The Note's Must-Reads for Friday, December 26, 2008

December 26, 2008 4:41 AM

Compiled by ABC News’ PETER MARTINEZ, CARRIE HALPERIN, KRISTEN RED-HORSE, JAYCE HENDERSON and JUSTIN GRANT

2008: ABC NEWS VIDEOS:

"The Obamas Celebrate in Hawaii" LINK

2008: ILLINOIS GOVERNOR ROD BLAGOJEVICH:

Boston Herald Editorial: “Blago bug spreads” LINK

2008: PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA AND THE WHITE HOUSE TRANSITION:

ABC News' Special Index for the 44th President: LINK

ABC News' Rick Klein: "President, President-elect Spend Christmas in Transition" LINK

The Associated Press' Philip Elliott: "Obama Visits Military Base on Christmas" LINK

USA Today's Susan Page: "Poll: Obama is man Americans admire most" LINK

The Associated Press: "Obama visits military base on Christmas" LINK

The Chicago Tribune's John McCormick: "Lack of attendance at a Christmas service shows Barack Obama's church dilemma" LINK

The New York Times' Peter Baker: "Obama Follows a Tradition of Testifying for Prosecutors" LINK

The Washington Post's Philio Rucker: "Far West of Washington, Calm before the Term" LINK

The Washington Post's Max Steir: "A Lesson for Obama on Reaching Out to the Federal Workforce" LINK

Boston Herald Op-Ed by Lanny Davis: “Civility advanced by Obama, Warren” LINK

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December 26, 2008 in The Note Must Reads | Permalink | User Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

President, President-elect Spend Christmas in Transition

December 25, 2008 1:43 PM

ABC News' Nitya Venkataraman Reports: Following 19 pardons and one pardon revoked, the president and first lady spent their twelfth Christmas at Camp David, hosting a traditional Texas Christmas Eve dinner of enchiladas and tamales followed by a lunch on Christmas Day surrounded by the Bush family at the Maryland presidential retreat.

In addition to the president's twin daughters and son-in-law, the First Family was joined by Bush's parents -- former President and First Lady George H.W. Bush -- and siblings, and sat down to a traditional menu of roast turkey with cornbread dressing, green beans, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, spinach salad, giblet gravy, cranberry sauce and rolls -- with pumpkin and pecan pies for dessert.

On Christmas Eve, Bush called U.S. troops stationed at various locations around the world to wish them a happy holiday and thank them for their service, said White House Press Secretary Dana Perino.

Perino said President Bush thanked the members for the "continued sacrifices that they are making in serving our country overseas, and away from family."

Five time zones away, Bush's successor, President-elect Barack Obama, celebrated Christmas morning with his family, opening presents at their three home, $30 million beach rental in Kailua, Hawaii

The Obamas will share the day with the friends who are vacationing with them, the Whitakers and the Nesbitts, and end it with a traditional Christmas dinner at their home, that includes a traditional menu of turkey and ham.

Obama recorded a message for U.S. servicemen and women on Christmas Eve, set to air on Saturday.

"In towns and cities across America, there is an empty seat at the dinner table; in distant bases and on ships at sea, our servicemen and women can only wonder at the look on their child's face as they open a gift back home," Obama said in the message.

Christmas in Hawaii is something of a tradition for the Obama family who has previously spent the holiday in the president-elect's native state visiting his maternal grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, who helped raise him. Dunham died on Nov. 2, two days before her grandson's White House win. Earlier this week, Obama attended a private memorial for his grandmother and scattered her ashes on the Hawaii coast with his half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng.

This Christmas, Obama's second-in-command, Joe Biden, will attend morning Mass and continue a longtime family tradition of hosting Christmas Day for his entire family at the Biden family home in Delaware. Christmas morning Biden's granddaughters were to reveal the name they chose for the puppy he's taking with him in his move to Washington.

The vice president-elect and his wife spent Christmas Eve at a Wilmington soup kitchen serving meatloaf.

