The Obama Administration yesterday eased some travel and gift restrictions on Cuban Americans, a move that is generating ample and largely positive coverage, including reports on all three network newscasts. ABC World News, for example, reported President Obama "traded 50 years of anger towards Cuba for an olive branch." The Los Angeles Times, says the President "is attempting to make Cubans less dependent on the Castro regime, while still holding Cuban leaders accountable for human rights abuses by enforcing a wide-ranging trade embargo."
The Spanish-language Miami daily El Nuevo Herald reports that "the lifting of restrictions will benefit 1.5 million Cubans and Cuban-Americans, who will be able to travel and send money unrestricted to their relatives in the island," and the Wall Street Journal notes the changes would also "allow US telecommunications companies to set up shop in Cuba, a step that may be mostly symbolic in the short term," as American companies "would need the permission of the Cuban government." The Washington Post says that "the announcement could open the door for the American information revolution to enter the island nation." Under the new policy, says the Miami Herald, Americans will "be able to send Cubans cellphones, computers, software and satellite receivers."
The Miami Herald says the announcement "marks the most significant US gesture to Cuba in decades." The Washington Post says the announcement was "hailed by many advocates of greater openness toward the regime, including the business community, which sees new opportunities for commerce." But USA Today notes "some Cuban Americans...said more travel and aid will only embolden Cuba's communist rulers," and "a joint statement from Reps. Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart, Florida Republicans who are Cuban American, called Monday's move a 'serious mistake.'" The Diaz-Balarts wrote, "Unilateral concessions to the dictatorship embolden it to further isolate, imprison and brutalize pro-democracy activists." The Miami Herald reports "experts on Cuba-US relations say pressure on the Obama administration from Latin America and Europe to bring Cuba in from the cold...may lead Raúl Castro's government to consider itself in a position of strength."
The Politico noted that while yesterday's move "drew strong rebuke from traditional hard line supporters of the US embargo...a CNN poll last week found that two-thirds of Americans think the United States should lift its travel ban on Cuba, and three-quarters support relations with the island." The AP reports that Cuban-born Sen. Mel Martinez "is cautiously optimistic about...Obama's plan." Said Martinez, "It's going to bring families together," and "the technology piece is terrific." AFP also reports "the administration's actions won applause in US farm states hoping to gain a new markets for their agricultural products." Sen. Byron Dorgan said, "We should also immediately eliminate the roadblocks that the Bush Administration put in place to make it harder for farmers to sell food to Cuba. ... I also believe the embargo should be ended. When a policy has failed for nearly 50 years, it is time to change the policy." On the other hand, the AP reports Obama's "moves fell far short of the more drastic policy adjustments that some -- including Republican Sen. Richard Lugar -- have argued are required to...bring about change in Cuba."
NBC Nightly News reported that yesterday, "with a successful operation under his belt," Obama "pledged to put a halt to pirate attacks." The Hill reports that the White House said "Obama's loud silence during last week's standoff...was necessary in such a tense situation." White House press secretary Robert Gibbs "said the president, who came under fire over the weekend for staying mum on the drama, did not want to make the situation 'even potentially more dangerous by putting the president out there for the captives to see.'" The Detroit Free Press reports that Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R MI), the House Intelligence Committee's ranking member, said Obama "should get the credit for the rescue operation. 'Because he'd get all the flack if it didn't go well.'"
Roger Simon writes in The Politico that this "was a heck of a good news cycle for the White House," as "pirates got shot...and Barack Obama got the credit." Chris Matthews, at the opening of MSNBC's Hardball, said, "If the pirate hostage crisis ended badly, who knows how much mileage the Republicans would have gotten at President Obama's expense. But with three pirates dead, a fourth in custody and the captain safe, Obama has won an early and important victory." Also on MSNBC's Hardball, Newsweek's Howard Fineman said, "If you're the President and you aim your assault rifle, metaphorically speaking, you better hit the target. He did hit the target. You can't overstate in political terms what a disaster this was the President avoided. The Republicans and conservatives would have been all over him if this thing hade been botched in any way."
