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Archive for March, 2009
March 2, 2009
- “We are just temporary occupants. This is a place that belongs to the American people and we want to make sure that everybody understands it’s open,” he said.
- “The feud between radio host Rush Limbaugh and Rahm Emanuel makes great political theater, but it is a sideshow to the important work going on in Washington. RNC Chairman Michael Steele and elected Republicans are focused on fighting for reform and winning elections. The Democrats’ problem is that the American people are growing skeptical of the massive government spending being pushed by Congressional leaders like Nancy Pelosi.”
- "In this role, Sebelius will oversee a department with wide-ranging responsibilities essential to the American people, including the implementation of the president's vision for health care," the statement said.
- “But I also know this. I didn't come to Washington to take the easy route or to work for the powerful and the well-connected interests who have run this city for too long,” Obama continued. “I came here to work for the American people. I came here to deliver the sweeping change that they demanded when they went to the polls in November.”
- “There’s no easy formula for fixing our health care system,” Obama conceded. But he added: “I didn’t come to Washington to take the easy route … I came here to work for the American people. I came here to deliver the sweeping change that they demanded when they went to the polls in November.”
- “He brings a very important message to the American people to wake up and pay attention to what the administration is doing," Steele said. "Number two, there are those out there who want to look at what he’s saying as incendiary and divisive and ugly. That’s what I was trying to say. It didn’t come out that way. … He does what he does best, which is provoke: He provokes thought, he provokes the left. And they’re clearly the ones who are most excited about him.”
- Arizona Sen. John McCain said it is “insulting to the American people” for Obama’s budget director to indicate over the weekend that the president will sign a $410 billion spending bill with what Republicans critics say is nearly $5.5 billion in pet projects known as earmarks.
- “I just went through a campaign … where both candidates promised change in Washington, promised change from the wasteful, disgraceful, corrupting practice of earmarked, pork-barrel spending,” McCain said. “So what we doing here? Not only business as usual, (but) an outrageous insult to the American people.”
- “Last year’s business?” McCain asked, incredulous. “The president will sign this appropriations bill into law. It is the president’s business. It is the president of the United States’ business. It is the president of the United States’ business to do what he said — stated — when we were in debate seeking the support of the American people — where he said he would work to eliminate earmarks.”
- “We need earmark reform and when I’m president, I will go line by line to make sure we’re not spending money unwisely,” McCain said, reading back Obama’s words at a debate last fall. “That’s the quote, the promise of the president of the United States made to the American people in a debate with me in Oxford, Miss. So what is brought to the floor today — 9,000 earmarks.…So much for change.”
March 3, 2009
- "If it sounds like I'm angry … it's because I am," the fiery McCain said. "The American people want the Congress to act in a fiscally responsible manner."
- "Why do we need to spend $2 million to promote astronomy in Hawaii when unemployment is going up and the stock market is tanking?" McCain said. "Here we are promising the American people hope and change and what do we get, business as usual."
- "We are regrettably dealing with leftover business," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs. "I think that the American people … have been clear about where he stands on this and what we'll do going forward to change the rules of the road."
- It’s also a chance for the president to remind the American people that billions of dollars are on their way from Washington.
- He is the first European leader to visit Obama. Obama said the US-Britain relationship is important to the American people, too.
- When Obama promised that the American people that they will emerge “more prosperous, more unified, and I think more protected from systemic risk having learned these lessons” of the rippling economic mess, Brown was right there to say, “I think President Obama’s absolutely right.”
- He defended a deal made over the weekend to prop up staggering insurance giant American International Group with up to another $30 billion in taxpayer funds, saying that allowing the company to default on its obligations would cause "catastrophic damage to the American people."
- In his comments with Brown, Obama urged the American people to take a longer view as massive efforts to reshape the economy unfold.
- “The American people and businesses are tightening their belts,” Bayh added. “I think we need to show that the government can economize as well.”
March 4, 2009
- “It starts with reforming our broken system of government contracting,” Obama said. “There is a fundamental public trust that we must uphold. The American people’s money must be spent to advance their priorities, not to line the pockets of contractors or to maintain projects that don’t work.”
- “I’m angry,” McCain said. “I’m not nearly as angry as the American people.”
- The White House said that Republicans are lashing out. "What may be frustrating to many Republicans in Congress is they finally have somebody in town who's willing to address wasteful spending," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs. "They finally have somebody in town who's willing to provide a tax cut for the American people that need it. There's finally somebody in town that's willing to undergo honest budgeting."
March 5, 2009
- “There is a fundamental public trust we must uphold,” Obama said. “The American people’s money must be spent to advance their priorities, not to line the pockets of contractors or to maintain projects that don’t work.”
- Barnes said that Obama “walks into this conversation being pragmatic, being open. He knows that the American people are hurting” and are seeing their premiums rise.
- But Barnes, interviewed Thursday on NBC’s”Today” show, also said that “we have to be transparent about it. … We will also hear the voices of the American people … to make sure that health care reform gets before the president for his signature before the end of the year.”
