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Katie Connolly
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Nov 12, 2009 04:21 PM
Today, just before jumping on Air Force One for his nine-day trip to Asia, the president announced that he'll convene a
"jobs summit" in December. Amid rising joblessness, the summit will
ostensibly aim to figure out ways to create new jobs and stem the flow
of recession-induced layoffs. The president will invite CEOs,
economists, unions, and small-business leaders to meet with
administration officials at the White House to discuss the issue. "It's
important that we don't make any ill-considered decisions—even with the
best intentions—particularly at a time when our resources are so
limited. But it's just as important that we are open to any
demonstrably good idea to supplement the steps we've already taken to
put America back to work. That's what this forum is about," Obama told
reporters today.
Is
it a good idea? Yes. Having key stakeholders put their heads together,
or at least communicate about the problem, will undoubtedly produce
some interesting ideas and spark important conversations. But is it a
good idea for Obama? That's questionable. The "optics" of the
summit—those elusively defined, fuzzy readings of events that pundits
like to bang on about—might just work against him
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Holly Bailey
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Oct 28, 2009 11:17 AM
Guess who’s finally joining the administration? At the White House today, President Obama will announce that he’s naming former GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel as cochair of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, which oversees the intel community. First reported by Foreign Policy, Hagel’s move had been rumored for months—though when asked by NEWSWEEK about his status earlier this month, he declined to talk about it. “I won’t talk about my conversations with the president,” Hagel said. The Vietnam veteran, who retired from the Senate last year, did not endorse Obama or his other close friend John McCain during last year’s presidential race. Yet it was no secret that Hagel’s views were more closely aligned to Obama’s than McCain’s, especially on foreign policy. Hagel, who initially supported the invasion of Iraq, ultimately became one of the war’s most outspoken critics. In the summer of 2008, he traveled with Obama on the Democrat’s first overseas tour, visiting Afghanistan and Iraq, and has been an informal adviser and confidant to Obama ever since. In recent months, he has counseled both Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, another close friend, as the White House considers a strategy change in Afghanistan. Hagel's cochair will be former Democratic senator David Boren, once chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee who currently serves as president of the University of Oklahoma.
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Holly Bailey
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Oct 23, 2009 07:32 AM
Annie Leibovitz has been spending a lot of time at the White House lately, and now we know why. The famed photographer, in the headlines lately for drama over her personal finances, shot the official Obama family portrait, which was posted on the White House’s Flickr account this morning. Leibovitz has been trailing Obama for months. In January, she shot a major portfolio for Vanity Fair of Obama and his staff. She’s been spotted sporadically at the White House ever since, including earlier this month when she was accidentally body-checked by another press pool photographer while shooting Obama at a Democratic fundraising event. (Yes, covering the White House can be a lot like hockey.) No word on how much the portrait cost, though Leibovitz's rates reportedly exceed $100,000 a day. We're guessing the White House got a decent discount.
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Ben Adler
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Oct 14, 2009 09:00 AM
OK. Granted, the GQ list of the 50 most powerful people D.C. is no more definitive, or less arbitrary, than any other such list. And, granted, President Obama is not the boss of many of the people on the list. But it's rather striking to see that the list is about as white and male as ever. There is no woman above No. 8 (Nancy Pelosi) and no one who isn't white above No. 13 (Attorney General Eric Holder). Wasn't 2008 supposed to be the election that changed all that? Remember Hillary Clinton's 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling? (Coincidentally, Secretary Clinton only ranks 18th on the list.)
Maybe this tells you as much about how GQ's staff thinks as it does about diversity and power in politics. Even the token sports figure—a hockey player—is comically white! Hockey? That ranks somewhere between NASCAR and professional bowling on the list of things people in D.C. think about.
But ask a bunch of politicos to name the most important players in town and everyone at the top of GQ's list would be mentioned. The bald, white pates in GQ's slideshow reflect a very different demographic than the one that put Obama in office. Women are more likely to vote Democratic than men. African-Americans, Asian-Americans, and Latinos are all more likely to vote Democratic than whites, and young people swung enormously for Obama. Wasn't Obama's election supposed to usher into D.C. a bunch of diverse youngsters?
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Newsweek
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Oct 5, 2009 02:49 PM
by Suzanne Smalley
About a month ago it was Ben Bernanke, the chair of the Federal Reserve Board, who was making headlines
as a victim of identity theft. This month it’s the White House and
the National Archives on the hot seat for losing track of former staffers’
names and Social Security numbers, among other things. Imagine my
surprise this weekend when I opened a nondescript white envelope from
the National Archives and Records Administration only to find out that
my Social Security number and other private information had been lost
by the U.S. government sometime in the past year. Not only was my
identity information floating around in government computers nearly 15
years after I interned at the White House, but it took the National
Archives a full six months from the date it discovered the loss to even inform me about it. Who can we trust to keep our information safe these days?
