Obama 2008

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May 2009
- 'Nutty Old White Men' Vex GOP With Sotomayor Slams
  
  CQPolitics | May 28, 09 2:52 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - GOP operatives opposed to Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor aren’t happy about the “help” they’re getting from Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh, CQ Politics reports. Limbaugh called the nominee a “bigot” for saying “a wise Latina woman” will often make better decisions than a white man. “We’re going to attack Sotomayor with charges of reverse racism?” a Republican insider sputtered. “That’s nutty old white man talk.” More »
- Obama Loses 'Empathy' Line After GOP Sullies Phrase
  
  New York Times | May 28, 09 12:58 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - “Empathy” was a key part of President Obama’s vocabulary when he first started talking about his Supreme Court nominee, Sheryl Gay Stolberg writes in the New York Times , but the word has disappeared. “Conservatives have hijacked empathy and turned it into an epithet,” Stolberg writes. When introducing Sonia Sotomayor, Obama spoke in “long-winded phrases” that can’t “be reduced into a convenient buzzword for the opposition.” More »
- Hyperbolic Newt's Antics Highlight Desperate GOP
  
  American Prospect | May 27, 09 2:13 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Newt Gingrich is back, and he’s here to stay. “It’s Gingrich time,” Paul Waldman writes for the American Prospect . That’s not a good thing, for the Republicans or the country. “This is Newt's time again not only because there's a leadership vacuum in the GOP but because the Republicans are back in opposition, and nobody opposes quite like Newt,” Waldman writes. “He is a master of the contemptuous sneer.” More »
- US Likely to Own 70% of Bankrupt GM
  
  New York Times | May 26, 09 4:57 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - If General Motors goes into bankruptcy next Monday—as is widely expected—the US government will own 70% of the automaker, the New York Times reports. Under a plan that GM officials detailed today to union members, the UAW would take a 17.5% stake though its health care fund, with a potential for 2.5% more. Bondholders, who have more money at risk than the UAW, would get just 10% of GM. More »
- Obama: Court Pick Will Go Beyond 'Ivory Tower' Smarts
  
  Bloomberg | May 23, 09 10:05 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - President Obama said today he would be announcing his nominee to the Supreme Court “soon” and hopes to have the new justice confirmed by Congress’ August recess, Bloomberg reports. In a C-SPAN interview, Obama laid out his criteria, which includes not only “ivory tower learning” but also empathy. “You have to be able to stand in somebody else’s shoes and see through their eyes and get a sense of how the law might work or not work in practical day-to-day living.” More »
- Obama Talks Terror at Navy Graduation
  
  Wall Street Journal | May 22, 09 12:36 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - President Obama reiterated his wish to close Guantanamo Bay and rein in harsh interrogation techniques in an address today to graduates of the Naval Academy, the Wall Street Journal reports. “We uphold our fundamental principles and values not because we choose to, but because we swear to,” he said. “Not because they feel good but because they help keep us safe.” More »
- Biden's Big Mouth Irks Obama: Book
  
  Fox News | May 21, 09 2:56 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The rocky relationship between President Obama and Joe Biden comes under scrutiny in a new book by a Newsweek reporter, Fox News reports. In Renegade: the Making of a President , Richard Wolffe writes that Obama is “distracted by his vice president's indiscipline” and has had to personally rebuke his gaffe-prone No. 2. “He can't keep his mouth shut,” an aide told Wolffe. More »
- Dems Won't Fund Gitmo Closing
  
  Associated Press | May 19, 09 12:33 PM CDT
  
  (AP) - President Obama's allies in the Senate will not provide funds to close the Guantanamo Bay prison by January, a top Democratic official said today. With debate looming on Obama's spending request to cover military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the official says Democrats will deny the Pentagon and Justice Department $80 million to relocate Guantanamo's 240 detainees. More »
- On Gays in Military, Obama Moves Slowly
  
  Wall Street Journal | May 19, 09 8:47 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - On gays in the military, President Obama is stalling. During the campaign, he promised to repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy instituted as a compromise early in President Clinton’s term. Now that he’s got the chance, the Wall Street Journal reports , he’s being cagey. His spokesman says he wants to change the policy by legislation, not presidential fiat. More »
- Steelers Star Passes on Obama Visit
  
  WTAE TV4 (Pittsburgh) | May 18, 09 4:06 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Linebacker James Harrison, the NFL defensive player of the year and a key cog in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Super Bowl victory this year, won’t accompany his team to the White House this week, WTAE-TV reports. Harrison also turned down the honor when Pittsburgh won in 2006. “If you want to see the Pittsburgh Steelers,” Harrison said, “invite us when we don’t win the Super Bowl.” More »
- Biden: Secret Bunker? What Secret Bunker?
  
