BARACK OBAMA’S bold experiment in bipartisanship has taken another hit with his second nominee for commerce secretary, the Republican senator Judd Gregg, abruptly withdrawing his nomination citing “irresolvable differences”.

Senator Gregg pointed to the stimulus package and changes to the Census Bureau as the two areas where he could not support Administration policy.

The bones of the stimulus package have been public for weeks. But the Census Bureau issue has been festering behind the scenes after the White House indicated it wanted to move it from the Commerce Department to an independent agency reporting to the White House.

The bureau is crucial; it is not only used for determining funding to programs but also to redistribute congressional districts.

Mr Gregg was the second nominee for the important post of commerce secretary. Bill Richardson, the Democratic Governor of New Mexico, withdrew because of a federal inquiry into donations.

When Senator Gregg came to his decision is unclear and two separate statements were issued – one from the senator and another from the White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs – suggesting tensions.

Mr Gibbs said it was Senator Gregg who had “reached out to the President and offered his name for secretary of commerce”.

Senator Gregg said that he had thought he could bring some ideas and views that would assist the President at this difficult time.

“I especially admire his willingness to reach across the aisle,” he said.

“However, it has become apparent during this process that this will not work for me as I have found that on issues such as the stimulus package and the census there are irresolvable conflicts for me.”

This latest setback in Mr Obama’s bipartisanship experiment is likely to further polarise the vote on the stimulus package.

There have been rumours that up to 20 Republicans, other than the three renegades who have been involved with negotiations, would support the bill in its final form.

Speaking in Peoria, Illinois, where he paid a visit to the Caterpillar factory, the President highlighted the fact that his Transport Secretary, Ray LaHood, who is from Peoria, was a Republican. Mr Obama said he would keep working on a bipartisan approach; Americans were “desperate” for Republicans and Democrats to co-operate.

The fact that Mr Obama was in the Caterpillar factory campaigning in the same way as he did during the election shows that the experiment in bipartisanship is not going smoothly.

Mr Obama has let Republicans paint his stimulus package as irresponsible spending – and their message has started getting traction.

Polls show that while Mr Obama enjoys enormous personal approval, there are serious reservations about his stimulus package.

As a result Mr Obama has reverted to his old campaign strategies, taking his message on the road and directly to the public.

But in some good news for the President, his pick for director of the CIA, the veteran Democratic politician Leon Panetta was confirmed by the Senate late on Thursday.

Technorati Tags: barack obama, Bill Richardson, bipartisanship, Census Bureau, Judd Gregg, Ray LaHood, White House

THE US president-elect, Barack Obama, has confirmed that he will pursue a clear policy of engagement with Iran and press immediately for peace in the Middle East.

Speaking on the ABC News television program This Week, Mr Obama said he wanted to work directly with Iran – a country whose president has called for Israel’s destruction – to improve relations and halt a nuclear program that Tehran describes as peaceful, but the West believes is not.

“We are going to have to take a new approach,” he told the program’s host, George Stephanopoulos, in his first interview since arriving in Washington.

“My belief is that engagement is the place to start.”

Mr Obama said he wanted to adopt “a new emphasis on respect and a new willingness on being willing to talk” to the Iranians, while making it clear “that we also have certain expectations”.

The remarks suggest a clear departure from the often pointed and deprecatory speech that has prevailed between the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the US President, George Bush.

The New York Times reported on Sunday that Mr Bush had told the Israelis last year he had authorised covert action intended to sabotage Iran’s suspected effort to develop nuclear weapons.

Mr Obama also softened his pledge to close the US’s controversial prison at Guantanamo Bay within the first 100 days of his administration, saying it was proving a more complex task than he had thought.

As next Tuesday’s inauguration approaches, Mr Obama has scaled back some of the ambitious time frames he set himself during the election campaign and immediately after winning the election in November.

The withdrawal of troops from Iraq within 16 months may be adjusted depending on advice from the generals; the economic stimulus package that he hoped to sign on inauguration day is now likely to take until mid-February; and the timetable on closing Guantanamo is likely to be more protracted.

Washington will be pre-occupied this week with two important issues: the economy and the confirmation hearings for Mr Obama’s cabinet nominees.

