Results tagged “barackobama”

Yesterday, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs confirmed that President Obama would "support the Democratic nominee" in the NYC mayoral race—which would be City Comptroller Bill Thompson. But Gibbs never mentioned Thompson by name and actually praised Mayor Bloomberg by name, adding that Obama "obviously has a tremendous amount of respect for what he's done as well." Which is why the media's take on Obama's "endorsement" ranges from "most lukewarm and indirect" (the Times) and "as muted as they come" (Daily News) to "odd little bit of political theater" (Post) and "lukewarm" (Reuters) again.

New York investor Hassan Nemazee, whose prolific political fundraising for Democrats like Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Charles Schumer, was released on $25 million bond yesterday. Nemazee is " accused of lying about his assets to obtain a $74 million loan from Citibank." The NY Times further explains, he "orchestrated the fraud by using forged documents showing that he held accounts with collateral worth hundreds of millions of dollars," but the accounts never existed or were closed. Nemazee did end up paying the money back to Citibank on Monday, but was arrested on Tuesday. He is under house arrest—monitoring device plus no computer or Internet access—at his Upper East Side duplex, which the Daily News says is worth $20 million (that plus his $8 million Katonah estate are what's securing his bond). Vice President Joe Biden, Rep. Carolyn Maloney and Sens. Barbara Boxer, Chris Dodd and Schumer told Politico they plan to return his donations. Time has a 2-minute look at Nemazee.

       

Senator Edward Kennedy, scion of the one of America's most famous political families, passed away at home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts late last night. He was 77. His family said, "We’ve lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever... He loved this country and devoted his life to serving it. He always believed that our best days were still ahead, but it’s hard to imagine any of them without him." (Full statement from the family after the jump.)

          

President Obama delivered a speech about the United States' relationship with the Muslim world from Cairo University in Egypt, telling a worldwide audience, "I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect; and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles — principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings." Full text here and video after the jump, but here are some excerpts:

America is not and never will be at war with Islam. We will, however, relentlessly confront violent extremists who pose a grave threat to our security. Because we reject the same thing that people of all faiths reject: the killing of innocent men, women, and children. I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear. But that same principle must apply to Muslim perceptions of America. Just as Muslims do not fit a crude stereotype, America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire...

Continue reading "Obama Asks For A "New Beginning" With Muslim World"

Don’t feel so smug if you belong to that tiny percentage of Americans who earn $400,000 a year (or more); to astonishingly wealthy plutocrats like Mayor Bloomberg, you’re still just small potatoes. Asked about the manufactured Republican outcry over Barack Obama’s allegedly extravagant date night in New York, Bloomberg defended the First Couple’s getaway, telling reporters, “The president does not get paid that much. He is on a budget, too.” Well, from Bloomberg’s rarefied perch atop Mount Moneypiles, we probably all look like Dickensian waifs struggling to sell our hair to the wig maker for halfpence, but to the average American, Obama’s hardly “on a budget.” City Room breaks down Obama’s current income: $400,000 a year salary, a $50,000 expense account, a $100,000 nontaxable travel account and a $19,000 entertainment budget. His total compensation package, $569,000 a year, is 11 times the median household income in the U.S., which is around $50,000. Of course, when you've got two private jets; homes in Bermuda, Florida, Colorado and London; and $16 billion in walking around money, you must wonder how poor souls like the President make do on half a million.

    

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama made their first, joint trip to NYC a "personal" one—it was date night for the First Couple. The President released a statement explaining, "I am taking my wife to New York City because I promised her during the campaign that I would take her to a Broadway show after it was all finished."

Mayor Bloomberg was a Democrat, then a Republican to win the 2001 election, and then neither (though with a liberal filling?), which makes him an independent (with billions), right? Yesterday, the Independence Party endorsed the mayor, who said, "I have been a Democrat, I have been a Republican and I really respect both parties. But I’ve never believed that any party has a monopoly on truth or good ideas." Politicker NY noticed how he also said, “We’re supposed to be working together... Somebody the other day criticized me for trying to help President Obama. I thought to myself ‘What kind of sick person was it that wrote that? We should not all be trying to help our new president?’ I don’t care what your party affiliation is.” That sick person is the NY Post's City Hall chief David Seifman. But Bloomberg had nothing to say about another provocative article in the Daily News, which suggested that his likely mayoral rival, City Comptroller Bill Thompson, "could pull an Obama" and beat the incumbent.

