President-elect Barack Obama is getting largely positive media coverage on the issue of the economy, as did his new economic team, which is being cast as a group of highly capable, centrist economists. The Washington Post says Obama "is assembling a deeply experienced team of top economic advisers whose key members firmly believe limited government spending combined with free markets can create lasting prosperity." CNN's The Situation Room reported "Obama's pick of Timothy Geithner to be Treasury Secretary is highly celebrated." All three networks led their broadcasts with Obama's announcement. ABC World News reported Obama "may not yet be officially on the job, but he's on the case. And so is his brand new team."
Under the headline "Obama Advisers Get Bipartisan High Marks," USA Today reports, "'Brilliant,' 'outstanding' and 'exceptionally talented' were some of the words used to describe" Obama's "top choices," Tim Geithner and Larry Summers, "and that came from Republicans." The Politico runs a similar report under the headline "Economic Advisers Are Heavyweights." The New York Times reports the selections Geithner and Summers "signaled that Mr. Obama intended to pursue aggressive, yet centrist policies, in finding ways to help jump-start the economy." A Chicago Tribune analysis, titled "Centrist Economists, Radical Solutions," the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and USA Today reach similar conclusions. AFP describes Geithner as "well-traveled" and Summers as "internationally respected." The Washington Post said in an editorial that at "a time when the country badly needed a sense of confidence and direction, these choices inspired it."
The Wall Street Journal, AP, and McClatchy run generally positive portrayals of Summers, while the Washington Times reports that "when word got out that...Obama might choose" Summers for Treasury, "women's groups still angry about remarks he made in 2005 about women and math made their voices heard." E. J. Dionne writes in the Washington Post, "Getting Timothy Geithner and former Treasury secretary Larry Summers working in harness is Obama's single biggest post-election victory."
But the New York Times editorializes that both Geithner and Summers "have played central roles in policies that helped provoke today's financial crisis." On MSNBC's Hardball, CNBC's Jim Cramer said he felt "skepticism...about Tim Geithner. ... Maybe he was pressured somewhat because he was the regulator for Wall Street, so he was in charge of Bear Stearns, in charge of Lehman Brothers, in charge of the problems at Merrill." The Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times, meanwhile, run profiles of Christian Romer.
Obama Outlines "Aggressive" Economic Plan In his Chicago news conference yesterday, President-elect Obama urged Congress to take prompt action to help boost the economy with a wide ranging stimulus package. The AP notes Obama said the country faces "economic crisis of historic proportions," and he "urged Congress to pass a costly, job-creating stimulus bill as quickly as possible."
The CBS Evening News reported the "financial crisis is not officially his headache yet, but...Obama wants you and the markets to know he's already working on it." NBC Nightly News, meanwhile, showed the President-elect saying, "It is my hope that the new Congress will begin work on an aggressive economic recovery plan when they convene in early January so that our Administration can hit the ground running."
The Financial Times notes Obama yesterday "gave few further details of the wide-ranging stimulus plan he proposed at the weekend but said it would be 'of a size and scope that is necessary to get this economy back on track.'" Democratic leaders "and economists have said the package, aimed at creating or saving 2.5m jobs within two years, could cost anywhere between $500bn and $1,000bn."
McClatchy reports Obama said "the jobs he wants to create" would "include 'rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, modernizing our schools and creating the clean energy infrastructure of the 21st century.'"
The Wall Street Journal reports, "While stimulus plans are usually considered targeted, and temporary, relief, the Obama team is looking at much deeper and longer-term spending, reflecting the view that downward pressure on the economy could last for several years. He ticked off a list of priorities that included: creating 2.5 million jobs, and spending on roads, bridges, schools and clean-energy programs."
The Financial Times reports "Obama on Monday set out his plans to step up, rather than pull back, government spending in the wake of the financial crisis, underscoring a big shift in the US economic debate in just a few weeks."