Hillary Clinton’s hearing, on Tuesday, is expected to be straightforward because she has been extensively vetted in the past and because she is a senator.

But not all the hearings are likely to go as easily. Republican senators such as Arlen Specter, the party’s highest-ranking member on the judiciary committee, have voiced objections over Mr Obama’s choice for attorney-general, Eric Holder.

Mr Holder, a former undersecretary in the Attorney-General’s Department, is under fire over his role in the pardon by the former president Bill Clinton of the millionaire Marc Rich, often cited as one of the most egregious uses of such pardons.

Mr Holder has admitted it was a mistake to support the pardon, but Mr Obama is under pressure because he has promised to ensure the Justice Department’s integrity is restored, and some Republicans see Mr Holder as a partisan figure.

There have also been concerns expressed about Leon Panetta, Mr Obama’s choice for director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Several senators, including some Democrats, have expressed concern about his lack of intelligence experience.

Mr Panetta was chief of staff to president Clinton and would have been part of White House security briefings, but has no direct intelligence experience in the agency or the military.

Mr Bush is also expected to ask Congress this week to release the second $US350 billion of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, after consultations with the Obama economic team. It is likely to include funds to help small business and to assist directly victims of foreclosure.

But many in Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike, are angry at the lack of accountability for the first $US350 billion, which was used to help the big banks.

Technorati Tags: barack obama, iran, iraq

US President-elect Barack Obama has softened his pledge to close the US’s controversial prison at Guantanamo Bay within the first 100 days of his administration, saying it is proving a more complex task than he had first thought.

“I think it’s going to take some time and our legal teams are working in consultation with our national security apparatus as we speak to help design exactly what we need to do,” Mr Obama said in an interview on ABC’s This Week With George Stephanopoulos – his first since arriving in Washington.

“It is more difficult than I think a lot of people realise,” he said.

“Part of the challenge that you have is that you have a bunch of folks that have been detained, many of whom may be very dangerous who have not been put on trial or have not gone through some adjudication.

“And some of the evidence against them may be tainted even though it’s true. And so how to balance creating a process that adheres to the rule of law, habeas corpus, basic principles of the Anglo-American legal system, by doing it in a way that doesn’t result in releasing people who are intent on blowing us up.”

But Mr Obama said unequivocally that Guantanamo would close.

“I don’t want to be ambiguous about this. We are going to close Guantanamo and we are going to make sure that the procedures we set up are ones that abide by our constitution. That is not only the right thing to do but it actually has to be part of our broader national security strategy because we will send a message to the world that we are serious about our values.”

President George Bush has also said that he wants to close Guantanamo Bay, but so far has been unable to make satisfactory arrangements for the 250 inmates who remain in the US’s main detention centre for alleged terrorists.

Some of the problems stem from concerns about bringing suspects back onto US soil that would potentially bring them within the US justice system and greatly expand their rights of appeal.

Some evidence, collected using enhanced interrogation methods, might also be illegal.

It was recently revealed that the US had asked Australia to take some of the inmates, but Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has declined to assist.

Mr Obama said that he was not ruling out prosecuting Bush Administration officials – some civil rights advocates want CIA officials and even Vice-President Dick Cheney tried for torturing prisoners – by appointing a special prosecutor or commission to investigate abuses of power and illegal activity.

But he said he would prefer to look forward rather than backwards in keeping the US safe against terrorist threats.

Technorati Tags: barack obama, Guantanamo

Chicago has been rocked by a staggering new corruption scandal after the Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested on Tuesday morning for trying to sell the right to replace Barack Obama in the US Senate.

The governor, who has the sole right to appoint Mr Obama’s replacement to the Senate, was caught on wire taps trying to leverage a personal financial benefit from the appointment, including a possible appointment to the Obama cabinet.

According to an FBI affidavit, Blagojevich was caught noting that the Senate seat “is a f*****g valuable thing, you just don’t give it away for nothing”.

He was also recorded saying that unless “I get something real good”, he would appoint himself to the vacancy.

“I’m going to keep this Senate option for me a real possibility, you know, and therefore I can drive a hard bargain. You hear what I’m saying. And if I don’t get what I want and I’m not satisfied with it, then I’ll just take the Senate seat myself.”