In an interview with a local news station outside the Emmanuel Dining Room, Biden said the soup kitchen's long lines illustrated the need for an economic stimulus package, one he hopes the Obama-Biden administration can deliver on Inauguration Day.

Vice President Dick Cheney is spending the Christmas holiday in Jackson Hole, Wyoming with his family.

December 25, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (17) | TrackBack (0)

The Note's Must-Reads for Thursday, December 25, 2008

December 25, 2008 4:48 AM

Compiled by ABC News’ PETER MARTINEZ, CARRIE HALPERIN, KRISTEN RED-HORSE, JAYCE HENDERSON, STEPHANIE WASH and JUSTIN GRANT

2008: ABC NEWS VIDEOS:

"Bush and Obama Give Holiday Greetings" LINK

"Year of Investigations: Best of Brian Ross 2008" LINK

"Keep Your 2009 Finances in Check" LINK

"Oil Falls to $35 a Barrel" LINK

2008: PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA AND THE WHITE HOUSE TRANSITION:

ABC News' Special Index for the 44th President: LINK

The Chicago Tribune's John McCormick: "Barack Obama's radio address" LINK

Politico's Kenneth P. Vogel & Carrie Budoff Brown: "Obama, Team Lawyered Up For Inquiries" LINK

The New York Times' Sheryl Gay Stolberg: "White House Divergence after 8 Years" LINK

The Los Angeles Times’ Peter Wallsten and Tom Hamburger: “Planning for Obama’s inaugural bash is no party” LINK

The Los Angeles Times’ John McCormick: “Obama urges renewed ‘sense of common purpose’ in holiday message” LINK

The Washington Times’ Stephen Dinan: “Bush, Obama hail our history” LINK

 

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December 25, 2008 in The Note Must Reads | Permalink | User Comments (9) | TrackBack (0)

The Note, 12/24/08: Open Christmas -- Report Won’t be Last Word on Obama-Blago Contacts

December 24, 2008 8:15 AM

That wasn’t so painful -- unless, of course, it was. (Or will be.)

Maybe President-elect Barack Obama’s Christmas gift will be that now, two-plus weeks into a scandal he was never really caught up in, he can have his transition back. (Riding an 82 percent approval rating for his transition, per a new CNN poll, that’s not a bad thing to own.)

But that gleaming example of transparency and openness that went out in five e-mailed pages late Tuesday cracked open a few doors Obama didn’t mind being shut.

To the image of this cartoon-of-a-governor clumsily and colorfully shopping a Senate seat, we add more plot twists that are more “24” than “The American President”:

- A union official apparently feeling out the Obama team about a willingness to cut a deal.

- A president-elect working with aides to play -- that’s right -- politics around his old Senate seat.

- A chief of staff working the phones (though nowhere close to 21 times) to communicate preferences his boss never really admitted to having publicly.

- And the capper -- the president-elect and two of his closest friends and advisers interviewed by federal prosecutors.

So as not to lose the big picture here -- there’s nothing in the report that changes Obama’s fundamental contention (the one backed up by Patrick Fitzgerald): that Obama and friends weren’t playing in any pay-to-play deal. (Did anyone expect there to be?)

“Bottom line -- If this is the full extent of contacts, it would appear that if Blagojevich--or anyone working on his behalf--was trying to get anything out of Obama, they were doing it awfully subtly,” Time’s Karen Tumulty writes.

“Obama Report Clears Dealings With Blagojevich,” reads The Washington Post headline.

Even aside, though, from the handful of unanswered questions (and don’t expect answers so long as Obama is in Hawaii and Emanuel is in Africa), might this have been an avoidable cost?