- House Republicans are still arguing that the legislation "rewards irresponsible borrowers and lenders at the expense of the almost 90 percent of American families still making their mortgage payments on time. This is fundamentally unfair – and the American people know it," according to the talking points.
- "Whether one uses note cards or a teleprompter, the American people are a lot more concerned about the plans relayed than the method of delivery. This is not always true of the media," said Bill Burton, deputy press secretary.
- “He uses them to death,” a television crewmember who also covered the White House under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush said of the teleprompter. “The problem is, he never looks at you. He’s looking left, right, left, right — not at the camera. It’s almost like he’s not making eye contact with the American people.”
- "We have unity in a common position amongst the Democratic leadership of Congress and the large, organized progressive base representing the American people," Kirsch told reporters in a conference call.
- “The American people are fed up with this kind of system that breeds corruption,” McCain said, throwing in an allusion to Obama’s own earmarks in the past as a freshman senator from Illinois. “The president should veto this bill and send it back to Congress and tell ’em to clean it up.”
- “We understand we have to earn a seat at the table,” Ignagni said. “We've already offered a comprehensive series of proposals. We want to work with you, we want to work with the members of Congress on a bipartisan basis here. You have our commitment. We hear the American people about what's not working. We've taken that very seriously. You have our commitment to play, to contribute, and to help pass health care reform this year.”
March 7, 2009
- At a House Democrats’ retreat in Virginia, Obama called Pelosi “our rock who’s proven to be an extraordinary leader for the American people.”
March 8, 2009
- "The American people don't trust the banks," Shelby told host George Stephanopoulos. "We've got to do it and get it right. TARP didn't do it."
- House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio, appearing after Orszag on "Face the Nation," replied: "American families are tightening their belt, but they don't see government tightening its belt. And I think we can get through this year and lead by example, and show the American people that the government can go on a diet as well. … Their budget spends too much, it taxes too much and it borrows too much from our kids and grandkids."
- “Listen, I want to work with the president on behalf of the American people,” Boehner said. “That’s what they sent us to Washington to do. And while I like the president as much as the American people do — I think he’s a great guy — there are serious differences in terms of the approach that he would like to take and the approach that I think many Republicans would like to take.”
March 9, 2009
- “The Finance Committee vetting process isn’t determined by the work of any particular staff member. A whole host of people decide how to proceed and when vetting processes are sufficiently done,” the aide explained. “And every finance staffer, whether they’re drafting legislation, answering phones or helping to vet nominees, is simply asked to do those tasks as thoroughly as the American people would expect.” To be sure, the tax counsel on the committee’s Republican staff, Theresa Pattara — another former IRS official — also plays a key role in examining nominees’ finances.
- "I'm frankly getting tired of talking about Newt. I mean, it's a pointless exercise," Limbaugh said of Gingrich's dismissal of him on "Meet the Press." "I'm surprised by nothing when I'm dealing with people in the media who think they're in politics. … They are fly-by-night operators, and most of them stand for nothing until they see a poll about what the American people want, and then they go out and try to say one way or another what the American people want while trying to falsely hold onto an ideology at the same time — and you can't count on them. You can't depend on them. They will sell you out; they will throw you overboard to save themselves, faster than anything. And they'll use you on their way up as often as they can at the same time."
- RUSH: I'm surprised by nothing when I'm dealing with people in the media who think they're in politics. No, as has always been the case, Anna Lee, the strength and the courage, the energy that I get is from my audience. I wrote a book once, and one of the chapters is "My Success is Not Determined by Who Wins Elections," 'cause they come and go. They are fly-by-night operators, and most of them stand for nothing until they see a poll about what the American people want, and then they go out and try to say one way or another what the American people want while trying to falsely hold onto an ideology at the same time — and you can't count on them. You can't depend on them. They will sell you out; they will throw you overboard to save themselves, faster than anything. And they'll use you on their way up as often as they can at the same time. So…
- Even on areas of common ground, there are tensions. Obama’s 2010 budget uses a cap-and-trade regime both to address climate change and to raise $645 billion in revenues. “It’s been very harmful to the whole issue of cap-and-trade,” McCain says. “I never looked at cap-and-trade as a way to increase revenues. … Never did I envision it would be a vehicle for raising $650 billion, which would just be a tax increase on the American people.”
- “There is no clear message,” he says of Obama’s Treasury. “They’re just sort of lurching from one crisis to another, and that’s the perception the American people have.”
- “The members of the caucus clearly raised great concerns that the American people have about the amounts of money involved and the effectiveness of that money,” House Democratic leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said.
- "The members of the caucus clearly raised grave concerns that the American people have about the amounts of money involved and about the effectiveness of that money," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters. "Secretary Geithner said that the administration shared that concern with the American public but believed that not to have taken the action we have taken would in the very short term - not so much the long term - cause even greater loss to the economy, greater loss of jobs, as severe the loss of jobs has been."
- Closing Guantamo will not be easy, Holder has said, but he has pledged to do it “in a way that ensures that people are treated fairly and that the American people are kept safe.”
