Obama administration

Stories 1121 - 1140 | << Prev   Next >>

Obama the First 'Sesame Street President'
Obama the First 'Sesame Street President'
OPINION
Jun 8, 2009 2:00 PM CDT

Obama the First 'Sesame Street President'

Big Bird and company left a big mark on young Barack

(Newser) - When Sesame Street founder Joan Ganz Cooney meets politicians, they usually tell her that their kids watch the show. But not Barack Obama. An enthusiastic Obama gushed about watching the show when he was a child. “I realized that this is the first President young enough to say that,...

Brown's Woes Offers Obama Reality Check
Brown's Woes Offers Obama Reality Check
OPINION
Jun 8, 2009 8:50 AM CDT

Brown's Woes Offers Obama Reality Check

Voters don't reward economic competence after crisis: Krugman

(Newser) - The Bush administration has taken much of the blame for the American recession, but a "huge housing bubble and a financial crisis" were always on the cards, as Paul Krugman writes for the New York Times. Writing from London, where voters gave Gordon Brown a pummeling in Thursday's elections,...

Everybody Hates Larry
Everybody Hates Larry
Jun 8, 2009 7:58 AM CDT

Everybody Hates Larry

Presence of divisive Summers cranks up tensions on Obama's economic team

(Newser) - On his 54th birthday, Tim Geithner brought Larry Summers a cake, and the guest of honor ad-libbed some lyrics, bellowing, “for he’s an unpleasant fellow,” rather than “for he’s a jolly good fellow.” In the months since, his colleagues have wondered if he was...

US to Expand Executive Pay Supervision

Administration to announce new rules, add pay-oversight chief

(Newser) - The Obama administration is set to announce new executive pay guidelines for banks and other corporations that have received bailout funds, the New York Times reports. Any company that’s taken two rounds of TARP cash—including Citigroup, Bank of America, AIG, GM and GMAC—will have to get pay...

Obama's Strategy: Play Nice With Congress
 Obama's Strategy: Play Nice 
 With Congress 
Analysis
Jun 6, 2009 12:03 PM CDT

Obama's Strategy: Play Nice With Congress

(Newser) - Barack Obama believes he has a big advantage when it comes to passing health care reform. Though he ran as an outsider, he’s “quietly but methodically assembled the most Congress-centric administration in modern history,” writes Matt Bai in the New York Times Magazine. Unlike Clinton, who rode...

Bin Laden Short on Hiding Spots: Officials

Pakistan offensive, troops in Afghanistan, drone attacks cut space

(Newser) - Osama bin Laden has fewer and fewer places to hide these days, officials tell NPR. And “the administration smells blood,” says a former counterterror official who cites three reasons for the shrinking space: Pakistan’s Swat Valley offensive against the Taliban, "along with US activities from the...

SC Court Orders Gov to Take Stimulus Cash

(Newser) - The South Carolina Supreme Court has ruled that Gov. Mark Sanford must apply for $700 million in federal stimulus money aimed at education that the governor had strenuously resisted, the State reports. The state’s General Assembly had already mandated the move, but Sanford argued it had no authority to...

Gays Rankle at Obama's Unkept Promises
 Gays Rankle at Obama's 
 Unkept Promises 
ANALYSIS
Jun 4, 2009 1:39 PM CDT

Gays Rankle at Obama's Unkept Promises

(Newser) - Gay-rights supporters in and outside of Washington are getting fed up with President Obama’s perceived inaction on their core issues, Politico reports. Obama has been unwilling to back gay marriage, and has yet to fulfill his campaign promise of repealing the Defense of Marriage Act, which bars federal recognition...

Rush, Newt Push Media to the Right
Rush, Newt Push Media
to the Right
OPINION
Jun 4, 2009 9:15 AM CDT

Rush, Newt Push Media to the Right

They're mainstream while progressives are ignored: Dionne

(Newser) - Media coverage of Barack Obama is closed-minded and biased—in favor of conservatives. "Rush Limbaugh's sneezes or Newt Gingrich's tweets" circulate like wildfire, but criticism of the president from the Democratic left goes unheard, writes EJ Dionne of the Washington Post. The result is a skewed picture in which...