Continue reading "The Note, 12/24/08: Open Christmas -- Report Won’t be Last Word on Obama-Blago Contacts"

December 24, 2008 in The Note | Permalink | User Comments (85) | TrackBack (0)

The Note's Must-Reads for Wednesday, December 24, 2008

December 24, 2008 5:40 AM

Compiled by ABC News’ PETER MARTINEZ, CARRIE HALPERIN, KRISTEN RED-HORSE, JAYCE HENDERSON, STEPHANIE WASH and JUSTIN GRANT

2008: ABC NEWS VIDEOS:

"Biden: Report Will Confirm What Obama's Said" LINK

"Obama Reports on Blagojevich Scandal" LINK

"Kimmel: Own a Piece of Obama" LINK

“Keep Your 2009 Finances in Check” LINK

2008: ILLINOIS SENATE SEAT SCANDAL / GOVERNOR BLAGOJEVICH:

The Associated Press' Jennifer Loven and Brett J. Blackledge: "Blagojevich Questioning Takes up Obama's Time" LINK

USA Today's Jill Lawrence: "Aides' contact with Blagojevich 'innocent'" LINK

The Chicago Sun-Times' Dave McKinney: "Panel's Request to Hear Tapes 'Under Active Consideration'" LINK

The Hill's Sam Youngman: "Internal Report Clears Obama, Staff of Wrongdoing" LINK

Politico's Nia-Malika Henderson & Craig Gordon: "Emanuel the only Aide to Talk with Blago" LINK

Politico's Kenneth P. Vogel: "Jarrett: Idea of Blago at HHS 'Ridiculous'" LINK

The New York Times' Jeff Zeleny: "Obama Report Outlines Talks on Senate Seat" LINK

Continue reading "The Note's Must-Reads for Wednesday, December 24, 2008"

December 24, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Obama Was Interested in Senate Successor After All

December 23, 2008 6:20 PM

ABC News’ Rick Klein Reports: Among the very many interesting tidbits in President-elect Barack Obama’s report on staff contacts with Gov. Rod Blagojevich, there’s this from the portion on Obama himself (emphasis mine):

“After [Valerie] Jarrett decided on November 9, 2008 to withdraw her name from consideration as a possible replacement for him in the Senate and to accept the White House job, the President-Elect discussed other qualified candidates with David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel. Those candidates included Representatives Jan Schakowsky and Jesse Jackson, Jr., Dan Hynes and Tammy Duckworth. The President-Elect understood that Rahm Emanuel would relay these names to the Governor’s office as additions to the pool of qualified candidates who might already be under consideration. Mr. Emanuel subsequently confirmed to the President that he had in fact relayed these names. At no time in the discussion of the Senate seat or of possible replacements did the President-Elect hear of a suggestion that the Governor expected a personal benefit in return for making this appointment to the Senate.”

To clarify, then: This was not just idle talk between the president-elect and his top aides. This discussion of specific candidates was taking place with the expectation that the governor would be told about Obama’s preferences. And Rahm Emanuel did as he was told, in conversations with Blagojevich’s then chief of staff.

There is nothing untoward or even unexpected about that. As the report seeks to make clear, neither Obama nor Emanuel nor anyone else in the Obama inner circle was engaged in any horse-trading or pay-for-play schemes with Blagojevich.

Still, this is a level of interest and involvement in his Senate seat that Obama has not admitted to publicly.

Compare this to what Obama said Nov. 7 -- three days after the election -- when asked by a Chicago Tribune reporter the extent to which he would use his “probably pretty great influence in determining the successor for your Senate seat.”

Obama: “This is the governor's decision. It is not my decision. And I think that the criteria that I would have for my successor would be the same criteria that I'd have if I were a voter: somebody who is capable, somebody who is passionate about helping working families in Illinois meet their -- meet their dreams. And I think there are going to be a lot of good choices out there. But it is the governor's decision to make, not mine.”

And here’s what David Axelrod said two weeks ago, at a forum at Harvard:

“There's a vacancy the governor apparently -- if you believe the complaint from the government -- had some ideas about what to do with it. We were not involved in that discussion or any discussion of that nature,” Axelrod said.

