Obama General Discussion... (Part 2)

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McCain presses Obama to pardon boxer Jack Johnson


WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. John McCain on Friday pressed President Barack Obama to give a posthumous pardon to Jack Johnson, the black heavyweight boxing champion who was imprisoned nearly a century ago because of his romantic ties with a white woman.

McCain, R-Ariz., and Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., noted in a letter to Obama that both houses of Congress this summer passed their resolution urging a pardon. After the vote, the lawmakers wrote to Obama in August asking him to issue the pardon.

"Regrettably, we have not received a response from you or any member of your administration," they wrote in Friday's letter, adding they hoped that Obama would be eager to "right this wrong and erase an act of racism that sent an American citizen to prison."

The White House declined to comment on the letter.

When he unveiled the resolution in April, McCain said he was sure that Obama "will be more than eager" to issue the pardon. On Friday, McCain said he was still confident the president would do so.

"The president's been very, very busy," McCain said in a telephone interview with the Associated Press. "Hopefully, this letter will be a kind of reminder that it's important to get it done. But I'm not critical of the president yet. We'll give him some time."

The senator said he hasn't personally talked to Obama about the issue.

"The conversations that I've been having with him have been on Afghanistan," he said. "But we'll see what result we get from this letter."

Johnson became the first black heavyweight champion on Dec. 26, 1908 — 100 years before Obama was elected the first black president. Johnson won the title after police in Australia stopped his 14-round match against the severely battered Canadian world champion, Tommy Burns.

That led to a search for a "Great White Hope" who could beat Johnson. Two years later, Jim Jeffries, the American world titleholder Johnson had tried for years to fight, came out of retirement but lost in a match called "The Battle of the Century," resulting in deadly riots.

Johnson was convicted in 1913 of violating the Mann Act, which made it illegal to transport women across state lines for immoral purposes. He fled the country after his conviction, but agreed years later to return and serve a 10-month jail sentence.

Filmmaker Ken Burns helped form the Committee to Pardon Jack Johnson, which filed a petition with the Justice Department in 2004 that was never acted on. His 2005 documentary, "Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson," explored the case against the boxer and the sentencing judge's acknowledged desire to "send a message" to black men about relationships with white women.

McCain and King — both of whom have done their share of amateur boxing — pushed similar resolutions in recent years but only this year were able to get it through both chambers of Congress.

McCain a champion for righting a racial injustice almost a hundred years ago.

In a documentary about his life, Ken Burns notes: "For more than thirteen years, Jack Johnson was the most famous and the most notorious African-American on Earth."
 
Has little really been said until now about the bogus bullshit Fox presents as news? I find this remarkable. Still, this made me laugh.



The White House goes Fox hunting

The White House goes Fox huntingARJUN RAMACHANDRAN
October 23, 2009 - 11:33AM .
Obama v Fox TV over racism
White House communications director Anita Dunn responds to accusations from FOX News host Glenn Beck.

Video feedbackVideo settingsHe came to power pledging to end one war - in Iraq - but US President Barack Obama has got himself embroiled in another - with Fox News.

In recent days the White House and the cable news channel have traded heavy blows, Obama's foot soldiers slamming Fox as "a wing of the Republican Party" and belittling it as "not a news organisation", while the network has hit back by calling the White House "vengeful" and "self-serving".

The bitter exchanges - most recently garnished by President Obama yesterday, who likened Fox to "talk radio" - have captured the attention of political pundits and US and international media.



Some say criticism of Fox News by Democrat leaders has been a long time coming, while others believe it makes President Obama and the White House look undignified.

Opinion is divided on who fired the first shot.

The White House contends that for months Fox News has attacked and misrepresented its staff and its policies, particularly in the fiery commentary of popular hosts Bill O'Reilly and Glen Beck.

"The reality is that at some point, the administration has to defend itself," White House communications director Anita Dunn said in an interview last week.

But it was Dunn's other comments in the same interview, on CNN, that lit the fuse in the most recent war.

"What I think is fair to say about Fox - and certainly it's the way we view it - is that it really is more a wing of the Republican Party," Dunn said.

