Obamaism: Charm and Disarm (Terence Samuel) from The Root
"In one weekend, President Obama completely transformed American relations with Caribbean and Latin America. Strategy: Play nice with others."
Obama: A Man Who Takes His Promises Seriously from El Mundo [of Colombia in English]
"By trying new methods for solving old problems, Obama wishes to fulfill his promises and get the pendulum of history to swing. ... He permits us a glimmer of hope that a new stage of collaboration is dawning with a region that will be his partner in global affairs."
Obama Gets Euphoric CIA Welcome from Agence France-Presse
"The president got an enthusiastic reception as he gave a speech at the agency's headquarters, just days after releasing secret memos on Bush-era questioning of terror suspects derided by critics as torture."
Obama Plans Credit-Card Push from Politico
"Summers told moderator David Gregory that Obama is concerned about “the way people have been deceived into paying extraordinarily high rates that they wouldn't have paid if they knew what they were getting themselves into.”"
Analysis: In Spending Cut Debate, Obama Wins from Congressional Quarterly
"Instead of bashing Obama’s spending, many Republicans spent Monday arguing that he was cutting too little. That’s a fight — whether he cuts too much, too little or just enough — that the White House can win even if it loses. If the debate is about cutting, not spending, Obama has won."
The Axelrod Inner Circle (Chris Cillizza) from the Washington Post
"Axelrod hasn't left his political life entirely behind -- convening a biweekly meeting at his apartment in Washington to hear from a core group of former campaign consultants and aides to ensure the Administration is striking the right political tone. The membership of that Axelrod inner circle has largely been kept quiet -- until now."
Tax Tea Party Time (Bruce Bartlett) from Forbes Magazine
From a well-known conservative economist!
"The irony of these protests is that federal revenues as a share of the gross domestic product will be lower this year than any year since 1950. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the federal government will take only 15.5% of GDP in taxes this year, compared to 17.7% last year, 18.8% in 2007 and 20.9% in 2000."
The Class Clowns (Matt Taibbi) from the Rolling Stone
Matt Taibbi strikes! You get only a taste of the full article here. Makes me want to go out and get the magazine.
"Once the masters of evil politics, Republicans have been reduced to half-assed buffoonery, providing comic relief for desperate times."
Questions I'd Like 'Teabaggers' to Answer (Matt Taibbi again) from True/Slant
"The real reason nobody takes the teabaggers seriously is that they have no answers to several enormous holes in the parody of a protest argument they tried to make last week. I got nearly two hundred letters this weekend and not one of them had an answer for any of the following:"
The Republicans' Paranoid Style (Robert Shrum) from The Week
"In 1964, historian Richard Hofstadter described "the paranoid style" as a periodic recurrence in American national life, characterized by "the use of paranoid modes of expressions by more or less normal people . . . heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy." Teagate, the overhyped, underattended events of last week, closely tracks this taxonomy. "
The Pulitzer-winning Investigation That Dare Not be Uttered on TV (Glenn Greenwald) from Salon
"The New York Times' David Barstow won a richly deserved Pulitzer Prize yesterday for two articles that, despite being featured as major news stories on the front page of The Paper of Record, were completely suppressed by virtually every network and cable news show, which to this day have never informed their viewers about what Bartow uncovered. "
Kenya Muslims Fume at Move to Convert Obama Grandma from Agence France-Presse
As they should. INcredible!!
"A Protestant church in Kenya is trying to convert US President Barack Obama's step-grandmother to Christianity against her will, a Muslim group said Monday, condemning the move as provocation."
TWO LEFTOVER NUGGETS [from Obama's trip to Turkey]
To Get Turkey Right, Hear What Obama Said from Hurriyet Daily News [of Turkey]
I missed this article and the one that follows when they originally came out.
"The trip to Turkey by President Barack Ğ Hussein Ğ Obama, as people loved to emphasize here, was a big success. Except for a few hundred "anti-imperialist," lefty protestors who hit the streets chanting, "Yankee go home," most Turks welcomed him calmly and some even fondly."
Obama Aces Test by Local Students from Hurriyet Daily News
"One word: Approachable. US President Barack Obama speaks with Turkish university students and answers their questions in an intimate town hall-style meeting during his second day in Istanbul. ’This attitude is something a Turk is not used to,’ one student says."
BOOK NUGGET!!
Just published: The Year of Obama: How Barack Obama Won the White House by Larry Sabato from Taegan Goddard's Political Wire
"The big idea of this book is that 2008 looks to be a realigning election -- a very rare event in American history."
REPORTING NUGGET!!
Eugene Robinson (among others) Wins Pulitzer Prize from The Root
"Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson and historian Annette Gordon-Reed win Pulitzer prizes for their work. Robinson won for the columns he wrote during the 2008 presidential campaign and Gordon-Reed was awarded for her book The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family."
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