He was also secretly recorded canvassing the idea of getting a cabinet position in president-elect Obama’s administration or an ambassadorship out of the Senate appointment.

He later realised this was aiming too high and the steam went out of it after Obama’s preference, his close friend Valerie Jarrett, ruled herself out.

The bugs placed in the Governor’s campaign office and on his home phone also recorded Blagojevich and his chief of staff John Harris discussing whether he could use the Senate appointment to secure a cushy union job for himself and corporate board positions for his wife, earning as much as $150,000.

One scheme involved the State Employees Industrial Union (SEIU) securing him a job in return for getting to nominate the new senator. SEIU was an early supporter of Obama. The scheme did not proceed.

US attorney Patrick Fitzgerald described the activities as a “political corruption crime spree” and had revealed a pattern of “pay to play” in Chicago politics.

“This is a sad day for government in Illinois,” he said. “Governor Blagojevich has taken us to a new low.”

Other tapes reveal he discussed demanding that the beleaguered Tribune Group, which publishes the Chicago Tribune, remove certain critics from its editorial board and one editor, before he would consider giving state approvals for the sale of Wrigley Field, the famous baseball venue owned by the company.

FBI officers phoned the Governor at 6am on Tuesday morning and told him there were two FBI officers outside his home waiting to arrest him. The governor left with the officers without fuss. His chief of staff, John Harris, was also arrested.

Technorati Tags: barack obama, Illinois Governor, politics, Rod Blagojevich

In recognition that the first year of his presidency will be dominated by trying to stabilize the domestic economy, Barack Obama has assembled a heavy-hitting and highly experienced national security team – including his former rival for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton.

The president-elect was expected to hold a press conference in Chicago early today to unveil his national security team.

The decision to appoint Senator Clinton to the top foreign affairs job, to continue with Robert Gates as defence secretary and to place General James Jones, the former head of NATO forces in Europe, shows that Mr Obama has put experience and strong opinions ahead of rewarding those who were seen as part of his inner circle.

While there have been some qualms from liberal commentators, who fear this line-up of seasoned advisers will dissuade Mr Obama from a swift end to the war in Iraq, the much stronger sentiment is for support.

Bob Woodward, author and journalist, who has chronicled the Bush Administration’s handling of the Iraq war, described the team as “amazing” and likened it to Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

“You’ve got too cool – or at least appropriately cool – General Jones; Gates is kind of just right, in the middle; and Hillary Clinton, hot,”

The line-up will ensure that Mr Obama is freed from having to keep an eye on detailed implementation, although he will need to ensure that he sets a clear tone for his administration, particularly when it comes to issues on which he campaigned: withdrawal from Iraq, attitudes to torture and incarceration of war prisoners and using international negotiation rather than unilateral approaches, which characterized the first term of the Bush Administration.

Mr Obama says he wants to lead an administration in which strong-willed senior officials are ready to debate forcefully for differing points of view.

Some American supporters of Israel have been buzzing over the potential for conflict between Senator Clinton and General Jones on the Arab-Israeli issues.

General Jones was appointed as a Bush administration envoy charged with trying to improve the often dysfunctional Palestinian security forces.

As part of that assignment, he drafted a report that caused a stir in Israel by criticizing the Israel Defence Forces’ activities in the Palestinian territories.

The only appointment that is truly from his inner circle is Dr Susan Rice, who was one of his senior foreign affairs advisers from the outset of the campaign. She is expected to be made ambassador to the UN.

The appointments face a nomination process before the Senate, which in Senator Clinton’s case could be testing.

While Bill Clinton has agreed to restrictions on his foreign work so his wife can become the nation’s highest diplomat, there are “probably legitimate questions” that remain, Senator Richard Lugar said.

Technorati Tags: barack obama, politics, President-elect, security team

Barack Obama promised change, galvanizing many younger voters who believed America could become a fairer country and end its involvement in Iraq.

As a presidential candidate, Obama had promised a new vision of politics.  A politics not divided along partisan lines, that would break with the old Washington ways where access to decision makers was corrupted by donations, lobbyists and a culture of insiders.

But so far he has turned mainly to people with reputations as practitioners of tough, pragmatic politics, and long Washington histories.

