memeorandum: Scowcroft Protégés on Obama's Radar (Wall Street Journal)

11:35 PM ET, November 23, 2008

Top Items:

Obama Aides Signal a Boost in Stimulus Spending — WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama has signaled that he will pursue a far more ambitious plan of spending and tax cuts than anything he outlined on the campaign trail — a plan “big enough to deal with the huge problem we face,” …

Discussion: Fox News, TalkLeft, Reuters, ABCNEWS, The Politico, The Moderate Voice and Political Punch

Randall Mikkelsen / Reuters:

Obama may delay tax-cut rollback for wealthy — Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama may consider delaying a campaign promise - to roll back tax cuts on high-income Americans - as part of his economic recovery strategy, two aides said on Sunday.

Discussion: Firedoglake, Say Anything, Associated Press, DownWithTyranny!, Hot Air, Ben Smith's Blogs, Power Line, The Heretik, Below The Beltway, Sweetness & Light and Donklephant

David Sirota / The Huffington Post:
Confused About Tax Promises

Discussion: Open Left

Beth Fouhy / Associated Press:
Official: Richardson to be commerce secretary

Discussion: The Politico, The Gun Toting Liberal, The Huffington Post, Reuters, Stop The ACLU, Open Left, MyDD and Wall Street Journal

John Harwood / New York Times:
Change Is Landing in Old Hands

Discussion: The Heretik

Washington Wire: Obama Aides Suggest Rollback of Bush Tax Cuts Could Be Delayed

New York Times:

Plan Begins to Emerge to Rescue Citigroup — Federal regulators were considering a new rescue for Citigroup on Sunday, a step that could mark a third leg of the government's broader efforts to bolster the nation's financial industry, according to people briefed on the plan.

Discussion: Firedoglake, Michelle Malkin, Philly.com, Matthew Yglesias, TIME.com, Hot Air and clusterstock.alleyinsider.com

Wall Street Journal:

Citigroup, U.S. in Talks to Create ‘Bad Bank’ — Citigroup Inc. is nearing agreement with U.S. government officials to create a structure that would house some of the financial giant's risky assets, according to people familiar with the situation. — While the discussions remain fluid …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Grasping Reality …, clusterstock.alleyinsider.com, naked capitalism and New York Times

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight.com:

Projection: Franken to Win Recount by 27 Votes — As we wrote yesterday evening, the ever-increasing number of challenged ballots in Minnesota is making it more and more difficult to determine the extent to which Al Franken is in fact gaining ground in the state's recount process.

Discussion: Braublog, Campaign Silo, Kevin Drum and Donklephant

CNN:

Forbes: Paulson is ‘worst’ treasury secretary in modern times — WASHINGTON (CNN) — Forbes magazine President and CEO Steve Forbes called Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson “the worst treasury secretary we've had in modern times”, citing, among other things, the government's handling of the housing crisis.

Discussion: DownWithTyranny!, Pam's House Blend and THE DAILY BANTER.COM

John Hallmann / The Huffington Post:

Why America Feels Like it's Been Ruled by a Foreign Occupier — As Obama takes over the wreckage this country is in, one can't help but feel like something alien to America has been controlling it these past eight years. The wave of emotion that has erupted with the election of Barack …

Matt Corley / Think Progress:

Woodward: Bush 'Doesn't Like Homework,' Which Means ‘Reading,’ ‘Getting Briefed’ Or ‘Having A Debate’ — On the Chris Matthews Show today, Matthews argued that one of the major differences between President Bush and President-elect Barack Obama is the fact that Obama is intellectually curious.

Discussion: Liberty Street

John Amato / Crooks and Liars:

Neil Cavuto in screamathon with Ben Stein over our failed economy and how to repair it — John Amato's virtual online magazine...OK, It's a blog! — Home- Archives — Tags Directory — Contact Us- Donate- FAQ — Advertising- Commenting- General Problems- Media Problems- Supported Browsers- User Registration

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Wall Street Journal:

Scowcroft Protégés on Obama's Radar — WASHINGTON — Many of the Republicans emerging as potential members of the Obama administration have professional and ideological ties to Brent Scowcroft, a former national-security adviser turned public critic of the Bush White House.

Discussion: MyDD and Political Machine

Watertiger / Dependable Renegade:

“Screw it. Ah'm off the wagon an' lovin' it.” — While attending APEC in Lima, Bush partakes of a traditional Peruvian drink known as a “Pisco Sour” (leave your puns in comments). The ingredients? … And it shows: — “You Orientals tickle!” — REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Discussion: The Reaction

Faiz Shakir / Think Progress:

George Will: 'The First New Deal Didn't Work' — Economists on both the left and right broadly agree that the need for stimulative government spending is necessary to prevent a further collapse of the global economic system — just as the New Deal and the deficit spending of World War II restored …

Discussion: Open Left, American Power and The Other McCain

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

Progressive complaints about Obama's appointments — (updated below - Update II) — I've been genuinely mystified by the disappointment and surprise being expressed by many liberals over the fact that Obama's most significant appointments thus far are composed of pure Beltway establishment figures drawn …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Nation, Tom Watson, Buck Naked Politics, Booman Tribune, Open Left, American Street, Liberal Values, The Mahatma X Files, Jules Crittenden, TalkLeft and American Power

Booman Tribune: Casual Observation — At this point, I am about 99% sure …

Mark Silva / The Swamp:

Rahm Emanuel: Saturday Night Live — They don't have Sarah Palin to kick around any more. — So the good-humored folks at Saturday Night Live, who rode a wave of Palinoia to record ratings this fall, have turned their lens on the White House-in-waiting. — That's Rahm Emanuel …

Discussion: The Hill's Blog Briefing Room and The Moderate Voice

Howard Witt / Los Angeles Times:

White extremists lash out over election of first black president — The Ku Klux Klan is emerging from decades of disorganization and obscurity, and the turnaround is acutely evident — more than 200 hate-related incidents have been reported since the Nov. 4 election.

Discussion: cab drollery

Frank James / The Swamp:
Obama's election spurs hate surge

Discussion: The Crypt's Blogs

Kevin Bogardus / The Hill:

Obama names communications staff — President-elect Barack Obama on Saturday announced that Robert Gibbs would be his White House press secretary and Ellen Moran would serve as director of communications. — Gibbs, a long-time aide, was long believed to become the public face of the Obama White House.

Discussion: The Politico