Gaming Chair Steering Wheel

RACIST OBAMA IMAGE SHINES LIGHT ON WEB SEARCHING

When a racist image of first lady Michelle Obama surfaced from the ugliest corners of the Internet last week to top Google's image search results, the episode shined a spotlight on the mysterious workings of search engines.

Google placed an ad near the image, apologizing for its offensive nature. But the company resisted calls to scrub the image from its database, saying its role as a neutral tool for searching the Web means having to live with the results, whether it likes them or not.

"We have a bias toward free expression, " Google spokesman Scott Rubin told CNN. "That means that some ugly things will show up."

Google handled almost two-thirds of all Internet searches in the United States in October, according to comScore, making the company the dominant player in the field. Like other search engines, Google relies on a complicated and largely secretive algorithm to decide which Web pages should pop up first based on a user's search terms.

The popularity of a Web site, the number of times a certain page has been viewed, the number of people who have linked to a page from their own pages -- all weigh heavily in the automated decision-making process triggered each time a user clicks "search."

"They [Google] have these 200 different factors that they analyze, " said Danny Sullivan, who writes about online search issues at his site, Search Engine Land. "They put them all together and kind of cut it loose and see what it comes up with. It can surprise them as well."

In the case of the crudely doctored Obama image, which replaced her face with that of an ape, Google eventually removed the page on which it first appeared -- but, according to Google, because the page potentially contained malicious software that could harm the computer of anyone who visited it.

As of Tuesday, the image did not appear within the first several hundred results for a Google Images search for " Michelle Obama, " although it remained the first result produced by an image search for the words "Michelle Obama ape."

"When the image was coming up on the term 'Michelle Obama, ' it was coming up that way against an innocuous query, " Rubin said. "If the term you're using is 'Michelle Obama ape, ' one could argue that's a relevant result, however offensive it may be."

Sullivan believes Google may have tweaked its search algorithm after finding a bug in its system that caused the Obama image to climb on its results pages.

"When it doesn't do what they want it to do, they go back and start tweaking things, " he said. "Long term, you look at how they got there. When you search for Michelle Obama, do you really think that kind of image is one of the most popular things about her on the Internet? I don't think so."

Rubin would not comment on whether any changes were made in the wake of the Michelle Obama incident. But Google and other engines are constantly tinkering with their processes.

Google says it has added an automated feature to prevent "Google bombing, " an orchestrated effort by search-engine users to force a specific result.

In 2003, critics of former President George W. Bush gamed the system by repeatedly linking the words "miserable failure" to his official White House biography. Supporters of the Republican president apparently responded, pushing former Democratic President Jimmy Carter's autobiography to No. 2 on the search results for the phrase.

In 2007, comedian and talk-show host Stephen Colbert's fans pushed to link him to the phrase, "greatest living American" -- an effort that worked briefly before Google reversed it.

"We're always working to improve our algorithm to provide more relevant search results, " Rubin said. "We do not make editorial decisions based on our politics or anyone else's."

Sullivan and other observers say the Michelle Obama photo did not appear to be a case of "bombing." Instead, they say, it appears to have slowly crept up Google's image search results until it was noticed, and written about, by bloggers and other media whose attention propelled it to the top.

When negative search results arise on the Web, they recede quicker for some people than for others.

Rhea Drysdale, who handles online image issues for Internet marketing company Outspoken Media, said that the offensive picture of Michelle Obama will fade quickly for a simple reason -- there are so many other images of her on the Internet.

"That's not something that's going to stick with her for long, " she said.

As examples, she cited two people who got negative press in 2009: rapper Kanye West and convicted Wall Street swindler Bernie Madoff.

A Google search for Madoff's name delivers page after page of news stories about the multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme the former investment banker pleaded guilty to earlier this year.

West grabbed headlines, and much criticism online, by barging onstage to interrupt an acceptance speech by country singer Taylor Swift at the MTV Music Video Awards in September.

But search Google for "Kanye West" and the first news account of the incident comes after about half a dozen other items, including West's official Web page, personal blog and Wikipedia entry.

"It's just a matter of news coverage, " she said. "Kanye has a blog. Kanye has a MySpace page. He has a record label that writes all these other things about him. If you have any of those other properties that are yours out there, they can fill the search results."

In recent years, a cottage industry has developed among online consultants who help clients manage how they look in Web searches. These hired guns work to push positive news to the top of search results while burying, as best as possible, negative information.

Meanwhile, Google says it will work to try to keep its search results pure.

"A result that you're not looking for is not a good search result, " said Rubin, the Google spokesman. "It's not a good search experience."

OBAMA VOWS RENEWED TIES WITH ASIA

Touting himself as America's "first Pacific president, " Barack Obama called on his own connections with Asia Saturday as he pledged a renewed engagement with Asia Pacific nations based on "an enduring and revitalized alliance between the United States and Japan."

The U.S. president, in his first Asia trip since taking office in January, told a packed house at Tokyo's Suntory Hall that all Americans should know that what happens in Asia "has a direct effect on our lives at home."

"This is where we engage in much of our commerce and buy many of our goods, " he said. "And this is where we can export more of our own products and create jobs back home in the process.

"This is a place where the risk of a nuclear arms race threatens the security of the wider world, and where extremists who defile a great religion plan attacks on both our continents. And there can be no solution to our energy security and our climate challenge without the rising powers and developing nations of the Asia Pacific."

Obama met with new Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama Friday after his arrival in Tokyo as well as with the Japanese emperor and empress.

Obama touched on nearly every part of the Asia Pacific region during his speech, and talked about a boyhood visit to Japan with his mother, his birth in Hawaii, a childhood spent partly in Indonesia and the United States' position as a Pacific nation.

"There must be no doubt: as America's first Pacific president, I promise you that this Pacific nation will strengthen and sustain our leadership in this vitally important part of the world, " he said.

He stressed that the United States was not interested in containing the emerging economic growth in China.

"The rise of a strong, prosperous China can be a source of strength for the community of nations, " he said. "And so, in Beijing and beyond, we will work to deepen our strategic and economic dialogue."

Obama also called on Myanmar to make more definitive moves toward democracy, including releasing all political prisoners; urged North Korea to return to the Six-Party Talks so that the reclusive nation could be reintegrated into the world stage and pledged America's support for eliminating nuclear weapons and efforts to reduce the global effects of climate change.

His trip is to include stops in Singapore, China and South Korea, during which Obama will hold formal talks with Asian leaders as a group and individually.

The president plans to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, Russia President Dmitry Medvedev and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and will take part in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

APEC's 21 member nations represent more than half of the world's economic output. The forum sees its goal as "facilitating economic growth, cooperation, trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region."

During a busy day in Singapore, Obama also will become the first U.S. president to take part in a summit of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) economic alliance.

In China, Obama will continue efforts to define and strengthen the United States' relationship with the world's largest emerging economy, which has a growing influence in Asia, said Jeffrey Bader, the National Security Council's senior director for East Asian affairs.

"We see it as a relationship where we're obviously going to have differences, where we are going to be competitors in certain respects, " he said. "But we want to maximize areas where we can work together, because the global challenges will simply not be met if we don't."

Bader cited North Korea's nuclear weapons program, the economy, climate change, human rights and Afghanistan as among the top issues for the China swing. On human rights, Bader said Obama is likely to address "freedom of expression, access to information, freedom of religion, rule of law and, certainly, Tibet."

Obama will make clear to Hu that he intends to meet with the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, Bader said. China, which rejects Tibetan aspirations for autonomy, opposes such high-level contacts with the Dalai Lama.

On North Korea, the State Department announced Tuesday that U.S. officials will travel to the country by year's end to seek a resumption of broader talks on ending the Pyongyang government's nuclear program.

The Obama administration has claimed initial progress in its strategy of forging an international effort, including China and South Korea, to pressure North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions.

Japan has been asking for a comprehensive solution to North Korea's missile tests and the abduction of Japanese citizens in the 1970s. Saturday morning, Obama made clear that both were necessary.

"The path for North Korea to realize this future is clear: a return to the Six-Party Talks; upholding previous commitments, including a return to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty; and the full and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, " he said.

"And full normalization with its neighbors can only come if Japanese families receive a full accounting of those who have been abducted. These are all steps that can be taken by the North Korean government, if they are interested in improving the lives of their people and joining the community of nations."

It won't be all diplomatic meetings, though. Obama's first trip to China will include a town hall-style meeting in Shanghai and sightseeing in Beijing, including a stop at the Great Wall.

THE WORLD LONGS TO BELIEVE IN THE US AGAIN

When Obama takes the stage at Oslo City Hall next month, he will not be the first sitting president to receive the peace prize, but he might be the most controversial. There is a sense in some quarters of those not-so-United States that Norway, Europe and the world have not got a clue about the real Obama; instead, they fixate on a fantasy version of the president, a projection of what they wish he was, and what they wish the US was.

Well, I happen to be European, and I can project with the best of them. So here is why I think the virtual Obama is the real Obama, and why I think the man might deserve the hype. It starts with a quotation from a speech he gave at the United Nations in September: "We will support the Millennium Development Goals, and approach next year's summit with a global plan to make them a reality. And we will set our sights on the eradication of extreme poverty in our time."

They are not my words, they are Obama's. If they are not familiar, it is because they did not make many headlines. But for me, these 36 words are why I believe Obama could well be a force for peace and prosperity - if the words signal action.

The millennium goals, for those of you who do not know, are a persistent nag of a noble, global compact. They are a set of commitments we all made nine years ago, whose goal is to halve extreme poverty by 2015. Barack Obama was not there in 2000, but he is there now. Indeed he has gone further - all the way, in fact. Halve it, he says, then end it.

Many have spoken about the need for a rebranding of the US. Rebrand, restart, reboot. In my view these 36 words - alongside the Obama administration's approach to fighting nuclear proliferation and climate change, improving relations in the Middle East and, by the way, creating jobs and providing healthcare at home - are rebranding in action.

These new steps - and those 36 words - remind the world that the US is not just a country but an idea, a great idea about opportunity for all and responsibility to your fellow man.

All right ... I do not speak for the rest of the world. Sometimes I think I do - but as my bandmates will quickly point out, I don't even speak for one small group of four musicians. But I will say that in the furthest corners of the globe, the US president's words are more than a pop song people want to hear on the radio. They are lifelines.

In dangerous, clangorous times, the idea of the US rings like a bell. It hits a high note and sustains it without wearing on your nerves. (If only we all could.) This was the melody line of the Marshall Plan and it is resonating again. Why? Because the world sees that the US might just hold the key to solving the three greatest threats we face on this planet: extreme poverty, extreme ideology and extreme climate change.

The world senses that the US, with renewed global support, might be better placed to defeat this axis of extremism with a new model of foreign policy.

It is a strangely unsettling feeling to realise that the largest navy, the fastest air force, the fittest strike force, cannot fully protect us from the ghost that is terrorism. Asymmetry is the key word from Kabul to Gaza. Might is not right.

I think back to a phone call I got a couple of years ago from General James Jones. At the time, he was retiring from the top job at Nato; the idea of a President Obama was a wild flight of the imagination.

Jones was curious about the work many of us were doing in economic development, and how smarter aid - embodied in initiatives like President George W Bush's Emergency Programme for AIDS Relief, and the Millennium Challenge Corporation - was beginning to save lives and change the game for many countries. Remember, this was a moment when the US could not get its cigarette lighted in polite European nations like Norway; but even then, in the developing world, the US was still seen as a positive, even transformative, presence.

The general and I also found ourselves talking about what can happen when the three extremes - poverty, ideology and climate - come together. We found ourselves discussing the stretch of land that runs across the continent of Africa, just along the creeping sands of the Sahara - an area that includes Sudan and northern Nigeria. He agreed that many people did not see that the Horn of Africa - the troubled region that encompasses Somalia and Ethiopia - is a classic case of the three extremes becoming an unholy trinity and threatening peace and stability around the world.

The military man also offered me an equation. Stability = security + development. In an asymmetrical war, he said, the emphasis had to be on making US foreign policy conform to that formula.

Enter Barack Obama.

If that last line still seems like a joke to you, it may not for long. Obama has put together a team of people who believe in this equation. That includes the general himself, now at the National Security Council; the vice-president, a former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; the Republican defence secretary; and a secretary of state, someone with a long record of championing the cause of women and girls living in poverty, who is now determined to revolutionise health and agriculture for the world's poor.

And it looks like the bipartisan coalition in the US Congress that accomplished so much in global development over the past eight years is still holding amid rancour on pretty much everything else. From a development perspective, you could not dream up a better dream team to pursue peace in this way, to rebrand the US.

Obama said he considered the peace prize a call to action. And in the fight against extreme poverty, it is action, not intentions, that counts.

That stirring sentence he uttered last month will ring hollow unless he returns to next year's UN summit with a meaningful, inclusive plan, one that gets results for the billion or more people living on less than $1 a day. Difficult. Very difficult. But doable.

The Nobel peace prize is the rest of the world saying, "Don't blow it."

But that is not just directed at Obama; it is directed at all of us. What the president promised was a "global plan, " not a US plan. The same is true on all the other issues that the Nobel committee cited, from nuclear disarmament to climate change - none of these things will yield to unilateral approaches. They will take international co-operation and US leadership.

The US president has set himself, and the rest of us, no small task.

That is why the US should not turn up its national nose at popularity contests. In the same week that Obama won the Nobel, the US was ranked as the most admired country in the world, leapfrogging from seventh to the top of the Nation Brands Index survey - the biggest jump any country has ever made. Like the Nobel, this can be written off as meaningless, a measure of Obama's celebrity.

But a US that is tired of being the world's policeman, and is too pinched to be the world's philanthropist, could still be the world's partner. And you cannot do that without being, well, loved. Here come the letters to the editor, but let me just say it: Americans are like singers - we, just a little bit, kind of like to be loved. The British want to be admired; the Russians, feared; the French, envied. (The Irish, we just want to be listened to.) But the idea of the US, from the very start, was supposed to be contagious enough to sweep up and enthral the world.

And it is. The world wants to believe in the US again because the world needs to believe in the US again. We need your ideas - your idea - at a time when the rest of the world is running out of them.

BARACK OBAMA SALUTES FALLEN SOLDIERS

President Obama was hardly visible as the body of Sergeant Dale Griffin was carried down the ramp of a military transport. However, the silhouette of the Commander-in-Chief witnessing the return of America's war dead before dawn may prove a defining image of his agonising over how to prevail in Afghanistan.

Mr Obama spent four hours at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where most bodies of American soldiers killed in wars arrive back on US soil, and where 18 flag-draped coffins landed on Wednesday night after the deadliest day for Nato forces in Afghanistan since 2005.

It was longer than many of Mr Obama's official visits, and long enough, he said, to influence his thinking on future troop deployments to a war zone where eight years of fighting have yielded only a bloody stalemate.

It was a sobering reminder of the sacrifices of US servicemen and women, he said. "The burden that both our troops and our families bear in any wartime situation is going to bear on how I see these conflicts."

The night helicopter flight to Delaware punctuated a debate on future US strategy in Afghanistan that is building to a climax with reports that Mr Obama will send substantial reinforcements but fewer than his commanding general would like.

Administration officials told reporters that Mr Obama was considering sending a new troop contingent but one that would fall short of the 44, 000 soldiers requested by General Stanley McChrystal.

How the reinforcements will be used is expected to be addressed at a war council in the White House today, attended by the Secretary of Defence, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the heads of the army, navy, air force and Marine Corps.

Pressure will then mount from allies and critics for a decision. A second-round vote for the Afghan presidency is scheduled for November 7 and the White House has all but ruled out a set-piece speech on US strategy in Afghanistan before then. On November 11 the President leaves on an eight-day trip to Asia, leaving a four-day gap when an announcement is most likely.

Private briefings by White House and Pentagon staff in recent days point to support for a "McChrystal light" strategy based on protecting civilians, winning over insurgents and accelerating the training of Afghan army units and police.

Mr Obama has requested a province-by-province breakdown of troop requirements and an analysis of how reinforcements would be used from General McChrystal's staf.

News of the request fitted a pattern of preparation for the weightiest decision of a young presidency, but prompted accusations of micromanaging issues better left to commanders. "It's nuts that we have to do all this in public, " one official said.

