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Obama pushes jobs after tough year
Caren Bohan and Ross Colvin, Reuters via The Independent
President Barack Obama pushed job creation to the top of his agenda and vowed not to abandon his struggling healthcare overhaul after a political setback that raised doubts about his leadership.
Still smarting from a drop in his popularity and the loss by his Democratic Party of a pivotal U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts, Obama said it had been a difficult year and acknowledged some mistakes.
“I don’t quit,” he told the U.S. Congress in his annual State of the Union address today.
Facing the collapse of his ambitious agenda to overhaul healthcare and address climate change, Obama used the high-stakes speech to try to reconnect with ordinary Americans angry about the weak economy and punishing double-digit unemployment rate.
Obama tried to show his prime-time television audience he understood their pain and aimed to tap into public discontent, stemming mainly from a still-struggling economy, while buying time for his administration to regroup…
(28 Jan 2010)
Obama to Party: Don’t ‘Run for the Hills’
Sheryl Gay Stohlberg, The New York Times
President Obama vowed Wednesday night not to give up on his ambitious legislative agenda, using his first State of the Union address to chastise Republicans for working in lock-step against him and to warn Democrats to stiffen their political spines.
Mr. Obama appealed for an end to the “tired old battles” that have divided the country and stalled his efforts on Capitol Hill. He promised to focus intently on the issue of most immediate concern to the nation, jobs. And with his top priority, a health care overhaul, delayed in the wake of the recent Republican Senate victory in Massachusetts, he offered a pointed message to both parties.
“To Democrats, I would remind you that we still have the largest majority in decades, and the people expect us to solve some problems, not run for the hills,” Mr. Obama said in his nationally televised speech. “And if the Republican leadership is going to insist that 60 votes in the Senate are required to do any business at all in this town — a supermajority — then the responsibility to govern is now yours as well. Just saying no to everything may be good short-term politics, but it’s not leadership.”
The speech, Mr. Obama’s third to a joint session of Congress, comes at a particularly rocky point in his presidency, with many Americans — including some fellow Democrats — complaining that the president has lost sight of the priorities of ordinary people. And Mr. Obama acknowledged their doubts, conceding that some of his political setbacks “were deserved,” a striking admission for any president…
(27 Jan 2010)
Barack Obama commits to climate change bill
Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian
Barack Obama put himself firmly behind the effort to get a climate change bill through Congress last night – but said it must include a new generation of nuclear power.
The brief passage on energy and climate in Obama’s state of the union address did deliver the signal Congress and much of the world had been seeking that the White House is ready to throw itself into the effort to pass legislation.
“This year, I am eager to help advance the bipartisan effort in the Senate,” he said.
But Obama made it clear that he supported a “bipartisan” effort which would incorporate energy policies that are popular among Republicans – and fiercely opposed by the liberal wing of his own party.
“That means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country. It means making tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development. It means continued investment in advanced biofuels and clean coal technologies,” Obama said.
The endorsement for nuclear power and especially offshore drilling will be difficult for some Democratic voters to swallow…
(28 Jan 2010)
Sanctions, regime change take center stage
Jim Lobe, Asia Times
With the United States Senate set to take up major sanctions legislation against Iran by mid-February, neo-conservative and other hawks are calling on the administration of President Barack Obama to pursue a more aggressive course of “regime change” in Tehran.
In recent days, their call was unexpectedly bolstered by a Newsweek column authored by the president of the influential Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Richard Haass.
Haass is a long-time protege of realists, such as former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft and secretary of state Colin Powell, who advocate a policy of broad engagement with Iran over its nuclear program and other issues.
Citing the unprecedented and persistent unrest generated by the disputed June elections in Iran, Haass argued, “Iran may be closer to profound political change than at any time since the revolution that ousted the shah 30 years ago.” He added that “the United States, European governments and others should shift their Iran policy towards increasing the prospects for [that] change”.
…In his State of the Union address on Wednesday night in Washington, Obama warned that Iran would suffer consequences as a result of its refusal to cooperate with the international community on its nuclear program. He said that Tehran had to “come clean about its nuclear goals”. “As Iran’s leaders continue to ignore their obligations, there should be no doubt: they, too, will face growing consequences,” Obama said.
The renewed push for a “regime change” policy comes as congress moves closer to enacting sweeping sanctions legislation that many Iran specialists, including some inside the Obama administration, believe could, if implemented, actually strengthen the regime in Tehran…
(29 Jan 2010)