As President-elect Barack Obama moved to announce his economic team and to outline his stimulus plan, some media reports last night and this morning examined the apparent coordination between his message and that of outgoing President Bush. ABC World News said in its lead story, "Obama has said we have only one president at a time. But today, it seemed as if he and President Bush were working like a tag team wrestling match with an economic crisis." In a later report, ABC World News' Charlie Gibson said, "I don't think I have ever seen a President-elect getting so involved in policy so early. It does seem like we've got at the moment two presidents." George Stephanopoulos added, ""It's never happened before."
Under the headline "Obama And Bush Working To Calm Volatile Market," the New York Times reports on its front page that the President-elect "and his new economic team worked closely with...Bush to inject confidence into the trembling financial markets, which rallied and erased most of last week's losses." McClatchy reports, "America has never seen anything quite like this: The president and president-elect acting like co-presidents, consulting and cooperating on the day's biggest crises."
The Washington Post reports Obama eased "away from his emphatic statement that America has only 'one president at a time' and signaling a shift in the balance of power between the current and incoming administrations as the financial crisis engulfs more banks and threatens millions of jobs." The New York Times reports, "The markets' apparent concerns at the specter of a do-nothing transition -- with neither President nor Mr. Obama seeming to be aggressively steer recovery efforts -- has forced him into a more active role."
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In an exclusive, ABC News reports on its Website that "a former communications intercept operator says US intelligence snooped on the private lives of two of America's most important allies in fighting al Qaeda: British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Iraq's first interim president, Ghazi al-Yawer." David Murfee Faulk told ABC News "he saw and read a file on Blair's 'private life' and heard 'pillow talk' phone calls of al-Yawer when he worked as an Army Arab linguist assigned to a secret NSA facility at Fort Gordon, Georgia between 2003 and 2007." The report by ABC News is widely covered today in the British press, including by the Financial Times, Guardian (UK), London Telegraph, the Times of London and the London Daily Mail.
Media reports on the pardons and commutations issued by President Bush yesterday tended to focus on what the list did not contain: A pre-emptive pardon for officials involved in anti-terror efforts. The Wall Street Journal reports "the White House isn't inclined to grant sweeping pardons for former administration officials involved in harsh interrogations and detentions of terror suspects." The AP says "some constitutional scholars and human rights groups want the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama to investigate possible war crimes." A preemptive Bush pardon "would...be highly controversial," adds the AP, and "Obama advisers say there is little -- if any -- chance that his administration would bring criminal charges."
Further diminishing the media impact of Bush's announced pardons, the New York Times notes "Bush granted 14" and "commuted two prison sentences on Monday, but the benefactors included none of the big names who had become the topic of speculation as Mr. Bush leaves office."
Rep. Charles B. Rangel, who has faced questions over the propriety of his fundraising for a City College of New York school of public service that will eventually bear his name, supported a tax loophole for a contributor to the project that he initially opposed. The New York Times reports in a front page story that Rangel "has helped raise $11 million" for the City College project, and he "has insisted that he has kept his efforts to attract donors scrupulously separate from his official duties in Congress." But Congressional records "and interviews show that Mr. Rangel was instrumental in preserving a lucrative tax loophole that benefited an oil-drilling company last year, while at the same time its chief executive was pledging $1 million to the project."
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports Washington, DC officials say that Rep. Rangel, "who recently has been buffeted by questions about his personal taxes and real estate dealings, was incorrectly given a tax break on a house he owned in the District." And The Hill reports while Rep. Rangel "is taking a much more tight-lipped, cautious approach to the ethics case against him, this cycle he has become the House Democrats' top fundraiser, a distinction that helps him curry favor with colleagues who could weigh in on any ethics committee action against him."
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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports President-elect Barack Obama "has become even more involved in Georgia's bitter U.S. Senate runoff, recording a so-called 'robo call' urging voters to elect Democrat Jim Martin in his Dec. 2 runoff battle with incumbent U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss." A Georgia trip "by Obama had still not been scheduled as of Monday."
The Politico reports the contest "has narrowed into a sprint in which both parties recognize there is only one path to victory, and that is mobilizing the base to vote in the Dec. 2 runoff." Martin has "closely linked his efforts to Obama, running television ads that have made ample use of him - including one that features footage of Obama's victory speech in Chicago's Grant Park."