March 10, 2009
- “The American people can be assured,” Gibbs said, “that the president spends the vast majority of his time thinking and working on the economy.”
- And his team wants the American people to know, it wasn’t easy.
- “I think, not just this administration, but I think the American people can be proud of in getting us on a path towards a sustained economic recovery,” Gibbs said, when asked to sum up progress Tuesday.
- “Why not go back to 2008 levels,” said Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas. “That would be a responsible action that might start giving confidence to the American people.”
March 11, 2009
- “This piece of legislation must mark an end to the old wayof doing business and the beginning of a new era ofresponsibility and accountability that the American people haveevery right to expect and demand,â€
- “My assumption is that most of the capital will come from the savings of the American people,” he said.
March 12, 2009
- “The future demands that we operate in a different way than we have in the past,” Obama said Wednesday. “This piece of legislation must mark an end to the old way of doing business and the beginning of a new era of responsibility and accountability that the American people have every right to expect and demand.”
- "But we have a lot of challenges in the country" and "we need to give (the) American people the confidence that we're going to start to fix these long-term problems that have been neglected, frankly," he said.
- FORT BRAGG, N.C. – First lady Michelle Obama, venturing away from Washington to define her White House role, called on the American people Thursday to embrace the military families in their communities.
March 13, 2009
- Democratic National Committee Communications Director Brad Woodhouse says: “Instead of joining Democrats in working to pass practical steps to confront the challenges we face, Republicans have been passing their time just saying no to everything the president proposes. The American people want leaders who will work together to confront the challenges we face, not more of the same broken politics from Rush Limbaugh-led do-nothings. Instead of petty politics and empty obstructionism, Republicans in Congress should either support the president’s budget or present their own plan to create jobs, fix our schools, reform our health care system, and make America energy independent.”
- Obama said he’s “putting in the pillars economically to deal with the short-term emergency to stabilize the economy and to put in the foundation for long-term economic growth, and that’s an overarching package that I think the American people are hungry for.”
- Gibbs later said Summers was not intending to “provide stock tips for the American people.”
March 14, 2009
- A Republican Senate leadership aide responded: “It really is a silly campaign. What are we saying ‘no’ to? Trillions in new spending? An unpopular, earmark-laden bill that the President himself was embarrassed to sign? A new national energy tax? Releasing Gitmo terrorists into the U.S.? We’d like to thank them for reminding the American people that we are saying ‘no’ to those things.” Related Searches: virginia gov. tim kaine economic stimulus minority leader mitch mcconnell gop eric cantor Recommend Buzz Up Send Email IM Share Delicious Digg Facebook Fark Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Yahoo! Bookmarks Print (function() { /** * YUI function to get all elements by class name * getElementsByClass */ function getElementsByClass(className, tag, root) { tag = tag || ‘*’; root = (typeof root == ‘string’) ? document.getElementById(root) : root || document; var nodes = [], elements = root.getElementsByTagName(tag), re = new RegExp(‘(?:^|\s+)’ + className + ‘(?:\s+|$)’); for (var i = 0, len = elements.length; i defaultHeight) { // if primary exists then use that height, otherwise use related var obj = getElementsByClass(‘primary-media’,’div’,related)[0]; if (!obj) obj = related; // set height from primary or related container minHeight = parseInt(obj.offsetHeight, 10); // if the minheight is smaller than default, then set it to default if ( (minHeight heightLimit) { // set overflow and height bd.style.height = minHeight + “px”; bd.className += ” overflow”; story.className += ” read-closed”; // add read more expand button var div = document.createElement(‘div’); div.className = ‘read-more read-more-expand’; div.innerHTML = ‘Read Full Article’; // we have to handle the case where a user might click the button before our YUI script loads // if so, remove the height and overflow setting then hide the button, also add #full hash to url so // if script eventually is loaded it doesnt recreate the buttons and collapse the story div.onclick = function(ev) { var e = ev || window.event; // show full story bd.style.height = ‘auto’; bd.className = bd.className.replace(‘overflow’,’expanded’); story.className = story.className.replace(‘read-closed’,”); // hide the toggle button div.className += ’ hide’; // disable link follow if (e.preventDefault) { e.preventDefault(); } else { e.returnValue = false; } } // add div to document bd.appendChild(div); } }})(); More on Barack Obama Obama to unveil proposals to help small businesses AP Bilderbergers excite conspiracists Politico Is Obama taking on too much at once, at economy's expense? McClatchy Newspapers More » More… Video: Obama speaks of US food 'hazard' BBC Video: Shifting Popularity FOX News Video: China can have confidence in US economy: Obama AFP Most Viewed - Politics Government bans `downer’ cows from food supply AP Obama to unveil proposals to help small businesses AP Battle brews over Bush library Politico Obama says US economy sound, reassures investors AP Alaska’s Murkowski a new ‘powerhouse’ in Senate AP All Most Viewed » Most Blogged - Politics A.I.G. Planning Huge Bonuses After $170 Billion Bailout New York Times – Sat Mar 14, 5:30 pm EDT Blogs About This Story (25) Prev Next End of Obama's Honeymoon Washington Post – Sat Mar 14, 9:00 pm EDT Blogs About This Story (10) Prev Next Administration Is Open to Taxing Health Benefits New York Times – Sat Mar 14, 5:51 pm EDT Blogs About This Story (8) Prev Next More From The White House’s new message plan Unity ‘09 Saturday reading: Crickets Two letters to Obama ‘Killing a chicken to save the monkeys’ More News Personalize: Add/Remove News Categories Change Layout Politics Sources: AP Reuters AFP Politico McClatchy Newspapers CQ Politics Bloomberg Rasmussen Reports Obama to unveil proposals to help small businesses 4 mins ago For Liberians in US, a frightening waiting game 1 min ago Obama says US economy sound, reassures investors Sun Mar 15, 3:50 am ET Alaska’s Murkowski a new ‘powerhouse’ in Senate Sat Mar 14, 9:18 pm ET Insurance giant AIG to pay $165 million in bonuses Sun Mar 15, 3:49 am ET More from AP | All Politics Top Stories Most Popular Local Change Location
March 15, 2009
- The highest levels of the Obama administration are infested with members of a shadowy, elitist cabal intent on installing a one-world government that subverts the will of the American people.