The New York Times cautions that "the operation on the waters off the Horn of Africa may presage a more complicated challenge," as "Somali pirates have vowed to take revenge on Americans, and they have demonstrated in recent months their ability to seize ships from all sorts of countries with impunity. Even now, pirates in Somalia are holding more than 200 hostages from countries other than the United States." However, the Financial Times says "Somalia's pirates have been acting more nervously and co-operating more closely among themselves," which may "suggest that pirates fear further US military intervention." The AP reports that Sunday's success "should not become a rationale for a major expansion of the Pentagon's role in what is fundamentally a criminal problem." Peter D. Zimmerman, former chief scientist of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee," writes in the Wall Street Journal, "One way to deal with the threat is to revive convoys," which "have historically been the antidote to piracy on the open seas, and they can defend against these attacks once again."
Congressman Shelled In Mogadishu The AP also reports, "Assailants fired mortar shells at the Mogadishu airport as a plane carrying an American congressman took off." Rep. Don Payne, "who met with Somalia's top leaders during his one-day visit, said that he had no idea of the violence until reaching Kenya after the flight from Mogadishu, one of the most dangerous cities in the world and rarely visited by foreign travelers." AFP reports a State Department spokesman "said Payne was provided with a 'very frank and straightforward assessment of the security situation on the ground.'"
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On its front page, the New York Times reports the Obama administration and "its European allies" are "preparing proposals that would shift strategy toward Iran by dropping a longstanding American insistence that Tehran rapidly shut down nuclear facilities during the early phases of negotiations over its atomic program, according to officials involved in the discussions." These "proposals, exchanged in confidential strategy sessions with European allies, would press Tehran to open up its nuclear program gradually to wide-ranging inspection," but "would also allow Iran to continue enriching uranium for some period during the talks, a sharp break in the approach taken by the Bush administration, which had demanded that Iran halt its enrichment activities." The Financial Times reports Iranian presidential hopeful Mir-Hossein Moussavi "has ruled out suspension of the country's controversial uranium enrichment but insisted that he would work to provide 'guarantees' that Tehran would not divert its nuclear programme to weapons use."
CNN's The Situation Room reported, "$787 billion of American's tax money is already being used to fund president Obama's stimulus program. ... Today, his team is insisting that the money is being spent so efficiently, the administration might actually have extra money to fund other projects." President Obama: "This government effort is coming in ahead of schedule and under budget." Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood "can't hide his pride." LaHood: "Over the last six weeks, the department of transportation has moved more swiftly than people thought possible." LaHood "says his department has made nearly $48 billion available for roads and infrastructure, and that bids are 15% to 20% cheaper than the administration expected, making the most of your tax dollars." Obama: "Competition for these projects is so fierce and contractors are doing such a good job cutting costs, that projects are consistently coming in under budget."
Fox News' Special Report reported Rep. Mark Kirk (R IL) "says the President is declaring victory a little early." Rep. Kirk: "We have hundreds of thousands of Americans have been thrown out of work, record levels of unemployment, and the federal government has just barely got started with many of the spending programs approved by the congress." Fox added that tomorrow the President "will make another address about the economy, but his aides suggest he won't be as upbeat as he was today, focusing less on the promising start the stimulus program has made, and more on the long tough road ahead, warning, his spokesman says, that there will be many more months in which hundreds of thousands of Americans lose their jobs."
The Politico reports, "A growing chorus on the legal left is cooling toward President Barack Obama as a result of recent actions by the Justice Department vigorously defending the Bush administration in what it termed the war on terror." The Politico notes the Electronic Frontier Foundation runs a warning on its website reading "Obama Position on Illegal Spying: Worse Than Bush," and adds the President "has been pilloried by a liberal TV icon who was one of President George W. Bush's most vociferous critics, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann." Obama is also "under withering attack from an attorney who was one of the most widely read critics of Bush's legal strategy in the war on terror, Glenn Greenwald. He recently blasted Obama administration moves as 'extremist' and 'bizarre.'" Fox News' Special Report similarly reported that "Obama's most liberal supporters are dismayed and disgusted because his administration is invoking the state secrets privilege just as president Bush did to shield eavesdropping programs from public exposure." Fox added, "So what happened? Analysts say...Obama got all the details and changed his mind. ... Analysts say Mr. Obama's eyes were opened as he learned about the program and now realizes it is both lawful and necessary."
