US presidency news

Obama says Boxer could lose if Dems don't work

2010-04-19T21:36:00.000-07:00

LOS ANGELES – President Barack Obama delivered Democrat-friendly California a stark message Monday: Liberal Sen. Barbara Boxer might lose her re-election race if her supporters don't work hard.

The president's stern words in a state where he remains popular and Boxer won her last re-election race in a rout underscored the perilous political environment confronting all Democrats in this midterm election year — and showed Obama is all too aware of the dangers.

"I don't want anyone here taking this for granted," he said at a reception at the California Science Center, the first of a trio of fundraisers Monday night for Boxer and the Democratic National Committee.

"Unless she's got that support she might not win this thing, and I don't think that's an acceptable outcome. So I want everyone to work hard," the president said.

All incumbents face an uphill battle because of the economy, Obama said, though he insisted it's turning around.

At the second event Obama faced a handful of hecklers demanding to know what he was going to do to get rid of the "don't ask don't tell" policy that prevents gays from serving openly in the military. The heckling grew so insistent that Obama responded, saying that he and Boxer supported overturning the policy.

"So I don't know why you're hollering," Obama said, telling them to yell at people who oppose lifting the ban.

Their shouts were drowned out by cries of "Yes we can! Yes we can!" from others in the crowd.

Obama also used the fundraisers to make a pitch for the financial regulation overhaul legislation awaiting action in the Senate, saying it was necessary to rein in Wall Street and attacking Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell by name for opposing the bill. Obama plans a speech on the issue Thursday in New York.

Boxer herself, who's seeking a fourth term, referenced the perceived enthusiasm gap between the Democratic base and the revved-up tea party movement — which is supporting one of her Republican opponents, state Assemblyman Chuck DeVore — and said her supporters had to battle back.

"Are you ready to go toe to toe to them, cup by cup by cup? Because I am," Boxer said. "We're in a run for our life. We're all being tested now. The times are testing us."

The events were expected to raise between $3 million and $3.5 million for the senator and the DNC, with ticket prices ranging from $100 for a reception to $17,600 for dinner with the president. Two events were at the California Science Center and the dinner took place at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles.

They were among Obama's first appearances on behalf of a candidate since his health care overhaul passed Congress last month.

An independent Field Poll last month found Boxer running about even with the three Republicans who are competing for the nomination in the state's June 8 primary; she has only token primary opposition.

Even so, most analysts give Boxer the advantage, especially compared with some other Senate Democratic candidates or seriously endangered incumbents such as moderate Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas. But whereas Obama might not be welcome in conservative Arkansas, he was cheered in California, where he remains popular — far more popular, in fact, than Boxer.

His approval rating stood at 52 percent in a Field Poll last month. By contrast Boxer was viewed favorably by only 38 percent of California voters.

And unlike in other parts of the country, both Obama and Boxer could benefit from passage of the health care law. A Los Angeles Times/University of Southern California poll this month said California voters have a generally positive view of the health care bill. Forty-six percent said they would be more likely to vote for a lawmaker who supported the bill compared with 29 percent who said they would not be.

In addition to DeVore, Boxer's Republican rivals are businesswoman Carly Fiorina and former Rep. Tom Campbell.

In a conference call with reporters Monday, Fiorina said Obama is on a "rescue mission" to save Boxer when the state's troubled economy needs help.

Obamas earn $5.5 million in 2009

2010-04-16T00:02:00.001-07:00

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama and his wife earned about $5.5 million in 2009 primarily from the proceeds of his best-selling books, and they paid $1.79 million in federal income taxes, the White House said on Thursday.

Obama's joint tax return with First Lady Michelle Obama show the couple has become wealthier since he became president, largely on the back of the success of his books.

Obama's two memoirs, "Dreams From My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream", were New York Times best-sellers. Both were published before he became president.

He reported annual adjusted gross income of $5,505,409 in 2009, which was an increase from $2,656,902 in 2008.

The couple also reported paying $163,303 in state income taxes in Illinois, which Obama represented as a senator before being elected president in 2008.

The Obamas donated $329,100 to 40 charities last year.

Their largest contributions were $50,000 to the international anti-poverty group CARE and $50,000 to the United Negro College Fund.

Obama also donated $1.4 million in award money from his Nobel Peace Prize to charity and did not count that as income or as a charitable deduction on his tax returns.

The White House released the Obamas' tax details on the April 15 U.S. deadline for filing taxes.

Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, made considerably less money than the first family, according to the White House statement.

The Bidens reported adjusted gross income of $333,182 in 2009 and paid $71,147 in federal income taxes. They contributed $4,820 to charity "in both monetary and in-kind donations," the statement said.

The full tax returns, which were made public, included some interesting, if unsurprising, details. Under "your occupation," Obama's tax return says "US President" and under "spouse's occupation" it says "US First Lady."

The first couple used a Chicago-based firm to complete their tax returns.

As president, Obama earns a salary of $400,000 a year. As vice president, Biden earned a salary of $227,300 last year.

Obama pursues charm campaign at Americas summit

2009-04-19T10:40:00.000-07:00

PORT OF SPAIN (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Sunday pursued his diplomatic charm campaign in the Americas in the closing hours of a regional summit that has helped restore the United States' battered image in the hemisphere.

Obama met on Sunday with leaders from Central America, a corner of the continent that has experienced U.S. military interventions and where at least one country voted to return a former left-wing guerrilla to the presidency.

The U.S. leader's contacts during the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago have mended broken diplomatic fences in a region where America-bashing has long been accepted.

"I'm very pleased to have this opportunity to meet with the leaders of Central America. Obviously we have a long history of relations between the United States and Central America," Obama told reporters at Sunday's meeting.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, a former leftist guerrilla leader and fierce critic of U.S. policies, sat next to Obama.

Honduran President Manuel Zelaya praised Obama's "listen and learn" approach at the summit. "The treatment that we're receiving is totally different in terms of more openness, more dialogue and more respect," he told reporters.

Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom said the Central American leaders held "cordial and frank" talks for about an hour with Obama on migration issues, deportations and drug trafficking.

Although Obama has had to field a chorus of calls to lift the U.S. trade embargo on communist-ruled Cuba, his cooperative diplomatic style appears to have gone down well with his Latin American and Caribbean peers.

He even appeared to have won over die-hard critics of U.S. policy, like Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who often pilloried Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, as the diabolic epitome of "imperialism."

Chavez, a prolific Bush-basher, felt sufficiently reassured by Obama to propose naming a new ambassador to Washington. He expelled the U.S. ambassador in September and Washington responded by kicking out Venezuela's envoy.

A formal closing ceremony later on Sunday was due to set the seal on the two-day summit that introduced Obama to the region. The U.S. president and more than 30 other regional leaders brainstormed on the global economic crisis and energy and security challenges.

OBJECTIONS TO SUMMIT DOCUMENT

It was not clear whether there would be a formal signing ceremony of the lengthy draft summit declaration, because a group of mostly leftist presidents led by Chavez had previously rejected it as deficient.

The group, including Bolivia, Nicaragua and Honduras, said the document failed to address Cuba's exclusion from the summit and did not provide solutions to the global economic crisis that threatens to send millions in the region back to poverty.

"We don't know if everybody is going to sign, but we hope so ... We need consensus and we hope there will be no damper," Dennis McComie, a spokesman for the Trinidadian summit hosts told Reuters. He said Trinidad Prime Minister Patrick Manning was trying to persuade the recalcitrant group to sign.

Despite this, Latin American and Caribbean leaders were hailing the summit as a success.

In contrast to the previous 2005 summit in Argentina that ended in discord, the Port of Spain meeting was humming with good feelings projected by the young new U.S. president, who promised a cooperative partnership of equals with his peers.

"The presence of President Obama has certainly made a powerful contribution to the positive climate and success of the summit," Organization of American States Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza told reporters.

Insulza did not believe the summit was distracted by a debate over U.S.-Cuban ties that dominated its buildup.

Hopes for a rapprochement between Washington and Havana have risen after both Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro signaled they were ready to talk to try to end the long-standing ideological conflict between their countries.

Obama told the opening session of the summit on Friday he wanted a "new beginning" with Cuba and had made a gesture by easing some aspects of the U.S. embargo earlier in the week.

The U.S. leader also made clear he wanted Cuba to reciprocate by opening up political freedoms for its citizens.

In the past, Havana has rejected placing such conditions on an improvement in ties as meddling in its sovereignty.

Obama tempers optimism with reality on economy

2009-04-14T10:56:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON – Aiming to assert control over the nation's economic debate, President Barack Obama on Tuesday warned Americans eager for good news that "by no means are we out of the woods" and argued his broad domestic agenda is the path to recovery.

In a speech at Georgetown University, Obama aimed to juggle his recent glass-half-full takes on the economy with a determination to not be stamped as naive in the face lingering problems. He summarized actions his administration has taken to steady the limping economy and coupled that with a fresh overview of his domestic goals.

The speech, which key aides had signaled in advance would not contain any major announcements, came as Obama nears his symbolic 100-day mark in office, important because that has become a traditional marker by which to judge new administrations.

"There is no doubt that times are still tough," Obama said. "But from where we stand, for the very first time, we are beginning to see glimmers of hope. And beyond that, way off in the distance, we can see a vision of an America's future that is far different than our troubled economic past."

Obama's message came on a day of conflicting economic indicators and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's suggestion that the recession may at last be bottoming out.
It would have been difficult to make that case based on a report the government released earlier Tuesday showing that retail sales plummeted by 1.1 percent in March, a performance much poorer than experts had anticipated. At the same time, wholesale prices dropped sharply, a strong indication that inflation appears to pose little threat to the economy.

In a speech at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Bernanke talked of flickering signs of improvement, citing recent data on home and auto sales, home building and consumer spending.
But the government's broader message — that a full turnaround might be a long time coming — may not be welcome news for a weary U.S. public.

Obama, in fact, said in his speech that a complete recovery depends on building a new foundation for the U.S. economy and making changes in the political landscape. And he said anew that rules governing the financial system must be made compatible with Digital Age technology and innovation, telling Congress that "I expect a bill to arrive on my desk for signature before the year is out."

He also said the economy must be transformed from one less dependent on a risk-obsessed financial sector and more on clean energy, good education and health care costs brought under control.

"We cannot rebuild this economy on the same pile of sand," he said, invoking a Biblical reference to Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. "We must build our house upon a rock. We must lay a new foundation for growth and prosperity a foundation that will move us from an era of borrow and spend to one where we save and invest, where we consume less at home and send more exports abroad."

Obama also said the problem is exacerbated by politicians with an outsized interest in scoring points and an impatient media.

"When a crisis hits," he said, "there is all too often a lurch from shock to trance, with everyone responding to the tempest of the moment until the furor has died down and the media coverage has moved on to something else, instead of confronting the major challenges that will shape our future in a sustained and focused way."
"This can't be one of those times," Obama said.

Obama put his fledgling presidency on the line when he advocated sweeping new government intervention and spending to right the troubled economic conditions. Shortly after taking office he signed a $787 billion package intended to boost the economy and his administration also has unveiled a slew of other programs aimed to right the troubled home, banking and auto sectors.
"Taken together, these actions are starting to generate signs of economic progress," he said, citing canceled government-sector layoffs, new clean-energy industry hires, a spate of refinancings, and signs of increased credit flows.

But, the president said, "2009 will continue to be a difficult year." He predicted more job losses, foreclosures, and gyrating stock markets.
The president devoted a significant portion of his speech to defending actions he has taken in the face of criticism he has heard mainly from Republicans — but also from some of the more conservative members of own Democratic Party — that he has "been spending with reckless abandon, pushing a liberal social agenda while mortgaging our children's future."
Not so, Obama said.

"The last thing a government should do in the middle of a recession is to cut back on spending," the president said.

As for the long-term, increasingly dire federal budget deficit picture, he said that investments in new industries and economic foundations is crucial to future success and even to reducing the deficit. "Chronically slow growth will not help our long-term budget situation," he said.

The president also defended the massive and unpopular government programs enacted under the Bush administration and expanded under Obama to bail out banks and other financial institutions. He acknowledged that sending money directly to taxpayers might be more palatable — but said it wouldn't be as effective.

"The truth is that a dollar of capital in a bank can actually result in eight or ten dollars of loans to families and businesses, a multiplier effect that can ultimately lead to a faster pace of economic growth," Obama said.

Obama to forecast $1.75tn deficit in budget proposal

2009-03-01T09:00:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama will forecast a 2009 deficit of $1.75 trillion in a budget proposal on Thursday that sets goals of overhauling the healthcare system and shoring up the US economy.

The huge deficit would represent 12.3 per cent of US gross domestic product — the largest share since World War II.

Two senior administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of the release of the 2010 budget at 11 a.m. EST, said Obama's expensive policy goals would be offset by cuts to put the country in better fiscal shape.

Federal spending is skyrocketing as officials try to jolt the faltering economy with public-works spending and tax cuts and bail out the troubled financial industry.

Obama, a Democrat, has pledged to halve the more-than $1 trillion deficit he inherited from former Republican President George W. Bush in four years. The budget lays out spending cuts in agriculture subsidies and other areas to meet that goal.

But spending would increase to meet key objectives. The budget sets aside $250 billion as a "placeholder" if Obama decides to ask Congress for more money to help the troubled US financial system. No such decision has been made yet, officials said.

It also includes a 10-year, $634-billion reserve fund to help pay for the president's proposed healthcare reforms.

Another official said the budget included hundreds of billions of dollars in revenues, starting in 2012 and going over many years, from a greenhouse gas emissions trading system, one of Obama's key proposals to fight global warming.

Officials planned a high profile roll-out of the 134-page budget outline on Thursday. A more detailed version will come out in mid or late April.

The budget, for the fiscal year that begins on October 1, 2009, requires passage by Congress to take effect.

Obama's $1.75 trillion budget deficit forecast for this year reflects shortfalls accumulated under Bush as well as new spending proposals under the $787 economic stimulus package that the Democratic president recently signed.

His stimulus package and other efforts to revitalize the economy have done little to cheer Wall Street. US stocks prices hit 12-year lows this week.

The United States has experienced 14 months of recession triggered by a financial crisis that has spread across the world. Obama says a big increase in government spending is crucial to avoid economic catastrophe.

A big challenge for Obama will be selling the budget to lawmakers, some of whom may resist cuts to such programs as farm subsidies that are popular in Congress.

"There's no doubt that there are going to be things that we do that are going to create some political heartburn," one official said.

"But our fundamental mission is restore the health of the economy, put the budget on a better (footing) moving forward."

The budget reflects the delicate balance Obama must strike between making sure there is enough money to fix the economy while avoiding excessive pressure on long-term finances.

Some experts fear that if the record pace of government borrowing to finance debt continues, it could affect financial markets by raising interest rates for borrowers, which would slow economic growth.

Obama will aim to bring the deficit down by 2013 to $533 billion, or 3 percent of GDP.

Tax increases on wealthier Americans and a troop drawdown from Iraq will curb the shortfall, the budget will say.

The budget projects costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars totaling just over $140 billion this year and $130 billion in the 2010 fiscal year. Annual costs will drop after that to $50 billion annually.

Washington spent about $190 billion on the wars in 2008. Obama looks likely to order US combat troops to withdraw from Iraq over about 18 months, according to US officials. At the same time, he is ramping up the US military effort in Afghanistan.

Officials were eager to point out Obama's plans for cuts.

The budget would phase out government payments to crop producers making more than $500,000 — saving $9.8 billion over 10 years — and eliminate subsidies for cotton storage, saving an additional $570 million over the same period.

But the proposals do not lose sight of Obama's political and economic goals.

In a major address to Congress on Tuesday night, Obama signaled he has no intention of delaying his campaign promise of expanding healthcare to the 46 million people who are uninsured in the United States, a goal that may prove tough amid eye-popping deficits.

The United States spends more on healthcare than any other country, but its system is widely considered inefficient and it lags many other nations in key quality measures. Past efforts to make major healthcare changes have died in Congress.

Obama, who is eager to show he is mindful of the need to tackle the burgeoning deficits, held a "Fiscal Responsibility Summit" on Monday bringing together lawmakers and budget experts to discuss the long-term budget challenges.

In an open letter to Obama, experts at the Brookings Institution, the Washington think tank, warned that a soaring national debt would have consequences.

"We will have to borrow money in domestic and international capital markets to finance this debt, and without a serious commitment to long-term fiscal restraint, lenders will eventually question the nation's fiscal credibility," they wrote.

Obama budget moves toward universal health care

2009-02-26T07:36:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is sending Congress a "hard choices" budget that would boost taxes on the wealthy and curtail Medicare payments to insurance companies and hospitals to make way for a $634 billion down payment on universal health care.

Obama's first budget, which will top $3 trillion, predicts the deficit for this year will soar to a whopping $1.75 trillion, according to administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity before the public unveiling of the budget Thursday. The huge deficit reflects the massive spending being undertaken to battle a severe recession and the worst financial crisis in seven decades.

As part of the effort to end the financial crisis, the administration will propose boosting the deficit by an additional $250 billion this year, enough to support as much as $750 billion in increased spending under the government's financial rescue program. That would more than double the $700 billion bailout effort passed by Congress last October.

Obama, in a morning briefing, spoke of "hard choices that lie ahead." He called his budget "an honest accounting of where we are and where we intend to go."

One administration official called the request for additional bailout resources a "placeholder" in advance of a determination by the Treasury Department of what will actually be needed.

The spending blueprint Obama is sending Congress is a 140-page outline, with the complete details scheduled to come in mid to late April, when the new administration sends up the massive budget books that will flesh out the plan.

However, the submission of the bare budget outline was certain to set off fierce debate in Congress over Obama's spending and tax priorities. The document includes additional requests for the current year and Obama's proposals for the 2010 budget year, which begins Oct. 1.

The budget balances efforts to fulfill Obama's campaign pledges to deliver tax cuts to the middle class, expand health care coverage and combat the economic crisis with an effort to keep an exploding deficit over the next few years from becoming a permanent drag on the economy. However, Republicans assailed the budget for the tax increases and some Democrats worried that Obama was not doing enough to get the deficit under control.

"I would give him good marks as a beginning, but we have to do a lot more to take on this long-term debt buildup," said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D.

Republicans zeroed in on the tax increases to fund half of Obama's health care expansion.

"Everyone agrees that all Americans deserve access to affordable health care, but is increasing taxes during an economic recession, especially on small businesses, the right way to accomplish that goal?" asked House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.

The $634 billion down payment on expanding health care coverage would come from a $318 billion increase over 10 years in taxes on the wealthy, defined as couples making more than $250,000 per year and individuals making more than $200,000. The tax increase would occur by reducing the benefit the wealthy get on tax deductions. As one example, taxpayers in the current top tax bracket of 35 percent would see their tax deduction for every $1 given to charity drop from 35 cents to 28 cents.

The other half of the down payment on Obama's drive toward universal health care — $318 billion — would come from curtailing payments to hospitals and insurance companies under Medicare and drug payments under Medicaid.

To meet his pledge of tax cuts for the middle class, the president wants to make permanent the $400 annual tax cut due to start showing up in workers' paychecks in April as part of the $787 billion stimulus package just passed by Congress. Obama's budget also extends the middle class tax cuts passed by the Bush administration in 2001 and 2003. Those cuts were due to expire at the end of 2010. If Congress approves Obama's recommendations, the Bush tax cuts would expire only for couples making more than $250,000 per year.

The cost of the stimulus bill and the increased bailout support would push the deficit for this year to $1.75 trillion, nearly four times last year's record $455 billion and a percentage of the economy — just over 12 percent — not seen since World War II. The deficit is expected to remain around $1 trillion for the next two years before starting to decline to $533 billion in 2013, according to budget projections.

Obama's plan proposes achieving $634 billion in savings on projected health care spending and diverting those resources to expanding coverage for uninsured Americans. The $634 billion represents a little more than half the money that would be needed to extend health insurance to all of the 48 million Americans now uninsured.

Americans now spend a total of $2.4 trillion a year on health care.

Obama also will ask for an additional $75 billion to cover the costs of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through September, the end of the current budget year. That would be on top of the $40 billion already appropriated by Congress.

The administration will also ask for $130 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan in 2010 and will budget the costs of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan at $50 billion annually over the next several years.

Obama's budget proposal would effectively raise income taxes and curb tax deductions on couples making more than $250,000 a year, beginning in 2011. By not extending former President George W. Bush's tax cuts for such wealthier filers, Obama would allow the marginal rate on household incomes above $250,000 to rise from 35 percent to 39.6 percent.

The plan also contains a contentious proposal to raise hundreds of billions of dollars by auctioning off permits to exceed carbon emissions caps, which Obama wants to impose on users of fossil fuels to address global warming.

Some of the revenues from the pollution permits would be used to extend the "Making Work Pay" tax credit of $400 for individuals and $800 for couples beyond 2010, as provided in the just-passed economic stimulus bill.

About half of what officials characterized as a $634 billion "down payment" toward health care coverage for every American would come from cuts in Medicare. That is sure to incite battles with doctors, hospitals, health insurance companies and drug manufacturers.

Some of the Medicare savings would come from scaling back payments to private insurance plans that serve older Americans, which many analysts believe to be inflated. Other proposals include charging upper-income beneficiaries a higher premium for Medicare's prescription drug coverage.

To raise the other half, Obama wants to reduce the rate by which wealthier people can cut their taxes through deductions for mortgage interest, charitable contributions, local taxes and other expenses to 28 cents on the dollar, rather than the 35 cents they can claim now. Even more money would be raised if the top rate reverts to 39.6 percent, as Obama wants.

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, called Obama's proposal to tax the wealthy to finance health care reform a starting point. But he wants to also examine taxing some of health insurance benefits provided by employers — an idea rejected by Obama in last year's presidential campaign.

Obama's promise to phase out direct payments to farming operations with revenues above $500,000 a year is sure to cause concerns among rural Democrats.

Even after all those difficult choices, cutting about $2 trillion from the budget over 10 years, Obama's budget still would feature huge deficits.

The $1.75 trillion deficit projected for this year would represent 12.3 percent of the gross domestic product, double the previous post-war record of 6 percent in 1983, when Ronald Reagan was president, and the highest level since the deficit totaled 21.5 percent of GDP in 1945, at the end of World War II.

At $533 billion, the deficit in 2013 would be about 3 percent of the size of the economy.

Obama to address Congress, nation on economy

2009-02-24T08:21:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON – Barreling ahead on a mammoth agenda, Barack Obama is ready to offer a detailed sketch of the first year of his presidency, casting the nation's bleeding economy as a tangle of tough, neglected problems.

In a prime-time speech to Congress and millions watching at home, Obama will make his case Tuesday that much more has to be done to turn around the economy — a message he knows he must explain.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Tuesday that Obama will provide more details about his financial stability plan and measures to help the economy while delivering "a sober assessment about where we are and the challenges we face."

"He'll say we're on the right path to meeting these challenges, and there are better days ahead," Gibbs said.

Obama approaches this moment riding a strong, upbeat sentiment among the public. Overall, 68 percent of people approve of his job performance, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds. A New York Times/CBS News polls finds that more than three-quarters of those surveyed were optimistic about the next four years with Obama in charge, and similar majorities said they were confident in his ability to make the right decisions about the economy.

Still, the president faces steep challenges. The nation is nearly dizzy keeping up with what's emerged from Washington during Obama's first weeks as president, from a staggering $787 billion stimulus plan to a revamped bailout for the financial sector to a rescue plan for struggling homeowners.

And investors are dour. Wall Street took another pounding Monday, with the Dow Jones industrial average tumbling to its lowest close since 1997.

Although Obama is too new in office to be delivering a State of the Union address, his speech will have all the same trappings. It comes two days before he delivers a budget blueprint to Congress. Unlike that detail-driven document, his address will be broad, spelling out what he wants and how he will do it.

The economy, in its worst tailspin in decades, will dominate. Obama will touch on foreign policy, but that will largely be left for other upcoming speeches. This will not be a rollout of one policy initiative after another.

Obama will make clear that the trillion-dollar-plus deficit is one he "inherited." In other words, he wants to remind people that President George W. Bush and the previous Congress left him a big hole, forcing him to pursue the costly stimulus package.

The president will push for movement on ensuring health coverage for all Americans. He will seek to expand educational opportunities, and diversify the country's energy sources, and contain sacred entitlements like Social Security, and halve the soaring budget deficit in four years.

His rhetorical mission is to show not only how all those pieces connect to the health of the economy, but why they must be pursued simultaneously.

Gunning for so much at once is complicated, both in terms of the issues themselves and the politics. Senior presidential adviser David Axelrod acknowledged Monday there is a risk in taking on too much.

"I think the bigger concern," he said, "is to not be aggressive at a time when a tepid approach could really consign us to a long-term economic catastrophe. We believe the times demand vigor and aggressive action, and so we're having to do a lot of things at once."

Rep. Darrell Issa of California, the top Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said Obama's speech amounts to a coming-out party.

"You never know what a salesman's going to sell you until he shows up at your door," Issa said of his expectations. "If he gives us a narrow set of priorities that can be executed, and they don't just involve more spending, then I think it will be refreshing. If he gives us a long laundry list, which most presidents do, then although it will set the agenda ... it won't be as meaningful."

In many ways, though, Obama will be speaking directly to the American people. Daily followers of Obama's rhetoric are not likely to be surprised by Obama's words, some of which will be repeats. He is trying to reach millions of people who don't get to hear him every day.

So Obama will say that the crises facing the nation are so large they can only be solved in bipartisan ways. He will be blunt about the country's woes but try to balance that talk with optimism. He will talk about his travels as president so he can focus on the stories of communities outside Washington.

Asked in an MSNBC interview how the president plans to make good on his pledge to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term, Gibbs said, "The biggest thing we're going to do is cut the amount of money we spend each year in Iraq."

He said Obama also planned to talk about necessary investments and about taxes.

"I think the president believes very clearly that we have to be honest about where we are," Gibbs said. "Tonight, he will tell the country that we've faced greater challenges than we face now and we've always met those challenges."

There is sure to be ceremony as Obama arrives in the well of the House. His speech is tentatively at 45 minutes, accounting for applause time.

Obama poised to sign stimulus into law

2009-02-17T09:22:00.000-08:00

AP – President Barack Obama waves as he boards Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland., Tuesday, …

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is poised to sign into law the most sweeping economic package in decades, a rescue plan designed to create millions of jobs, spur consumer spending and revive the nation's outlook.

Capping the biggest victory of his month-old administration, Obama will sign the economic legislation Tuesday in Denver.

The setting, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, is meant to underscore the investments the new law will make in "green" energy-related jobs. It also allows Obama to get away from Washington, where the bill's passage was a mostly partisan affair, and be among people who may benefit from the huge government intervention.

The flailing economy continues to dominate Obama's time.

Tuesday is also when General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, which are living off a combined $13.4 billion in federal bailout loans, are due to hand in plans to Obama's government about how they can remain viable.

And on Wednesday in Arizona, Obama will unveil another part of his economic recovery effort — a plan to help millions of homeowners fend off foreclosure.

But first comes the $787 billion economic stimulus bill, which tries to address the nation's economic free fall on multiple fronts.

It pumps money into infrastructure projects, health care, renewable energy development and conservation, with twin goals of short-term job production and longer-term economic viability.

There's a $400 tax break for most individual workers and $800 for couples, including those who do not earn enough to pay income taxes. It dishes out tens of billions of dollars to states so they can head off deep cuts and layoffs. It provides financial incentives for people to start buying again, from first homes to new cars.

And it provides help to poor people and laid-off workers, with increased unemployment benefits and food stamps, and subsides for health insurance.

What is not expected to do is change the nation's economic fortunes quickly. So part of the White House's goal has been managing expectations.

Presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs said over the long holiday weekend that "things have not yet bottomed out. They are probably going to get worse before they improve. But this is a big step forward toward making that improvement and putting people back to work."

The unemployment rate is now at 7.6 percent, the highest in more than 16 years. Analysts warn the economy will remain feeble through 2009.

Republican lawmakers, meanwhile, largely balked at the economic package. It drew no GOP votes in the House and only three in the Senate, albeit vital ones. Many Republicans said it was short on cutting taxes and the spending measures didn't target the vast sums of money well enough toward short-term job creation, which was the major goal of the bill.

But with the economy shedding jobs, there was widespread consensus in Washington for some sort of stimulus, and fast.

Yet the government's action comes at a cost down the line.

Many private economists are forecasting that the budget deficit for the current year will hit $1.6 trillion, including the stimulus spending. That's about three times last year's shortfall, and such year-to-year deficits contribute toward a mounting national debt.

Moderates seek bipartisan OK of stimulus package

2009-02-06T05:04:00.000-08:00

AP – President Barack Obama speaks to the House Democratic Issues Conference Thursday, Feb. 5, 2009 in Williamsburg, …

WASHINGTON – Senate moderates seeking to pare back Barack Obama's economic plan are rekindling their efforts in hopes of building a bipartisan vote that eluded the president in the House.

A group of nearly 20 moderates from both parties — more Democrats than Republicans — huddled off and on all day Thursday in hopes of cutting as much as $100 billion from Obama's plan, which ballooned to $937 billion on the Senate floor, with further add-ons possible during a long day of votes Friday.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., displayed impatience with the moderates, led by Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Ben Nelson, D-Neb., at a midday news conference, but he lent them encouragement as he sent senators home later Thursday.

"It's gotten more encouraging and that's because the leadership has indicated that they have some appreciation for the work that this bipartisan group is doing," said Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La. "It's still got life. It's still breathing."

A roster of $88 billion worth of cuts was circulating, almost half of which would come from education grants to states, with an additional $13 billion in aid to local school districts for special education and the No Child Left Behind law on the chopping block as well. Some $870 million to fight the flu was among the first items to go, but other items divided the group.

At the same time, the group also was hoping to add perhaps $25 billion in additional infrastructure projects.

"We've added more tax cuts and tax relief. We've trimmed out some of the fat and now we have to add a little muscle," Landrieu said, referring to additional infrastructure spending.

If the group fails to reach an accord — or if it won't fly with Democratic loyalists — the alternative for Reid is to try to ram the measure through with just a few GOP supporters, such as Olympia Snowe of Maine. He expressed confidence he has the 60 votes needed to press it through if need be.

The massive measure is a key early test for Obama, who has made it the centerpiece of his fledgling presidency. Obama embraced the moderates' efforts, saying he would "love to see additional improvements" in the bill.

Speaking to a House Democratic retreat in Williamsburg, Va., Obama pushed Democrats to avoid political gamesmanship and get a stimulus bill to his desk by next week.

Voters who ousted Republicans from power "didn't vote for the status quo," he said. "They sent us here to bring change. We owe it to them to deliver."

The Collins-Nelson group is hoping to bring the measure's cost down to the $800 billion range, though they were working from the $885 billion measure that came to the floor — ignoring the more than $50 billion in add-ons added over the past three days. A recalculated cost for a popular plan to award a $15,000 homebuyer tax credit pushed the overall price tag to $937 billion.

On the Senate floor, Democrats continued to flex the muscle of their expanded 58-41 majority, easily killing efforts by GOP conservatives to replace the bill with versions containing more tax cuts and less spending.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Obama's vanquished rival for the White House, said that public opinion was shifting in the GOP's favor as he advanced a $421 billion plan, less than half the White House-backed measure. It lost 57-40.

McCain's plan contained a one-year cut in the payroll tax, which would help all wage-earners, as well as reductions in the two lowest income tax brackets that would benefit only those who earn enough to pay income taxes.

Another proposal, by Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., was designed to reduce mortgage rates to as low as 4 percent for millions of homeowners. It was defeated on a vote of 62-35.

Despite their numbers, many Democrats, including newly elected freshmen such as Mark Begich of Alaska and Mark Udall of Colorado, want to see less long-term spending and more items directly related to job creation.

And while polls show Obama is popular and the public supports recovery legislation, Republicans have maneuvered in the past several days to identify and ridicule relatively small items in the bill.

Obama's engages in diplomacy to retain BlackBerry

2009-02-01T11:03:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama, who is famous for his love of his BlackBerry, has described the negotiations with security officials to keep the smartphone as one of his "toughest" diplomatic challenges till date.

"In just the first few weeks, I've had to engage in some of the toughest diplomacy of my life. And that was just to keep my Blackberry," the tech savvy president said at an exclusive gathering of America's political movers and shakers on Saturday.

Traditionally, American presidents have kept away from using hi-tech communications such as email and mobile phones for a variety of reasons - including security and possible interception from foreign powers.

"I finally agreed to limit the number of people who could email me. It's a very exclusive list," the first African-American president was quoted as saying by the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

"How exclusive?" he continued. "Everyone look at the person sitting on your left. Now look at the person sitting on your right. None of you have my email address," Obama joked as he shared headline billing with Alaska Governor Sarah Palin at the exclusive gathering.

Obama was at a light-hearted evening as part of a nearly century-old tradition of the prestigious Alfalfa Club, where participants try their hand at comedy.

According to reports citing participants, Palin was the object of jovial ribbing, on the heels of the Alaska Governor last year becoming the first woman on a Republican Party presidential ticket.

Obama promises lower mortgage costs, new loans

2009-01-31T07:36:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Saturday promised to lower mortgage costs, offer job-creating loans for small businesses, get credit flowing and rein in free-spending executives as he readies a new road map for spending billions from the second installment of the financial rescue plan.

The White House is deciding how to structure the remaining half of the $700 billion that Congress approved last year to save financial institutions and lenders. An announcement was possible as early as this coming week on an approach that would use a range of tools to unfreeze credit, helping families and businesses.

At the end of a week that saw hundreds of thousands of people lose their jobs, Obama also used his Saturday radio and Internet address to tell that nation that "no one bill, no matter how comprehensive, can cure what ails our economy."

During the final three months of 2008, the economy recorded its worst downhill slide in a quarter-century, stumbling backward at a 3.8 percent pace, the government reported Friday. It could get worse.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is trying to finish a plan to overhaul the bailout program begun in the Bush administration. Geithner has said the administration is considering using a government-run "bad bank" to buy up financial institutions' bad assets. But some officials now say that option is gone because of potential costs.

Many ideas under consideration could end up costing hundreds of billions beyond the original price tag. Aides would not rule out the possibility that the administration would seek more than the $350 billion already set aside.

Obama said Geithner soon would announce a new strategy "for reviving our financial system that gets credit flowing to businesses and families. We'll help lower mortgage costs and extend loans to small businesses so they can create jobs. We'll ensure that CEOs are not draining funds that should be advancing our recovery."

His administration "will insist on unprecedented transparency, rigorous oversight and clear accountability so taxpayers know how their money is being spent and whether it is achieving results."

Obama's message, largely repackaged from a week of White House statements, was as much for the country as it was for lawmakers: Pass the separate American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan or things are going to get worse.

"Rarely in history has our country faced economic problems as devastating as this crisis," the president said. "Now is the time for those of us in Washington to live up to our responsibilities."

Obama last week won passage of a separate $825 billion economic stimulus plan in the House without a single Republican vote. It now heads to the Senate, where Vice President Joe Biden predicts the measure will fare better among GOP lawmakers.

Republicans pledged to work with Obama. But they cautioned against treating government spending like a "trillion-dollar Christmas list" and renewed their opposition to much in the bill.

"A problem that started on Wall Street is reaching deeper and deeper into Main Street. And the president is counting on members of Congress to come together in a spirit of bipartisanship to act," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in the GOP radio address. "Unfortunately, the plan that Democrats in Congress put forward this week falls far short of the president's vision for a bill that creates jobs and puts us on a path to long-term economic health."

Obama has signaled his willingness to compromise. His chief spokesman said the president hoped to "strengthen" the bill as it headed toward a Senate vote in the week ahead.

Republicans said they hope the administration takes into account their wishes.

"Every day brings more news of layoffs, home foreclosures and shuttered businesses," McConnell said. "And across the country, employers are cutting to the bone even at businesses that most Americans never thought were vulnerable."

Republicans, however, kept putting forward their own plans. McConnell promoted a mortgage program for creditworthy borrowers, offering fixed-rate 4 percent loans designed to increase housing demands and lending.

Obama reverses Bush abortion-funds policy

2009-01-24T08:12:00.000-08:00

Getty ImagesWASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Friday struck down the Bush administration's ban on giving federal money to international groups that perform abortions or provide abortion information — an inflammatory policy that has bounced in and out of law for the past quarter-century.

Obama's move, the latest in an aggressive first week reversing contentious Bush policies, was warmly welcomed by liberal groups and denounced by abortion rights foes.

The ban has been a political football between Democratic and Republican administrations since GOP President Ronald Reagan first adopted it 1984. Democrat Bill Clinton ended the ban in 1993, but Republican George W. Bush re-instituted it in 2001 as one of his first acts in office.

"For too long, international family planning assistance has been used as a political wedge issue, the subject of a back and forth debate that has served only to divide us," Obama said in a statement released by the White House. "I have no desire to continue this stale and fruitless debate."

He said the ban was unnecessarily broad and undermined family planning in developing countries.

"In the coming weeks, my administration will initiate a fresh conversation on family planning, working to find areas of common ground to best meet the needs of women and families at home and around the world," the president said.

Obama issued the presidential memorandum rescinding the Bush policy without coverage by the media, late Friday afternoon. The abortion measure is a highly emotional one for many people, and the quiet signing was in contrast to the televised coverage of Obama's announcement Wednesday on ethics rules and Thursday's signing of orders on closing the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and banning torture in the questioning of terror suspects.

His action came one day after the 36th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion.

The Bush policy had banned U.S. taxpayer money, usually in the form of Agency for International Development funds, from going to international family planning groups that either offer abortions or provide information, counseling or referrals about abortion as a family planning method.

Critics have long held that the rule unfairly discriminates against the world's poor by denying U.S. aid to groups that may be involved in abortion but also work on other aspects of reproductive health care and HIV/AIDS, leading to the closure of free and low-cost rural clinics.

Supporters of the ban say that the United States still provides millions of dollars in family planning assistance around the world and that the rule prevents anti-abortion taxpayers from backing something they believe is morally wrong.

The ban has been known as the "Mexico City policy" for the city a U.S. delegation first announced it at a U.N. International Conference on Population.

Both Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who will oversee foreign aid, had promised to do away with the rule during the presidential campaign.

Clinton said Friday evening that for seven years Bush's policy made it more difficult for women around the world to gain access to essential information and health care services. "Rather than limiting women's ability to receive reproductive health services, we should be supporting programs that help women and their partners make decisions to ensure their health and the health of their families," Clinton said.

In a related move, Obama also said he would restore funding to the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA). Both he and Clinton had pledged to reverse a Bush administration determination that assistance to the organization violated U.S. law known as the Kemp-Kasten amendment.

Obama, in his statement, said he looked forward to working with Congress to fulfill that promise: "By resuming funding to UNFPA, the U.S. will be joining 180 other donor nations working collaboratively to reduce poverty, improve the health of women and children, prevent HIV/AIDS and provide family planning assistance to women in 154 countries."

Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, executive director of the U.N. Population Fund, said: "The president's actions send a strong message about his leadership and his desire to support causes that will promote peace and dignity, equality for women and girls and economic development in the poorest regions of the world."

"We are confident that under the new president's direction, the U.S. will resume its leadership in promoting and protecting women's reproductive health and rights worldwide," Obaid said in a statement issued at U.N. headquarters in New York.

The Bush administration had barred U.S. money from the fund, contending that its work in China supported a Chinese family planning policy of coercive abortion and involuntary sterilization. UNFPA has vehemently denied that it does.

Congress had appropriated $40 million to the UNFPA in the past budget year, but the administration had withheld the money as it had done every year since 2002.

Organizations and lawmakers that had pressed Obama to rescind the Mexico City policy were jubilant.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the move "will help save lives and empower the poorest women and families to improve their quality of life and their future."

"Today's announcement is a very powerful signal to our neighbors around the world that the United States is once again back in the business of good public policy and ideology no longer blunts our ability to save lives around the globe," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Population Action International, an advocacy group, said that the policy had "severely impacted" women's health and that the step "will help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies, abortions and women dying from high-risk pregnancies because they don't have access to family planning."

Anti-abortion groups and lawmakers condemned Obama's decision.

"I have long supported the Mexico City Policy and believe this administration's decision to be counter to our nation's interests," said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

"Coming just one day after the 36th anniversary of the tragic Roe v. Wade decision, this presidential directive forces taxpayers to subsidize abortions overseas — something no American should be required by government to do," said House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.

Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., called it "morally wrong to take the taxpayer dollars of millions of pro-life Americans to promote abortion around the world."

"President Obama not long ago told the American people that he would support policies to reduce abortions, but today he is effectively guaranteeing more abortions by funding groups that promote abortion as a method of population control," said Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee.

Obama's first day in office

2009-01-23T10:39:00.000-08:00

BARACK Obama laid down the law on his first day in the Oval Office yesterday.

The new President snatched just a few hours sleep after his euphoric inauguration celebrations — then faced up to a daunting array of problems.

He had promised “swift action”. And in a series of meetings with advisers and generals, he began to tackle America’s crippled economy, the Iraq war, Guantanamo Bay and the Middle East crisis. He also:

SUSPENDED all orders issued to federal departments and agencies by his predecessor George Bush, pending review.

FROZE the pay of presidential staff earning more than £75,000, and BANNED them from accepting gifts from lobbyists.

For your eyes only ... note from Bush to Obama, President No44

The moves were aimed at making his administration more “transparent”. And Obama declared: “Families are tightening their belts — and so should Washington.”

The President began his first working day at a prayer service in Washington’s National Cathedral.

He sat with First Lady Michelle, Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill, and Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Hillary was later rubber-stamped as US Secretary of State by the Senate despite Republican questions over potential conflicts of interest created by foreign payments to her husband’s foundation.

Summit

Once in the Oval Office, Obama had a brief moment of solitude in which he read a note left on his desk by Mr Bush.

It was addressed “to No44 from No43” — a reference to the pair being the 43rd and 44th Presidents. But its contents were not revealed.

Getting down to business ... Obama with Rahm Emanuel

Then it was straight into a summit with advisers, including White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, to discuss plans to revive the US economy with a £600billion injection.

Turning to Iraq, Obama was due to meet Defence Secretary Robert Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, and General David Petraeus, head of the US Central Command.

Joining the discussion via tele-conference from Iraq were America’s ambassador to the strife-torn nation, Ryan Crocker, and General Ray Odierno, the top ranking US soldier in the battlezone.

Obama was expected to command the team to draw up plans to pull all US combat troops out of Iraq within 16 months.

On the Middle East, Obama called leaders including Jordan’s King Abdullah, Israeli PM Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

The President also ordered a suspension of trials at Guantanamo Bay while a four-month probe is carried out into the whole purpose of the detention camp in Cuba. The move even halted the case of 11 men charged in connection with the 9/11 atrocities.

It was applauded by human rights activists. But guards at the camp — holding 250 terror suspects — were unimpressed.

Though elated at Obama’s inauguration, black officer Patrick Thomas, 43, disagreed with the President’s intention to close it down.

He said: “If you let these detainees go from here they will pop up somewhere else.”

Late yesterday Obama was due to host an “Open White House” for friends and relatives. Meanwhile his staff were rushing to set up offices and computers. Press secretary Robert Gibbs said: “I just have to figure out how to log in.”

AN explosion of Obama-related goodies has appeared on web auction site eBay, including a “My Mama is for Obama” babygrow.

Obama visits with troops, honors King on holiday

2009-01-19T06:45:00.000-08:00

President-elect Barack Obama, his wife Michelle Obama, arrive at AP – President-elect Barack Obama, his wife Michelle Obama, arrive at 'We Are One: Opening Inaugural Celebration …
WASHINGTON – With history intersecting the transfer of power, large crowds thronged to the capital Monday, on the eve of Barack Obama's elevation to the presidency as America honored slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

A day away from becoming the nation's 44th president, Obama made an unscheduled visit to Walter Reed Army Medical Center to visit with troops injured in battle. And President George W. Bush made calls from the White House to thank several world leaders for their work with him over the last eight years.

On the streets, live broadcasts by the television networks attracted swarms of onlookers, and behind the scenes people made final preparations for a slew of parties, balls and other celebrations that will follow Obama's oath-taking and the inaugural parade.

Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden, fresh off a rollicking concert at the Lincoln Memorial Sunday, planned to spend their final day before the inauguration with activities keyed to the celebration of King's life, cut short by an assassin's bullet in 1968.

The Obama and Biden families were part of a community renovation project in honor of King on the federal holiday established in his memory. Transition aides declined to name the locations or details of the projects.

The run-up to Obama's inauguration, like his election itself, has been defined by enormous public enthusiasm, carefully choreographed events and a lofty spirit of unity. What awaits, as Obama often reminds the nation, is many months, if not years, of tough work.

The weekend celebrations began Saturday with Obama's whistle-stop tour, from Philadelphia to Washington, along the path Abraham Lincoln took in 1861. Then came that roaring celebrity-filled concert where several hundred thousand people flanked the reflecting pool, hearing actors, singers and then Obama himself rally for national renewal.

Obama is asking the nation to honor King's legacy by making a renewed commitment to service. That has long been the goal of the King holiday, even if many see it as a day off.

The Presidential Inaugural Committee has launched a Web site, USAService.org, to help people find volunteer opportunities close to their homes.

"I am asking you to make a lasting commitment to make better the lives of your fellow Americans — a commitment that must endure beyond one day, or even one presidency," Obama said in a YouTube appeal last week. "At this moment of great challenge and great change, I am asking you to play your part; to roll up your sleeves and join in the work of remaking this nation."

The president-elect has a busy Monday evening, too.

He is to attend three private dinners to honor the public service of former Secretary of State Colin Powell; Biden, a longtime senator from Delaware; and Sen. John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee. Those dinners will be held at the Hilton Washington, National Building Museum and Union Station.

Michelle Obama, the future first lady, is hosting a children's evening concert.

At the Capitol on Monday morning, groups of tourists wandered around the barricades to take pictures of the viewing stands and the monuments and buildings. A few even stood and watched NFL highlights that were being shown on the big-screen TV at the Capitol.

Three teachers from Baltimore said they decided to come out to the Capitol to scope out their routes in and out for the inauguration ceremony.

"Seems like they've planed it out pretty well," said Gary Campbell, 29, of Baltimore as his group looked at the viewing stand from across the Capitol reflecting pool. Their school, Baltimore Freedom Academy, and the Homeland Security Academy planned to send four busloads of children to the National Mall to watch the inauguration ceremony.

Being from Baltimore the three were decked out in cold-weather gear and said they planned on wearing thermal coats, hats and scarves for the long wait on the Mall Tuesday.

"We knew to come prepared," said Maddy Ahearn, 24.

Runner Kim Person stopped in front of the Capitol to snap a few quick pictures of the reviewing stand during a break in her marathon training. Person doesn't have a ticket to the festivities, so she used the early morning lull to get close to the building.

"That's why I'm looking at it today, because I won't be able to see it tomorrow," said Person, 43, who plans to be near the Washington Monument on Tuesday.

Obama takes train ride from Philadelphia to Washington

2009-01-18T07:06:00.000-08:00

WILMINGTON: Barack Obama warned on Saturday of the vast challenges ahead for Americans as he rolled by train toward Washington, where he will be

US Vice President-elect Joe Biden greets Michelle Obama as President-elect Obama gets off his train car in Wilmington, Deleware. (Reuters Photo)

More Pictures

inaugurated in three days as the 44th president of the United States. ( Watch )

Obama waved to crowds along the tracks from the back of a vintage train car at spots during the journey from Philadelphia to Washington. He takes office on Tuesday amid the deepest economic crisis in generations and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Only a handful of times in our history has a generation been confronted with challenges so vast," Obama said as he began the trip in Philadelphia, evoking the patriots who launched the American fight for independence in the city in 1776.

"While our problems may be new, what is required to overcome them is not," Obama said. "What is required is the same perseverance and idealism that our founders displayed."

Obama, a Democrat, has vowed to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to jolt the country out of a deepening recession. He stressed in Philadelphia and at a later stop in Wilmington, Delaware, where he was joined by Vice President-elect Joe Biden, that it will take time and sacrifice to turn the economy around.

"This is more than an ordinary train ride, this is a new beginning," Biden told the crowd in his hometown of Wilmington.

The 137-mile (220 km) train journey launches three days of parties, concerts and shows to celebrate Obama's swearing-in at the US Capitol on Tuesday afternoon.

He also will stop in Baltimore before arriving in Washington on Saturday night. The trip was designed to mimic the 1861 rail journey to the capital by Abraham Lincoln before he entered the White House.

Obama frequently evokes Lincoln, the 16th president who steered America through the Civil War and ended slavery in the United States. Obama will become the first black US president when he is sworn into office on Tuesday.

Janice Winston, 56, said she was overjoyed at the prospect. "It's finally hitting me, because I'm starting to cry, that this is really happening," Winston, who is black, said at the station in Philadelphia.

"Today is a new day." Obama's train slowed to a crawl at a few spots along the route so he could step out onto the back of his carriage and wave to the crowds that lined the tracks in frigid weather. In Claymont, Delaware, several hundred people gathered to cheer and wave to Obama, holding signs reading "Halleluja, we did it," and "Hail to the chief."

Obama set to press for his share of bailout funds

2009-01-13T02:29:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON – A week shy of taking office, President-elect Barack Obama already is putting his persuasion skills to a high-stakes test with Congress as he seeks access to the second half of the $700 billion financial bailout fund.

Obama planned to be in the Capitol on Tuesday to meet with Senate Democrats. And his transition team prepared to dispatch top aides to meet with Senate Republicans this week in anticipation of a possible vote Thursday on whether to release the money from the embattled Troubled Asset Relief Program.

In the House, the Financial Services Committee scheduled a hearing on the program in advance of legislation offered by committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., that would place tough new restrictions on recipients of the money and require spending to reduce mortgage foreclosures.

The legislation is scheduled to reach the floor of the House on Wednesday, with a vote set for Thursday.

That flurry of activity comes in the wake of President George W. Bush's decision Monday to act on Obama's behalf and ask Congress for access to the remaining $350 billion of the money Congress authorized to rescue the nation's financial sector. The request reached Congress as lawmakers and Obama also were assembling a spending and tax-cutting stimulus package of $800 billion, or possibly more.

"It is clear that the financial system, although improved from where it was in September, is still fragile," Obama said Monday.

Bush's notification set a 15-day deadline for Congress to disapprove of the request. The Bush administration's handling of the money has met bipartisan criticism in the House and Senate. Lawmakers have complained that the Treasury Department's use of the money has been muddled and misleading, that recipients of the funds have faced little accountability and that the program has done nothing to reduce home foreclosures.

If the Senate rejects a motion to disapprove the funds, it would pave the way for Obama to begin dispensing the money about a week after he assumes office Jan. 20.

Congressional Democrats said they hoped Obama's desire to place greater restrictions on the money and broaden its goals to loosen more credit would build support among otherwise skeptical lawmakers. The House tentatively scheduled a vote for next week. If both chambers refuse to release the money, it would be up to Obama to issue a veto — a dramatic first act by a new president — in hopes that Congress would not override him.

The request by the Bush White House made it clear that the money was to be used by the incoming Obama administration. It directed lawmakers to a letter Monday from top Obama economic adviser Larry Summers that vowed to make significant changes in the way the program is administered.

In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he was encouraged by Obama's efforts to add more conditions and to require greater accountability for the use of the money. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., voiced skepticism but left open the possibility that he could be persuaded.

"I would be hard-pressed to support additional funding for the TARP without sufficient assurances this money will not be wasted, misspent or simply used for more industry-specific bailouts," McConnell said.

Summers' letter, however, was not as detailed as the legislation proposed in the House by Frank. That bill would set new conditions on the institutions that receive the money, requiring limits on executive pay and an end to owning or leasing private jets. It also would require spending at least $40 billion from the fund on foreclosure mitigation.

Financial services industry lobbyists said they opposed a provision in Frank's bill that would allow the Treasury Department to apply executive pay restrictions to banks that already have received government money.

Scott Talbott, senior vice president at the Financial Services Roundtable, said the group would like to see Congress' concerns addressed without the retroactive provision. The Roundtable represents 100 of the largest banks and insurance companies, including such government fund recipients as Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Some lobbyists hoped Summers' letter would reassure lawmakers and make legislation such as Frank's less likely to pass. Summers' letter doesn't address the question of retroactive limits on executive pay.

At the same time, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. issued a directive Monday asking banks and other financial institutions to track how the federal money or guarantees they received helped them boost "prudent lending" and efforts to help at-risk borrowers avoid foreclosures.

Mumbai-type attacks can be replicated: Obama

2009-01-11T09:55:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON: President-elect Barack Obama on Sunday voiced fear that Mumbai-type attacks can be replicated by terrorists in other parts of world,including the US and said his administration will focus on putting more pressure on "our major target" al-Qaida.

Asked about 26/11 terror strikes in an interview to ABC News, Obama said the "danger is always there" to have a Mumbai-type attack in an American city.

"When you see what happened in Mumbai, that potentially points to a new strategy, not simply suicide bombings but you have commandos taking over...," he said.

"I think you have to anticipate that having seen the mayhem that was created in Mumbai, that there are going to be potential copycats or other terrorist organisations that think this is something that they can replicate," Obama said.

At a Congressional hearing on Mumbai attack this week, top US intelligence and police officials had expressed similar fear and said that this makes all the more necessary to ensure that those responsible for such an attack are brought to justice, given that US cities are always on top of the hit list of al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.

"So we're going to have to be vigilant in terms of our intelligence, we're going to have to make sure that we are more effective in terms of anticipating some of these issues, and we've got to continue to put pressure on al-Qaida, which is our major target — that's something that I talked about extensively during the campaign," Obama said.

"That has to be one of our primary areas of focus when it comes to our international security."

Obama provides internal analysis of economic plan

2009-01-10T05:26:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON – Facing growing criticism of his economic recovery plan, President-elect Barack Obama made public Saturday a detailed analysis by his economic advisers that estimates the $775 billion plan of tax cuts and new spending would create 3.5 million jobs over the next two years.

But the president-elect's advisers concede in the 14-page report Obama posted on the Internet that their estimates are "subject to significant margins of error," both because of the assumptions that went into their economic models and because no one knows the final outlines of the package that will emerge from Congress.

"These numbers are a stark reminder that we simply cannot continue on our current path," Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio and YouTube broadcast address.

"If nothing is done, economists from across the spectrum tell us that this recession could linger for years and the unemployment rate could reach double digits — and they warn that our nation could lose the competitive edge that has served as a foundation for our strength and standing in the world," he said.

Obama, who previously has provided few details of the massive spending and tax cut plan, released the report one day after the unemployment rate jumped to 7.2 percent, the highest in 16 years. The nation lost 524,000 jobs in December, bringing the total job loss for last year to 2.6 million, the largest since World War II.

If Congress fails to enact a big economic stimulus plan, Obama's advisers estimated that another 3 million to 4 million jobs will disappear before the recession ends.

As lawmaker criticisms of parts of his plan grew during the week, Obama agreed Friday to modest changes in his proposed tax cuts. Democratic congressional officials said his aides came under pressure in closed-door talks to jettison or significantly alter a proposed tax credit for creating jobs, and to include relief for upper middle-class families hit by the alternative minimum tax.

