memeorandum: GOP licks chops over Dem stumbles (The Politico)

5:45 AM ET, March 23, 2009

Top Items:

Kroft to Obama: Are you punch-drunk? — President Barack Obama said he believes the global financial system remains at risk of implosion with the failure of Citigroup or AIG, which could touch off “an even more destructive recession and potentially depression.”

Discussion: Pajamas Media, Gawker, AMERICAN DIGEST, But As For Me, Barack Obama's …, Whiskey Fire, A Blog For All, No More Mister Nice Blog, FiveThirtyEight, This ain't Hell …, Hot Air, Don Surber, Blue Crab Boulevard, Townhall.com, Gateway Pundit, Comments from Left Field, Associated Press and TIME.com

Most Accounts / The Politico:

60 Minutes transcript — Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition — Steve Kroft Michael Radutzky Frank Devine — AFTER CAMPAIGNING IN CALIFORNIA TO DRUM UP SUPPORT FOR HIS THREE POINT SIX TRILLION DOLLAR BUDGET, THE PRESIDENT SAT DOWN WITH US IN THE OVAL OFFICE …

Discussion: Scared Monkeys, MyDD, The Moderate Voice, But As For Me and Associated Press

The Politico:

GOP licks chops over Dem stumbles — Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition — Three days after Barack Obama became president, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell made a prediction: Democrats would make big mistakes that would play into the Republicans' hands going into the 2010 midterm elections.

Philip Elliott / Associated Press:

Obama: Anger isn't governing strategy — Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition — WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is no fan of bonuses paid at a financial institutions being kept afloat by taxpayer dollars but also says he would not “govern out of anger” despite Americans' frustration with such perks.

Discussion: Reuters and The Politico

Philip Elliott / Associated Press:

Obama links budget to environment — Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition — WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama's aides say the administration will work with Congress on his budget proposal, but energy independence is not subject to wheeling and dealing.

Discussion: The Politico

Martin Crutsinger / Associated Press:

Geithner to unveil plan to combat banking crisis — Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition — WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is hoping it has finally come up with the right formula to resolve the nation's worst banking crisis in 70 years.

Discussion: Reuters

Philip Elliott / Associated Press:
GOP predicts doomsday if Obama budget passed

Discussion: The Politico, Reuters, MyDD, But As For Me and Scared Monkeys

Martina Stewart / CNN:
Gregg: ‘This country will go bankrupt’

Discussion: The Politico, Viking Pundit, Blue Crab Boulevard, But As For Me, Fausta's Blog, Don Surber, Washington Monthly, Taylor Marsh, Gateway Pundit and Associated Press

Liz Sidoti / Associated Press:
NY election seen as referendum on stimulus

Discussion: But As For Me

Gateway Pundit:

Obama Upsets Sarkozy With Letter to Jacques Chirac — In his latest faux pas Obama managed to pi$$ off France... President Obama wrote Jacques Chirac saying he was looking forward to working with the former French president in the coming four years(?) — Monsters and Critics reported:

Discussion: But As For Me, neo-neocon, Jules Crittenden, Confederate Yankee and The Sundries Shack

Frank Jack Daniel / Reuters:

Venezuela's Chavez calls Obama “ignoramus” — CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama was at best an “ignoramus” for saying the socialist leader exported terrorism and obstructed progress in Latin America.

Discussion: Associated Press, NO QUARTER, But As For Me and Pirate's Cove

Helene Cooper / New York Times:
Obama Says a Way Out of Afghanistan Is Needed

Discussion: The Politico

Fareed Zakaria / Newsweek:
The Trouble With Subsidies — From the magazine issue dated Mar 30, 2009

Discussion: But As For Me

New York Times:

U.S. Rounding Up Investors to Buy Bad Assets — WASHINGTON — Obama administration officials worked Sunday to persuade reluctant private investors to buy as much as $1 trillion in troubled mortgages and related assets from banks, with government help. — The talks came a day before the …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, naked capitalism, Riehl World View and Connecting.the.Dots

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Financial Policy Despair — Over the weekend The Times and other newspapers reported leaked details about the Obama administration's bank rescue plan, which is to be officially released this week. If the reports are correct, Tim Geithner, the Treasury secretary, has persuaded President Obama …

Discussion: Kausfiles, Pajamas Media and Paul Krugman

Brad DeLong / Grasping Reality with Both Hands:
I Think Paul Krugman Is Wrong

Discussion: Bronte Capital

Timothy Geithner / Wall Street Journal:

My Plan for Bad Bank Assets — The private sector will set prices. Taxpayers will share in any upside. — The American economy and much of the world now face extraordinary challenges, and confronting these challenges will continue to require extraordinary actions.

Discussion: MyDD

Warren Richey / Christian Science Monitor:

Was 'Hillary: The Movie" wrongly censored? — Washington - The US Supreme Court takes up a closely watched case on Tuesday examining when a documentary film may violate election law and become an illegal form of campaign advocacy. — The case centers on a Federal Election Commission (FEC) …

Jonathan Martin / The Politico:

Friendly fire: NYT hits Obama — The leading liberal voices of the New York Times editorial pages all criticized—and, in some cases, clobbered—President Obama on Sunday for his handling of the economy and national security. — It's not unusual for Barack Obama to take a little friendly fire from the Times.

Discussion: Pajamas Media, JustOneMinute, Jules Crittenden, Blue Crab Boulevard, Newshoggers.com, The Atlantic Politics Channel and The Lonely Conservative

Pete Yost / Associated Press:

THE INFLUENCE GAME: Mixing donations, earmarks — Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition — WASHINGTON - Rep. John Murtha celebrated his 35th anniversary as a congressman by getting an early start on his next campaign, staging an invitation-only fundraising luncheon …

Discussion: But As For Me and McClatchy Washington Bureau

Erica Werner / Associated Press:

Questions surround health IT money — WASHINGTON - Here's the best-case scenario for the government's plans to spend $19 billion on computerized medical records: seamless communication among doctors and patients, and far fewer mistakes. — And the worst-case: $19 billion goes down the drain.

Times of London:

UK population must fall to 30m, says Porritt — JONATHON PORRITT, one of Gordon Brown's leading green advisers, is to warn that Britain must drastically reduce its population if it is to build a sustainable society. — Porritt's call will come at this week's annual conference …

Discussion: Right Wing News, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS and Guardian

Herb Keinon / Jerusalem Post:

‘We must recapture rocket-launch zones’ — Article's topics: Cast Lead, Gaza War, Home Front Command, Yair Golan — The IDF should take control of areas inside the Gaza Strip from which mortar shells are fired at the South, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna'i said Sunday evening.

Discussion: Israel Matzav

Reuters:

Obama: U.S. must have “exit strategy” in Afghanistan — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama insisted on Sunday that military force alone would not end the war in Afghanistan and suggested a U.S. “exit strategy” could be part of a new comprehensive policy he is expected to unveil soon.