ABOUT FIRST READ

First Read is an analysis of the day's political news, from the NBC News political unit. First Read is updated throughout the day, so check back often.

Chuck Todd, NBC Political Director

Mark Murray, NBC Deputy Political Director

Domenico Montanaro, NBC News Political Reporter



Biden to swear in Franken tomorrow

Posted: Monday, July 06, 2009 10:28 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under: ,

From NBC's Ken Strickland
The current plan is for Al Franken

to be sworn in tomorrow on the Senate floor at about 12:15 pm ET. Vice President Biden is expected to do the honors in his role of "President of the Senate."

Also today, Franken and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will have a photo-op in the Capitol at 1:00 pm ET.

MAIN PAGE

Email this EMAIL THIS

Comments

We need more than a photo-op, Senator Reid. We need public option healthcare without a watered down version. Grow a spine now that you have back -up. Your smile will look a lot better.
It must be National Freak Show Day tomorrow. First the Jackson funeral, now Biden swearing in Franken. I hear Bubbles will be at both of the events.
Don't screw it up like you did the last one. Idiot.
All I can say is...

It's ABOUT time!  Congrats Senator Franken... after all of Coleman the Clowns stall & spin antics... in the end... he still couln't WIN!  Yay!
From NBC's Ken Strickland
The current plan is for Al Franken to be sworn in tomorrow on the Senate floor at about 12:15 pm ET. Vice President Biden is expected to do the honors in his role of "President of the Senate."
--------------------------------------------------

It's about time!!! So happy.
--------------------------------

Hi Nash!
*waves to Anita from Birmingham*

Hello fellow Birmingham-Southern alum . . . small world after all, huh? :)

Wanna be my running mate in 2016? lol
Nashville_fan
Yes Nash it is! If we ran in 2012 hell we would sweep! Nash I am an old alum. We were ranked NUMBER ONE IN THE NATION FOR LIBERAL ARTS THEN GIRL!!! We are still holding steady though. Excellent facility Excellent! Explains your post girl! YOU GO!
That's great! Now he doesn't have to play a Senator on TV (Senator Paul Simon of Ill in the skit of the Clarence Thomas hearings), he'll be one!
"This coming from a left wing wacko from the state with the highest deficits in the country-"
Bobo's Depression

Hey Bozo - Yeah we're the biggest state and we have a repugnant one governor who has done nothing but trash our state's economy during his incompetent watch.  Ahh is little bozo the clown depressed that Obama won and now we Democrats get to run the roost that you clowns for Clueless George screwed up?  Have a touch of phantom dictator syndrome going on do you?

Just Say No to Clueless George's Depression!
As a backdrop, play the Beatles' "Fool(s) on a Hill" for Reid and El Freakin'.
Good things are worth waiting for and Al Franken along with the people of Minnesota waited for that moment. Finally it will come to pass. Minnesota will have 2 Senators. Again, Congratulations, Sen. Fanken now get to work.
And so the Senate actually becomes a joke with comic Franken sworn in.
Let’s hope the Gaffmaster General Joe Biden does not flub the words. Remember Baracks inauguration- this administration is cursed!
Instead of a Hebrew Bible for the swearing-in ceremony, Franken should use "The Truth (With Jokes)."  

After all, that's what got him there.  

The oath itself should be, "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me."  

Afterwards, Franken should first give a gloating, snickering, exclusive interview to Bill O'Reilly, and then go forth to knock some heads together ... on both sides of the aisle.  Talk about bi-partisan.  
Nice.  Franken, a proven liar.  Should fit well since Obama is a proven liar, too.  
After he's done with Franken, can Biden please fill us in on that stimulus tracking he's supposed to oversee???  I would specifically like to know where all the jobs are.  
MJ 's song describes Obama's agenda perfect...

"All I really know is that they dont really care about us"

Jobs - Jobs - Jobs - Were are the Frekin Jobs!
Jobs - Jobs - Jobs - Were are the Frekin Jobs!
Jobs - Jobs - Jobs - Were are the Frekin Jobs!
Jobs - Jobs - Jobs - Were are the Frekin Jobs!
Jobs - Jobs - Jobs - Were are the Frekin Jobs!
Jobs - Jobs - Jobs - Were are the Frekin Jobs!
Jobs - Jobs - Jobs - Were are the Frekin Jobs!
Sen Franken, as pointed out on HB last week was a math jock at Harvard. He won fair and square in spite of Coleman's obstructions.

Now we have Dems 60 Gopers with more losses next cycle.

Go Dems. Pass HRC and Energy this year. Failure is NOT an option!
I keep hearing posters here and members of the media saying:

“President Obama said that if the economic stimulus bill was passed, unemployment would not go over 8%.”

One small problem with this statement . . . it is simply NOT TRUE.

As a public service, and since the media seems incapable of using “the Google”, I have done some RESEARCH to see WHAT is fueling this  . . .

