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  • First grandma keeps low profile
    Mar 9, 2010 — Chicago Tribune
    Robinson also enjoys going to Las Vegas. Shields, 59, has visited his sister at the White House three times, most recently for a large family gathering at Thanksgiving. One is the White House staff. "The staff there is awesome. The kids, Sasha and Malia, they really love and respect her.
  • Obama back on the campaign trail, this time for health care
    Mar 9, 2010 — USA Today
    This time, the goal is not the White House, but a final health care bill. We were sent there to solve the big challenges." As with any campaign, average Americans speak at Obama's rallies to discuss their health care problems. The health care campaign also has its share of political intrigue.
  • The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky., Merlene Davis column: E-mail shows racism is tenacious
    Mar 9, 2010 — Lexington Herald-Leader
    I asked how Jane was doing, he told me she was in bad shape, in a nursing home, has Alzheimer's and no longer recognizes anyone, how sad. Political humor. Later, when the criticism began to fly from several of the recipients and the mayor of Nashville, Baker apologized. But, last I heard, Michelle Obama is not the president. Why is Michelle such a lightning rod for such attacks couched as jokes?
  • Obama Brings Health Pitch To Pa.
    Mar 8, 2010 — Politico
    He appealed to Democrats who are undecided by shaming the politics at play, even making a rare reference to President Bill Clinton’s failure to get health care reform. The issue is not politics.”The president was harsh in his assessment of insurance companies. The event was partially standing room only, but even those with seats stood on their feet for most of Obama’s TK-minute speech.
  • Obama: Greedy health insurers show need for reform
    Mar 8, 2010 — The Philadelphia Inquirer
    Louis, in the swing state of Missouri, to continue pressing his case. Pennsylvania is also a swing state, and Montgomery County is home to many independent voters who have been trending Democratic in recent national elections. But the latest polls suggest many independents are skeptical of a health care overhaul.In his speech Obama railed against the greed of health insurance companies.
  • OPINION
    Mar 8, 2010 — Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
    Obama did win the election, and still we're in a funk. Obama and his new-age, multiracial coalition represent a trend -- or a political aberration. The case for the trend theory is well-established. He didn't see that the Carter election was but an aberration in something important and something Southern -- but not the important Southern trend he thought he was observing.
  • The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky., Merlene Davis column
    Mar 8, 2010 — Lexington Herald-Leader
    Political humor. Later, when the criticism began to fly from several of the recipients and the mayor of Nashville, Baker apologized. But, last I heard, Michelle Obama is not the president. Why is Michelle such a lightning rod for such attacks couched as jokes? Isn't she just as human, just as much a woman as Laura Bush and other first ladies?
  • As Iraq votes, U.S. content to keep its distance
    Mar 7, 2010 — Washington Post
    Violence, intimidation or fraud might limit turnout or mar the legitimacy of the vote. Barack Obama and Joseph R. Biden Jr. opposed. The Iraqi constitution allows lengthy challenges to the vote count before the new parliament convenes to choose a president.
  • Obama's health care pitch to Democrats: Trust me
    Mar 7, 2010 — USA Today
    The party's strategy calls for House Democrats, despite many misgivings, to go along with a health care bill the Senate passed in December. Republicans are playing on House Democrats' suspicions of their Senate colleagues, saying Senate Democrats may not keep their end of the bargain. White House and Democratic leaders counter with their own warnings to nervous House Democrats who might consider switching from "yes" to "no" on health care.
  • Unrest in Democratic Party plays out in Emanuel controversy
    Mar 7, 2010 — The Hill
    He put the fear of God into the party of Rush and Newt.
  • Obama to Dems: Health bill results will be seen by midterm elections
    Mar 6, 2010 — The Hill
    Insurance companies will no longer be allowed to deny coverage to children with pre-existing conditions. They will continue to refuse coverage based on pre-existing conditions. That’s why the United States Congress owes the American people an up-or-down vote on health insurance reform.”With the special election of Sen.
  • Obama, Gates Not Always Eye-To-Eye On New Nukes
    Mar 6, 2010 — Politico
    Gates “still believes in the fundamental goals of ensuring warhead safety, security, and reliability, and believes we need a modern infrastructure to support that. Those investments are in the budget,” the spokesman said. “The RRW [Reliable Replacement Warhead] program was killed by Congress, and isn't coming back. Gates recognizes that fact.”However, Morrell said it was too soon to say how modernization of nuclear warhead stocks would be carried out.