"People on the ground should be able to get on with it and not be second-guessed by know-it-alls in Washington."

The visit to Dover Air Force Base was first suggested on Tuesday night. It was confirmed at noon on Wednesday but not publicised until Mr Obama was on board the presidential helicopter shortly before midnight.

After the 40-minute flight to Delaware he was driven to an air force chapel to meet relatives of the 15 soldiers and three Drug Enforcement Agency personnel.

Shortly before 4am Mr Obama joined the six-person military carry team responsible for taking the bodies from a C17 transport to a waiting van. Four times he boarded the aircraft to witness prayers for the fallen and the air crews that had brought them home. Four times he held a long salute on the runway as the transfer cases - the word "coffin" is not used by the Pentagon - were carried past him.

"It was hard not to be overwhelmed, " the White House spokesman, who was also present, said afterwards. Apart from a few words of thanks from Mr Obama on his flight back to the White House, no one spoke.

THE WAR OF THE WORDS

A FINAL WORD ON THE OBAMA NOBEL

Now that the ruckus has subsided over the Nobel Prize for Peace to Barack Obama, the time has come to examine an issue largely overlook in recent years. Here is the question: Does the prize hold any relevance, or is it nothing more than a popularity contest judged by a handful of Norwegians with a distorted world vision?

The Peace Prize, according to the Nobel Foundation, should go to a person who, during the preceding year, did the most "for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." The Norwegian Nobel Committee, however, the small panel that decides who receives what used to be one of the world's most prestigious honors, added to the criteria the protection of the world's climate, thus allowing Al Gore and the International Panel on Climate Change to share the prize in 2007.

So, who received the award last year? That was Martti Ahtisaari, a former Finnish president and, according to the Nobel Committee, a "citizen of the world" who, in 2005, became the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General to come up with a plan for the future of Kosovo. The Ahtisaari Plan of 2007 promoted Albanian independence for the Christian heart of Serbia. The plan drew harsh and immediate criticism from the Serbian government, particularly in light of Muslim-backed terrorism against the Christian population of Kosovo that resulted in the damage or destruction of approximately 150 Christian sites between 1999 and 2004.

The awards to Obama and Ahtisaari were not the first to be greeted with bewilderment. The Gore award in 2007 and Jimmy Carter's in 2002 were among the more recent curious selections of the past twenty years.

Mikhail Gorbachev received the 1990 award for his part in ending the Cold War, which he could not have accomplished without the politics and policies of President Ronald Reagan, whom the Norwegians believed was unworthy of a share in the prize.

Rigoberta Menchu got her 1992 award "in recognition of her work for social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples." The Nobel Foundation let her keep it, even after learning her autobiography was a lie. One might call it a disingenuous indigenous story.

Yasser Arafat, an avowed terrorist widely considered someone who enjoyed the company of young boys, and who once packed heat when addressing the UN General Assembly, shared the prize in 1994.

Kofi Annan and the United Nations sharing the prize in 2001 may be the most outlandish decision in the controversial history of the prize, one akin to holding up Adolph Hitler as a champion of peace. Although Annan took the money and a bow, he admitted three years later he did nothing to stop the slaughter of nearly one million Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994. "The international community failed Rwanda and that must leave us always with a sense of bitter regret, " he said.

Sports analogies have a way of keeping controversial decisions from becoming slam dunks. Several stories about Obama's prize pointed out that winning Rookie of the Year does not qualify one for the Hall of Fame, or sentiments along that line.

A recent statement regarding this year's Heisman Trophy brought to mind its relationship to the Nobel Peace Prize selection. Here's what happened. A college football announcer stated there's talk that University of Houston quarterback Case Keenum is a serious candidate for the Heisman Trophy, given each year to the person selected as the nation's best collegiate football player. The color guy quickly sacked that comment by saying Keenum doesn't belong in the conversation.

He could have said Keenum is one of several good players in the running this year. He could have said there's still a half-season of football to be played, but Keenum certainly deserves consideration. He could have said Keenum has given some strong performances this season and that he hopes Kennum continues to have a good year. But he didn't. Instead, he scoffed at the player who leads the nation in total offense with 2, 501 passing yards, 76 rushing yards, and 19 touchdowns.

One can only assume "the other guy in the booth" based his snobby snub on the fact Keenum does not play in a conference with an automatic Bowl Championship Series berth. In other words, he's not a member of the self-ascribed elite and doesn't deserve even the utterance of his name in conversation.

How like the peace prize selection process this sounds: A small group of individuals of dubious importance deciding who deserves the highest accolade they have to offer, regardless of talent, accomplishments, or other tangible measures of success.

And the world buys into it each year.

"...Mundus vult decipi..." (the world wants to be deceived)

OFF THE HOOK

100, 000 CALLS TO CONGRESS

HILLARY CLINTON MORE POPULAR THAN OBAMA

She lost to him in last year's battle for the Democratic presidential nomination, but a new national poll suggests that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is now more popular than her boss, President Barack Obama.

A Gallup survey released Thursday indicates that 62 percent of Americans hold a favorable view of Clinton, 6 points higher than the 56 percent who view Obama favorably.

According to the poll, the president's favorable rating has dropped 22 points from its inaugural-month level in January. The survey indicates that Clinton's favorable rating has only edged down 3 points since the beginning of the year.

Nine in 10 Democrats questioned in the poll view both Obama and Clinton favorably, with independents split. Fewer than one in five Republicans hold a favorable opinion of the president, while 35 percent see Clinton in a positive light. According to the survey, Obama has dropped 23 points with independents and 41 points with Republicans since January, while Clinton has dropped just 6 points among independents and stayed even among Republicans since the start of 2009.

"This is a common pattern in recent polling. Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice consistently had higher favorable ratings than George W. Bush. Madeleine Albright was more popular than Bill Clinton. Secretaries of State don't get blamed for economic problems or unpopular domestic policies, and they often don't get the same share of the blame as the commander-in-Chief for international slip-ups either."

The Gallup telephone poll of 1, 013 adults was conducted October 1-4, before the president was named winner of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

OBAMA WILL NEVER PLEASE SOME PEOPLE

Our president wins the Nobel Peace Prize. It is without a doubt one of the most distinguished honors in the world.

So now, some folks are clamoring for President Barack Obama to give back the $1.4 million prize - which he is donating to charity - ostensibly because he doesn't "deserve it."

As I'm sure most of you know, Obama was awarded the prize on Friday. It was a surprise - even to the president, who questioned whether he was worthy of such recognition.

The Nobel committee in Oslo, Norway, apparently thought so. It said that Obama was selected for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."

Obama's win, so early in his presidency, has generated considerable debate. Some have questioned whether he merited such a great honor based on his record of actual achievement.

There have been some Democrats as well as Republicans who have expressed reservations.

Obama-hating conservatives have become completely unhinged at such a prestigious, international recognition given to their arch nemesis.

While foreign leaders from France to Russia to South Africa were applauding Obama's selection as a positive step, some of his own countrymen back home were - like the Taliban in Afghanistan - running him down.

I did not realize the Nobel Peace Prize had an affirmative action quota, but that is the only thing I can think of from this news."

Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, insists Obama won the prize for "awesomeness." That his selection shows how "meaningless a once honorable and respected honor has become."

Actually, the Nobel is still a huge deal. That's why Steele and his followers are so besides themselves.

Steele is even attempting to twist the president's Nobel win into something sinister to help raise money for the GOP cause.

"Democrats and their international leftist allies want America made subservient to the agenda of global redistribution and control, " says a GOP fundraising letter. "And truly patriotic Americans like you and our Republican Party are the only thing standing in the way."

Truly patriotic Americans? Hmm.

The fact is, these folks are so consumed with hatred for Obama that he will never do anything right in their eyes. In their warped view, patriotism equals rejecting the democratically elected president of the United States - because he's secretly a Muslim foreigner, or he's the Antichrist, take your pick.

The Obama rejectionists have one goal and one goal only: for Obama's program to fail so they can say, I told you so.

These "patriots" were giddy when the Olympic committee chose Rio de Janeiro over Chicago last month for the 2016 Olympics. This after Obama had made a trip to Denmark to make a pitch for his home city.

Obama haters would rather see the U.S. lose out as Olympic host than have their nemesis be able to claim credit for anything.

Alfred Nobel, who established the Nobel Peace Prize in 1895, said it should go to the individual who has contributed the most to the development of peace in the previous year. It is not necessarily a lifetime achievement award. Nowhere does it say the award is for any single accomplishment.

"Who has done more for that than Barack Obama?" said Thorbjoern Jagland, head of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee.

The committee applauded Obama for his efforts to help reduce the spread of nuclear weapons as well as his efforts to reach out to the Muslim world.

True, Obama has only been in office since January.

But since then, our frosty relations with Europe have begun to warm. The U.S. is attempting to negotiate with traditional foes such as Iran rather than looking for a pretext to invade them.

The Nobel committee said it wanted to recognize Obama's diplomatic efforts thus far and encourage him to continue reaching out to other nations in a spirit of cooperation for the better good.

What is so wrong with that?

OBAMA'S NOBEL PEACE PRIZE IS WELL DESERVED

Yes, President Obama does deserve The Nobel Peace Prize.

He was given the unenviable task of repairing America's broken image with European allies, and with the heads of emerging nations. Yes, it's still early, but here's the truth: in ten months under Obama, America's image in the world is decidedly better than it was under the previous president.

This is not supposition, but fact. International and regional polls confirm this.

And how has Obama done it mostly? With soft power - this was sorely lacking in the hard power-heavy approach of President George W. Bush. The world was certainly impressed with Obama's great inaugural speech, and his powerful declaration, "We will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist." These are not the words of a pacifist, but in fact, a peace advocate.

No president ever went on a lengthy European Tour to meet with the heads of state and engage the citizens in town hall meetings. This has never happened. Don't tell me you weren't impressed with his hour long discussion with Turkish students. And please don't tell me you weren't impressed with his riveting speech to Egyptian students at Cairo University.

But even more compelling is this assertion: America should be honored by Obama's Nobel Peace Prize because we elected him, and his diplomatic and measured approach is what clearly impressed the Nobem Commitee.

But his critics claim that he only won because of his soaring speeches, and not his accomplishments. This is a ridiculous claim. I see people have forgotten Huffpost Blogger Ilan Goldenberg's awesome post onObamas 100 foreign policy achievements in just hist first 100 days. So this madness about "what has he done" must stop.

As for Obama's words ... every fight for human dignity is imbued with impassioned words. Susan B. Anthony's words provided momentum to the women's suffrage movement. Martin Luther King's words provided momentum to the civil right movement. Anthony and King were beaten, spit on, ostracized, jailed, and demeaned in the mainstream press. But their words (speeches, books, letters, and protest chants) provided the spark and lasting sustenance for the movements of which they were apart.

Yes, words are powerful. Obama's words are powerful. And in just ten months, the world believes Obama's achievements also merit some recognition. But the award is not just for him. It's also for this country. You would think the "country first" crowd of the last election would at least see that.

After all, many of these "country first" activists cheered wildly whne Chigaco lost the Olympics, and they have been absolutely disgusting in attacking Obama for just about anything.

Consider this: our president and his family receive over 30 death threats a day (a day!) yet that hasn't shaken the Obamas' belief that we live a great country. Those town hall meetings and Tea Party gatherings had nasty conspiracy theories and ugliness from many right wingers, but Obama still believes in bi-partisanship and reaching out. Yes, still, after all of that. Clearly, this is a man of peace - both nationally and internationally. Again, not a pacifist, but a peace advocate. He wants the people of the world to work together, for the people of the United States to work together, and I can't say I disagree with him on that.

I see his award as a recognition of what he has worked very hard to do globally (and succeeded to a degree), and, a push for him to go even farther, and achieve even more. So it doesn't say "Obama has arrived" as much as it says "Obama is on the right track". Our president earns his keep every minute of the day, and we must make sure it continues. Arianna Huffington wrote in January that Obama wasn't the only one being inaugurated - that we all are. Likewise, Obama didn't just win the Nobel Peace Prize - we all did. I am happy that we all - in this multi-ethnic, multi-racial nation - share this incredible honor.

WORDS SPEAK LOUDER THAN ACTIONS

Just about nine months into his presidency, Barack Obama has earned the right to be put in the same league as people like Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev, Frederik Willem de Klerk and the Dalai Lama. That's a league so extraordinary that things like ending apartheid, tearing down the Berlin Wall and ministering to the impoverished, malnourished, sick and orphaned is just the tip of the iceberg. Quite a privilege indeed. At 48 years old, Barck Obama is one of the youngest people ever to win this prestigious award. At such a relatively young age, one can't help but wonder what makes President Obama so exceptionally deserving of such an award. Especially considering how many other qualified candidates there were.Alfred Nobel once said that the Nobel Peace Prize is dedicated to "the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses"
Obama certainly has talked about laudable things like ending wars, closing prison camps and promoting peace.

A CALL TO ACTION (EMAIL SENT BY BARACK OBAMA

THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE FOR 2009 -PRESS RELEASE

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.

Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.

Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population.

For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama's appeal that "Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges."

Oslo, October 9, 2009

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE IS 'CALL TO ACTION'

Nobel Peace Prize is 'call to action'

President Barack Obama said Friday that he was humbled by the decision of the Norwegian Nobel Committee to award him the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

"I am both surprised and deeply humbled, " Obama said at the White House.

"I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments. But rather as an affirmation of American leadership. ... I will accept this award as a call to action."

Obama said he did not feel he deserves "to be in the company" of past winners, but would continue to push a broad range of international objectives, including nuclear non-proliferation, a reversal of the global economic downturn, and a resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

He acknowledged the ongoing U.S. conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, noting that he is the "commander in chief of a country that is responsible for ending" one war and confronting a dangerous adversary in another.

"This award is not simply about my administration, " he said. It "must be shared" with everyone who strives for "justice and dignity."

The Nobel Committee said it decided to honor Obama for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."

The president had not been mentioned as among front-runners for the prize, and the roomful of reporters in Oslo, Norway, gasped when Thorbjorn Jagland, chairman of the Nobel committee, uttered Obama's name.

The Nobel committee recognized Obama's efforts to solve complex global problems including working toward a world free of nuclear weapons.

"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future, " the committee said.

Jagland said the decision was "unanimous" and came with ease.

Obama will donate the roughly $1.4 million award to charity, a White House spokesman said Friday.

OBAMA RALLIES DOCTORS ON HEALTHCARE REFORM

AHEAD OF SENATE VOTE

President Barack Obama talks to doctors about healthcare reform.

President Obama rallied doctors to his cause for healthcare reform today but in a speech outlining the emerging legislation failed to press for a government-run medical insurance scheme that was once a centrepiece of his plans.

The president spoke as congressional leaders began work to merge bills from two Senate committees in to a single piece of healthcare legislation that is expected to be voted on later this week.

One of the bills, from the finance committee, which does not include government insurance is expected to have the greater influence over the new law because a number of Democratic senators have said they are not prepared to support the "public option" that has been a primary source of sometimes bitter division in the healthcare debate. Obama needs the support of all 60 Democratic members to prevent a Republic filibuster when the issue comes to a vote of the full Senate.

The president told the white-coated doctors in the White House Rose Garden, who represented every state as well as an array of professional organisations, that the medical profession overwhelmingly backs reform because healthcare workers deal first hand with the shortcomings of the present system.

"We have listened to every charge and every counter charge from the crazy claims about death panels [deciding to kill off old people] to misleading warnings about a government takeover of our healthcare system. But when you cut through all the noise and all the distractions that are out there, I think what's most telling is that some of the people who are most supportive of reform are the very medical professionals who know the healthcare system best, " he said. "The reason these doctors are here is because they've seen first hand what's broken about our healthcare system. They've seen what happens when their patients can't get the care they need because some insurance company has decided to drop their coverage or water it down. They've seen what happens when a patient is forced to pay out of pocket thousands of dollars she doesn't have for treatments she desperately needs."

Obama said that wrong will be righted by reform that will bar insurance companies from suddenly dropping patients who suddenly need expensive care or capping the amount that can be paid out. Those without insurance will be able to go to an exchange to find the most suitable coverage.

But while there appears to be consistent public support for a government-run insurance plan alongside the existing policies offered by private companies, Obama made no reference to the public option.

The nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation's conducted a survey last month that showed 57% of Americans support establishing a "public health insurance option" similar to the one that now exists for the elderly.

But there is deep hostility to a government role in parts of the country, particularly the south where Democratic senators fear they will be vulnerable to political opponents who will accuse them of increasing government spending or putting bureaucrats between patients and their doctors.

The healthcare industry has lobbied strongly against a public option, fearing that it will cut into profits.

IS FACEBOOK GOOD FOR US PRESIDENT OBAMA ?

YES and NO.

Mr. Obama has used Facebook and other social media platforms to reach out to millions and advance his agenda. He is a social media magnet. At the time of writing this article, the Facebook group, Barack Obama (One Million Strong for Barack), had 1 063 122 members.

The group also links with the White House, giving Mr. Obama and his supporters tremendous opportunities to advance his agenda.

But the social media might also be one of Mr. Obama's greatest threats. A poll posted to Facebook last Saturday asked users to vote:"should Obama be killed?"

Freedom of expression? The responses were crafted specifically to generate support for the diabolic wish to have the US President assassinated. The responses: "yes, " "maybe, " "if he cuts my health care, " and "no."

Facebook has since removed the offensive poll, which was posted through a third-party application. And the US Secret Service is investigating.

But this Facebook poll clearly shows how the social media can be exploited to nourish diabolical wishes and plots against Mr. Obama. The creator of the poll and those who voted anything other than NO are not practicing freedom of expression. They are mobilizing for terror and aren't any different from Osama bin Ladens of this world.

Facebook owes Barack and millions of it's peace-loving users around the world. This time it's not the usual violation where third-party applications manipulate Facebook policies or user photos and personal information. It's about the heinous dream to have the President of the United States assassinated.

It's terror wish.

Such wishes must be kept as far away as possible from popular public spaces such as Facebook. Facebook must clean its act and tighten it's policies. Facebook users must stay vigilant and report polls like this before they spread like a virus.

Facebook is our playground. It's no place for hate and terror plots.

ECONOMY PROBABLY WON'T PRODUCE

ENOUGH JOBS UNTIL 2010

President Obama says that despite signs of economic recovery, the country will not see large-scale job growth until next year.

President Obama discusses the economy and other topics with CNN's John King.

In a wide-ranging interview broadcast Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union, " Obama said reversing job losses from the recession will come at the end of the recovery period, not the start.

"I want to be clear, that probably the jobs picture is not going to improve considerably -- and it could even get a little bit worse -- over the next couple of months, " Obama told CNN chief national correspondent John King in the interview, conducted Friday.

It was one of five interviews Obama conducted for broadcast over the weekend as part of his stepped-up campaign to push his priority issues, especially promoting comprehensive health care legislation. In addition to CNN, Obama spoke to CBS, NBC, ABC and Univision

Obama told CNN he believes the economy will be creating jobs through the end of 2009 -- but not enough to keep pace with population growth nor to make up for steep losses in employment that occurred earlier this year.

"I think we'll be adding jobs, but you need 150, 000 additional jobs each month just to keep pace with a growing population, " the president said. "So if we're only adding 50, 000 jobs, that's a great reversal from losing 700, 000 jobs [a month] early this year -- but, you know, it means that we've still got a ways to go."

"That's the single most important thing we can do, " Obama said.

On Health care reform, another of his top domestic agenda items, the president rejected a recent comment by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, that conservative opponents were "winning the health care debate."

McConnell was referring to heated town hall meetings around the country and a recent march on Washington organized by conservatives opposed to Obama's policies, which he said were forcing the president and Democrats to soften some positions.

Asked about McConnell's comment, Obama responded "Well, you know ... they were saying they were winning during the election, too."

McConnell appeared later on the program and was asked what defines winning the health care debate.

"Winning is stopping and starting over and getting it right, " McConnell said. "I don't know anybody in my Republican conference in the Senate who's in favor of doing nothing on health care. We obviously have a cost problem and we have an access problem."

He called for a less comprehensive approach that focused on specific issues such as limiting medical malpractice lawsuits, rather than the overhaul sought by Obama and Democrats.

"There's a very big difference about whether or not it's appropriate to have a major rewrite of about one-sixth of our economy in the process, " McConnell said. "My members just don't think that's the right way to go."

Addressing one of the most controversial issues in the health care debate, Obama repeated his opposition to providing health insurance or government subsidies for coverage to illegal immigrants. Republicans have said that Democratic proposals in Congress have loopholes that would allow illegal immigrants to get free coverage or funding, a charge that Obama and Democrats initially denied as misinformation.

The issue gained prominence after Rep. Joe Wilson, R-South Carolina, shouted "You lie!" at Obama during the president's September 9 address on health care to a joint session of Congress. Wilson, who was criticized by Democrats and Republicans and immediately apologized, was formally rebuked by the House of Representatives, but insists his action -- while inappropriate -- prompted Democrats to promise stronger enforcement sought by Republicans.

In the interview, Obama called for a "verification mechanism" similar to procedures for other social programs, calling it "a pretty straightforward principle that will be met."

He also said a compromise health care proposal coming before the Senate Finance Committee this week contains many of the provisions he is seeking in a final bill.

The measure, engineered by Finance Committee chairman Sen. Max Baucus, D-Montana, emerged from months of negotiations involving six committee members -- three Democrats and three Republicans.

While the talks were intended to generate bipartisan support for a proposal, the three Republican negotiators have yet to support the plan unveiled by Baucus last week. Republicans say the proposal is too ambitious and expensive, even though it drops a government-run public health insurance option that they unanimously oppose.

The lack of a public option concerns liberal Democrats, who say the Baucus proposal will make required health insurance coverage too expensive for some of the low- and middle-income families it is intended to help.

Obama said in the interview that he also is concerned about ensuring that millions of Americans currently without coverage can afford a plan if required by law to get one.

"I'd like to make sure that we've got that affordability really buttoned down, because I think that's one of the most important things, " Obama said. "... If we're offering people health insurance and we're saying that people have to get health insurance ... we've got to make sure it's affordable."

Asked if he would sign the Baucus proposal as is, Obama refused to answer what he called a hypothetical question. He noted that the plan meets the broad goals he has set, such as prohibiting the denial of health coverage due to pre-existing conditions. The proposal also would not add to the federal deficit in the next 10 years while holding down the rise in health care costs, Obama said.

"[T]here are a whole bunch of details that still have to get worked out, " Obama said. "But what I'll say is, is that right now I'm pleased that, basically, we've got 80 percent agreement, we've got to really work on that next 20 percent over the last few weeks."

In the health care debate, heated rhetoric has been flung in the president's direction. Obama rejected suggestions by some -- including former President Jimmy Carter -- that much of it is fueled by racism.

In the interview with CNN, Obama acknowledged that racism plays a role in some of the criticism against him but added that race is "not the overriding issue."

"I think there are people who are anti-government, " the president said. "I think there's been a long-standing debate in this country that is usually that much more fierce during times of transition, or when presidents are trying to bring about big changes.

"I mean, things that were said about FDR [Franklin Delano Roosevelt] were pretty similar to things that were said about me. 'He's a communist, he's a socialist.' Things that were said about Ronald Reagan when he was trying to reverse some of the New Deal programs, you know, were pretty vicious as well."

On foreign policy, Obama said it was too soon to decide whether more U.S. forces are needed in Afghanistan. "I don't want to put the resource question before the strategy question, " Obama told King. "Because there is a natural inclination to say, if I get more, then I can do more. But right now, the question is, the first question is, are we doing the right thing? Are we pursuing the right strategy?"

The president said the answer to that important strategic question will come from his secretary of defense, his national security adviser, and commanders on the ground in Afghanistan, including Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan.

Obama is currently considering an assessment of troop levels done by McChrystal. The report is believed by some members of Congress to recommend additional troops be placed in the country. However, some influential Democrats on Capitol Hill have expressed reluctance to send more troops to Afghanistan.

"What I will say to the American public is, it's not going to be driven by the politics of the moment, " Obama said. A proper strategy will provide "clear benchmarks" to set a "matrix of progress, " the president said, noting that the original goal for Afghanistan was to "get al Qaeda, the people who killed 3, 000 Americans, " referring to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"To the extent that our strategy in Afghanistan is serving that goal, then we're on the right track, " Obama said. "If it starts drifting away from that goal, then we may have a problem."

Asked about North Korea, Obama said his administration has been successful so far in ratcheting up international diplomatic pressure.

"We have been able to hold together a coalition that includes the Chinese and the Russians to really apply some of the toughest sanctions we've seen, and it's having an impact, " the president said.

In addition, former President Bill Clinton brought back valuable information about North Korean leader Kin Jon II from his mission to help two imprisoned American journalists return home, Obama told King.

"I think President Clinton's assessment was that [Kim is] pretty healthy and in control, " the president said, "And that's important to know, because we don't have a lot of interaction with the North Koreans. And, you know, President Clinton had a chance to see him close up and have conversations with him.

"I won't go into any more details than that. But there's no doubt that this is somebody who, you know, I think for a while people thought was slipping away. He's reasserted himself. It does appear that he's concerned about -- he was more concerned about succession when he was -- succession when he was sick, maybe less so now that he's well."

With the U.S. government expected to begin a large-scale vaccination effort next month against the H1N1 FLU virus, Obama said the first family will not get any special consideration compared to other Americans.

"Here's what I guarantee you, " the president said. "We want to get vaccinated. We think it's the right thing to do. We will stand in line like everybody else. And when folks say it's our turn, that's when we'll get it."

"I suspect that I may come fairly far down the line, " Obama said.

WITH CHANGE AGENDA AT RISK, OBAMA

FACES CRUSICAL TESTS

President Barack Obama is on the ropes barely seven months into his tenure, facing a cauldron of crises including health care reform, the war in Afghanistan and an anemic US economy.

With his approval ratings sliding, he faces a crucial test of his ability to push through his change agenda, particularly on health care reform, details of which he will lay out Wednesday in a rare address to a joint session of the US Congress.

Critics say Obama has not offered enough specifics of the plan, following an August marked by volatile town hall meetings in which conservatives railed against changing the system.

Republican foes and some moderate Democrats have suggested Obama trim the sweeping health care reform plan -- or at least introduce it in stages -- as the president's administration was poised to raise the 10-year US budget deficit forecast to about nine trillion dollars.

Obama spent the first several months in office working to avoid a US economic collapse; controversial government interventions saw him pump billions of dollars into teetering banks, financial giants and a collapsing US auto industry.

While many economists credit the president's 787-billion-dollar economic stimulus plan with salvaging a tanking economy, recent polls suggest Americans have grown skeptical of the plan's success.

And while a series of signs show a fragile financial-market recovery has begun, and that the massive pace of job losses has eased, concerns remain about the overall health of the economy.

Official data on Friday showed US unemployment climbed to 9.7 percent last month, the highest level since June 1983.

Debate has persisted over whether Obama is engaging in an ambitious and activist agenda to change America or fighting carryover fires left by the previous administration of George W. Bush.

Obama has determined to draw down the US troop presence in Iraq, pledging to remove all but 50, 000 troops by next August.

But he is expected to request additional troops for Afghanistan, where the United States is fighting a war, with escalating casualties, that nearly six in 10 Americans now oppose, according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll.

Republicans are squaring off against the president on several fronts other than just health care, complicating Obama's attempts at consensus politics with some Democrats unwilling to compromise on key issues when Obama's party controls the White House and both chambers of Congress.

Complicating matters over the Labor Day weekend, the White House announced that Obama's special adviser for green jobs, Van Jones, resigned under pressure from leading Republican politicians.

He stepped down after it was revealed he signed a petition that questioned whether officials in the administration of George W. Bush may have allowed the September 11, 2001 attacks to occur, perhaps as a pretext for war.

And on Tuesday Obama walks into another thicket: he plans to give a speech to American schoolkids -- the first by a president in 18 years -- but conservatives have blasted it as an attempt to brainwash children to his "socialist" agenda.

The White House described it as a back-to-school address that would encourage improved academic achievement and higher graduation percentages.

But the Department of Education raised hackles when it said that one of the suggested activities for school children tuning into the speech was that they write about "how they could help the president."

"That's Obama-centric. It's not focused on education but on the worship of Barack Obama, " Michael Leahy, spokesman for the conservative grassroots Nationwide Tea Party Coalition, told AFP.

A Pew Research Center poll released Friday has Obama's approval rating dropping 10 points, to 52 percent, since his 100-day mark in April, when efforts to haul the struggling economy out of recession were at center stage.

"We're having an economic culture war, " said Democratic pollster David Beattie.

"The criticisms of Obama are about the fundamental role of government in our economy."

PRESIDENT IS SET TO 'TAKE THE BATON' :

HEALTH CARE REFORM 2009

Six months into his presidency, Barack Obama may have no greater test of his ability to translate personal popularity into a successful legislative agenda than the upcoming two weeks.

With skepticism about the president's health-care reform effort mounting on Capitol Hill -- even within his own party -- the White House has launched a new phase of its strategy designed to dramatically increase public pressure on Congress: all Obama, all the time.

Senior White House aides promise "an aggressive public and private schedule" for Obama as he presses his case for reform, including a prime-time news conference on Wednesday, a trip to Cleveland, and heavy use of Internet video to broadcast his message beyond the reach of the traditional media.

"Our strategy has been to allow this process to advance to the point where it made sense for the president to take the baton. Now's that time, " said senior adviser David Axelrod. "I don't know whether he will Twitter or tweet. But he's going to be very, very visible."

Another senior White House aide added: "It's time to raise the stakes on this."

But even as Obama returns to full-time campaign mode, he is facing increasing calls to show that his presidency can manage the tough, nitty-gritty of lawmaking by cutting deals with his allies to keep his health-care legislation moving in the House and Senate committees.

Conservative Democrats in the House are promising to vote against reform as it now stands, and are preparing two dozen amendments, including measures aimed at lowering the effort's long-term cost. In the Senate, members from both parties are urging the president to break his campaign promise to preserve the tax-free status of health benefits. And a chorus of weary voices from Capitol Hill is urging him to abandon his demand for passage of bills in the House and Senate by Aug. 7.

"I don't think we should be bound by a timetable that isn't realistic, " Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine), a key swing-vote on health care, told Obama last week as she reminded him that President Lyndon B. Johnson took 1 1/2 years to pass Medicare.

Obama has not officially budged on the timetable, although he and aides notably have not mentioned the August deadline in recent remarks. But he is quietly working with conservative, Blue Dog Democrats in the House on an amendment to create an independent panel to govern Medicare reimbursement rates that could help reverse crippling health-care inflation.

Most difficult for Obama is the pressure to accept a tax on health benefits as a way of financing the massive insurance reform he wants.

Speaking on "Fox News Sunday, " White House budget director Peter Orszag would not rule out support for the benefits tax, but he continued to promote Obama's preference for limiting deductions for wealthy taxpayers.

Some Democrats close to the negotiations say they think it is only a matter of time before Obama backs off. One proposal that has emerged would tax insurance companies, as opposed to beneficiaries, and is considered a potential compromise approach that he may be able to embrace.

Aides said Obama and his team plan a rapid response to new developments, as they did Thursday with a quickly arranged conference call to rebut assertions by the Congressional Budget Office that health-care costs would go up, not down, if the Democratic bills pass.

The effort began Friday with impromptu remarks by Obama from the Diplomatic Room, even as groups allied with the White House launched political ad campaigns this weekend aimed at wavering lawmakers. On Monday, his advisers say, he will do a round of interviews to drive the narrative for the week. Private meetings with lawmakers will become more frequent and urgent.

The decision to vault Obama to the front carries huge risks.

The decades-long drive to reform the health-care system now rests largely on Obama's ability to quell revolts among Democratic allies, many of whom have spent the past several weeks picking at pieces of his proposals.

If conservative House Democrats succeed in sowing fear of rising deficits, it will be seen as Obama's fault that he could not rein them in. If Democrats in the Senate do not agree on financing, Obama must explain the failure despite his party's majorities in both chambers.

The health-care debate was at the center of private discussions at the annual summer meeting of the National Governors Association over the weekend. The health-care legislation under consideration in Congress envisions a significant expansion in eligibility for Medicaid, whose costs are shared by Washington and the states. Their budgets squeezed by the recession, governors fear a costly mandate to cover the newly eligible. The governors devoted most of a private lunch to the issue Saturday and earlier voiced objections to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) over funding plans.

