President Obama

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

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GOP Looks to Centrists for 2010
 GOP Looks to Centrists for 2010 
ANALYSIS
May 7, 2009 10:29 AM CDT

GOP Looks to Centrists for 2010

Candidates should 'fit their states': Cornyn

(Newser) - As the GOP eyes 2010, it’s turning to centrist candidates to restore its health—despite a “good riddance” attitude to the departure of moderate Arlen Specter, Politico reports. “I’m absolutely committed to recruiting candidates around the country that fit their states,” said National Republican Senatorial...

Pentagon to Add 20K Jobs in Arms-Buying Overhaul

Obama says acquisitions program has 'run amok'

(Newser) - The Defense Department will add 20,000 jobs over the next 5 years in an overhaul of its $100 billion weapons-buying process, Reuters reports. New regulations will tie compensation more closely to performance, and the Pentagon will require “real, substantial” tax savings in any multiyear deals, a deputy defense...

Obama Praises Afghan, Pakistan Commitments

Delicate diplomacy ends with unified resolve to fight militants

(Newser) - President Obama said he got the commitments he wanted today from the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan to more aggressively fight militants gaining power and sowing violence inside their countries' borders. The high-stakes diplomacy had Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai and Pakistan's Asif Ali Zardari meeting with officials separately and together. Looming...

Congress Nears 'Cash for Clunkers' Deal

Compromise would put voucher at $4,500, nix buy-American clause

(Newser) - Congress is nearing agreement on a “cash for clunkers” plan that would pay Americans to give up their gas-guzzling vehicles. A House plan outlined yesterday focuses on cars and light trucks that yield less than 18 miles per gallon. Owners who junk those will receive a $3,500-$4,500...

Mormons Posthumously Baptized Obama's Mother

(Newser) - President Obama’s late mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was baptized by the Church of Latter-day Saints during the campaign last year, Politico reports. The Mormons are investigating the baptism of Dunham—who died in 1995—which a Church ancestry website documents. Posthumous baptism performed without permission has raised problems in...

Supreme Court Strategizing Should Include Birth Control

(Newser) - The battle for David Souter’s seat on the Supreme Court will be a pitched fight over Roe v. Wade, Cynthia Tucker writes in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Here’s a suggestion for a pragmatic president with excellent political instincts and the moral capacity to see the ethical quandaries inherent...

Obama Seeks $27B to Clamp Down on Border

Budget focuses on halting flow of guns, illegal immigrants

(Newser) - In the budget he’ll hand to Congress tomorrow, President Obama is seeking $27 billion for border and transportation security as he focuses on immigration enforcement and battling the flow of US arms to Mexico. The 8% increase over this year’s budget allows for an expansion of border teams,...

For Sessions, Confirmation Hearings May Feel Familiar

Specter's far right replacement once rejected by same committee

(Newser) - Even if Al Franken is seated, President Obama's Supreme Court nominee isn't guaranteed an easy confirmation process. The reason is Jeff Sessions, the Alabama Republican who inherited Arlen Specter's seat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. The fiery Sessions knows the committee well: It blocked his bid to become a federal...

Oh, No! A Single Woman May Replace Souter
Oh, No! A Single Woman May Replace Souter
OPINION
May 6, 2009 9:41 AM CDT

Oh, No! A Single Woman May Replace Souter

Lack of a ring turns top female Supreme Court candidates into targets

(Newser) - David Souter is a lifelong bachelor, but the possibility of a bachelorette replacement has started an uproar. Why? Because those potential Supreme Court justices are women, and when a powerful woman is unmarried it "seems to make everyone think: lonely, misfit, or lesbian," write Dahlia Lithwick and Hanna...

Obama Must Oppose Spain's Bush Lawyer Probe: Bolton

Only our Constitution should judge policy decisions

(Newser) - President Obama’s "John Ehrlichman approach" to Spain’s investigation of Bush officials may be “smart politics,” but it’s dangerous for the country, writes John Bolton in the Washington Post. If the administration doesn’t speak out against the probe, it allows an “unaccountable...