The new report is likely to intensify debate over the economic recovery plan even more, as economists outside the Obama team begin delving into the analysis. The report, for example, estimates that the unemployment rate at the end of 2010 would be 1.8 percentage points lower if the plan is enacted.

Top Democrats on Capitol Hill say there is far more agreement than disagreement on the major parts of the recovery plan: aid to cash-strapped state governments, $500-$1,000 tax cuts for most workers and working couples, and a huge spending package blending old fashioned public works projects with aid to the poor and unemployed and a variety of other initiatives.

The new report provides detailed breakdowns of how many jobs each part of the plan would create, even going so far as to provide estimates that more than 40 percent of the new jobs would go to women and that 90 percent of them would be created in the private sector. It also provides estimates of how many new jobs would be created in each different sector of the economy.

"It's not too late to change course — but only if we take immediate and dramatic action," Obama said. "Our first job is to put people back to work and get our economy working again."

Economic crisis, Obama response face new Congress

2009-01-06T03:41:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON – The Democratic-dominated Congress convenes Tuesday to confront perhaps the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and to grapple with a hugely ambitious agenda set by President-elect Barack Obama.

The opening day of a two-year session is typically more ceremony than substance, and Congress often recesses until the new president takes office or after the State of the Union address at the end of January.

This year, however, with the economy in a worsening recession, Democrats are promising swift action on an as-yet-unveiled $775 billion economy recovery program that is the first order of business for the Obama administration.

"We will hit the ground running ... to address the pain being felt by the American people," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., promised Monday as she welcomed Obama to her office.

For the first time in 16 years, Democrats control both houses of Congress and welcome one of their own to the White House. That foreshadows a productive session, particularly if Obama can muster Republican support for his initiatives, as he is seeking.

Pelosi had earlier promised to try to get the economic recovery bill ready for Obama's signature by Inauguration Day, an optimistic timeline that has now slipped by several weeks.

With their numbers bolstered by last fall's elections, congressional Democrats are well-positioned to dominate the session.

Democrat Al Franken on Monday became the apparent victor in a hard-fought Minnesota Senate race. That means Democrats' numbers in the chamber could reach 59 — tantalizingly close to the magic 60 votes needed to overcome a GOP filibuster. Incumbent Republican Norm Coleman promises to contest the result.

But first, Senate Democratic leaders need to work out a looming confrontation with Roland Burris, the Illinois Democrat named by scandal-plagued Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who faces charges of having attempted to sell the seat.

Burris, who is black, came to Washington on Monday to claim the seat, though Democratic officials promise he won't be admitted to the Senate carrying the taint of Blagojevich.

In the House, Pelosi finds her own position strengthened by a gain of more than 20 seats. Her status as the top Democrat in Washington, however, has been supplanted by Obama.

For Republicans, the next two years promise to be difficult. They vow to work with Obama but at the same time have installed a more conservative leadership team in the House that's eager to draw distinctions with Democrats.

In addition to the economic recovery plan, early items on the agenda include a measure designed to ensure women have the right to sue their employers for pay discrimination. It passed the House but fell prey to a GOP filibuster in the Senate. Now it looks as though it will easily pass.

Despite the sense of optimism, however, troubling realities threaten the Democratic agenda.

Perhaps most dangerous is the spiraling budget deficit. On Wednesday, lawmakers will get some very sobering news: New budget deficit projections from congressional estimators project a flood of red ink — likely to exceed $1 trillion for the current budget year — that could threaten other initiatives like extending health care to millions of the uninsured.

With that in mind, Obama promises "very concrete, serious plans for midterm and long-term fiscal discipline."

Obama's family arrive in Washington

2009-01-04T07:35:00.001-08:00

WASHINGTON: Incoming US president Barack Obama and his family arrive in Washington this weekend, in time for him to work on an urgent economic recovery plan and his daughters to start classes at their new school.

After less that 48 hours in their south Chicago home following their luxury Hawaii Christmas vacation, the president-elect's wife Michelle and their daughters Sasha, 10, and Malia, 7, flew to Washington late Saturday, a transition aide confirmed.

Obama, two weeks before the 44th American president will be sworn in on January 20, is to join his family on Sunday. They are moving temporarily into the historic Hay-Adams hotel in downtown Washington, which overlooks their new home at the White House on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

It was unclear why the family was traveling separately. Sasha and Malia are set to begin classes on Monday at the exclusive Sidwell Friends School, as dad Obama heads to meetings on Capitol Hill to hammer out the final points of a recovery package in a bid to turn around the country's crumbling economy.

The private, Quaker-run Sidwell has long been the choice for presidential offspring -- the school counts former president Bill Clinton's daughter Chelsea and president Richard Nixon's daughters among its well-heeled alumni.

Before moving to the president's official guest home, Blair House, on January 15, the Obama family can enjoy their transition to the Beltway in style -- they are expected to stay in one of the hotel's luxury 6,000-dollar-a-night suites.

Built in 1928, the luxury residence is separated from the White House only by Lafayette Square, a grassy square block.

Apart from a November 10 White House meeting with President George W Bush, Obama has largely avoided Washington since his historic election as the first African-American US president on November 4.

Obama considering expanding jobless benefits: report

2009-01-04T07:33:00.000-08:00

Reuters – U.S. President-elect Barack Obama waves as he and his wife Michelle board their plane at Honolulu International …

NEW YORK (Reuters) – President-elect Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats are considering a major expansion of government-assisted health care insurance and unemployment benefits as part of a two-year economic recovery program, The New York Times reported in its Sunday editions.

Proposals included extending unemployment compensation to part-time workers, subsidizing employers who must continue health insurance benefits temporarily for laid-off and retired employees and allowing workers who lose jobs that did not include insurance to apply for Medicaid, the Times said.

The proposals would be included with other economic measures like ramping up spending on infrastructure and other public works projects meant to stimulate job growth, the Times said.

Democratic aides said the House of Representatives is not expected to vote until next week at the earliest on any stimulus plan, with final action now unlikely before February, the newspaper reported.

Citing Obama advisers, the newspaper said the package, which could face resistance from Republicans and conservative Democrats, would cost at least $775 billion.

"This has really forced people to think outside the box," the Times quoted a House Appropriations Committee aide as saying, "because this is more money than anybody expected to be spending."

Obama is also likely to propose a tax credit of $500 for eligible individuals and $1,000 for couples, the newspaper said. Those earning too little to pay federal income tax would receive a check meant to

Obama: Country needs economic stimulus plan

2009-01-03T07:24:00.001-08:00

CHICAGO – President-elect Barack Obama urged congressional leaders Saturday to move quickly on an economic recovery plan, even as some Republicans are saying they want more time to review the details.

Obama said Congress should pass an American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan designed to create 3 million jobs. The Democratic president-elect hasn't announced a final price tag on it, but aides said the cost could be as high as $775 billion.

"For too many families, this new year brings new unease and uncertainty as bills pile up, debts continue to mount and parents worry that their children won't have the same opportunities they had," Obama said in an address taped Friday and distributed on radio and posted on YouTube Saturday morning.

The nation's economy remains the top challenge facing Obama when he takes office on Jan. 20. The Federal Reserve estimated that lenders were on track to initiate 2.25 million foreclosures this year, more than doubling the annual pace before the crisis set in. One in 10 U.S. homeowners is delinquent on mortgage payments or in foreclosure.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., are to receive details on Monday. Obama plans meetings next week with other congressional leaders — including Republican members whose support he will need — and made an effort not to blame his predecessor, the unpopular President George W. Bush.

"However we got here, the problems we face today are not Democratic problems or Republican problems," Obama said. "The dreams of putting a child through college, or staying in your home, or retiring with dignity and security know no boundaries of party or ideology. ... I am optimistic that if we come together to seek solutions that advance not the interests of any party, or the agenda of any one group, but the aspirations of all Americans, then we will meet the challenges of our time just as previous generations have met the challenges of theirs."

Obama aides had hoped to have an economic plan approved by the House and Senate before Obama takes office. That timeline, though, appears unlikely as time is running out and Republicans have urged a delay to review the plans. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republicans' top official, said the plan needs time so that "every dollar needs to be spent wisely and not wasted in the rush to get it spent."

Congressional aides briefed on the measure say it's likely to blend tax cuts of $500 to $1,000 for middle-class individuals and couples with about $200 billion to help revenue-starved states with their Medicaid programs and other operating costs.

A large portion of the measure will go toward infrastructure projects, blending old-fashioned brick and mortar programs such as road and bridge repairs and water projects with new programs such as research and development on energy efficiency and an expensive rebuilding of the information technology system for health care.

"Economists from across the political spectrum agree that if we don't act swiftly and boldly, we could see a much deeper economic downturn that could lead to double-digit unemployment and the American dream slipping further and further out of reach," Obama said.

Obama: Country needs economic stimulus plan

2009-01-03T07:24:00.000-08:00

Obama Moves to Counter China in Space With Pentagon-NASA Link

2009-01-02T07:40:00.000-08:00

Jan. 2 (Bloomberg) -- President-elect Barack Obama will probably tear down long-standing barriers between the U.S.’s civilian and military space programs to speed up a mission to the moon amid the prospect of a new space race with China.

Obama’s transition team is considering a collaboration between the Defense Department and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration because military rockets may be cheaper and ready sooner than the space agency’s planned launch vehicle, which isn’t slated to fly until 2015, according to people who’ve discussed the idea with the Obama team.

The potential change comes as Pentagon concerns are rising over China’s space ambitions because of what is perceived as an eventual threat to U.S. defense satellites, the lofty battlefield eyes of the military.

“The Obama administration will have all those issues on the table,” said Neal Lane, who served as President Bill Clinton’s science adviser and wrote recently that Obama must make early decisions critical to retaining U.S. space dominance. “The foreign affairs and national security implications have to be considered.”

China, which destroyed one of its aging satellites in a surprise missile test in 2007, is making strides in its spaceflight program. The military-run effort carried out a first spacewalk in September and aims to land a robotic rover on the moon in 2012, with a human mission several years later.

A Level of Proficiency

“If China puts a man on the moon, that in itself isn’t necessarily a threat to the U.S.,” said Dean Cheng, a senior Asia analyst with CNA Corp., an Alexandria, Virginia-based national-security research firm. “But it would suggest that China had reached a level of proficiency in space comparable to that of the United States.”

Obama has said the Pentagon’s space program -- which spent about $22 billion in fiscal year 2008, almost a third more than NASA’s budget -- could be tapped to speed the civilian agency toward its goals as the recession pressures federal spending.

NASA faces a five-year gap between the retirement of the space shuttle in 2010 and the first launch of Orion, the six- person craft that will carry astronauts to the International Space Station and eventually the moon. Obama has said he would like to narrow that gap, during which the U.S. will pay Russia to ferry astronauts to the station.

NASA Resistance

The Obama team has asked NASA officials about the costs and savings of scrapping the agency’s new Ares I rocket, which is being developed by Chicago-based Boeing Co. and Minneapolis-based Alliant Techsystems Inc.

NASA chief Michael Griffin opposes the idea and told Obama’s transition team leader, Lori Garver, that her colleagues lack the engineering background to evaluate rocket options, agency spokesman Chris Shank said. Garver and other advisers declined to comment.

At the Pentagon, there may be support for Obama’s vision. While NASA hasn’t recently approached the Pentagon about using its Delta IV and Atlas V rockets, building them for manned missions could allow for cost sharing, said Steven Huybrechts, the director of space programs and policy in the office of Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who is staying on into the new administration.

The Delta IV and Atlas V are built by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Boeing and Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed Martin Corp., and typically are used to carry satellites.

Already Developed

“No one really has a firm idea what NASA’s cost savings might be, but the military’s launch vehicles are basically developed,” said John Logsdon, a policy expert at Washington’s National Air and Space Museum who has conferred with Obama’s transition advisers. “You don’t have to build them from scratch.”

Meanwhile, Chinese state-owned companies already are assembling heavy-lift rockets that could reach the moon, with a first launch scheduled for 2013. All that would be left to build for a manned mission is an Apollo-style lunar lander, said Griffin, who visited the Chinese space program in 2006.

Griffin said in July that he believes China will be able to put people on the moon before the U.S. goes back in 2020. The last Apollo mission left the lunar surface in 1972.

“The moon landing is an extremely challenging and sophisticated task, and it is also a strategically important technological field,” Wang Zhaoyao, a spokesman for China’s space program, said in September, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Docking

China plans to dock two spacecraft in orbit in 2010, a skill required for a lunar mission.

“An automated rendezvous does all sorts of things for your missile accuracy and anti-satellite programs,” said John Sheldon, a visiting professor of advanced air and space studies at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. “The manned effort is about prestige, but it’s also a good way of testing technologies that have defense applications.”

China’s investments in anti-satellite warfare and in “cyberwarfare,” ballistic missiles and other weaponry “could threaten the United States’ primary means to project its power and help its allies in the Pacific: bases, air and sea assets, and the networks that support them,” Gates wrote in the current issue of Foreign Affairs magazine.

China is designing satellites that, once launched, could catch up with and destroy U.S. spy and communication satellites, said a Nov. 20 report to Congress from the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. China’s State Council Information Office declined to comment on the nation’s anti-satellite or manned programs.

To boost cooperation between NASA and the Pentagon, Obama has promised to revive the National Aeronautics and Space Council, which oversaw the entire space arena for four presidents, most actively from 1958 to 1973.

The move would build ties between agencies with different cultures and agendas.

“Whether such cooperation would succeed remains to be seen,” said Scott Pace, a former NASA official who heads the Washington-based Space Policy Institute. “But the questions are exactly the ones the Obama team needs to ask.”

Obama is most admired American: poll

2008-12-26T09:10:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON (AFP) – President-elect Barack Obama has replaced US President George W. Bush as the most admired man in America, according to a poll published Friday in the USA Today newspaper.

One-third of the 1,008 respondents surveyed named Obama as their first or second choice, with Bush falling to a distant second after seven years as the country's most-admired man.

Thirty-two percent of respondents chose Obama against five percent for Bush. It was the first time a president-elect topped the poll since Dwight Eisenhower in 1952.

The poll was conducted over telephone between December 12 and 14.

The newspaper reported that the only higher support in the history of the survey was Bush's 39 percent rating in 2001, just a few months after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

Among men, John McCain -- Obama's defeated Republican rival for the presidency -- ranked third and three others tied for fourth place: Pope Benedict XVI, the Reverend Billy Graham and former president Bill Clinton.

Hillary Clinton led the list of most-admired woman at 20 percent -- a spot she's held for 13 of the past 16 years.

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who catapulted into the limelight after McCain named her Republican vice-presidential candidate, was a distant second at 11 percent.

Among women, the president-elect's wife, Michelle Obama came in fifth place, following talk-show host Oprah Winfrey in third and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in fourth.

The Gallup polling organization has been conducting the phone survey, which has sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points, since 1948.

Gay leaders furious with Obama

2008-12-18T12:15:00.000-08:00

Barack Obama’s choice of a prominent evangelical minister to deliver the invocation at his inauguration is a conciliatory gesture toward social conservatives who opposed him in November, but it is drawing fierce challenges from a gay rights movement that – in the wake of a gay marriage ban in California – is looking for a fight.

Rick Warren, the senior pastor of Saddleback Church in southern California, opposes abortion rights but has taken more liberal stances on the government role in fighting poverty, and backed away from other evangelicals’ staunch support for economic conservatism. But it’s his support for the California constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage that drew the most heated criticism from Democrats Wednesday.

“Your invitation to Reverend Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at your inauguration is a genuine blow to LGBT Americans,” the president of Human Rights Campaign, Joe Solomonese, wrote Obama Wednesday. “[W]e feel a deep level of disrespect when one of architects and promoters of an anti-gay agenda is given the prominence and the pulpit of your historic nomination.”

The rapid, angry reaction from a range of gay activists comes as the gay rights movement looks for an opportunity to flex its political muscle. Last summer gay groups complained, but were rebuffed by Obama, when an “ex-gay” singer led Obama’s rallies in South Carolina. And many were shocked last month when voters approved the California ban.

“There is a lot of energy and there’s a lot of anger and I think people are wanting to direct it somewhere,” Solomonese told Politico.

The selection of Warren to preside at the inauguration is not a surprise move, but it is a mirror image of President Bill Clinton’s early struggles with issues of gay rights. Obama has worked, and at times succeeded, to bridge the gap between Democrats and evangelical Christians, who form a solid section of the Republican base.

Obama opposes same-sex marriage, but also opposed the California constitutional amendment Warren backed. In selecting Warren, he is choosing to reach out to conservatives on a hot-button social issue, at the cost of antagonizing gay voters who overwhelmingly supported him.

Clinton, by contrast, drew early praise from gay rights activists by pressing to allow openly gay soldiers to serve, only to retreat into the “don’t ask, don’t tell” compromise that pleased few.

The reaction Wednesday in gay rights circles was universally negative.

“It’s a huge mistake,” said California gay rights activist Rick Jacobs, who chairs the state’s Courage Campaign. “He’s really the wrong person to lead the president into office.

“Can you imagine if he had a man of God doing the invocation who had deliberately said that Jews are not going to be saved and therefore should be excluded from what’s going on in America? People would be up in arms,” he said.

The editor of the Washington Blade, Kevin Naff, called the choice “Obama’s first big mistake.”

“His presence on the inauguration stand is a slap in the faces of the millions of GLBT voters who so enthusiastically supported him,” Naff wrote, referring to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people. “This tone-deafness to our concerns must not be tolerated. We have just endured eight years of endless assaults on our dignity and equality from a president beholden to bigoted conservative Christians. The election was supposed to have ended that era. It appears otherwise.”

Other liberal groups chimed in.

“Rick Warren gets plenty of attention through his books and media appearances. He doesn’t need or deserve this position of honor,” said the president of People for the American Way, Kathryn Kolbert, who described Warren as “someone who has in recent weeks actively promoted legalized discrimination and denigrated the lives and relationships of millions of Americans.”

Warren’s spokeswoman did not respond to a message seeking comment, but he has tried to blend personal tolerance with doctrinal disapproval of homosexuality.

“I have many gay friends, I’ve eaten dinner in gay homes. No church has probably done more for people with AIDS than Saddleback Church,” he said in a recent interview with BeliefNet.

In the same interview, he compared the “redefiniton of a marrige” to include gay marriage to legitimizing incest, child abuse, and polygamy.

Obama’s move may deepen some apparent distance between him among gays and lesbians, one of the very few core Democratic groups among whom his performance was worse than John Kerry’s in 2004. Exit polls suggested that John McCain won 27% of the gay vote in November, up four points from Bush’s 2004 tally – even as almost all other voters slid toward Obama.

But despite the symbolism of picking Warren, Obama is likely to shift several substantive policy areas in directions that will please gay voters and their political leaders, including a pledge to end “don’t ask, don’t tell” in military service.

And some gay activists were holding out hope that they would either persuade Obama to dump Warren or Warren to change his mind.

“Rick Warren did a real disservice to gay families in California and across the country by casually supporting our continued exclusion from marriage,” said the founder of the pro-same sex marriage Freedom to Marry, Evan Wolfson. “I hope in the spirit of the new era that’s dawning, he will open his heart and speak to all Americans about inclusion and our country’s commitment to equality.”

Time names Obama 'Person of the Year'

2008-12-17T09:29:00.000-08:00

NEW YORK – President-elect Barack Obama has won another contest: He's been named Time magazine's "Person of the Year" for 2008.

The magazine has named Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Gov. Sarah Palin and Chinese director Zhang Yimou as runners-up.

Last year's winner was Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Previous individual winners have included Bono, President George W. Bush and Amazon.com CEO and founder Jeff Bezos.

Obama campaign mulls what to do with $30M surplus

2008-12-06T05:12:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON – Democrats carrying significant campaign debt after winning a string of House and Senate races are grumbling about President-elect Barack Obama's financial reserves, saying the party's leader is sitting on a pile of cash while Democratic leaders are broke.

Obama's organization retains some $30 million after his successful presidential bid, but it's unclear how the Democratic president-in-waiting might use the money. Members of his party are doing their best to appeal for the funds without appearing greedy, ungrateful or hostile to their new leader.

"If I was a top adviser to the president elect, I wouldn't necessarily be advocating saving those dollars," said Raymond Buckley, chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party. "It was critically important that we not repeat what happened in '93, '94," when President Bill Clinton held the purse strings and Democrats lost 54 U.S. House seats and eight senators during midterm elections.

"We need the resources to build the national grass roots network for the Obama agenda. We need to make sure the president is successful and that the administration fulfills his promises," Buckley said.

The Democratic National Committee is carrying about $5 million in debt, with almost $12 million cash on hand. DNC officials say they expect to have the debt paid by the end of the year. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee carries some $19 million in debt and less than $3 million on hand. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is nearly $13 million in debt.

Obama raised more than $745 million during his marathon campaign, more than twice the amount obtained by his rival, Republican John McCain. In his latest finance report, Obama reported raising $104 million in more than five weeks immediately before and after Election Day.

"This is the first presidential candidate and president who has not been publicly financed in the general election," said Ken Gross, a former Federal Election Commission lawyer. "Every other president since Jimmy Carter has not had excess funds."

Obama opted not to participate in public funding system. In exchange, he was able to continue raising money, while McCain accepted $84 million in taxpayer money, and the spending restrictions that went with it, through the public financing system.

"The only example that comes to mind is John Kerry," Gross said. "He finished his primary campaign with a $15 million surplus. That created some grumbling, since he lost."

Democrats blamed Kerry's loss, in part, on a campaign hierarchy that didn't spend wisely or aggressively. Kerry's own campaign chairman, Terry McAuliffe, called it "gross incompetence to hoard that money when the race was bound to be so close."

Obama aides are aware of the stigma and don't want to appear inelegant or selfish. They are weighing whether to keep the money to build a massive grass roots program to support his agenda, or to cycle that money to the party apparatus. Both ideas have strong advocates, but it's unclear to those involved which way Obama will go.

"We aren't in a position to announce what the next steps for our organization are today, but are continuing a dialogue with our supporters about their vision for how we move forward," said Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt.

Party officials around the country say the campaign leaders have signaled they shouldn't expect the money to come to them directly, if at all. Instead, many party officials expect Obama to use his funds to advance his own priorities, to support his massive Internet-based organization and to have cache for special causes. With almost 4 million donors, Obama's fundraising list could prove golden for future Obama-backed drives.

"Right now, it looks like the sky is the limit," Gross said.

Obama aides emphasize the campaign expects to continue having expenses, along with tax obligations and political operations. They also say Obama has little interest in bankrolling state committees or individual candidates. Those involved say the logical option is the Democratic National Committee, although no one is pressing for a quick transfer.

On Wednesday, Obama send a fundraising e-mail to his supporters asking them to help retire that debt by buying coffee mugs or fleece sweat shirts. Obama and Democratic aides alike say they would use similar efforts going forward, but were aware that asking too often could dilute the effectiveness of the list.

Legally, Obama can donate the extra money to charity, transfer it to another political campaign, or dole it out in $2,000 increments to local candidates, Gross said.

"That's not too attractive, but it's something," Gross said.

Governors urge Obama to help the poor, boost economy

2008-12-02T10:34:00.000-08:00

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – U.S. state governors urged President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday to pump money into infrastructure and help support the poor as a sinking economy hits state budgets hard.

Obama, who takes over from President George W. Bush on January 20, pledged to involve states in his plans to tackle the U.S. recession and create or save 2.5 million jobs.

The president-elect has spent much of the time since his November 4 victory over Republican John McCain forming his economic team and advocating a massive new stimulus package.

"I'm not simply asking the nation's governors to help implement our economic recovery plan, I'm going to be interested in having you help draft and shape that economic plan," Obama told a meeting that included Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice-presidential candidate.

"I'm going to listen to you, especially when we disagree because one of the things that has served me well in my career is discovering that I don't know everything," Obama said.

The meeting came the day after the National Bureau of Economic Research confirmed that the United States had entered recession in December 2007. The downturn, which many economists expect to persist through the middle of the next year, is already third-longest since the Great Depression.

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, touted as a possible energy secretary in the Obama administration, opened the meeting by pressing for Congress to extend unemployment benefits and increase food stamp availability.

"Those are things that don't go to us as governors, don't go to our budgets but help our citizens," he said.

Rendell said on Monday governors would ask for $136 billion in infrastructure funds to stimulate the economy immediately and cover health care for the poor.

Obama acknowledged that, unlike the federal government, U.S. states had to balance their budgets. He said immediate measures were needed to help deal with the crisis.

"Forty-one of the states that are represented here are likely to face budget shortfalls this year or next, forcing you to choose between reining in spending and raising taxes," Obama said. "To solve this crisis and to ease the burden on our states, we need action and we need action swiftly."

Nearly all 50 governors attended, including California's Arnold Schwarzenegger, who on Monday declared a fiscal emergency and called lawmakers into a special session to tackle a widening budget gap.

Officials: Obama set to introduce Clinton Monday

2008-11-30T07:11:00.000-08:00

A deal with Bill Clinton over his post-White House work helped clear the way for Hillary Rodham Clinton to join President-elect Barack Obama's national security team as secretary of state, reshaping a once-bitter rivalry into a high-profile strategic and diplomatic union.

Obama was to be joined by the New York senator at a Chicago news conference Monday, Democratic officials said, where he also planned to announce that Defense Secretary Robert Gates would remain in his job for a year or more and that retired Marine General James M. Jones would serve as national security adviser.

The officials requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly for the transition team.

To make it possible for his wife to become the top U.S. diplomat, the officials said, former President Clinton agreed:

_to disclose the names of every contributor to his foundation since its inception in 1997 and all contributors going forward.

_to refuse donations from foreign governments to the Clinton Global Initiative, his annual charitable conference.

_to cease holding CGI meetings overseas.

_to volunteer to step away from day-to-day management of the foundation while his wife is secretary of state.

_to submit his speaking schedule to review by the State Department and White House counsel.

_to submit any new sources of income to a similar ethical review.

Bill Clinton's business deals and global charitable endeavors had been expected to create problems for the former first lady's nomination. But in negotiations with the Obama transition team, the former president agreed to several measures designed to bring transparency to those activities.

"It's a big step," said Sen. Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who said he plans to vote to confirm Clinton.

The former president long had refused to disclose the identities of contributors to his foundation, saying many gave money on condition that they not be identified.

Lugar said there would still be "legitimate questions" raised about the former president's extensive international involvement. "I don't know how, given all of our ethics standards now, anyone quite measures up to this who has such cosmic ties, but ... hopefully, this team of rivals will work," Lugar said.

Obama's choice of Hillary Clinton was an extraordinary gesture of good will after a year in which the two rivals competed for the Democratic nomination in a long, bitter primary battle.

They clashed repeatedly on foreign affairs. Obama criticized Clinton for her vote to authorize the Iraq war. Clinton said Obama lacked the experience to be president and she chided him for saying he would meet with leaders of nations such as Iran and Cuba without conditions.

The bitterness began melting away in June after Clinton ended her campaign and endorsed Obama. She went on to campaign for him in his general election contest against Republican Sen. John McCain.

Advisers said Obama had for several months envisioned Clinton as his top diplomat, and he invited her to Chicago to discuss the job just a week after the Nov. 4 election. The two met privately Nov. 13 in Obama's transition office in downtown Chicago.

Clinton was said to be interested and then to waver, concerned about relinquishing her Senate seat and the political independence it conferred. Those concerns were largely resolved after Obama assured her she would be able to choose a staff and have direct access to him, advisers said.

Remaining in the Senate also may not have been an attractive choice for Clinton. Despite her political celebrity, she is a relatively junior senator without prospects for a leadership position or committee chairmanship anytime soon.