- CHENEY: I do. I think those programs were absolutely essential to the success we enjoyed of being able to collect the intelligence that let us defeat all further attempts to launch attacks against the United States since 9/11. I think that's a great success story. It was done legally. It was done in accordance with our constitutional practices and principles. President Obama campaigned against it all across the country. And now he is making some choices that, in my mind, will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people of another attack.
- KING: … and commander in chief of the military. So I want to give you a chance, because many people will say, Vice President Cheney just said Barack Obama, President Obama is making us less safe, more at risk, which you just said. I want to give you a chance — and take as much time as you want — to prove it. Because you put that list up there, and I know you say there have been three cases, I believe, of waterboarding in the past, and you say that specific things have been prevented. I know some of this is classified intelligence, but now that you're out of government, to the degree that you can, tell the American people, because of those tactics, because of those, yes, sometimes extreme tactics, we stopped this.
- The Bush administration instituted programs on intelligence and interrogations that were a "great success story. It was done legally . in accordance with our constitutional practices and principles," Cheney said. "President Obama campaigned against it all across the country. Now he is making some choices in my mind that will in fact raise the risk to the American people of an attack."
- "I think that's a great success story. It was done legally. It was done in accordance with our constitutional practices and principles," the former vice president said. "President Obama campaigned against it all across the country. And now he is making some choices that, in my mind, will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people of another attack.
- “I think that’s a great success story. It was done legally. It was done in accordance with our constitutional practices and principles,” he said. “President Obama campaigned against it all across the country. And now he is making some choices that, in my mind, will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people of another attack.”
- "It makes me angry," Bernanke said. "I slammed the phone more than a few times on discussing AIG. I understand why the American people are angry. It's absolutely unfair that taxpayer dollars are going to prop up a company that made these terrible bets, that was operating out of the sight of regulators, but which we have no choice but the stabilize, or else risk enormous impact, not just in the financial system, but on the whole U.S. economy."
March 16, 2009
- Democratic Congressman Bart Stupak said he was pleased Obama went outside the agency for a new chief. He said the FDA had been "plagued by low morale, antiquated systems, inadequate funding and management more interested in protecting the companies they regulate than the American people."
- "The president has made quite clear that keeping the American people safe and secure is the most serious job that he has each and every day," Gibbs said in defending Obama's decisions.
- "He is making some choices that, in my mind, will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people of another attack," Cheney, in Sunday's interview, said of Obama.
- “You all worked for change. You wanted to see change. Well that wasn’t a hard thing to try to communicate to the American people. Obviously - obviously - we needed a change almost no matter who was running,” said Biden,
March 17, 2009
- “You all worked for change," Biden continued. "You wanted to see change. Well that wasn’t a hard thing to try to communicate to the American people. Obviously - obviously - we needed a change almost no matter who was running,”
- “I suggest, you know, obviously, maybe they ought to be removed,” Grassley said. “But I would suggest the first thing that would make me feel a little bit better toward them if they’d follow the Japanese example and come before the American people and take that deep bow and say, I’m sorry, and then either do one of two things: resign or go commit suicide.
- “But the American people don't have the luxury of just focusing on Wall Street. They don't have the luxury of choosing to pay either their mortgage or their medical bills. They don't get to pick between paying for their kid's college tuition and saving enough money for retirement. They have to do all these things. They have to confront all these problems, and as a consequence, so do we.”
- “The House leadership has made clear that they don’t want to bring up this matter,” Vitter said. “The American people can change that and call their House members and demand that the leadership have a fair vote and pass this into law.”
