Scandal Overshadows Environment

Today Obama confirmed the appointments of: Steven Chu, director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, as Energy Secretary, former EPA chief Carol Browner as a coordinator of energy and Climate Policy, former New Jersey Environmental Protection Commissioner Lisa Jackson as EPA director, Senator Ken Salazar as Interior Secretary and Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Nancy Sutley to run the White House Council on Environmental Quality. These appointments as well as Obama’s other environmental announcements were overshadowed by questions surrounding Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.
Apparently, when asked about the governor, Obama switched from saying "I have never spoken to the governor on this subject. I am confident that no representatives of mine would have any part of any deals related to this seat," to that his advisers were not involved in any “inappropriate” talks with Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich or his aides over the vacant Senate seat in Illinois to finally “I would ask your patience, as I do not want to interfere with an ongoing investigation.” Does this sound familiar? Wait! There’s more… Apparently US Attorney Scott Fitzgerald (even more familiar) did in fact ask the president elect to stay silent, and found that Obama’s appointed Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, is one of a “handful” of advisors who did in fact speak with Blagojevich about candidates to replace Obama as State senator. Nothing has directly tied Obama to the governor, despite the efforts of the RNC, except tapes in which Blagojevich refers to Obama as a mother #$%*-er. Thusfar, Obama is clean as it comes to this investigation. Although Obama seems to be surviving in the polls, we shall have to wait and see what happens to him and his administration as the investigations continue.

Obama Pledges Massive Public Works Program

With six weeks to his inauguration, Obama continued to announce more details about the make up of his administration and its priorities. He proposed a massive new public works program, designed to employ 2.5 million people by 2011. It will work on infrastructure improvements, ranging from bridge repairs, to school upgrades, to new highways.

Obama announced his appointments of retired Army Gen. Eric K. Shinseki to lead the Department of Veterans affairs, and retired Marine Gen. James Jones as his National Security Adviser. Both were critical of the invasion of Iraq, and retired shortly after the fall of Baghdad. Also announced were the appointments of Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano as homeland security secretary, Susan Rice as United Nations ambassador and Eric Holder as attorney general.

In other news, yet another suit questioning the legitimacy of Obama's birth certificate will go to the Supreme Court, which is expected to announce its verdict Monday.

Thanksgiving: A Break? Not for the Pres. Elect

Barack Obama had an extremely busy week this week. He started off Monday by naming Timothy Geithner, Lawrence Summers, Melody Barnes, and Christina D. Romer to his cabinet. He went on to say that the country is likely to lose at least a million jobs this year, and “the economy is likely to get worse before it gets better.” After this Carter-esc sentiment, he did go on to say that he has a plan to gain 2.5 million jobs back by 2010. It is speculated that this plan is to be supported by Obama’s plan to increase the taxes paid by those who make over $250,000 a year.

Tuesday, it was announced that the current Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, will remain Secretary of Defense for Obama, for at least one year. On Wednesday the 26, Obama not only went to a Food bank in Chicago, but he announced the Creation of his (the president’s) “Economic Recovery Advisory Board,” modeled after President Eisenhower’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. The ERAB will help advise the President through the current economic crisis of “historic proportions.”

On Thanksgiving, the President Elect gave out his weekly update, before Showing up on a Barbara Walters special on ABC. He spoke mostly of how bad the stock market and the economy were doing, but that we, as strong Americans, will push though the crisis. His thoughts were answered perhaps later that day, when the Stock Market closed with the DOW up over 1,000 points over the last four days, the largest increase in that time period since the great depression. Friday closed up 123 points.

http://stjoenews.net/news/2008/nov/27/dow-4th-straight-session/?business


http://www.wspa.com/spa/news/local/article/live_streaming_obama_to_announce_cabinet_posts/11533/

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081125/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_gates;_ylt=AopVO9dzWbqtSUfgNTMi5vms0NUE

http://change.gov/newsroom/entry/president_elect_barack_obama_establishes_presidents_economic_recovery_advis/

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/business/NATL-O-Conomic-Team-Takes-Shape-.html

http://thisweekwithbarackobama.blogspot.com/

This week Barack Obama officially resned from the senate. Although no one has yet been assigned to fill his position, many suspect that Jesse Jakson's son,Jesse Jackson Jr., will be taking the role of Illinois senator. However, Governor Rod Blagojevich says he will anounce Obama's succesor by the end of the year.

Obama also named Peter Rouse, his senate chief of staff, to be the senior advisor to the president. He also spoke in his second of what he plans to be weekly Addresses that have been released on YOUTUBE.