True enough, according to the report. But doesn’t this leave a bit of a different impression of Obama’s role in all of this than turns out to be the case? Could it be that Obama wasn’t above playing a bit of -- gasp! -- politics?

December 23, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (152) | TrackBack (0)

Emanuel Discussed Obama Shortlist with Blago Staff

December 23, 2008 4:48 PM

ABC News’ Rick Klein Reports: Incoming White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel had a series of conversations with Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his top aide about possible replacements for President-elect Barack Obama in the Senate -- but never discussed any possible deals with them, according to a report prepared by the Obama transition office.

The report states that Emanuel had “one or two” telephone conversations with Blagojevich, D-Ill., in the wake of Obama’s election victory, as George Stephanopoulos first reported. Emanuel recommended close Obama friend Valerie Jarrett as a possible successor -- not realizing that Obama “had ruled out communicating a preference for any one candidate,” according to the report authored by Obama attorney Greg Craig, who is in line to become White House counsel.

Emanuel then had “about four” telephone conversations with Blagojevich’s then chief of staff, John Harris, where a list of possible candidates that Obama “considered to be highly qualified” was discussed. George Stephanopoulos first reported the contacts between Emanuel and Blagojevich on Sunday.

Those candidates included state Comptroller Dan Hynes, Tammy Duckworth, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, and Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., and -- in later conversations -- Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Cheryle Jackson.

“Mr. Harris did not make any effort to extract a personal benefit for the Governor in any of these conversations,” the report states. “There was no discussion of a cabinet position, of 501c(4), of a private sector position or of any other personal benefit to the Governor in exchange for the Senate appointment.”

The report -- released late Tuesday afternoon, more than a week after it was prepared at Obama’s direction -- seeks to make clear that Obama aides were not involved in the pay-for-play schemes that the US attorney’s office in Chicago has alleged that Blagojevich and Harris were engaged in surrounding the Senate seat.

It does, however, suggest more interest on Obama’s part in the filling of his Senate seat than the president-elect and his top aides had previously conceded.

The report states that Obama himself -- as he has previously said -- “had no contact or communication with Governor Blagojevich or members of his staff about the Senate seat.”

It allows that Obama did discuss Schakowsky, Jackson, Hynes, and Duckworth in conversations with Emanuel and top political adviser David Axelrod, with the understanding that Emanuel “would relay these names to the Governor’s office as additions to the pool of qualified candidates who might already be under consideration.”

The report also finds that Jarrett, Axelrod, and another Obama friend, Dr. Eric Whitaker, did not discuss the Senate seat with the governor, Harris, or other members of Blagojevich’s team.

On the whole, the list of contacts and brief description of the conversations appears to support Obama’s repeated contention that neither he or anyone of his staff members had any “inappropriate discussions” with Blagojevich or his top aides.

US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has also made clear that -- despite mentions of at least one Obama adviser in the criminal complaint he filed three weeks ago -- his office is making “no allegations” about the president-elect or his team.

But the report does not fill in all the gaps in the public record. Obama’s team did not have access to transcripts of wiretapped conversations between members of Blagojevich’s team and other parties, leaving it to Obama’s staff members’ own recollections to describe the substance of their talks.

RNC Spokesman Alex Conant released this response to the report: “While Obama certainly deserves some credit for releasing his team's contacts with Governor Blagojevich, it remains unfortunate he acted only after political pressure was exerted.  Hopefully, President-elect Obama's promises of transparency related to this matter will extend to all communications, including written.”

December 23, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (45) | TrackBack (0)

Politics Live: Brzezinski: Obama’s 'Team of Rivals' a Challenge

December 23, 2008 4:01 PM

Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Adviser, chatted Tuesday with Sam Donaldson and Rick Klein on ABC NewsNOW’s “Politics Live.”