- "It’s very important get a result for the American people and one that has the priorities that have been [announced] by the president in terms of reducing our dependence on foreign energy, that’s in all of our interests, excellence in education, health care reform and dramatic reduction of the deficit,” Conrad told reporters. “Those will be our guiding principles as we go forward, but as I say, we’ve not yet seen CBO’s new numbers. But I think we can all anticipate because they were done substantially later than OMB’s, that they are going to be more adverse. That that’s going to require all of us to make adjustments.”
- House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said that “the American people are rightly outraged that their tax money is going to pay bonuses to the very people that got this company in trouble.”
March 18, 2009
- “He has lost the confidence of the American people,” Mack said in a statement Wednesday. “Timothy Geithner should either resign or be fired for the good of the country.”
- "They have much to explain not only to us, but also to the American people," subcommittee chairman Paul Kanjorski, a Democrat, said at the hearing with Liddy.
- "We've heard the American people loudly and clearly these last few days," he said, while adamant that despite the threat of subpoenas, lurid death threats made it essential to keep the names of the 418 bonus recipients private.
March 19, 2009
- “I think the administration at best is sending mixed messages,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, whose own amendment to crack down on excessive compensation was dropped from the stimulus bill. The Oregon Democrat credited President Barack Obama for being “very blunt and very forthright and very strong” on the issue, but he said the president’s economic team “has not followed up, and it’s not acceptable to the American people.”
- The aide said that the White House is not as focused on “the immediate sound bite about AIG” as it is on “the fact that everything we do demonstrates … that he’s on the side of the American people [and] that he’s fighting for them.
- “They believe it wholeheartedly — poll numbers show that,” the aide said, accurately describing the data. “We’re going to make it clear how angry he is about AIG. But he doesn’t need to devolve into showmanship to make a point. His entire presidency is about being on the side of the American people.”
- But James Carville, the Democratic adviser, said the American people “aren’t close to getting their pound of flesh out of Wall Street” and so Obama needs to “give a sense that there’s much more accountability coming than we see.” Carville said Obama has done a pretty good job of communicating as president, although he said his staff could have “more consistency.”
- “The American people deserve to know that the person working with Congress and this committee every day, to determine the best way to reboot this economy, is a person who — simply put — gets it,” Rockefeller said.
- Asked for an assessment of Geithner’s performance so far, Wyden would only say, “I want them to get their act together. I want the economic team to have a coordinated message that carries through with what the president has told the American people are his priorities.”
March 20, 2009
- “The American people demand protection and that’s what we’re doing today,” he told the House.
- We must demand that they give back the bonus money — all of it — to the American people.
- Obama said the rules he announced Friday “will help ensure that we are proving ourselves worthy of the great trust the American people have placed in us.” Obama also told state legislators gathered at the White House that decisions about how money will be spent will be based on the merits of creating the most jobs and helping reverse the recession.
- He added: “The American people are watching what we do. They need this plan to work. And they expect to see their hard-earned money spent efficiently.”
- Schwarzenegger said they “let the president know that we are 100 percent behind him on this, to go out and to sell this to the American people. … Not only does it help us make our economy function better, but also it helps us in creating jobs.”
- “We didn’t give up in the fight to change the old, outdated rule and we are going to pursue every legal and legislative avenue to defend the American people’s right to self-defense,” Cox said Friday.
March 21, 2009
- Obama’s volley comes a week after Cheney said the new president was taking steps to “raise the risk to the American people of another attack.”
- "President Obama campaigned against it all across the country. And now he is making some choices that in my mind will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people of another attack," he said.
- “The American people sent us here to get things done, and at this moment of great challenge, they are watching and waiting for us to lead,” Obama said. “Let’s show them that we are equal to the task before us.”
March 22, 2009
- Shelby, who voted to confirm Geithner, said “if he keeps going down this road, I think that he won’t last long. I think he’s probably on shaky grounds now, at least with the Congress and a lot of the American people.”
- We're all going to have to suck it up a little bit and show the American people that we know what it means to be part of a community, and share the sacrifice. Let's see if we can solve this without the legal remedy (ph). And I bet he could.
- Obama also used the interview to criticize former Vice President Dick Cheney’s criticism of Obama’s decision to close Guantanamo Bay prison, where terror suspects are held. Since leaving office, Cheney has been an outspoken critic of Obama over the war on terror, saying Obama was taking steps to “raise the risk to the American people of another attack.”
- people want a lot of contradictory things. You know, the— the— the banks would love a lot of taxpayer money with no strings attached. Folks in Congress, as well as the American people, would love to fix the banks without spending any money. (LAUGHS) And so at a certain point, you know, you've got just a— a very difficult line— to— to walk.
March 23, 2009
- “I am grateful for the service of these dedicated and talented individuals and have the highest confidence that, under the leadership of Secretary Geithner, they will serve the American people well as we tackle the challenges ahead of us,” Obama said in a statement released Monday evening announcing his intention to nominate them.
- "I am grateful for the service of these dedicated and talented individuals and have the highest confidence that, under the leadership of Secretary Geithner, they will serve the American people well as we tackle the challenges ahead of us," Obama said in a written statement announcing Wolin, Brainard and Levey.
