President Obama

President Obama in China 

In an interview with CNN in China, President Obama opened the possibility to not running for re-election in 2012 -- something that no president has done since Lyndon Johnson.

Here's what he said:

"You know, if - if I feel like I've made the very best decisions for the American people and three years from now I look at it and, you know, my poll numbers are in the tank and because we've gone through these wrenching changes, you know, politically, I'm in a tough spot, I'll - I'll feel all right about myself," Obama told CNN's Ed Henry.

David Plouffe hits the radio airways David PlouffeWednesday to talk about how he and Barack Obama pulled off one of the great election feats of all time -- the 2008 presidency.

Plouffe is the author of a new book, The Audacity to Win. Excerpt here.

He's on "Up to Date" at 11 a.m. Wednesday on 89.3 FM, KCUR.

WASHINGTON (AP) — When it comes to paying for a health care overhaul, Americans see just one way to go: Tax the rich.

 That finding from a new Associated Press poll will be welcome news for House Democrats, who proposed doing just that in their sweeping remake of the U.S. medical system, which passed earlier this month and would extend coverage to millions of uninsured Americans.

 The poll found participants sour on other ways of paying for the health overhaul that is being considered in Congress, including taxing insurers on high-value coverage packages derided by President Barack Obama and Democrats as “Cadillac plans.”

from Earth Times

Washington - President Barack Obama's deep bow to the Japanese emperor during a weekend visit in Tokyo has been met with sharp criticism from conservatives in the United States. Conservatives took to the airwaves and blogosphere Monday to rip Obama's gesture as subservient, inappropriate and a sign of weakness, with one rightwing blogger going as far to call it "treasonous."

Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko hosted Obama for a meeting on Saturday. As Obama shook Akihito's hand, he bowed a full 90 degrees forward. Blogging on the Los Angeles Times, Andrew Malcolm said the move might score him some points in Japan but will surely elicit frowns back home. "How low will the new American president go for the world's royalty?" Malcolm wrote, pointing out that vice president Dick Cheney's simple handshake with Akihito in 2007 was the proper way to greet the emperor. Obama received similar criticism when he offered more of a half- bow to Saudi King Abdullah in April, prompting The Washington Times to editorialize it as a "shocking display of fealty." A senior administration official has dismissed the criticism, telling Politico it's "just way, way, way off base." State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said it was merely "a sign of respect to the emperor."

Maybe the snow that's coming will stimulate the local economy. Or maybe not. Either way, enjoy...

from nyt

SHANGHAI - Politely but firmly pressing for greater freedoms on China's own turf, President Barack Obama spoke against censorship Monday, saying tough criticisms of political leaders should be allowed and the free flow of information on the Internet "should be encouraged."

Opening his first-ever visit to China, a critically important U.S. partner on economic and security matters, Obama said crucial problems cannot be solved unless the world's only superpower and its rising competitor work together. "More is gained when great powers cooperate than when they collide," he said.

But on a visit that had him wading into sensitive territory with his tightly controlled host country, Obama also openly prodded Beijing to accept what he called "universal rights."

from msnbc

TOKYO - The White House's top lawyer is resigning, the administration said Friday.

White House Counsel Greg Craig has been the subject of questions about his future since late summer, dogged by talk that President Barack Obama's promise to close the controversial Guantanamo Bay military prison by January went awry under Craig's leadership.

Craig also oversaw the president's revamping of U.S. policy on terrorism interrogations and detentions, including a ban on torture, and was at the center of administration moves to release many documents relating to the treatment of terror suspects under the Bush administration — and to oppose the release of photos of abuse of detainees overseas by U.S. personnel. All those decisions earned Obama considerable criticism, some from the right and some from the left.

from washingtonpost.com

When President Obama arrives in Shanghai and Beijing next week, he will face a prickly question that has vexed presidents since Richard M. Nixon first visited Mao Zedong in 1972: How exactly does the United States define its relationship with China?

Over the decades, U.S. leaders have run through a kaleidoscope of terms, from "tacit allies" against the Soviet Union in the early 1970s to "strategic competitors" at the start of President George W. Bush's administration.

from msnbc

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is considering four options for realigning U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, his spokesman said Tuesday, while military officials said the choices involve several ways the president could employ additional U.S. forces next year.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama will discuss the four scenarios with his national security team on Wednesday. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Fort Hood, Texas, Gibbs would not offer details about those options. He insisted that Obama has not made a decision about troop deployments.

Gibbs said that anybody who says Obama has made a decision "doesn't have in all honesty the slightest idea what they're talking about. The president's yet to make a decision" about troop levels or other aspects of the revised U.S. strategy in Afghanistan.