  • R.I. School Shake-Up Is Embraced by the President
    Mar 6, 2010 — New York Times
    The decision by the Central Falls school board came under the terms of a new Obama administration policy intended to spur interventions in thousands of failing schools nationwide. Marcia Reback, president of the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers, said members of the state’s Congressional delegation had urged the parties in Central Falls to return to the negotiating table. Obama, said the events in Rhode Island had left a bitter taste.
  • U.S. adopts hands-off approach to Iraqi vote
    Mar 6, 2010 — Washington Post
    Post-election political jockeying could delay the formation of a government for months and leave a dangerous power vacuum. Barack Obama and Joseph R. Biden Jr. opposed. David H. Petraeus, told television interviewer Charlie Rose last week. "But again, some of that is Iraqi politics.
  • Why the Rainmaker Is Now the Gatekeeper
    Mar 6, 2010 — New York Times
    Smoot worked when he headed the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, for whom Ms. Smoot was the sophomore greeter for arriving freshmen like her.
  • CBO: Deficits to average $1 trillion per year over the next decade
    Mar 5, 2010 — The Hill
    Obama's budget will lead to deficits averaging nearly $1 trillion over the next decade, the CBO estimated Friday.The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said President Barack Obama's budget would lead to annual deficits averaging nearly $1 trillion for the next decade.The estimates are for larger deficits than the budget shortfalls expected by the White House.Annual deficits under Obama’s budget plan would be about $976 billion from 2011 through 2020, according to a CBO...
  • Karl Rove writes that he doesn't hate President Obama
    Mar 5, 2010 — USA Today
    If we didn't know better, we'd think former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove is trying to drive a wedge between President Obama and one of his high-profile advisers, Valerie Jarrett. A story about Obama and Jarrett is a highlight of Rove's new book, Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight. It began in 2005, when Rove confronted then-Sen.
  • Liberals grill Obama on health reform
    Mar 4, 2010 — The Hill
    After the meeting, she said, "I don't think there was consensus on anything."Most liberals are expected to vote for the final bill. Even though many on the left complained about the House healthcare bill, only one liberal — Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) — voted no last November.Other House Democratic members who attended the 1:30 p.m. meeting with Obama included Reps.
  • Michelle: No Longer A 'caricature'
    Mar 4, 2010 — Politico
    They don’t see a caricature of me; they don’t see a sound bite of me; they see all of me. It’s understandable that he struggles with it. Michelle Obama dismissed the notion of a problem.“Fortunately, Barack, he’s a steady kind of person.
  • New Obama to be more assertive
    Mar 4, 2010 — The Hill
    Ben Cardin (D-Md.) of the overall healthcare debate. “The failure to have a specific proposal allowed the opponents to paint it in a different way from how we see it. But Republicans remain upset that Obama is prepared to use special budget rules to push significant healthcare provisions through the Senate with only 51 votes.Sen. The Senate healthcare bill suffered a major public-relations hit because of special deals included to win the support of Sens.
  • Obama finally delivers a health roadmap
    Mar 4, 2010 — Washington Post
    As a matter of House procedure, it would be difficult for Mr. Bush and his presidency, and takes aim at Democrats, the news media and disloyal Republicans for what he describes as hypocrisy, deceit and vanity. Rove writes that he finally gave in and recommended her appointment, only to discover through news reports that the pair were romantically involved -- even though Davis was married at the time.
  • Obama takes political risk in push for health bill
    Mar 4, 2010 — Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
    ...for health care reform. "We think we have the American people on our side," she said. Obama's latest appeal is widely seen as part of a last push on the president's signature domestic agenda. After he spoke, the White House announced that the president would travel to Pennsylvania and Missouri to make the case for health care reform. Both chambers of Congress have already approved similar wide-ranging health care reform bills that would expand health care coverage to...
  • U.S. Fears Prospect of Violence After Iraqi Elections
    Mar 4, 2010 — New York Times
    Senior Obama administration officials maintained in interviews this week that Mr. Obama’s plan to withdraw all American combat troops by Sept. 1 would remain on track regardless of who cobbles together a governing coalition after the election. “Politics has broken out in Iraq,” Mr.
  • W.H. Sees Reform Homestretch
    Mar 4, 2010 — Politico
    Obama has done few health-care-specific events since reform hit a rough patch last August, when he was speaking on the issue nearly every day, often on the road.