March 24, 2009
- “To predict there is now a groundswell of support for Republicans is a little pretentious,” said former Rep. Charlie Bass (R-N.H.), who lost a reelection bid in 2006. “But clearly the traditional voter in the Northeast is looking more closely at Republicans with Bush and the war in Iraq not on the front burner anymore. Now the Democrats have their scandals, they have their problems, and the American people are looking back and thinking we need to balance things out.”Of course, for Northeastern Republicans, it’s hard for things to get any worse. President Barack Obama carried all nine states in last year’s presidential election, winning more than 60 percent of the vote in five of them.
- At Obama’s last news conference, six weeks ago, Garrett read the president a quote from Vice President Biden about an Oval Office meeting he had with the president, and then asked: “Can you tell the American people, sir, what you were talking about?”
- Henry made news at the first presser by pulling out a surprise topic: “There's a Pentagon policy that bans media coverage of the flag-draped coffins from coming in to Dover Air Force Base. … Will you overturn that policy so the American people can see the full human cost of war?”
- “We would have won the re-election battle in a sweep if we had been able to convince the American people of the accuracy of this same report!” Carter concluded in his memoir, “Keeping Faith.”
- “The American people, just like the Australian people, are always frustrated with the need to send our young men and women overseas for extended periods of time,” Obama said. “But I think that the American and the Australian people also recognize that in order for us to keep our homeland safe, in order to maintain our way of life, in order to ensure order on the international scene, that we can’t allow vicious killers to have their way, and we’re going to do what is required to ensure that does not happen.”
- • Said the American people are assessing his ability as chief executive based on his skills and work, not the color of his skin. He said there was justifiable pride in January, when he was inaugurated as the first black president.
- And so this provision would affect about 1 percent of the American people. They would still get deductions. It’s just that they wouldn’t be able to write off 39 percent.
- Q: Yours is a rather historic presidency. And I’m just wondering whether, in any of the policy debates that you’ve had within the White House, the issue of race has come up or whether it has in the way you feel you’ve been perceived by other leaders or by the American people? Or has the last 64 days been a relatively colorblind time?
- And, and, you know, right now, the American people are judging me exactly the way I should be judged. And that is: Are we taking the steps to improve liquidity in the financial markets, create jobs, get businesses to reopen, keep America safe? And that’s what I’ve been spending my time thinking about.
- We don’t have that power right now; that’s what Secretary Geithner was talking about. And I think that there’s going to be strong support from the American people and from Congress to provide that authority, so that we don’t find ourselves in a situation where we’ve got to choose between either allowing an enormous institution like AIG, which is not just insuring other banks, but is also insuring pension funds and potentially putting people’s 401(k)s at risk if it goes under, that’s one choice, and then the other choice is just to allow them to take taxpayer money without the kind of conditions that we’d like to see on it.
- With respect to the American people, I think folks are sacrificing left and right. I mean, you’ve got a lot of parents who are cutting back on everything to make sure that their kids can still go to college. You’ve got workers who are deciding to cut an entire day — an entire day’s worth of pay so that their fellow co-workers aren’t laid off.
- OBAMA: Well, as — as I said, the American people are making a host of sacrifices in their individual lives. We are going through an extraordinary crisis, but we believe that, taken — if you take the steps that we’ve already taken, with respect to housing, with respect to small businesses, if you look at what we’re doing in terms of increasing liquidity in the financial system, that the steps that we’re taking can actually stabilize the economy and get it moving again.
- What I’m looking from the American people to do is that they are going to be doing what they’ve always done, which is working hard, looking after their families, making sure that, despite the economic hard times, that they’re still contributing to their community, that they’re still participating in volunteer activities, that they are paying attention to the debates that are going on in Washington.
- And the budgets that we’re putting forward and some of the decisions that we’re having to make are going to be tough decisions, and we’re going to need the support of the American people. And that’s part of why what I’ve tried to do is to be out front as much as possible explaining in very clear terms exactly what we’re doing.
- And so this provision would affect about 1 percent of the American people. They would still get deductions. It’s just that they wouldn’t be able to write off 39 percent.
- Q: Yours is a rather historic presidency. And I’m just wondering whether, in any of the policy debates that you’ve had within the White House, the issue of race has come up or whether it has in the way you feel you’ve been perceived by other leaders or by the American people? Or has the last 64 days been a relatively colorblind time?
- And, and, you know, right now, the American people are judging me exactly the way I should be judged. And that is: Are we taking the steps to improve liquidity in the financial markets, create jobs, get businesses to reopen, keep America safe? And that’s what I’ve been spending my time thinking about.
- “I think that there's going to be strong support from the American people and from Congress to provide that authority,” he said. Obama tried to put into personal terms the dangers of the failure of a large insurance firm like AIG, noting that AIG’s collapse would jeopardize pension funds and 401(k)s.
- “The first act: Washington tells the American people, `We understand your anger at Wall Street.’ In the second act, we nitpick to death any proposal that actually adversely affects Wall Street. And then, in the third act, we bestow another trillion dollars on Wall Street under extremely favorable terms.”