Over the past six months, America has gone from prosperous, if troubled, to an economy on the brink. A nimble, smoothly functioning administration must take priority over experiments in open governance.

Obama unveiled his economic team this week.

He chose Tim Geithner, the chairman of the Federal Reserve’s New York branch, as treasury secretary.  Some Democrats have already claimed that Geithner was part of the regulatory structure that led to the Wall Street collapse.

But he is also waist-deep in the $700 billion rescue plan, giving him a seamless entry into the job.

Larry Summers, a Harvard economist and treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, will be chief economic adviser in the White House. Summers is known for his flair and brilliance as an economist, not his management skills.

Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, served as a Clinton advisor, and knows both how to construct a White House office and that this is no time for experiments.    Obama once joked during a charity roast of his friend that Emanuel, a former ballet dancer, is more likely to perform Machiavelli’s The Prince than Giselle.

Obama has chosen more diplomatic figures to balance Emanuel.

Tom Daschle, the former Senate majority leader and Obama’s choice for health secretary, is a skilled and well-liked former member of Congress. David Axelrod, to be this administration’s Karl Rove equivalent, can serve as a tempering force. He was responsible for crafting Obama’s campaign message and, by the standards of past campaigns, kept it away from the low road.

Appointing Hillary Clinton secretary of state is, however, the most disappointing for some Obama supporters. They recall the fierce early debates over withdrawal of troops in Iraq, the issue prompting them to turn up and make phone calls for a relative unknown.

Washington Post columnist, David Ignatius wrote:

“Clinton is immensely talented but it could be the wrong job for her, since it has the potential to undermine Obama’s own transformational role in foreign policy – perhaps the greatest opportunity he has. Why subcontract this to Clinton and her entourage?”

Sadly for Obama, he will probably not have time to deal with issues such as the Middle East in the way he might have liked to in his first year. He needs someone who can command immediate respect on the world stage and represent America’s interests with flair.

But think back to the campaign. Clinton proved herself the ultimate team player during the final months. No one could fault her endorsement speech at the Democratic convention. Then she took to the road and did more than 60 rallies.

Obama and Clinton may prove more alike than different: tough, determined, methodical. Obama needs a secretary of state who will consult and listen, and can lead, once the direction is set. And Clinton is that sort of person.

Obama’s task now is to manage his team of rivals and drive the agenda towards braver policies than his pragmatic, Washington-savvy team might want.

Putting in seasoned people at this time is the only responsible choice.

Technorati Tags: barack obama, hillary clinton, Larry Summers, Timothy Geithner

SPECULATION is mounting in the US that Hillary Clinton could take control of the country’s foreign affairs policy as president-elect Barack Obama considers her for his secretary of state.

Senator Clinton lost the Democratic Party nomination to Senator Obama, but she is understood to be a strong candidate for foreign affairs, along with the decorated war hero Senator John Kerry.

The former first lady flew to Senator Obama’s home city of Chicago on Thursday on what her office described as “personal business”. The New York senator is reportedly in strong contention for the role.

Both NBC News and The Washington Post reported that Senator Clinton was in the running for the most senior diplomatic post, and the current affairs website Politico.com reported that several senior advisers to Senator Obama were supporting her for the position. The Obama camp declined to confirm the reports.

During the Democratic Party primary contests Senator Clinton, 61, cited her knowledge of foreign affairs and her experience with meeting leaders of other countries as one of the grounds for her superior preparation for the presidential post.

Senior Democratic Party figures have insisted she would have an influential role, possibly an influential Senate function, in an Obama administration.

A hard core of Senator Clinton’s supporters refused to accept Senator Obama as their party’s candidate and campaigned for the Republican senator, John McCain.

Appointing her to a senior position such as secretary of state could be seen as a conciliatory gesture to heal the rifts within the party.

Despite their sometimes heated primary contest – and her claims that Senator Obama was too inexperienced to be president – Senator Clinton earlier this week would not rule out taking a position in an Obama administration.

She told CNN:

“I want to be a good partner and I want to do everything I can to make sure his agenda is going to be successful.”

During her campaign for the nomination Senator Clinton argued that the US should make security in Afghanistan a higher priority. Since early last year she has called for greater troop deployments there to confront the resurgent Taliban.

