Salazar the secretary of the interior, has a competitive race in November.
At 3:40 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a fundraising reception for Senator Michael Bennet at the Sheraton Hotel in Denver.
At 4:35 PM Pacific, Obama departs Aurora, Colorado on Air Force One en route to Las Vegas, Nevada.
At 6:15 PM Pacific, Obama arrives in Las Vegas.
Back in Washington, Biden delivers a speech on nonproliferation and nuclear security at the National Defense University.
After yesterday’s AfPak war council in the White House Situation Room, he and Obama are monitoring several AfPak matters, including the U.S.-led offensive against the Taliban stronghold of Marjah in southern Afghanistan. Most of the city has been taken but there are major pockets of resistance. The city is also filled with mines and IEDs.
The Marines and other British, Canadian, and Afghan forces are proceeding cautiously to avoid civilian casualties. The idea of course is not simply to dislodge the Taliban for a time but to win popular support for an Afghan civilian government whose technocrats are ready to be imported once the city is secured.
In the wake of the joint U.S./Pakistani capture in Karachi of the Afghan Taliban’s military commander, several other Taliban leaders and Al Qaeda figures have also been taken, indicating that Mullah Baradar is providing accurate information to his Pakistani interrogators.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Los Angeles, Oregon, and Sacramento today.
At 10 AM, Schwarzenegger appears in the Rotunda of the Oregon State Capitol in Salem, Oregon.
There he joins U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski, PacifiCorp CEO Greg Abel, and the heads of the Klamath, Yurok, and Karuk Tribes in signing final agreements resolving the status of Klamath River water.
On January 6th, Schwarzenegger declared a special legislative session on the state’s chronic budget crisis. Under state law he had enacted early in his governorship, if the budget is not resolved in 45 days all other legislative activity goes by the boards.
As a result, the Legislature, which has done little on the budget this year, is rushing to move other legislation forward this week.
The state Senate will also reportedly act on a portion of the shortfall today.
Meanwhile, in another sign of Meg Whitman’s machinations in Republican politics, the California Republican Party announced last night that it will not issue invitations to debate at next month’s state party convention. So party delegates from around the state will see no debate between the two candidates who seek to succeed Schwarzenegger as governor.
This despite an online poll at the conservative Flash Report showing overwhelming support among party delegates for a debate between Whitman and super-rich state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner.
Poizner wanted to debate. Whitman, who has skipped all debates to date, did not want to debate in such a high profile setting.
I’ll have more on this.
** TONY BLAIR’S GHOST (WRITER). Roman Polanski’s new film, The Ghost Writer, had its world premiere on Friday at the Berlin Film Festival and is getting good early reviews. Count it as more bad news for former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Blair complained last week on Fox News — a few days before the film premiered, in fact — that his widely panned January appearance in London before the Chilcot Inquiry into the origins of the Iraq War stirred up so much negativity because people are hungry for conspiracy involving him.
** THE MACHINATIONS OF MEG WHITMAN: BEHIND HER ATTEMPTS TO ELIMINATE COMPETITION AND HER WHOPPER ABOUT HOW LONG SHE’S LIVED IN CALIFORNIA.In her spend-whatever-it-takes bid to jump from being a billionaire ex-CEO to the governorship of California, Republican Meg Whitman presents herself and her ideas in very simple, straightforward terms. The reality behind the facade, as we see from her attempts to avoid a primary contest and duck debates and the press, as well as her false claim about herself in her introductory TV ad, is different. … From my February 10th column.
** SELLING MEG WHITMAN: GLITCHES EMERGE IN THE BILLIONAIRE’S PLAN TO ACQUIRE THE CALIFORNIA GOVERNORSHIP.What would Don Draper do? … From my February 2nd column.
** WHAT A DIFFERENCE TWO MONTHS MAKES AS THE FATE OF OBAMA’S PRESIDENCY PLAYS OUT FAR FROM WASHINGTON. … From my January 29th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
A big day for American athletes in yesterday’s Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti. While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 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.
This is up about $44 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
On the first anniversary of enactment of the economic recovery act, President Barack Obama reminded of the stark difference between the U.S. economy of then and now.
** QUICK HITS.Word is that House and Senate Democratic negotiators are again close to some version of a national health care reform bill. They and President Barack Obama were on the verge of reconciling bills passed in both houses when the Massachusetts special election surprise occurred. … Obama is in Nevada on Friday boosting the sagging re-election effort of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Among other things, he is having a $30,000 per person Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Las Vegas hosted by Sacramento Kings co-owner George Maloof, who also owns the Palms Casino. … San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom now looks like he is going to run for lieutenant governor of California. His ballot statement, due today, was in final preparation at 4 PM today. He has till March 12th to make the final decision to file. Newsom has said a few times recently that he is getting out of politics. Apparently not. …
** CALIFORNIA 2010: DEMOCRATIC INDEPENDENT EXPENDITURE GROUP ROLLS OUT NEW RADIO AD, CLARIFIES SITUATION. Level The Playing Field 2010, one of two Democratic independent expenditure committees to announce their presence last week — the other being California Working Families 2010 — today held a press conference and conference call at the San Francisco-based consulting firm which serves as its headquarters.