"Let's not pretend they're a news network the way CNN is."

On another CNN program, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel followed up with his own provocative observation: "It is not a news organisation so much as it has a perspective."

Similar comments were later made by senior Obama adviser David Axelrod.

Yesterday, even the President weighed in during an interview with NBC.

After initially trying to deflect attention from the issue - by saying Americans were more interested in his policies - Mr Obama relented: "I think that what our advisers have simply said is, is that we are going to take media as it comes.

"And if media is operating basically as a talk radio format, then that's one thing. And if it's operating as a news outlet, then that's another.

"But it's not something I'm losing a lot of sleep over."

Fox News - which operates under the tagline "fair and balanced" - has vigorously defended itself, arguing its mix of news and opinionated talkshows is no different to a newspaper with news and opinion pages.

"It's astounding the White House cannot distinguish between news and opinion programming ... it seems self-serving on their part," said Fox News senior vice president of news Michael Clemente.

"Hundreds of journalists come to work each day at Fox News all deeply committed to their craft. It's disappointing that the White House would be so dismissive of their fine work and continue their vengeful war against a news organisation."

Last week on his show, Beck placed a red phone on his desk, saying it was a hotline available to Dunn any time she thought something untrue about Obama was being said on his show.

"I don't think the White House actually wants a dialogue," Beck said. "They want to smear, isolate and destroy."

Some are critical of the White House for singling out a media organisation over its reporting.

"Whether or not you like Fox News, all of us in the press need to be concerned about the administration of President Barack Obama trying to 'punish' the cable news channel for its point of view," TV critic David Zurawik wrote in the Baltimore Sun.

ABC News senior White House correspondent Jake Tapper this week also stepped in on behalf of his "sister organisation", grilling White House press secretary Robert Gibbs about whether it was "appropriate" for the White House to make the sort of "sweeping declarations" it had made about Fox News.

Others said the feud tarnished the stature of the White House and the President.

"My experience has been when the White House engages in personal or organisational attacks, it elevates the other side to virtually the same level of the White House, which is not their intent," CNN commentator and former White House aide David Gergen said.

Others said the stoush could have politically disastrous outcomes for Democrat candidates in marginal districts who need support from independent voters who enjoy Fox News.

But yet another view suggests the epic battle between Fox and the President could reap winners from both sides.

Former Bill Clinton adviser Paul Begala even described the war as a "a mutually beneficial deal".

The argument goes that the White House's campaign against Fox News has allowed President Obama to again energise his supporters, who had been despondent at intense criticism of him over his healthcare plan and perceived lack of achievements since taking office.

Or, as respected British journalist and former Sunday Times editor Sir Harold Evans said on ABC's Lateline last night: "They are attacking Fox because it enables them to give some juicy meat to their left wing which is very concerned that Obama won't deliver [his healthcare policy] ... it's a diversion."

For Fox News, its personal battle with the President and the scrutiny of its reporting has delivered it a ratings bonanza.

News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch was clearly unworried when informing shareholders about the controversy surrounding his Fox News network at an annual meeting last week.

"All I can tell you is that it's tremendously increased their ratings," he said.



Has little really been said until now about the bogus bullshit Fox presents as news? I find this remarkable. Still, this made me laugh.
 
What is laughable is that article. The fact that we have a White House who is stalling on a troop decision, facing 10% unemployment, a collapsing dollar, an endlessly growing deficit, and a healthcare plan that more and more people don't want, yet they're choosing to spend their time going after the one outlet that doesn't kiss their behind and actually asks questions would be funny if it wasn't so embarrassing, as even people on the left realize.
 
Barack Obama sees worst poll rating drop in 50 years - Telegraph

The decline in Barack Obama's popularity since July has been the steepest of any president at the same stage of his first term for more than 50 years.

Gallup recorded an average daily approval rating of 53 per cent for Mr Obama for the third quarter of the year, a sharp drop from the 62 per cent he recorded from April.