Some Democrats and government insiders have questioned whether Clinton is too independent and politically ambitious to serve Obama as secretary of state. But a senior Obama adviser has said the president-elect had been enthusiastic about naming Clinton to the position from the start, believing she would bring instant stature and credibility to U.S. diplomatic relations and the advantages to her serving far outweigh potential downsides.

Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the Clintons will have to tread carefully to avoid the appearance of conflicts.

"The presumption will be that both Secretary of State Clinton and former President Clinton will be very judicious in what they take on, because there's a new dimension here," Reed said.

Lieberman: Obama 'about perfect' in Cabinet picks

2008-11-25T23:23:00.000-08:00

HARTFORD, Conn. – Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman took another step Tuesday toward mending his relationship with Democrats, saying that Barack Obama's actions since winning the presidency have been "just about perfect."

"Everything that President-elect Obama has done since election night has been just about perfect, both in terms of a tone and also in terms of the strength of the names that have either been announced or are being discussed to fill his administration," Lieberman said during a visit to Hartford.

Lieberman, the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2000, was re-elected to the Senate in 2006 as an independent but continues to caucus with Democrats. He supported Republican John McCain's presidential campaign, going as far as to criticize Obama and make a speech at the Republican National Convention.

Democrats threatened to strip him of his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee but instead removed him as head of a smaller environmental subcommittee.

Connecticut Democrats meet Dec. 17 and are still considering a possible censure of Lieberman for his actions during the presidential campaign.

"I will ask them to judge me by my record," Lieberman said. "Generally speaking, I've had a record, a voting record, which is really ultimately what it's about, not unlike most Democrats."

Lieberman said he believes the rift between himself and the party stemmed mainly from his support of President Bush's policy in Iraq and will close as that becomes less of an issue.

"It appears to me that the war in Iraq is coming to a successful — I don't want to say conclusion yet, but it's moving in a way that it will not be a divisive issue either in the Democratic Party or between Democrats and Republicans in the time ahead," Lieberman said. "And therefore, I think we'll return to more normal times, which I welcome."

Officials: Obama to ask Gates to stay at Pentagon

2008-11-25T23:19:00.000-08:00

CHICAGO – Seeking experience in wartime, President-elect Barack Obama intends to re-enlist Defense Secretary Robert Gates as head of the Pentagon — if only temporarily — and has chosen a retired Marine general to be White House national security adviser, officials said Tuesday.

Gates and retired Gen. James Jones would bring decades of experience to the administration of a 47-year-old commander in chief who campaigned on a pledge to redeploy combat troops in Iraq within 16 months while simultaneously ramping up the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan.

While Gates has accepted Obama's appointment, it was not clear that Jones had done the same.

Obama also has also offered the post of secretary of state to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, his rival in the campaign for the White House. Officials have not yet disclosed whether she has decided to give up her seat in Congress to join the Cabinet.

Whatever Clinton's decision, aides to the president-elect say he intends to announce members of his national security team next week, after disclosing his top economic advisers in recent days.

Gates, who has served as President George W. Bush's defense secretary for two years, will remain in the Cabinet for some time, probably a year, according to an official familiar with discussions between him and the president-elect. His appointment would fulfill an Obama pledge to include a Republican in his Cabinet.

A Democratic official said Jones was Obama's pick to head the National Security Council, the part of the White House structure that deals with foreign policy.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Obama has not authorized anybody to discuss the developments.

Obama's search for intelligence officials was less clear. John Brennan, who had been considered a top pick for CIA director, withdrew his name from consideration. He cited a groundswell of criticism about his association with the Bush administration's sanctioning of harsh interrogations of terror suspects.

Former Adm. Dennis Blair has emerged as a likely candidate for director of national intelligence, which oversees CIA and other intelligence agencies.

Retaining Gates provides stability for a stretched military fighting two wars during the changeover in administrations. Gates once said it was inconceivable that he would stay on past the close of Bush's term on Jan. 20.

But the 65-year-old former spymaster had recently turned mum in public on the circumstances under which he would stay, even briefly, in an Obama administration.

Keeping Gates might afford Obama a sort of extended transition, in which critical military issues are left in trusted hands while Obama focuses most intensely on the financial crisis.

This is the first wartime presidential transition since 1968, when the Vietnam War was under way, and there is extra concern about security vulnerabilities during this handover.

Gates has run the department since December 2006, reluctantly giving up his post as president of Texas A&M University to replace Donald H. Rumsfeld when the Iraq war seemed to be failing.

He has gained a reputation as a steady pragmatist, but Gates' resume as a government policymaker is not untarnished.

During his 1991 confirmation hearings to be CIA director, Gates was criticized for missing clues about the impending fall of the Soviet Union and for politicizing Cold War intelligence. Those two complaints — misreading intelligence and using it selectively — have also dogged the Bush administration in its Iraq policy.

But supporters see Gates as a seasoned policymaker who climbed the CIA bureaucracy from an entry-level position to become director under President George H.W. Bush. He also served on his National Security Council, as he had for Presidents Carter and Reagan.

Bush noted that Gates helped lead U.S. efforts to drive the Soviets out of Afghanistan in the 1980s while at the CIA and was deputy national security adviser during Operation Desert Storm, the first U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

He was part of the 2006 Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan panel led by former Secretary of State James Baker III and former Rep. Lee Hamilton that was asked to help chart a new course in the flagging war.

A native of Kansas, Gates joined the CIA in 1966. By 1987, he became acting CIA director when William Casey was terminally ill with cancer.

Questions were raised about Gates' knowledge of the Iran-Contra arms and money affair, and he withdrew from consideration to take over the CIA permanently. Yet he stayed on as deputy director.

Then-national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, who has been a critic of the younger Bush's policies, asked Gates to be his deputy in 1989 during the administration of Bush's father. The elder President Bush asked Gates to run the CIA two years later.

Gates won confirmation, but only after hearings in which he was accused by CIA officials of manipulating intelligence as a senior analyst in the 1980s.

Melvin Goodman, a former CIA division chief for Soviet affairs, testified that Gates politicized the intelligence on Iran, Nicaragua, Afghanistan and the Soviet Union.

Gates took a much lower profile when he left the CIA and the government in 1993. He joined corporate boards and wrote a memoir, "From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider's Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War."

Gates is a close friend of the Bush family. He was interim dean of the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M and became the university's president in 2002. The school is home to the elder Bush's presidential library.

As Obama's choice for national security adviser, Jones has impeccable military credentials, an ambassador's polish and an imposing physical presence at 6 foot 4 inches. He's highly regarded by Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill, and as the NATO alliance's top commander — his last assignment before retiring from the military in early 2007 — he's a respected figure in capitals across Europe.

Jones was born in Kansas City, Mo., and grew up in France where his father — also a Marine — worked for International Harvester, the farm equipment company. Jones returned to the United States for his senior year of high school and later graduated from Georgetown University.

In 1967 he was sent to Vietnam and saw combat action as a platoon and a company commander.

Obama's cabinet begins to take shape

2008-11-24T22:18:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: President-elect Barack Obama formally nominated Timothy Geithner on Monday as his Treasury secretary and Lawrence Summers to head the US President-elect Barack Obama

US President-elect Obama unveils his economic policy team during a news conference in Chicago. (AP Photo)

National Economic Council, filling two of the most closely watched jobs in his administration.

Here are people Obama has chosen or is considering for key posts. Many remain subject to vetting and Senate confirmation before taking office.

TREASURY SECRETARY: Timothy Geithner, president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, is Obama's choice for the Treasury Department, making him Obama's point person in dealing with the economic crisis. Geithner has helped to lead efforts to stabilize financial markets and argued that banks crucial to the global financial system should operate under a unified regulatory framework. Geithner's appointment was made official on Monday by Obama, who said he would bring "an unparalleled understanding of our current economic crisis" to the job.

NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: Lawrence Summers, 53, was Treasury secretary for the final 1-1/2 years of the Clinton administration and has been a senior adviser to Obama for several months, helping to guide his response to the financial meltdown. The intense and blunt-spoken Summers became a full professor at Harvard at 28 and was later president of the university, where his abrasive style made many enemies and he resigned in 2006.

He had been seen as Geithner's main competition for the job of Treasury chief. Summers nomination to head council was officially announced on Monday. He is also under consideration as a possible replacement for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke when his term ends in 2010.

SECRETARY OF STATE: New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, Obama's former rival for the White House, is said to have accepted the post of secretary of state, the New York Times reported. A senior Clinton adviser said the report was premature, but added that discussions with the Obama White House were "on track."

Clinton has a global profile both as a political leader in her own right and as the wife of former US President Bill Clinton. Policy analysts say her selection could mean a more hawkish US stance, noting that she was more reluctant than Obama to commit to a firm timetable for withdrawing US troops from Iraq. Clinton's appointment is expected to be made official after the Nov. 27 Thanksgiving holiday.

COMMERCE SECRETARY: New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a former United Nations ambassador and energy secretary during President Bill Clinton's administration, had been an early supporter of Obama after dropping his own presidential ambitions.

The commerce secretary is seen as the voice of the US business community in the White House and is tasked with promoting US business interests overseas. Richardson's appointment, which has been widely reported by US media, would make him the first high-profile Hispanic leader in the Obama Cabinet.

SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: Tom Daschle, a key early supporter and savvy former US Senate leader, has been selected by Obama as secretary of health and human services, according to Democratic sources. In that role, he will be the top official spearheading Obama's effort to overhaul the US health care system. The high-profile pick signals that the push to extend health coverage to the 46 million uninsured Americans be a high priority for Obama.

NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Retired Marine Gen. James Jones, the former top operational commander of NATO, is a leading contender for White House national security adviser. Jones is widely respected by both Democrats and Republicans but has avoided aligning himself with either party.

He is known to have been a strong critic of the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq war and is quoted as describing the war as a "debacle," in Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward's 2006 book "State of Denial." James Steinberg, who was deputy national security adviser in Bill Clinton's administration, was also said to be under consideration.

ATTORNEY GENERAL: Eric Holder, a former Justice Department official under the Clinton Administration, has accepted a conditional offer to become head of the Justice Department, Democratic officials said. Holder, who served as deputy attorney general under Clinton, has been a senior legal advisor to Obama's campaign and helped vet Obama's vice presidential candidates. Before the offer becomes official, Obama's team is seeking to determine if Holder can win Senate confirmation with broad bipartisan support.

HOMELAND SECURITY: Janet Napolitano, the Democratic governor of Arizona, is under consideration to head the US Homeland Security Department, a sprawling agency formed to bolster civil defense following the Sept. 11 attacks. "She's in the mix. She may be the front-runner," a Democratic official told Reuters. Napolitano, 50, is a former US attorney for Arizona and state attorney general, giving her law enforcement experience and is as governor of a state bordering Mexico, she also is closely involved in immigration issues which also come under the Homeland Security Department's purview.

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Current Defense Secretary Robert Gates, named by President George W. Bush in late 2006, is considered a moderate voice on the Republican's national security team and could embody an important signal of continuity.

Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Republican senator from Nebraska, has been a foreign policy adviser to Obama and a strong critic of the Iraq war.

Richard Danzig, an adviser to Obama on national security and Clinton-era Navy secretary, has been mentioned by many in the media as a possible defense secretary or deputy defense secretary.

AGRICULTURE SECRETARY: John Boyd, founder and president of the National Black Farmers Association, who farms in Baskerville, Virginia. The NBFA organized a lawsuit in June by black farmers for payments out of $100 million included in the 2008 farm law to compensate growers who were victims of USDA bias.

Dennis Wolff, Pennsylvania agriculture secretary since 2003. Wolff is a sixth-generation dairy farmer and owns Pen-Col Farms in Millville, Pennsylvania. Wolff won approval of legislation aimed to improve water quality and settle conflicts between farmers and nearby towns. Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, re-elected to a second term in 2006, is a strong Obama supporter and had been considered a potential running mate for Obama.

Several Indian Americans in Obama-Biden transition team

2008-11-24T22:15:00.000-08:00

HOUSTON: Several Indian Americans have been appointed to the Obama-Biden transition team. Parag Mehta, from Texas has been named the deputy director of inter-governmental affairs and public liaison for several minority groups, including Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders.

Besides Parag, there are a few more Indian Americans in the team. Nick Rathod has been appointed director to the Office of Inter-governmental Affairs. Rathod is the national outreach director of South Asians for Obama and one of its founding members.

Arti Rai, a professor of patent law at Duke University and a classmate of Obama at Harvard Law School, has been appointed as a member of the agency review team on science, technology, space, arts and humanities.

The agency review teams for the Obama-Biden transition are charged with completing a thorough review of various departments, agencies and commissions in the U S government to craft policy, budgetary and personnel decisions prior to the January 20, 2009 inauguration date.

Anjan Mukherjee, a managing director at the private equity firm Blackstone, has been named one of several leads on the economics and international trade agency review team. The Harvard Business School MBA is also a director of Steifel Laboratories, one of his firm's investments. Mukherjee also campaigned with Asian Americans for Obama.

Rachana Bhowmik, Subhasri Ramanathan, Natasha Bilimoria and Puneet Talwar will all serve as members of the state, national security, defence, intelligence and arms control agency review team.

Bhowmik was part of Senator Obama's legislative counsel, handling civil rights, civil liberties, and national security issues such as intelligence, homeland security, and other issues for the senator, who was a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Ramanathan is a senior analyst with the Government Accountability Office's Homeland Security and Justice team. Prior to joining the GAO, she was Chief Counsel and Deputy Staff Director to the Democratic Staff of the House Committee on Homeland Security, specializing in border security, visa and immigration policy issues.

Bilimoria is the executive director of Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, a non-profit organization aiming to engage Americans in the prevention of these diseases in the developing world.

Bilimoria previously served as senior public policy officer at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and spent four years with the Clinton Administration, including the US Department of Treasury.

Puneet is a senior staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and previously served on the State Department's policy planning staff.

Obama economic plan aims for 2.5M new jobs by 2011

2008-11-22T06:43:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama promoted an economic plan Saturday he said would create 2.5 million jobs by rebuilding roads and bridges and modernizing schools while developing alternative energy sources and more efficient cars.

"These aren't just steps to pull ourselves out of this immediate crisis. These are the long-term investments in our economic future that have been ignored for far too long," Obama said in the weekly Democratic radio address.

The goal is to it quickly through Congress, with help from both parties, after Obama takes office Jan. 20. The plan, which envisions those new jobs by January 2011, is "big enough to meet the challenges we face," he said.

Obama noted the growing evidence the country is "facing an economic crisis of historic proportions" and said he was pleased Congress passed an extension of unemployment benefits this past week. But, he added, `We must do more to put people back to work and get our economy moving again."

Nonetheless, he said, "There are no quick or easy fixes to this crisis, which has been many years in the making, and it's likely to get worse before it gets better."

It will take support from Democrats and Republicans to pass the economic plan, Obama said. "I'll be welcome to ideas and suggestions from both sides of the aisle," he said. "But what is not negotiable is the need for immediate action."

People "are lying awake at night wondering if next week's paycheck will cover next month's bills," if their jobs will remain, if their retirement savings will disappear, he added.

The Labor Department reported that claims for unemployment benefits jumped last week to the highest level since July 1992, providing fresh evidence of the weakening job market.

"We'll put people back to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, modernizing schools that are failing our children, and building wind farms and solar panels," Obama said. He also made a commitment to fuel-efficient cars and alternative energy technologies "that can free us from our dependence on foreign oil and keep our economy competitive in the years ahead."

Obama pointed to the past, saying that Americans in this country's darkest hours have risen above their divisions to solve their problems, as a hope for the future.

"We have acted boldly, bravely, and above all, together," Obama said. "That is the chance our new beginning now offers us, and that is the challenge we must rise to in the days to come. It is time to act. As the next president of the United States, I will."

Obama moves quickly to fill Cabinet positions

2008-11-22T06:41:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama has moved with unusual speed to select officials for his administration, and senior Democratic officials say he intends to name Timothy Geithner as his treasury secretary as soon as Monday.

It was not clear when Obama intended to formally unveil any of his other picks for the administration that takes office at the stroke of noon on Jan. 20. One Democrat said John Podesta, a leader of Obama's transition team, had told Senate aides on Friday that Obama hoped for speedy confirmation so the new administration could get to work quickly thereafter.

Word of Geithner's likely selection emerged as New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, in line to become secretary of state, said through a spokesman that discussions were on track for her appointment but no final arrangement had been made.

Obama's choice for attorney general, a third critical post as the president-elect rounds out his top Cabinet echelon, is Eric Holder. He held the No. 2 slot in the Justice Department in President Bill Clinton's administration.

The president-elect plans to announce Geithner's appointment in Chicago on Monday, barring an unforeseen snag in a background check that is nearly complete, said one of the senior officials, both of whom were familiar with the deliberations. He's the president of the New York Federal Reserve.

If nominated and confirmed by the Senate, Geithner, 47, would assume chief responsibility for tackling an economic slowdown and credit crunch that threaten to create the deepest recession in more than a generation. In his current post in New York, he has played a key role in the government's response to the financial crisis and has worked closely with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve.

As a Treasury Department official during the Clinton administration, Geithner (pronounced GITE-ner) dealt with international financial crises and played a major part in negotiating assistance packages for South Korea and Brazil.

Lawrence Summers, a former treasury secretary and one-time Harvard University president, was being considered as an economic adviser. Economic posts also seemed likely for Obama's top two economic advisers during his campaign, Austan Goolsbee and Jason Furman.

Officials said New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson had emerged as a likely pick as commerce secretary, although he had hoped to be secretary of state. Like Clinton, he was a rival of Obama's for the Democratic presidential nomination last winter. He dropped out after the early contests, though, and soon threw his support behind the eventual winner.

The officials spoke only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the anticipated appointments.

The president-elect has largely stayed out of public view since his election on Nov. 4, preferring to work quietly with aides and Vice President-elect Joe Biden in a suite of offices in downtown Chicago.

Obama faces unusual challenges and has moved quickly in assembling his team. Former President George H.W. Bush made his first Cabinet pick the day after his election in 1988, but former President Clinton did not name any members until after Thanksgiving. President George W. Bush's transition was delayed by the contested result in Florida.

While speculation has been rampant about most top-level appointments, there has been relatively little about Obama's choice for defense secretary. His aides encouraged speculation before the election that Robert Gates, who now holds the position, would remain in office for an interim period.

Other Cabinet selections so far include former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota as secretary of health and human services and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, likely to be named as secretary of the Homeland Security Department.

Napolitano was an early supporter of candidate Obama among the ranks of Democratic governors, as was Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas. Sebelius has figured prominently in recent days in speculation as possible secretary of labor.

Additionally, retired Gen. James Jones, a former Marine Corps commandant and NATO commander, was among those under consideration for national security adviser. James Steinberg, an Obama campaign aide who served in Clinton's White House, was another possibility, according to officials.

Obama has repeatedly referred to the economic crisis as the top priority for his new administration.

Geithner held posts in the Treasury Department under three administrations and five secretaries before moving to the New York Fed in 2003. He also held positions at the International Monetary Fund and was employed at the private firm of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

The Dow Jones industrials soared by nearly 500 points late in the day Friday, a sharp rise that coincided with the first reports of Geithner's possible appointment.

Dem sources: Clinton to help Hillary get State job

2008-11-19T08:22:00.000-08:00

CHICAGO – Former President Bill Clinton has offered several concessions to help Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, his wife, become secretary of state, people familiar with President-elect Barack Obama's transition vetting process said Wednesday.

Clinton has agreed to release the names of several major donors to his charitable foundation and will submit future foundation activities and paid speeches to a strict ethics review, said Democrats knowledgeable about the discussions.

They also said that Clinton would step away from day-to-day responsibility for his foundation while his wife serves and would alert the State Department any new sources of income and to his speechmaking. The Democrats spoke only on grounds of anonymity because of the private nature of the Cabinet-selection process.

Since Sen. Clinton has emerged as a top contender for the State job, her husband's international business deals and the fundraising he has done for his foundation and presidential library have come under careful review by Obama's transition team. The former president had indicated earlier that he would be willing to significantly increase the transparency of those activities if it would boost the former first lady's chances of getting the job.

A team of attorneys is representing the Clintons in negotiations with Obama officials, in talks which have taken place this week at a law firm in Washington.

Hillary Clinton still carries a substantial debt from her presidential campaign and if she were to become secretary of state she would face restrictions on her ability to retire it. As of Oct. 1, she owed nearly $8 million to campaign vendors.

In a 2001 advisory opinion, the federal Office of Special Counsel said a federal employee who still had a campaign debt would be prohibited from "personally soliciting, accepting or receiving political contributions." Clinton could name an agent from her campaign committee to continue to organize and hold fundraising events to retire the debt. Clinton would be limited to attending a fundraising event and stating her appreciation to donors.

According to Clinton's report, nearly $5.3 million of her debt as of Oct. 1 was money owed to the firm of Mark Penn, who served as her senior adviser and pollster.

Aides familiar with the vetting said it has gone smoothly and both Clintons had been fully cooperative with the process. One Clinton adviser noted that former President George H.W. Bush has given paid speeches and participated in international business ventures since his son, George W. Bush, has been president — without stirring public complaints or controversy about a possible conflict of interest.

Bill Clinton's network of business deals and charitable endeavors became an issue during Hillary Clinton's run for the Democratic presidential nomination.

One Democrat who advised her campaign said few of her senior strategists knew anything about the former president's business arrangements and whether they would hold up under scrutiny if she won the nomination. The adviser spoke on background, not authorized to speak publicly for Hillary Clinton's political operation.

During his primary campaign against Hillary Clinton, Obama pressed the former president to name the donors to his library. Bill Clinton refused, saying many had given money on the condition that their names not be revealed. He promised to make the donors' names public going forward if his wife won the Democratic nomination.

The former president has engaged in other deals that could complicate his wife's work with foreign governments as secretary of state. Records show he raised money for his foundation from the Saudi royal family, Kuwait, Brunei and the Embassy of Qatar, and from a Chinese Internet company seeking information on Tibetan human rights activists.

While many people familiar with the New York senator's thinking say she is inclined to take the secretary of state's job if it is offered, others say she is also considering the consequences of leaving the Senate, where she had hoped to take a leading role on health care reform and other issues.

"Would she be willing to give up her independent stature in the U.S. Senate, Robert F. Kennedy's seat, to be in the Cabinet? It will be a considerable decision for her," said Lanny Davis, a former Clinton adviser not involved in the vetting. "It's a completely different life than you lead in the Senate, where you are your own spokesperson, your own advocate. When you join the Cabinet of the president of the United States, that is no longer the case."

Clinton declined to discuss any part of the selection process Tuesday. "I've said everything I have to say on Friday," she said.

At the State Department, the prospect of Clinton as secretary is creating some anxiety among career foreign service officers worried that she would install her own loyalists and exclude them from policy-making. Some at the State Department see her as a foreign policy lightweight, although there is grudging acknowledgment of her star power.

After Obama's win, white backlash festers in US

2008-11-17T07:34:00.000-08:00

Atlanta – In rural Georgia, a group of high-schoolers gets a visit from the Secret Service after posting "inappropriate" comments about President-elect Barack Obama on the Web. In Raleigh, N.C., four college students admit to spraying race-tinged graffiti in a pedestrian tunnel after the election. On Nov. 6, a cross burns on the lawn of a biracial couple in Apolacon Township, Pa.

The election of America's first black president has triggered more than 200 hate-related incidents, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center – a record in modern presidential elections. Moreover, the white nationalist movement, bemoaning an election that confirmed voters' comfort with a multiracial demography, expects Mr. Obama's election to be a potent recruiting tool – one that watchdog groups warn could give new impetus to a mostly defanged fringe element.

Most election-related threats have so far been little more than juvenile pranks. But the political marginalization of certain Southern whites, economic distress in rural areas, and a White House occupant who symbolizes a multiethnic United States could combine to produce a backlash against what some have heralded as the dawn of a postracial America. In some parts of the South, there's even talk of secession.

"Most of this movement is not violent, but there is a substantive underbelly that is violent and does try to make a bridge to people who feel disenfranchised," says Brian Levin of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. "The question is: Will this swirl become a tornado or just an ill wind? We're not there yet, but there's dust on the horizon, a swirling of wind, and the atmospherics are getting put together for [conflict]."

Though postelection racist incidents haven't posed any real danger to society or the president-elect, law enforcement is taking note.

"We're trying to be out there at the cutting edge of this and trying to stay ahead of groups that are emerging," says Special Agent Darrin Blackford, a spokesman for the Secret Service, which guards the US president.

"Anytime you start seeing [extremist propaganda] floating around, you have to be concerned," adds Lt. Gary Thornberry of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, a member of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force. "As far as it being an alarmist situation, I don't see that yet. From a law enforcement point of view, you have to be careful, because it's not illegal to have an ideology."

After sparking conflict and showdowns in the 1990s – think Ruby Ridge, Waco, the Oklahoma City bombing – white supremacist and nationalist groups began this century largely splintered and powerless. Though high immigration levels helped boost the number of hate groups from 602 in 2000 to 888 in 2007, key leaders of such groups had died, been imprisoned, or were otherwise marginalized.

But postelection, at least two white nationalist websites – Stormfront and the Council of Conservative Citizens – report their servers have crashed because of heavy traffic. The League of the South, a secessionist group, says Web hits jumped from 50,000 a month to 300,000 since Nov. 4, and its phones are ringing off the hook.

"The vitriol is flailing out shotgun-style," says Mr. Levin. "They recognize Obama as a tipping point, the perfect storm in the narrative of the hate world – the apocalypse that they've been moaning about has come true."

Supremacist propaganda is already on the upswing. In Oklahoma, fringe groups have distributed anti-Obama propaganda through newspapers and taped it to home mail boxes. Ugly incidents such as cross-burnings, assassination betting pools, and Obama effigies are also being reported from Maine to Alabama.

The Ku Klux Klan has been tied to recent news events, as well. Two Tennessee men implicated for plotting to kill 88 black men, including Obama, were tied to the KKK chapter whose leader was convicted in a civil trial in Brandenburg, Ky., last week, for inciting violence. The murder last week in Louisiana of a KKK initiate, allegedly killed after trying to back out of joining, came at the hands of a new group called Sons of Dixie, authorities say.

"We're not looking at a race war or anything close to it, but ... what we are seeing now is undeniably a fairly major backlash by some subset of the white population," says Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report in Montomgery, Ala. "Many whites feel that the country their forefathers built has been ... stolen from them, so there's in some places a real boiling rage, and that can only become worse as more people lose jobs."

In an election in which barely 20 percent of native Southern whites in Deep South states voted for Obama, the newly apparent political clout of "outsiders" and people of color has been unnerving to some.

"In states like Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama, there was extraordinary racial polarization in the vote," says Merle Black, a political scientist at Emory University in Atlanta. "Black Americans really do believe that Obama is going to represent their interests and views in ways that they haven't been before, and, in the Deep South, whites feel exactly the opposite."

But for nonviolent secessionist groups like the League of the South, the hope is for a more vigorous debate about the direction of the US and the South's role in it, says Michael Tuggle, a League blogger in North Carolina.

Mr. Tuggle says his group isn't looking for an 1860-style secession but, rather, a model that Spain, for one, is moving toward, in which "there's a great deal of autonomy for constituent regions" – a foil to what is seen as unchecked, dangerous federal power in Washington.

"To a lot of people, the idea of secession doesn't seem so crazy anymore," says Tuggle. "People are talking about how left out they feel, ... and they feel that something strange and radical has taken over our country."

Obama Says He Will Do `Whatever It Takes' on Economy

2008-11-17T07:29:00.000-08:00

President-elect Barack Obama said the U.S. government will do ``whatever it takes'' to revive the economy, and that means ``we shouldn't worry about the deficit next year or even the year after.''

