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Tag: Barack Obama (Page 4 of 24)

Intel offers some good news

February 10, 2009 /

In a sea of terrible economic news, Intel offered some great news by announcing a $7 billion investment.

On a day when all of Washington was grappling with the collapse of the American economy, President Barack Obama desperately needed some good news. And he got it from Intel CEO Paul Otellini, who was in town to announce that his company, which makes microprocessors for personal and business computing, would spend $7 billion over the next two years to build advanced manufacturing facilities in Oregon, Arizona and New Mexico.

So grateful was the president for this bit of private-sector economic stimulus that he called Otellini at his hotel room to congratulate him. And he took advantage of the call to do a little lobbying, asking for Otellini’s support in the debate over the economic stimulus package.

It was Otellini’s first conversation with the president, and he was impressed. “He’s very quick,” Otellini said. “He’s a natural.”

Otellini supports the stimulus plan, and that’s also a plus for Obama.

Given the horrible news coming from tech giants like Cisco, this news from Intel is even more important. Many of the tech giants are sitting on piles of cash, so hopefully we’ll see more investments.

Economy

Obama’s tour de force

February 9, 2009 /

Barack Obama’s first news conference ranks up there as one of the best presidential news conferences I’ve ever seen. He was thorough and eloquent in all of his answers. He knew his facts, and he was very clear with his arguments. He continued his tone of bipartisanship, yet he made it clear he wouldn’t take political cheap shots from a party that just doubled our national debt over the past eight years.

He did not hold back when discussing the gravity of the crisis we are facing, and he made it clear that extraordinary efforts would be needed on many fronts. This situation will not be fixed by one policy proposal. We need to attack this on many fronts.

It’s a stark contrast to the past eight years, and we now have a president who is able to project competence and analytical skills. He was able to explain his positions with clarity, and he avoided sound bites in favor of long answers that actually answered the questions.

Some Republicans are giddy over the partisan fight that occured with respect to the stimulus package, but they are overmatched in this fight and will likely regret making this a partisan issue.

Policy, Politics

Obama issues tough new lobbying restrictions and opens records

January 22, 2009 /

Many of the left and the right have long complained that the game was rigged in Washington. That will probably never end, but President Obama seems determined to change the climate in Washington by lessening the role of lobbyists and making the government more transparent.

New lobbying and records rules issued by President Obama yesterday appear to go beyond changes implemented by previous presidents, and could usher in an era of openness in federal government, according to ethics experts and open-government advocates.

In two executive orders and three presidential directives, Obama laid out stringent lobbying limits that will bar any appointees from seeking lobbying jobs while he is president and will ban gifts from lobbyists to anyone in the administration. He also ordered agencies to presume that records should be publicly released unless there are compelling reasons not to do so, and he loosened restrictions on the release of records related to former presidents and vice presidents.

Open-government advocates described the moves as a sharp departure from the policies of former president George W. Bush and former vice president Richard B. Cheney, who sought to shield details about White House inner workings from public view and imposed public records restrictions.

These changes are very significant. We’ve just endured one of the most secretive administrations in history, rivaling the paranoia of the Nixon years. Obama wants to opposite. Energy policy will not be set in secret meetings with industry executives.

The changes regarding the records of former presidents are most interesting.

In a separate order, Obama mandated more openness for presidential records following a congressionally established five-year waiting period after any president leaves office. The order permits a review by the attorney general and the White House counsel of claims by former presidents that information should be withheld under the doctrine of “executive privilege.” It also leaves the final decision in the hands of the incumbent president — not the former president, as provided in a 2001 order from Bush.

This accelerates how quickly we will learn what really happened during the Bush years.

Policy

Barack Obama sworn in as 44th President of the United States

January 20, 2009 /

It was quite a spectacle, as it should have been, given the historic nature of the event. Millions of people descended on Washington D.C. to witness the swearing in of Barack Obama as our 44th President.

Obama and Chief Justice Roberts managed to flub the swearing in, but Obama rebounded nicely with a sober and forceful speech that called on Americans to put aside childish squabbles and get to the business of tackling the nation’s problems.

He made it clear that he’s ready to get to work.

Politics, President 2008

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