Obama's top strategists, including Axelrod and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, have repeatedly defended the administration's ambitious agenda by saying that success breeds success -- each legislative victory makes the next one easier to accomplish, they insist. The flip side, then, is that a health-care failure could doom the rest of Obama's agenda.

Obama's advisers express confidence that the setbacks of the past week can be overcome, and they insist they have spent "no time" discussing the impact on his political fortunes if health-care reform does not pass this year.

"We don't do doom-and-gloom, " Axelrod.

But the president's top advisers also recognize that the sense of optimism about health-care reform that existed in Washington several months ago has largely evaporated.

Cable news programs repeatedly declare the president's health care program is "teetering" or "embattled, " despite a week in which Obama's proposals were endorsed by the doctor and nurses associations and committees in both legislative chambers passed major bills.

"We're swimming upstream against a culture of failure on health care in Washington, " said one adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the administration's strategy.

The White House decided early in the year on a hands-off approach to health-care legislating.

"Had we put a plan out, the entire debate would have been changes to the plan, " said Emanuel, a veteran of the failed Clinton health battle. "It would have been how the president is failing or succeeding."

But even as he shifts into a more active role, Obama must be mindful of his legislative allies. Rather than strong-arming these old bulls, the White House must tiptoe around them.

Baucus was a veteran lawmaker in 1994 when the Clinton plan ran aground. House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) is a leading health-care expert. Senate health committee Chairman Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), who is battling brain cancer, voted to create Medicare in 1965.

For health-care reform to succeed, Obama will have to carefully navigate between paying the appropriate respect to those men while exerting the leadership that many are demanding.

"It's getting hotter, and there are bumps, but we are closer to health-care reform than ever before, " Emanuel said.

Article Courtesy of Mobi.NU and India.TC

OBAMA'S FIRST 100 DAYS: THE GOOD AND THE BAD

Has it been only 100 days since Barack Obama took the oath of office? Actually, it's only been 98, but sometimes 100 days feels like more than 100 days. This is one of those times. Obama's first 100 days have been among the most eventful in history.

So how's it going?

According to the American people, pretty damn good. Not only does 69 percent of the public approve of the job Obama is doing, but last week, for the first time since January 2004, more Americans felt the country is headed in the right direction than in the wrong direction (48 percent to 44 percent). Remarkably, this "right direction" number has been steadily rising even as the economy has been steadily falling.

In his Grant Park acceptance speech on election night, the newly elected president warned that "the road ahead will be long, " and "our climb will be steep." But his poll numbers are a vindication of the idea that, with the right leadership, Americans are mature enough to heed those words and not expect immediate results.

So any list of the most impressive achievements of Obama's first 100 days should start with the intangible qualities of transformational leadership --- from the president's personal equanimity (which Robert Reich described as "the serene center of the cyclone -- exuding calm when most Americans are petrified") to his masterful use of the bully pulpit.

In just his first 100 days, Obama has had almost as many prime time press conferences as George Bush did in his entire first term. And it's not just press conferences. Obama's willingness to speak directly to the American people -- in town halls around the country, on YouTube, on Leno, on ESPN, etc -- and to engage with them by answering questions online and reading ten letters a day from the public, is a powerful reminder that the White House isn't a privatized bubble or underground bunker off limits to the people.

He's also offered tone setters that are a useful reminder that the president is more than just the country's chief executive -- that he and the First Lady are also potentially the country's chief teachers. They've already taught the country a lot of lessons -- about what we eat and how we eat by planting an organic vegetable garden at the White House, and about commitment to family through their relationship with their daughters and by having the First Granny move into the White House to help Sasha and Malia settle into their new lives.

Now to the more tangible aspects of his presidency. Let's start with the pluses:

• The stimulus package. It wasn't big or bold enough, and it suffered from the malodorous scent of Eau de Congressional Business as Usual, but the speed and focus with which it was passed showed how serious Obama was about pulling America out of its economic free-fall. And how competent his team was at hitting the ground running. Plus, it taught the new president an important lesson about the limits of bipartisanship for the sake of bipartisanship.
• Passing and signing the national service bill. Not so long ago, a call for sacrifice meant asking people to go shopping or take a trip to Disney World. Creating a system in which more people can feel as if they're true stakeholders in their communities will not only produce physical benefits -- it will help repair America's moral infrastructure as well. And their answering of the call will be additional proof that Americans have been waiting for a leader to ask more of them.
• Reversing course on stem cells. It was a clear statement about the return of the reality-based world. As Obama put it when he signed the order "It is about ensuring that scientific data is never distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda, and that we make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology."
• A progressive budget. Healthcare, provisions to tackle rising economic inequality, a more rational defense budget, tax cuts for all but the very wealthy -- as David Leonhardt of the New York Times wrote, Obama's budget is "nothing less than an attempt to end a three-decade era of economic policy dominated by the ideas of Ronald Reagan and his supporters."
• Foreign Relations. From granting his first presidential interview to Al-Arabiya TV to loosening the embargo on Cuba to hanging an open sign on the State Department, Obama has signaled that the bellicose days of antagonism as our default foreign policy position are over. And his decision to close Guantanamo also sent the right message to the world.
• The rescue of Captain Richard Phillips of the Maersk Alabama. Blowing away fears of a sea-faring Black Hawk Down, Obama's restrained behind-the-scenes handling of the volatile hostage situation demonstrated that the new commander-in-chief is not afraid to pull the trigger when an American life is on the line. Bonus points for causing the Limbaugh-Hannity worldview about Democrats being nothing but bleeding hearts to shift on its axis.

A solid run of pluses. Now for the minuses:

• The bank bailout. In his appointments at almost every agency, Obama has demonstrated a desire to receive a wide range of opinion. But the exception is a doozy: at Treasury, the range of opinion goes all the way from Goldman to Sachs. Several hundred billion dollars later, the banks still aren't lending, the zombies are still on their feet, preferred shareholders are still being catered to, the knowledge of where our money has gone is spotty at best, and oversight and transparency remain unfulfilled promises. The Obama White House's vision for the rescue remains startlingly myopic. The result is the continued funneling of hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to the very people who got us into the mess we are in -- with very little accountability demanded in return. The biggest black mark on Obama's first 100 days is his head-scratching reliance on the bank-centric beliefs of Larry Summers and Tim Geithner.
• Afghanistan. Obama has committed 21, 000 more troops to Afghanistan but as many, including Obama himself, have noted, there is no exclusively military solution to Afghanistan. What's more, unlike with Guantanamo, Obama has adopted Bush's policies regarding the enemy prisoners being held at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan.
• Torture accountability. Obama has said he wants to look forward and not back, and it's reasonable for him to not want his agenda sidetracked by torture commissions and investigations. But the way we respond to the revelations about the Bush administration's use of torture isn't merely a question of policy; it a question of morality. The minute the president starts framing the issue as a matter of right vs wrong, his choices will be clear. Because if there is one thing Obama cannot afford to abandon it's the moral high ground. And he can trust the American public to walk and chew gum at the same time -- to be able to support a national health care plan, a new energy plan, the reforming of our education system, and at the same time support accountability for those who undercut our fundamental values.
• Sensible gun control. Despite a recent run of deadly gun rampages and an appeal from the president of Mexico, whose country is paying a heavy price for bought-in-America guns, Obama has chosen the path of political expediency and turned his back on his campaign promise to reinstate a ban on assault weapons.

For the last eight years, we suffered from the soft bigotry of low presidential expectations. Taken as a whole, Obama's first 100 days have been an inspiring change from a White House that expected as little from us as it did from itself.

The road ahead is indeed going to be long and steep. But at least we're on the right road.

2009: WHAT OBAMA HAS DONE SO FAR?

1. Begun closing of Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility.

2. Barack Obama faces the greatest challenge of his young presidency tonight (Feb. 24th 2009) as he seeks to convince America and hostile Republicans in a prime time address to Congress that he can pull the nation out of its economic crisis.

Obama made the pledge in a 35-minute interview -- largely focused on the economy and the war in Afghanistan -- with The New York Times aboard Air Force One on Friday, according to a story published Saturday.

"I don't think that people should be fearful about our future, " he told the newspaper. "I don't think that people should suddenly mistrust all of our financial institutions."

Conservative opponents have criticized Obama's new administration, saying it has pushed the country toward socialism and that his $787 billion economic stimulus package will do little to revive the struggling economy.

However, during the interview, Obama "exhibited confidence, " saying the nation should not fear the future, the Times reported.

"Look, I wish I had the luxury of just dealing with a modest recession or just dealing with health care or just dealing with energy or just dealing with Iraq or just dealing with Afghanistan, " Obama said. "I don't have that luxury, and I don't think the American people do, either."

When asked if the United States was winning the war in Afghanistan, where he is sending another 17, 000 troops, Obama replied, "No."

He said his administration is reviewing the U.S. policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan, with the intention of finding a new strategy in the region. Obama said that reaching out to Sunni militant groups, such as the Taliban, to fight al Qaeda and other terror groups -- a tactic employed by Gen. David Petraeus in Iraq -- "should be explored."

They were soothing words, but all was not as touchy-feely as it seemed. Even as he offered himself up as a head referee more than a star player, Obama left no doubt about who was in charge. Congress and the trade groups, he said, could haggle over the terms. But they could not obstruct the project, and they would walk away at their own peril. "The status quo is the one option that's not on the table, and those who seek to block any reform at all, any reform at any costs, will not prevail this time around, " he told the group.

The sheer enormity of the task has been clear for months. But it was on sometimes painful display at the two breakout sessions to discuss healthcare that Obama has already organized at the White House. The first session, which occurred in late February in the Indian Treaty Room, had a somewhat comical cast to it. Dozens of powerful people sat around a square table in one of the most gaudy and expensive marble rooms ever built by the U.S. government. The task: Figure out how to save money on health spending. The solution, according to almost every person present: Spend more money.

The nurses association wanted more investment in the nursing workforce. The head of the hospitals association wanted more money for hospitals. The head of the American Medical Association wanted higher Medicare reimbursement rates for doctors. Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., wanted more money for community healthcare centers. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Penn., wanted a better focus on investigations of white collar fraud in the healthcare sector. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., wanted greater investment in HIV-AIDS prevention. Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., spoke of greater National Institutes of Health Funding. It went on.

If there was hope, it was to be found in the fact that all these people were, in fact, sitting at the same table. All of them, from health insurance companies and medical providers to politicians from both left and right, said they were committed to reducing healthcare costs, and growing coverage, the two guiding principles that Obama has insisted on.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., spoke to this commitment on Thursday, during the second round of breakout sessions organized by the White House, this time in the more tastefully appointed State Dining Room. "I just want to express the intensity of my confidence that there is a path through this for us, " he said, before referencing the famous television advertising that the insurance industry funded to knock down the last major attempt at health-care reform. "We are past the 'Harry and Louise' moment. We are at the Thelma and Louise moment. We are in the car. We are headed for a cliff."

Whitehouse's optimism was confirmed a few minutes later by Scott Seroto, the president of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and a representative of the industry that had funded the "Harry and Louise" ads in 1994. "Consider that the past, " he said of the ads. "We are embracing the need for reform... It just needs to be appropriate and sustainable."

This message was long ago delivered to the White House. One senior Administration official explained the situtation, last week, during an interview in the Ward Room, a navy themed dining hall near the White House mess. "If you reflect back on what health-care reform looked like and how it played out 15 years ago, some of the stakeholders who were fighting very hard against it are people who I think will start to come around to the table for the conversation now, " the official said.

At the center of this strategy, as its linchpin, is the President, who has positioned himself not as the author of the new health plan, but as its mediator, facilitator and, if needed, as the taskmaster who intends to keep everyone on track. In his recently proposed budget, and on the campaign trail, Obama proposed the vague outline of a policy solution, including nearly $630 billion in new spending on health care in the short term, which would be coupled with long term cuts in the growth of medical costs. But he told leaders Thursday afternoon that he is not wedded even to his own ideas.

"If there is a way of getting this done where we're driving down costs and people are getting health insurance at an affordable rate and have choice of doctor, have flexibility in terms of their plans, and we could do that entirely through the market, I'd be happy to do it that way, " the president said. "If there was a way of doing it that involved more government regulation and involvement, I'm happy to do it that way, as well. I just want to figure out what works."

If that was the carrot for lawmakers, his command that they fix the problem was the stick. At one point, he joked about Whitehouse's allusion during the breakout session to Thelma and Louise, a movie that ends with the protagonists dying in a blaze of glory. "If you actually saw the movie, they did drive over the cliff, " he said, to laughter. "So just want to be clear, that's not our intention here."

Obama's move overturns an order signed by President Bush in 2001 that barred the National Institutes of Health from funding research on embryonic stem cells beyond using 60 cell lines that existed at that time.

Obama also signed a presidential memorandum establishing greater independence for federal science policies and programs.

"In recent years, when it comes to stem cell research, rather than furthering discovery, our government has forced what I believe is a false choice between sound science and moral values, " Obama said at the White House.

"In this case, I believe the two are not inconsistent. As a person of faith, I believe we are called to care for each other and work to ease human suffering. I believe we have been given the capacity and will to pursue this research -- and the humanity and conscience to do so responsibly."

While conceding that "the full promise of stem cell research remains unknown" and "should not be overstated, " Obama nevertheless expressed hope that the order will help spur faster progress in the search for cures to afflictions such as Parkinson's disease, cancer and spinal cord injuries.

At the same time, Obama's memorandum is expected to create a clear change of tone from the Bush administration on a broad range of scientific issues.

Bush's critics argued the former president allowed political factors improperly to influence funding decisions for science initiatives as well as to skew official government findings on issues such as global warming.

Obama's memorandum directs the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy "to develop a strategy for restoring scientific integrity to government decision-making."

In a thinly veiled criticism of his predecessor, Obama reiterated a promise to base "public policies on the soundest science" as well as to "appoint scientific advisers based on their credentials and experience, not their politics or ideology."

Obama's action is part of a broader effort to separate science and politics and "restore scientific integrity in governmental decision-making, " White House domestic policy adviser Melody Barnes said Sunday.

In a conference call with reporters, Barnes said funding Research is also part of the administration's plan to boost the plunging U.S. economy.

"Advances with regard to science and technology help advance our overall national goals around economic growth and job creation, " she said, adding, "I think anytime you make an effort to try and separate these pieces of the puzzle, you're missing the entire picture."

But one prominent GOP critic on Sunday accused the administration of using the issue as a distraction from the country's economic slump.

"Why are we going and distracting ourselves from the economy? This is job No. 1. Let's focus on what needs to be done, " told Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Virginia.

Cantor, the Republican whip in the House of Representatives, has been among the leaders of GOP opposition to Obama's economic policies.

Because stem cells have the potential to turn into any organ or tissue cell in the body, research advocates say they could yield cures to debilitating conditions such as diabetes, Parkinson's disease and spinal injuries. But because work on embryonic stem cells involves the destruction of human embryos, many conservatives supported the limits Bush imposed by executive order in 2001.

Bush twice vetoed legislation -- in July 2006 and June 2007 -- that would have expanded federally funded embryonic stem cell research.

At the time, Bush argued that scientific advances allowed researchers to conduct groundbreaking research without destroying human embryos. Bush's actions led to Democratic criticism that he had put politics over science.

Dr. Harold Varmus, president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and co-chairman of Obama's science advisory council, said Sunday that Obama will "endorse the notion that public policy must be guided by sound, scientific advice."

Obama's order will direct the National Institutes of Health to develop revised guidelines on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research within 120 days, said Varmus, who joined Barnes in the conference call with reporters.

"The president is, in effect, allowing federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research to the extent that it's permitted by law -- that is, work with stem cells themselves, not the derivation of stem cells, " he said.

Supporters of the ban said researchers could still obtain private funding or explore alternatives such as adult stem cells. Opponents said the research could be carried out using embryos left over in fertility clinics, which otherwise would be discarded.

