The Washington Post reports, "One hundred days into his term, President Obama used a pair of public events Wednesday to chart how far he has steered the country from the course set by the Bush administration, saying, 'We are off to a good start, but it is just a start.'" During a prime-time news conference, Obama "appeared relaxed and reflective" and "struck a reassuring tone on issues as diverse as the widening swine flu crisis and the security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal."
The AP reports Obama "borrowed heavily from FDR's playbook as he tried to slip as effortlessly into the role of comforter in chief." Balancing "two wars, a creaky economy and -- now, suddenly -- a flu bug of near-pandemic proportions, this new president used his third prime-time news conference to assure America that its oft-derided government could rise to the challenge." The Wall Street Journal reports, "Initially, White House advisers derided the focus on this 100-day mark, but wound up embracing it." Newsday says the President displayed a "mastery of a wide range of issues but also surprisingly admitted that he wishes he'd been dealt an easier hand." The Los Angeles Times says a "somber" Obama "warned a recession-weary nation Wednesday that its resilience would be tested even more in the second hundred days of his presidency."
Obama Says "Waterboarding Was Torture" The Politico reports Obama also "acknowledged...that aggressive interrogation of terror suspects led to useful intelligence, but he stood by his insistence that using methods like water-boarding amounts to torture and said his decision to ban them makes the country safer." The Hill reports Obama said, "I believe that waterboarding was torture. And I believe that whatever legal rationales were used, it was a mistake." The Washington Times reports Obama said "that the country is made safer by not using" interrogation techniques that he said constitute "torture."
Commentary Generally Favorable To Obama Post-news conference analysis on the cable news networks was basically positive, though on Fox News, Bill O'Reilly criticized the President for not calling on the network's Major Garrett, who "was in the front row," so "all he got were liberal questions from the media." But on CNN, David Gergen said, "In terms of mastery of the issues, we have rarely had a president who is as well-briefed and speaks in as articulate a way as this president does." John King said on CNN, "As a performer, he is unrivalled right now in national politics. That is one of the reasons he's trying to do so much so soon. Because he knows he doesn't have a viable opposition at the moment. So while he has the strength, he's trying to use it as much as he can." On MSNBC, Keith Olbermann said, "If watching him tonight, you got the sense Mr. Obama has tried to accomplish 1,000 days of work of change in one-tenth the amount of the time, that is likely no accident."
All three broadcast networks covered President Obama's 100th day in office and his town hall meeting in Arnold, Missouri. ABC World News reported, "President Obama made the case for his busy domestic agenda, lifting the ban on federally funding embryonic stem cell research, signing a law providing health insurance to uninsured children, and outlining a $3.6 trillion budget with record spending on energy, education, and health care." The CBS Evening News reported Obama "started this 100th day in office with a town meeting in a St. Louis suburb and gave himself this report card." NBC Nightly News reported the President marked the milestone "both inside and outside the Washington beltway." The AP reports Obama "told Midwesterners Wednesday: 'I'm pleased with the progress we've made but I'm not satisfied.' 'I'm confident in the future but I'm not content with the present.'"
Missouri's Jefferson County Journal reports Obama's "visit to Fox High School Wednesday marked the first visit by a sitting president to Jefferson County in 15 years. Given the area's status as a 'battleground' county, the next streak may prove far shorter." USA Today says the President "visited the only battleground state he lost on Election Day," telling the "enthusiastic crowd...that he was glad to be 'back in the middle of America, where common sense often reigns.'" The Chicago Tribune says the "event, south of St. Louis, had the feel of an Obama campaign event, with the president pitching hard for his plans and proposals -- healthcare reform, investment in new energy technology, pay-as-you-go budgeting." The New York Daily News reports the President gave himself "a grade of satisfactory - with room for improvement."
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ABC World News reported, "The gross domestic product dropped at a rate of 6.1 percent in the first quarter, much worse than expected, making for the worst back-to-back reports for quarters in 50 years." ABC added, "The headline number is awful, but inside the report, economists saw two good signs. First, consumer spending actually increased after dropping sharply the previous quarter. . Second thing they saw is that warehouse shelves have become so depleted, businesses are going to have to start ramping up production to restock them. So if consumers keep spending and business start producing, you could have two engines for recovery."