Obama plans to meet with Sen. John McCain in Chicago tomorrow in order to discuss how they can serve together to create a "more effective and efficient government."

YOUTUBE: Obama's Weekly Address
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd8f9Zqap6U

Next Illinois Senator
http://www.lasentinel.net/Will-Jesse-Jackson-Jr.-be-the-next-U.S.-Senator.html

Obama meets with McCain
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/16/AR2008111601840.html?hpid=topnews

Obama Begins Transition

President-elect Obama has had a busy week since the election. After promising his children a puppy, he witnessed his first President's Daily Brief, which will be given to him every morning by the CIA. The world is eagerly awaiting Mr. Obama's picks for his cabinet and administration posts, and was rewarded with one: Rahm Emanuel, Representative from Illinois, will be the Chief of Staff in the new Administration. Rep. Emanuel was the architect of the Democrat's successful bid to take control of Congress in 2006. An Obama aid said that the President-elect is not likely to make any cabinet picks this week, however. Obama also met with President Bush at the White House to talk about the transition.

Mr. President

You might have heard, but yesterday the first black president of the United States was Voted in yesterday, in a descisive Electoral victory, and a 3 point popular vote. Barak Obama, ladies and Gentleman, in now our official President Elect. This is indeed a historic day, and the begining of a very interesting four years. Obama said in his acceptance speech that he would 'tackle the nation’s broken economy, fight off global threats and support soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq.' Whether or not this means that he will or will not be withdrawling troops from Iraq has yet to be seen. A very interesting four years indeed...

Barack Obama is the President-elect of the United States

As Election Nears, Obama Hits Key States

With the election only 48 hours away, Senator Obama has been all over the country, visiting many key states, including Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Florida and Colorado. In his speeches, he cautioned his supporters, telling them "don't believe for a second that this election is over." While the polls are beginning to tighten, the Democratic nominee still has a commanding lead.

The state of Hawaii has verified Obama's birth certificate as genuine, knocking down notions that he was actually born in Kenya, which would have made him unable to serve as president.

Florida Uniting

Today in Florida, Obama met with Bill Clinton in Florida for a rally. After spending Monday in Ohio and Pennsylvania, Tuesday in Pennsylvania and Virginia, Obama finally spent a full day in Florida. He ended his day with his rally With Clinton. This is a huge step, because it shows that the Clintons are finally throwing their full support behind the democratic candidate. This unification of the democrats, so to say, is a huge gain for Obama, especially since Clinton was the last democrat to win Florida’s electoral votes.

Obama plans to move from Florida to Virginia, Missouri, and then back to Florida tomorrow, and ending his week with a visit to Iowa on Friday.

Obama Heads West

Senator Obama spent the latter part of the week campaigning in Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada. He witnessed a record turnout in Boulder, where over 100,000 people came to a rally on Sunday. There, he pounced on a comment made by McCain on "Meet the Press." "Just this morning, Senator McCain said that actually he and President Bush 'share a common philosophy.'" Obama hopes to wrest back these western states from the red, where they have been for the past several elections.
Several newspaper endorsements rolled in, including a surprise from Alaska. The Anchorage Daily News endorsed Obama, saying that "brings far more promise to the office." The Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, and several other papers also endorsed the Democratic nominee. This marks the first time in history that the Chicago Tribune has endorsed a Democrat.
In other news, a federal court has thrown out a suit brought by Philip J. Berg, questioning whether Senator Obama was a "natural-born citizen." Judge R. Barclay Surrick stated that Mr. Berg had no grounds to sue, a similar decision as the one made on a suit questioning Senator McCains citizenship earlier this year.

Sunshine Obama

Obama started this past week with a Visit to Florida, which may very well be his sunshine state. Although Florida has gone Republican in the last two elections(by close margins), this year seems to be different. In an average of polls, Obama is leading Florida at +2 percentage points, which may owe some credit to the fact that he has "poured people and money into Florida in building the largest field organization ever assembled in the Sunshine State." After holding several rallies, mostly in the south of Florida, The senator flew to Virginia, a state he holds by about 10 percent, where he was greeted by sunshine and smiling faces.

The forecast for the upcoming weekend: sunshine perhaps, with a chance of light drizzle or even heavy rain on the Obama Campaign. Obama plans to travel to Nevada this weekend to address gun control, a large issue in the state. Although Obama seems to have a pronounced lead in urban areas, he is trying to secure at least a 40% vote in some rural areas that are chalk full of people "who just (hate) Obama." Obama has a shakey lead of about 2 percentage points in nevada.