March 25, 2009
- What he said: “With respect to the American people, I think folks are sacrificing left and right. I mean, you've got a lot of parents who are cutting back on everything to make sure that their kids can still go to college. You've got workers who are deciding to cut an entire day — an entire day's worth of pay so that their fellow co-workers aren't laid off.”
- “This ad is designed to engage the American people in the process of bringing about the transformational change they voted for in November by contacting their elected representatives and asking for their help in putting our country on the road to prosperity,” he said. It is our hope that Congress gets the boost it needs to stand up to the special interests that will do anything to maintain the failed policies of the last eight years that were entirely stacked in their favor and that turned our economy into a house of cards.”
- "America is at a critical juncture in our history — brought about by a financial crisis and a deep recession that are hurting the American people," said Representative Paul Ryan, the House Budget Committee's top Republican.
- He made his case to the American people the same day he pressed for coordinated action among the world's major economies, and just a day after unveiling a trillion-dollar plan to soak up toxic bank assets at the root of the global financial meltdown.
- White House spokesman Robert Gibbs defended Obama’s political fundraising in tough economic times, saying: “We haven’t seen politics by either party stop in this period, though I think the president fully understands the situation the American people face.”
March 26, 2009
- The Obama administration is likely to recalibrate rather than relegate democracy as a foreign policy objective. It understands that democracies are the most effective partners in helping us address today’s great international challenges: terrorism, poverty, weapons proliferation and civil conflict. By encouraging those at the grass roots who wish to move their countries in a more democratic direction, the administration will send a powerful message that the American people share and will help them realize their aspirations.
- Many political experts say he needs to act now, while he remains popular with the American people, to win congressional passage of his top policy priorities.
- “The president just thinks it’s another opportunity to talk directly with the American people about the challenges that we have, the choices and the decisions that we’re making, and the path that we’re taking to get us back to prosperous days,” Gibbs said.
- The event should not be mistaken, however, for a perfect reflection of the concerns of the American people, or even of American Internet users, for two reasons.
- But it's a consideration worth keeping in mind as the questions get characterized as what's top of mind for the American people, rather than for the Obama base.
- The president said, “When I was running for president, I promised to open the White House for the American people. This is an important step toward achieving that goal.”
- The president said, “When I was running for president, I promised to open the White House for the American people. This is an important step toward achieving that goal.”
- “The president just thinks it’s another opportunity to talk directly with the American people about the challenges that we have, the choices and the decisions that we’re making, and the path that we’re taking to get us back to prosperous days,” Gibbs said.
- “Someone in the Obama administration needs to step up to the plate and acknowledge their role in requesting the Senate amendment blessing all of the AIG bonuses. The American people deserve to know without delay who made these decisions and why the administration was saying one thing and doing another,” said. Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama, the ranking Republican on the committee.
- As he plans to put more U.S. lives and money into the war zone, Obama will set benchmarks for progress in Afghanistan and neighboring, troubled Pakistan. The goal is to show Congress and the American people that the strategy is working — and to set a clear framework for making corrections as needed.
March 27, 2009
- Obama says the legal veteran came to the job as the country’s 82nd attorney general with only one agenda — to do what is right under the law for the American people.
- “I want the American people to understand that we have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaida in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future,” Obama said. “That’s the goal that must be achieved. That is a cause that could not be more just.”
- The essence of Obama’s strategy is to set clear goals for a war gone awry, to get the American people behind them, to provide more resources and to make a better case for international support. He is heading next week to a NATO meeting in France and Germany, where he expects allies to pledge more help of their own.
- “For the American people,” Obama said, “this border region has become the most dangerous place in the world.”
- President Barack Obama said he made clear to bank CEOs who visited him Friday that they need to get rid of lavish bonuses and perks that have angered the American people.
- He said the president stressed “that he had no agenda beyond working to get a solution, the right solution for our financial system and to get it stabilized and working again for the American people.”
March 28, 2009
- Asked about the risk of mixed messages coming from so many of its top names fanning out on the same Sunday, a White House official said: “We just don’t have the luxury of taking on one thing right now. With the global community and the American people learning about the new Afghanistan policy, it’s important to make sure that people understand it, as well as where things stand on the economy and where we are going forward.”
March 29, 2009
- But Obama told CBS’ “Face the Nation” in an interview broadcast Sunday that he doesn’t have that luxury of time, because the American people don’t have that luxury.
- "You know, if I had my preferences, would I love to deal with one of these at a time? Deal with Afghanistan now and maybe put off banking till later or deal with health care three years from now? That would be great. I don't have that luxury because the American people don't have that luxury. They need to be kept safe now. They need health-care assistance now. They need this economy back on track now. They need to educate their kids now. And given that they're having to make a lot of difficult choices, it's important for us to work as hard as we can to help them live out their American dream."
- He said he expected financial institutions to show restraint. “It’s very difficult for me as president to call on the American people to make sacrifices to help shore up the financial system if there’s no sense of mutual obligation and mutual help.”
