First Read : White House

Obama grants 'Courage' a pardon

Domenico Montanaro — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:57:00 GMT

From NBC's Athena Jones
It was a festive atmosphere on the White House North Portico on Wednesday morning for the president's annual Thanksgiving turkey pardon.

Despite the drizzle, dozens of press joined dozens of guests and White House staffers to witness President Obama pardon a 45-pound turkey dubbed Courage, from Goldsboro, NC. Courage will soon head to Dulles Airport for a flight to California where he will be the grand marshal of tomorrow's Thanksgiving Day Parade at Disneyland.

"You know, there are certain days that remind me of why I ran for this office and then there are moments like this where I pardon a turkey and send it to Disneyland," the president said to laughter.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL VIDEO OF OBAMA'S PRESIDENTIAL TURKEY PARDON TODAY.

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Beg your (Turkey) pardon

Domenico Montanaro — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:52:00 GMT

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
I know, we at First Read are "off" today, but with the president about to pardon a turkey (11:35 am ET), we thought we'd shed some light on the history of presidential turkey pardons. It's actually not as long a history as you might think.

President Harry Truman is often cited, incorrectly, as the first president to pardon a Thanksgiving turkey. (Just Google first president to pardon a turkey and see how many wiki Truman answers you get.)

Adding to the confusion, President Bill Clinton claimed on Nov. 26, 1997 at his pardoning ceremony: "President Truman was the first President to pardon a turkey."

But the Truman Library wrote in 2003: "The Library's staff has found no documents, speeches, newspaper clippings, photographs, or other contemporary records in our holdings which refer to Truman pardoning a turkey that he received as a gift in 1947, or at any other time during his Presidency."

In fact, "Truman sometimes indicated to reporters that the turkeys he received were destined for the family dinner table," the library wrote.

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Here's the guest list

Mark Murray — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:05:00 GMT

From NBC's Mark Murray
The White House -- finally! -- has released its guest list for tonight's state dinner.
Among the politicians: Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Sen. Chris Dodd, and Sen. Claire McCaskill.

Among the members of the media: NBC's Brian Williams, CBS's Katie Couric, the New York Times' Tom Friedman, CNN's Sanjay Gupta, and ABC's Robin Roberts.

Among the celebrities/moguls: David Geffen, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Gayle King, M. Night Shyamalan, and Steven Spielberg.

Below is the entire list...

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Obama wants to 'finish' Afghan job

Mark Murray — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:15:00 GMT

From NBC's Athena Jones
After weeks of high-level meetings to review his administration's strategy in Afghanistan, President Obama said he would announce his troop decision soon and declared his intention to finish a job that began more than eight years ago.

The main goal in the region remains the same: to destroy and dismantle al Qaeda and prevent the group and its extremist allies from operating effectively. After Thanksgiving -- and likely as soon as Dec. 1 -- the president plans to explain the rationale behind his decision to send what it expected to be thousands more troops to Afghanistan.

"After eight years, some of those years in which we did not have I think either the resources or the strategy to get the job done, it is my intention to finish the job," Obama said today at a joint news conference with India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. "And I feel very confident that when the American people hear a clear rationale for what we're doing there and how we intend to achieve our goals, that they will be supportive."

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Obama on US-India relationship

Domenico Montanaro — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:43:00 GMT

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro President Obama welcomed India's Prime Minister Singh to the White House this morning. He stressed the importance of the U.S.'s relationship with India, mentioning briefly climate change and only alluding to its regional significance as it relates to Pakistan in particular. Pakistan and India are main rivals, clashing often over the disputed Kashmir region. India also wants more done by the Pakistanis to hold accountable those responsible for the deadly Mumbai bombings....(read more)

Obama agenda: The jobs debate

Mark Murray — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:15:00 GMT

“The White House is lukewarm about proposals by congressional Democrats to introduce broad legislation to create jobs, instead favoring targeted measures that would be less likely to inflate the deficit,” the Wall Street Journal says. “There is as yet no agreement within the White House or in Congress on how to try to curb the U.S. jobless rate. But the differences in opinion suggest that rifts could emerge among Democrats as they wrestle with how to beat back the highest unemployment rate in a generation.”

