New, big challenges confront Obama the candidate

New, big challenges confront Obama the candidate
WASHINGTON — He promised change, and he looked the part. No longer. The Barack Obama of 2011 is a chief executive who confronts enormous challenges, chief among them The Economy, as he starts building a re-election campaign far different from the juggernaut of optimism and trajectory that vaulted him to the White House. He's the Incumbent facing the daunting task of convincing a nation burdened by high Unemployment that he has delivered change, made the right moves and earned the chance ...

New, big challenges confront Obama the candidate (AP)
WASHINGTON – No longer the political phenomenon who promised change and looked the part, President Barack Obama confronts enormous challenges, chief among them The Economy, as he starts building a re-election campaign different from the juggernaut that vaulted him to the White House. Now he's the Incumbent facing the daunting task of convincing a nation burdened by high Unemployment that he has delivered change, made the right moves and earned the chance to continue the job. "Ultimately,...

New, big challenges confront Obama the candidate
WASHINGTON (AP) - No longer the political phenomenon who promised change and looked the part, President Barack Obama confronts enormous challenges, chief among them The Economy, as he starts building a re-election campaign different from the juggernaut that vaulted him to the White House. Now he's the Incumbent facing the daunting task of convincing a nation burdened by high Unemployment that he has delivered change, made the right moves and earned the chance to continue the job. "Ultimately, ...

New, big challenges confront Obama the candidate
WASHINGTON—He promised change, and he looked the part. No longer. The Barack Obama of 2011 is a chief executive who confronts enormous challenges, chief among them The Economy, as he starts building a re-election campaign far different from the juggernaut of optimism and trajectory that vaulted him to the White House. He's the Incumbent facing the daunting task of convincing a nation burdened by high Unemployment that he has delivered change, made the right moves and earned the chance to ...

New, big challenges confront Obama the candidate
WASHINGTON (AP) — No longer the political phenomenon who promised change and looked the part, President Barack Obama confronts enormous challenges, chief among them The Economy, as he starts building a re-election campaign different from the juggernaut that vaulted him to the White House. Now he’s the Incumbent facing the daunting task of convincing a nation burdened by high Unemployment that he has delivered change, made the right moves and earned the chance to continue the job. ...

Reid doubts McConnell is focused on Obamas defeat
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid says he doesn’t think top Republican Mitch McConnell is serious when he says his No. 1 goal is to make Barack Obama a one-term president. Reid, D-Nev., says he believes McConnell, R-Ky., is more concerned with The Economy, Immigration and other problems facing the country. McConnell has drawn criticism from Democrats for saying that denying Obama a Second Term is his chief priority. Reid says that if Republicans have made defeatin...

Change Comes To the White House?
The appointments of Gene Sperling as the director of the National Economic Counci and Bill Daley as new Chief of Staff ratify what many have been speculating - the Obama Administration is undergoing a decisive and radical change in approach. Make no mistake, Bill Daley has never been a supporter of the kind of policies President Obama pursued last year. And indeed, in a December 2009 Washington Post Oped, he counseled the administration and the Democratic leadership against moving too far ...

Strawn to continue leading Republicans
The Iowa Republican Party's current leader has won a Second Term. Chairman Matt Strawn didn't face any challengers in his re-election bid. The party's State Central Committee agreed to retain Strawn on Saturday. This will be the first time in eight years that an Iowa GOP chairman served more than one term. Strawn says he wants to build on the GOP's success in the November Elections. No Incumbent Republican lost at the congressional, statewide or legislative level in Iowa in November.

Tea Party rules Washington as Barack Obama braces for savage cuts
Dick Armey’s black, lizard-skin cowboy boots lay on the floor while he relaxed on the couch in stockinged feet. The former Texas congressman was in a jovial mood in his office just off the Washington Mall - and for good reason. He may no longer be a politician but as chairman of FreedomWorks, one of the main forces behind the conservative Tea Party movement, he is once more a major player in the new Washington DC. “My wife likes the terminology of a ‘Paradigm Shift’...

White House braces for savage cuts
Republican John Boehner receives the gavel from outgoing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Dick Armey's black, lizard-skin cowboy boots lay on the floor while he relaxed on the couch in stockinged feet. The former Texas congressman was in a jovial mood in his office just off the Washington Mall - and for good reason. He may no longer be a politician but as chairman of FreedomWorks, one of the main forces behind the conservative Tea Party movem...

Earnings to set tone, upside may be limited
By Ryan Vlastelica NEW YORK | Sat Jan 8, 2011 7:12pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors head into next week on the defensive as the potential for U.S. equity gains could be limited even if earnings begin on a strong note. The early fourth-quarter results will set the tone. Any weakness will give traders a reason to pull back from the rally of recent weeks, which stalled on Friday on bank stock losses and lackluster jobs data. Still, the major indexes finished with a sixth straight week of gai...

Earnings to set tone, upside may be limited
By Ryan Vlastelica NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors head into next week on the defensive as the potential for U.S. equity gains could be limited even if earnings begin on a strong note. The early fourth-quarter results will set the tone. Any weakness... UPDATE 5-Banks lose key Foreclosure ruling in top Mass. court People leave the Alcoa Business Services Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania February 13, 2007. NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors head into next week on the defensive as the potential for ...

A retooled White House
Barack Obama's White House is looking more like Bill Clinton's every day. Last week, for example, President Obama named William M. Daley as White House Chief of Staff and Gene Sperling as Economic Policy czar. Daley is a former Clinton Cabinet secretary and Chicago Banker who plants himself squarely in the center of the political spectrum. Sperling was a top Clinton advisor for all eight years of that tumultuous presidency. Obama has even accepted a bit of private coaching from Clinton himself s...