Colin Powell Endorses Obama

Obama had another busy week, campaigning all over New York and Missouri. As is tradition, he and Senator McCain took a night off to relax and trade jokes at the Alfred E. Smith Foundation Dinner. For one night, there was "no other crowd [he] would rather be palling around with." The next day, it was back on the campaign trail, and the Democratic nominee was boosted by both an endorsement from Colin Powell and a record $150 million in fundraising in September. Powell was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs during the Bush Sr. and Clinton administrations, as well as President George W. Bush's Secretary of State. With only two weeks to the election, the Obama campaign is bombarding the airwaves with advertising, including ads in popular video games such as Madden '09 and Burnout Paradise.

Style Points

After campaigning for Two days throughout Ohio, a 'swing state' in which he and McCain are "Statistically tied," Barak Obama squared off once again with McCain for the third and last debate of the election, this time in NY. Although the group of undecided voters in the CBS studio mostly tended to lean towrds McCain, who they said showed to be more presidential than Obama and much better than in previous debates, polls made to homes and over the internet show Obama comfortably winning the debate. A big issue tonight was supprisingly personal, having to do with both candidate's tendencies to attack the other candidate rather than polocies, or discussing issues. this conversation, ironically enough, ended with attacks from both candidates.
Obama was reported to be calmer than McCain. This is reportedly caused in part by his reported 8% national lead over McCain. He may have been acting calmer in an effort to look more presidential, while McCain would surely over exert himself, trying to make attacks to make Obama look bad. This apparently paid off for Obama.
Obama is flying to Londery, New Hampshire to campaign tomorrow.

Race Gets Dirty as Election Nears

With the election a mere three weeks away, the race abruptly took a turn towards the negative. As Obama pulled further ahead in the polls, Senator McCain and Governor Palin questioned the ties between Obama and Weather Underground founder Bill Ayers. The Obama campaign responded with a video highlighting McCain's involvement in the Keating Five scandal of the Savings and Loan Crisis. However, late in the week, McCain toned down the attacks as his supporters became more and more angry. Obama praised the decision, but kept up the attack, saying that "when it comes to the economy and what families here in Pennsylvania are going through, Sen. McCain still doesn't get it."
Obama had a busy week of travel, holding as many as four rallies in one day in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Ohio is considered a crucial swing state, and Obama's many visits over the past weeks have helped him pull ahead in the polls, to a rough tie.

One More to Obama

Although Barack Obama was campaigning in North Carolina on Monday, there was much more press coverage over the event he attended on Tuesday night. After a day of campaigning in Nashville Tennessee, the presidential candidate squared off once again with republican nominee, John McCain. The most interesting thing they talked about during the debate was Healthcare. Both candidates put forth proposals pertaining to medical insurance. While McCain’s plan was too allow families a $5,000 tax credit towards paying insurance, Obama put forth that under his plan, people would be able to keep their old plans with their employers, or they "will be able to buy the same kind of insurance that Sen. McCain and I enjoy as federal employees."
It seems as though viewers watching the debate favored Obama. According to a CBS poll of undecided voters, 40% of those polled thought Obama came out on top, over the 26% that found McCain the winner. It seems as though Obama has had the advantage after the last two debates, so it shall be interesting who will win next Wednesday, when the two candidates battle once more in New York.

Today, Obama campaigned in Indiana, a state which he hopes to be the first democrat to win since Lyndon B. Johnson, while his running mate, Joe Biden, campaigned in Florida.

Obama Pulls Farther Ahead

As November 5th nears, the economy continues to be the top issue in the campaign. After the House of Representatives rejected the $700 billion bailout, the stock market plunged, with the Dow Industrial Average falling a record 778 points that day. An amended version passed the Senate and then the House, with both Senator Obama and McCain's support. However even after the bill was signed into law by President Bush the market fell, partially over fears caused by the jobless rate spiking to 6.1% last month. Obama continues to pull ahead as voters blame President Bush and the Republican Party for the credit crisis. McCain effectively gave up in Michigan, pulling his campaign out of the state, and Obama also enjoyed substantial gains in Minnesota, Colorado and Ohio. Responding to the McCain campaign's increasingly aggressive attacks, Obama said that it "was what you do when you're out of touch, out of ideas, and out of time." He had a busy half week of travel, campaigning in Lansing, Michigan, Abington, Pennsylvania and Newport News, Virginia.
The Obama campaign also launched an iPhone app over the weekend, allowing owners of the gadget to contribute on the go.