In the short term, ``the most important thing is that we avoid a deepening recession,'' Obama said in an interview broadcast last evening on CBS News's ``60 Minutes.''

Obama, who yesterday resigned his Illinois Senate seat, effective today, said the government needs to provide assistance to the automobile industry. Such aid -- in the form of a ``bridge loan,'' he suggested -- must be provided on condition that management, labor, suppliers and lenders come up with a plan to make the industry ``sustainable,'' he said.

``For the auto industry to completely collapse would be a disaster in this kind of environment -- not just for individual families but the repercussions across the economy would be dire,'' Obama said. If that were to happen now, he said, ``you could see the spigot completely shut off so that it would not potentially permit GM to get back on its feet.''

The hour-long interview with Obama and his wife, Michelle, was taped on Nov. 14 in Chicago, where he is working to build his government team before his Jan. 20 inauguration. The president- elect discussed the economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and energy. He and his wife also talked about the changes in their lives after he defeated Republican John McCain in the Nov. 4 presidential election.

National Security

Obama also said he's moving quickly to assemble his national security team. ``I think it's important to get a national security team in place because transition periods are potentially times of vulnerability to a terrorist attack,'' he said.

Obama reiterated his intention to close the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and ban torture during interrogation of suspected terrorists as part of ``an effort to regain America's moral stature in the world.''

He said that after he takes office, he will begin executing a plan to draw down U.S. troops in Iraq and send some to Afghanistan, ``which has continued to worsen.''

Obama said it is ``a top priority for us to stamp out al- Qaeda once and for all,'' and that a critical aspect will be capturing or killing Osama bin Laden. The terrorist group's leader is ``not just a symbol'' but remains ``the operational leader of an organization that is planning attacks against U.S. targets,'' the president-elect said.

Energy Plan

On energy, Obama said that, with oil prices dropping in recent weeks, ``it may be a little harder politically'' to enact measures to lessen U.S. dependence on foreign energy. ``But it's more important,'' he said, noting that the country has gone through earlier cycles of energy shocks only to return to its heavy reliance on foreign oil.

As a result of such behavior, he said, ``we never make any progress. It's part of the addiction, all right. That has to be broken. Now is the time to break it.''

Obama said his job as president will be to bolster confidence in the economy.

``Part of the way to think about it is things could be worse,'' he said. ``We could have seen a lot more bank failures over the last several months. We could have seen an even more rapid deterioration of the economy -- even a bigger drop in the stock market.''

Obama said he soon will begin to make Cabinet appointments. He already has named about a half-dozen top White House staff. Obama said there would be a Republican in the Cabinet.

`A Great Feeling'

On more personal matters, Obama, 47, said he was enjoying sleeping in his own bed in Chicago, and seeing his two daughters in the mornings, after almost two years of non-stop campaigning. ``It's a great feeling,'' he said.

One adjustment, he said, is the loss of privacy, such as not being able to take a walk in his Chicago neighborhood.

Michelle Obama said she hopes the White House ``will feel open and fun and full of life and energy'' when the family moves in. She said first lady Laura Bush was ``gracious'' and ``excited and enthusiastic'' when giving her a tour last week.

Obama said his family plans to get a dog after settling into the White House. ``I don't think it would be good to get a dog in the midst of transition,'' he said.

In excerpts of the interview released Nov. 15, Obama said Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson may be disappointed with some aspects of the federal government's $700 billion bailout of the banking industry.

``Hank Paulson has worked tirelessly under some very difficult circumstances,'' Obama said. ``I think Hank would be the first one to acknowledge that probably not everything that's been done has worked the way he had hoped it would work.''

Obama also said the government must do more to help distressed homeowners.

``We have not focused on foreclosures and what's happening to homeowners as much as I would like,'' Obama said. He called for setting up ``a negotiation between banks and borrowers so that people can stay in their homes.''

Does Obama have an Arab-link?

2008-11-15T09:34:00.000-08:00

LONDON: Here is more about larger-than-life Barack Obama. The US President-elect apparently has an Arab-connection too.

Around 8,000 Bedouins, Arab nomadic pastorates, living in the Galilee area of Israel have claimed that America's first black President is a lost member of their tribe, a media report said.

"We knew about it years ago but we were afraid to talk about it because we didn't want to influence the elections," Ha'aretz quoted Abdul Rahman Sheikh Abdullah, a local council member from the tribe, told The Times.

"We wrote a letter to him explaining the family connection," Abdullah added. Obama has not yet responded to the letter, the report said.

The claim originated with Abdullah's 95-year-old mother, who believes the US President-elect bears resemblance to the African migrant workers once employed by the Sheikhs in British Mandate Palestine in the 1930, the report said.

Abdullah's mother said that a relative of Obama's Kenyan grandmother had once been employed in such capacity and married a local Bedouin girl who he later returned home with.

Abdullah has said that he has documentary evidence to the family connection, but has promised his mother not to reveal them until he has presented them to Obama.

The claim has brought a slew of visitors to the small Bedouin village, where tribesman have celebrated the "Bedouin Obama's victory.

Abdullah plans to hold a massive party next week, including the slaughter of a dozen goats, 'The Times' reportedly said and has already been marking the occasion of Obama's win by handing out traditional sweets to guests and locals.

"We want to send a delegation to congratulate him and we know we'll get an answer soon," ‘The Times’ quoted him as saying.

The clan based in Israel's northern village of Bir al-Maksour is so certain of the connection that two of its newest members have already been named Obama.

Abdullah said the tribe is pinning its hopes on the president-elect to "end all wars and intervene here to solve our problems in Israel".

"The Bedouin are the people who suffer the most here," he was quoted as saying.

Obama gets the Clinton band back together

2008-11-14T06:53:00.000-08:00

Obama considers Clinton for secretary of state: reports AFP/File – Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton address supporters during last month's electoral rally in Orlando, …

Here's how you can tell the campaign is over and the transition has begun: Barack Obama's aides now wear suits and ties, their desks are in the Federal Building on 6th Street in Washington — and Clintonites are everywhere.

Obama's victory in the general election produced what his primary campaign couldn't: A swift merger of the Clinton Wing of the Democratic Party with the Illinois Senator's self-styled insurgency. The merger began, during the campaign, in the policy apparatus — which is now rapidly becoming the governing apparatus.

The absorption of the Clinton government in waiting represents Obama's choice not to repeat what he and his advisors see as an early mistake made by the last two presidents: Attempting to wield power in Washington through an insular campaign apparatus new to town.

Obama's first major appointments have been Democrats who worked for President Clinton and did not endorse him in the primary: Transition chief John Podesta and Rep. Rahm Emanuel, who will be White House chief of staff, stayed neutral, and Ron Klain, who will be Joe Biden's chief of staff, backed Biden. Obama, advisers told Politico, may even be weighing offering Hillary Rodham Clinton herself the Cabinet plum of Secretary of State.

"Obama is showing great good sense in making use of their experience," said William Galston, a former Clinton domestic policy adviser who’s now at the Brookings Institution. "You have an entire cadre of people in their 30s and 40s and early 50s who were either in senior jobs or second- and third-tier jobs in the Clinton administration, who really earned their spurs and know their way around — and know something about how the institutions in which they served actually function."

Galston noted that while Clinton shunned the remnants of the Carter Administration in 1992, Obama's Democratic predecessor led a popular eight-year administration, and the party is no longer riven by deep ideological splits.

"The president-elect has the great good fortune of having a Democratic Party with a usable past," said Galston, who downplayed the differences between the Clinton and Obama camps during the primary. "It was never a substantive or an ideological split — it was more like Team A and Team B."

While only one pure Clintonite, former White House chief of staff Podesta, has been added to the Obama inner circle, the shift in Obama's universe is not to be understated. From the top down, his early choices reflect an openness, and even a warmth, to the veterans of 1990s governance. It’s a shift from a campaign that in the primary explicitly attacked President Clinton's tenure as a time of partisan strife and missed opportunities.

The single most important change in that respect is at the top, and the replacement of the slim, tightly-wound campaign chief of staff, David Plouffe, 41, with the slim, tightly wound Podesta, 59.

Plouffe was the guiding hand, operationally and often strategically, of Obama's campaign. He was also, insiders say, a sharply anti-Washington voice, key to the candidate's outsider message.

Plouffe came of political age inside the House Democratic leadership in the 1990s, and he was part of a core Obama group who had never worked for Clinton, and who harbored the sense of frustration and missed opportunity that prevailed on the Hill during Clinton's second term.

Plouffe remains a key adviser and was spotted in the transition office Thursday, but with a new baby, credit for a historic victory, and plans to return to the private sector, he's no longer running the show.

Podesta, who heads the Center for American Progress, was Clinton's chief of staff from 1998 to 2001 and a key figure in his second term. As one Clinton loyalist noted with some satisfaction (if anonymously) on Thursday, Podesta’s role in the transition, and the new prominence of Clinton administration officials, suggests that Obama has absorbed one of Hillary Clinton's talking points: That it takes experience to make change happen.

Thirty-one of the 47 people so far named to transition or staff posts have ties to the Clinton administration, including all but one of the members of his 12-person Transition Advisory Board and both of his White House staff choices.

Most of those appointees weren't West Wing heavy-hitters, but lower-profile policy hands such as former Deputy Secretary of Defense John White and former State Department official Wendy Sherman. They include former deputies to National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, Defense Secretary William Perry, and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and some currently work at consultancies run by those Clinton administration principals.

Others are old Obama allies who also have Clinton ties, like Michael Froman, a transition adviser who was Obama's classmate at Harvard Law School and served as Robert Rubin's chief of staff at the Clinton Treasury Department, and Christopher Edley, who taught Obama at Harvard and also served Clinton, and who is married to a former Clinton deputy chief of staff.

"This is a good way to try to be helpful without giving up my new life at Berkeley," said Edley, who is now dean of the law school at the University of California at Berkeley, in an email.

The highest-ranking member of the group with deep ties to both Clinton and Obama is Emanuel, a Chicagoan who is very close to Obama and his chief strategist, David Axelrod.

Though the transition is still young, former Clintonites say they feel a change in the atmosphere.

"It's heartening to see that that was just primary rhetoric," said a former Clinton aide of Obama's criticism of Clinton's administration.

Obama has continued to keep his distance from aspects of Clinton's legacy, however, and even his decision to bring Clintonites into the transition and administration is in part a judgment of his Democratic predecessor’s chaotic, insular transition 16 years ago.

And there remains a distinction between the policy and political sides of Hillary Clinton’s operation. Soon after the primary, top Clinton policy aides, such as economic adviser Gene Sperling, were quietly integrated into Obama's campaign. The only member of Clinton's inner circle to join Obama's campaign staff was her policy director, Neera Tanden.

A campaign's policy shop feeds the bulk of a new administration's appointments: Most of the key positions on White House staff and in executive agencies are policy posts.

But while the Clinton policy shop may feel like the gang is getting back together, the political team has yet to be invited in.

Said one former Clinton campaign aide, "Obama has clearly made a distinction between the small group of Clinton campaign staff, who clearly aren't much welcome, and the large number of Clinton White House personnel who are."

October budget deficit hits record of $237.2B

2008-11-14T06:49:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON – The federal government began the new budget year with a record deficit of $237.2 billion, reflecting the billions of dollars the government has started to pay out to rescue the financial system.

The Treasury Department said Thursday that the deficit for the first month in the new budget year was the highest monthly imbalance on record. It was far bigger than analysts expected, over four times larger than the October 2007 deficit of $56.8 billion, and more than half the total for all of last year.

The big surge reflected the government spending $115 billion to buy stock in the nation's largest banks. Those were the first payments made from the $700 billion government rescue program passed by Congress to deal with the most severe financial crisis to hit the country since the 1930s.

The October deficit began a period in which economists are forecasting the red ink for the entire year could well hit $1 trillion, reflecting what many expect to be a severe recession, which will depress tax revenue, and the heavy costs of the financial system bailout.

President-elect Barack Obama has said that getting the economy back on track will be his top priority and has promised to work with Congress to pass a second stimulus program.

The $237.2 billion deficit for October included total government spending of $402 billion, a record in terms of outlays.

The spending figure included $115 billion paid to some of the country's largest banks to buy stock, the beginning of a program in which the government will spend $250 billion before the end of the year to take ownership shares in hundreds and potentially thousands of banks. The goal is to bolster banks' balance sheets so that they will resume more normal lending and keep the country from falling into a prolonged recession.

The deficit also was boosted by the government's move to purchase $21.5 billion in mortgage-backed securities, an effort the Bush administration announced when it took control of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in September because of rising losses in that market.

Government receipts in October totaled $164.8 billion, down 7.5 percent from October 2007, reflecting the impact on revenues from the slumping economy.

For the 2008 budget year, which ended on Sept. 30, the deficit totaled a record $454.8 billion, reflecting the impact of the weak economy on revenues and a $168 billion stimulus program which sent stimulus payments to millions of Americans during the spring and early summer.

The Bush administration in July estimated that the deficit for the current budget year could hit $482 billion, but that projection was made before the administration got Congress to pass a $700 billion rescue program on Oct. 3.

Officials: Sen. Clinton eyed as secretary of state

2008-11-14T06:46:00.000-08:00

CHICAGO – Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is among the candidates that President-elect Barack Obama is considering for secretary of state, according to two Democratic officials in close contact with the Obama transition team.

Clinton, the former first lady who pushed Obama hard for the Democratic presidential nomination, was rumored to be a contender for the job last week, but the talk died down as party activists questioned whether she was best-suited to be the nation's top diplomat in an Obama administration.

The talk resumed in Washington and elsewhere Thursday, a day after Obama named several former aides to President Bill Clinton to help run his transition effort.

The two Democratic officials who spoke Thursday did so on the condition of anonymity to avoid angering Obama and his staff. Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines referred questions to the Obama transition team, which said it had no comment.

Other people frequently mentioned for the State Department job are Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and New Mexico's Democratic governor, Bill Richardson.

Obama arrives for White House tour, talk with Bush

2008-11-10T12:29:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON – President-elect Obama and President Bush met in the Oval Office Monday, a visit that comes during a historic shifting of power to a new administration.

Obama and his wife, Michelle, arrived at the South Portico 11 minutes early with President Bush and first lady Laura Bush waiting for them. Mrs. Bush and Mrs. Obama enjoyed a warm greeting, while the president and his successor exchanged smiles and a handshake.

Taking a bit of prerogative, the president-elect put his left hand on Bush's back as the two couples entered the Diplomatic Reception Room.

Bush and Obama strolled along the Colonnade and waved for their cameras while their wives began a meeting of their own. The president and the president-elect then headed into the Oval Office to talk about the future of the country, with topics likely including the financial crisis and the war in Iraq.

It was the president-elect's first visit to the White House since his landslide election victory — and his first visit ever to the Oval Office.

The scene was a sunny fall day with moderate temperatures and colorful — but fading — autumn leaves.

Their arrival had the look of a foreign head-of-state state visit — although there were no fife and drum bands, speeches or official pageantry.

Earlier, Obama arrived in Washington, stepped of his plane and was greeted by transition manager John Podesta, the former chief of staff to President Clinton.

Obama climbed into a black limousine with tinted windows, instead of his normal SUV; the limo looked just like the one that the president rides in, without the seal or flags. The entire motorcade was upgraded from campaign mode to presidential-level, with a second identical decoy limousine, a black haz-mat truck, a communications truck and the counter-assault team hanging out the back of an SUV.

Mrs. Bush was to give Mrs. Obama a tour of the first family's living quarters, including the bedrooms used by children of past presidents. White House press secretary Dana Perino said the two women were expected to talk about living in one of the world's most famous building, from family life to the help provided by executive staff.

The Obamas have two daughters: Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7. Obama started his day in Chicago, dropping the two girls at school, each with a kiss, and then going to a gym for a workout.

Ahead of the meeting, Obama told reporters last week that he was headed to the White House meeting with "a spirit of bipartisanship."

Obama won the presidency in an electoral landslide on Tuesday. He ran a campaign in which he relentlessly linked Republican opponent John McCain to Bush and presented his ideas as a fresh alternative to what he called Bush's failed policies.

Yet the tone changed almost immediately after Obama's win.

Bush, who had endorsed McCain, lauded Obama's victory as a "triumph of the American story." He warmly invited the Obama family to the White House.

Obama, in turn, thanked Bush for being gracious. The president-elect has made clear to the people of the United States and those watching around the world that there is only one president for now, and that's Bush. Obama is in the transition to power but does not assume the presidency until Jan. 20.

Josh Bolten, Bush's chief of staff, said Bush and Obama will likely each have a list of issues to go down.

"I know the president will want to convey to President-elect Obama his sense of how to deal with some of the most important issues of the day," said Bolten, interviewed on C-SPAN by reporters from The Associated Press and The Washington Post. "But exactly how he does that, I don't know, and I don't think anybody will know."

Unlike the incoming president, Bush knew his way around the Oval Office by the time he was elected in 2000 — his father had been president. Still, like many before them, President Clinton and President-elect Bush had their own private meeting, keeping up a tradition that temporarily puts the presidency above politics.

Obama has been to the White House before, including an emergency leadership session to deal with the financial crisis in September.

But an Obama spokeswoman said the president-elect had never been in the Oval Office.

Obama plans Guantanamo closure, US terror trials

2008-11-10T12:11:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON – President-elect Obama's advisers are quietly crafting a proposal to ship dozens, if not hundreds, of imprisoned terrorism suspects to the United States to face criminal trials, a plan that would make good on his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison but could require creation of a controversial new system of justice.

During his campaign, Obama described Guantanamo as a "sad chapter in American history" and has said generally that the U.S. legal system is equipped to handle the detainees. But he has offered few details on what he planned to do once the facility is closed.

Under plans being put together in Obama's camp, some detainees would be released and many others would be prosecuted in U.S. criminal courts.

A third group of detainees — the ones whose cases are most entangled in highly classified information — might have to go before a new court designed especially to handle sensitive national security cases, according to advisers and Democrats involved in the talks. Advisers participating directly in the planning spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans aren't final.

The move would be a sharp deviation from the Bush administration, which established military tribunals to prosecute detainees at the Navy base in Cuba and strongly opposes bringing prisoners to the United States. Obama's Republican challenger, John McCain, had also pledged to close Guantanamo. But McCain opposed criminal trials, saying the Bush administration's tribunals should continue on U.S. soil.

The plan being developed by Obama's team has been championed by legal scholars from both political parties. But it is almost certain to face opposition from Republicans who oppose bringing terrorism suspects to the U.S. and from Democrats who oppose creating a new court system with fewer rights for detainees.

The plan drew criticism from some detainee lawyers shortly after it surfaced Monday.

"I think that creating a new alternative court system in response to the abject failure of Guantanamo would be a profound mistake," said Jonathan Hafetz, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney who represents detainees. "We do not need a new court system. The last eight years are a testament to the problems of trying to create new systems."

Laurence Tribe, a Harvard law professor and Obama legal adviser, said discussions about plans for Guantanamo had been "theoretical" before the election but would quickly become very focused because closing the prison is a top priority. Bringing the detainees to the United States will be controversial, he said, but could be accomplished.

"I think the answer is going to be, they can be as securely guarded on U.S. soil as anywhere else," Tribe said. "We can't put people in a dungeon forever without processing whether they deserve to be there."

The tougher challenge will be allaying fears by Democrats who believe the Bush administration's military commissions were a farce and dislike the idea of giving detainees anything less than the full constitutional rights normally enjoyed by everyone on U.S. soil.

"There would be concern about establishing a completely new system," said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a member of the House Judiciary Committee and former federal prosecutor who is aware of the discussions in the Obama camp. "And in the sense that establishing a regimen of detention that includes American citizens and foreign nationals that takes place on U.S. soil and departs from the criminal justice system — trying to establish that would be very difficult."

Obama has said the civilian and military court-martial systems provide "a framework for dealing with the terrorists," and Tribe said the administration would look to those venues before creating a new legal system. But discussions of what a new system would look like have already started.

"It would have to be some sort of hybrid that involves military commissions that actually administer justice rather than just serve as kangaroo courts," Tribe said. "It will have to both be and appear to be fundamentally fair in light of the circumstances. I think people are going to give an Obama administration the benefit of the doubt in that regard."

Though a hybrid court may be unpopular, other advisers and Democrats involved in the Guantanamo Bay discussions say Obama has few other options.

Prosecuting all detainees in federal courts raises a host of problems. Evidence gathered through military interrogation or from intelligence sources might be thrown out. Defendants would have the right to confront witnesses, meaning undercover CIA officers or terrorist turncoats might have to take the stand, jeopardizing their cover and revealing classified intelligence tactics.

But Tribe said the current military commission system represents a "nonstarter" and other advisers agreed. With lax evidence rules and intense secrecy, the commissions have been criticized by human rights groups, defense attorneys and even some military prosecutors who quit in protest.

"I don't think we need to completely reinvent the wheel, but we need a better tribunal process that is more transparent," Schiff said.

That means something different would need to be done if detainees couldn't be released or prosecuted in traditional courts. Exactly what that something would look like remains unclear.

According to three advisers participating in the process, Obama is expected to propose a new court system, appointing a committee to decide how such a court would operate. Some detainees likely would be returned to the countries where they were first captured for further detention or rehabilitation. The rest could probably be prosecuted in U.S. criminal courts, one adviser said. All spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing talks, which have been private.

Waleed Alshahari, who has been following Guantanamo issues for the Yemeni Embassy in Washington, said the plan being discussed by the Obama team was an improvement over the current system. But he said he expects most detainees to be released rather than stand trial.

"If the U.S. government has any evidence against them, they would try them and put them in jail," Alshahari said. "But it has been obvious they have nothing against them. That is why they have not faced trial."

With more than 90 Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo, the country is home to the largest group of prisoners. The U.S. and Yemen have negotiated but failed to reach a deal on a prisoner release.

Whatever form Obama's plan finally takes, Tribe said the next president would move quickly.

"In reality and symbolically, the idea that we have people in legal black holes is an extremely serious black mark," Tribe said. "It has to be dealt with."

Obama planning US trials for Guantanamo detainees

2008-11-10T06:06:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON – President-elect Obama's advisers are quietly crafting a proposal to ship dozens, if not hundreds, of imprisoned terrorism suspects to the United States to face criminal trials, a plan that would make good on his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison but could require creation of a controversial new system of justice.

During his campaign, Obama described Guantanamo as a "sad chapter in American history" and has said generally that the U.S. legal system is equipped to handle the detainees. But he has offered few details on what he planned to do once the facility is closed.

Under plans being put together in Obama's camp, some detainees would be released and many others would be prosecuted in U.S. criminal courts.

A third group of detainees — the ones whose cases are most entangled in highly classified information — might have to go before a new court designed especially to handle sensitive national security cases, according to advisers and Democrats involved in the talks. Advisers participating directly in the planning spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans aren't final.

The move would be a sharp deviation from the Bush administration, which established military tribunals to prosecute detainees at the Navy base in Cuba and strongly opposes bringing prisoners to the United States. Obama's Republican challenger, John McCain, had also pledged to close Guantanamo. But McCain opposed criminal trials, saying the Bush administration's tribunals should continue on U.S. soil.

The plan being developed by Obama's team has been championed by legal scholars from both political parties. But it is almost certain to face opposition from Republicans who oppose bringing terrorism suspects to the U.S. and from Democrats who oppose creating a new court system with fewer rights for detainees.

Laurence Tribe, a Harvard law professor and Obama legal adviser, said discussions about plans for Guantanamo had been "theoretical" before the election but would quickly become very focused because closing the prison is a top priority. Bringing the detainees to the United States will be controversial, he said, but could be accomplished.

"I think the answer is going to be, they can be as securely guarded on U.S. soil as anywhere else," Tribe said. "We can't put people in a dungeon forever without processing whether they deserve to be there."

The tougher challenge will be allaying fears by Democrats who believe the Bush administration's military commissions were a farce and dislike the idea of giving detainees anything less than the full constitutional rights normally enjoyed by everyone on U.S. soil.

"There would be concern about establishing a completely new system," said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a member of the House Judiciary Committee and former federal prosecutor who is aware of the discussions in the Obama camp. "And in the sense that establishing a regimen of detention that includes American citizens and foreign nationals that takes place on U.S. soil and departs from the criminal justice system — trying to establish that would be very difficult."

Obama has said the civilian and military court-martial systems provide "a framework for dealing with the terrorists," and Tribe said the administration would look to those venues before creating a new legal system. But discussions of what a new system would look like have already started.

"It would have to be some sort of hybrid that involves military commissions that actually administer justice rather than just serve as kangaroo courts," Tribe said. "It will have to both be and appear to be fundamentally fair in light of the circumstances. I think people are going to give an Obama administration the benefit of the doubt in that regard."

Though a hybrid court may be unpopular, other advisers and Democrats involved in the Guantanamo Bay discussions say Obama has few other options.

Prosecuting all detainees in federal courts raises a host of problems. Evidence gathered through military interrogation or from intelligence sources might be thrown out. Defendants would have the right to confront witnesses, meaning undercover CIA officers or terrorist turncoats might have to take the stand, jeopardizing their cover and revealing classified intelligence tactics.

In theory, Obama could try to transplant the Bush administration's military commission system from Guantanamo Bay to a U.S. prison. But Tribe said, and other advisers agreed, that was "a nonstarter." With lax evidence rules and intense secrecy, the military commissions have been criticized by human rights groups, defense attorneys and even some military prosecutors who quit the process in protest.

"I don't think we need to completely reinvent the wheel, but we need a better tribunal process that is more transparent," Schiff said.

That means something different would need to be done if detainees couldn't be released or prosecuted in traditional courts. Exactly what that something would look like remains unclear.

According to three advisers participating in the process, Obama is expected to propose a new court system, appointing a committee to decide how such a court would operate. Some detainees likely would be returned to the countries where they were first captured for further detention or rehabilitation. The rest could probably be prosecuted in U.S. criminal courts, one adviser said. All spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing talks, which have been private.

Whatever form it takes, Tribe said he expects Obama to move quickly.

"In reality and symbolically, the idea that we have people in legal black holes is an extremely serious black mark," Tribe said. "It has to be dealt with."

Obama victory opens door to new black identity

2008-11-09T04:55:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON – Shortly after leaving the voting booth, 70-year-old community activist Donald E. Robinson had a thought: "Why do I have to be listed as African-American? Why can't I just be American?"

The answer used to be simple: because a race-obsessed society made the decision for him. But after Barack Obama's mind-bending presidential victory, there are rumblings of change in the nature of black identity and the path to economic equality for black Americans.

Before Tuesday, black identity and community were largely rooted in the shared experience of the struggle — real or perceived — against a hostile white majority. Even as late as Election Day, many blacks still harbored deep doubts about whether whites would vote for Obama.

Obama's overwhelming triumph cast America in a different light. There was no sign of the "Bradley Effect," when whites mislead pollsters about their intent to vote for black candidates. Nationwide, Obama collected 44 percent of the white vote, more than John Kerry, Al Gore or even Bill Clinton, exit polls show.

In Ohio, domain of the fabled working-class white swing voter, where journalists unearthed multitudes of racist quotes during the campaign, 46 percent of white voters backed Obama's bid to become the first black president, more than the three previous Democratic candidates.

Obama did not define himself as a black candidate. So Robinson now feels free to define himself as something more than a black community activist.

"We've taken that next step. It's moving toward what we call universal brotherhood and sisterhood," Robinson said after voting for Obama in his northwest Washington, D.C., neighborhood. "We shouldn't be split and have all these divisions. That's why I say it's a bright day."