 President Obama at Fort Hood

UPDATE: Obama's remarks below.

**** 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Presidents get elected to run the nation. Some days that means knowing how to heal it.

 For the first time since winning the White House, President Barack Obama faces such a moment Tuesday at Fort Hood. It his job to offer comfort, if not answers, after the shooting that left 13 people dead and 29 wounded on the bustling Texas Army post five days ago.

from washingtonpost.com

WASHINGTON - President Obama retreated briefly to the serenity of Camp David this weekend, leaving behind seven days that showcased both the promise and the limits of his presidency.

The respite lasted fewer than 24 hours, and his return to the White House was marked by a victory for the ambitious agenda he has embraced. His allies in Congress had secured — if only by a hair — a historic milestone on the march toward comprehensive health-care reform.

"Moments like this are why they sent us here," Obama said, back in the Rose Garden Sunday afternoon. "To finally meet the challenges that Washington has put off for decades."

WASHINGTON (AP) — The unemployment rate has surpassed 10 percent for the first time since 1983 — and is likely to go higher.

 Nearly 16 million people can’t find jobs even though the worst recession since the Great Depression has apparently ended. Many economists worry that persistently high unemployment could undermine the recovery by restraining consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy.

 The Labor Department said Friday that jobless rate rose to 10.2 percent, the highest since April 1983, from 9.8 percent in September. The economy shed a net total of 190,000 jobs in October, less than the downwardly revised 219,000 lost in September, but more than economists expected.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Delay is rarely good for politicians trying to pass legislation. The possibility that Congress might not complete action on a major health care bill this year is another frustration for President Barack Obama and his allies.

 Even if it doesn’t sink the health care effort, a delay would raise new uncertainties and push other domestic priorities further back. It also would give opponents a chance to pick off nervous Democratic lawmakers eyeing their November 2010 re-election campaigns.

 Even some House Democrats with safe seats don’t like the idea of voting on a contentious bill until it’s clear that the Senate will follow suit.

nyt analysis

WASHINGTON - The Republican victories in the races for New Jersey and Virginia governors put the party in a stronger position to turn back the political wave President Obama unleashed last year, setting the stage for Republicans to raise money, recruit candidates and ride the excitement of an energized base as the party heads into next year’s midterm elections.

But a Democratic victory in an upstate New York Congressional district — after an ideologically pitched battle between moderates and conservatives over how best to lead Republicans back to power — signaled that the Republican Party faces continued upheaval. The Democratic victory came over a conservative candidate who, with the enthusiastic backing of national conservative leaders and well-financed grass-roots organizations, had forced out a Republican candidate who supported abortion rights and gay rights.

Election Day in the post-Obama era. Vote early and often...

from washingtonpost.com

While House leaders are moving toward a vote on health-care legislation by the end of the week, enough Democrats are threatening to oppose the measure over the issue of abortion to create a question about its passage.

House leaders were still negotiating Monday with the bloc of Democrats concerned about abortion provisions in the legislation, saying that they could lead to public funding of the procedure. After an evening meeting of top House Democrats, Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (Md.) said, "We are making progress," but added that they had not reached an agreement.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Beware the math.

 Some Republican lawmakers critical of President Barack Obama’s stimulus package are using grade-school arithmetic to size up costs and consequences of all that spending. The math is satisfyingly simple but highly misleading.

 It goes like this: Divide the stimulus money spent so far by the estimated number of jobs saved or created. That produces a rather frightening figure on how much money taxpayers are spending for each job.

 On Friday, the White House released estimates that $160 billion in stimulus spending created or preserved 650,000 direct jobs.

CHICAGO (WBBM) -- A year after President Obama's election, David Axelrod and other former Obama campaign staffers are back in Chicago for a red carpet screening tonight.

The film is a behind-the-scenes documentary on the President's path to the White House.

Co-director and Chicagoan Alicia Sams says the project was conceived just after Barack Obama was elected to the US Senate.

"The initial idea was to...start shooting and chronicle the education of a Senator."

A funny thing happened on the way to that project. Senator Obama became a candidate for president.

Sams says it put them in a unique position to gain access to the inner workings of the campaign.

The finished product, By the People - the Election of Barack Obama, airs at 8pm Chicago time, next Tuesday on HBO.

from msnbc

WASHINGTON - About 650,000 jobs have been saved or created under President Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan, the White House said Friday, saying it is on track to reach the president's goal of 3.5 million jobs by the end of next year.

New job numbers from businesses, contractors, state and local governments, nonprofit groups and universities were scheduled to be released publicly later Friday. White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein said the figures will show that, when adding in jobs linked to $288 billion in tax cuts, the stimulus plan has created or saved more than 1 million jobs.