6. President Obama needs to end Bush's disastrous policies at the Bagram Air Base prison in Afghanistan.

He has given a newly convened task force six months -- a long time when people are being held in harsh conditions without charges or recourse -- to consider the matter of Bush administration detention practices and formulate new policies (or, of course, retain old ones). Here are some guidelines that may prove helpful when it comes to Bagram:

1. On secrecy: The appeal to secrecy and national security has been an all-purpose refuge of official rogues for the last seven years. Reconsider it. A sunshine policy should apply, above all else, to detention practices. Ideally, the U.S. should simply release full information on Bagram and the prisoners being held there. When, in specific cases, information is not divulged, the reasons for not doing so should be fully revealed. Otherwise, the suspicion will always arise that such withheld information might be part of a cover-up of government incompetence or illegality. That must be ruled out. It is imperative that President Obama's administration not double-down on the Bush administration's secrecy policy from a desire not to look back and so to avoid future prosecutions of Bush officials.
2. On the classification of prisoners: The Obama administration should seriously consider declaring the prisoners at Bagram to be "prisoners of war, " and so subject to the Geneva Conventions. Currently, they are classified as enemy combatants, as are the prisoners at Guantnamo, and so, in the perverse universe of the Bush administration, free from any of the constraints of international law. The idea that the conventions are too "rigid" for our moment and need to be put aside for this new extra-legal category has always been false and pernicious, primarily paving the way for the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques."
3. On "ghost prisoners": The Obama administration should reject out of hand the idea that prisoner invisibility is acceptable anywhere, including Bagram. The International Committee of the Red Cross must be granted access to all of the prisons or prison areas at Bagram, while conditions of detention there should be brought into accordance with humane treatment and standards. No "ghost prisoners" should be allowed to exist there.
4. On guilt and innocence: The belief that there is a categorical difference between guilt and innocence, which went by the wayside in the last seven years, must be restored. All too often, the military brass still assumes that if you were rounded up by U.S. forces, you are, by definition, guilty. It's time to change this attitude and return to legal standards of guilt.

In the Bush years, we taught the world a series of harmful lessons: Americans can be as cruel as others. Americans can turn their back on law and reciprocity among nations as efficiently as any tribally organized dictatorship. Americans, relying on fear and the human impulse toward vengeance, can dehumanize other human beings with a fervor equal to that of others on this planet.

It's time for a change. It's time, in fact, to face the first and last legacy of Bush detention era, our prison at Bagram Air Base, and deal with it.

President Obama has the right team in place to address this nightmarish legacy in a wise and timely way. We should expect no less from them than a full restoration of a government responsible to the law and confident of its power to deter enemies legally -- be it on the battlefield or in the courtroom. So, too, we must expect them to possess the courage to confront truths, even if those truths mean heading down the path toward the prosecution of crimes of the Bush years.

7. President Obama today sharply criticized America's public school system, and he outlined a strategy to reward good teachers and fire bad ones, establish uniform academic achievement standards and increase spending on the first and final stages of a person's education.

In a speech to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Obama called on teachers unions, state education officials and parents to change a "relative decline of American education" that "is untenable for our economy, unsustainable for our democracy and unacceptable for our children."

"For decades, Washington has been trapped in the same stale debates that have paralyzed progress and perpetuated our educational decline, " Obama said. "Too many supporters of my party have resisted the idea of rewarding excellence in teaching with extra pay, even though it can make a difference in the classroom. Too many in the Republican Party have opposed new investments in early education, despite compelling evidence of its importance."

Obama's speech, his first devoted to education since he became president, had a tone of urgency at a time when the public education system is scheduled to receive about $100 billion of new federal money under the recently passed stimulus plan. The money might give Obama and his education secretary, Arne Duncan, more power to change a public education system traditionally guided more at the state and local levels than by the federal government.

Although many of the ideas he outlined have been proposed before or are in the works, Obama used the speech to offer a sense of his priorities, linking many of them to the success of the U.S. economy. He encouraged experimentation in the public school system, including lifting the limits on the number of charter schools allowed in some states and considering longer school days to bring U.S. classroom hours in line with some Asian countries where students are scoring higher on standardized tests.

The president signaled a willingness to take on some traditional Democratic constituencies, including teachers unions, which in the past have been skeptical of some merit pay proposals. Senior administration officials, who declined to be named because they were describing the speech before it was delivered, said Obama would include the unions in discussions about any incentive plans.

He said he intends to treat "teachers like the professionals they are while also holding them more accountable." Good teachers will be given pay raises, he said, and "be asked to accept more responsibility for lifting up their schools."

But Obama also said stated that school systems must be "taking steps to move bad teachers out of the classroom."

"Let me be clear: If a teacher is given a chance but still does not improve, there is no excuse for that person to continue teaching, " Obama said. "I reject a system that rewards failure and protects a person from its consequences."

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, a union with more than a million members, said in a statement that "teachers want to make a difference in kids' lives, and they appreciate a president who shares that goal and will spend his political capital to provide the resources to make it happen."

"As with any public policy, the devil is in the details, " Weingarten said. "And it is important that teachers' voices are heard as we implement the president's vision."

Obama's call for states to adopt uniform academic achievement standards is likely to anger many Republicans, who generally favor giving local school systems the ability to design curriculum and set testing standards. To make his point, Obama said, "Today's system of 50 different sets of benchmarks for academic success means fourth-grade readers in Mississippi are scoring nearly 70 points lower than students in Wyoming -- and getting the same grade."

Obama chose the venue, senior administration officials said, to emphasize the growing proportion of Latinos entering the public school system. Obama said a quarter of public-school kindergartners are Latino, adding that they "are less likely to be enrolled in early education programs than anyone else." He said the stimulus plan includes $5 billion to expand the Early Head Start and Head Start programs.

He also noted that Latino students are "dropping out faster than just about anyone else, " a national problem that cuts across ethnic lines he said must be resolved. He noted that "just 2, 000 high schools in cities like Detroit, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia produce over 50 percent of America's dropouts."

Regarding higher education, Obama said he would expand several federally funded grant programs, including allowing Pell Grants to rise at the rate of inflation and take on "wasteful student loan subsidies." The goal, he said, was to make "college affordable for 7 million more students."

"So, yes, we need more money. Yes, we need more reform. Yes, we need to hold ourselves accountable for every dollar we spend, " Obama said. "But there is one more ingredient I want to talk to about. The bottom line is that no government policies will make any difference unless we also hold ourselves more accountable as parents."

8.President Barack Obama called for international allies to sign on to more aggressive steps to jump-start their own economies, warning that U.S. efforts to pull its own economy back from the brink will falter without global coordination.

"We can do a really good job here at home, with a whole host of policies, but if you continue to see deterioration in the world economy, that's going to set us back, " Obama told after receiving an Oval Office briefing from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

Geithner is headed to Britain this week for talks with the finance ministers of 20 advanced and developing nations. Those meetings are a precursor to a leaders' summit on the global financial crisis that is taking place in London early next month.

Geithner said there have been many ideas passed among the nations, and good progress made, but that the time for talk is over.

"It's time now for us to move together and to begin to act, " he said. "Everything we do in the United States will be more effective if we have the world moving with us."

Obama said the United States has two goals for the so-called Group of 20 summit: to make sure there is "concerted action around the globe to jump-start the economy" and to achieve consensus on regulatory reform to take place in each country.

He did not directly criticize other nations, such as in Europe, which have been reluctant to adopt the kind of expensive stimulus packages for their own economies that have been approved in the United States. But his message that allies are not doing enough compared with the United States was clear nonetheless.

"The United States has actually taken a significant lead on a number of these steps that are required, " he said. "As aggressive as the actions we are taking have been so far, it's very important to make sure that other countries are moving in the same direction, because the global economy is all tied together."

Obama has met with several G-20 leaders already in the lead-up to the summit, including Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, hammering home the notion that they only benefit from a strong U.S. economy. The president said those talks have made him "optimistic about the prospects" for a good agreement to come out of London.

"They're rooting for our success, we got to make sure we're rooting for theirs, " Obama said

On another potentially controversial matter, the president also issued a "signing statement" with the bill, saying several of its provisions raised constitutional concerns and would be taken merely as suggestions. He has criticized President George W. Bush for often using such statements to claim the right to ignore portions of new laws, and on Monday he said his administration wouldn't follow those issued by Bush unless authorized by the new attorney general.

White House officials have accused Bush of using the statements to get around Congress in pursuing anti-terror tactics.

Obama signed the bill in private, unlike a number of recent signings that took place with fanfare, but he raised the issue of earmarks in public remarks playing down their scope and possible harm in the measure. They comprise about 1 percent of the spending package, which will keep the government running through September.

"Done right, earmarks have given legislators the opportunity to direct federal money to worthy projects that benefit people in their districts. And that's why I've opposed their outright elimination, " he said.

Still, the president acknowledged the storm of criticism from watchdog groups, talk show hosts and many Republican lawmakers _ including some who have obtained earmarks _ who call them wasteful and politically motivated. They are special provisions earmarking money in spending bills for specific projects.

Obama, too, has criticized them as overused and subject to abuse.

Proposing new safeguards, he asked Congress to require that any earmark for a for-profit company be subject to competitive bids. He also said he would work with Congress to eliminate earmarks or other specific items in spending bills that he believes serve no legitimate purpose. But he did not specify how.

Critics were unmoved. Obama "naively asked earmark addicts to police themselves, " said Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. Lawmakers "trumpet their pork on their Web sites, " he said, "and nobody believes we will have public hearings on pet projects."

Presidents can ask Congress to rescind various spending items. But the authority has little bite because lawmakers tend to ignore requests to undo their work.

Sen. John McCain, Obama's GOP opponent in last year's election, wants to require Congress to vote on a president's rescission requests. Obama is open to such a change, spokesman Robert Gibbs said, but has not proposed it.

"It doesn't do anybody any good to send up a rescissions package, " Gibbs said, if it "becomes a piece of paper in somebody's file drawer."

Congress has wrestled for years with how to regulate earmarks, the targeted spending items for construction projects, weapons systems, research grants and thousands of other programs sought by Senate and House members. Voters tend to disdain earmarks in the abstract, but they often embrace the money and jobs that earmarks produce close to home. Many lawmakers base their re-election bids on the goodies they steer to constituents, and efforts to eliminate earmarks have repeatedly met strong resistance in both parties.

Nearly all earmarks serve some public purpose, even the so-called "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska. But abuses have included tying earmarks to kickbacks, including those that sent former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., to prison in 2006.

Congress tightened regulations after that, including requirements that requests for earmark be made public and subject to scrutiny. The number has decreased since then, but they still totaled 7, 991, costing $5.5 billion, in the "omnibus" spending bill Obama signed Wednesday.

The president called the bill imperfect and recommended further earmark changes "to ensure that the budget process inspires trust and confidence instead of cynicism."

For a time, President Bill Clinton enjoyed line-item veto power, which allowed him to strike specific projects, including earmarks, from massive spending bills. But the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional in 1998. Since then, presidents have had to accept or veto entire spending bills, often packed with thousands of items, some of them earmarks.

Congress' Democratic leaders issued statements Wednesday praising Obama's remarks and defending earmarks in general. The House Appropriations Committee announced said it would submit every future earmark to the appropriate executive branch agency for a review.

But a statement issued by the committee's chairman, David Obey, D-Wis., hinted at irritation with the public's focus. "With all of the hyperventilating over the 1 percent of the omnibus appropriations bill that is made up of earmarks, " he said, "Washington has mostly glossed over the important results it has achieved with the other 99 percent of the bill."

It was unclear how Congress might prevent earmarks from being directed to specific for-profit companies. House Appropriations staffers said the process will be changed to prevent "sole-sourcing" of contracts through earmarks and to require an open bidding process instead.

Obama's signing statement said he wouldn't be bound by provisions of the bill in five areas. They involved negotiations with foreign governments, limits on using U.S. troops in U.N. missions, protections for government whistleblowers, a congressional claim of authority over the spending of money already approved by Congress and congressional demands that the administration submit budget requests in certain forms.

10. Democrats to Obama: Hurry up and fix the economy.

Some Democrats are increasingly concerned about President Obama's $787 billion financial fix for the ailing economy, and are demanding greater transparency on further spending.

With the White House seemingly comparing the nation's economy to a house on fire, some congressional Democrats are asking, where's the fire truck?

One New Hampshire congresswoman said as much to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner on Capitol Hill recently.

"I said, hurry, please hurry, because people are waiting and they are hurting, and they need the help now, " Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, D-New Hampshire, said.

She's one of a growing number of nervous Democrats on edge or at odds with some of the Obama's administration's plans on the economy. Some are taking aim at the president's budget proposals that would curb popular tax deductions for wealthier Americans.

"I don't think ultimately the criticism is surprising. That certainly happens and is all part of the process, " said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

As a nod to moderate concerns, Obama took steps to make his budget more transparent. He included items former President George W. Bush passed separately in recent years to obscure the true operating cost of the government, such as the money for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, an annual multibillion-dollar fix of the fees Medicare pays physicians and Alternative Minimum Tax relief for the middle class.

Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Indiana, who along with Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson and Connecticut Independent Joe Lieberman is one of the so-called Gang of 15 -- a coalition of moderate Democratic senators -- says it's all about the messaging.

"Like getting health care costs under control is important to the economy and getting the deficit down, " he said. "Sustainable sources of energy at reasonable prices is also important to the economy. Dealing with the financial crisis is obviously important to the economy."

Bayh added: "So what needs to be done is, Obama's got to move on all these fronts but also integrate them back to the same theme of always strengthening the economy, getting people to work, growing businesses, improving our standard of living."

Rep. John Tanner, D-Tennessee, is a member of the "Blue Dog" group of 47 fiscally conservative Democrats in the House -- six of whom voted against Obama's stimulus plan. He said Obama at least is being honest about the dire condition of the economy.

"At least the budget that the Obama administration presented, even though it's huge and it's a huge deficit -- and that enables the other team to beat up on it -- the truth is that it's honest and truthful, " he said.

Democratic media consultant Steve Murphy, who represents several moderate Democrats, said that Blue Dogs are all "deficit hawks, " so they're "nervous about spending."

"They're against giving more money to the banks without any accountability, they want to zero in on wasteful spending and they strongly believe the shrinking deficit and eventual balanced budget was the underpinning of our economic success in the '90's, " he said.

Murphy added that these Democrats do, however, realize that more money is going to be needed.

"So I expect them to be about greater accountability and fairness for the taxpayer. They won't join [GOP House Minority Whip Eric] Cantor's 'Hell No' chorus."

And that is something resonating with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who said top economists told her a second stimulus package may be necessary.

"You have to keep the door open to see how this goes, " she said.

House Democrats heard that message in a meeting with top economists, who predicted the president's stimulus plan will fall short of saving or creating three to four million jobs, as he promised.

"Over the first two years about 2 1/2 million jobs saved and created, " said economist Allen Sinai. "A little less than the administration and perhaps Speaker Pelosi has said ... the jobs created may be a little disappointing."

Sinai said that over time, the economy may produce the jobs president Obama promised, but that people should try to be patient.

But budget hawks in the party don't like the sound of that.

"I mean, if we were to take a vote this afternoon, the stimulus package would probably fail, " said Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-North Dakota. "If they want substantial, more public funds committed, they're going to have to go out there and explain precisely how this is going to work."

Shea-Porter said she's simply on the message she's getting at town meetings back home, a message that's also aimed at some in the media.

"It's terrifying people. Before, people were very optimistic and the leaders were optimistic. Then we hit a spell here where we're hearing a lot of media ... people who are frightening without necessarily giving both sides, " she added.

For now, the White House says it has no plans for another stimulus, arguing its plan needs time to work.

In other words, the fire is not out yet.

11. President Barack Obama signs spending bill, Vowing to Battle Earmarks.

President Obama's call to rein in the use of earmarks was met with derision yesterday even from some of his past reformer allies, dealing an early blow to his attempt to change how business is done in Washington.

Obama signed what he called an "imperfect" $410 billion measure to fund most government agencies through September. He used the occasion to criticize the more than 8, 500 projects, costing more than $7.7 billion, that lawmakers inserted into the bill, and he declared that "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 as he vowed to press Congress to shun earmarks in the future, a bipartisan collection of lawmakers said the proposals he offered yesterday would do little to curb the practice and would do nothing to address the appearance of a connection between campaign contributions and spending programs ordered up by lawmakers.