There's nothing like a tizzy over Barack and Michelle Obama's meeting Queen Elizabeth. First of all, there's the Obamas' gift to the Queen—apparently an iPod loaded with Broadway showtunes, photographs of the Queen's 2007 U.S. visit, and some Obama speeches plus a rare Richard Rodgers-signed songbook. Gawker points out that the Queen gave them a signed, silver-framed photograph of herself but the NY Post thinks the president's gift was an "iDud". But get the smelling salts ready: The Daily Mail reports the Queen, commenting on Michelle Obama's height, "put her arm around Mrs Obama and rested her gloved hand on the small of her back," so the First Lady put her arm around Her Majesty: "No-one - including the ladies-in-waiting standing nearby - could believe their eyes. In 57 years, the Queen has never been seen to make that kind of gesture and it is certainly against all protocol to touch her." Other Brits are happy with Michelle Obama's touchy-feely nature—a cancer patient said, "I didn't think I'd be allowed to touch her, but she just stopped and wrapped her arms around me. It was amazing."

Earlier this month, following the Meal O'Bama food cart reveal, our own Joe Schumacher spotted a recently re-branded fried chicken place on St. Nicholas just south of 116th Street, now called Obama Fried Chicken. Is number 44 following in the footsteps of JFK and Lincoln—both of whom have had their names plastered on many a fried chicken joint? Looks like it. The Smoking Gun now points out another Obama Fried Chicken outpost in Brooklyn (previously known as Royal Fried Chicken). Has the President's name found its way onto an awning near you yet?

During a performance at the Loews Regency on Park Avenue Thursday night, comic Jacke Mason referred to President Obama as a "schwartza," which, depending on who you ask, is either a benign Yiddish word for "black" or a racial slur equivalent to the n-word. TMZ was all over Mason after the schwartza-bombing, which prompted at least one audience member to walk out, "reportedly" fuming, "He's more offensive to the Jews than Madoff tonight." Speaking on the phone to TMZ, Mason explained, "I was raised in a Jewish family where 'schwartza' was used. It's not a demeaning word and I'm not going to defend myself... What about the demeaning words blacks say about Jews? If it's a racist society, the white people are the ones being persecuted because they have to defend themselves." And after being confronted by a camera-wielding TMZ troll yesterday, Mason angrily dismissed the controversy: "Why don't you ask Kid Rock. What's his name? The comedian. Chris Rock. Why don't you ask him what he said about white people... White people have no freedom of speech. I'm telling you, fuck you and that's it!" Of course, Al Sharpton has now piled on.

The Dow slouched to its lowest point since 1997 yesterday, but President Obama says that's a good thing if you've got some money to play around with on the stock market. While answering reporters' questions today during a photo opportunity with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Obama took the opportunity to hand out some investment tips based on the old 'buy low, sell high' maxim: "What you're now seeing is... profit and earning ratios are starting to get to the point where buying stocks is a potentially good deal if you've got a long-term perspective on it." The President also admitted he doesn't get too upset over the "day-to-day gyrations of the stock market," because he's focused on "the long-term ability for the United States and the entire world economy to regain its footing." Comparing the market to political tracking polls, Obama told reporters, "You know, it bobs up and down day to day. And if you spend all your time worrying about that, then you're probably going to get the long-term strategy wrong." So buy stock everybody, but don't blame the vicissitudes on Obama; he has his eyes fixed on some distant spot on the horizon—inscrutable to the untrained eye—when the economy will take its finger out of the light socket and report back to work.

In his autobiography Barack Obama writes about the first night he spent in New York, prior to attending Columbia. Finding no one home at the apartment he was meant to stay at, he "found a dry spot, propped my luggage beneath me and fell asleep, the sound of drums softly shaping my dreams. I woke up to find a white hen pecking at the garbage near my feet. Across the street, a homeless man was washing himself at an open hydrant and didn't object when I joined him." The alleyway Obama slept in, pictured, is believed to be adjacent to 200 West 109th Street. Should the unique historical spot be renamed after our new President? Someone get the LPC on this!

Chef and TV host Anthony Bourdain, who moonlights as a relentless crusader against perceived food world injustices, has apparently dropped the hammer on grassroots food revolutionary Alice Waters in an interview with DCist:

“Alice Waters annoys the living shit out of me. We're all in the middle of a recession, like we're all going to start buying expensive organic food and running to the green market. There's something very Khmer Rouge about Alice Waters that has become unrealistic.”