Debate Favorable to Obama?

Barack Obama and John McCain squared off at the University of Mississippi last week in the first of their Presidential debates. The debate, which surprisingly few people watched, seemed to have ended in a stalemate, verbally as well as non-verbally, with no prominent errors with either candidate. Although after the debate Obama was caught in several half truths that he had mentioned during the debate, this did not seem to hurt him at all. In fact, the result politically from the debate is that, as of yesterday, Obama has climbed in the polls, and has in fact climbed ahead of McCain in three swing states, Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania. This surge in popularity may be due to the debate in which, although he did not “win”, McCain was favored (due to his apparent knowledge in foreign policy). This lack of a victory for McCain may have been viewed by some as a sort of victory for Obama, causing him to poll higher.

Barack Obama, who was campaigning in Wisconsin at the time, announced this morning that he would be “flying back to Washington today to cast my vote to safeguard the American economy,” which he insists should be a bi-partisan priority.

In other news, Obama’s ‘veep’ candidate, Joe Biden, is preparing for the vice presidential debate which takes places tomorrow, Oct 2.

Banking Shakes Up Campaign

The collapse of Lehman Brothers and government buyout of AIG drastically changed the nature of the campaign for both Obama and McCain. The Democratic nominee enjoyed a boost in the polls due to McCain's fumbling of the crisis. Obama blasted the Republican nominee for saying that "the fundamentals [of the economy] are strong," just hours before the upheval in the markets. In response to the Bush Adminstration's $700 billion plan to buy up bad securities from Wall Street, Obama said that it must not be a "blank check," and should include provisions for tighter regulation of the market, support for international recovery, and have a focus on Main Street as well as Wall Street. The Senator from Illinois has been spending time in North Carolina, a state historically Republican, but which is predicted to be a close contest in this election.

In other news, Vice Presidential running mate Joe Biden warned Obama not to "fool with my Beretta" as he was campaigning in Virginia.

What's Going On?

The recent Democratic primary in Pennsylvania brought no closure to the never ending race to win the Democratic presidential nomination. Clinton won the primary with 55% of voters versus Obama's 45%. When will it stop? According to David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager, Obama only needs under 300 delegates to receive the nomination, while Clinton would have to win 70% of all the future delegates to surpass him. The day after the primary, Obama played it nice when speaking to 7,000 supporters in Evanston, Indiana. He congratulated Clinton on her win in Pennsylvania and when the crowd started booing he affirmed, ""No, no," "She ran a terrific race." Does this imply that her race to the nomination is over, or was Obama simply saying that she ran a good race in Pennsylvania? After congratulating Clinton, Obama refrained from saying her name in his speech, neither with a positive nor negative connotation. Obama has once again begun focusing on the Republican opponent McCain, rather than further destroying the Democratic party. This is a very smart political move.
In other news, new endorsements for Obama include: Michael Moore and Sheryl Crow.

The Eve of Pennsylvania

On the eve of the Pennsylvania primary, both Clinton and Obama seem to be on edge since the results of tomorrow’s primary will whether Obama will win for good, whether Hillary still has a chance and whether worries of a divided Democratic party can be put to rest regarding the general election. It has been a long wait since the last few primaries and both candidates have been endlessly to secure their place on the Democratic ticket, apparently Senator Hillary Clinton released an add tonight to air in the Pennsylvania area that insinuates Obama is not prepared to handle the numerous problems facing America for the upcoming President. Obama’s rebuttal focused on Clinton’s tactic of attack; asserting that, “in times of challenge will unite us -- not use fear and calculation to divide us.” In an election that has morphed into a war of endorsements, Obama received the support of another well-known film maker, Michael Moore. Apparently Moore posted a blog on his website praising Obama’s movement for change and he also took the time to critique the divisive, dirty and disheartening sentiments of Hillary’s campaign. According to an article in The New York Times, age will play a large role in Tuesday’s primary because it has become the second most accurate predictor of how someone will vote in the election. While Obama seems to have a near monopoly on younger voters, Hillary has consistently had a base of middle aged supporters. Interestingly, polls have demonstrated that in Pennsylvania “the outmigration of young people has left the state with the second-highest proportion of people over 65 in the country, after Florida. Fifty-eight percent of registered Democrats are older than 45, a consistent dividing line in the race”—figures that may favor Hillary. Whatever the outcome of tomorrow’s primary election, the Obama campaign will remain favored in the race and the results will determine whether he has all but won the nomination.