Poll: Americans Think Obama Has Made Them Safer CNN's The Situation Room reported, "We have poll numbers now on how the American public rates Mr. Obama when it comes to national security. ... Do the American people trust that the President is doing everything to keep the country safe?" CNN's Bill Schneider answered, "Yes they do, although Republicans are not convinced. ... Do the American people believe President Obama's actions have increased the chance of a terrorist attack, no, by nearly 3-1 in a CNN Opinion Research poll. Republicans agree with Dick Cheney that President Obama's policies have made the country less safe, but they are alone in that view." Schneider added that President Obama "has rallied some support for the war in Afghanistan, a narrow majority of Americans now favors it. This time, it's Democrats who are isolated. Majorities of Republicans and independents favor the war. Most Democrats don't." Schneider noted that "most of the polling was done before the North Korean missile launch and the pirate crisis. Both situations brought President Obama praise for his coolness and his resolve. And most likely, they strengthened the public's view that he will keep the country safe."
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The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that a three-judge panel "soundly rejected" Norm Coleman's (R) "attempt to reverse" Al Franken's (D) "lead in the U.S. Senate election late Monday, sweeping away the Republican's claims in a blunt ruling Coleman promised to appeal." The judges gave the win in the lengthy contest to Franken, but the AP says that Coleman is expected to appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court, which the St. Paul Pioneer Press says would prevent Franken from taking office.
The Washington Post reports this morning that "days before the second anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings, a group backed by New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg plans to launch a" TV ad "that questions" GOP gubernatorial nominee Robert F. McDonnell's opposition to closing a "loophole" in Virginia gun laws. The New York Times adds that Bloomberg was in Virginia yesterday, "flanked by a dozen people, most of them relatives of the Virginia Tech shooting victims, or survivors themselves." The New York Daily News adds that Bloomberg "has a history with McDonnell. When Bloomberg hired private eyes to look for improper gun sales and filed civil suits against six Virginia gun dealers in 2006, outraged officials passed a law to block such stings. McDonnell, who was the state attorney general at the time, warned Bloomberg he would be charged with a felony if his investigators tried again, sparking a war of words."
The Tennessean reports that former Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D) said he will not run for governor of Tennessee next year, a blow to the Democrats as he was "one of the few" with "statewide name recognition" and "would have been the front-runner." The Memphis Daily News adds ex-State House majority leader Kim McMillan (D) "is the only declared Democratic candidate for governor. Others considering the race include state Senate Democratic leader Jim Kyle of Memphis."
The AP reports this morning that KY6 Rep. Ben Chandler (D) announced yesterday that he would not run against Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning (R) and instead backed state Attorney General Jack Conway (D) in the Democratic primary.
Roll Call reported on its website that Francine Busby (D) "is set to announce later this week" that she will again challenge CA50 Rep. Brian Bilbray (R), who defeated her during a special election in 2006 and again later that year in the general election.
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Jay Leno: "Well, you've been watching the big score over the weekend, huh? Navy 3, pirates 0. Yeah!"
Jay Leno: "Anyway, they asked Captain Phillips what he's going to do now. And he said he's going to Disneyland to wipe out the Pirates of the Caribbean. So I think he's a little wound up."
David Letterman: "How about that story," with the pirates "off the coast of Somalia? Man, I mean, President Obama, this guy is getting it done, you know. He rounded up the Somali pirates" and the "Madoffs all in the same year. Looking pretty good."
Jimmy Fallon: "Well, the wait...is over. The Obamas have chosen a new White House dog." It is "a Portuguese water dog named Bo. Very cute dog. Their first choice" was "a wheaten terrier, but it was arrested for tax evasion."
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