First thoughts: Salesman-in-chief
Posted: Friday, April 10, 2009 9:27 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
First Thoughts
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro
*** The Salesman-in-chief: So who else is stressed out? At 11:00 am ET, President Obama meets with Treasury Secretary Geithner, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, and FDIC Chair Sheila Bair to receive a status report on how the nation’s biggest banks are faring in their “stress tests.” This meeting comes after the Obama administration engaged yesterday in some optimistic talk about the economy -- and as the Dow jumped up some 240 points. Obama was bullish on housing and low interest rates (so bullish that the New York Times and Washington Post compared him to a mortgage broker or a salesman for LendingTree.com). Also, top White House economic adviser Larry Summers said the economic “free fall” was coming to an end. No doubt that confidence and optimism are musts for this young administration. But is Obama setting himself up for problems down the road? If this summer and fall ends up being bad again, then what happens to the credibility of the Obama economic team? As the New York Times front-pages today, ”skeptics are warning that the economy may face another leg down. Companies continue to shed jobs and consumers are hunkering down in anticipation of a halting recovery. Most of the nation’s retailers on Thursday signaled that they expected to see a continued steep decline in sales as they waited for consumers to come out of hiding.”
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Video: Serene Murphy, wife of Capt. Shane Murphy, second in command aboard the Maersk Alabama, discusses a brief phone call from her husband after the crew had "taken down" a pirate.
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Pirate update: Here’s the latest regarding the standoff with those Somali pirates: NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski reported on TODAY that Captain Richard Phillips managed to jump off the lifeboat and try to swim away from his captors. The pirates recaptured him, however, and he is back in their custody. The lifeboat has run out of fuel and has nowhere to go… Reuters also reports that the Somali pirates say they will fight if they are attacked… And AFP reports that the Somali pirates have demanded a ransom.
*** Ideology vs. reality: So how have the three conservative GOP governors who are potential 2012 candidates -- Jindal, Palin, and Sanford -- fared in their campaign against Obama’s economic stimulus? Not too well so far, it seems. Sanford has had to go up with a TV ad to defend his opposition to the stimulus, which is just a huge concession. And Politico’s Ben Smith adds, “All three of those governors have been forced to scale back their expectations, to varying degree, as the push of conservative philosophy gave way to the pull of political reality. All three found that praise from the conservative movement in Washington meant nothing to furious state legislators of both parties. And in the end, along with other conservative Republican governors, the three submitted letters in recent days asking to be eligible for federal funds, a spokesman for the White House Office of Management and Budget confirmed.”
*** Republicans Gone Wild, part II: Back in late February, a month into the Obama presidency, we noted how a couple of GOP senators said some outlandish things -- first when Richard Shelby seemed to question Obama’s citizenship, and then when Jim Bunning predicted Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg would be dead in nine months. Well, now some of their House colleagues are giving those statements a run for their money. Presumably doing his best McCarthy impression, GOP Rep. Spencer Bachus said there were 17 members of the U.S. House who are socialists but didn’t name names, the Birmingham News reported. And that came after the always-controversial Rep. Michele Bachmann called for an “orderly revolution” against Obama’s policies. (“We can't let the Democrats achieve their ends any longer,” she said.) Just five months after Obama’s decisive 53%-46% victory, we’ve got to ask: What is going on with some Republican elected officials? Are they watching too much Glenn Beck? Seriously, could the bizarre rantings of this new darling of the right have something to do with this? GOP lawmakers, when speaking to supporters at home, are getting more odd questions. Could this Beck phenomenon be the reason? He truly has a "middle of the night" am radio quality to some of his rants.
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Helping Hillary -- and Mark Penn: Here’s another question: What’s going on with Hillary Clinton’s campaign debt? That’s right, 10 months after Hillary ended her presidential bid, Clinton friend James Carville yesterday sent out an email solicitation asking supporters to donate $5 for the chance to spend a day with Bill Clinton in New York, attend the “American Idol” season finale in LA, or have lunch with Carville and Paul Begala in DC. “Your contribution today not only gives you the chance at winning one of these fantastic prizes -- it'll also help our dear friend, Hillary Clinton, pay off the very last of her campaign debt,” Carville wrote. And guess what? Your contribution also will help Mark Penn. Indeed, more than $5.3 million of out of Hillary’s remaining $5.9 million debt is owed to Mark Penn’s firm.
*** Terry in trouble? It's still relatively early -- two months until June's Democratic gubernatorial primary -- but Terry McAuliffe couldn't have liked the numbers from a new DailyKos/Research 2000 poll. In it, McAuliffe trails Brian Moran by five points, 24%-19%, with Creigh Deeds coming in third at 16%. Also, the Macker has a net-negative fav/unfav (35%-36%), while both Moran and Deeds narrowly have net-positives. Also, in hypothetical match-ups against presumptive GOP nominee Bob McDonnell, McAuliffe trails by seven points (40%-33%), Deeds trails by an equal amount (38%-31%), and Moran trails by one (37%-36%). With two months to go, is Brian Moran your Democratic front-runner? Then again, a whopping 41% say they’re undecided in the Democratic primary. By the way, after he reported $1.2 million in cash on hand (compared with $2.5 million for the Macker and $825,000 for Moran), don’t forget about Mr. Deeds…
*** Other Odds And Ends: According to Politico, Obama will attend a local church for Easter services, and Arizona State won’t award the president an honorary degree when he speaks there at a commencement on May 13. The reason: They say Obama hasn’t accomplished enough. “It’s normally awarded to someone who has been in their field for some time,” an ASU spokeswoman said. “Considering that the president is at the beginning of his presidency, his body of work is just beginning.”
Countdown to Obama’s 100th day: 19 days
Countdown to NJ GOP primary: 53 days
Countdown to VA Dem primary: 60 days
Countdown to Election Day 2009: 207 days
Countdown to Election Day 2010: 571 days
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