Subjects include diplomacy with Iran, the war in Iraq, challenges in Afghanistan and Pakistan -- and the so-called “team of rivals” that constitute President-elect Barack Obama’s foreign-policy team.

He had some interesting insights into the egos and personalities Obama will be balancing:

“One can, you know, sing their praises individually or collectively. But that doesn't tell us whether they'll be working in unison and it doesn't tell us what strategy they'll be pursing.  We do know from the campaign, for example, that there are some differences of emphasis.”

He continued: “What distinguished Obama I think from many others was that he conveyed early on that he has an instinctive grasp of what's unique about the 21st century and how America's role has to be redefined in relationship to that distinctive character of our time. I think, for example, some of the others are not quite as in tune with the novelty of our times.

“And if we're to have a coherent foreign policy, the President has to set it, the National Security Advisor has to coordinate it, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense can participate in the decision making process, but ultimately they have to reflect closely the President's view.”

December 23, 2008 in Politics Live | Permalink | User Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Biden: Report Will Confirm What Obama's Said

December 23, 2008 12:17 PM

ABC News’ Rick Klein Reports: As we await the 4:30 pm ET release of the report on contacts between the Obama and Blagojevich teams, Vice-president-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday fielded a question about the report -- and said, essentially, that it’s going to be boring.

“I don't think there's anything to exonerate,” Biden told reporters in Washington, per ABC’s Richard Coolidge. “It's been clear that the President-elect has had no contact with Blagojevich and/or anyone on his team, that he's asserted and you'll soon find in the report being released today that there has been no inappropriate contact by any member of the Obama staff or the transition team with Blagojevich. And I think the report you will see will reflect that this afternoon.”

This is likely to be the only real comment on the matter we’ll see Tuesday from Biden or President-elect Barack Obama -- who is vacationing in Hawaii this week with no public schedule.

December 23, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Palin: I Wish I Spoke With More Reporters

December 23, 2008 10:25 AM

ABC News’ Rick Klein Reports: The conservative magazine Human Events has an interesting interview with Gov. Sarah Palin -- one that has particular resonance with some suggesting that Caroline Kennedy is being “Palin-ized” by her handlers.

Palin, R-Alaska, tells Human Events’ John Gizzi that the “biggest mistake” she made was not granting more interviews earlier in her vice-presidential candidacy -- and she blames the McCain team’s handlers for holding her back.

“The biggest mistake made was that I could have called more shots on this: the opportunities that were not seized to speak to more Americans via media. I was not allowed to do very many interviews, and the interviews that I did were not necessarily those I would have chosen. But I was so thankful to have the opportunity to run with John McCain that I was not going to argue with the strategy decisions that some of his people were making regarding the media contacts,” Palin said.

“But if I would have been in charge, I would have wanted to speak to more reporters because that’s how you get your message out to the electorate.”

She continues: “I was in a campaign in which I did not know the people individually running the campaign. So I had to put my life, my career, my family, and my reputation in their hands. That’s kind of a scary thing to do when you don’t know the people you are working with.

“Now I have all the faith in the world in Sen. McCain and his family. But some of the folks around him I did not know, and so it was a kind of a risky thing for me to put my faith in the decisions they were making on my behalf.”

On Sunday, Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., asserted that Caroline Kennedy’s handlers have “basically Sarah Palin-ized her, if I could coin a phrase.”

“They’re answering questions that you have to submit in writing. She’s not talking to reporters as she makes this grand tour. They’re, kind of, building a mystique and an industry around her, when we need somebody to fight,” Ackerman said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

After an initial appearance before reporters in Syracuse where she refused to answer any questions, Kennedy has answered off-the-cuff questions at a few informal media availabilities.

But she hasn’t granted any formal interviews. The only glimpse of her policy positions have come in response to written questions, from The New York Times and Politico.

And Monday we learned that she won’t be filling out the financial disclosure forms that are standard for Senate candidates -- unless, of course, she’s appointed to the post first.

December 23, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (130) | TrackBack (0)