L. Douglas Wilder, the first black person to be elected governor of Virginia, shares Robinson's sense of American identity. "But I can tell you, when you say that, people take umbrage," Wilder said. "They believe that you are dissing them, putting blacks down. I don't have to tell you what I am, you can look at me and see that I'm not white. So what difference does it make?"

It took Obama's election, however, to make that idea real.

"It's immediately transformative," Wilder said. "It immediately changes the level of discussion. This thing is bigger than we thought it was. It's too big to get our arms around, and it grows exponentially each passing day. It sets us on a brand-new course."

Yet the past is a heavy burden to shed. U.S. Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, a former civil rights activist who was jailed during the protest marches of the 1960s, said that Obama's election does move America toward a "more perfect union." But when it comes to self-definition, he believes the current state of that union leaves him no choice.

"We don't come into this world defining ourselves," Clyburn said. "I was born into a world that had defined limits for me. I had to sit on the back of the bus, I couldn't attend the nearby school. My wife had to walk 2 1/2 miles to school, walk past the white school to get to the school for blacks. She didn't define that role for herself. That role was imposed upon us."

Certainly racism did not disappear after Obama's white votes were counted. No one is claiming that black culture and pride and community are no longer valuable. Many also dismiss the idea of a "post-racial" America as long as blacks and other minorities are still disproportionately afflicted by disparities in income, education, health, incarceration and single parenthood.

But white groups that once faced discrimination, such as the Italians, Jews and Irish, have moved from the margins to the mainstream. America debated whether John F. Kennedy could become the first Catholic president; now that's a historical footnote.

So the prospect of a black population that is more of "America" than "black America" has profound implications — especially for the civil rights establishment that continues to battle for blacks who remain at the bottom. Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, acknowledges that Obama's election does change the nature of his job, "but not in the way people might think."

The Urban League spent the last eight years trying to hold the Bush administration accountable on civil rights. Now Morial is hoping to cooperate with the government and apply his organization's expertise to issues like poverty, education and job training — which will help rebuild the entire American economy.

Morial noted that President Reagan had a base of aggressive and vocal advocacy groups to help push his agenda through Congress. "You can march against things, and you can march in support of things," he said. "If you're an executive trying to get things done, you need visible and vocal support."

Clyburn suggested that civil rights groups should adopt new tactics of working closely with the legislative branch, because Obama and the new Congress will be more receptive to their agenda: "We don't need to be on the streets raising hell."

"We've always used a variety of tactics," said the Rev. Jesse Jackson. "Legislation, litigation, sometimes demonstration, and the vote. And sometimes the consumer dollar."

When Jackson was breaking barriers in his presidential runs of 1984 and '88, it was the zenith of Reagan's "morning in America." Jackson's tactics were employed against a conservative establishment that used racially divisive issues such as welfare and crime to great advantage.

Now there's a new president, a new day, and new ideas built upon the old.

"My grandmother told me when I was 5, 'Boy, if they ask you what you are, just tell them that you're an American," said Benjamin Jealous, the 35-year-old president of the NAACP. "The reality is that our heritage, our culture, our families, our community have been extremely important to us. It's always been our right, and in many ways what we fought for, to be seen simply as Americans."

Obama not to attend G20 summit

2008-11-07T21:10:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON: US President-elect Barack Obama will not be attending a summit of world leaders for economic crisis talks in Washington next week.

Obama's transition spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter yesterday confirmed the president-elect would not be attending the upcoming summit.

"As he said himself, there is only one president at a time," she told reporters after Obama's first post-election news conference in Chicago.

Earlier the White House confirmed it did not expect Obama to take a seat at the talks on November 15.

"We are in communication and coordination with them. I don't know whether someone will actually be in the building. I don't expect in the room," spokesman Tony Fratto said of Obama's economic team.

But Fratto pledged close cooperation with the president-elect's economic advisers on the best way to respond to the global financial meltdown in order to avoid sending "confusing signals" to international markets.

"We look forward to hearing their views on how to deal with these issues which are going to go on for some time," the spokesman said one week before outgoing US President George W Bush hosts the summit.

Obama is keen not to trample on the sitting president's authority. But his aides are also leery of becoming too closely associated with the outgoing administration's 700-billion-dollar banking bailout, which remains unpopular among many voters, sources said.

Barack a reborn Lincoln aide?

2008-11-07T21:06:00.000-08:00

Who was Barack Obama in his past life? If an American doctor specialising in past life research is to be believed, Obama was apparently a close
associate of ex-US president, Abraham Lincoln in his previous life.

Dr Walter Semkiw, a physician practicing in San Francisco, claims that Barack Obama is the reincarnation of Lyman Trumbull, an Illinois Democratic senator and the principal author of the Thirteenth Amendment, which put an end to slavery in the US.

Incidentally, Illinois is the state that Lincoln also represented and which Obama represents now. Semkiw, who has written two books on reincarnation — "Return of the Revolutionaries", focusing on cases of personalities reincarnated from the time of the American Revolution and "Born Again" which features reincarnation cases of Indian celebrities, says that he arrived at Obama's past life in a similar manner — through a combination of psychic sessions as well as background research.

On researching about Trumbull, says Semkiw, he found that there were many similarities between him and Obama. After finishing law school, Trumbull moved to Illinois in the 1830s, where he set up a practice. He represented African-American slaves many times against slave owners. In addition, says Semkiw, Trumbull was a great orator, one who could move people with his words — a quality that Obama also possesses.

"If we accept the case of Trumbull having reincarnated as Obama, it also sends out an important message that individuals can change race from one incarnation to another," says Semkiw. "Imagine how much more peaceful the world would be if we all realized that identification with one's particular race, nationality, sect or religion is just a temporary one and that it can change from lifetime to lifetime."

Obama, world leaders talk global financial crisis

2008-11-07T21:05:00.000-08:00

Afp, Chicago

Incoming US president Barack Obama discussed the financial crisis and other problems with top world leaders ahead of his first public comments yesterday since his election triumph.

After making the first key appointment to his administration, Obama spoke by telephone with the leaders of Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Mexico and South Korea, hastening the shift in political gravity away from President George W. Bush.

The financial crisis, the Afghanistan war, climate change and the North Korean and Iranian nuclear crises dominated the talks, according to accounts from the various capitals.

Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak agreed to work together to tackle North Korea's nuclear disarmament and the financial turmoil, said Lee's spokesman in Seoul.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said that he and Obama discussed "our resolve to act together on dealing on the global financial crisis and also working closely together on the great challenge of climate change."

Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed to work "closely" on Iran's disputed nuclear programme, Afghanistan, climate change and the financial crisis, her government said.

Reforming the financial system also featured strongly in Obama's talks with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain and a 10-minute telephone conversation with Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, their spokesmen said.

Aso also raised Afghanistan, climate change and North Korea, the Japanese foreign ministry said.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon and the US president-elect discussed immigration and drug smuggling on the restive southern border, the Mexican foreign ministry.

Most of the world leaders will attend the emergency summit on the economic crisis in Washington on November 15, but Obama has not yet announced whether he will take a role in the event.

Even some of the US's traditional arch foes have welcomed Obama's election such as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who issued a message of congratulation on Thursday.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, branded a dictator by Bush after staging a one-man election in June, also extended an olive branch to Obama Friday by saying he "cherish(ed) the hope of working with your administration".

Obama was to convene his economic advisers on Friday before his first press conference (at 1930 GMT) since his triumph in Tuesday's election against Republican John McCain.

Several names mentioned as potential Treasury overseers to command a 700-billion-dollar bank bailout were to attend the meeting, including former treasury secretary Larry Summers, ex-Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker and Laura Tyson, chairwoman of the National Economic Council under President Bill Clinton.

Ahead of a White House meeting with Bush on Monday, Obama appointed Illinois congressman Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff, the first senior official to join the next administration.

Emanuel, 48, is a veteran of Clinton's White House credited with masterminding the Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives in 2006.

He has a reputation for being a bare-knuckle operative and a fierce Democratic partisan who has the nickname of "Rahmbo."

The appointment stirred the first post-election attacks from the demoralised Republican Party.

"This is an ironic choice for a president-elect who has promised to change Washington, make politics more civil, and govern from the centre," said John Boehner, the Republican minority leader in the House.

Bush said he had directed "unprecedented" cooperation between the White House and Obama before the Democrat is inaugurated on January 20, in the first presidential handover since the September 11 attacks of 2001.

"In the coming weeks, we will ask administration officials to brief the Obama team on ongoing policy issues ranging from the financial markets to the war in Iraq," Bush said at the White House.

Obama said in a statement that he looked forward to meeting Bush, whom he lambasted on an almost hourly basis on the campaign trail.

"I thank him for reaching out in the spirit of bipartisanship that will be required to meet the many challenges we face as a nation," he said.

Aside from the listing US economy, one of Obama's most urgent priorities will be to wind down Bush's war in Iraq and redirect the military focus to hunting down al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The president-elect, who has spent the past two days catching up with his young family and thanking his campaign staff in Chicago, is already receiving classified CIA intelligence as he prepares to take over.

Obama received his first national security briefing from Mike McConnell, director of national intelligence, at the FBI building in Chicago Thursday.

Bush leaves ME peace puzzle for Obama

2008-11-07T21:03:00.001-08:00

Ap, Jerusalem
People write congratulatory messages to President-elect Barack Obama on a 24-foot long message board in front of the Lincoln Memorial November on Thursday in Washington, DC. The organisation Avaaz.org has set up a global message board at the memorial with display of messages from all around the world for people to write their notes to Obama. Photo: AFP
The Bush administration has conceded that an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal is no longer possible by the end of its term and is preparing to hand the fragile, unfinished US-backed peace effort to President-elect Obama.

Obama may not want it, at least as designed by the Republican Bush administration, seen as slow to embrace the role of honest Mideast broker. Many of Obama's foreign policy advisers were players in the Clinton administration's extensive Mideast peace efforts and are unenthusiastic about President Bush's hands-off approach.

After months of publicly insisting that an agreement still could be sealed by the year-end deadline set by the two sides and Bush last November in Annapolis, Md., US officials said Thursday for the first time it would have to wait.

"We do not think it is likely it will happen before the end of the year," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said in Washington after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acknowledged as much at the start of a Mideast trip.

Bush has employed Rice as a goad and monitor, but not a central negotiator. The administration said that to be viable, any deal should come from the Israelis and Palestinians themselves. Rice's eighth visit to the region since the Annapolis peace conference had been intended as a push for urgent progress on the modest gains from a year of US-sponsored talks between Israel and one part of the fractured Palestinian leadership.

Instead, amid political uncertainty in Israel, where a corruption scandal is forcing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert from office, the administration is focused on keeping the two sides from backsliding. Rice wants them to produce a placeholding affirmation of their commitment to the peace process.

She said it remained an "open question" as to what form the affirmation would take, but said it was critical for the incoming Obama administration, as well as a new Israeli government to be elected in February, to inherit a solid framework to restart negotiations quickly.

"It should be carried forward," she said, stressing that progress, if not a full-on deal, had been achieved since Annapolis, including the fact that the two sides were talking again after years of Palestinian rebellion and international efforts to support the Palestinian people.

She added that she hoped the Israelis and Palestinians would "affirm that the Annapolis process and the framework it establishes is indeed the basis on which they believe they can come to a resolution of their conflict, regardless of anyone's timetables.""It will be important to wrap up all of that work one way or another," she said.

Negotiators from the two sides were to brief top officials from the international diplomatic "quartet" on the Middle East the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia in Egypt on Sunday on their progress to date.

But it was not clear whether that meeting, which Rice also will attend, would produce a document or verbal statement that fits her bill, as Israel appears reluctant to put anything in writing that could memorialise specific results of the talks thus far.

"We hope that the current American administration will give the upcoming administration a positive opinion to continue this process, and bring it to a success," said Ahmed Qureia, the chief Palestinian negotiator.

Rice's comments at times took the tone of a concession speech and came at a news conference with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Israel's chief negotiator in the talks. At it, the two women spoke of the importance of keeping the talks alive.

"It is important that we preserve the process within the structure that we have created," said Livni, a centrist who will be running against hardline former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Feb. 10 voting.

Netanyahu currently is favoured in most polls and has deep reservations about the peace process.

Ahmadinejad Offers Obama Landmark Congratulations

2008-11-07T11:50:00.000-08:00

For the first time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, an Iranian leader has offered well wishes to a U.S. president-elect.

TEHRAN,Iran -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday congratulated Barack Obama on his election win -- the first time an Iranian leader has offered such wishes to a U.S. president-elect since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

An analyst said the statement was a gesture from the hard-line president that he's open to some sort of reconciliation with the U.S.

Obama has said he is willing to hold direct diplomacy with Iranian leaders as a way to break the impasse between the two countries or give the U.S. more credibility to press for tougher sanctions if talks fail. His policy marks a departure from the Bush administration, which has refused high-level engagements with Iran.

In his comments, Ahmadinejad congratulated the Democrat on "attracting the majority of voters in the election." The text of Ahmadinejad's statement was carried by the official IRNA news agency.

Ahmadinejad also said he hopes Obama will "use the opportunity to serve the (American) people and leave a good name for history" during his term in office.

Iran and U.S. have no formal diplomatic relations since 1979 and the hostage drama when militant Iranian students held 52 Americans captive 444 days.

Current U.S.-Iranian relations remain tense, with Washington accusing Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons and of providing support for Shiite militants who are killing U.S. soldiers in Iraq -- charges Iran denies.

In Jerusalem, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, a contender for prime minister in her country's elections, warned against any dialogue with Iran -- a first sign of Israeli disagreement with the incoming U.S. administration.

"Dialogue at this time is liable to broadcast weakness," cautioned Livni, who is head of the governing Kadima Party. "I think early dialogue at a time when it appears to Iran that the world has given up on sanctions could be problematic."

Israeli officials describe Iran as the biggest threat to the Jewish state's existence, citing Ahmadinejad's frequent calls for Israel's destruction and its development of long-range missiles capable of striking the Jewish state.

Livni has repeatedly said she hopes international diplomacy prevails. But she doesn't rule out force if U.N. sanctions don't pressure Iran to scale back its nuclear aims. In June, she said Iran "needs to understand the military threat exists and is not being taken off the table."

Iran sees Obama's victory as a triumph over the unpopular policies of U.S. President George W. Bush, who repeatedly clashed with Iranian leaders while in office over Iran's nuclear program and its opposition to the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Ahmadinejad went on in his Thursday message to say that "nations of the world" expect changes from Obama -- mostly that he will change current U.S. foreign policy.

That policy, Ahmadinejad claimed, was "based on warmongering, occupation, bullying, deception and humiliation, as well as discrimination and unfair relations" and has led to "hatred of all nations and majority of governments toward the U.S. leaders."

Ahmadinejad also said that Obama is expected to replace such a policy with "an approach based on justice and respect, as well as lack of intervention in the affairs of others."

Iranians will welcome such changes, Ahmadinejad added.

Iran's government refused to publicly side with any of the U.S. candidates throughout the presidential race, although Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said last month that Obama seemed "more rational" than John McCain.

Saeed Leilaz, an independent analyst in Tehran, said Ahmadinejad's message was a "positive step" that now leaves Washington with the responsibility for the next one. Leilaz added he believes Obama's victory will "weaken radicalism" in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and North Korea.

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Muslims find little to cheer over Barack win

2008-11-06T22:13:00.001-08:00

NEW DELHI: The Hussein in Barack Obama has failed to enthuse Muslims in India as they expect little to change as far as US policy towards the
community (read Iraq and Pakistan) is concerned. They find no solace in the fact that the American president-elect carries the legacy of a Muslim parentage from his Kenyan father.

The Muslim community is apprehensive about his actions and believes that it may not be any different from what George Bush pursued in the last decade — using force to maintain US hegemony over the world, with little room for dialogue.

After flagging off a special train from Deoband on Wednesday carrying more than 6,000 Muslim clerics to Hyderabad to deliberate on issues of terrorism and national integration, Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind chief and Rajya Sabha MP Mahmood Madani said the community was not at all excited.

"I am not very enthusiastic. I don't think Obama can divert much from the way George Bush carried forward American polices," Madani said.

But if Obama remained committed to his promise that he would like to solve issues through dialogue and not by force, it would really change the world and bring about peace and harmony as the president-elect would like to see, the Jamiat leader said.

However, Madani felt the reverse could also happen. "In his zeal to prove his patriotism, Obama may not take the bold steps required of him to bring America out of the mess that it has created in Afghanistan and Iraq," the MP said. The name Hussein would only work against him, Madani added.

What India wants from the new president

2008-11-06T22:08:00.000-08:00

On nuclear issues, despite the nuclear deal, India is likely to find the going tough with the Obama crowd. Some of the deal's best known critics
like Strobe Talbott and Robert Einhorn are likely to find prominent jobs in the US nuclear establishment — and their dislike of the Indian nuclear deal as well as India's nuclear weapons in general is not going to lessen. If the Bush administration sought to push for an "exception" for India, a Democrat administration is likely to do what it can to mitigate it.

Remember, despite the much touted bi-partisan support for the nuclear agreement in the US Congress, all naysayers were Democrats. Obama himself is the author of one of the biggest "killer" amendments of the Hyde Act, the Obama amendment to deny lifetime supplies of nuclear fuel to Indian reactors, and needed strong political push by Bush and Manmohan to reverse it in the 123 agreement. Obama eventually voted for the deal but there's a sour note. Therefore, getting licenses from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission wont be easy, as non-proliferation wallahs use the famed American bureaucracy to roll back the effects of the nuclear deal.

There is a strong expectation that among the non-proliferation priorities of the Obama administration would be pushing through the CTBT, if he can get his own Congress to agree. That would be another pressure point for India, particularly after Manmohan Singh has gone on record to say that India would not sign the CTBT. On the other hand, Obama supports the global disarmament initiative, started by Kissinger, Perry, Schultz and Nunn. India is a strong votary of the global disarmament efforts too and this could be a better meeting point for the two sides than CTBT. South Block is more likely to push for a full disarmament position than a test ban, which it considers to be "halfway house."

The 2008 election campaign has been relatively free of "outsourcing" as an issue, but it is clear that on principle Obama would oppose outsourcing of jobs to countries like India. But here, the battle is best left to the private sector. It may be a little simplistic to suggest that Obama is categorically against outsourcing. In his speeches, he has said he wants to readjust the tax code to offer more tax incentives to companies who do not offshore jobs, but also that he did not want to close America to the "brightest and best from round the world."

More recently, he has acknowledged the inevitability of outsourcing, saying that "evolutions in communication and technology have sent jobs wherever there's an internet connection; that have forced children in Raleigh and Boston to compete for those jobs with children in Bangalore and Beijing." In fact, post financial crisis, his views are likely to soften further, as analysts suggest that outsourcing may become more necessary, to cut costs and improve productivity. But then again, he may find greater traction for his views in a weak labour market in the US.

Obama has raised the banner for "fair" trade rather than "free" trade, which has already raised eyebrows here among people who look forward to tough trade talks ahead, particularly in the unfinished Doha round. Of course much of the outsourcing is "irreversible" and the debate can safely be left to the private sector to resolve. Will Obama send out different signals on outsourcing of public sector jobs?

As a corollary, what would it mean for more professional and tech visas for Indian professionals to the US? Indian and US companies have been clamouring for more H1-B visas, but its likely that a naturally protectionist Democrat administration with their core constituency being labour unions would find it difficult to increase those numbers from present 65,000.

Then there is China. Like it or not, China and India will continue to be uttered in the same breath for a whole host of reasons. India has very uncomfortable memories of Bill Clinton in Beijing in June 1998, virtually appointing Beijing the "daroga" for South Asia.

Democrats have always viewed the US-China relationship as "special" and generally have a more welcoming view of China. This is unlikely to change particularly in a global situation where China now wields greater clout. India's foreign policy, on the other hand is increasingly going to focus on "dealing with the rise of China" and its implications for India. Whether these two world visions clash or converge need to be seen.

The next few months will tell whether the famed "transformation" of the US-India relationship will continue unabated, halted or slowed down.

'Obama moment' for India still a long shot

2008-11-06T22:07:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: A senior minister, a member of Congress's core group, had a question as he considered the Obama miracle. "What is the black population
of America? 12-13%?" he asked. In a manner typical of politicians, he wondered how a small minority could deliver a chief executive. With no less than 50% popular support at that.

India had a brush with an Obama moment long ago when for a brief while a rump of the fragmented Janata Party tried to get Babu Jagjivan Ram an invitation from then president Sanjiva Reddy. After the successive collapse of Morarji Desai and Charan Singh governments, Reddy was in no mood for more experiments and polls ensued. Those who knew the canny Dalit from Sasaram aver that he was better equipped for office than his Janata predecessors. Since, myth and reality have merged with a conspiracy being alleged even though there is some basis to Babuji's reputation as an administrator and a shrewd political brain. In the event, he soon made his peace with Congress.

The not-so-near accident apart, the possibility of a Dalit becoming prime minister has not looked very likely for most of 28 years since then. There have been some big shifts in politics though. The Mandal revolution speedened the ascendance of OBCs. It forced both Congress and BJP to internalise the Mandal mantra though the saffron party has done a better job of it.

Meanwhile, BSP rose with meteoric force under Kanshi Ram and Mayawati. Deals with BJP powered Mayawati to the CM's chair in UP twice and even though she never completed her terms, it allowed Dalits to believe that one of their own can hold office. A complex set of circumstances — decline of her chief rival SP leader Mulayam Singh and BJP turning into an absentee outfit in UP — took Mayawati to power all on her own.

As things stand, Left is backing her for PM and, if she ends up with a bagful of UP's 80 seats, Delhi could beckon. She certainly thinks so. But such a scenario is more the result of vagaries of coalition politics than broad social or political consensus. The iron grip of caste has not loosened on much of India and prejudice against someone from the deprived sections is alive and kicking.

And, despite Indira Gandhi's long rule, being a woman does not make things easier for the "Dalit ki beti". The one-time municipal school teacher has reached out to "savarnas" but the contract is need driven — a section of UP's upper castes saw in her the only available option but do not see her as a natural leader. Caste flows thicker than blood.

Backward politics has reinvented itself as OBC leaders realise that a slice of the upper caste vote would be very handy indeed. But no less than the upper castes, backward leaders are hardly keen to see a dalit as PM. For many, social justice is circumscribed by caste and a radical inversion of the social pyramid is unwelcome

What India wants from the new president

2008-11-06T21:37:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: Barack Obama enters the White House riding the crest of history. The sense of promise —of restoring America's primacy in the world — will
by and large be welcomed in India. Certainly, in large parts of the world, Obama will be a welcome change after eight years of George Bush, whose efforts to change the world as he found it had some disastrous consequences.

Obama will be a breath of fresh air in almost every part of the world. And to the extent, there is a growing convergence between the two democracies. India can only hope to benefit from a rejuvenated US leadership. Why, then, is India keeping her fingers crossed?

Over the past eight years, as George Bush wielded his scythe, in a strange sort of way, he helped to change the way the world looked at India. In many ways, the way India herself looked at India. India has gotten used to being on top of the US president's mindspace, whether as an exceptional democracy, a rising power or as the beneficiary of a unique nuclear agreement which pulled India out of a technology hole. India successfully "de-hyphenated" from Pakistan giving itself a lot of international legroom.

In an Obama administration, the India-US story could grow bigger. Or not.

There is little clarity on how the chips will fall on several issues in the Obama-India dynamic, issues that are very close to India. In order of precedence, they would be Pakistan, China, terrorism, nuclear issues, trade, all issues on which India has had a prickly relationship with the Democrat party vision.

Obama's own advisers are upbeat on the India question. Refusing to come on record on election day, those that TOI spoke to said an Obama that restores America's place in the world is exactly what India needs. "Obama is a 21st century leader. He understands that the US needs other major powers to get things done, and that certainly includes India.... Ultimately, India needs a US that is respected and able to get things done in the world, and Obama will help restore that."

But, Obama is yet to clarify his strategic vision of India. One of the reasons why the Bush presidency was good for India was that Bush proceeded from a simple premise — that India, warts and all, deserved an exception from the international system. US specialist on South Asia, Ashley Tellis, one of the main architects of the nuclear deal did a quick preview of Obama's India policy. "Obama says he will sustain the relationship with India. His administration will likely be dominated by people who view the relationship with China as the most important US relationship in Asia, and by individuals who have difficulty accepting either the legitimacy or the reality of India's nuclear weapons."

From all accounts, Obama starts out with the right ideas, of taking forward the India-US relationship. Early 2008, after an India gaffe in 2007 (when his campaign described Hillary Clinton as D-Punjab), he wrote a piece for an Indian-American newspaper where he said, "The world's oldest democracy (US) and the world's largest democracy (India) are natural partners, sharing important interests and fundamental democratic values... And that is why I will move forward to build a close strategic partnership between the US and India when I am president of the United States."

However, his commitment to removing the sources of terror from Pakistan-Afghanistan may have the unfortunate effect of reviving yet another form of "hyphenation", this time on terrorism, which will be far more dangerous, certainly so far as India is concerned.

While on the one hand he says he wants to appoint former US president Bill Clinton as his special envoy on Kashmir, in another recent interview, Obama said, "We should probably try to facilitate a better understanding between Pakistan and India and try to resolve the Kashmir crisis so that they can stay focused not on India but on the situation with those militants." This is clearly a considered position, because on September 25, in another interview to Arms Control Today, Obama said, "I will continue support of the ongoing Indian-Pakistani efforts to resolve the Kashmir problem in order to address the political roots of the arms race between India and Pakistan."

This is not music to Indian ears. It shows only one thing — that there will be a long period of painful diplomatic exchanges before the Obama administration can be made to realise that the "Kashmir problem" is just an alibi for Pakistan as it seeks to secure its objectives in Afghanistan and have its way vis-a-vis India.

Many of Obama's advisers are still in the "solve Kashmir" phase, between India and Pakistan. Why this can cause complications for India?

As the US gets more involved in disentangling Pakistan and Afghanistan from terrorism, Taliban and al-Qaida, it will be tempting, for Democrats to push a "Kashmir solution" as a carrot for Pakistan to undertake tough policies on its northwestern border. Already Pakistan army chief Ashfaque Kiyani has reportedly told US generals that he cannot concentrate whole-heartedly on two borders at once. This argument has clearly been made after Pakistan detected "fertile ground" in the Obama camp.

In his article in Foreign Affairs, Obama showed a dangerous misreading of the issue. "I will join with our allies in insisting not simply requesting that Pakistan crack down on the Taliban, pursue Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants, and end its relationship with all terrorist groups. At the same time, I will encourage dialogue between Pakistan and India to work towards resolving their dispute over Kashmir and between Afghanistan and Pakistan to resolve their differences and develop the Pashtun border region. If Pakistan can look towards the east (India) with confidence, it will be less likely to believe its interests are best advanced through cooperation with the Taliban."

India has faced this argument before and successfully defeated it thus — that Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in Afghanistan is of a piece with the violence in Kashmir. Bowing to the Pakistani argument would be tantamount encouraging Pakistan believe that terrorism as a foreign policy tool actually works. Which, of course would be disastrous to Obama's real objective of cleaning out the Taliban.

Obama, for that matter, the Democrat establishment, are eight years behind the curve on US-India relations, which are on a completely different trajectory now.
On nuclear issues, despite the nuclear deal, India is likely to find the going tough with the Obama crowd. Some of the deal's best known critics
like Strobe Talbott and Robert Einhorn are likely to find prominent jobs in the US nuclear establishment — and their dislike of the Indian nuclear deal as well as India's nuclear weapons in general is not going to lessen. If the Bush administration sought to push for an "exception" for India, a Democrat administration is likely to do what it can to mitigate it.