While Obama campaigned on a promise of bringing reform to Washington, the reality remains that most lawmakers believe it is their constitutional prerogative to direct money to their districts. Earmark supporters and opponents alike said Obama's words would carry little weight unless he also vowed to veto critical legislation that is full of spending projects.

"Absent a genuine veto threat, he's just spittin' in the wind, " said Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), an earmark opponent who walked through the House chamber yesterday carrying almost 100 pages of approved spending requests from a lobbying firm that is under federal investigation.

Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), who said yesterday that Obama is trying "to fine-tune a fundamentally flawed process, " supports legislation that would give the president a limited line-item veto authority, allowing him to cross out specific items and give Congress the chance to override those actions. Feingold is cosponsoring that measure with Obama's 2008 challenger, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the highest-profile opponent of the spending practice. Feingold helped Obama write ethics reforms in 2007.

Representing less than 2 percent of the discretionary federal budget, earmarks have become a lightning rod for critics who say they waste taxpayer money on projects that are requested more to win votes for lawmakers at home than they are for their merits. The connection between earmark recipients and the lobbyists who made campaign donations to lawmakers to secure their passage was central to criminal investigations that landed former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former congressman Randall "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.) in federal prison.

"The problem is not earmarks, the problem is secrecy which led to abuses in the past, " said Sen Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Obama and congressional Democratic leaders offered a proposal that would require lawmakers to publish on their Web sites all requests they make to the appropriations committees. (Currently, lawmakers are required to detail only requests for funding that is granted.) The earmark lists would be publicly available when subcommittees consider the spending requests under their jurisdiction, weeks earlier than they are now. Agencies would be given 20 days to deem certain proposals inappropriate.

Obama said he would direct agencies to conduct competitive bidding for earmarks targeted to private companies and also threatened to highlight earmarks considered inappropriate by asking Congress to revoke funding for such projects in the future.

"On occasion, earmarks have been used as a vehicle for waste, fraud and abuse. Projects have been inserted at the eleventh hour, without review, and sometimes without merit, in order to satisfy the political or personal agendas of a given legislator, rather than the public interest, " the president said in his speech yesterday.

Those comments were met with strong resistance from some of the most renowned earmark patrons on Capitol Hill, who suggested that the executive branch should not intrude on Congress's constitutional duty to control the treasury's purse strings.

"I would hope that the Obama administration would be sensitive to not tip the balance. The reality is that every dollar in the budget is earmarked. The question is: Who does the earmarking?" said Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee. Moran suggested that Obama's attempts to trim specific earmarks could be used to publicly shame "any member that doesn't play ball" on his agenda.

Since implementing rules requiring lawmakers to be identified as cosponsors of earmarks, their overall dollar value has dropped slightly over the past two years. Still, with total estimates for 2009 appropriations bills ranging from $11.6 billion to $18 billion, earmark funding requests match or exceed the annual budget of the Interior Department.

Obama backed away from bolder proposals that had been under discussion, including one that would have banned earmarks for private contractors, which was at the root of most recent corruption scandals. Sen Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) has instead offered legislation that would allow earmarks only for schools, hospitals, municipalities and other state and local authorities.

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), who as commerce committee chairman is quarterbacking much of Obama's agenda, said of the earmarks: "I think they're completely out of hand, completely out of control. Most of them are driven by lobbyists." But he added that he is dissatisfied with reform proposals from Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress and that he will maintain his prohibition against seeking earmarks.

Earmarking is bipartisan in nature, with tradition dictating that the majority party gets about 60 percent of the total dollar value of the requests. In this year's spending bills, all but four Republicans and three Democrats in the Senate accepted earmarks for their states.

Criticizing the new proposal, Flake said federal agencies are not equipped to thoroughly investigate thousands of earmark requests in the less than three weeks they would be given under Obama's proposal. In addition, earmarks for Pentagon projects are already required to face a competitive bidding process, but Flake said Defense Department officials rarely reject the original designee for the funding. He said those officials fear that they will lose budget money if they cross congressional appropriators, whose power has grown significantly over the past 15 years.

"If they don't fund that earmark request where Congress wants it to go, they might lose funding next year, " he said.

12. US President Barack Obama assured the chief executives of some of the world's biggest companies today that he has no interest in expanding the role of the US Government.

But gave no excuses for his sweeping plans to overhaul health care, energy and education policy as he wrestles with the financial crisis.

"I am doing so because they are fundamental to our economic growth and ensuring that we don't have more crises like this in the future."

Mr Sarkozy and others want to emphasise stricter regulatory oversight at the London summit, while the White House says regulation, as well as enhanced stimulus plans, can be addressed.

Mr Obama characterised himself as a "strong believer" in the free market, but said the Government has a role to play during periods of economic hardship.

According to its website, the group's members comprise almost one-third of the value of US stock markets and pay nearly half of all corporate income taxes.

"The flip side is... if it's so onerous that people can't meet it, then it defeats the purpose. And politically we can't get it done anyway."

13. The Department of Justice drops the "enemy combatant" designation.

The Department of Justice has just announced a significant break with Bush administration policy: It will no longer be employing the "enemy combatant" designation as the rationale used to hold suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay.

Observers are still figuring out exactly what this will mean, but the Associated Press reports, "Obama still asserts the military's authority to hold prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. But he says that authority comes from Congress and the international laws of war, not from the president's own wartime power."

Here's the DOJ's press release announcing the move:

In a filing today with the federal District Court for the District of Columbia, the Department of Justice submitted a new standard for the government's authority to hold detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility. The definition does not rely on the President's authority as Commander-in-Chief independent of Congress's specific authorization. It draws on the international laws of war to inform the statutory authority conferred by Congress. It provides that individuals who supported al Qaeda or the Taliban are detainable only if the support was substantial. And it does not employ the phrase "enemy combatant."The Department also submitted a declaration by Attorney General Eric Holder stating that, under executive orders issued by President Obama, the government is undertaking an interagency review of detention policy for individuals captured in armed conflicts or counterterrorism operations as well as a review of the status of each detainee held at Guantanamo. The outcome of those reviews may lead to further refinements of the government's position as it develops a comprehensive policy.

"As we work towards developing a new policy to govern detainees, it is essential that we operate in a manner that strengthens our national security, is consistent with our values, and is governed by law, " said Attorney General Holder. "The change we've made today meets each of those standards and will make our nation stronger."

In its filing today, the government bases its authority to hold detainees at Guantanamo on the Authorization for the Use of Military Force, which Congress passed in September 2001, and which authorized the use of force against nations, organizations, or persons the president determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the September 11 attacks, or harbored such organizations or persons. The government's new standard relies on the international laws of war to inform the scope of the president's authority under this statute, and makes clear that the government does not claim authority to hold persons based on insignificant or insubstantial support of al Qaeda or the Taliban.

The brief was filed in habeas litigation brought by numerous detainees at Guantanamo who are challenging their detention under the Supreme Court's decision last summer in Boumediene v. Bush.

So far, most observers are concluding that this decision is largely just a change in language that won't have much of an actual effect. Advocates for detainee rights, in particular, are saying this does not go far enough

"This is really a case of old wine in new bottles, " the Center for Constitutional Rights said in a statement. "While the new government has abandoned the term 'Enemy Combatant, ' it appears on first reading that whatever they call those they claim the right to detain, they have adopted almost the same standard the Bush administration used to detain people without charge -- with one change, the addition of the word 'substantially' before the word 'supported.'"

At SCOTUSblog, Lyle Denniston outlines what he says are the differences between the Bush administration's policy regarding who can be detained and this new formulation:

First, the new version requires proof of "substantial" support of Taliban or Al-Qaeda forces, while the former version required proof of "direct" support of such forces.

Second, the new version requires proof of "substantial" support of forces (other than Taliban or Al-Qaeda) engaged in hostilities against the U.S. and its coalition partnes, while the former version only required "support."

And, third, the new version applies to a person who "directly" supported hositilities to aid enemy armed forces, while the former version only required "support" of such hostilities, and did not include the word "armed" as to enemy forces who had been supported.

These new terms are, as yet, largely undefined.

"It is neither possible nor advisable to attempt to identify, in the abstract, the precise nature and degree of 'substantial support, ' or the precise characteristics of 'associated forces, ' that are or would be sufficient, " the DOJ says in its memorandum. "Although the concept of 'substantial support, ' for example, does not justify the detention at Guantanamo Bay of those who provide unwitting or insignificant support to the organizations identified in the AUMF, and the Government is not asserting that it can detain anyone at Guantanamo on such grounds, the particular facts and circumstances justifying detention will vary from case to case."

14. President Barack Obama can take credit for markets good week

The way the Obama administration has been hyping the slight uptick in good news about the economy in the last few days is fantastic. Yes, the Dow had its best week since November, Citigroup and Bank of America say they expect to make money this quarter, GM won't need an immediate infusion of tax dollars, and retail spending seems to have stabilized, at least for now. On Thursday Obama himself told business leaders that the crisis is "not as bad as we think, " and on Friday National Economic Council director Larry Summers said the spending numbers were "modestly encouraging signs" that the stimulus might already be having an effect.

As someones who has repeatedly defended Obama from GOP efforts to blame him for the current crisis and to deride the "Obama economy" only 55 days into his presidency, we think the administration could be playing a dangerous game. Live by the week's economic news, die by it as well. If the Dow dives next week, or retail spending dips again, does that mean the stimulus failed?

We think the administration got rattled by Wall Street criticisms that Obama was at risk of talking down the markets and, at minimum, simply wasn't paying enough attention to them. I thought that was the right course, actually - he needs to take a longer view, and the Dow isn't necessarily the most important indicator of economic vitality. And just when some of Obama's critics are starting to get called on their market boosterism - boy, has Jim Cramers taken a dive thsi week - unfortunately, their nagging seems to have had some effect.

We thought Larry Summers sounded a little bit like Cramer when he insisted theres never been a better tiem to buy, hailing possible big gains from investment in construction and the stock market. And not surprisingly, Cramer was impressed by Summers' speech and took it as evidence that the administration is listening to guys like him. "I think they got some religion when they saw the market go down so much, " Cramer said to CNBC today.

We believe it's important that Obama project optimism that we can turn this problem around - and indeed, that we've already begun to - with his economic stimulus package, banking reforms and mortgage efforts. But to hail the earliest signs of progress in a battle that's likely to take months, if not years, seemed like a rare Obama political mistake.

15. President Barack Obama reassures China on investments.

President Barack Obama rejected suggestions of a rift in the G20 and assured China on Saturday its U.S. investments were safe after a meeting with Brazil's president that also touched on relations in Latin America.

Obama and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva discussed the economic crisis during their White House visit and the U.S. president said hints of a split in the G20 were false.

"I can't be clearer in saying that there are no sides, " Obama told reporters about apparent tensions between European countries and the United States over whether more emphasis should be placed on spending versus regulatory reform to address the global financial crisis.

Washington has pushed for increased government spending, while countries such as France favor more emphasis on tough market regulation.

Calling it a "phony debate, " Obama said there would be no firmer proponent of the need for financial regulation reform than he.

"We have to take a whole range of approaches. Financial regulation is front and center, " he said. "We also think we've got to see worldwide concerted action to make sure that this massive contraction in demand is dealt with."

Obama also sought to reassure China, which expressed concern on Friday that massive U.S. deficit spending and near-zero interest rates would erode the value of China's huge U.S. bond holdings.

"Not just the Chinese government but every investor can have absolute confidence in the soundness of investments in the United States, " Obama said.

"There is a reason why even in the midst of this economic crisis, you've seen actual increases in investment flows here in the United States. I think it's a recognition that the stability not only of our economic system but also our political system is extraordinary."

Lula said he told Obama they should work to reopen world trade talks known as the Doha round while acknowledging that could be difficult to achieve during the economic crisis.

"At the same time, (I) believe that to conclude the Doha round could be one of the components to relieve the poorest or less developed countries of the world vis a vis this crisis."

Obama said he was committed to closing "the gap" that had blocked an agreement from being reached.

"It may be difficult for us to finalize a whole host of trade deals in the midst of an economic crisis like this one, although we have committed to sitting down with our Brazilian counterparts to find ways that we can start closing the gap on the Doha round and other potential trade agreements."

Separately, Obama acknowledged that U.S. tariffs on Brazilian shipments of ethanol to the United States had been "a source of tension" that would not change overnight.

Brazilian ethanol producers are upset the United States still levies a 54 cent import tariff on each gallon of exported Brazilian ethanol. American ethanol producers, who receive government subsidies, are worried ethanol imports would flood the U.S. market and hurt their business.

"Over time, the source of tension can get resolved, " Obama said, without indicating whether there would be an easing of the U.S. ethanol import tariff, which lasts through 2010.

Lula, a former union chief and a moderate among Latin America's leftist leaders, wants the United States to end the long-standing trade embargo on Cuba and seek a rapprochement with Venezuela's socialist president, Hugo Chavez, one of Washington's fiercest critics.

"President Obama ... has a unique and exceptional position to improve the relationships with Latin America, " Lula said.

Obama, said he looked forward to visiting Brazil sometime soon and joked that Republicans would support such a trip, too, if he got lost in the Amazon.

16. President Barack Obama tries to loosen credit for small businesses.

President Barack Obama freed billions of dollars to help the nation's small businesses on Monday, hoping to get credit flowing again to Main Street, not just Wall Street. He heaped praise on the little guys of American industry, often overshadowed in the blitz of government bailouts.

The centerpiece of Obama's latest plan will allow the government to spend up to $15 billion to buy the small-business loans that are now choking community banks and lenders. That, in turn, could allow those banks to start lending money again to small companies to invest, pay bills and stay afloat.

"You deserve a chance. America needs you to have a chance, " Obama said in an appeal to all those who run small businesses or hope to one day.

Obama's effort was, at one level, fundamental to helping the economy rebound. Small businesses have created about 70 percent of the new jobs over the past decade, and as their credit lines have dried up, so has their ability to thrive or survive.

There was also a political component to all the attention the president gave to small businesses. The White House is aware of the nation's bailout fatigue; hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars have gone to prop up financial giants who made poor decisions, while many others who have done no wrong have paid the price.

So Obama made clear to show he was on the side of everyday entrepreneurs.

He said small businesses "are the heart of the American economy" and "the heart of the American dream" and the core of "America's story."

Meanwhile, the president pledged to try to stop American International Group, the bailed-out insurance giant, from paying $165 million in executive bonuses. The revelation of that bonus pay, coming from a struggling company that has received more than $170 billion in federal rescue dollars, has evoked disgust.

"I mean, how do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?" Obama said.

He directed Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to pursue every legal means to block the bonuses. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said later the administration would modify the terms of a pending $30 billion bailout installment for AIG to protect taxpayers.

Obama's primary focus was on leaders of small companies and community lenders. He met with some privately in the White House's Roosevelt Room and cited their stories as inspiration as he announced his details in the East Room.

Normally, primary bank lenders can issue loans to small businesses and then sell those loans to what's known as a secondary market of bigger bankers. The sales allow the community lenders to make even more loans and keep the credit cycle going. But that isn't happening. Skittish investors have been staying away.

So under Obama's plan, the government will start buying up many of the loans directly, with terms to be worked out as soon as the end of the month. The $15 billion will come from a bailout plan already approved by Congress to rescue the financial sector. Obama aides say the plan will offer fast, direct help.

On Capitol Hill, House Republican Leader John Boehner was unmoved. He called Obama's White House event "simply an attempt to provide political cover for the job-killing burden the president's budget would place on our nation's small businesses." The House Republican whip, Eric Cantor of Virginia, said Obama's plan was welcome, but he predicted it would affect only a small portion of the loan market for small businesses, leaving others and their workers "in the cold."

Two months into office, Obama's job approval rating is at 61 percent, new Gallup polling finds. That number has been relatively stable so far this month but has dropped from the 68 percent when he took office. The major factor has been a decline in support among Republicans, from 41 percent to 26 percent.

A separate poll out Monday by the Pew Research Center put Obama's approval at 59 percent, slipping from 64 percent last month. The Pew poll found that a growing number of Americans see him as listening more to the liberals than to the moderates in the Democratic Party.