The archives’ letter didn’t say if another person who happened to be a White House intern at the same time, Monica Lewinsky,
has also had her security breached, but based on what it did say, I’m
betting it was. According to the letter, dated Sept. 29, the archives discovered “in late March 2009 that an external hard drive
containing copies of backup tapes from the Clinton Administration is
missing from our College Park, Maryland facility. Although no original
information has been lost, we are writing to you because we have
determined that personal information identifiable to you, including
your Social Security number, may have been exposed to others as a
result of this incident.”
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Ben Adler
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Sep 21, 2009 05:02 PM
Paterson greeted Obama when he arrived in New York today. (Jim Watson / AFP / Getty Images)
Big news up here in New York this weekend was that President Obama has taken the unusual measure of intervening in a statewide Democratic primary. New York Governor David Paterson, the first African-American governor in New York's history, faces terribly low approval ratings and the White House privately asked him to drop out of his re-election bid in 2010. On Sunday, just before Obama arrived here for the U.N. General Assembly, Paterson rebuffed him, saying publicly that he is staying in the race, which made for an awkward scene today. Normally in New York, where Democrats hold a 5-3 advantage in voter registration and the state Republican Party has been in disarray, Democrats do not have much to worry about statewide elections. But Paterson looks vulnerable, so former Republican Senatorial candidate Rick Lazio is expected to announce his candidacy and Rudy Giuliani could also get into the race.
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Katie Connolly
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Sep 21, 2009 04:44 PM
Liberals were disappointed when Max Baucus's long awaited health-care
bill was unveiled last week without a public option. Baucus had instead
included not-for-profit co-ops has his preferred mechanism for
providing affordable coverage to the uninsured. Rep. Anthony Weiner
(D-NY) gave voice to the general feeling on the Congressional left when
he pronounced the Baucus plan "dead on arrival", largely because of
it's lack of a public plan. But now amendments to the Finance Chair's
bill are flooding in (there's over 560 of them), and Maine Republican
Olympia Snowe is offering some relatively progressive revisions,
including reviving the notion of a public plan. Snowe would have a
public plan enacted via a "trigger", that is, if insurance companies in
any particular state fail to provide uninsured residents with an
affordable plan, then that would "trigger" the creation of a public
plan in that state. This way, insurance companies are given the
opportunity to lower premiums and attract currently uninsured
consumers, but if they fail to do so, the government will act. In other
words, the free market will be given a chance and if it fails,
government will step in. Snowe calls this a "safety net" plan.
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Katie Connolly
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Sep 16, 2009 03:06 PM
Anyone who watches cable news surely knows that conservatives are getting themselves all hot and bothered over the Obama administration's appointment of so-called czars. Today, the Democratic National Committee is going nuts in response. I've got more e-mails from them about this today than I care to count. This whole debate is descending into complete partisan hackery: GOP operatives are fanning ridiculous fears while Democrats are proffering inflated claims to counter them. That said, a lot of people do appear concerned by the existence of "czars," so I think the issue merits a quick discussion. Of course, the points I'm about to list come with the caveat that a lack of accountability for public officials should always be of concern in a democracy. But these czars aren't beyond the bounds of reproach, nor are they entirely apart from the democratic process—they're accountable to the White House, which of course is elected. Some of them even needed Senate confirmation. And don't forget, Congress can still impeach the president if he has done something truly bad.
With that said, on to my points:
1. There doesn't seem to be any real agreement on what constitutes a czar. Some are special assistants, others are envoys, and others still are policy advisers. The only thing they seem to have in common is a lack of congressional oversight, but that's not so different from hundreds of other administration employees. You can't call Robert Gibbs up before a congressional committee if you don't like his press briefings.
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Holly Bailey
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Sep 4, 2009 09:05 AM
Looks as if we’ll soon know more about who is coming and going at the White House. The Obama administration announced today that it will begin voluntarily releasing visitor logs to the White House, disclosing on its Web site the names of thousands of people who come into the complex each year. It won’t be instantaneous. The policy, which goes into effect on Sept. 15, will allow the release of visitor logs and access information electronically captured by the Secret Service at least 90 days after the fact—meaning we won’t get to see the first list of names until roughly December. There will also be limits on what we will see. The names of personal guests of the Obamas won't be released—something the Bush White House, for all its stonewalling on visitor lists, occasionally did. The White House also won’t disclose people visiting for what administration officials describe as “sensitive meetings”—though according to the statement explaining the policy, it will tell us when it's holding back such information and release it at a later time when the information is not “sensitive.”
That prompts a few major questions. What exactly will the White House categorize as “sensitive"? One example the administration cites is a meeting with a potential Supreme Court nominee. But it’s hard not to imagine top Obama aides as viewing everything they do as potentially sensitive, particularly when it comes to meeting with outside groups or activists to talk strategy. And will the White House play it straight when it comes to how it categorizes its visitors?
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Katie Connolly
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Aug 17, 2009 04:03 PM
Today in things we never thought we'd see ... The White House has posted a video on its blog of chief of staff Rahm Emanuel reading a children's book to a group of kids as part of a summer reading initiative organized by the Department of Education. Rahm, who is notorious for his temper and profane language, entertains the kids with his rendition of Duck for President, a book about a young duck who defies the odds by winning the presidency. The best part comes at about 1:40, where he reads this passage about Duck's opponent, "Farmer Brown was furious. He ran to the barn and found the animals registering to vote," and then quips, "It's obviously not in Chicago." Watch the video here.