  Politico | May 18, 09 2:49 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Joe Biden did not—repeat, not—disclose the existence of a bunker at the Naval Observatory used by former VP Dick Cheney, Politico reports. “What the vice president described in his comments was not—as some press reports have suggested—an underground facility,” a Biden aide said today. Rather, it is an “upstairs workspace” Biden “understood was frequently used by Vice President Cheney.” It is now a guest room. More »
- Palestinians Must Accept Israel: Netanyahu
  
  Associated Press | May 18, 09 2:09 PM CDT
  
  (AP) - In a White House meeting today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he is ready to resume peace talks with the Palestinians immediately, but any agreement is contingent on their acceptance of Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. Netanyahu and President Obama met for more than two hours and focused on Mideast peace talks, Iran's nuclear program, and the US-Israeli relationship. More »
- GOP Takes Aim at Obama High Court Noms
  
  New York Times | May 16, 09 2:41 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Republican groups have already prepared dossiers and attack strategies on a host of possible Obama Supreme Court nominees, the New York Times reports. Ten memos obtained by the Times —all about female judges and scholars—focus on records of abortion rights, gay rights, and the citing of foreign laws. Weakened conservative groups don't expect to defeat Obama's nominee, but hope to galvanize the GOP. More »
- 'Rasputin' Axelrod Razzed on NPR Quiz Show
  
  Politico | May 15, 09 4:25 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Obama adviser David Axelrod took the bait and appeared for a taping last night of NPR’s quiz show, Wait, Wait … Don’t Tell Me! —with by turns earnest and hilarious results, Politico reports. When host Peter Sagal asked if he’d been in on the presidential pooch decision, Axelrod demurred. “I was only called in for the final three, and one was Miss California,” he said. More »
- First Fox: Michelle Hits Maxim 's Hot 100 List
  
  AFP | May 15, 09 2:05 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - First lady Michelle Obama has joined the rarefied ranks of Maxim ’s 100 hottest women in the world, AFP reports. Obama, who comes in at 93 on the list, is described in the lad mag as the “stimulus package America really needs.” She's the first first lady to receive the honor, but gawkers shouldn’t get too excited. Her portrait in the magazine is the not-so-steamy White House official photograph. More »
- Pelosi's CIA Charges Hardly Jibe With Obama Talk Points
  
  Washington Post | May 14, 09 2:44 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Nancy Pelosi’s accusation that the CIA lied to Congress about waterboarding will likely have broad political consequences, Chris Cillizza writes in the Washington Post . In the short term, Pelosi has stolen President Obama’s thunder on credit-card reform and could force the early announcement of a Supreme Court nominee as a distraction. It could also ignite a debate on Bush-era torture that Obama had sought to avoid. More »
- Obama Wants Health Care Bill by Year's End
  
  Wall Street Journal | May 13, 09 12:31 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - President Obama today called on lawmakers to send him a health care reform bill before the end of the year, the Wall Street Journal reports. “We've got to get it done this year,” the president said in a meeting with House Democrats. “We don't have any excuses, the stars are aligned.” He also applauded Nancy Pelosi’s pledge that the House will introduce legislation before the August recess. More »
- White House Rips Sykes' 9/11-Limbaugh Joke
  
  Politico | May 11, 09 7:50 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Press Secretary Robert Gibbs today distanced the administration from 9/11-related comments made by comedian Wanda Sykes at the White House Correspondents dinner, Politico reports. Some things “are better left for serious reflection,” Gibbs said. “There's no doubt 9/11 is part of that.” Sykes suggested that “Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker, but he was just so strung out on Oxycontin he missed his flight.” More »
- Obama's Brainwashing You With This Photo
  
  American Thinker Blog | May 11, 09 2:52 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The release of an “Air Farce One” image is a calculated move by a White House that hopes to brainwash citizens with “the Messianic omnipotence of the Obama presidency,” Victor J. Massad writes on American Thinker. With the Statue of Liberty confined to the lower background, “the Leader’s magnificently powerful icon, glistening like a phoenix in the sun” reminds us that “we must put the federal government and its needs ahead of our paltry individual freedoms.” More »
- White House Aide Quits in Flyover; Gates Sorry
  
  Los Angeles Times | May 8, 09 5:18 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Robert Gates has apologized for the Air Force One photo op debacle over New York last week, the Los Angeles Times reports. “We deeply regret the anxiety and alarm that resulted from this mission,” the defense secretary wrote in a letter posted on the website of John McCain, who has called the flyover an "Air Farce One photo op." Meanwhile, the incident has cost the head of the White House Military Office, who OK'd it, his job, the New York Times reports. More »