The White House unveiled a series of other steps to help lenders, including bigger lending guarantees, reduced fees and quicker turnaround times for loans. Geithner made a blunt appeal to banks to start lending to businesses again. He said the danger now is that banks are taking too little risk, not too much.

"You banks need to make the extra effort to make sure that good loans are getting to creditworthy small businesses, in order to serve the larger public good, " Geithner said. "And given that role that many banks played in causing this crisis, you bear a special responsibility for helping America get out of it."

Geithner also ordered the Internal Revenue Service to issue new rules to help small businesses. One of them will allow businesses that make up to $15 million to claim losses for the past five years in the current tax year. The White House says that amounts to a rebate on taxes paid in previous years.

White House aides say Obama has taken steps to help small business owners since the start, not just now.

Obama looked delighted when one restaurant owner, Marco Lentini of Philadelphia, introduced him as "unquestionably a president of the people."

17. Take this Bonus and shove it. President Obama is raising his voice to condemn AIG executives. But singing an angry song may be all he can do about the fat paychecks.

"Bonus" doesn't quite seem like the right word for the payouts that AIG executives got late last week. The insurance company lost $108 billion in 2008; the federal government, which forked over $170 billion to keep it in business since last fall, now owns 80 percent of the company. But AIG officials still felt compelled to pay $165 million in "retention bonuses" to people whose dealings in bizarre financial derivatives helped unravel the company and the global economy along with it. After such a dynamite performance, "plunder" or "booty" might do a better job of describing the extra pay.

No matter what you call it, though, whoever got the bonuses probably ought to cash the checks pronto, and then go hide. By nightfall Monday, politicians in both parties were on the verge of assembling a posse to go looking for the executives to tear them limb from limb. And the sheriff at the head of the unruly mob was none other than President Barack Obama.

"How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?" Obama asked at an afternoon event that was supposed to focus on the administration's aid to small-business owners. Late in the morning, White House aides stuck the AIG lines into the top of his prepared remarks and then alerted reporters to look out for them. The administration has obviously realized, along with everyone else in Washington who depends on the approval of voters to keep their jobs, that AIG executives are the hottest target going right now for government wrath. "In the last six months, AIG has received substantial sums from the U.S. Treasury, " Obama said. "And I've asked [the Treasury Department] to use that leverage and pursue every single legal avenue to block these bonuses and make the American taxpayers whole."

But saying the government will get the money back, and doing it, might be two different things. Before the public outrage, AIG officials reportedly argued, and the Treasury reportedly agreed, that they were legally required to pay the bonuses by the contracts they'd signed with the recipients. On Capitol Hill, aides who looked at the laws involved weren't sure what the administration would be able to do about the payments. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama had ordered a review of options, which didn't exactly inspire confidence that officials would soon be swooping in with the rescued money. AIG is still drawing money from the $700 billion corporate bailout fund Congress approved last fall, so the administration's new rules limiting executive pay don't apply.

That's not to say the government won't make a show of trying, even if the effort fails. The bonuses inspired the kind of bipartisan harmony that has eluded the administration on most issues. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said that the top management at AIG should be fired for "rewarding incompetence." A subcommittee of the House Financial Services panel scheduled a hearing Wednesday to hear from AIG CEO Edward Liddy and others about the company. House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, chimed in, demanding an "exit strategy" from the entire business of bailing out Wall Street firms. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., took to the Senate floor to declare the bonuses "a breach of public trust, " and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Treasury should "use whatever tools at its disposal to make AIG repay taxpayers" -- which conjured up images of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner playing the Laurence Olivier role in a remake of "Marathon Man."

Even outside Washington, politicians seized the chance to look tough. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who may be trying to move up to governor by this time next year, subpoenaed AIG officials to find out who got the bonus money. "If the taxpayer didn't bail out AIG, those contracts wouldn't be worth the paper they're printed on, " Cuomo told reporters. "Just because there's a contract doesn't mean there's no way around the contract."

It's not hard to see why the bonuses made the insurance giant public enemy No. 1. Voters are so furious about taxpayer money going to Wall Street, and so resentful that financial wizards still took down seven-figure salaries last year while 401K accounts evaporated, that there's no political downside to attacking anyone connected to it all.

"[Voters] wouldn't mind seeing some of the executives hanging from lampposts on Wall Street, " said Glen Bolger, a Republican pollster. If the administration is going to have to come back to Congress to ask for more money to help stabilize banks -- a prospect officials seem resigned to doing -- bashing excessive pay can't hurt. What's harder to figure out is why AIG didn't try harder to find some way around the contracts. "These guys apparently were not reading the newspaper the day the auto execs came to Washington in their private jets, " said Democratic pollster Mark Mellman. "It's a difference between running a private company and being in the public light -- they're just not used to it. For anybody who's worked in politics -- for anybody who's ever read a newspaper, let alone working for one -- this is a no-brainer."

But apparently not for financial honchos. When Obama announced the plans to cap salaries, bonuses and corporate expenses for companies that take bailouts in the future, administration officials said they didn't need to worry too much about putting tough enforcement mechanisms into the proposal; publicly airing news of lavish bashes or embarrassing pay deals would help shame companies out of such behavior in the future.

AIG sent its checks out on Friday the 13th, less than two weeks after the government gave it another $30 billion in aid. The company has been even more profligate with money it disbursed to other financial firms than it has with its bonus payments -- it sent $75 billion to other foreign and domestic companies with whom it traded esoteric derivative securities.

If there's any point the bonus brouhaha should drive home, once and for all, inside the Beltway, it's that the financial collapse has gone way past the point of "shame on you." Unless the government gets tougher with the banks it now owns huge stakes in, the Obama administration itself may be soon be bellowing "shame on me."

18. President Obama said Wednesday that no one in his administration had been responsible for supervising ailing insurance giant AIG but that ultimately, the buck stops with him.

"Nobody here drafted those contracts; nobody here was responsible for supervising AIG and allowing themselves to put the economy at risk by some of the outrageous behavior that they were engaged in, " he said outside the White House. "[But] we are responsible, though. The buck stops with me."

Obama, in a defiant tone, once again lashed out at the controversial bonuses given to executives at AIG, which received $173 billion in government bailouts over the past six months.

"People are right to be angry. I am angry. ... People are rightly outraged about these particular bonuses, " he said. "But just as outrageous is the culture that these bonuses are a symptom of that have existed for far too long, a situation where excess greed, excess compensation, excess risk-taking have all made us vulnerable and left us holding the bag."

Obama said he held discussions with his economic team and with Rep. Barney Frank, D-Massachusetts, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. Frank presided over hearings Wednesday on the AIG bonus controversy.

On Wednesday afternoon, AIG chief executive Edward Liddy told Congress that he has asked employees of the bailed-out insurer who took home more than $100, 000 in bonuses to return at least half.

Liddy, saying he knew that the public's patience is "wearing thin, " said some employees have decided on their own to return their entire bonuses to the company.

But shortly before Liddy testified, Obama delivered a harsh message to companies like AIG and, in general, Wall Street: Don't plan on returning to business as usual.

"The business models that created a lot of paper wealth but not real wealth in the country and have now resulted in crisis can't be the model for economic growth going forward, " he said.

But the president said that rather than continuing to argue about AIG, anger must be channeled in a constructive way.

"We're trying to do is get ourselves in a position where we make sure that, going forward, we're not held hostage to all these bad decisions that were made by these huge institutions in the past and that we create a system where they can't make all these bad bets, " he said.

"And I am confident that we can strike the right balance that allows our financial system to stabilize, allows people to innovate in the financial markets, but don't allow them to put everybody else's savings, everybody else's well-being, other people's jobs, other people's homes at risk."

Obama also defended his criticized Treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, saying he "is making all the right moves in terms of playing a bad hand."

"There has never been a secretary of the Treasury, except maybe Alexander Hamilton, right after the Revolutionary War, who has had to deal with the multiplicity of issues that Secretary Geithners having to deal with, " he said.

19. While everyone was losing their minds at President Barack Obama's ill-advised "Special Olympics" quip, here's an interesting part of the interview that seems to have gone unremarked upon, by and large:

OBAMA: Well, what's happening is a lot of these banks are keeping it in the bank because their balance sheets had gotten so bad that they decided, you know what, for us to stay solvent we need to maintain certain capital ratios; we've got to have a certain amount of capital in the bank -- and they haven't started lending it yet. And that's why what we've got to do -- right now what we're doing is essentially doing a diagnostic test -- trying to use some auto language here so you -- (laughter) -- we're doing a diagnostic on each of the banks, figuring out what are their capital levels? Can they sustain lending? And then I think we're going to separate out -- those banks that are in good shape, we're going to say to them, all right, you're on your own; go start lending again. Those banks that still have problems, we'll do a little more intervention to try to clean some of those toxic assets off their books.

In an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" Obama said that if Treasury chief Timothy Geithner offered his resignation, the answer would be, "Sorry buddy, you've still got the job."

Obama also took the opportunity to strike back at recent comments by former Vice President Dick Cheney, who claimed that plans to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center will make the U.S. less safe.

Obama contended that the Bush administration's policy of holding detainees for years on end with no trials is "unsustainable, " and has only fueled anti-American sentiments. At the same time, Obama said that U.S. authorities haven't done a good job determining who should be released from the Navy base in Cuba.

On Geithner, Obama reiterated his support for the beleaguered secretary who has been roundly criticized over the recent corporate bonus flap and steps to revive the economy. And he urged patience.

"It's going to take a little bit more time than we would like to make sure that we get this plan just right. Of course, then we'd still be subject to criticism, " he said in the interview, taped Friday and set to air Sunday evening. "What's taken so long? You've been in office a whole 40 days and you haven't solved the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression."

Obama also said corporate executives would better understand the public's outrage over bonuses if they ventured out of New York and spent time in Iowa or Arkansas. There, he said, people are thrilled to be making $75, 000 a year with no bonuses.

Public outrage spilled over last week after revelations that struggling insurance giant American International Group Inc. doled out $165 million in bonuses to employees, including to traders in the financial unit that nearly caused the company's collapse.

On the Bush administration's detainee policies, Obama criticized the failure to bring terrorists to justice, despite holding hundreds of men at Guantanamo for a number of years.

Among those who have been released, more than 60 former Guantanamo detainees are believed to have rejoined the fight, the Pentagon says.

"There is no doubt that we have not done a particularly effective job in sorting through who are truly dangerous individuals to make sure (they) are not a threat to us, " Obama said.

Some 800 men have been held at Guantanamo since the prison opened in January 2002, and 240 remain. Some are admitted terrorists, including confessed Sept. 11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was transferred to Guantanamo from CIA custody in September 2006. But officials have said that many may have been innocent men unconnected to the Taliban or al-Qaida, but were swept up by U.S. forces in the early days of the Afghanistan war.

Since taking office, Obama has taken aim at Bush administration policies, suspending military trials for suspected terrorists and announcing he will close Guantanamo and other overseas sites where the CIA has held some detainees. The president also ordered CIA interrogators to abide by the U.S. Army Field Manual's regulations for treatment of detainees and denounced waterboarding, part of the Bush program of enhanced interrogation, as torture.

On CNN last weekend, Cheney charged that those moves have made the country less safe and raised the risk of another attack.

21. Obama Defends budget as essential to recovery.

President Obama presented a sober assessment of the state of the economy in his prime time news conference Tuesday, but he insisted his administration has a strategy in place to "attack this crisis on all fronts."

"It took many years and many failures to lead us here. And it will take many months and many different solutions to lead us out. There are no quick fixes, and there are no silver bullets, " he said.

The president defended his budget, which has come under criticism for its hefty price, saying the plan he proposed is "inseparable" from the overall strategy for economic recovery.

"We've got to make some tough budgetary choices, " the president said in his second prime time news conference. "What we can't do, though, is sacrifice long-term growth, investments that are critical to the future, and that's why my budget focuses on health care, energy, education, the kinds of things that can build a foundation for long-term economic growth, as opposed to the fleeting prosperity that we've seen over the last several years."

The president brushed off criticism of the scope of his investments, saying, "We haven't seen an alternative budget out of them." He also reiterated his pledge to cut the deficit in half over the next five years.

Asked whether he would sign a budget that doesn't include a middle-class tax cut, Obama said he has "emphasized repeatedly" what his expectations are.

"I haven't seen yet what provisions are in there, " Obama said. "The bottom line is that I want to see health care, energy, education and serious efforts to reduce our budget deficit. And there are going to be details that still need to be worked out."

Obama's appearance comes on the heels of the unveiling of the Treasury Department's new bank rescue plan.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Monday announced a plan to remove troubled assets from banks' books by partnering with private investors.

The goal is to buy up at least $500 billion of existing assets and loans, such as subprime mortgages that are now in danger of default.

Following the announcement of the plan, the stock market rallied, posting the biggest gains in months.

Obama said he supports Geithner's push to seize financial institutions whose failure would pose serious risks to the U.S. financial system.

"Keep in mind that it is precisely because of the lack of this authority that the AIG situation has gotten worse, " Obama said, referring to the troubled insurance giant.

It was revealed last week that AIG doled out massive bonuses to executives after receiving more than $170 billion in bailout funds.

Pressed about why he waited three days to publicly speak out against AIG paying out the bonuses, Obama told reporters, "It took us a couple of days because I like to think about what I'm talking about before I speak."

Obama's news conference comes after he made the rounds on television this past week, with an appearance on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, " and an interview on CBS's "60 Minutes."

On the morning of the news conference, Obama reached out to citizens of the world in an op-ed piece that ran in 31 newspapers around the world.

In the op-ed, Obama said there is an urgent need for worldwide economic cooperation and spoke about the upcoming G-20 meeting.

The G-20 meeting, in which leaders of the world's richest nations will discuss the global economic downturn, takes place next week in London, England.

In his first prime time news conference, the president used the national platform to make the case for his economic stimulus plan, which has since been passed by Congress and signed into law.

Obama took questions from 13 different reporters at the February news conference. Eight questions were about the economy, three were about foreign policy and one was about creating a truth and reconciliation committee to investigate the Bush administration.

22. Obama answers seven of 90, 000 Web questions.

In an appeal to the tech-savvy public, the White House's Web site opened itself to questions for President Obama's online town hall meeting Thursday.

The virtual meeting, a new take on President Franklin Roosevelt's fireside chats, was another sign that Obama is reaching out to online followers as he tries to rally an anxious country in support of his solutions to the economic crisis.

Obama began his address by trying to draw a clear line between what he sees as the political games of Washington and the actual needs of the American people.

"What matters to you and your families and what people here in Washington are focused on are not always" the same, he said, criticizing the winner-loser mindset of the politicians in the nation's capitol.

"This isn't about me, it's about you, " he said. "It's about the families whose letters I read every single day, and, for the American people, what's going on is not a game."

After the call for questions closed at 9:30 a.m., more than 90, 000 people had submitted more than 104, 000 questions for the president. The questions largely focused on the economy but spread across several categories. Online users ranked the questions more than 3.6 million times, according to WhiteHouse.gov.

Obama had promised to answer popular questions from the site.

The idea that a president would want to talk directly to the American people has been around since the days of FDR, but what was new about Obama's online town hall is that it encouraged members of the public to interact with each other, said Julie Moos, director of Poynter Online, a nonprofit journalism site.

"By allowing [Internet users] not just to submit questions but to see the other questions ... and to rank the questions continues to connect them in the same way that the [Obama] campaign did, " Moos said. "And I think that's one of the most innovative things that they're doing."

Flanked by a flat-screen TV and backed by a 100-person audience in the White House's East Room, the president answered text questions and those submitted in video format.

Obama answered seven of the most popular online questions. That included a paraphrase of a question asked by several people online: would legalizing marijuana help jumpstart the economy.

The president grinned through his answer: "I don't' know what this says about the online audience, " he said, adding: "The answer is, 'No, ' I don't think that is a good strategy to grow our economy."

Other questions -- some of which came from the live audience -- focused primarily on health care, job loss, mortgage payments and energy.

A video question from three bubbly college students was well received by the audience. In it, the young women asked how Obama will make college more affordable and when a national program may start.

Obama said too many college students finish school while drowning in debt. He said a public service program will begin in a matter of weeks.

"If you come out of college with $50, 000 worth of debt it's then hard for you to start making a decision about wanting to be a teacher or wanting to go into social work, " he said.