The Washington Times reports Martin "remains an underdog against" Chambliss. Martin is "behind in polls, has half the cash of his opponent and early-voting turnout among black voters is stagnating - a crucial block for any Democrat in this mostly conservative state." But Roll Call reports a "new Democratic poll released Monday afternoon on the Dec. 2 Georgia Senate runoff showed the race essentially tied." In the poll "of 600 likely voters, conducted Friday to Sunday, Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R) had 48 percent and former state Rep. Jim Martin (D) had 46 percent."
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports the "number of ballot challenges in the U.S. Senate recount surged again on Monday, passing 3,000 overall and clouding the question of who's picking up ground in the hotly contested race." More than "78 percent of the votes had been recounted as of Monday night, and Republican Sen. Norm Coleman's advantage over DFLer Al Franken stood at 210, according to a Star Tribune compilation of results reported to the secretary of state and gathered by the newspaper."
Franken Volunteer Also Served As Election Judge. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports for "two days last week, Maggie Vertin watched Otter Tail County's recount in Fergus Falls, volunteering for Al Franken's campaign. On Saturday, she worked as a Wilkin County election judge in her hometown." Vertin "defended her dual roles as 'politically active and impartial when necessary... [I] feel totally comfortable that I was fair and honest.'"
Gov. Ruth Ann Minner of Delaware tapped Ted Kaufman, a longtime aide to Vice President-elect Joseph Biden, to fill his boss' vacant Senate seat until a 2010 special election. USA Today /Delaware State Journal reports Minner's selection of Kaufman "opens the possibility that Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden can run in 2010 and succeed his father in the Senate." Fox News Special Report (11/24, Hume) also noted Kaufman "says he will not run for the seat in 2010 when Biden's term expires," adding "that leaves an opening for the senator's son."
The Washington Post reports Kaufman "is viewed as Beau Biden's political godfather and was a senior unpaid consultant to his campaign for attorney general." The AP notes Kaufman is also "co-chair of Biden's transition team and an Obama-Biden transition project advisory board member."
The Hill notes Biden "went on to say that if Beau Biden 'chooses to run for the Senate in the future, he will have to run and win on his own. He wouldn't have it any other way.'" The Washington Times says Beau Biden "is the clear front-runner to claim his father's Senate seat" in 2010.
Fox News Special Report reported South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Katon Dawson "will now run for the top spot in the national GOP. Dawson joins the race with two other serious declared contenders, Michigan Republican Chairman Saul Anuzis, and former Maryland lieutenant governor and current FOX News contributor Michael Steele. The current GOP chairman, Mike Duncan, has not yet announced whether he will run for re-election."
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Jay Leno: "In political news, it looks like Hillary Clinton accepted Barack Obama's offer to be secretary of State. ... She accepted after Barack Obama's vetting process could not find any link between her and Bill Clinton. So that worked out."
Jay Leno: "Well, it looks like the government is going to bail out Citigroup, yet they don't want to bail out the auto companies. See, I don't think this is fair. I mean, blue collar guys who make our cars, they don't get the bailout. But the white collar guys on Wall Street, they get the bailout. You know what I think we should do? I think they should work together. I think the guys in Detroit should keep making the cars, and the guys on Wall Street should be making the license plates."
David Letterman: "I heard today that the Federal government was raising, like, $40 billion to bail out Citigroup. ... Honestly, when you think about it, who doesn't really feel sorry for credit card companies?"
David Letterman: "Down in Washington, DC, the Capitol Hill Christmas tree arrived." And there is "no surprise here. You know, they've got to decorate the tree. So the contract to decorate the tree, a $10 billion ornament contract, went to Halliburton."
Conan O'Brien: "President-elect Barack Obama gave a press conference today." He "says he is united with President Bush's Administration on doing everything they can to fix the economy." When "asked about it, President Bush replied, 'Uh, what he said,' and then went back to packing."
Conan O'Brien: "Now, during the press conference, Obama told reporters that the economy is likely to get worse. ... After hearing this, John McCain said, 'That's funny. He didn't mention that during the campaign.'"
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