I just listened to President Obama's news conference, but couldn't watch it live; I was running errands at the time, so I caught on the car radio. Overall I was impressed. His remarks were fairly specific about what he intends to get done as soon as he get into the White House in 74 days.A particularly urgent priority is a further extension of unemployment insurance benefits for workers who cannot find work in the increasingly weak economy... we must address the spreading impact of the financial crisis on other sectors of our economy: small businesses that are struggling to meet their payrolls and finance their holiday inventories; and state and municipal governments facing devastating budget cuts and tax increases... I have made it a high priority for my transition team to work on additional policy options to help the auto industry adjust, weather the financial crisis, and succeed in producing fuel-efficient cars here in the United States. I have asked my team to explore what we can do under current law and whether additional legislation will be needed for this purpose... It is critical that the Treasury work closely with the FDIC, HUD and other government agencies to use the substantial authority they already have to help families avoid foreclosure and stay in thei homes.He even got a dig in during the q&a, but some are wondering if it was a good move. Here's one response from NYTimes.com's liveblog of the event.Mr. Obama is finding out just how much words matter when you’re the president-elect — while he was extra cautious about everything he said about the economy, careful of not influencing the financial markets, he may have been a little flip in his reference to Nancy Reagan’s seances. The blogosphere is already discussing whether he was being disrespectful to the former First Lady.What frustrates me the most about this press conference is that the media are still a little behind in learning that people want video following an event as major as President Obama's first press conference afte.
Obama transitional advisers have made a list of over 200 "Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues."F-ing great news, IMHO:"A team of four dozen advisers, working for months in virtual solitude, set out to identify regulatory and policy changes Obama could implement soon after his inauguration. The team is now consulting with liberal advocacy groups, Capitol Hill staffers and potential agency chiefs to prioritize those they regard as the most onerous or ideologically offensive, said a top transition official who was not permitted to speak on the record about the inner workings of the transition. In some instances, Obama would be quickly delivering on promises he made during his two-year campaign, while in others he would be embracing Clinton-era policies upended by President Bush during his eight years in office."Obama and his family are going to make their first visit to the White House today under the auspices of President Bush.Obama's first press conference, which took place on Friday, AFTER THE JUMP...
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"...In terms of speaking to former presidents, I have spoken to all of them, uh, that are, uh, living ... obviously, uh, President Clinton, uh ... ... hey, I didn’t want to get into a Nancy Reagan, uh, thing about doin’ any seances..."
Obama just wrapped up his first presser as President-elect, a historic moment, and we'll be bringing you video of the whole thing shortly. For now, the full text of his opening remarks is after the jump.A couple of quick highlights. First, Obama sought to project a strong sense that he's already taking action on the economy, vowing to "act swiftly" to "confront this economic crisis head-on." The need to project a sense of action well before he takes power is a difficult balancing act, but a necessary one, given the imperative of calming the globe and thus making future action easier. And he did that.Obama also sought to describe our economic problems as a two-tiered set of challenges: One requiring an immediate response; and the second demanding "long-term" policies to address such issues as the push for cleaner energy, health care, and middle-class tax relief.Obama balanced gravity and a sense of appropriate seriousness with an occasional effort to lighten the mood with some easy banter, striking a tone that will probably turn out to be a hallmark of his presidency. He asked Chicago reporter Lynn Sweet why she had her arm in a cast. And he referred to himself as a "mutt" at one point with some self-deprecating humor that, given that he's just been elected president, risked sounding insincere, but somehow didn't.The low point of the presser came when a reporter asked Obama to respond to the fact that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad has written him an unusual letter congratulating him for his victory -- a frivolous waste of time given the big issues Obama is confronting. Video soon; full text of Obama's opening statement after the jump. This morning, we woke to more sobering news about the state of our economy. The 240,000 jobs lost in October marks the 10th consecutive month that our economy has shed jobs. In total, we've lost nearly 1.2 million jobs this year, and more than 10 million Americans are now unemployed. Tens of millions of families are struggling to figure out ho...