Remember, despite the much touted bi-partisan support for the nuclear agreement in the US Congress, all naysayers were Democrats. Obama himself is the author of one of the biggest "killer" amendments of the Hyde Act, the Obama amendment to deny lifetime supplies of nuclear fuel to Indian reactors, and needed strong political push by Bush and Manmohan to reverse it in the 123 agreement. Obama eventually voted for the deal but there's a sour note. Therefore, getting licenses from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission wont be easy, as non-proliferation wallahs use the famed American bureaucracy to roll back the effects of the nuclear deal.

There is a strong expectation that among the non-proliferation priorities of the Obama administration would be pushing through the CTBT, if he can get his own Congress to agree. That would be another pressure point for India, particularly after Manmohan Singh has gone on record to say that India would not sign the CTBT. On the other hand, Obama supports the global disarmament initiative, started by Kissinger, Perry, Schultz and Nunn. India is a strong votary of the global disarmament efforts too and this could be a better meeting point for the two sides than CTBT. South Block is more likely to push for a full disarmament position than a test ban, which it considers to be "halfway house."

The 2008 election campaign has been relatively free of "outsourcing" as an issue, but it is clear that on principle Obama would oppose outsourcing of jobs to countries like India. But here, the battle is best left to the private sector. It may be a little simplistic to suggest that Obama is categorically against outsourcing. In his speeches, he has said he wants to readjust the tax code to offer more tax incentives to companies who do not offshore jobs, but also that he did not want to close America to the "brightest and best from round the world."

More recently, he has acknowledged the inevitability of outsourcing, saying that "evolutions in communication and technology have sent jobs wherever there's an internet connection; that have forced children in Raleigh and Boston to compete for those jobs with children in Bangalore and Beijing." In fact, post financial crisis, his views are likely to soften further, as analysts suggest that outsourcing may become more necessary, to cut costs and improve productivity. But then again, he may find greater traction for his views in a weak labour market in the US.

Obama has raised the banner for "fair" trade rather than "free" trade, which has already raised eyebrows here among people who look forward to tough trade talks ahead, particularly in the unfinished Doha round. Of course much of the outsourcing is "irreversible" and the debate can safely be left to the private sector to resolve. Will Obama send out different signals on outsourcing of public sector jobs?

As a corollary, what would it mean for more professional and tech visas for Indian professionals to the US? Indian and US companies have been clamouring for more H1-B visas, but its likely that a naturally protectionist Democrat administration with their core constituency being labour unions would find it difficult to increase those numbers from present 65,000.

Then there is China. Like it or not, China and India will continue to be uttered in the same breath for a whole host of reasons. India has very uncomfortable memories of Bill Clinton in Beijing in June 1998, virtually appointing Beijing the "daroga" for South Asia.

Democrats have always viewed the US-China relationship as "special" and generally have a more welcoming view of China. This is unlikely to change particularly in a global situation where China now wields greater clout. India's foreign policy, on the other hand is increasingly going to focus on "dealing with the rise of China" and its implications for India. Whether these two world visions clash or converge need to be seen.

The next few months will tell whether the famed "transformation" of the US-India relationship will continue unabated, halted or slowed down.

Obama win: Bad news for Pakistan

2008-11-06T21:35:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: After its initial lack of enthusiasm for Barack Obama, India was pleasantly surprised when the Senator from Illinois, now the
president-elect of US, slammed Pakistan for its nudge-nudge, wink-wink policy on terrorism.

In the first week of August, Obama had follow this up by declaring that, if elected, he would not shy away from striking inside Pakistan to take out Al-Qaida and Taliban terrorist camps. Tough words that would please New Delhi. But for Pakistan, this can only be bad news.

There is no doubt that the US under Obama is likely to crack the whip, much more sharply than what the Bush administration has done in the past few months, even as it dangles the carrot.

The carrot was, of course, non-military aid. Obama's veep nominee Joe Biden, as chairman of House Foreign Affairs Committee, had proposed non military aid worth $15 billion for Pakistan in the next 10 years. Indian analysts are sceptical whether this would actually ameliorate the depressing situation in Pakistan if the US targets Pakistan territory even on the basis of "actionable intelligence". In short, they are doubtful if the carrot-and-stick policy will work.

"Whatever the nature of financial help, it would be very difficult for a nationalist Pakistan government to accept such violations of its sovereignty. There are chances that people in the NWFP would go against the government and we will see more instability in Pakistan," says retired IFS officer Rajendra Rai who also served as India's consul-general in New York.

Possibly, for Obama democratization of Pakistan is linked inseparably with the war against terror, but many believe that this is meaningless because Obama's threats only mirror the Bush administration's current policy. And that hasn't helped.

Pakistan itself is rather nervous about the Democrats. While the government is positively inclined towards Biden, who has constantly advocated more aid for Pakistan, many in the country look upon Obama with suspicion because of his threats to strike inside Pakistan.

Obama's comments about militants, and not India, being Pakistan's main enemy is also evoking scepticism in Islamabad. While Biden is not bad news for Pakistan, the problem is that Obama is likely to be a hands-on President and the foreign policy will veer around his line of thought.

Besides, Biden's economic bailout will not come without a price. The US under Obama is likely to force Pakistan to go slow on the dispute in J&K, hitherto the country's main weapon against India. "While we may not see this happening out in the open, chances are that the US will, behind the scenes, force Pakistan not to foment more trouble in the state denying it what its military and ISI believe is the country's leverage against India," says a senior government official.

As for Afghanistan, Obama has announced that he will pull out troops from Iraq and deploy two more brigades in Afghanistan. While the decision to pull out troops from Iraq is seen as a positive sign, deploying more troops in Afghanistan can be read both ways.

The real war on terror is now taking place on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and more troops can be of help. However, as some experts argue, the US ought to have realized that there cannot be just a military solution in Afghanistan.

"Obama has also announced increasing non-military aid but it doesn't serve the purpose unless the local Pashtuns are engaged in a dialogue. They hold the key to any solution and the government of Hamid Karzai, himself a Pashtun, has lost all credibility," says a security analyst.

The Pashtuns are chary of the Karzai administration and Obama's decision to deploy more troops in the country can only stoke the fires there. It would, in all likelihood, give a greater sense of righteous purpose to the Taliban that has regrouped in Afghanistan.

Obama mulls Clinton as special envoy on Kashmir

2008-11-06T21:33:00.002-08:00

WASHINGTON: Kashmir, nuclear non-proliferation, free trade will be among the formerly touchy issues that are expected to resurface in the
prospective Obama administration's dealings with India, although officials say the tone of the exchanges on these matters will be vastly different now from yesteryears.

That's because India of 2008-2009 is a more confident and assertive country from what it was for much of the 1990s when the last Democratic administration of Bill Clinton hectored New Delhi about signing the nuclear test ban treaty and questioned the Indian narrative on Kashmir's status, even going to the extent of doubting the state's accession to the Indian union.

All that changed with the Kargil episode, when Washington finally recognized Islamabad as the serial aggressor intent on changing the status quo. Faced with a military rout, Pakistan rushed to Washington to effect a face-saving withdrawal from its misadventure that eventually changed US outlook in the region.

Now President-elect Obama has indicated he is considering appointing Clinton as a special envoy on Kashmir. While the possibility has caused disquiet in some quarters in both India and Pakistan, some officials and analysts are arguing there are actually mitigating or even positive features to the idea, insofar as India is concerned.

For one, it was Clinton who decreed before agreeing to Pakistan's plea for intervention in the Kargil crisis that the Line of Control in Kashmir will not be redrawn with blood, virtually backing India's position. In fact, the National Security official who made the pro-India call on the Kargil crisis was Bruce Riedel, a former CIA analyst, who has been part of Obama's foreign policy team.

Obama himself appears up to speed on the history of the subcontinent and the Kashmir issue, and has identified resolving the matter as a key to tempering Islamabad and concentrating its energy on the war on terror that is consuming Pakistan.

In a little noticed interview on the campaign trail last month posted on Time magazine's blog, Obama identified working with Pakistan and India to try to resolve the Kashmir issue in a "serious way" as one of the "critical tasks" for the next administration.

"Kashmir in particular is an interesting situation where that is obviously a potential tar pit diplomatically," he said, but indicating how aware it was of its complexity but saying he was in favour of devoting "serious diplomatic resources to get a special envoy in there."

Asked if it was not an ideal job for Clinton, Obama disclosed that he had already sounded out the former president on the idea when they had lunch at Harlem last month. He did reveal Clinton's mind on the matter.

Obama framed his approach to the Kashmir issue in the following manner: He would "essentially make the argument to the Indians, you guys are on the brink of being an economic superpower, why do you want to keep on messing with this? To make the argument to the Pakistanis, look at India and what they are doing, why do you want to keep being bogged down with this particularly at a time where the biggest threat now is coming from the Afghan border?"

"I think there is a moment where potentially we could get their attention. It won't be easy, but it's important," Obama said.

The presumptive US President's active interest in the issue has sent a frisson of excitement and apprehension both New Delhi and Islamabad, not to speak of in Srinagar.

In fact, there is now greater nervousness in Islamabad and Srinagar at the prospect of a US role because Pakistan and its separatist clients in Kashmir believe Washington will back the status quo, which means freezing the Line of Control as the border with some form of open or porous border to facilitate trade and movement of people.
Both anti-Indian separatists and pro-Indian nationalist Kashmiri groups are already dusting up arguments to make their case if the matter is taken
off the back burner by the Obama administration.

While the separatists are calling for a US intervention without its "anti-Muslim bias," the pro-India Kashmiri groups are calling Obama's attention to the largely unreported ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri pundits in the Valley.

"We do wish to convey to you that whatever has happened and is still happening in Kashmir is similar to the Talibanization that occurred in Afghanistan. The Islamic Jihadism that is being supported and abetted by Pakistan is still prevalent in the valley of Kashmir where minorities continue to be targeted," Lalit Koul, President of the Indo-American Kashmiri Forum said in a letter to President-elect Obama on Tuesday.

Koul maintained that the Kashmir issue was intricate and needs to be resolved bilaterally between India and Pakistan, but addressing issues of fundamentalism and terrorism in Pakistan will reinforce a sustainable solution to Kashmir as well.

Kashmir isn't the only issue that may return to the US diplomatic radar. Officials also expect a closer scrutiny of the civilian nuclear deal, not because Obama opposes it (he wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last month reiterating his support), but because Washington's non-proliferation lobby will find voice again. Indian mandarins are leery of officials such as Anthony Lake, Richard Holbrooke, Strobe Talbott and Robert Einhorn returning to the corridors of power in the new Democratic dispensation.

One official told ToI that much depended on Obama's selection of cabinet-level principals, pointing out that even under the Bush administration, there was a world of difference in ties with India under Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, as against ties during the time of her predecessor Colin Powell. But the official was confident that Obama himself was well disposed towards India "simply because of the values it represents."

Speculation swirls about Obama appointments

2008-11-06T21:33:00.001-08:00

Ap, Ians, Cnn, Washington

While President-elect Barack Obama enjoyed a few days with his family after a hard-fought election, speculation swirled in the nation's capital around potential administration appointees.

Obama pivoted quickly to begin filling out his team on Wednesday, selecting hard-charging Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel as White House chief of staff while aides stepped up the pace of transition work that had been cloaked in pre-election secrecy.

Several Democrats confirmed that Emanuel had been offered the job. While it was not clear he had accepted, a rejection would amount to an unlikely public snub of the new president-elect within hours of an electoral college landslide.

Obama he has promised to hold a news conference later in the week. As president-elect, he begins receiving highly classified briefings from top intelligence officials Thursday.

In offering the post of White House chief of staff to Emanuel, Obama turned to a fellow Chicago politician with a far different style from his own, a man known for his bluntness as well as his single-minded determination.

Emanuel was a political and policy aide in Bill Clinton's White House. Leaving that, he turned to investment banking, then won a Chicago-area House seat six years ago. In Congress, he moved quickly into the leadership. As chairman of the Democratic campaign committee in 2006, he played an instrumental role in restoring his party to power after 12 years in the minority.

Emanuel maintained neutrality during the long primary battle between Obama and Sen Hillary Rodham Clinton, not surprising given his long-standing ties to the former first lady and his Illinois connections with Obama.

The day after the election there already was jockeying for Cabinet appointments.

Filling out his economic team is a top priority for Obama as he begins to implement a strategy to quell the economic crisis.

"This is one of the first times that I can remember that the secretary of the treasury is going to be almost as important as the secretary of state," said David Gergen, a senior political analyst for CNN, who served in the Reagan and Clinton administrations.

Names circulating for the secretary of the treasury position include Timothy Geithner, Lawrence Summers and Paul Volcker, among others.

Geithner helped deal with Wall Street's financial meltdown earlier this year, overseeing the acquisition of Bear Stearns by JPMorgan Chase and the bailouts of AIG and Lehman Brothers. He was appointed president of the New York Federal Reserve in November 2003.

Summers was appointed treasury secretary in July 1999 and served as the chief economist of the World Bank from 1991 through 1993. Prior to his career in government, he taught economics at Harvard.

Volcker is a former chairman of the Federal Reserve, serving under Presidents Carter and Reagan. He also worked in the private sector as an investment banker and headed the investigation into the United Nations' oil-for-food program for Iraq.

The White House is holding an economic summit on November 15. Obama could delay naming his economic team in order to avoid interfering with the G-20 summit.

Obama's national security team is another priority as the country fights wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It could also be an area where he goes outside his party for an appointee.

Republican Sen Chuck Hagel and current Defence Secretary Robert Gates are among the names floating around for that team.

Hagel, who was elected to the Senate in 1996 and is a Vietnam veteran, has been a fierce critic of the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq war.

Several Democrats said Sen John Kerry of Massachusetts, who won a new six-year term on Tuesday, was angling for secretary of state. They spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorised to discuss any private conversations.

Kerry's spokeswoman, Brigid O'Rourke, disputed the reports. "It's not true. It's ridiculous," she said.

Announcement of the transition team came in a written statement from the Obama camp.

The group is headed by John Podesta, who served as chief of staff under former President Clinton; Pete Rouse, who has been Obama's chief of staff in the Senate; and Valerie Jarrett, a friend of the president-elect and campaign adviser.

Several Democrats described a sprawling operation well under way. Officials had kept deliberations under wraps to avoid the appearance of overconfidence in the weeks leading to Tuesday's election.

The "Obama-Biden Transition Project" will be overseen by former White House chief of staff John D Podesta; Obama friend and senior campaign adviser Valerie Jarrett; and Pete Rouse, Obama's former Senate chief of staff and top campaign aide, officials said on Thursday. It will occupy offices in Washington and in a federal building in Chicago.

The transition co-chairs will work with an advisory board stacked with Clinton veterans and Obama and vice-president elect Joe Biden allies and confidants.

On the list: former Environmental Protection Agency administrator Carol Browner; Obama friend and former Commerce Secretary William Daley, University of California-Berkeley law school dean Christopher Edley; Obama law school friends and advisers Michael Froman and Julius Genachowski; former Gore domestic policy adviser Donald Gips; Governor Janet Napolitano; former transportation secretary Federico Peña; Obama national security adviser Susan Rice and Sonal Shah of Google.org.

Mark Gitenstein and Ted Kaufman, old friends to Vice President-elect Joseph R Biden Jr, will serve as co-chairs of his transition team.

The Obama team is also launching www.change.gov, a transition news Web site.

Obama is expected to continue operating out of Chicago for most of the transition, the Post said citing an Obama source familiar with the transition process. The goal is to move "quickly, but not hastily."

The approach to appointments and other senior hires will be comprehensive, as opposed to ad hoc, which may mean that Obama will not name, say, a treasury secretary right away but will continues to rely in the short term on his current economic advisory team.

A game plan for moving forward will become clear by Friday, Obama sources tied by the Post said, and Cabinet announcements may start to trickle out next week.

The process of vetting and assembling a cabinet began well before Tuesday's election, with staff members hinting at the potential for several "outside the box" picks for top jobs.

Aides will move quickly to begin monitoring the government's various departments and agencies, obtain the necessary security clearances, and keep a close eye on any last-minute attempts by current administration officials to leave a mark on policy after President Georged Bush's term ends, the Post said.

Can Obama bring racial equality to US ?

2008-11-06T21:30:00.000-08:00

Afp, Chicago

US citizen and Kisumu residents take to the streets on Wednesday as they celebrate the victory of US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in the Nov 4 election. Obama's friends and relatives celebrated his victory with song and dance in the Kenyan family homestead of Kogelo, urging the nation's new hero to change the world and remember Kenya in the process. Photo: AFP
Ron Hilson stood alone as the streets of Chicago filled with people celebrating the election of the first black president of the United States.

People around him spoke of how Barack Obama has achieved the dream of racial equality that civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. described on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington some 45 years ago.

The country has changed, they said. Anything is possible now.

Hilson was hopeful they were right. But he'd been hopeful before. And he'd seen that hope die in 1968 when King was assassinated.

He saw drug addiction rip families and communities apart. He saw gangs turn neighbourhoods into war zones. He saw schools in inner city neighbourhoods crumble with neglect after whites fled to the suburbs.

Hilson blames the violence, crime and social problems which plague the black community on the despair which set in after the civil rights movement failed to deliver equal opportunity alongside equal rights.

While the income gap has been slowly narrowing over the past 40 years, the poverty rate for blacks is still three times that of whites and blacks are twice as likely to be unemployed as whites.

Blacks are six times more likely to be murdered than whites and seven times more likely to end up in jail.

If racial equality is to be achieved this time around, the black community will have to hold onto the hope and optimism, which erupted Tuesday night, Hilson said.

"I hope this carries on past tonight, past tomorrow, past next week," Hilson told AFP.

"If the young people would look at this as an opportunity to grow and change their ways that would help this country incredibly. Because we all need to pitch in."

Obama acknowledged that there is plenty of work ahead as he celebrated his victory in Grant Park, the site of violent clashes during the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

"This victory alone is not the change we seek - it is only the chance for us to make that change," Obama told a crowd of 240,000 supporters.

"And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It cannot happen without you."

Repairing the social damage wrought by slavery and segregation is the responsibility of the black community, said Conrad Worrill, the co-founder of the National Black United Front and a professor at Northeastern Illinois University.

Obama's election was "a historic moment in breaking down racial barriers in the United States" but it remains to be seen if "this moment in history inspires us to significantly change our behaviour and the way we treat each other," Worrill said in an interview Wednesday.

But while there is a need for people to step up and change their lives and their communities, significant structural problems must also be addressed, said Mark Sawyer, the director of the Centre for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Politics at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).

Obama's Democrats face test of power

2008-11-06T21:25:00.000-08:00

Afp, Washington

Supporters of US Democratic party elected president Barak Obama celebrate on Wednesday in the Champs-Elysees in Paris, during a rally called by CRAN (French Council Representative of Black Associations), a day after Barack Obama was declared winner of US presidential election, defeating Republican party candidate John McCain. Photo: AFP
Barack Obama's Democrats are basking in their longed-for monopoly on the US government, but now face the responsibilities and pitfalls of power as they drive a sweeping reform agenda.

Obama's emphatic win in Tuesday's presidential election, twinned with expanded majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives gives Democrats their first stranglehold on Washington since 1994.

Democrats have an ambitious agenda of getting US troops home from Iraq, middle class tax cuts, overhauling foreign policy, providing healthcare to all Americans, tackling climate change and weaning America off foreign oil.

But the clutch of deep crises afflicting the United States, including the worst financial meltdown since the 1930s, the threat of a deep recession and two foreign wars may put severe curbs on their room for manoeuvre.

"To govern is to choose, we have to chose our priorities very carefully about what is achievable and what can be done in the best possible way," said House speaker Nancy Pelosi Wednesday in her first post-election remarks.

"I believe that the aspirations that people have for themselves that they have pinned on President Obama will recognise that it will take some time to get much of this done."

President-elect Obama's team will be conscious of the danger of overreaching or of implementing an overly radical agenda, and the way Obama interprets his mandate could be key to his 2012 reelection hopes.

History provides a clear lesson.

After two years of disarray and drifting to the left, Democratic president Bill Clinton suffered punishing loses in the 1994 'Republican revolution', which put constraints on the rest of his presidency.

"I think that the Obama administration will have a pretty good recollection of recent history and probably is very familiar with that being something that ended up happening," said Andrew Dowdle, a political science professor at the University of Arkansas.

One key relationship that will likely help define Obama's early years in the White House will be that with Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Pelosi was a strong backer of the Illinois senator, but now both of them control rival centres of power in the government -- which was specifically set up by the founding fathers to dilute any one person's hold on ultimate power.

Though Democrats are in firm control of the House, their coalition is not a monolithic block, but is made up of many different interest groups.

A key role will likely be played by the "Blue Dog" Democrats -- members of the House from conservative districts, whose own political futures depend on blocking radical liberal policies by some of their colleagues.

Obama could send signals that he will not unleash the kind of sudden change that would shock swing voters by courting moderate Republicans in Congress and by appointing prominent Republicans to his administration.

"I think Obama is smart enough to understand incremental change and reaching across the aisle. I don't think he will overreach," said Dan Shea a political scientist from Allegheny College, Pennsylvania.

"There is going to be a push to reach far -- I don't think that is his style, I think it will serve him well.

"I think he understands that the country is moderate, maybe even moderate to the right.

With a handful of seats still decided, Democrats were set to increase their previous majority of 36 in the House by around 20 seats, according to television projections.

Democratic power will not be completely unchecked. Though they are set to make five or more gains in the Senate, the party will likely fall short of the magic 60 seat threshold in the 100-seat chamber needed to thwart Republican delaying tactics.

Mitch McConnell, by default the most powerful Republican in Washington, promised to work with Obama in the minority.

"I congratulate President-elect Obama and will work with him on behalf of the American people," said Republican Senate minority leader McConnell said.

Westboro Baptist Church will be picketing the funeral of Obama's grandmother

2008-11-06T12:49:00.000-08:00

WBC to picket the funeral of Madelyn
Payne Dunham, - pursuant to the
picketing laws of Hawaii or Kansas or,
etc., wherever burial occurs, - in
religious protest and warning to the
living; to wit: "Prepare to meet thy God."
Amos 4:11.
Yes. Dying time is truth time, and reflection time,
and time for meditating on the weighty issues of
life: getting right with God, life, death, Heaven, Hell,
sin, righteousness, judgment to come, etc. Obama
says his grandmother Dunham raised him, and,
her "influence on his manner and the way he
viewed the world was substantial." If so, then she
has much to answer for as she stands before the
Lord. Obama says he will use the White House as
a Bully Pulpit to advance the cause of murdering
more babies and same-sex marriage. "God hath
appointed a day, in the which He will judge the
world in righteousness by Christ." Acts 17:31.
"And shall not God avenge his own
elect, which cry to him day and night?"
Luke 18.
"For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will
recompence, saith the Lord. It is afearful thing to fall into the hands of
the living God.." Reb. 10:30,31.

Obama inherits economy in red ink

2008-11-05T23:44:00.000-08:00

Ap, Washington

Stock brokers follow the news from the US on television at the stock exchange in the central German city of Frankfurt yesterday. German shares fell by 0.88 percent to 5,231.51 points on the DAX index when trading opened following Barack Obama's US presidential victory. Photo: AFP
To the victor goes the mess. Barack Obama's presidential election victory comes with an albatross of a prize - an economy beset by a stubborn housing slump and the worst financial crisis in 70 years in the US.

Consumers and businesses are sharply reducing their spending and the government is awash in red ink.

"He will inherit an economy that is in recession and ... is likely to get worse before it gets better," said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist for PNC Financial Services.

The current administration on Wednesday will detail its plans to borrow a record $550 billion in the final three months of the year as a down payment for the various financial rescue packages put into effect in response to the global crisis.

A Treasury Department official on Monday projected the government would need to borrow an additional $368 billion in the first quarter of 2009. Treasury is expected to bring back its three-year notes to help cover the increased borrowing needs.

Still, investors seemed to draw hope Tuesday from the selection of a new presidential administration, while shrugging off the latest in a series of grim economic reports. The Dow Jones industrial average surged more than 300 points. The Dow and the other major stock indexes all finished with gains of more than 3 percent.

As election results were being announced in the U.S., Asian stocks rallied early Wednesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average climbed 2.9 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index surged 6.1 percent. South Korea's Kospi jumped 5.5 percent.

Futures trading also initially indicated a slightly firmer opening for Wall Street stocks on Wednesday. Dow futures rose 15, or 0.2 percent, to 9,602 shortly after news emerged of Obama's election win.

Analysts said investors appeared to be looking forward to the end of political uncertainty and hoping the new U.S. president will move to boost the economy, which got another bit of dismal news Tuesday.

The Commerce Department reported Tuesday factory orders dropped 2.5 percent in September from August, more than three times as much as analysts had expected. Excluding autos and aircraft, orders fell 3.7 percent, the steepest drop since 1992, when the department began tracking sector-specific changes.

The weakness was led by a heavy drop in nondurable goods orders, which fell 5.5 percent. That included a 17 percent drop in the value of petroleum and coal products, reflecting the decline in oil and gas prices in September.

Analysts said the report wasn't as bad as it looked, because much of the decline was driven by the drop in the value of oil and gas orders.

But orders for non-defence capital goods excluding aircraft, considered a good indication of business investment plans, fell 1.5 percent. That follows a 2.3 percent drop in August and indicated companies are cutting back on their investments.

US goes for change, Obama

2008-11-05T22:00:00.001-08:00

Ap, Afp, Washington

A victorious Barack Obama waves at supporters after making history by being elected the first non-white president of the United States. Photo: AFP
His name etched in history as America's first black president, Barack Obama turned from the jubilation of victory to the sober challenge of leading a nation worried about economic crisis, two unfinished wars and global uncertainty.

"The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep," Obama cautioned.

Young and charismatic but with little experience on the national level, Obama smashed through racial barriers and easily defeated Republican John McCain to become the first African-American destined to sit in the Oval Office, America's 44th president. He was the first Democrat to receive more than 50 percent of the popular vote since Jimmy Carter in 1976.

"It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment, change has come to America," Obama told a victory rally of 125,000 people jammed into Chicago's Grant Park.

Obama's hometown embraced his landmark victory Tuesday night as a dream finally come true. "It's fantastic," said Hulon Johnson, 71, a retired Chicago public school principal celebrating the election of the first black president. "I've always told my kids this was possible; now they'll have to believe me."

Young and old of every race gathered in Grant Park to watch the Illinois senator speak. At just after 11 pm, he took the stage with his wife, Michelle, and two young daughters to screams and cheers. Celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey were in the crowd.

Scenes of joy erupted in the US capital and across the country as raucous crowds poured onto the streets celebrating Barack Obama's triumph in the US election, honking horns, dancing and singing.

Obama scored an Electoral College landslide that redrew America's political map. He won states that reliably voted Republican in presidential elections, like Indiana and Virginia, which hadn't supported the Democratic candidate in 44 years. Ohio and Florida, key to Bush's twin victories, also went for Obama, as did Pennsylvania, which McCain had deemed crucial for his election hopes.

His storied election behind him and weighty problems in his face, Barack Obama turned Wednesday to the task of building an administration in times of crisis as Americans and the world absorbed his history-shattering achievement as the first black leader ascending to the presidency.

With just 76 days until the inauguration, Obama is expected to move quickly to begin assembling a White House staff and selecting Cabinet nominees. Campaign officials said Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel was the front-runner to be Obama's chief of staff. The advisers spoke on a condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made. Obama planned daily briefings, starting Thursday.

With these moves and many others to come upon him quickly, Obama enjoyed an everyman day-after in his hometown of Chicago on Wednesday after an electric night of celebration, anchored by his victory rally of 125,000 in Chicago and joyful outpourings of his supporters across the country. The president-elect saw his two young daughters off to school, a simple pleasure he's missed during nearly two years of virtually nonstop travel, and then a workout.

