I. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/08/AR2010070803782_pf.html
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/08/AR2010070803782_pf.html> *Obama road-tests midterm message with speeches in Missouri, Nevada* By Michael D. Shear and Anne E. Kornblut Washington Post Staff Writers Thursday, July 8, 2010; 10:54 PM LAS VEGAS -- President Obama<http://www.whorunsgov.com/Profiles/Barack_Obama> on Thursday offered a sharp-edged preview of his election season campaign message, using fundraisers for Missouri Senate candidate Robin Carnahan and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid<http://www.whorunsgov.com/Profiles/Harry_M._Reid> (Nev.) to cast the midterms<http://projects.washingtonpost.com/politicsglossary/election/midterm-election/> as a choice between economic policies of the past and those of the future. In remarks reminiscent of the campaign-year Obama that the country often saw in 2008, the president sought to frame the elections as a choice between the Republican economic policies that he said created the recession and the Democratic ones he said have led to a slow recovery. "The last thing we should do is go back to the very ideas that got us into this mess [in] the first place," Obama said in Kansas City, Mo., with Carnahan standing beside him. "That's the choice you are going to face in November. . . . A choice between falling backward or moving forward." The president has been slow to gear up his campaign-year rhetoric, a fact that has led to some criticism from his allies who want the White House to be more aggressive. A senior aide promised that "choice" rhetoric is "a theme you'll hear a lot of in the coming four months." In recent days, West Wing officials have hinted that a tougher, more electorally engaged message was on the way. In a briefing for reporters, press secretary Robert Gibbs<http://www.whorunsgov.com/Profiles/Robert_Gibbs> suggested Obama would seize on Republican comments that compared the recession to "an ant" and a GOP<http://projects.washingtonpost.com/politicsglossary/party-affiliated/GOP/> congressman's apology to BP. The remarks, delivered first at a closed-door fundraiser and later at an open event in Missouri, largely lived up to that billing. The president offered a tough critique of the economic policies of the Bush era, and he said times have changed. "They spent nearly a decade driving the country into a ditch and now they are asking for the car keys back. They can't have 'em back. They don't know how to drive," Obama said, expressing surprise that anyone would want to return to the past. "We already know how this story ends. We don't have to guess how the other party will govern," he said. Calling out Reps. John Boehner<http://www.whorunsgov.com/Profiles/John_A._Boehner> (Ohio), Roy Blunt <http://www.whorunsgov.com/Profiles/Roy_Blunt> (Mo.) and Joe Barton <http://www.whorunsgov.com/Profiles/Joe_L._Barton> (Tex.) by name, Obama said that Republicans had said no to all of the Democratic proposals to address health care, fix the financial system, give women equal pay and hold oil companies accountable. "Barton and Boehner and Blunt," he said. "Sometimes I wonder if that 'no' button is just stuck in Congress so they can't do what's right for the American people." In a statement, Boehner responded: "On President Obama's watch, more than three million Americans have lost their jobs and unemployment is near 10 percent. The American people continue to ask, where are the jobs? But the President keeps whining and indulging in childish partisan<http://projects.washingtonpost.com/politicsglossary/party-affiliated/partisan/> attacks. How out of touch can he get?" Obama ended the day at a fundraiser at a Las Vegas casino for Reid, where he delivered an expanded version of the speech he had given in Missouri twice already. But for Reid, Obama revved it up for the crowd of almost 3,000. He called Reid "a man of principle. He is a straight-shooter. He is a man of his word," and he practically begged the supporters to get out and work to send the embattled senator back to Washington. Obama mocked Reid repeatedly in a playful way for being so soft-spoken, but said he is a fighter who knows how to win. "Anybody who knows Harry knows he is made of strong stuff. This is one tough guy," Obama said. "He does not give up, he does not give in, he keeps on fighting and he outlasts them." Obama mocked Reid's opponent in the Senate race, Sharron Angle, saying that she wanted to phase out Medicare, Social Security and federal education funding and had called the compensation fund for BP "a slush fund" -- a statement he said her campaign later said was a kind of mistake. "I'm sure she meant slush fund the nicest possible way," Obama joked. The boisterous audience ate it up. Earlier in the day, Obama toured an electric truck plant in Kansas City to argue that his stimulus program is bolstering the country's long-term economic interest by reshaping the energy industry. Obama said the trucks converted at the Smith Electric plant represent the leading edge of an industry that will put Americans to work for generations. The company -- which plans to add 50 new employees, doubling its workforce -- received a $32 million Recovery Act grant to help launch the assembly plant. "At this plant, you are doing more than building new vehicles," Obama said. "You're helping us to fight our way out of a vicious recession and you are building the economy of America's future." During his two-day trip, Obama is road-testing a midterm election message: The country can achieve Wall Street reform and curb corporate interests only if it elects -- or reelects -- lawmakers from his party. "There are those who argue that we ought to abandon our efforts -- and others who have made the political calculation that it's better to obstruct than lend a hand," he said at the plant. "But my answer is that they ought to come here to Kansas City." On the stimulus issue, one political challenge for Obama is to demonstrate to recession-weary voters that the benefits of the clean-energy investments are not so far off as to seem meaningless, especially for those who don't have jobs. With midterm elections just around the corner, many polls suggest an impatience