Senator Obama has also said America needs to focus its battle against terrorism on Afghanistan.

Senator Clinton would be the third woman to become secretary of state. The first was Madeleine Albright, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, in 1996. The second is the incumbent, Condoleezza Rice.

Barack Obama’s White House chief-of-staff has apologised to the Arab-American community for remarks his father made to an Israeli newspaper.

Last week Benjamin Emanuel talked about his son Rahm Emanuel’s new job and told the Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv that :

“obviously he’ll influence the president to be pro-Israel. Why wouldn’t he? What is he, an Arab? He’s not going to be mopping floors at the White House.”

It prompted an outcry from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. On Thursday, Rahm Emanuel called the group’s president, Mary Rose Oakar, to apologise on behalf of his family.

Technorati Tags: barack obama, hillary clinton, Secretary of State

The teenage boy revered by many as a reincarnation of Buddha sat silently in the jungle as he blessed his devotees on Wednesday with a light tap on the head, which they consider the touch of the divine.

His face was still, his long hair spilled over his white robe, and he never said a word.

The followers of Ram Bahadur Bamjan, 18, believe he has been meditating without food and water since he was first spotted in the jungles of southern Nepal in 2005, when believers say he spent months without moving, sitting with his eyes closed beneath a tree.

Bamjan re-emerged this week to meet his followers, who have come by the thousands to see him in the jungles of Ratanpur, about 160km south of Katmandu.

“I got a chance to see God today,” Bishnu Maya Khadka, a housewife, said after receiving Bamjan’s blessing today. “They say he is Buddha, but for me he is just God.”

Bamjan was expected to address his followers on November 18 and then retreat again into the jungle for meditation, said Kamal Tamang, a Buddhist priest.

Bamjan received the pilgrims from atop a podium covered in yellow cloth and placed before a massive tree. He looked healthy and strong and showed no signs of starvation or dehydration.

Buddhism, which has about 325 million followers, mostly in Asia, teaches that every soul is reincarnated after death in another bodily form.

But several Buddhist scholars have been skeptical of the claims that Bamjan is a reincarnation of Siddhartha Gautama, who was born in southwestern Nepal roughly 2,500 years ago and became revered as the Buddha, or Enlightened One.

“Meditating without food does not prove that he is the reincarnation of Buddha,” said Min Bahadur Shakya of the Nagarjuna Institute of Exact Methods, a Buddhist research centre in Kathmandu. “There is much study needed to be done.”

Bamjan has never addressed the subject in any of his speeches.

The devotees who have flocked to visit him have fewer doubts. Colourful prayer flags fluttered and incense filled the air today as the pilgrims silently approached Bamjan, who was surrounded by a line of Buddhist monks.

“I have no doubt in my mind he is a God,” said Meg Bahadur Lama, a local farmer. “He has been meditating without food and water and no human can achieve such a feat. I used to hear about such miracles in the past but now I got to see one.”

AP

Technorati Tags: buddha, nepal, Ram Bahadur Bamjan

Sarah Palin told a Canadian comedian posing as French President Nicolas Sarkozy during a prank call that “maybe in eight years” she will be president.

The US vice-presidential nominee unwittingly discussed politics, the perils of hunting with Vice-President Dick Cheney, and Sarkozy’s “beautiful wife”, in the telephone call with comedian Marc-Antoine Audette released on Saturday and set to air on a Quebec radio station on Monday.

When the caller tells the Republican in a strong French accent that he can see her as president, she laughs and says: “Maybe in eight years.”

Palin campaign spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt confirmed she received the prank call.

“Governor Palin was mildly amused to learn that she had joined the ranks of heads of state, including President Sarkozy and other celebrities, in being targeted by these pranksters. C’est la vie,” she said.

The comedian, one half of Canada’s popular Masked Avengers duo, drops several clues that the call is a trick. He refers to French singer Johnny Hallyday as his special adviser to the United States and to Canadian singer Steph Carse as Canada’s prime minister. In reality, the Prime Minister is Stephen Harper.

At one point in the conversation, Audette tells Palin that he enjoys hunting and loves “killing those animals”.

We should go hunting together,” she replies. “I think we could have a lot of fun together as we’re getting work done. We could kill two birds with one stone that way.”