Limbaugh May Back Sotomayor After All

(Newser) - Rush Limbaugh is willing to back Sonia Sotomayor if her nomination to the Supreme Court offers even the “opportunity” of overturning Roe v. Wade, Politico reports. Limbaugh noted today on his radio show that Sotomayor “doesn't have a clear record on abortion” and is a Catholic. “I...

New Osama Tape Blasts Obama
 New Osama Tape Blasts Obama 
Jun 3, 2009 8:40 AM CDT

New Osama Tape Blasts Obama

(Newser) - A new tape believed to be a recording of Osama bin Laden attacking President Obama for his actions in Pakistan surfaced today, CBS reports. In the audio message, which aired on al-Jazeera, bin Laden says that by encouraging Pakistan’s raids in the Swat valley, Obama has forced a million...

Obama Lands in Middle East, Ready to Make Tough Sell

(Newser) - Open arms and a full red carpet rollout greeted President Obama on his arrival in Saudi Arabia this morning, but the pleasantries will likely end when the policy talk starts, the New York Times reports. Obama wants the Arab nations to offer a peaceful gesture toward Israel, but Saudi officials...

National Parks Plan 3 Free Summer Weekends

(Newser) - The National Park Service is looking to stimulate summer vacations, with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announcing today that entrance fees at 147 national parks and monuments—including the Grand Canyon and Yosemite—will be waived on three weekends this summer: June 20-21, July 18-19, and Aug. 15-16. “During these...

Obama's Financial Regulation Plan Nearly Ready

(Newser) - The Obama administration is finalizing a legislative proposal that would strengthen the reach of financial regulatory agencies, the New York Times reports. The plan wouldn’t likely consolidate the four major bank regulators, which could meet with fierce opposition in Congress. “I don’t mind overlap as much as...

Carter Wants Torture Pics Released

(Newser) - Jimmy Carter politely disagrees with the current president’s move to block photos depicting prisoner torture in Iraq and Afghanistan from public view. “I don't agree with him,” the former president said of Barack Obama. “But I certainly don't criticize him for making that decision,” he...

Feds Mull Taxing College Sports, but Pickings Are Slim

(Newser) - The Congressional Budget Office, eager for new sources of income, is considering taxation options for the nation’s collegiate athletic franchises, the Economist reports. Among the proposals are curtailing deductions for charitable donations to college sports programs; limiting tax-exempt bonds; and, most drastically, stripping the programs of their traditional tax-exempt...

Bracing for 'Obama Motors'
 Bracing for 'Obama Motors' 
OPINION Roundup
Jun 1, 2009 10:59 AM CDT

Bracing for 'Obama Motors'

(Newser) - GM’s bankruptcy and semi-nationalization has everyone talking. Here’s what the papers are saying:
  • “Welcome to Obama Motors, and what is likely to be a long, expensive, and unhappy exercise in political car making,” writes the Wall Street Journal. The government seems incapable of hands-off management, and
...

Universal Health Care Plan Looks Likely

Compromise bill may include an 'Orbitz for insurance'

(Newser) - Barack Obama's overhaul of the American health care system is quietly taking shape, and Democrats and Republicans both say a consensus plan looks likely. Politico reports on what the health reform bill, which must be passed by August, might look like: Guaranteed insurance for all Americans, who will probably be...

Defense Giants Stalk Cyberwar Contracts

(Newser) - Major defense contractors are already staffed with "hacker soldiers" who can help them earn billions of dollars in Washington's new cyberwar, the New York Times reports. Cranking rock tunes and piling up pop cans, engineers hack away at companies like Raytheon, working for the Pentagon or protecting internal documents....

Woodward Working on Obama Book

(Newser) - It's almost a political rite of passage at this point: Bob Woodward is writing a book about the Obama administration, reports Gabriel Sherman in the New Republic. No word on the focus, but Sherman notes that Woodward has a knack for making administrations nervous. “Every White House is wary...

Stories 1121 - 1140 | << Prev   Next >>
Most Read on Newser