Schapiro: Governor's style problematic
As one of the few senior gubernatorial aides who knows his way around the General Assembly, Finkbeiner has done a disproportionate amount of heavy lifting for the boss, including the complex, hugely time-consuming — and unsuccessful — first stab at getting Virginia out of the liquor business. That flop showed, among other things, that Finkbeiner, a usually affable workaholic and the closest thing on McDonnell's staff to an eminence grise, can't do it all. Help may be on the way. Admi...

Braun again finds herself scrutinized on personal finances
Releasing a Candidate's Tax Returns to the public during a campaign is often a routine step, meant to show voters the Candidate's affairs are in order and give an idea of what kind of money manager he or she would make. But Carol Moseley Braun's slow release last week of four years of partial Income Tax returns served more to rekindle the financial questions that have troubled her Political Career since her successful U.S. Senate campaign in 1992. The renewed focus comes as Braun seeks to convi...

Detroit, state move ahead on changes
Michigan so aches for change that it swept into the Governor's office a political novice whose only credentials were that he is a tough nerd, a businessman with few strings attached to Special Interests and a leader hankering to reinvent the state. Detroit so aches for change that it swept into the mayor's office a political novice whose only credentials were that he was a businessman with few strings attached to Special Interests and a leader hankerin...

Too Many Crooks Unchecked
Robert Gibbs, White House Press Secretary, is on his way out—either being pushed out or jumping ship—as noted by Toby Harnden, writing for The Daily Telegraph. Citing The Child Emperor’s own words, it was “not an entirely voluntary departure”. According to Harnden, CNN’s John King is reporting that “Fibbs” had aspirations of becoming a presidential counselor. Not so fast. William Daley, the newly appointed Chief of Staff, slammed on the brakes for ...

Obama: a $172,000 income is modest [Reader Post]
Nearly all Democrats insist that anyone making $250,000 a year is wealthy. They have incited anger and even violence over the issue. Venture Capitalist Garrett Gruener says “I’m rich, tax me more.” Warren Buffett, one of the wealthiest men on the planet, say the rich should pay more in taxes. Never mind that the top 1% of earners pays 41% of federal taxes. Never mind that about 50% of the country pays no federal taxes at all. (For a nice breakdown on this, visit here) Wealthy ...

What the Bill Daley hire tells us about the White House
The best of the best of state-based political blogs -- as of April 2009. The hiring of former Commerce Secretary William Daley as White House Chief of Staff is a telling indication of where President Obama sees himself and where he wants to go between now and his 2012 re-election race. 1. Liberals, schmiberals : Much was written during the lame-duck session of the 111th Congress about the relationship (or lack thereof) between President Obama and the liberal left. The selection of Daley is furt...

Friday Hitzenmisses
It’s another one of those sloooow news days with no big stories but a few little ones. Here we go: He’s baa-ack! Rudy gearing up for DC run Confident that he’d have a chance to win, Rudy Giuliani is rounding up his top political advisers for a possible 2012 presidential run, sources tell Page Six. Sources say the tough-talking former mayor “thinks the Republican race will be populated with far-right Candidates like Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee, and there&#...

The Impact of 2010 State Governmental Elections on Frontloading: Part Two
Yesterday's post on the prevalence of unified government in State Governments following the 2010 Elections set the stage for a further examination of the influence that will have on the likelihood of proposed bills that may shift the dates on which presidential primaries and caucuses will be held. Now, there are a fair number of factors that come into play in the frontloading decision-making calculus of any state legislature (or ultimately the state government). For the time being, FHQ will foc...

Andrew Levine: Delusions: What Obama Apologists and Tea Party Supporters Have In Common
What a spectacle Washington has become! Democrats fall over themselves capitulating to Republicans, expressly as with Obama's "Compromise" on taxes or, more often, preemptively; while establishment Republicans, fearing the wrath of their useful idiots, capitulate to Tea Partiers, who therefore call the shots. Such Democracy as we have had has always been a tenuous achievement thanks to institutions that make it difficult for the will of the people to prevail, and thanks to the inequalities gen...

What Congressional Republicans are dead set against
A successful Repeal of Health Care reform would revert us back to the old system for financing and delivering Health Care and lead to substantial increases in total medical spending. The consequences of this spending increase would be far reaching. It would hurt family incomes, jobs, and Economic Growth. Repealing health reform would: · Increase medical spending by $125 billion by the end of this decade and add nearly $2,000 annually to family Insurance Premiums · Destroy 250,000...

Commerce Dept. to issue Americans internet ID
Image via Wikipedia CNET: President Obama is planning to hand the U.S. Commerce Department authority over a forthcoming cybersecurity effort to create an Internet ID for Americans, a White House official said here today. It's "the absolute perfect spot in the U.S. government" to centralize efforts toward creating an "identity ecosystem" for the Internet, White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt said. That news, first reported by CNET, effectively pushes the department to the foref...

NBA: Chicago 90, Boston 79
Rose had his best offensive night since October, hitting 10-of-19 shots from the field and 15-of-19 from the free-throw line. Carlos Boozer added 22 points and 10 rebounds for the Bulls. Paul Pierce led the Celtics with 21 points, while Ray Allen had 19. The victory ended Chicago's two-game Losing Streak and the Celtics' four-game win skein. Anybody lose a dog? It is mostly white - Looks like a Foxhound or maybe part Pointer U.S. President Barack Obama announces William Daley (R) as his new chie...