- “She has shown that she has a good sense of communication and PR, like being photographed at a charity place,” said Marie Colmant, a French television commentator. “When she was doing that, our French first lady and the president were in Mexico at a luxury villa. She has a good perception of the temperature of the American people. She gets it.” Related Searches: michelle obama fashion Recommend Buzz Up Send Email IM Share Delicious Digg Facebook Fark Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Yahoo! Bookmarks Print (function() { /** * YUI function to get all elements by class name * getElementsByClass */ function getElementsByClass(className, tag, root) { tag = tag || ‘*’; root = (typeof root == ‘string’) ? document.getElementById(root) : root || document; var nodes = [], elements = root.getElementsByTagName(tag), re = new RegExp(‘(?:^|\s+)’ + className + ‘(?:\s+|$)’); for (var i = 0, len = elements.length; i defaultHeight) { // if primary exists then use that height, otherwise use related var obj = getElementsByClass(‘primary-media’,’div’,related)[0]; if (!obj) obj = related; // set height from primary or related container minHeight = parseInt(obj.offsetHeight, 10); // if the minheight is smaller than default, then set it to default if ( (minHeight heightLimit) { // set overflow and height bd.style.height = minHeight + “px”; bd.className += ” overflow”; story.className += ” read-closed”; // add read more expand button var div = document.createElement(‘div’); div.className = ‘read-more read-more-expand’; div.innerHTML = ‘Read Full Article’; // we have to handle the case where a user might click the button before our YUI script loads // if so, remove the height and overflow setting then hide the button, also add #full hash to url so // if script eventually is loaded it doesnt recreate the buttons and collapse the story div.onclick = function(ev) { var e = ev || window.event; // show full story bd.style.height = ‘auto’; bd.className = bd.className.replace(‘overflow’,’expanded’); story.className = story.className.replace(‘read-closed’,”); // hide the toggle button div.className += ’ hide’; // disable link follow if (e.preventDefault) { e.preventDefault(); } else { e.returnValue = false; } } // add div to document bd.appendChild(div); } }})(); More on Elections Obama racial stereotypes, falsehoods flourish AP Obama conditions bailout funds for automakers AP W.H.: Chrysler small enough to fail Politico More » More… Politics Video: GM CEO to step down at White House request AP Politics Video: 'Pot. Kettle. Black.' FOX News Politics Video: Border Burden FOX News Most Viewed - Politics Obama conditions bailout funds for automakers AP Smoke break gets more expensive with tax boost AP Obama: Auto industry needs to do more to get help AP Treasury secretary says market won’t solve problem AP For the White House, not so easy being greener AP All Most Viewed » Most Blogged - Politics GM CEO resigns at Obama's behest Politico.com: Politics ‘08 – Sun Mar 29, 2:44 pm EDT Blogs About This Story (62) Prev Next U.S. Moves to Overhaul Ailing Carmakers New York Times – Sun Mar 29, 2:12 pm EDT Blogs About This Story (21) Prev Next Gates: U.S. Not Prepared to Respond to North Korea Missile Launch FOX News – Sun Mar 29, 8:46 am EDT Blogs About This Story (14) Prev Next More From Palin with Bush and Limbaugh on Democrat’s mail Liberal coalition takes shape Sunday Reading: GM Bad advice Petraeus: As safe with Obama Subscribe Add headlines to your personalized My Yahoo! page (About My Yahoo! and RSS) Elections - Politico Add to My Yahoo! RSS Presidential Elections Add to My Yahoo! RSS More News Feeds » Alerts Get an alert when there are new stories about: Michelle Obama fashion Add Selected Alerts View More Alerts » Also on Yahoo! News Today in History Obituaries Corrections News by Region (Yahoo! Directory) Yahoo! News & Media Sites Daily Features All Comics » Opinions & Editorials: Diverse views on news from the right, left, and center. All Opinion » Photo Highlight Photo Highlight Slideshow
March 30, 2009
- “Right now the American people are judging me exactly the way I should be judged, and that is are we taking the steps to improve liquidity in the financial markets, create jobs, get businesses to reopen, keep America safe,” Obama said at a news conference Tuesday.
- Increasingly, Summers and Geithner talk to Wall Street and to Congress, while three other economists talk to the American people: the distinguished, plainspoken CEA Chairwoman Christina Romer; Vice President Joe Biden’s aide Jared Bernstein, who is the most left-leaning senior economist in the administration; and the Chicago debate champ, who has ranged from daytime cable to “Face the Nation” since being confirmed.
- “Part of what I want to do is to show the American people that it’s not that hard,” Obama said in a television interview during the transition. He said he’s one of those people who tiptoes around and turns off lights at night. “I’m not going to be obsessive about it. But I do that in my current house. So there’s no reason why I wouldn’t do it in my next one.”
- "It's very difficult for me as president to call on the American people to make sacrifices to help shore up the financial system if there's no sense of mutual obligation … and mutual help," Obama said.
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