Barack Obama

Read the latest post-presidency news about President Barack Obama on Newser.com

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Obama Is 'Prepared to Talk to Hamas'

Secret contact under consideration: sources

(Newser) - President-elect Barack Obama is prepared to break with Bush administration policy and open lines of communication with Hamas, sources close to the transition team tell the Guardian. Advisors believe that ostracizing Hamas isn't working and support a move by Obama to quietly contact Hamas, perhaps through intelligence agencies—the same...

$800B Stimulus Too Much for GOP, Too Little for Dems

Adding to already-enormous debt worries Republicans; excess of caution has other side jumpy

(Newser) - The GOP responded today to Barack Obama’s calls for immediate action on the economy, cautioning that too bold a move could have dire consequences, the Hill reports. “Let’s not use the obvious need as a way to make the problem worse,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch...

Daschle: Health Reform About Facts, Not Ideology

Obama nominee pledges bipartisan effort despite controversial plan

(Newser) - Barack Obama’s pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services promised today a bipartisan effort to reform health care, the New York Times reports. “When it comes to health care, we really are in it together,” Tom Daschle said during Senate confirmation hearings, where chairman Ted Kennedy...

Obama Serves Reid Humble Pie, Chicago Style
Obama Serves Reid Humble Pie, Chicago Style
OPINION
Jan 8, 2009 2:02 PM CST

Obama Serves Reid Humble Pie, Chicago Style

President-elect's reversal on Burris straight from rough-and-tumble Windy City roots

(Newser) - Barack Obama served Harry Reid up a Chicago-style, deep-dish slice of humble pie this week, telling the Senate majority leader to seat Roland “Tombstone” Burris, John Kass writes in the Chicago Tribune. Reid, for his part, “scarfed it down in front of reporters, without a fork, all but...

Scarlett: 'I'm Not Pregnant'


 Scarlett: 'I'm
 Not Pregnant' 
GLOSSIES
Jan 8, 2009 11:59 AM CST

Scarlett: 'I'm Not Pregnant'

Actress not pregnant, not dishing on wedding

(Newser) - Scarlett Johansson wants to run a brothel—in the movies, that is. “It's only so long that people are going to want to see me in a corset. So I might as well do it now,” she tells Harper’s Bazaar. The famously tight-lipped actress also addresses rumors—...

Obama Pitch: We're Doomed Without Stimulus

(Newser) - Barack Obama went for the hard sell today, making the case for his huge stimulus plan. “I don't believe it's too late to change course,” Obama said in a speech at George Mason University, “but it will be if we don't take dramatic action as soon as...

Obama Fills West Wing With Powerful Czars
Obama Fills West Wing With Powerful Czars
analysis
Jan 8, 2009 9:58 AM CST

Obama Fills West Wing With Powerful Czars

Critics warn of collision between Cabinet, top advisers in key jobs

(Newser) - Stories of agencies working on the same projects and not bothering to coordinate dog every presidential administration, but Barack Obama has an ambitious plan to avoid all that: He’s concentrating power over domestic issues in the hands of White House advisers. “It really is a way of him...

79% Support Obama Stimulus Plan, Poll Says

And public places more confidence in him than in Congress

(Newser) - Most Americans favor Barack Obama's pricey antidotes for the economy, and they like him better than his pals in the legislative branch, Politico reports. A recent poll says 79% back Obama's fiscal plans, which include a $775 billion injection into infrastructure and alternative energy. The president-elect's favorable rating sits high...

Obama Targets Social Security, Medicare

Faced with trillion-dollar deficit, president-elect vows reform, trims

(Newser) - In his first foray into the hazardous terrain of entitlement programs, Barack Obama said yesterday that his administration would overhaul Social Security and Medicare to clamp down on government spending. At a news conference and in a subsequent interview with the New York Times, the president-elect said, "If we...