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Holly Bailey
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Aug 5, 2009 12:53 PM
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs caused quite a stir yesterday when he referred to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the “elected leader” of Iran—this in spite of all the violent protests over June’s disputed election results in that country. Opponents say Ahmadinejad stole the election, but nonetheless, he was sworn in today for a second term as president of Iran. While countries like Russia were quick to congratulate Ahmadinejad on his re-election, the U.S. and other allies have been careful not to get mired in the electoral dispute. For instance, France this week emphasized that they recognize states, not particular governments. This afternoon, Gibbs retracted his “elected leader” comment and said it was not for him or the US to judge whether Ahmadinejad was legitimate but up to the Iranian people. “He’s been inaugurated, that’s a fact,” Gibbs told reporters on Air Force One. “it's not for me or for us to denote his legitimacy, except to acknowledge the fact.” Here’s Gibbs’s full remarks:
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Mike Powell
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Aug 4, 2009 11:45 PM
The White House finally broke its silence on President Clinton’s trip to North Korea, where he facilitated the release of two detained U.S. journalists. Laura Ling and Euna Lee were pardoned Tuesday by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il after being detained four months ago after authorities there accused them of illegally entering the country. The women, both journalists for Current TV, had been sentenced to 12 years in a hard labor camp, but North Korea freed the women after Clinton’s visit today. The two are now en route to California on Clinton’s chartered jet, where they will be reunited with their families early Wednesday.
Administration officials had refused to comment on the specifics of the situation until Clinton’s jet had departed Pyongyang out of fear they would jeopardize the talks. But late Tuesday, a senior administration official briefed reporters, shedding more light into how exactly the trip had come about. As Eleanor Clift reported earlier today, Clinton’s involvement was no accident. According to the White House, the North Koreans in mid-July hinted to Lee and Ling that if Bill Clinton were to come to Pyongyang, they would release them. Lee and Ling, who were allowed to talk to their families via phone occasionally, relayed this information to their loved ones, who in turn told the White House, State Department and former Vice President Al Gore, who owns Current TV.
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Katie Connolly
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Aug 4, 2009 11:11 AM
Over the past couple of weeks the Obama administration has subtly but
noticeably shifted its rhetoric on health care reform. As poll numbers
slid, Obama began to pepper his statements with references to health insurance
reform. Moving away from the focus on containing costs and extending
insurance coverage which characterized his early sales pitch, now Obama
is speaking more prominently about obstructive health insurers that
deny or rescind coverage. Obama is making the insurance industry the
enemy--a populist strategy designed to counter populist attacks on his
plans. But has he backed the wrong horse?
Yesterday, the Atlantic's Marc Ambinder posted an interview
with Karen Ignani, President of American's Health Insurance Plans
(AHIP), the same industry group (under a slightly different name) who
fielded the devastatingly effective Harry and Louise ads
during the 1993-94 health care debate. Ignani essentially says her
organization is not planning to fight the bills currently on the table.
She says proposals her group submitted are "the essential building
block of the reform bills." Ignani even ruefully acknowledges the
political usefulness of demonizing the insurance industry. "We
understand that this has been a political strategy, and we think that
it's been an unfortunate decision because the American people need to
understand that if we are going to pass legislation in the fall, there
is strong consensus around insurance industry reform," she told
Ambinder.
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Holly Bailey
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Jul 31, 2009 07:21 AM
And here it is: The official White House photo of President Obama clinking beer mugs with Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates and his arresting officer, Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge Police. Not pictured: Joe Biden who also attended and drank, gasp, non-alcoholic beer. (Seriously Joe?) So what happened? Well, no one apologized, but according to Crowley, the two agreed that it was more important to look forward rather than backward. Gates said he better understands the sacrifices officers like Crowley make. And Obama was just thankful to be there. Gates and Crowley apparently agreed to talk again—this time away from all the lights and cameras. And that's it. So can we talk about something else now?
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Holly Bailey
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Jul 6, 2009 04:08 PM
At least 150 people have been killed and more than 800 injured in China’s western Xinjiang province today after rioting broke out between ethnic Muslim Uighurs and members of China’s Han majority. Asked for his reaction during the presser today in Moscow, President Obama declined to comment, telling reporters he didn’t want to say anything until he had been fully briefed. Hours later, administration officials still aren't saying much. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs just issued an official statement on behalf of the administration, basically repeating a no comment. “We are deeply concerned over reports of many deaths and injuries from violence in Urumqi in western China,” Gibbs said in a written statement. “Reports, so far, are unclear about the circumstances surrounding the deaths and injuries, so it would be premature to comment or speculate further. We call on all in Xinjiang to exercise restraint.” The violence has been watched very closely here in Moscow, as the fighting is centered near China’s border with Russia.