with Obama's economic policies. In recent months, job growth numbers have been disappointing and the nation's unemployment rate, while down slightly, remains at 9.5 percent. In his remarks to the employees, Obama predicted that companies like the one in Kansas City will move more quickly than people expect to produce a new generation of electric vehicles and the jobs to go with them. He said his administration, shortly after taking office, had made "difficult decisions at a moment of maximum peril." "One of those decisions was to provide critical funding to promising, innovative businesses like Smith Electric vehicles," he said. "And because we did, there is a thriving enterprise here instead of an empty, darkened warehouse." Republicans in Washington have been critical of the president's stimulus spending, saying the nearly $800 billion legislation has not had the effect that Obama promised. But Obama told the employees that those arguments would take the country backward. Just a few months ago, the presidential visits would not have gotten quite the billing that they are receiving this week. Carnahan, who is running for an open Senate seat, kept Obama at arm's length<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/01/AR2010040103754.html> when he made an earlier trip to Missouri -- attending a meeting in Washington rather than flying home to be photographed with the president, whose approval rating in her state is relatively low. And on Obama's last swing through Nevada, Reid, the Senate majority leader<http://projects.washingtonpost.com/politicsglossary/Congressional/majority-leader/>, was considered in such poor political health that even a presidential visit might not do much good. These days, Reid's odds appear much better<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/12/AR2010061202182.html> in his race against Angle, a "tea party" favorite<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/15/AR2010061505895.html> who won the Republican primary in Nevada last month. And although Carnahan is still locked in a very close race<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/03/AR2010070303110.html> against her opponent, Blunt, Democratic officials have expressed optimism that she is exceeding expectations, given the disdain for Democratic control of Washington that they are detecting elsewhere. Carnahan and Blunt are vying for the Senate seat that will be vacated by retiring Sen. Christopher S. "Kit" Bond (R). *Kornblut reported from Washington.* II. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/39495.html *W.H. works to flip anti-business rep* By: Ben White July 8, 2010 12:51 PM EDT The White House has launched a coordinated campaign to push back against the perception taking hold in corporate America and on Wall Street that President Barack Obama is promoting an anti-business agenda. Obama has been happy to be seen by voters as cracking down on Wall Street but those efforts have had an unintended result: feeding a sense that the president and his party are indifferent or even actively hostile toward big business, whether those businesses are Silicon Valley tech companies, Midwestern manufacturers or Main Street small businesses. And it is more than just politics: Obama’s aides believe confidence in the general direction of White House policy has an effect on the willingness of corporations to hire, invest and push the economy toward a more solid recovery. The stakes are high. Nearly every economic report suggests that corporate America, flush with cash and generating strong profits, is waiting to unleash a wave of hiring if only they have confidence there will be no double-dip recession and that consumers will have money to spend. So the White House has launched a campaign to help instill that confidence, highlighted by Obama’s remarks on Wednesday stressing his commitment to lifting trade barriers as a way to spur economic growth. That was followed by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s interview on CNBC’s “Kudlow Report” last night — following his spot on PBS’ “NewsHour” on Tuesday. Obama talked up the economy in Missouri Thursday as well. In a Thursday interview, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel argued that rather than recoiling against Obama, business leaders should be grateful for his support on at least a half-dozen counts: his advocacy of greater international trade and education reform open markets despite union skepticism; his rejection of calls from some quarters to nationalize banks during the financial meltdown; the rescue of the automobile industry; the fact that the overhaul of health care preserved the private delivery system; the fact that billions in the stimulus package benefited business with lucrative new contracts, and that financial regulation reform will take away the uncertainty that existed with a broken, pre-crash regulatory apparatus. But, in the White House view, some business leaders listen only to Obama speeches being tough on BP or on the excesses of Wall Street and assume Obama is hostile to business across the board. “Rather than respond to atmospherics, they should look at policies where we have been supportive,” Emanuel said. Within the West Wing, there are mixed feelings about the hostility many in business feel toward Obama. In some moods, aides are disdainful of what they perceive as the whininess of many business leaders, who they feel are reacting to sensible and comparatively modest ideas as though they were an intolerable burden, and as though the massive financial meltdown would not prompt a reappraisal of the business-knows-best mindset that prevailed during the Bush years. But these same aides also take the business backlash seriously as both a political and substantive problem. A lack of business confidence, they fear, may inhibit the recovery. Emanuel has warned colleagues of this spring’s “G factor”—a convergence of bad news from the Gulf Coast oil spill, Greece’s financial problems, Germany’s agitating for fiscal austerity at a time when demand in Europe’s economy remains weak, and a new season of political instability in Gaza—has spooked many business leaders at a time when they were otherwise ready to hire and invest. Still, the administration