In one video question, a woman asked the president if manufacturing jobs that have gone overseas will come back.

No, Obama answered.

America needs to create new jobs "that can't be outsourced, " he said. Many of those will be in the renewable energy sector, he said.

During the address, the online community commented on Obama's answers and the format of the town hall. Users could watch streaming video of the question-answer session online at WhiteHouse.gov.

On the social media site Twitter, a user named kfoggy1 wrote: "[I] didn't vote for Obama, but I really like what he is doing with technology. Good for democracy."

A user called BeaconOfLight was less impressed.

"Another chance for Obama to get TV time. Get your glass the 'kool aid' will flow, " the user wrote.

A quick survey of the more than 90, 000 questions submitted at WhiteHouse.gov revealed an America troubled by the state of the economy and struggling to make ends meet.

The White House asked the public to submit questions only about the economy, but the site divided them into several subcategories.

In education, several popular questions came from people who criticized the state of the nation's educational system, or were having trouble paying off college debt.

"The Founding Fathers believed that there is no difference between a free society and an educated society. Our educational system, however, is woefully inadequate. How do you plan to restore education as a right and core cultural value in America?" asked Takeok, from Boston, Massachusetts.

In the "home ownership" category, several users wrote that they feel they've been making all the right financial moves and still find themselves in turmoil.

"Why aren't you helping the people who want to PREVENT foreclosure?" asked MistyLee, from Providence, Rhode Island.

Some health care submissions questioned why more Americans aren't covered.

Richard from California asked why this nation can't have universal health care like countries in Europe, "where people are treated based on needs, rather than financial resources."

Questions filed under green jobs and energy prodded the president to reconsider ethanol subsidies and asked him to explain how the stimulus plan will affect green jobs and home weatherization.

Larkin, a user from Gaithersburg, Maryland, was one of several people to raise the issue of public transit.

"Will we ever see high-speed passenger rail service in the U.S.?" the user asked.

In the finance category, Web users wanted to know more about why the government couldn't break up large financial institutions into smaller entities.

Adrian, of Collinsville, Illinois, worried about businesses that have survived the economic collapse.

"What rewards are there for those people and businesses that chose to live and operate within their means?" the user asked.

The site began taking questions on Tuesday and stopped on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. ET. The Web service was hosted by Google, but the White House said it will protect user information in accordance with its own privacy guidelines.

Questions asked on the site were made public immediately, the White House said. Users could flag questions they deemed inappropriate.

Moos, of Poynter, said one of the biggest take-aways from the event is that it connected these audiences to the president and a sense that they're part of a valued online community -- an engaged citizenry.

23. Obama: 'It is time for us to transition to the Iraqis'

resident Obama lauded the U.S. military in Baghdad on Tuesday during an unannounced visit to Iraq, reminding troops that the next 18 months will be difficult as the United States plans to start withdrawing its forces.

"I was just discussing this with your commander, but I think it's something that all of you know. It is time for us to transition to the Iraqis, " Obama said, according to a transcript from the White House. "They need to take responsibility for their country and for their sovereignty.

"And in order for them to do that, they have got to make political accommodations. They're going to have to decide that they want to resolve their differences through constitutional means and legal means. They are going to have to focus on providing government services that encourage confidence among their citizens."

Obama reiterated that Iraqis must do those things themselves, and "we can't do it for them."

"But what we can do is make sure that we are a stalwart partner, that we are working alongside them, that we are committed to their success, " he added.

Obama said that in terms of training the Iraqi security forces, the U.S. must make sure "they know that they have a steady partner with us."

Obama's visit to Iraq was the last stop on his first trip overseas as president.

The president thanked the troops for giving Iraq "the opportunity to stand on its own as a democratic country."

The president addressed about 1, 500 service members, civilians and contractors who gathered in the rotunda of the Al Faw Palace, one of dozens of palaces that were used by former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The palace is now headquarters for the Multi-National Corps.

Obama last month announced the United States' plan to withdraw most of its troops from Iraq by the end of August 2010. A residual force of between 35, 000 to 50, 000 troops will remain until December 31, 2011. There are 142, 000 American troops in Iraq now.

Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, met Obama shortly after Air Force One landed Tuesday in Baghdad at about 4:42 p.m.

The troops "are doing extraordinary work, " Obama said shortly after landing. "They're just putting their heart and soul into this."

About 600 troops assembled to greet the president at Camp Victory, near the Baghdad airport.

Yassin Majid, the spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, said Obama met with the prime minister, and they discussed bilateral relations and other issues. Obama also was to meet with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and the nation's two vice presidents.

Ali Jalal, a businessman, called Obama's visit "a good sign to Iraqi people, and will solve the political crisis."

"If God wills, he [Obama] should know that Iraq belongs to Iraqis, " Jalal said, then added, "I ask the U.S. President Barack Obama to solve the problems of Iraqi people and to speed up the withdrawal of U.S. troops."

Government employee Nazar Sami-a said, "His visit is for Americans' interest and not for Iraqi interest."

Obama arrived in Europe last week for a series of summits, initially meeting with world leaders at the G-20 summit in London, England, to discuss the global financial crisis.

At the NATO summit in France and Germany, the president was hoping to get a boost in resources for the war in Afghanistan. He did get allies to pledge about 5, 000 troops, but in the form of police and security trainers, not combat troops.

During the campaign season, Obama visited Iraq on a multi-stop overseas trip. That trip also included stops in Afghanistan, Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and the United Kingdom.

A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll found that 79 percent of Americans surveyed feel that Obama has had a "more positive" effect on how people in other countries view the United States. Only 19 percent of those surveyed thought he's had a "more negative" effect.

The poll also indicated that only 35 percent of Americans currently approve of the U.S. war in Iraq; 65 percent disapprove.

Almost seven in 10 Americans agree with Obama's plan to remove most U.S. troops from Iraq by next August, while leaving a residual force of between 35, 000 and 50, 000 troops.

~~~~~~~~~~

24. Obama's lucky numbers.

Don't call him lucky. Barack Obama assumed the presidency of the United States just in time to be challenged by a painful recession, African pirates and a disease spread by pigs. But he can at least take comfort in some lucky numbers.

100 -- Obama marked a traditional milestone for new chief executives this week: the first 100 days since he took office. Whether or not you agree with his policies, Obama's been self-assured, energetic and ambitious. He's spending boldly to help the economy and breaking with Bush administration policy on issues ranging from Guantanamo Bay to global warming. Whatever else happens, historians will probably credit him with a decisive debut.

75 -- Obama didn't have an especially easy time convincing Americans he was the right man to be president. He won with about 53 percent of the vote. But this week's CNN/Opinion Research Poll found that 63 percent of Americans support him and fully 75 percent say he has the personal qualities a president needs. Americans don't all agree with him, but a solid number admire him nonetheless.

60 -- Despite his support from voters, the Congress has been a problem for Obama. A governing party needs 60 of the Senate's 100 seats to be sure it can pass the legislation it wants. The Democrats won 58 and expect to capture a 59th because of one close Senate election that will be decided by the courts. This week, Republican Arlen Specter switched parties. The court's ruling remains to be seen, but Obama stands to get his 60.

0 -- Obama is the undisputed leader of the United States and its Democratic Party. Who really speaks for the Republicans? After presidential candidate John McCain lost the election, he lost the right to speak for the party.

For the time being, the Republicans have no national figure who commands anywhere near the public support or media attention Obama does. Right now, President Obama wins any contest of leadership with the Republicans by a 1-0 shutout.

Maybe we should call him lucky, after all.

~~~~~~~~~~

25........next.....

~~~~~~~~~~

What's ahead for Obama in the next 100 days

After passing the 100 days benchmark, President Obama pushes on with a daunting task ahead of him: Tackling foreign and domestic issues while dealing with a Republican Party opposed to nearly all his major economic initiatives..

The second 100 days will be a critical test of Obama's power in getting key legislative priorities -- such as economic recovery, health care, energy and immigration -- passed.

With recent polls showing the American public giving him a job approval rating in the mid-60s, he already starts off on the right footing.

But a poll out Monday suggests that Obama is personally more popular than his policies. The poll showed that three in four Americans feel Obama has the personal qualities a president should have. But when the respondents were asked if they agree with the president on the issues, that number drops to 57 percent. For Republicans, the support is more than lackluster: Only 28 percent say Obama is doing a good job.

And with the GOP opposing nearly all of Obama's major initiatives in the first 100 days -- especially the economic stimulus and FY 2010 budget plan -- it will be bipartisanship that will be a task for the president. Can he bridge the divide on major issues?

At his press conference on Wednesday night, the president once again seemed to extend the proverbial olive branch to the GOP.

"To my Republican friends, I want them to realize that me reaching out to them has been genuine, " Obama said at a prime time news conference capping his 100th day in office. "I can't sort of define bipartisanship as simply being willing to accept certain theories of theirs that we tried for eight years and didn't work and the American people voted to change."

And Republicans may be realizing the scenario before them: Democratic control of the Executive and Legislative branches. Getting GOP legislation passed without bipartisan support will be next to impossible.

Just this week, veteran Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania announced that he was leaving the GOP and joining the Democratic Party. It was a seismic shift in Washington and could be a major boon for Obama. With Specter's switch and Democrat Al Franken's likely victory in the Minnesota Senate race, Democrats are poised to have a 60-seat filibuster proof majority in the Senate.

In other words, Democrats will set the agenda.

But Obama is not taking any chances, saying he's under no illusions that he'll have a "rubber-stamp Senate" now that Specter has switched parties.

Nonetheless, the Republican leadership is looking ahead -- and signs of bipartisanship may beginning to slowly show.

"Obviously, the country's got terrific challenges before it. ... I think bipartisanship can work. If there is a commitment on both sides, obviously, to try and work towards solutions in these very difficult issue areas, " House Minority Whip Eric Cantor said last Wednesday. "But look, there's no question. We need to both be open to try to work together."

But not so fast, says one GOP aide.

Sen. John McCain's spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan said Thursday that the Arizona Repubican believes the president and Democrats don't really want to compromise on big, controversial issues. "Reaching out and bringing ideas to the table with a real interest in compromise are two different things, " Buchanan said.

The next 100 days will also be a critical test for Republicans looking to improve their brand. The latest Washington Post/ABC Poll showed only 21 percent of those surveyed identified themselves as Republican, which down from 25 percent in a late March poll.

The poll, on the other hand, showed that 35 percent identified themselves as Democrats; and 38 percent called themselves independents.

Besides the major task of handling the country's recession, two major domestic policy issues are sure to come up, and Obama's popularity and outreach to Congress will be critical.

Health care reform, for one, was one of Obama's early 2008 campaign pledges -- and is sure to come up.

And it could likely pass this year because of a special legislative process, known as budget reconciliation, which won't allow Republicans to filibuster the legislation. Democrats, who control 59 seats in the Senate, will be able to pass it with a simple majority vote instead of the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster.

Another issue near and dear to Obama is energy. Can Obama put forth an energy plan that both parties can agree on?

Obama has signaled in his first 100 days that finding alternative energy sources -- such as wind, hydropower, solar -- will be vital in ending the country's dependence on foreign oil. For Obama, it's not just an energy dependence issue, but one of national security.

On the foreign policy front, Obama will continue to pursue his strategy for combating increasing violence in Afghanistan and Iraq -- and Taliban encroachments in Pakistan.

While the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are inherited from the Bush administration, his strategy going forward -- adding additional troops to Afghanistan and a withdrawal timeline in Iraq -- will prove critical to his legacy.

Political analyst David Gergen, who has a long history working for both Democratic and Republican presidents, says what has impressed him about Obama is his strategic vision for the war-torn area.

"On Afghanistan, they really did sit down and try to do their homework, and try to figure out how is this going to work out over time, " he said.

Gergen says Obama's next 100 days will show that he is a "pragmatic liberal" -- legislating from left-of-center.

But Fareed Zakaria disagrees, pointing out that Obama's foreign policy is one Republican hawks "would be very comfortable with."

"I think right now the truth of the matter is, he's put forward a kind of beautiful overture, by which I mean he's reached out to Iran; he's reached out to Syria; he's put forward stuff for the Middle East peace process, " Zakaria said.

But it's also relations with historically Anti-American countries like Cuba and Venezuela that will put to the test Obama's campaign promise to open up a dialogue -- much to the chagrin of Republicans. Obama has signaled he wants to work with both countries, and has already eased restrictions on travel to Cuba.

Will a lifting of the nearly 50-year trade embargo with the Caribbean nation be next?

The president's second 100 days will, for all intents and purposes, will likely be another "Hallmark holiday" style benchmark. But a lot can happen in 100 days -- and Obama's leadership on key issues will be put under the microscope -- issues that could set the tone for America's relations abroad for decades to come.

It is all about Democrats and Republicans

~~~~~~~~~~

2008

Barack Obama Speaks

"When I was a young man, I thought life was all about me - how do I make my way in the world, and how do I become successful and how do I get the things that I want.
But now, my life revolves around my two little girls. And what I think about is what kind of world I'm leaving them. Are they living in a county where there's a huge gap between a few who are wealthy and a whole bunch of people who are struggling every day? Are they living in a county that is still divided by race? A country where, because they're girls, they don't have as much opportunity as boys do? Are they living in a country where we are hated around the world because we don't cooperate effectively with other nations? Are they living a world that is in grave danger because of what we've done to its climate?
And what I've realized is that life doesn't count for much unless you're willing to do your small part to leave our children - all of our children - a better world. Even if it's difficult. Even if the work seems great. Even if we don't get very far in our lifetime.

"Anyone who voted for me or caucused for me has so much more in common with Senator Obama than Senator McCain, " Senator Clinton told her cheering audience in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson. "Remember who we were fighting for in my campaign. We may have started on two separate paths, but we are on one journey now."

"No matter how this conflict started, Russia has escalated it well beyond the dispute over South Ossetia and invaded another country, " Obama said in a statement distributed by his campaign. "Russia has escalated its military campaign through strategic bombing and the movement of its ground forces into the heart of Georgia. There is no possible justification for these attacks."

Democratic presidential Barack Obama said that he supports putting former rival Hillary Clinton on the nomination ballot at this month's Democratic convention. "I am convinced that honoring Clinton's historic campaign in this way will help us celebrate this defining moment in our history and bring the party together in a strong, united fashion, " Obama said in a statement.

Barack Obama said that his greatest moral failure was selfishness. "I had a difficult youth; I experimented with drugs and drank. I trace this to a certain selfishness on my point. I couldn't focus on other people, " Obama told Rev. Rick Warren. "It's not about me."

Obama said that the country's greatest moral failure was not doing enough for its underprivileged:"We still don't abide by that basic precept of Matthew: Whatever you do to the least of my brothers, you do to me, "

On abortion, Obama said that although he's pro-choice and supports Roe v. Wade, his goal is to reduce the number of abortions in America."On this particular issue, if you believe that life begins at conception ... and you are consistent, then I can't argue with you on that, " he said. "What I can do is say, are there ways we can work together to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies?"

He also touched on same-sex marriage. When asked to define marriage, he said: "It's a union between a man and a woman.For me as a Christian, it is a sacred union. God's in the mix." Obama added that he does support same-sex civil unions, saying, "I can afford those civil rights to others even if I don't have that view."

"My vice president will be a member of the executive branch. He won't be one of these fourth branches of government where he thinks he's above the law."

"I guess if you think that being rich means you've got to make $5 million and if you don't know how many houses you have, then it's not surprising that you might think the economy was fundamentally strong, but if you're like me, and you've got one house, or you are like the millions of people who are struggling right now to keep up with their mortgage so they don't lose their home, you might have a different perspective."

"The American people are still checking me out, because I am relatively new...John McCain has been in the public eye for 25 years...a very effective debater...disciplined and concise...will there be a handful of folks around the country who don't vote for me because of my race? Sure. Will there some who vote for me because of my race? Sure...if voters decide I'm going to be good for their pocketbook and good for their safety, I'm going to win, and if they decide John McCain is going to do better at those things, he's going to win."

"There's no doubt that the enthusiasm and grass-roots energy we built carries with it its own dangers...We're cutting through all the sizzle and getting to the steak..."

This Knol is a contribution of Daddynames LLC for CenterZero.com and Domains.com.bz