After debuting a 30-second radio ad yesterday knocking billionaire GOP gubernatorial aspirant Meg Whitman for being against the state’s landmark climate change program and trying to buy the office, the group today presented a roster of prominent Democratic consultants and a 60-second radio ad that they say will air around the state with a buy of $200,000 to $250,000 per month.
Here’s the script of “Kaaa-Ching:”
Billionaire Meg Whitman thinks she can outwit the people of California.
She’s threatening to spend one hundred and fifty million dollars to crown herself governor.
But Meg Whitman won’t debate her opponents . . .
. . . and she refuses to release her tax returns.
What’s Meg Whitman trying to hide with her $150 million campaign?
Why won’t Meg Whitman explain the twelve million dollars a year she claimed in cash and bonuses when she was in charge of EBay?
Twelve million dollars while laying off hundreds of workers, including 70 employees right here in California.
Maybe she’s afraid she’ll have to explain why she billed shareholders millions for her personal use of the corporate jet. [KAAA-CHING! fx] It’s time for Meg Whitman to level with Californians.
Paid for by Level the Playing Field 2010.
Because there shouldn’t be a “buy it now” button on the California Governor’s Office.
[KAAA-CHING fx]
This committee is not authorized by a candidate or a committee controlled by a candidate.
Clearly the intent, among other things, is to demonstrate that Whitman is nothing like Scott Brown, the new Republican senator from Massachusetts. Which should not be hard.
The group clarified that while it intends to raise $20 million, it does not have $20 million. What it has now is reportedly about $1 million.
I’ll have an in-depth report on the independent expenditure committees, and the big-spending California race for governor, later this week.
** WHITMAN KNOCKS SCHWARZENEGGER. Billionaire California Republican gubernatorial hopeful Meg Whitman, the former national co-chair of the McCain/Palin campaign, ripped incumbent Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger last night in an appearance before the Contra Costa County branch of the Commonwealth Club in Lafayette. Asked about Schwarzenegger’s tenure in office, which began with the state in grave crisis before his landslide victory in the 2003 recall of Governor Gray Davis, Whitman described it as “not good.”
Whitman, who has had no previous involvement in California’s public affairs herself, did allow that Schwarzenegger has done “a couple of very good things.” What are they? Reforming the workers compensation system and promoting the development of water infrastructure.
Which happen to be parts of her customary big business agenda.
Actually, Schwarzenegger has had quite a few big successes, including California’s landmark climate change program, leadership on the expansion of renewable energy, clean fuels, and green tech job development, the world’s biggest stem cell research program, education reforms, some fiscal reforms, and the biggest infrastructure investment program since the days of Governor Pat Brown.
Whitman, however, is against much of that.
“In the end, the leader of this state has to be accountable for the results, and the results are not good.”
She cited the state’s high unemployment rate and poor schools as problems that were not adequately addressed.
Needless to say, it’s non-serious of Whitman to blame Schwarzenegger for the state’s unemployment rate, which is due to the near collapse of the global economy. And she has a great deal to learn about how education works in California.
Actually, there are a number of mistakes that Schwarzenegger has made as governor.
Fortunately for Whitman, if she wants to talk to some of the people responsible for them, they are very close at hand. In the ranks of her own campaign advisors.
It’s increasingly evident that there is a great deal that Whitman does not know about what has gone on in California, even in the recent past. Before deciding she wanted to be governor, she’d never so much as written an op-ed piece on the woes of the state about which she now professes such concern.
The Republican candidate continued her pattern of avoiding engaging with print reporters, speaking before the speech only with television reporters and a video crew from the Associated Press.
When several print reporters asked about the radio ad (note: that’s a Democratic ad with a mere $50,000 buy behind it, which Whitmanites act as though it is very dangerous to them) after her speech, Whitman responded briefly, saying she was “trying to be smart and efficient and effective,” and quickly exited through a door behind her.
** TONY BLAIR’S GHOST (WRITER). Roman Polanski’s new film, The Ghost Writer, had its world premiere on Friday at the Berlin Film Festival and is getting good early reviews. Count it as more bad news for former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Blair complained last week on Fox News — a few days before the film premiered, in fact — that his widely panned January appearance in London before the Chilcot Inquiry into the origins of the Iraq War stirred up so much negativity because people are hungry for conspiracy involving him.
Vice President Joe Biden traveled to Michigan yesterday and appeared on CBS this morning to promote the first anniversary of the economic recovery act.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington today.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
Obama then delivered remarks on the first anniversary of the economic recovery act.