Obama's victory was sweetened by Democratic gains in both houses of Congress. In the Senate, Democrats ousted Republicans Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina and John Sununu of New Hampshire and captured seats held by retiring GOP senators in Virginia, New Mexico and Colorado. Democrats scored big gains in the House, as well.

When Obama and running mate Joe Biden take their oath of office on Jan. 20, Democrats will control both the White House and Congress for the first time since 1994.

"It is not a mandate for a party or ideology but a mandate for change," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said: "Tonight the American people have called for a new direction. They have called for change in America."

After the longest and costliest campaign in US history, Obama was propelled to victory by voters dismayed by eight years of George W Bush's presidency and deeply anxious about rising unemployment and home foreclosures and a battered stock market that has erased trillions of dollars of savings for Americans.

Six in 10 voters picked the economy as the most important issue facing the nation in an Associated Press exit poll. None of the other top issues energy, Iraq, terrorism and health care was selected by more than one in 10. Obama has promised to cut taxes for most Americans, get the United States out of Iraq and expand health care, including mandatory coverage for children.

Obama acknowledged that repairing the economy and dealing with problems at home and overseas will not happen quickly. "We may not get there in one year or even in one term," he said. "But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you, we as a people will get there."

McCain conceded defeat shortly after 11 pm EST, telling supporters outside the Arizona Biltmore Hotel, "The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly."

"This is an historic election, and I recognise the special significance it has for African-Americans and the special pride that must be theirs tonight," McCain said. "These are difficult times for our country. And I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face."

Obama faces a staggering list of problems, and he mentioned some of them in his victory speech. "Even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century." He spoke of parents who worry about paying their mortgages and medical bills.

"There will be setbacks and false starts," Obama said. "There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as president. And we know the government can't solve every problem."

The son of a Kenyan father and a white mother from Kansas, the 47-year-old Obama has had a startlingly rapid rise, from lawyer and community organiser to state legislator and US senator, now just four years into his first term. He is the first senator elected to the White House since John F. Kennedy in 1960.

Bush called Obama with congratulations at 11:12 pm EST. "I promise to make this a smooth transition," the president said. "You are about to go on one of the great journeys of life. Congratulations and go enjoy yourself." He invited Obama and his family to visit the White House soon.

Bush planned to make a statement about the election at mid-morning Wednesday in the Rose Garden.

With most US precincts tallied, the popular vote was 51.9 percent for Obama and 46.8 percent for McCain. But the count in the Electoral College was lopsided in Obama's favour over McCain 349 to 147 as of early Wednesday, with four states still to be decided. Those were North Carolina, Georgia and Missouri.

Obama won California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.

McCain had Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming. He also won at least 3 of Nebraska's five electoral votes, with the other two in doubt.

Almost six in 10 women supported Obama nationwide, while men leaned his way by a narrow margin, according to interviews with voters. Just over half of whites supported McCain, giving him a slim advantage in a group that Bush carried overwhelmingly in 2004.

The results of the AP survey were based on a preliminary partial sample of nearly 10,000 voters in Election Day polls and in telephone interviews over the past week for early voters.

In terms of turnout, America voted in record numbers. It looks like 136.6 million Americans will have voted for president this election, based on 88 percent of the country's precincts tallied and projections for absentee ballots, said Michael McDonald of George Mason University. Using his methods, that would give 2008 a 64.1 percent turnout rate, the highest since 65.7 percent in 1908, he said.

World leaders hailed Barack Obama's triumph Wednesday in the US presidential election as the dawn of a new era and called for the global superpower to change the way it does business.

But within hours of Obama's victory speech, Russia announced it would be aiming short-range missiles at the US missile shield in Europe, a sharp reminder of the challenges awaiting the first black US president.

Nothing however could stop the wave of optimism that spread out from the United States after Obama's victory over Republican rival John McCain.

Obama parties were staged in capitals around the world. A national holiday was declared in Kenya -- where Obama's father was born -- to welcome the first black US president. In Sierra Leone, six newborn babies were even named after the president-elect.

In city squares and living rooms, ballrooms and villages, the citizens of the world cheered the election of Barack Obama as US president, ratcheting up hopes that America's first black commander in chief would herald a more balanced, less confrontational America.

People crowded before TVs or listened to blaring radios for the latest updates. In Sydney, Australians filled a hotel ballroom. In Rio, Brazilians partied on the beach. In the town of Obama, in Japan, dancers cheered in delight when their namesake's victory was declared.

European nations applauded Barack Obama's US presidential election victory Wednesday, hopeful that it would lead to a "new deal" and energise strained transatlantic relations.

Pope Benedict XVI sent a telegram of congratulations to Obama to hail the "historic occasion".

French President Nicolas Sarkozy extended his "warmest congratulations" to the 47-year-old Democratic senator.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown welcomed the victory as an historic moment. "Barack Obama ran an inspirational campaign, energising politics with his progressive values and his vision for the future," he said.

China's President Hu Jintao said in a written message: "In a new historical era, I look forward to... taking our bilateral relationship of constructive cooperation to a new level."

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso pledged to work with the new US leader to strengthen relations.

Indian Premier Manmohan Singh called it an "extraordinary" victory while Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Obama's victory was a landmark for equality 45 years after Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech.

Obama win: IT sector hopes it's good news

2008-11-05T21:36:00.000-08:00

BANGALORE: If some Indians hold back half a hurrah out of the three for Obama, it will be on account of the US president-elect's comments previously
about bringing jobs back to the US. Statements that seemed to suggest that he is opposed to outsourcing and that India may have to live with a slower growth in the pivotal IT and business process outsourcing (BPO) businesses.

But will Obama actually discourage outsourcing, a decade long trend? Many analysts believe it will be difficult, if not impossible, for him to do anything along those lines. And that it's essentially election rhetoric that will die down very soon.

"It's not a concern for us," insists Som Mittal, chairman of IT industry body Nasscom. He believes the US' job loss concerns are primarily those related to the manufacturing sector, especially in areas like Ohio and Detroit.

"India's strengths in technology outsourcing will actually be a solution to their issue of reviving the economy. It will improve US companies' competitiveness. Besides, there's a huge shortage of technology professionals in the US. We have met Obama's advisors, and they all have a good understanding of the benefits of outsourcing," he says.

Some think the US government cannot afford to take a US-centric view on the issue, given that US companies compete globally. "For many large US firms, almost 50% of their business comes from outside the US, where they have to compete with local companies. And to do that, they will have to take advantage of outsourcing," says Girish Paranjpe, joint CEO of Wipro.

The cost advantage of outsourcing to India is huge for the US. Paranjpe estimates that US companies save as much as 30-35% through the wage arbitrage and efficiency gains that outsourcing provides. S Nagarajan, COO of one of India's biggest BPO companies 24/7 Customer, believes the savings are between 40 and 60%, depending on the complexity of the task and the place from where the work is moving from — whether an expensive Tier 1 US city or a Tier II or III city.

Many American companies also gain in another significant way: through all the hardware and other technology products that India imports from the US to build its software service and other technology businesses.

However, there are concerns that the momentum for the Indian IT/BPO industry might slow. As the US enters into recession, Americans might be willing to take on call centre jobs at significantly lower rates than before, eroding India's competitiveness.

US newspapers rush out new copies to meet demand

2008-11-05T21:34:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON: Leading US newspapers said on Wednesday they had been forced to fire up their printing presses again to keep pace with demand as
consumers sought out mementos of Barack Obama's historic election.

In the capital, about 400 people formed a queue in front of the office of The Washington Post to buy the newspaper after copies sold out across the city early in the morning.

The Post, which increased its normal print run by 30%, said it had decided to produce an extra 250,000 copies of a special commemorative edition.

"I have a two-year-old grandchild and I'm going to keep a copy for her," said Vernon Short, a 68-year-old retired military man, as he waited in the queue for the special edition.

"This is once-in-a-lifetime thing and I want to have a reminder," he said.

The New York Times said it had increased its normal morning print run by 35% but had gone back to press to produce another 75,000 copies.

At the imposing headquarters of the Chicago Tribune, a long line of people snaked out of the lobby and around the block to get their hands on its commemorative edition.

The paper restarted its presses in the morning after the initial print run of 690,000 copies sold out in the early hours.

The Tribune's vice president of operations, Becky Brubaker, said the second run would number up to 120,000 papers.

Francine Garner, 48, was at the front of the queue at The Washington Times headquarters and had been waiting there. "It's about keeping track of history and having something you can keep forever," she said.

Rima Calderon, head of communications for The Washington Post, said the events of Wednesday proved the popularity of papers in an age when many are predicting their demise in the face of online competition.

"It does say something really marvellous about the printed newspaper. When there's a historic event like last night people want a printed copy for posterity," she said.

"We didn't realize that the demand would be so large." The Chicago Sun-Times said it had printed extra "tens of thousands" of copies but had also been forced back to press.

"To meet the seemingly unending demand, several thousand extra copies are being printed," it said in an online message.

For those who were unable to buy the historic edition of their favorite paper on the street, the Internet auction house e-Bay listed hundreds of copies of the day's New York Times, Chicago Tribune and other papers for sale, many for hundreds of dollars apiece.

The high bid for a copy of The New York Times was 400 dollars. The "buy-it-now" price: 600 dollars.

"When there are key events of political significance going on, e-Bay is a great place to see how much the public are prepared to pay for these items," said Nichola Sharpe, a company spokeswoman.

Newspapers were not the only news sources in demand as CNN.com and other online news sites reported record traffic on Tuesday.

CNN.com said it received the largest daily audience in its history on Tuesday with 30 million unique visitors, more than double the previous record of 13.4 million unique visitors during the Democratic primaries on Super Tuesday.

US newspapers have been struggling in recent years with steady declines in circulation and a loss of readership and advertising to online media.

A Black Man in White House: What an idea, sirji!

2008-11-05T21:31:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON: Millions of Americans woke up on Wednesday morning in joyous disbelief, with something like that familiar line in an Indian ad ringing
in their heads: The first ever African-American president of the United States -- What an idea!

As recently as two years ago, most pundits acknowledge, that same idea sounded improbable, even preposterous. No one outside the core group of well-heeled white anglo-saxon men had come remotely close to the White House in 234 years. So what chance of a first-term senator of two years standing and bi-racial origin who had 'lucked' his way to Washington DC at age 46?

He wasn't even given a chance against Hillary Clinton in the primaries. Talking head wisdom said there would be a woman in the White House before a black man got there. He was lucky enough to be a senator, one of only half dozen African-American senators in the country's history.

That the black man bidding for the presidency was a political minnow with Hussein as a middle name and a last name that sounded like Osama made it even more unlikely. Just six years ago, as a state senator from Illinois, he did not even have a pass to enter the Democratic convention; before that, he couldn't rent a car at the airport because his credit card was maxed out.

There were ugly rumours of his Muslim background, his connection to unsavoury characters, even of his nationality and his patriotism. There were also his experiments with marijuana and cocaine during his wasteful days.

But the pundits hadn't reckoned with an intuitive political genius with a flair for powerful oratory and building bridges. He had turned adversity to advantage, growing up suddenly with the realization that his elite degrees from Columbia and Harvard could be put to better use than latching on to high paying jobs in corporate America. Now he brought all the savvy the world's finest school taught him to the political arena and hired the best talent to build a grassroots movement that people are only now beginning to understand and admire.

In the end, Barack Obama rode the perfect storm of anti-incumbency discontent, the hunger for change, and an America in social and demographic transition to fashion the most incredible electoral victory, the scope and scale of which will be discussed for decades. His most remarkable feat was to transcend racial barriers. Although he openly identified himself as an African-American or black, his politics was not aimed at solely the black electorate, like most African-American politicians tend to do.

Instead, he reached out to the new America, and this kaleidoscopic multi-hued nation, where the current white majority will be a minority by 2042 (and the current minority will be a majority) responded like never before. The Republicans tried to subtly stir up the racial angle, speaking about "real America" and "pro-America parts of the country," thinly disguised euphemisms for white support. It didn't work. They missed the change; the real America was a new America and it was not just white.

Even as recently as a few weeks back, as polls showed Obama powering ahead, talk of victory was weighed down with concern over a possible Bradley Effect -- a scenario where white voters would hold back from supporting Obama despite promising to do so. It turned out to be a false alarm. "Some Bradley Effect, huh?" grunted Republican pundit William Bennett. "The country has grown up."

What India wants from the new president

2008-11-05T21:28:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: Barack Obama enters the White House riding the crest of history. The sense of promise —of restoring America's primacy in the world — will
by and large be welcomed in India. Certainly, in large parts of the world, Obama will be a welcome change after eight years of George Bush, whose efforts to change the world as he found it had some disastrous consequences.

Obama will be a breath of fresh air in almost every part of the world. And to the extent, there is a growing convergence between the two democracies. India can only hope to benefit from a rejuvenated US leadership. Why, then, is India keeping her fingers crossed?

Over the past eight years, as George Bush wielded his scythe, in a strange sort of way, he helped to change the way the world looked at India. In many ways, the way India herself looked at India. India has gotten used to being on top of the US president's mindspace, whether as an exceptional democracy, a rising power or as the beneficiary of a unique nuclear agreement which pulled India out of a technology hole. India successfully "de-hyphenated" from Pakistan giving itself a lot of international legroom.

In an Obama administration, the India-US story could grow bigger. Or not.

There is little clarity on how the chips will fall on several issues in the Obama-India dynamic, issues that are very close to India. In order of precedence, they would be Pakistan, China, terrorism, nuclear issues, trade, all issues on which India has had a prickly relationship with the Democrat party vision.

Obama's own advisers are upbeat on the India question. Refusing to come on record on election day, those that TOI spoke to said an Obama that restores America's place in the world is exactly what India needs. "Obama is a 21st century leader. He understands that the US needs other major powers to get things done, and that certainly includes India.... Ultimately, India needs a US that is respected and able to get things done in the world, and Obama will help restore that."

But, Obama is yet to clarify his strategic vision of India. One of the reasons why the Bush presidency was good for India was that Bush proceeded from a simple premise — that India, warts and all, deserved an exception from the international system. US specialist on South Asia, Ashley Tellis, one of the main architects of the nuclear deal did a quick preview of Obama's India policy. "Obama says he will sustain the relationship with India. His administration will likely be dominated by people who view the relationship with China as the most important US relationship in Asia, and by individuals who have difficulty accepting either the legitimacy or the reality of India's nuclear weapons."

From all accounts, Obama starts out with the right ideas, of taking forward the India-US relationship. Early 2008, after an India gaffe in 2007 (when his campaign described Hillary Clinton as D-Punjab), he wrote a piece for an Indian-American newspaper where he said, "The world's oldest democracy (US) and the world's largest democracy (India) are natural partners, sharing important interests and fundamental democratic values... And that is why I will move forward to build a close strategic partnership between the US and India when I am president of the United States."

However, his commitment to removing the sources of terror from Pakistan-Afghanistan may have the unfortunate effect of reviving yet another form of "hyphenation", this time on terrorism, which will be far more dangerous, certainly so far as India is concerned.

While on the one hand he says he wants to appoint former US president Bill Clinton as his special envoy on Kashmir, in another recent interview, Obama said, "We should probably try to facilitate a better understanding between Pakistan and India and try to resolve the Kashmir crisis so that they can stay focused not on India but on the situation with those militants." This is clearly a considered position, because on September 25, in another interview to Arms Control Today, Obama said, "I will continue support of the ongoing Indian-Pakistani efforts to resolve the Kashmir problem in order to address the political roots of the arms race between India and Pakistan."

This is not music to Indian ears. It shows only one thing — that there will be a long period of painful diplomatic exchanges before the Obama administration can be made to realise that the "Kashmir problem" is just an alibi for Pakistan as it seeks to secure its objectives in Afghanistan and have its way vis-a-vis India.

Many of Obama's advisers are still in the "solve Kashmir" phase, between India and Pakistan. Why this can cause complications for India?

As the US gets more involved in disentangling Pakistan and Afghanistan from terrorism, Taliban and al-Qaida, it will be tempting, for Democrats to push a "Kashmir solution" as a carrot for Pakistan to undertake tough policies on its northwestern border. Already Pakistan army chief Ashfaque Kiyani has reportedly told US generals that he cannot concentrate whole-heartedly on two borders at once. This argument has clearly been made after Pakistan detected "fertile ground" in the Obama camp.

In his article in Foreign Affairs, Obama showed a dangerous misreading of the issue. "I will join with our allies in insisting not simply requesting that Pakistan crack down on the Taliban, pursue Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants, and end its relationship with all terrorist groups. At the same time, I will encourage dialogue between Pakistan and India to work towards resolving their dispute over Kashmir and between Afghanistan and Pakistan to resolve their differences and develop the Pashtun border region. If Pakistan can look towards the east (India) with confidence, it will be less likely to believe its interests are best advanced through cooperation with the Taliban."

India has faced this argument before and successfully defeated it thus — that Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in Afghanistan is of a piece with the violence in Kashmir. Bowing to the Pakistani argument would be tantamount encouraging Pakistan believe that terrorism as a foreign policy tool actually works. Which, of course would be disastrous to Obama's real objective of cleaning out the Taliban.

Obama, for that matter, the Democrat establishment, are eight years behind the curve on US-India relations, which are on a completely different trajectory now.

On nuclear issues, despite the nuclear deal, India is likely to find the going tough with the Obama crowd. Some of the deal's best known critics
like Strobe Talbott and Robert Einhorn are likely to find prominent jobs in the US nuclear establishment — and their dislike of the Indian nuclear deal as well as India's nuclear weapons in general is not going to lessen. If the Bush administration sought to push for an "exception" for India, a Democrat administration is likely to do what it can to mitigate it.

Remember, despite the much touted bi-partisan support for the nuclear agreement in the US Congress, all naysayers were Democrats. Obama himself is the author of one of the biggest "killer" amendments of the Hyde Act, the Obama amendment to deny lifetime supplies of nuclear fuel to Indian reactors, and needed strong political push by Bush and Manmohan to reverse it in the 123 agreement. Obama eventually voted for the deal but there's a sour note. Therefore, getting licenses from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission wont be easy, as non-proliferation wallahs use the famed American bureaucracy to roll back the effects of the nuclear deal.

There is a strong expectation that among the non-proliferation priorities of the Obama administration would be pushing through the CTBT, if he can get his own Congress to agree. That would be another pressure point for India, particularly after Manmohan Singh has gone on record to say that India would not sign the CTBT. On the other hand, Obama supports the global disarmament initiative, started by Kissinger, Perry, Schultz and Nunn. India is a strong votary of the global disarmament efforts too and this could be a better meeting point for the two sides than CTBT. South Block is more likely to push for a full disarmament position than a test ban, which it considers to be "halfway house."

The 2008 election campaign has been relatively free of "outsourcing" as an issue, but it is clear that on principle Obama would oppose outsourcing of jobs to countries like India. But here, the battle is best left to the private sector. It may be a little simplistic to suggest that Obama is categorically against outsourcing. In his speeches, he has said he wants to readjust the tax code to offer more tax incentives to companies who do not offshore jobs, but also that he did not want to close America to the "brightest and best from round the world."

More recently, he has acknowledged the inevitability of outsourcing, saying that "evolutions in communication and technology have sent jobs wherever there's an internet connection; that have forced children in Raleigh and Boston to compete for those jobs with children in Bangalore and Beijing." In fact, post financial crisis, his views are likely to soften further, as analysts suggest that outsourcing may become more necessary, to cut costs and improve productivity. But then again, he may find greater traction for his views in a weak labour market in the US.

Obama has raised the banner for "fair" trade rather than "free" trade, which has already raised eyebrows here among people who look forward to tough trade talks ahead, particularly in the unfinished Doha round. Of course much of the outsourcing is "irreversible" and the debate can safely be left to the private sector to resolve. Will Obama send out different signals on outsourcing of public sector jobs?

As a corollary, what would it mean for more professional and tech visas for Indian professionals to the US? Indian and US companies have been clamouring for more H1-B visas, but its likely that a naturally protectionist Democrat administration with their core constituency being labour unions would find it difficult to increase those numbers from present 65,000.

Then there is China. Like it or not, China and India will continue to be uttered in the same breath for a whole host of reasons. India has very uncomfortable memories of Bill Clinton in Beijing in June 1998, virtually appointing Beijing the "daroga" for South Asia.

Democrats have always viewed the US-China relationship as "special" and generally have a more welcoming view of China. This is unlikely to change particularly in a global situation where China now wields greater clout. India's foreign policy, on the other hand is increasingly going to focus on "dealing with the rise of China" and its implications for India. Whether these two world visions clash or converge need to be seen.

The next few months will tell whether the famed "transformation" of the US-India relationship will continue unabated, halted or slowed down.

Obama Wins song (T.I. - Live Your Life SPOOF)

2008-11-04T23:03:00.001-08:00

Obama Wins!
[CHORUS]
Obama wins the white house now...
Them haters yeah-- they need to sit down!!!
The Presidency... no bush understand...
'Cause every knows that you are the Man—nnnn!
So get a life...McCain! -- I won this here election!
Just get a life...Palin! -- I won this here election!
Please get a life...O'Reily! -- I won this here election!
Go get a life... Jesse! -- I won this here election!

Bill Clinton On Vice Presidential Debate 2008 HQ

2008-11-04T23:00:00.000-08:00

Gov Governor Sarah Palin vs Sen Senator Joe Biden Vice VP Presidential Debate October Oct 10/2 10/02/08 Part of 11 HQ CBS ABC NBC CNN MSNBC FOX News Gwen Ifill Global Warming Homosexuality Gay Marriage Abortion Iraq President Bush Barack Obama RNC DNC Taxes Lies Gaffe Corruption Scandal Gottcha Gotcha Journalism Republican Democrat John McCain Election 2008 SNL Saturday Night Live Tina Fey Fay Katie Couric Hannity Gibson The View Maverick Reform Elite Change Hope

Who are you going to vote for President in 2008?

2008-11-04T22:51:00.000-08:00

Who will you vote for in the U.S Presidential Election in 2008. And, if you do not live in the United States, if you did live inside the U.S. who would you vote for and why?

Obama wins Election 2008

2008-11-04T22:49:00.000-08:00

Barack Obama is confirmed as the new President of the United States of America.

ELECTION DAY Obama & McCain go nuts

2008-11-04T22:41:00.001-08:00

Obama and McCain challenge each other to a piano duel! Who wins?? You decide! Your vote, your say!

BARACK OBAMA WON US ELECTION NOV 04 2008

2008-11-04T22:40:00.001-08:00

This is so good!! Two notorious Quebec comedians have pranked Sarah Palin, tricking the Republican vice-presidential nominee into thinking she was speaking with French President Nicolas Sarkozy during a Saturday afternoon phone call.

How To Vote in The US Election. Even if you don't live there

2008-11-04T22:33:00.000-08:00

Globalvotes World Vote - Independent Polls And Surveys
You can vote for Barack Obama or John McCain, even if you don't live in the United States!

Following the script: Obama, McCain and 'West Wing'

2008-11-04T22:26:00.000-08:00

When Eli Attie, a writer for "The West Wing," prepared to plot some episodes about a young Democratic congressman's unlikely presidential bid, he
picked up the phone and called David Axelrod.

Attie, a former speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore, and Axelrod, a political consultant, had crossed campaign trails before. "I just called him and said, 'Tell me about Barack Obama,'" Attie said.

Days after Obama, then an Illinois state senator, delivered an address to the 2004 Democratic National Convention, the two men held several long conversations about his refusal to be defined by his race and his aspirations to bridge the partisan divide. Axelrod was then working on Obama's campaign for the US Senate; he is now Obama's chief strategist.

Four years later, the writers of "The West Wing" are watching in amazement as the election plays out. The parallels between the final two seasons of the series (it ended its run on NBC in May 2006) and the current political season are unmistakable. Fiction has, once again, foreshadowed reality.

Watching "The West Wing" in retrospect, viewers can see allusions to Obama in Matthew Santos, the Hispanic Democratic candidate. Santos is a telegenic fortysomething with two young children, He enters the race and eventually beats established candidates in a long primary campaign.

Comparisons between Senator John McCain and the "West Wing" Republican candidate, Arnold Vinick, a white-haired Senate stalwart with an antitax message and a reputation for delivering "straight talk" to the press, also abound.

Obama becomes first black president in landslide

2008-11-04T22:16:00.000-08:00

AP, Washington

Barack Obama was elected the nation's first black president today in a historic triumph that overcame racial barriers as old as America itself.

The son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas, the Democratic senator from Illinois sealed his victory by defeating Republican Sen John McCain in a string of wins in hard-fought battleground states — Ohio, Florida, Virginia and Iowa.

A huge crowd in Grant Park in Chicago erupted in jubilation at the news of Obama's victory. Some wept.

McCain called his former rival to concede defeat — and the end of his own 10-year quest for the White House. "The American people have spoken, and spoken clearly," McCain told disappointed supporters in Arizona.

Obama and his running mate, Sen Joseph Biden of Delaware, will take their oaths of office as president and vice president on Jan 20, 2009.

As the 44th president, Obama will move into the Oval Office as leader of a country that is almost certainly in recession, and fighting two long wars, one in Iraq and the other in Afghanistan.

The popular vote was close, but not the count in the Electoral College, where it mattered most.

There, Obama's audacious decision to contest McCain in states that hadn't gone Democratic in years paid rich dividends.

Obama has said his first order of presidential business will be to tackle the economy. He has also pledged to withdraw most US combat troops from Iraq within 16 months.

Fellow Democrats rode his coattails to larger majorities in both houses of Congress. They defeated incumbent Republicans and won open seats by turn.

The 47-year-old Illinois senator was little known just four years ago. A widely praised speech at the Democratic National Convention, delivered when he was merely a candidate for the Senate, changed that.

Overnight he became a sought-after surrogate campaigner, and he had scarcely settled into his Senate seat when he began preparing for his run for the White House.

A survey of voters leaving polling places on Tuesday showed the economy was by far the top Election Day issue. Six in 10 voters said so, and none of the other top issues — energy, Iraq, terrorism and health care — was picked by more than one in 10.

"May God bless whoever wins tonight," President Bush told dinner guests at the White House, where his tenure runs out on Jan 20.

The Democratic leaders of Congress celebrated in Washington.

"It is not a mandate for a party or ideology but a mandate for change," said Senate Majority leader Harry reid of Nevada.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said, "Tonight the American people have called for a new direction. They have called for change in America."

Indo-US relations will grow under Obama, says Congress

2008-11-04T22:15:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: The Congress today expressed confidence that the Indo-US ties, which are on a "sure and even keel", are expected to grow under the
leadership of Barack Obama, who was elected as the 44th President of the US today.

"Obama represents youthful energy, exuberant dynamism and a forward looking progressive mindset which is also the spirit animating India," Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi said.

He said the bedrock and foundation of Indo-US relations has been so strengthened by the UPA and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that bilateral ties are on a sure and even keel.

"These relations are therefore not dependent on the personality or political affiliation of any US president," Singhvi said.

Americans today elected Democrat Barack Obama as their 44th President defeating Republican rival John McCain.

BJP congratulates Obama, looks forward to warm relations
The BJP congratulated Barack Obama on his election as the US president and said it looked forward for his illustrious tenure and warm relations with India.

"We congratulate Barack Obama for being elected as the 44th president of the US," BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said.

"We look forward to an illustrious tenure and hope that he will fulfill his election promise of warm relations with India," Naqvi said.

The BJP is committed for all cooperation and believes that the new American President will pursue a relation of equality between the two large democracies in the world -- India and the US.