  • 'Congress owes the American people a final vote on healthcare'
    Mar 3, 2010 — The Hill
    ...healthcare reform bill and both chambers will vote on a package of “fixes” to that measure via budget reconciliation rules, which allow legislation to pass the Senate on a simple majority vote.Moving the legislation will take a full-court press from Obama and congressional Democratic leaders to assemble winning coalitions in Congress without any Republican support. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) faces a considerable challenge in getting 216 votes for both measures and...
  • 'now Is The Time To Make A Decision'
    Mar 3, 2010 — Politico
    I believe it’s time to give the American people more control over their own health insurance. I don’t believe we can afford to leave life-and-death decisions about health care to the discretion of insurance company executives alone. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) told POLITICO that Senate Democratic leaders have decided to go the reconciliation route.
  • A One-Man Party Of No
    Mar 3, 2010 — Politico
    Mitch McConnell has hit an all-time low as far as I’m concerned,” Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) told POLITICO.“I’ve worked with a lot of hard-punching, hard-negotiating Republican leaders. And none of them have been so — what is the word — recalcitrant as Mitch McConnell.
  • Deja vu: Obama and the doctors in white
    Mar 3, 2010 — Washington Post
    Some of the presidential backdrops accompanying the effort also have been a study in repetition. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) talks with Dr.
  • Obama ponders Sen. Tom Coburn's suggestions
    Mar 3, 2010 — The Daily Oklahoman
    It would also greatly expand Medicaid to cover more of the uninsured.
  • Obama won't have piecemeal approach
    Mar 3, 2010 — The Hill
    Scott Brown (R-Mass.) deprived Democrats of their supermajority in the upper chamber, Obama has taken an increasingly strong hand in guiding the Democrat-controlled Congress forward.
  • Obama's closing argument on health-care reform
    Mar 3, 2010 — Washington Post
    Health insurance is becoming more expensive by the day. More small businesses will be forced to choose between health care and hiring. And all new money generated in this plan would go back to small businesses and middle-class families who can’t afford health insurance.
  • What will be the political consequences of Obama's health care speech?
    Mar 3, 2010 — Los Angeles Times
    ...wrangling during which outnumbered Republicans proved they couldn't be outgunned, Obama formally proposed his compromise package, one that the White House argued incorporated many GOP ideas. To get it passed, congressional leaders will have to use reconciliation, a process that requires just simple majorities, thus diminishing the GOP's minority power."I don't know how this plays politically, but I know it's right," Obama said in his East Room speech, sounding his main theme that...
  • Obama administration's approach to protecting wildlife angers some environmentalists::
    Mar 2, 2010 — San Jose Mercury News
    They'd rather sit on the fence than anger U.S. fishermen."_ Polar bear. The Obama administration upheld a Bush decision to list the polar bear as threatened, but also agreed to ban consideration of greenhouse gas emissions in reviews of federal projects affecting the bear. Obama officials said endangered species rules aren't the right vehicle to address climate change.VARYING VIEWSEnvironmental leaders have varying views.
  • Obama Courts Chamber On Education
    Mar 2, 2010 — Politico
    ...the Education Department if legislation is approved this year.In a statement, the Business Coalition for Student Achievement, coordinated by the Chamber and the Business Roundtable, an association of corporate leaders, applauded Obama’s efforts.“As we work towards reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, a focus on improving graduation rates and addressing the achievement gap will be critical to improving academic outcomes for our children,”...
  • Obama Touts Jobs-Energy Link
    Mar 2, 2010 — Politico
    John McCain (R-Ariz.) since taking office. At the Technical College, Obama acknowledged several members of Congress from Georgia in the audience, including Reps. John Barrow, a Democrat, and Jack Kingston, a Republican.Crowds lined the streets along his route.
  • Turkeys, trees and now beer
    Mar 2, 2010 — The Morning Call
    When the Phillies lost to the Yankees in last year's World Series, Holden owed Democratic U.S. Rep. Jose Serrano of the Bronx a case of Yuengling. Yuengling and Molson have a history. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ruled in 1998 that formost beer buyers equate "America" only with the United States.
  • Chicago Tribune Melissa Harris column
    Mar 1, 2010 — Chicago Tribune
    His father, William Rivkin, an Iowa native, was U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg under President John Kennedy and Gambia and Senegal under President Lyndon Johnson. Another cousin, Jamie Alter Lynton, is an Obama fundraiser in California and married to the CEO of Sony (NYSE:SNE) Pictures, Michael Lynton. Moelis grew up in New York, met Rivkin at Stanford Law School and provided the link to the Obamas.
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