Obama Attacks Tax Havens to Save Health Care: Reich

(Newser) - Offshore tax havens may not be fair, but they’ve been around for decades. So why is President Obama taking them on now, Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich asks in Salon. It’s not to try to keep jobs here, as the White House claims; the move might even drive...

Obama Insider 'Queasy' Over '12 Challenge From Utah Gov.

(Newser) - President Obama’s campaign manager says he’s a “wee bit queasy” about a possible election challenge from Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman in 2012, Salt Lake City’s KTVX-TV reports. “I think he’s really out there speaking a lot of truth about the direction of the party,...

Advocates Call for First Openly Gay Justice

Post would 'break glass ceiling in a huge way'

(Newser) - Gay-rights advocates are calling on President Obama to fill David Souter’s Supreme Court seat with an openly gay person, Politico reports. “It’s not so much we want to check that box at the Supreme Court level, but that achievement would be breaking the glass ceiling in a...

Obama Picks New Consumer Safety Chair

Wants SC education superintendent to head expanded agency

(Newser) - President Obama is turning to South Carolina's former education superintendent to head an expanded Consumer Product Safety Commission, an embattled agency that has been criticized by advocates for being too cozy with industry, the AP reports. The president was set today to propose two more seats on the panel and...

Obama Tells GOP's Hatch He'll Pick a Pragmatist

Senate Judiciary Committee member expects choice to be made this week

(Newser) - President Obama has told him he won't be picking a radical to fill Justice Souter's spot on the Supreme Court, Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch tells Politico. Hatch—who believes the president will make his choice before the end of this week—said he raised his concerns in a phone call...

Dems Deny Obama Funds to Close Gitmo

House Democrats say president needs to come up with a plan first

(Newser) - President Obama's request for $80 million to close Guantanamo Bay was cut from the House version of a war spending bill unveiled yesterday, CNN reports. Democratic lawmakers, whose bill totaled $94.2 billion, said if the president wants money to close Guantanamo Bay then he'll first have to come up...

What Thatcher Could Teach Obama
 What Thatcher 
 Could Teach Obama 
OPINION
May 4, 2009 2:52 PM CDT

What Thatcher Could Teach Obama

Reflecting on Iron Lady 30 years after her election

(Newser) - Thirty years after Margaret Thatcher’s election as Britain’s prime minister, Michael Elliott reflects on three things the Iron Lady could teach President Obama. First, Elliott notes in Time, Thatcher “knew what she wanted,” using a “short set of criteria” to evaluate proposals. “Keeping things...

Just Not Funny: Obama Is Comedy Poison

Why Bill Maher gets boos when he tries to razz the prez

(Newser) - Comedians have a big beef with President Obama: he's a humor-killer, writes the LA Times. It's not just that this president lacks a defining target for humor (funny accent, balance problem, wandering eye), but also that the American public may just not be in the mood to make fun of...

US Worries Grow Over Weakened Pakistan's Nukes

But Pakistani officials call concerns 'overblown rhetoric'

(Newser) - The growing insurgency in Pakistan has heightened US worries about the security of the country’s nuclear arsenal, the New York Times reports. Some fear militants could steal weapons in transport or get access to nuclear facilities. President Obama says he’s “confident” that the stock is “secure,...

Dowd: GOP Has Short Memory
 Dowd: GOP 
 Has Short 
 Memory 
OPINION
May 3, 2009 10:57 AM CDT

Dowd: GOP Has Short Memory

'Quaint' calls for balance follow reign of 'Boy Emperor'

(Newser) - As their party contracts with the defection of Arlen Specter, the GOP is complaining about a disappearing balance of power: “How quaint,” writes Maureen Dowd in the New York Times—this from the party whose “arrogant” previous administration “did its best to undermine checks and balances....

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