The recovery act, better known as the economic stimulus program, is controversial for a few reasons. One, it is frequently confused with the Wall Street bailout. Two, unemployment remains high. Three, Obama has been doing so many things, and has been pinned down by the national health care bill — which was on the verge of passage when the Massachusetts special election debacle occurred — that the economic focus was lost. Four, the media environment is truly toxic, caught up in moment to moment trivia and attacks.
At 8 AM Pacific, Obama meets with his AfPak war council in the Situation Room.
There have been major developments in the past week. The biggest U.S. offensive ever in Afghanistan is now underway. The number two leader of the Afghan Taliban has been captured in a joint U.S./Pakistan operation and is being questioned. And the principal leader of the Pakistani Taliban was killed in a U.S. air strike.
At 9:05 AM Pacific, Obama and Biden meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Oval Office.
Clinton has just returned from a trip to the Middle East, where she represented the U.S. in a big summit with the Organization of the Islamic Conference (to which Obama has appointed a special envoy) and worked to kickstart the Israeli/Palestinian peace process and deal with the Iranian crisis.
At 9:50 AM Pacific, Obama and King Juan Carlos of Spain have lunch in the State Dining Room.
At 11:30 AM Pacific, Obama and Biden meet with the U.S. Iraq commander, General Ray Odierno, and Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill in the Oval Office.
Most of Marjah, a principal Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan, has been taken, but large minefields and heavy pockets of resistance remain.
Odierno said late yesterday that intelligence reveals that two Iraqi politicians playing a lead role in blocking hundreds of Sunni candidates from next month’s parliamentary election are close allies of the Iranian regime.
That includes Ahmed Chalabi, the U.S. neoconservative favorite to be Iraq’s prime minister following the 2003 invasion. Fortunately, that didn’t happen. Chalabi, who was very close to the Bush/Cheney administration, supplied false intelligence in advance of the invasion, which served to promote the Iraq War.
At 12:15 PM Pacific, Obama meets with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
At 2:15 PM Pacific, Obama calls the astronauts on the International Space Station from the Oval Office.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Los Angeles and Sacramento today.
At 9 AM, Schwarzenegger holds a press conference at the CalTrans Mulholland West Yard in Los Angeles on the first anniversary of the Obama economic recovery act. He’ll highlight the California projects and announce Recovery Act funding for tranportation projects around the state.
On January 6th, Schwarzenegger declared a special legislative session on the state’s chronic budget crisis. Under state law he had enacted early in his governorship, if the budget is not resolved in 45 days all other legislative activity goes by the boards.
As a result, the Legislature, which has done little on the budget this year, is rushing to move other legislation forward this week.
** THE MACHINATIONS OF MEG WHITMAN: BEHIND HER ATTEMPTS TO ELIMINATE COMPETITION AND HER WHOPPER ABOUT HOW LONG SHE’S LIVED IN CALIFORNIA.In her spend-whatever-it-takes bid to jump from being a billionaire ex-CEO to the governorship of California, Republican Meg Whitman presents herself and her ideas in very simple, straightforward terms. The reality behind the facade, as we see from her attempts to avoid a primary contest and duck debates and the press, as well as her false claim about herself in her introductory TV ad, is different.
Last week it emerged that Whitman, whose only claim to fame in public affairs is her role as national co-chair of the McCain/Palin campaign, had engaged in a heavy-handed and wildly unsuccessful project to force her super-rich Republican rival, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, from the race. I’ve since confirmed that Whitman was out to clear the Republican primary field entirely, having engaged with greater success in inducing former Silicon Valley Congressman Tom Campbell to withdraw from the race for governor and enter the race for Senator Barbara Boxer’s seat.
While Whitman’s operatives employed coercion in their backfiring bid to get Poizner out of the race, they employed persuasion to remove Campbell from the equation. While consultant Mike Murphy played the heavy with Poizner, several sources say that another former consigliere for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bob White, the longtime chief of staff to former Governor and Senator Pete Wilson who now heads a powerful corporate consulting firm in the state capital, played the lead role for Whitman on the Campbell project. Wilson is Whitman’s campaign chair.
In December, according to well-informed sources, Whitman operatives began trying to influence people in the orbit around Schwarzenegger to persuade Campbell to switch out of the governor’s race and into the Senate race. Campbell, whose varied career has included stints as a Stanford law professor and head of the UC Berkeley business school, had been the state finance director in the Schwarzenegger Administration. … From my February 10th column.
** SELLING MEG WHITMAN: GLITCHES EMERGE IN THE BILLIONAIRE’S PLAN TO ACQUIRE THE CALIFORNIA GOVERNORSHIP.What would Don Draper do? … From my February 2nd column.
** WHAT A DIFFERENCE TWO MONTHS MAKES AS THE FATE OF OBAMA’S PRESIDENCY PLAYS OUT FAR FROM WASHINGTON. … From my January 29th column.
** THE BAND OF THE DECADE: THE BEATLES?!What does it say that the biggest musical group of the first decade of this new millennium recorded its last album 40 years ago? … From my January 1st essay.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti. While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 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.
This is up about $43 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity.
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