Obama Pushed Dems to Take Burris

Aides made calls to senior senators before today's decision

(Newser) - Barack Obama may have had something to do with the Senate’s apparent about-face on Roland Burris, a congressional aide tells the Huffington Post. Obama reps contacted senior Democrats before they began moving today towards accepting the Blagojevich appointee, despite the Illinois governor’s ongoing corruption case. After meeting with...

39, 41, 42, 43, 44 Have Lunch at the White House

Bush wishes Obama success in the future

(Newser) - Barack Obama met with a pair of George Bushes, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter today for a photo-op and lunch at the White House, the Chicago Tribune reports. "I want to thank the president-elect for joining the ex-presidents for lunch,'' Bush said, looking to Obama. "And one...

Inaugural Parade a 'Staggering' Challenge

'Nobody has ever worried about where to put 10,000 buses before,' says Obama planner

(Newser) - The inauguration of Barack Obama will be a historic occasion, but some involved have other things on their minds, USA Today reports. “Nobody has ever worried about where to put 10,000 buses before,” said Peter Gage, an aide charged with planning the Jan. 20 Inaugural Parade. Some...

Reid Backs Off, Leaves Burris to Court

Has 'no problem with him personally'

(Newser) - A far cry from the political shunning of just days ago, Majority Leader Harry Reid ushered would-be senator Roland Burris into his office this afternoon, and emerged saying that an Illinois court decision could go a long way toward seating the Blagojevich appointee. “We don't have a problem with...

US 2009 Deficit at Least $1.2T
 US 2009 Deficit at Least $1.2T 
Jan 7, 2009 11:19 AM CST

US 2009 Deficit at Least $1.2T

(Newser) - This fiscal year, which started in October, will see the US running a budget deficit of at least $1.2 trillion, the largest ever, the Washington Post reports. That number could swell to $1.6 trillion if Barack Obama’s massive $800 billion stimulus plan is approved by Congress. The...

Stimulus Widens Unemployment Coverage

Part-timers would be eligible; plan expands health-care options

(Newser) - The Obama stimulus plan will include a $7 billion provision intended to force states to extend unemployment insurance to part-time workers, reports the Wall Street Journal. A separate plan subsidizes COBRA payments and allows uninsured workers who get laid off to buy into Medicaid, and all three measures are riling...

Panetta Pick Raises Intel Hackles

Obama defends CIA choice from critics who call him inexperienced

(Newser) - Barack Obama’s choice of former Clinton White House chief of staff Leon Panetta to run the CIA is catching some flak from intelligence professionals, the Washington Post reports. Panetta has no direct experience with intelligence-gathering; says an anonymous official who worked with Bill Clinton’s national-security team while Panetta...

Obama Names New 'Chief Performance Officer'

Picks a consultant to be budget watchdog

(Newser) - Warning that the nation faces “trillion-dollar deficits for years to come” even if the economy begins to recover soon, Barack Obama said today he will create a “chief performance officer” position to ensure "efficiency, transparency, and accountability" in the budget process, and he named Nancy Killefer to...

Networks Prep for Mega Inaugural

Exhuastive coverage of historic inauguration planned

(Newser) - TV networks are gearing up to cover what could be the most-watched presidential inauguration in history, the New York Times reports. The major networks are planning exhaustive coverage. Channels not known for political coverage like MTV, BET, and Nickelodeon plan to send reporters, and even the Home Shopping Network is...

VIP Guest House Occupant Who Kicked Obamas to a Hotel Is...

... Uh, Australia's ex-PM John Howard

(Newser) - The VIP who blocked Barack Obama from moving into the White House guest house turns out to be George Bush pal and former Australian prime minister John Howard, the Washington Post reports. The Obamas, now staying in a posh Washington hotel, asked to move into Blair House early but were...

Biden: Handling of Panetta a 'Mistake'

(Newser) - Joe Biden defended the pick of Leon Panetta to head the CIA but offered an apology of sorts for the way it was handled, Politico reports. “I think it was just a mistake,” Biden said of not informing top Democrats of the choice, which led to a chiding...

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