The CBS Evening News reported, "The Federal Reserve said the outlook has improved 'modestly.' The economy is not shrinking as fast as it was." The Wall Street Journal reports, "Consumers cut their spending sharply in the last half of 2008. Now, businesses are catching up with a retrenchment of their own." Schroder Investment Management's Andy Lynch told Bloomberg News, "The first quarter is marginally less catastrophic than feared." Some "188 members of the Standard & Poor's 500 Stock Index have topped analysts' estimates, or 69 percent of the 271 companies reporting so far." The Washington Post reports on its front page that the "economy contracted at a surprisingly fast pace at the beginning of the year, but it shrank in ways that could lay the groundwork for growth in the months ahead." The New York Times, also on its front page, says the "looming question remains the severity of job losses." The Washington Times says "signs are growing that the nation's deep economic recession may have struck bottom."
The Los Angeles Times says "consumer spending and the depleted state of business inventories offered signs of hope," and "Wall Street read the report positively." The Wall Street Journal reports the Dow Jones Industrial Average "gained 168.78 points, or 2.1%, to 8185.73, its highest close since Feb. 9." The Nasdaq "gained 38.13 points, or 2.3%, to 1711.94, its highest closing level since Nov. 4," while the S&P 500 "climbed 18.48 points, or 2.2%, to 873.64, its highest close since Jan. 28."
ABC World News reported the World Health Organization raised its "pandemic alert level from four to five today, meaning a worldwide pandemic is imminent." The Wall Street Journal reports WHO Director-General Margaret Chan "said the decision was made after the agency established that sustained person-to-person transmission was occurring in the US, in addition to Mexico." The New York Times says in a front-page article that Chan "emphasized the need for calm, but at times spoke as if a pandemic had already begun."
The Los Angeles Times reports, "The swine flu outbreak in the United States spread to five more states, bringing the total to at least 95 cases." The New York Times reports a 23-month-old boy from Mexico City "became the first person to die of swine flu in the United States after being airlifted two weeks ago to a Houston hospital from the border town of Brownsville, where he had been visiting relatives." McClatchy reports that on her first full day as Health and Human Services secretary, Kathleen Sebelius "announced plans to move ahead with the development of a vaccine for the virus."
President Obama's praise at a White House meeting for Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter's decision to join the Democratic Party was widely covered by print and wire sources yesterday. Specter's defection was generally portrayed as an indication of the GOP's lack of moderate appeal and as a boost to President Obama's agenda.
The AP reports President Obama "on Wednesday hailed Arlen Specter's conversion to the Democratic Party, while Specter vowed that he'll be an asset as Obama tries to get his ambitious agenda through Congress." Specter was "joined by Obama and Vice President Joe Biden at the White House Wednesday morning." The Los Angeles Times reports Specter "received a hero's welcome at the White House on Wednesday, while the Republican Party he left behind continued to grapple with the implications of his defection." The Washington Post reports in a front page story that Obama ended "his first full day as a Democrat since the early 1960s" by "casting another vote against Obama, opposing his budget as too authoritarian in the rules it establishes for the health-care debate later this year."
Meanwhile, The Hill reports senior Senate Democrats "are objecting to the deal Majority Leader Harry Reid made with" Sen. Specter, "saying they will vote against letting the former Republican shoot to the top of powerful committees after he switches parties." Roll Call reports Specter "should not expect dinner invitations from his GOP colleagues anytime soon, but Republicans said it is unlikely his decision to bolt from their party will have long-lasting effects on their relationships with the Pennsylvanian."
Media coverage of Congress' approval of the $3.4 trillion budget resolution typically positively described the votes as advancing President Obama agenda. Some sources highlighted the inclusion of reconciliation provisions for healthcare and education reform, while most noted the downside of the resolution was the ballooning Federal deficit.