His current approval rating – hovering just above the level that would make re-election an uphill struggle – is close to the bottom for newly-elected president. Mr Obama entered the White House with a soaring 78 per cent approval rating.

The bad polling news came as Mr Obama returned to the campaign trail to prevent his Democratic party losing two governorships next month in states in which he defeated Senator John McCain in last November's election.

Jeffrey Jones of Gallup explained: "The dominant political focus for Obama in the third quarter was the push for health care reform, including his nationally televised address to Congress in early September.

"Obama hoped that Congress would vote on health care legislation before its August recess, but that goal was missed, and some members of Congress faced angry constituents at town hall meetings to discuss health care reform. Meanwhile, unemployment continued to climb near 10 per cent."

Governor Jon Corzine of New Jersey is in severe danger of defeat while Democrats are fast losing hope that Creigh Deeds can beat his Republican opponent in Virginia. Twin Democratic losses would be a major blow to Mr Obama's prestige.

Campaigning for Mr Corzine in Hackensack on Wednesday night, Mr Obama delivered a plea that almost seemed as much for himself as the local candidate: "I'm here today to urge you to cast aside the cynics and the sceptics, and prove to all Americans that leaders who do what's right and who do what's hard will be rewarded and not rejected."

Mr Corzine, a former Goldman Sachs executive and multi-millionaire, is currently running even in New Jersey, which is normally comfortably Democratic, while Mr Deeds is trailing badly in Virginia, a swing state that was key to Mr Obama's 2008 victory.

Mr Obama is also facing widespread criticism for his drawn-out decision-making process over what to do next in Afghanistan.

Republicans sense Mr Obama is in a vulnerable position and this week saw the return to the public stage of his perhaps most vehement opponent – Vice-President Dick Cheney.

In a blistering speech on Wednesday night, he accused Mr Obama of failing to give Americans troops on the ground a clear mission or defined goals and of being seemingly "afraid to make a decision" about Afghanistan "The White House must stop dithering while America's armed forces are in danger," Cheney said at the Center for Security Policy in Washington.

"Make no mistake, signals of indecision out of Washington hurt our allies and embolden our adversaries."

He hit out at Obama aides who suggested that the Bush administration had failed to weigh up conditions in Afghanistan properly before committing troops.

"Now they seem to be pulling back and blaming others for their failure to implement the strategy they embraced. It's time for President Obama to do what it takes to win a war he has repeatedly and rightly called a war of necessity."

-----

I guess that can only mean the number of racists in this country is growing. I see no other explanation. :sad:
 
What is laughable is that article. The fact that we have a White House who is stalling on a troop decision, facing 10% unemployment, a collapsing dollar, an endlessly growing deficit, and a healthcare plan that more and more people don't want, yet they're choosing to spend their time going after the one outlet that doesn't kiss their behind and actually asks questions would be funny if it wasn't so embarrassing, as even people on the left realize.

The middle three (at the least) were all 'gifted' to this administration by the previous one. I guess Bush hit the Trifecta once again.

I remember some talk that Clinton staffers had 'trashed' the White House back in early 2001 just before the Bush inauguration.

The Bush administration went one better. They didn't just trash the White House, they trashed the entire country, and trashed Iraq as well for good measure.
 
I guess that can only mean the number of racists in this country is growing. I see no other explanation. :sad:



no, but the people who fail to look at numbers in context seems to be rising.

at this point, Regan was at 57% and was set to drop further. at this point, Clinton was at 48%. they both got second terms. George H.W. Bush was pushing 70% and GWB was skyrocketing due to 9-11.

the remarkable fact is that Obama is in the mid-50s in the midst of the worse economic crisis since the great depression, a nearly 10% unemployment rate, and the inheritance of a colossal debt and two international debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan.

but keep trying. you'll find a ray of hope somewhere. and keep pointing towards Cheney as some kind of spokesman for the anti-Obama crowd. that's a man with a nearly statistically impossible disapproval rating, somewhere around 10%.
 
I remember some talk that Clinton staffers had 'trashed' the White House back in early 2001 just before the Bush inauguration.

