Saturday, April 4, 2009

Points of View - Obama

As our President made his first trip overseas to the G20 Summit, there have been numerous interviews, cartoons, and articles about him. I have heard from a few individuals that said the focus has been too much on the major media, so I have also tried to have editorials from throughout the country (Los Angeles, Beaumont(TX), Naples(FL), Cleveland, Minneapolis, and New Hampshire). The focus today will quickly shift from the funny to serious with articles covering how a past President handled Congress and move from there.

Both cartoons are from the Chicago Tribune.


Can Obama Be a Majority of One? - By Robert Dallek - The New York Times - "Lyndon Johnson could have warned Barack Obama that winning the support of the 535 senators and representatives, even if a majority of them share your party affiliation, wouldn’t be easy."

Cap and Tax Collapse - The Wall Street Journal - "Congress balks at one more bad Obama idea."

Barack’s Continental Coolness - By Gail Collins - The New York Times - "If nothing else, the president’s trip overseas helped resolve the longstanding question of who can be more irritating, the Republicans or the French. Before we pursue that thought any further, let’s agree that the Obamas wowed them in Europe."

Obama's Domestic Agenda Gains Clarity - By Peggy Noonan - The Wall Street Journal - "Different pollsters offer different data. The Washington Post this week put the president's approval ratings at 60% or higher; the Washington Times had a Zogby poll saying Mr. Obama's popularity has dipped below 50%; in this paper, the pollsters Douglas Schoen and Scott Rasmussen said the American people 'are coming to express increasingly significant doubts about his initiatives,' and placed the president's approval rating at 56%, 'with substantial polarization.'"

Detroit Needed Obama's Tough Love - Beaumont Enterprise - "If the leadership of GM and Chrysler expected the same kid-glove treatment that their counterparts at AIG got at the start of this bailout binge, they received a rude shock."

Michelle -- The Popular Obama - By Joe Frolik - Cleveland.com - "But here's an unlikely sign of bipartisanship: Michelle Obama's approval ratings are over 70 percent in two new surveys. Last summer, she was under 50 percent and well behind her husband; now she's more popular than he is. Big reason: Republicans seem to have decided she's not so bad after all."

Give Obama a Break on the Gifts - Los Angeles Times - "Well, of course Queen Elizabeth II already had an iPod. She's the queen. Doesn't she have everything?"

President Obama ... too much of an entrance? - Naples Daily News - "Obama arrived with a staff of 500 staff in tow, including 200 Secret Service agents, a team of six doctors, the White House chef and kitchen staff with the president’s own food and water. And, according to the Evening Standard, he also came with '35 vehicles in all, four speech writers and 12 teleprompters.'"

Obama Is Right: It's Time for Change - New Hampshire Union Leader - "President Obama has shown us all that to achieve the unrealized promise of this great nation, we must transcend outdated values such as public thrift, individual liberty and restrained government. All power must be shifted to Washington and deposited in the hands of a wise and benevolent ruler whose will is never questioned."

If Both Sides Are Upset, Is Obama Right? - By E.J. Dionne, Jr. - The Minneapolis-St. Paul Minnesota Star Tribune - "The great mystery of the Obama administration’s economic agenda is whether its signature marriage of boldness and caution will prove to be a Goldilocks recipe that gets things just right, or a Rube Goldberg approach of unimaginable complexity and uncertain purpose."

No comments: