memeorandum: France wary on sending more Afghan troops (Ben Hall/Financial Times)

8:45 AM ET, January 22, 2009

Top Items:

Kennedy Drops Bid for Clinton's Senate Seat, Citing Personal Reasons — Caroline Kennedy announced early Thursday that she was withdrawing from consideration for the vacant Senate seat in New York, startling the state's political world after weeks in which she was considered a top contender for the post.

New York Post:

CAROLINE KENNEDY ENDS SENATE SEAT BID — By FREDRIC U. DICKER IN ALBANY and MAGGIE HABERMAN IN N.Y. — Caroline Kennedy has told Gov. David Paterson that she is withdrawing her name from consideration to replace outgoing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in the U.S. Senate, The Post has learned.

MSNBC:

Caroline Kennedy withdraws Senate bid — Personal reasons cited in official statement released early Thursday — msnbc.com staff and news service reports — ALBANY, New York - Caroline Kennedy said she has withdrawn her name from consideration for the Senate seat being vacated by Hillary Clinton …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Daily Kos

Michael Gormley / Associated Press:
Kennedy cites ‘personal reasons’ for ending bid

Discussion: Reuters

CNN: Caroline Kennedy withdraws name for Senate seat

Associated Press:

Obama takes presidential oath again after stumble — Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition — WASHINGTON - After the flub heard around the world, President Barack Obama has taken the oath of office. Again. Chief Justice John Roberts delivered the oath to Obama …

Discussion: The BLT, Media Matters for America, GINA COBB, Jack & Jill Politics, TBogg, The Corner, Outside The Beltway, Hot Air, Patterico's Pontifications, Macsmind, The Reaction, CBS News and Buck Naked Politics

Steven Pinker / New York Times:

Oaf of Office — IN 1969, Neil Armstrong appeared to have omitted an indefinite article as he stepped onto the moon and left earthlings puzzled over the difference between “man” and “mankind.” In 1980, Jimmy Carter, accepting his party's nomination, paid homage to a former vice president he called Hubert Horatio Hornblower.

Discussion: Alexander Cornswalled, Washington Wire, normblog, The Volokh Conspiracy and Language Log

Anne E. Kornblut / Washington Post:
Obama Staff Arrives to White House Stuck in Dark Ages of Technology

Discussion: Lost in Transition

Jeff Zeleny / New York Times:
Oath Is Administered Once Again

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Prairie Weather

New York Times:
Obama Meets With Officials on Iraq, Signaling His Commitment to Ending War

Discussion: Jules Crittenden

Washington Post:
Obama Takes His Oath of Office Again

Discussion: American Power, Althouse and Brilliant at Breakfast

CNN:
Obama retakes oath ‘out of abundance of caution’

Discussion: Newshoggers.com and The Huffington Post

Joe Klein / Time:
Obama Promises New Destiny, Work Begins Today

Discussion: The Daily Dish, NewsBusters.org and TIME.com

Ian Sparks / Daily Mail:

Former French President Chirac hospitalised after mauling by his clinically depressed poodle … Former French president Jacques Chirac was rushed to hospital after being mauled by his own ‘clinically depressed’ pet dog. — The 76-year-old statesman was savaged by his white Maltese dog …

Discussion: Newshoggers.com and Fausta's Blog

Chad Pergram / Fox News:

Murtha Says He'd Take Guantanamo Prisoners in His District — Rep. Jack Murtha volunteers to house prisoners from Guantanamo Bay in his Pennsylvania district, as President Obama prepares to order the shut-down of the facility. — FOXNews.com — Rep. Jack Murtha, D-Pa. …

Discussion: Hot Air, Wizbang, Sister Toldjah, Patterico's Pontifications, RedState and JammieWearingFool

Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:
On Day One, Obama Sets a New Tone

Discussion: Think Progress and Booman Tribune

Michael D. Shear / Washington Post:
Obama Starts Reversing Bush Policies

Discussion: The Fix, Wall Street Journal, Political Punch, USA Today and DownWithTyranny!

Tom Baldwin / Times of London:

President Obama's first call ‘was to President Abbas’ — President Obama placed the Middle East at the forefront of his first hours in office yesterday as he sought to make good on his promise of “ushering in a new era of peace”. — In a flurry of telephone calls from the Oval Office …

Discussion: New York Times and Berman Post

Mark Landler / New York Times:
Seasoned Negotiator to Serve as a Mideast Envoy

Discussion: Think Progress and MyDD

Roger Runningen / Bloomberg:
Obama Freezes Pay, Toughens Ethics and Lobbying Rules

Discussion: Associated Press, Daily Kos, Salon, The Opinionator, TalkLeft and CBS4

New York Times:

Obama to Shut Guantánamo Site and C.I.A. Prisons — WASHINGTON — President Obama is expected to sign executive orders Thursday directing the Central Intelligence Agency to shut what remains of its network of secret prisons and ordering the closing of the Guantánamo detention camp within a year, government officials said.

Discussion: MSNBC and American Street

Anne Flaherty / Associated Press:

Obama tasks Clinton to step up US diplomacy — Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition — WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton is taking control of the State Department with a mandate from President Barack Obama to step up diplomatic efforts and restore the nation's tattered image abroad.

Discussion: Agence France Presse, Classical Values, McClatchy Washington Bureau and Reuters

David Stout / New York Times:
Clinton Is Approved, but Vote on Holder Is Delayed

Discussion: The Politico, Glenn Thrush's Blogs, Gothamist, Buck Naked Politics, The Swamp, Washington Monthly and The Hill

CNN:
Senate confirms Clinton at State by 94-2 vote

Discussion: The Democratic Daily, Washington Wire and New York Magazine

Sara A. Carter / Washington Times:

EXCLUSIVE: Obama to close terrorist ‘black sites’ — President Obama on Thursday will order the closure of so-called black sites, where CIA and European security services have interrogated terrorist suspects, under executive orders dismantling much of the Bush admistration's architecture …

Discussion: Wizbang and Patterico's Pontifications

Associated Press:
Sources: Obama to order Guantanamo closed

Discussion: Agence France Presse and Macsmind

Jonn Lilyea / This ain't Hell …:

Obama blows off Medal of Honor recipients — According to TSO who was at the “Salute to Heroes Inaugural Ball”, this newly sworn-in President for the first time in 56 years blew off the ball (that's 14 Inaugurations). — Some background on the ball;

Discussion: MsUnderestimated and BLACKFIVE

The Campaign Spot:

TurboTax Doesn't Prompt Users to Pay Self-Employment Taxes? Or Just Geithner's Copy of the Software? — In today's confirmation hearing, Treasury Secretary nominee Tim Geithner said he used TurboTax to prepare his returns for the years in question where he failed to pay self-employment taxes …

Discussion: Megan McArdle, Fausta's Blog, Washington Wire, The Volokh Conspiracy, The Corner, NewsBusters.org, Chicago Boyz, Pajamas Media, Commentary and Hot Air

Ben Hall / Financial Times:

France wary on sending more Afghan troops — France's defence minister on Wednesday appeared to rule out any immediate reinforcement of French troops in Afghanistan if requested by Barack Obama, the new US president. — Hervé Morin said deploying additional French forces to the war-torn country was “not a question for now”.

Discussion: QandO

Daniel W. Drezner:
Have you met the French, Mr. Obama?

Discussion: Democracy in America

Jill Serjeant / Reuters:

Obama inauguration got unprecedented news coverage — LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's inauguration generated an unprecedented 35,000 stories in the world's major newspapers, television and radio broadcasts over the past day — about 35 times more than the last presidential swearing-in …

Discussion: Don Surber, Power Line and JammieWearingFool

Lydia Saad / Gallup:

In U.S., 60% Tuned In to Inauguration as It Happened — Nearly half (46%) rate Obama's speech as excellent — PRINCETON, NJ — Six in 10 Americans tuned in live to the presidential inauguration ceremonies on Tuesday. Another 20% heard or read news reports of the event while 20% caught none of it.

Discussion: Daily Kos

Robert J. Barro / Wall Street Journal:

Government Spending Is No Free Lunch — Now the Democrats are peddling voodoo economics. — Back in the 1980s, many commentators ridiculed as voodoo economics the extreme supply-side view that across-the-board cuts in income-tax rates might raise overall tax revenues.

Discussion: Betsy's Page

Siobhan Gorman / Wall Street Journal:

Intelligence Agencies' Databases Set to Be Linked — After Years of Bureaucratic Snags, System Aims to Ease Communications, Give Spies Access to More Data — WASHINGTON — U.S. spy agencies' sensitive data should soon be linked by Google-like search systems, nearly five years …

Discussion: GroupIntel