The president said his Asia trip was about American jobs. "As we emerge from the worst recession in generations, there is nothing more important than to do everything we can to get our economy moving again and put Americans back to work, and I will go anywhere to pursue that goal," Obama says in his weekly radio/Internet address, recorded in the South Korean capital of Seoul, his last stop. "That’s one of the main reasons I took this trip. Asia is a region where we now buy more goods and do more trade with than any other place in the world -- commerce that supports millions of jobs back home."

Video: A Morning Meeting panel debates how President Obama should handle the growing unemployment problem.

The New York Times has a primer on the military options President Obama is weighing on Afghanistan.

Writing about the president’s campaign to promote science and math education, which he announces later this morning, the New York Times says the White House is recruiting Big Bird, Elmo, and video-game programmers. “The campaign, called Educate to Innovate, will focus mainly on activities outside the classroom. For example, Discovery Communications has promised to use two hours of the afternoon schedule on its Science Channel cable network for commercial-free programming geared toward middle school students. Science and engineering societies are promising to provide volunteers to work with students in the classroom, culminating in a National Lab Day in May.”

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Obama agenda: The final day in Asia

Mark Murray — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:21:00 GMT

“After taking his message as the ‘first Pacific president’ through four countries in eight days, President Obama wrapped up his tour of Asia on Thursday with talks with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and a planned visit to U.S. troops stationed in the shadow of nuclear-armed North Korea,” the Washington Post’s Kornblut writes. “The Seoul stop was the last on a trip that has notably lacked concrete achievements but has seen Obama's personal narrative on full display, as he reminisced about the...(read more)

Axelrod answers critics of Asia trip

Mark Murray — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:54:00 GMT

From NBC's Athena Jones
SEOUL -- President Obama's trip to Asia was a success, so declared White House senior adviser David Axelrod in response to questions about just what has been accomplished during the president's weeklong first foray to the region.

Axelrod argued the president had done what he set out to do -- lay a solid foundation for diplomacy and strengthen relationships, even as he prepared to return to Washington without the kinds of solid takeaways previous presidential trips have generally produced.

"We didn't come halfway across the world for tickertape parades," he told reporters after Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung Bak held a joint press appearance at the Blue House here. "We came here to lay a foundation for progress. We've done that."

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Obama's last-minute health bill push

Domenico Montanaro — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:30:00 GMT

From NBC's Ken Strickland
In what appears to be the administration making a a last-minute push to curry votes for health care, Vice President Joe Biden is up there lobbying as is former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, a former centrist U.S. Senator has also been spotted in the hallways, but he says he's just up there to see friends and that he's not really lobbying for health care.

But it's worth noting that Salazar is still friends with many of the key moderate senators whose votes will be crucial in defeating a potential Republican filibuster. Salazar said he was going to see his old friend Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor (D), for one.

He certainly picked an odd day to go to the Hill just to hang out, especially since Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is hoping for a vote as early as Friday.

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U.S. criticizes Israeli settlement expansion

Domenico Montanaro — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:11:00 GMT

From NBC's Andrea Mitchell and Sue Kroll
Despite Hillary Clinton's recent praise for what she called Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's "unprecedented" steps on the controversial issue of settlements, the traveling White House has issued a very tough statement slamming Israel for further expansion of settlements in Arab East Jerusalem.

Issued just now under White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs' name, the statement reads:

We are dismayed at the Jerusalem Planning Committee's decision to move forward on the approval process for the expansion of Gilo in Jerusalem. At a time when we are working to re-launch negotiations, these actions make it more difficult for our efforts to succeed. Neither party should engage in efforts or take actions that could unilaterally pre-empt, or appear to pre-empt, negotiations. The U.S. also objects to other Israeli practices in Jerusalem related to housing, including the continuing pattern of evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes. Our position is clear: the status of Jerusalem is a permanent status issue that must be resolved through negotiations between the parties.

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters Tuesday that the Israeli plan to expand the Gilo settlement in East Jerusalem is "dismaying."

According to news reports, Israeli officials set forth a plan on Tuesday to build 900 more housing units in a Jewish neighborhood that had been claimed by Palestinians.

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