The AP reports congressional Democrats "capped President Barack Obama's 100th day in office by advancing a $3.4 trillion federal budget for next year - a third of it borrowed - that prevents Republicans from blocking his proposed trillion-dollar expansion of government-provided health care over the next decade." The Senate "adopted the plan by a 53-43 vote just hours after a 233-193 House tally."
The CBS Evening News the budget "passed without Republican support." The Los Angeles Times reports the $3.5-trillion Federal budget resolution approved by Congress "embraces, in general terms, Obama's top priorities in healthcare, energy and education. But lawmakers have turned a cold shoulder to many of the president's proposals to shift wealth and federal subsidies from the rich to the less affluent."
The Wall Street Journal reports the vote "marked a key step in the launching of a new Democratic era in which government would take a more activist role. The budget outline includes $530 billion in basic spending for domestic programs, from support for farmers to the space program." The Washington Post reports the budget approval sets "the stage for President Obama to pursue the first major overhaul of the nation's health-care system in a generation along with other far-reaching domestic initiatives."
The New York Times reports Congress' approval of the budget opens "the door to President Obama's policy initiatives on health care, energy and education while sidestepping the difficult question of how to pay for them." The Washington Times reports, "Not a single Republican in either chamber voted for the measure. Democratic defections included Sens. Evan Bayh of Indiana, Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Pennsylvania's former Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, all of whom joined 17 House Democrats in voting no."
Roll Call reports the "$3.4 trillion blueprint includes reconciliation for health care and education legislation, although Democratic leaders said they would only use the tactic as a last resort and would prefer a bipartisan deal. And they promised that they would not use the procedure to advance controversial cap-and-trade legislation to limit carbon emissions."
Obama Claims On Deficit, Jobs Said To Be Flawed The AP reports in a "fact check" story that President Obama disclaimed "responsibility for the huge budget deficit waiting for him on Day One." The AP adds, "It actually was partly him - and the other Democrats controlling Congress the previous two years - who shaped the latest in a string of precipitously out-of-balance budgets. And as a presidential candidate and president-elect, he backed the twilight Bush-era stimulus plan that made the deficit deeper, all before he took over and promoted spending plans that have made it much deeper still."
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The Hill reports, "In more than 7,000 interviews conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2009, just 23 percent of voters self-identify as members of the" GOP, "down from 30 percent as recently as 2004, and the trend shows no signs of slowing." But while "Democratic identification has inched up in the past six years, former Republicans are now largely calling themselves independents."
The Politico reports Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen is aiming "to target 29 Republicans nesting in districts won by Barack Obama in November, according to an internal DCCC planning memo," though "privately," Democrats "say they expect to lose a handful of seats to the GOP in next year's midterms."
The Washington Post reports that last night in Blacksburg, Virginia, the three Democratic candidates for governor, Brian Moran, Terry McAuliffe, and state Sen. Creigh Deeds, "took a sharper tone in their fourth debate...attacking their opponents about campaign finance, personal investments and even about who attacked whom first." The Roanoke Times adds, "The sharp exchanges" during the debate "had the candidates shouting at times."
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Jay Leno: "Sen. Arlen Specter has a new reality show: 'I'm a Republican...Get Me Out of Here!'"
Jay Leno: "Seventy-nine-year-old Arlen Specter is now switching to the Democratic Party, which is a big loss for Republicans. You know, when they lose that young blood," it hurts.
Jay Leno: President Obama "took an hour of TV time to address the American people," but the "Fox network didn't air it," choosing instead to run "their regular program 'Lie to Me,' which, I believe, was the name of the Republican response, actually."
Jay Leno: "Today was President Obama's 100th day in office." George W. Bush "was president for eight years," and he "never came close to spending 100 days in the office. So, we're way ahead."
Jay Leno: "The economy is so bad" that "today, the White House flew a Southwest plane over the Statue of Liberty."
David Letterman: "President Obama is celebrating his first 100 days in office. ... This guy has really had quite a lot to deal with. I mean, let's take a look at the list: recession, two wars, swine flu, runaway Air Force One. Crazy."
David Letterman: "President Obama's approval rating is 68%. Well, that was before he decided to attack New York."
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