The truth about that one

is that it was a rumor based on nothing
it grew and grew
when they asked Bush White house about it, they would reply that they 'did not want to look back, they would rather focus on the future.'

Everyone was saying how magnanimous they were not harping on it. How much class they had.


They truth was nothing happened and all they had to do on day one is say nothing happened. Not correcting a falsehood is worse than lying.
 
no, but the people who fail to look at numbers in context seems to be rising.

at this point, Regan was at 57% and was set to drop further. at this point, Clinton was at 48%. they both got second terms. George H.W. Bush was pushing 70% and GWB was skyrocketing due to 9-11.

the remarkable fact is that Obama is in the mid-50s in the midst of the worse economic crisis since the great depression, a nearly 10% unemployment rate, and the inheritance of a colossal debt and two international debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan.

but keep trying. you'll find a ray of hope somewhere. and keep pointing towards Cheney as some kind of spokesman for the anti-Obama crowd. that's a man with a nearly statistically impossible disapproval rating, somewhere around 10%.

Republicans threw away CONTEXT a looooooong time ago...
 
no, but the people who fail to look at numbers in context seems to be rising.

at this point, Regan was at 57% and was set to drop further. at this point, Clinton was at 48%. they both got second terms. George H.W. Bush was pushing 70% and GWB was skyrocketing due to 9-11.

the remarkable fact is that Obama is in the mid-50s in the midst of the worse economic crisis since the great depression, a nearly 10% unemployment rate, and the inheritance of a colossal debt and two international debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan.

but keep trying. you'll find a ray of hope somewhere. and keep pointing towards Cheney as some kind of spokesman for the anti-Obama crowd. that's a man with a nearly statistically impossible disapproval rating, somewhere around 10%.

Nobody can deny that Obama's approval rating is falling, more people respond "no" then "yes" when asked if they agree with Obama on the major issues, most people think we are not doing what it takes to win in Afghanistan, etc. And by the way, Carter was also pushing 70 at this time and Nixon was in the low-60s. That's all the "context" I need, but whatever you need to explain Obama's growing unpopularity... :shrug:

And where do I make Cheney the spokesman for the anti-Obama crowd? Though I won't dispute the fact that he's doing a good job of it. Cheney's approval numbers are near 40, which beats, say, the current Senate Majority Leader and the Speaker of the House.
 
Nobody can deny that Obama's approval rating is falling, more people respond "no" then "yes" when asked if they agree with Obama on the major issues, most people think we are not doing what it takes to win in Afghanistan, etc. And by the way, Carter was also pushing 70 at this time and Nixon was in the low-60s. That's all the "context" I need, but whatever you need to explain Obama's growing unpopularity... :shrug:


you see? you said "growing unpopularity." the fact remains, the president is really very popular despite an incredibly challenging political environment. so if someone goes from 91% down to 68%, that person is certainly suffering from "growing unpopularity" despite the fact that they remain quite popular.

his approval rating is falling into line with his margin of victory over McCain, meaning, likely, that those who voted for him are happy enough with his performance.

so, there you go. more context and explanation. i hope that helps you understand the situation a bit better and you now have a clearer picture of what these numbers actually mean rather than what you wish they meant.


And where do I make Cheney the spokesman for the anti-Obama crowd? Though I won't dispute the fact that he's doing a good job of it. Cheney's approval numbers are near 40, which beats, say, the current Senate Majority Leader and the Speaker of the House.


when he left the office, Cheney was at 29%, and he had been much, much lower.

if you think that defending torture is a "good job," you're more than welcome to do so.

Cheney will go down in history right next to Joe McCarthy.
 
Obama's had a rough go of it, but hey, it's still better than McCain. What else were we to do?
 
thank goodness obama has now ended the recession. 3.5% GDP growth!

is there nothing he can't do? :love:

Well to be consistent, George W Bush should get the credit since he continues to receive the blame for all that is wrong on the planet.

But what you're saying is it's officially the president's economy, for better or worse, from now on?
 