“I'm a little reluctant to admit that maybe Americans are too stupid to figure out that the food we're eating is killing us. But I don't know if it's time to send out special squads to close all the McDonald's.”

       

The 44th President's Inauguration is, naturally, front and center for newspapers. Many opted for shots of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama walking during the parade, with their enthusiasm palpable, while the images of Obama taking the oath of office were also options for the historic day. Yesterday was exciting but official, lacking the spontaneous amazement that November 4 brought (see November 5's newspaper front pages).

Barack Obama was just sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. DCist has been liveblogging the swearing-in; the full text of his speech is after the jump.

It's almost time for the Presidential torch to be passed, and, in keeping with tradition, President-elect Barack Obama and Michelle Obama met with President George Bush and First Lady Laura Bush for the pre-Inauguration coffee at the White House. Michelle Obama, who is wearing a yellow Isabel Toldeo dress and coat with teal pumps (ooh), gave Laura Bush a gift—the NBC commentators did not recall seeing an incoming Presidential family giving the outgoing family a gift before.

     

President-elect Barack Obama's victory in November was a boon to newspapers, and, for today's historic moment, many are going all out. Newsday has a wrapped cover, with Obama's image over sepia images of past Presidents, while the Post print the Oath of Office. The NY Times is a little restrained—probably saving its art direction for tomorrow's issue—while the Wall Street Journal goes with a banner headline.

Continued after the jump...

Comic book nerds and fans of Barack Obama: get psyched. USA Today reports that on January 14th, "Marvel Comics is releasing a special issue of Amazing Spider-Man #583 with Obama depicted on the cover. Inside are five pages of the two teaming up and even a fist-bump between Spidey and the new president." It's been speculated that Obama has an inner comic book geek underneath his presidential suits, and he even mentioned the webbed one during his campaigning. Presidents have appeared in comics before, and Marvel says, "This is not so much a pro-Obama statement but a tip of the hat to having a Spider-Man fan in the White House." Related: Stephen Colbert left Spider-Man #573 on his shelf for President-elect Obama to come and get.

Is the Grey Lady is preparing for another sell-out at the newsstands this January 21st? Following Barack Obama's win on November 4th, the paper was practically saved by sales of its print edition on November 5th, when a line even formed outside of their HQ that afternoon. Eventually the paper ended up offering up commemorative prints of the front page for $15. Now MediaBistro points out that the paper has their own ad campaign running which will put the fear in you (you do not want to miss out on the Malia and Sasha get a puppy cover story!); they say: "Seems that the Times wants you to subscribe to the paper based on the idea that every day of the next eight years will be as historic as November 4." Well, maybe not every day, but expect another record day in sales after Obama's inauguration on January 20th—the site notes that whoever designs that front page "will be sure that it looks good in a frame."

As the President-elect vacations in Hawaii, his transition team released a 5-page report emphasizing that Barack Obama had "no contact with Gov. Rod Blagojevich or his office and no one acting on Obama's behalf was involved in any 'quid pro quo' arrangement the governor allegedly sought for filling the vacant Senate seat with a candidate of Obama's choosing," according to Chicago Breaking News. Is it worth noting that the report was issued late on Christmas Eve Eve? The report says that incoming White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel had one or two conversations with Blago, but apparently the conversations were above board. From Politico: "The report does not say so, but an Obama adviser told Politico that at least one of Emanuel's calls was taped as part of the federal investigation into corruption in the governor's office."

Last week, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn issued a letter to President-elect Obama's inauguration committee to express her dismay over the selection of Rick Warren as pastor. Quinn, who is openly gay, wrote, "Yet what is so offensive here is not the mere selection of a religious leader who is opposed to same-sex marriage. It is the selection of a man who has used his position to try to deny others their civil rights, and to create huge divisions among Americans." On the other hand, State Senator Ruben Diaz Sr., a Democrat and a Pentecostal minister who opposes discussing gay marriage in the next legislative year, thinks Warren's invitation is important, "The Democratic Party should not be a party of only two issues: Abortion and homosexual marriage. Everybody should be accepted: Orthodox Jews, Evangelical Christians, Catholics, Muslims, and those with religious beliefs that oppose abortion and homosexual marriage. YES WE CAN!"

In its roundup of the top ten media blunders of 2008, Politico's Michael Calderone puts the New Yorker "Politics of Fear" cover at #8 (between the mainstream media's reluctance to acknowledge the National Enquirer's reports of John Edwards' affair and how VP guessing was out of control). Calderone writes, "The Zabar’s set were in on the joke. But some didn’t see the humor in the illustration of Barack and Michelle Obama sharing a terrorist fist-jab and dressed, respectively, as a Muslim and Angela Davis-style black radical, with an Osama bin Laden painting on the mantle and an AK-47 leaning against the fireplace, in which burned the American flag." But he adds that, after the uproar, things ended up okay: "[New Yorker writer] Lizza and editor David Remnick — whose excellent piece on Obama in the same issue was largely overlooked in the ensuing dustup — are working on books dealing with Obama." Plus, Obama won.

Even though she's 14 years away from being able to vote, little Lou Cubberly gets to head to D.C. to see President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration. The Daily News reports that the 4-year-old's father Craig entered his daughter's name (plus his own and his wife's) into the lottery for tickets: "I saw the rules, you had to be a New York resident and had to have an e-mail address, but there was no age restriction." Craig Cubberly, who gets to accompany his daughter to the festivities, told the Post, "It will be a great father-daughter moment watching history." The Post also spoke to another ecstatic inauguration ticket lottery winner Patty James, a longtime Republican-turned-Obama supporter. Her husband confirmed she was thrilled, "When she screamed out she won the lottery, I thought it was Mega Millions. I was a little disappointed."

again, Time magazine opted to choose that popular cover boy, President-elect Barack Obama, as its Person of the Year for 2008. There's an article, an interview, an analysis of his basketball game (from his brother-in-law), but best is the gallery of 1980 photographs from Occidental College classmate Lisa Jack. Time also mentions runners-up—Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, French President Nicolas Sarkozy (article written by Tony Blair), Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and Chinese director—and Olympics creative force—Zhang Yimou (article by Steven Spielberg)— as well as "People Who Mattered" (Ingrid Betancourt, Tina Fey, Michael Phelps, George Bush, Hillary Clinton...). Debate at your leisure.

The allegations against Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (a Democrat; pictured), who is now in federal custody, are stunning. Trying to sell or trade President-elect Obama's Senate seat? Check. Shaking down a hospital for sick children? Check. Trying to influence the Tribune's editorial board? Check!

During today's Meet the Press, Tom Brokaw noted President-elect Obama's recent admission that he slipped up a few times during the campaign and returned to his smoking habit. He then asked Obama if this would be a problem, considering the White House's no-smoking policy. "I have, but what I said was that at times I have fallen off the wagon." Brokaw then interjected, "But wait, that means you haven't stopped." To which Obama replied, "Fair enough. Well then, what I would say is that I have done a terrific job under the circumstances of making myself healthier and you will not see any violations of these in the White House." Could we be looking at the "no new taxes" promise that will haunt him in 2012? In 2007, a Fox News story revealed what they called "Obama's dirty little secret" and asked viewers, "Would you vote for a smoker for president?"

"You thought I was gone, didn't you?" That was the opening line on last night's SNL as Amy Poehler proved reports wrong that she would be leaving the show following the delivery of her baby and the end of the election season. Seeing a svelte Poehler in the cold open as new Secretary of State Clinton as well as back in her Weekend Update chair was a welcome sight after the show had a rough last outing with previous host Tim McGraw.

Bill Ayers has written an op-ed for the New York Times this weekend where he addresses his decision to stay silent throughout a presidential campaign in which he "felt at times like the enemy projected onto a large screen in the “Two Minutes Hate” scene from George Orwell’s 1984." Ayers admits regrets for some of his actions with the 1970s anti-war group the Weather Underground and takes "responsibility for the risks we posed to others," but overall defends them as "attacks on property, never on people, (that) were meant to respect human life and convey outrage and determination to end the Vietnam war." And as for all of his alleged "paling around" with now President-elect Obama, Ayers says, "I knew him as well as thousands of others did, and like millions of others, I wish I knew him better."

With Hillary Clinton getting ready to move into the executive branch as Secretary of State under President-elect Barack Obama, her future staffers are looking forward to meeting her. The NY Post reports they were "hovered around TV sets at the State Department yesterday to get a glimpse of [the] new boss... and most of them - even Republicans - said they were thrilled about the chance to work for such a high-profile figure." One staffer said, "We've all been excited since last week...The State Department is very positive about Hillary." And a Republican staffer offered, "I don't think she's inexperienced... I never imagined Hillary Clinton as taking the wingman role in foreign policy." Dude, wingwoman role!