Politico probably realized that when Bambi’s administration brought David Plouffe back that the 2012 campaign was gearing up and they got the exclusive story of how the quietly idling machine is now revving up. The silver lining? America is already tired of his face…
President Barack Obama’s top advisers are quietly laying the groundwork for the 2012 reelection campaign, which is likely to be run out of Chicago and managed by White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina, according to Democrats familiar with the discussions.
For now, the planning consists entirely of private conversations, with Obama aides at all levels indulging occasionally in closed-door 2012 discussions while focusing ferociously on the midterm elections and health care reform, the Democratic sources said. “The gathering storm is the 2010 elections,” one top official said.
But the sources said Obama has given every sign of planning to run again and wants the next campaign to resemble the highly successful 2008 effort.
David Axelrod, White House senior adviser, may leave the West Wing to rejoin his family in Chicago and reprise his role as Obama’s muse, overseeing the campaign’s tone, themes, messages and advertising, the sources said.
David Plouffe, the Obama for America campaign manager, described by one friend as “the father of all this,” will be a central player in the reelect, perhaps as an outside adviser.
“The conversations are beginning, but decisions haven’t been made,” a top official said. “If you look at David Plouffe’s stepped-up level of activity with the political organization [as an outside adviser on the 2010 races], that is obviously the beginning of the process.”
Anita Dunn, former White House communications director, will be intimately involved, too. Brad Woodhouse, the Democratic National Committee’s communications director, enjoys rising stock and would be a logical choice to be communications director for the reelection campaign, the sources said.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer and senior adviser Valerie Jarrett are likely to remain at the president’s side in Washington, while exercising major influence over the campaign. Pfeiffer, communications director of the last campaign and always a trusted insider, has a higher public profile every day.
Obama’s campaign will get a head start from the large machine he has built at the DNC, including Organizing for America, the successor to his grass-roots campaign operation.
OFA is now a DNC project with staff in all 50 states and has worked to keep Obama’s army active through engagement on health care and other issues.
Whatever the republicans are doing, they better step up their game because at this point, they do not have a candidate that can beat OFA especially if immigration reform gets shoved through.
Ben Bernanke is so deserving of this next AYFKM? Award for his warning today about the US debt, and how The Fed won’t “monetize” the debt, all the while not taking responsibility for his part in the financial fiasco.
With uncharacteristic bluntness, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke warned Congress on Wednesday that the United States could soon face a debt crisis like the one in Greece, and declared that the central bank will not help legislators by printing money to pay for the ballooning federal debt.
Recent events in Europe, where Greece and other nations with large, unsustainable deficits like the United States are having increasing trouble selling their debt to investors, show that the U.S. is vulnerable to a sudden reversal of fortunes that would force taxpayers to pay higher interest rates on the debt, Mr. Bernanke said.
“It’s not something that is 10 years away. It affects the markets currently,” he told the House Financial Services Committee. “It is possible that bond markets will become worried about the sustainability [of yearly deficits over $1 trillion], and we may find ourselves facing higher interest rates even today.”
Mr. Bernanke for the first time addressed concerns that the impasse in Congress over tough spending cuts and tax increases needed to bring down deficits will eventually force the Fed to accommodate deficits by printing money and buying Treasury bonds — effectively financing the deficit on behalf of Congress and spurring inflation in the process.
Some economists at the International Monetary Fund and elsewhere have advocated this approach, suggesting running moderate inflation rates of 4 percent to 6 percent as a partial solution to the U.S. debt problem. But the move runs the risk of damaging the dollar’s reputation and spawning much higher inflation that would be debilitating to the U.S. economy and living standards.
Rep. Brad Sherman, California Democrat, asked Mr. Bernanke directly whether the Fed would consider such a strategy, especially since IMF officials endorsed it.
“We’re not going to monetize the debt,” Mr. Bernanke declared flatly, stressing that Congress needs to start making plans to bring down the deficit to avoid such a dangerous dilemma for the Fed.
“It is very, very important for Congress and administration to come to some kind of program, some kind of plan that will credibly show how the United States government is going to bring itself back to a sustainable position.”
Separately, Mr. Bernanke’s predecessor, Alan Greenspan, told Bloomberg News that “fiscal affairs are threatening the outlook” for recovery from recession as Congress and the White House have been unable for years to make tough decisions to raise taxes or cut spending.