Audette then responds that they should not invite Cheney along, referring to a 2006 incident in which the Vice-President accidentally shot a friend with buckshot while quail hunting.

“I’ll be a careful shot,” she says.

Playing off Palin’s much-mocked comment in an early television interview that she had insights into foreign policy because “you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska”, the caller tells her: “You know we have a lot in common also, because except from my house I can see Belgium.”

She replies: “Well, see, we’re right next door to different countries that we all need to be working with, yes.”

“You know, I look forward to working with you and getting to meet you personally and your beautiful wife,” Palin says. “Oh my goodness, you’ve added a lot of energy to your country with that beautiful family of yours.”

Sarkozy has three children with his previous two wives and Bruni has a child from a previous relationship.

Technorati Tags: 2008 Election, Marc-Antoine Audette, politics, Sarah Palin

As Democrat candidate Barack Obama and Republican John McCain ended the second-last week of the campaign, each leveled the same charge against the other, as the latter sought desperately to change the momentum of the campaign.

With polls showing that victory is slipping away from him, Senator McCain on Thursday accused his opponent of rewriting his tax policy to avoid accusations that it amounts to giving money away to people who are not paying tax.

In a sign of his confidence about the outcome of the election in just 10 days, Senator Obama spent that morning in Indiana, a deep-red state that President George Bush won by 21 percentage points.

CNN puts Senator McCain ahead in Indiana at 51-46 per cent.

During his rally in an Indianapolis city park, he urged the crowd of 35,000 not to wait for November 4 to vote. “I want everybody who is able and willing to vote today. If not today, do it tomorrow.”

Senator Obama said the race had reached a stage when

“do-anything-to-get elected politics takes over”.

The Republican Party has begun distributing leaflets in some states that had the word ‘terrorist’ on one side of the leaflet and asking readers what they knew about Senator Obama on the other.

Frighteningly, these leaflets contained much of the same sentiments of the leaflets distributed in Dallas, Texas on the day of the John F. Kennedy’s assassination.

Words and phrases like “anti-American”, “anti-Christian”, and “treasonous” are more of a call to arms than a call to the ballot box.

Read more about it from prosebeforehos

Senator Obama attacked Senator McCain’s economic message.
Senator Obama said:

“Just yesterday, Senator McCain strongly defended the Bush policy of lavishing tax cuts on corporations that ship American jobs overseas,”

“He made the peculiar argument that the best way to stop companies from shipping jobs overseas is to give more tax cuts to companies that ship jobs overseas.”

Campaigning in the must-win state of Florida, Senator McCain in turn accused Senator Obama of perpetuating the policies of Mr Bush by continuing to engage in uncontrolled government spending.
Senator McCain said:

“Barack Obama’s only answer is to double-down on the Bush Administration’s legacy of out-of-control spending, raise taxes on small businesses, impose mandates on employers and raise trade barriers – a time-proven recipe for turning tough economic times into terrible economic circumstances”

Senator McCain has been trying through out this campaign to distance himself from the Bush Administration, telling Senator Obama during last week’s debate that he is “not George Bush”.
He repeatedly jokes

“If Senator Obama had wanted to run against the president he should have run four years ago”

And so too is his running mate Sarah Palin:

But Senator McCain has now upped the ante in his efforts to distance himself from Mr Bush. In an interview with The Washington Times on Thursday, he criticised the President for blowing out the foreign debt and abusing executive power.
Umm.. this criticism comes a little too little too late.

At the White House, press secretary Dana Perino offered a terse response:

“I’m not going to comment on the words that our candidate chooses to use. All I’ll say is that the President stands by his policies. He also stands by John McCain.”

“Mr Obama has met challenge after challenge, growing as a leader and putting real flesh on his early promises of hope and change”

“In the same time, Senator John McCain of Arizona has retreated farther and farther to the fringe of American politics, running a campaign on partisan division, class warfare and even hints of racism”

“His policies and world view are mired in the past. His choice of a running mate so evidently unfit for the office was a final act of opportunism and bad judgment that eclipsed the accomplishments of 26 years in Congress”

Technorati Tags: 2008 Election, barack obama, john mccain, politics