Here is what I found:

In a report issued by his economic advisors on January 10, 2009 (BEFORE Barack Obama was even sworn in as President), economic advisors Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein issued a report titled “The Job Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan”,

The VERY FIRST WORDS in the report are these:

“A key goal enunciated by the President-Elect concerning the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan is that it should save or create at least 3 million jobs by the end of 2010.  For this reason, we have undertaken a preliminary analysis of the jobs effects of some of the prototypical recovery packages being discussed.  Our analysis will surely evolve as we and other economists work further on this topic. The results will also change as the actual package parameters are determined in cooperation with the Congress.”

http://otrans.3cdn.net/45593e8ecbd339d074_l3m6bt1te.pdf

Got that? The report is a PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS of a PROTOTYPICAL PACKAGE which will EVOLVE. Could it be stated any more clearly than that?

Now, here is the statement that has somehow been taken out of this PRE- PRESIDENTIAL report and put into the President’s mouth, as if by magic:

“First, the likely scale of employment loss is extremely large.  The U.S. economy has already lost nearly 2.6 million jobs since the business cycle peak in December 2007.  In the absence of stimulus, the economy could lose another 3 to 4 million more.  Thus, we are working to counter a potential job loss of  at least 5 million.  As Figure 1 shows,   even with the large prototypical package, the unemployment rate in 2010Q4 is predicted to be approximately 7.0%, which is well below the approximately 8.8% that would result in the absence of the plan.

Second, as emphasized above, there is considerable uncertainty in our estimates: both the impact of the package on GDP and the relationship between higher GDP and job creation are hard to estimate precisely. . .”
"This coming from a left wing wacko from the state with the highest deficits in the country-"
Bobo's Depression
------------------------------------------
Your beloved Reagan had this countries unemployment rate at 15% and interest rates at 22%. did he not?
Answer:
I don't recall President Obama saying that unemployment wouldn't go over 8%. You had better produce the facts. There was no way that he or anyone else could make that prediction.

Anita, Birmingham, Alabama (Sent Monday, July 06, 2009 10:04 AM)
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Sorry Anita, I didn’t remember him saying it either but yesterday on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” Biden was confronted with the Obama statement and commented that he said it before he realized that the economy was much worse than any of the experts had thought it was.
WONDERFUL!!

Franken is in, and Palin is out! HOORAY!!!!
It must be National Freak Show Day tomorrow. First the Jackson funeral, now Biden swearing in Franken. I hear Bubbles will be at both of the events.
Bobbie Jenkins, Chicago (Sent Monday, July 06, 2009 10:35 AM)
----------------------------------------------------
No the big bonanza took place when those two bufoons named Gw Bush and Dick Cheney were voted in for a second time. That was like going to the circus and watching Bush and Cheney get out of one of those real small clown filled vw's.
Peter Percival ~ I believe that was Justice Roberts screwing up Barack Obama's oath.  

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Nostalgia ~ And to think that the "fools on the hill" actually beat the best the republicans could come up with.  Tsk, tsk, tsk.  What IS this country coming to, anyway, when you can fool so many people so much of the time?  

Maybe Bee Gees, instead ...

I started a joke, which started the whole world laughing
Oh, I couldn't see, that the joke was on me ....

Peter Percival Patterson
-------
You wil get part two. I still haven't reacived "documented" facts. I've only read rhetoric. I want fact only dude.

FACT: Guring Reagans term...unemployment was at 15%. Interest rates were at 22%. These are facts. How dare any of you people think that the Prez is responsible was this cluster f***?
Now may be a good time to load up on the guns and ammo.


The bottom part of my post above got cut off . . . so here it is:


"Once again, it is CLEARLY STATED that these are ESTIMATES and LIKELY to be incorrect.

So why is the media, and many commenters here, pretending like the President predicted definitively that the stimulus would keep unemployment under 8% when he NEVER DID?

The unemployment rate in January 2009 was 7.6%, so CLEARLY nobody in there RIGHT MIND thought that the Stimulus package was going to be able to hold it under 8%. The stimulus bill wasn’t signed into law until mid February . . . the unemployment rate then was ALREADY 8.1%.

The bulk of the stimulus money has still NOT BEEN SPENT, so trying to decide how successful it has been is clearly a POLITICAL exercise, not an economic one.

I don’t have problem with those who criticize the President’s economic plans. But do so based on the TRUTH, not lies."

P.S. Anita, you don't recall the President saying unemployment won't rise above 8% becaus HE DIDN'T.

I challenge ANYONE to find a quote of him saying anything of the sort.


SEND A COMMENT

PLEASE READ: All comments must be approved before appearing in the thread; time and space constraints prevent all comments from appearing. We will only approve comments that are directly related to the blog, use appropriate language and are not attacking the comments of others.

Message (please, no HTML tags. Web addresses will be hyperlinked):

TRACKBACKS

Trackbacks are links to weblogs that reference this post. Like comments, trackbacks do not appear until approved by us. The trackback URL for this post is: http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/trackback.aspx?PostID=1986651

First Read e-mail alerts


Sign up for First Read alerts
The first place for key political news and analysis

Syndicate This Site

Add First Read to your news reader:
live.com xml
myyahoo msn
bloglines newsgator
google