has a good deal of work to do to reverse opinion among the corporate elite. Wall Street executives feel burned mostly by the “fat cat” rhetoric employed by the White House to push financial reform. They also do not like many elements of the Dodd-Frank bill, though it did not turn out to be as bad as once feared. Other major corporate titans have also slammed the White House recently. At a recent dinner in Rome, Jeffrey Immelt, chairman and CEO of General Electric, said “business did not like the U.S. president and the president did not like business,” according to an account in the Financial Times. G.E. subsequently took the extraordinary step of saying said Mr. Immelt’s remarks “do not represent our views.” Immelt also spoke about the generally sour mood among corporate America towards the economy and government policy: "People are in a really bad mood [in the U.S.]," he said. "We [the U.S.] are a pathetic exporter. ... We have to become an industrial powerhouse again, but you don't do this when government and entrepreneurs are not in sync." Verizon Communications Chief Executive Ivan Seidenberg, head of the influential Business Roundtable, slammed the administration in a recent speech in Washington. The Business Roundtable, which includes CEOs of the biggest companies in the U.S., has had ongoing contact with the White House, and Seidenberg’s comments were widely interpreted as indicating a major schism between corporate America and the West Wing. In his speech, Seidenberg said he had been invited to the White House 16 times but that the administration was not focused on job growth and was instead “trying to micromanage industries." He called the U.S. corporate tax code a “major impediment to international competitiveness” and described the U.S. as a “fly-over zone” on world trade. He added that financial reform went a “step too far.” The latest themes from Geithner and the W III. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Court-rejects-bid-to-restore-apf-1632631680.html?x=0 Court rejects bid to restore drilling moratoriumAppeals court rejects effort by US government to restore offshore drilling moratorium Michael Kunzelman, Associated Press Writer, On Thursday July 8, 2010, 9:56 pm EDT NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected the federal government's effort to restore an offshore deepwater drilling moratorium, opening the door to resumed drilling in the Gulf while the legal fight continues. The ruling is not the final word on the Obama administration's fight to suspend new drilling projects so it can study the risks revealed by the disastrous BP oil spill. The same appeals court is expected to hear arguments on the merits of the moratorium case in late August or early September. While it's possible that 33 exploratory wells suspended by the moratorium could resume drilling, companies might not bother with the expense while the ultimate future of the projects hangs in the balance. Catherine Wannamaker, a lawyer for several environmental groups that support the moratorium, said she was disappointed by the ruling but expressed confidence that the Obama administration ultimately will win its appeal. Wannamaker said it's unclear whether any offshore companies would resume drilling because Thursday's ruling doesn't resolve the case. "Clearly, it's legally allowed," she said. "The question is, practically speaking, will anybody do it given the uncertainty? It's hard to know what will happen." The CEO of one of the companies that sued to stop the moratorium, Covington-based Hornbeck Offshore Services, said he didn't know if any of the companies involved planned to resume drilling. "We need to get back to work," Todd Hornbeck said of his company, which provides vessels that serve the offshore industry. "We can't work without any drilling units working." The moratorium, which prompted a lawsuit from oil and gas service companies, was first rejected June 22 by U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman. The Interior Department appealed, asking the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to let the temporary ban stand until it ruled on the merits of the case. Justice Department lawyer Michael Gray argued Feldman abused his discretion when he overturned the moratorium, which halted the approval of any new permits for deepwater projects and suspended drilling on the 33 exploratory wells. Lawyers for the several oilfield service companies argued the administration failed to show that "irreparable harm" would take place if the drilling ban was lifted. A three-judge panel rejected the government's arguments less than two hours after a hearing on Thursday afternoon. Two of the 5th Circuit judges seemed to disagree about who should be shown more deference: the lower-court judge or Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who imposed the moratorium. Judge Jerry E. Smith leaned toward the judge, while Judge James L. Dennis said Salazar "is entitled to a lot of deference." Dennis partially dissented in the ruling, saying that he would have let the moratorium remain in place. "Why are we in a position to second-guess the secretary on whether or not there's a threat of irreparable harm?" Dennis asked at the hearing. After Feldman overturned the moratorium in June, Salazar announced he would issued a new, refined moratorium that reflects offshore conditions. Gray, the Justice lawyer, said Salazar was still considering crafting a new moratorium. Hornbeck said he can only "wait and see" whether the Interior Department tries to impose a new moratorium. "It's not solving any problems. It's creating new problems," he said. "There are better solutions than that." Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a vocal critic of the moratorium, watched the hearing from the courtroom gallery. He said he was pleased by the ruling, but he remains concerned about the de facto moratorium that is keeping drilling from resuming and the threat of a second moratorium from Salazar. "The federal government not being able to do its job is not a reason for thousands of Louisianians to lose their jobs," Jindal said. Associated Press writer Alan Sayre contributed to this report. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB.