And here’s the kicker; $5 Trillion in mortgage-backed and assorted other debt connected to Fannie and Freddie that is not being included in Obama’s budget.
Separately, the debate continued over whether Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two mortgage financing giants, should be included in the federal budget books now that the Obama administration has taken the limits off aid the Treasury Department is prepared to give the companies to keep them solvent.
Republicans, including Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama, the top Republican on the banking committee, have argued that the government is now effectively guaranteeing Fannie and Freddie’s nearly $5 trillion of mortgage-backed securities and other debt, so their revenues and liabilities should be included in the federal budget as obligations of the government. Taking this step would greatly bloat the federal balance sheet.
Mr. Bachus said he worries that keeping Fannie and Freddie’s status off the federal books is “the same sort of financial shell game that has brought governments like Greece to a crisis point.”
But Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, who also testified on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, said the administration opposes including the quasi-government entities in the budget, although it lifted the limits on aid to Fannie and Freddie with the intent of assuring financial markets that the U.S. government stands behind their obligations.
“We do not think it is necessary to consolidate the full obligations of Fannie and Freddie onto the nation’s budget. But we do think it’s very important … that we make it clear to investors around the world that we will make sure that we will take the actions necessary” to keep the two entities stable, he told the House Budget Committee.
Want a little more good news to go with that fiscal celebration?
I have been watching the talking heads today, and just realized that maybe you folks might actually want to watch part or all of the proceedings on thursday so as to assess how badly we are about to be raped by the Obama Administration. Live streaming video will be on C-Span3, here.
The general consensus I have been able to ascertain today is that this ‘summit’ is a dog-and-pony show, photo op for the pResident.
I want to go on record AGAIN as saying this bill still isn’t dead, just like it wasn’t dead before the Christmas Eve vote. They are using this summit to make the republicans continue to look like the ‘party of no’ and then they are going to pass this UNCONSTITUTIONAL Piece of S*** using reconciliation. This summit is about getting ALL the Dems on the same page.
NO PROGRESSIVE PRESIDENT has ever been THIS close to exercising complete control over your life (because you are too stupid to live); Obama, Jarrett, Axelrod, Stern, etc. are NOT going to let it die. Nope.no.way.no.how!
Which brings me to my second point. When Obama and crew pass this mandated insurance rape, what are Americans going to do to push back? National strike, change your W-4’s to the max exemption so as to starve the treasury? What? Get our your thinking caps kids…
(If you haven’t seen this yet, put down all liquids. Considering how simple-minded you are, I thought instructions might be handy.)
Valerie Jarrett answered some questions at the John F. Kennedy School of Government on 2.19.2010, and the forum illustrates the differences between intellectuals and the political class, and average every-day American.
The initial question belittling Americans (and which took well over a minute), and Val’s answers on numerous topics are unbelievably offensive on so many levels. She agrees with Mr. Academia that Tea Party Patriots need simple pamphlets to address lack of knowledge and vocabulary.
News flash for Val; TPPs have known for a very, very long time what cloture and reconciliation are. Too bad for the rest of the country that it took you getting a job in the White House to learn what those terms mean. As for Obama not going around Congress on issues, hasn’t he already done that?
Senate Democrats are pushing for a short-term extension of key provisions in the Patriot Act as part of a package of must-pass measures.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is planning to ask for unanimous consent to pass an extension for a host of measures set to expire February 28, according to Senate sources. The request could be made as early as Tuesday night.
The large package of bills includes a year-long extension of three provisions of the anti-terrorism law known a the Patriot Act, as well as extensions for expiring tax provisions, including unemployment insurance, COBRA, flood insurance, the law governing the highway trust fund, the federal flood insurance program and a measure governing satellite television signals.
Is this the only way they can get the republicans to vote for the main parts of this bill?
The first of the three expiring Patriot Act provisions provides the power to seek court orders for roving wiretaps on terrorism suspects who shift their modes of communication. A second allows the government to seek orders from a federal court for “any tangible thing” that is says is related to a terrorism investigation.
The third provision allows the government to apply to a court for surveillance orders involving suspected “lone wolf” terrorists who do not necessarily have ties to a larger organization.
I will continue to say that the Patriot Act IS the biggest threat to our liberty because of the power that has been handed to the executive branch. This shredding of our Constitution needs to be rescinded immediately.