I guess it takes a pompous windbag narcissist to know one



Limbaugh Says Obama 'In Over His Head'
A year after election, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh says Obama 'in over his head'
By STEVEN R. HURST Associated Press Writer

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh warned in a TV interview of unprecedented "radical leadership" in the White House and called President Barack Obama a narcissist who is "immature, inexperienced, in over his head."

Limbaugh, who regularly rails against the administration in his weekday radio program, said the health care overhaul working through Congress would become "the biggest snatch of freedom and liberty" ever seen in the United States.

In an interview taped for "Fox News Sunday" nearly a year after the presidential election, Limbaugh derided Obama's recent visit to Dover Air Force Base to observe the return of 18 service members' remains from Afghanistan. He called it a "photo op" designed to "create the impression that he has all of this great concern" while he dithers over a new strategy for the 8-year-old war.

"He really has no experience running anything. He's very young. I think he's got an out-of-this-world ego. He's very narcissistic. And he's able to focus all attention on him all the time," Limbaugh said.

Limbaugh often calls Obama a "man-child president" on his syndicated radio show. "That description is simply a way to cut through the noise and say he's immature, inexperienced, in over his head," he said in the TV interview.

In response, Obama senior adviser David Axelrod said, "It's a surreal day when you're getting lectures on humility from Rush Limbaugh," and he dismissed Limbaugh as "an entertainer."

Axelrod said he believes most Americans appreciate Obama's visit to Dover Air Force Base and called it appropriate.

"The president of the United States went to Dover to represent the American people and pay his respects to the families who had made so much of a sacrifice, to those brave service people who made the ultimate sacrifice," Axelrod said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

The White House has suggested that Limbaugh and some other far-right political personalities have grabbed control of the Republican Party. Limbaugh has openly vowed to do what he can to ensure that Obama's presidency is a failure.

His remarks on "Fox News Sunday" follow administration criticism that Fox News is the voice of the far-right wing of the Republican Party. Obama recently excluded the news network in a weekend blitz of television interviews.

Limbaugh said he is deeply worried about the administration's initiatives.

"We've never seen this kind of radical leadership at such a high level of power in the country," he said. "I believe that the economy is under siege, is being destroyed. Anybody with any economic literacy would not do one thing this administration's done to try to revitalize the private sector. They're destroying it."

Looking to the future, the radio host predicted a revolt against the Democratic Party and Obama in the 2010 midterm elections. He also said former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the GOP vice presidential nominee in 2008, was prepared to be president, but he stopped short of endorsing her as a candidate.

Limbaugh criticized Vice President Joe Biden as "pompous, a bit of a wind bag and wrong," and said a second Obama term would be painful for the nation.

"Every day you get up and there's a new potential threat to liberty and freedom being launched by this man and his administration," he said.

Axelrod said Limbaugh's remarks are hardly surprising.

"He does it every day on radio. He's marketing the outrageous. And he does very well with it," Axelrod said. "But, as I said, he's an entertainer. We've got bigger responsibilities."



WASHINGTON (CNN) – Since his brother left office in January, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has been mostly diplomatic when discussing the Obama administration.

On Wednesday, he took a sharper tone.

During remarks to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce legal summit in Washington, Bush had tough words for the president in response to an audience question.

"I think President Obama has used the bully pulpit as a way to attack capitalism," he said, according to LegalNewsline.com.

Bush paused a moment, then acknowledged: "That'll make the news."
 
Rush knows narcissism, problem is he's too much of a hypocrite or he's too high to recognize it every morning when he looks in the mirror.
 
when they write the story of Obama

for sure they will say his failing began with Health Care

that he lacked the nerve to lead and just get it done.

One thing you can say about Bush, the minute he got in office he focused like a laser on getting that big fat tax cut for us rich folks,
no more paying down the deficit,
give the Corporations and top tier earners tax relief.

He got that done by June 2000! with no political capital, just pure force for something he believed in and a promise to his contributors.


Why the hell couldn't Obama, with his huge election mandate and poll numbers and big congress margins, just get Health Care reform through.

Bush had the courage to act on his convictions.
 
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