November 2006 Archives

Bottom line: I think Sen. Barack Obama, who is seriously considering a run for president, is going to jump into the 2008 race. I predict the freshman Illinois Democrat will announce near the end of this year or the beginning of 2007, sometime after he returns from a holiday break in his native Hawaii. Here's what's on Obama's to-do list:

MR. SNOW: Greetings. Welcome to Amman. First, I am joined by my close personal friend, Senior Administration Official, for a background briefing on the President's dinner with the King of Jordan. So let me introduce to one and all, Senior Administration Official, to give you a readout and then answer your questions.

Showing her resolve, Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fl.) on Tuesday that he is not going to chair the House Intel Committee. "Today I advised him that I would select someone else as Chairman," she said. It was an obvious call for Pelosi.

Sen. Barack Obama steps up his pre-exploratory 2008 presidential campaign, making his first trip to New Hampshire on Dec. 10.

The Illinois Democrat will be the guest at a party hosted by the New Hampshire Democratic Party in Manchester. Obama has been to Iowa, the home to the first presidential caucus, several times. New Hampshire, now that's a different story; this will be Obama's inaugural presidential mode visit.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton--the other top tier 2008 possibility, coming off her re-election in New York, has not made recent stops in Iowa or New Hampshire. But she knows the territory from her husbands' presidential campaigns.

Obama has told me if he gets in the 2008 primary for president, he fully expected to be part of the traditional process of running in the early Iowa and New Hampshire contests.

President Bush is in Riga, the capital of Latvia for a summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. NATO has 26 member countries from Europe and North America...founded April 4, 1949.

NATO has an extensive website ......http://www.nato.int/docu/comm/2006/0611-riga/index.htm

Bush has met with all the Baltic heads of state. He tells Latvian president Vike-Freiberga he will ask Congress to grant some kind of visa break for Latvians who want to enter the U.S. A provision for Polish nationals was in the Senate version of the now stalled immigration legislation.

Sen. Barack Obama's biggest cheerleader, Sen. Dick Durbin, launched an online petition drive on Monday to persuade his fellow Illinois Democrat to run for president.

Several people tell me that Obama, who is seriously considering a bid, is phoning people he knows to get input -- and cold-calling key figures in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Sen. Dick Durbin is one of Sen. Barack Obama's biggest presidential boosters.
Now he's launching an on-line petition drive to persuade Obama to jump in the 2008 White House race.

Obama is weighing a bid--and Durbin hopes the petition drive tips the scales toward his fellow Illinois Democrat.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), on ABC's "This Week" says the Democrats want 2007 to be a year of transition--even if the Iraq Study Group does not declare that the U.S. needs to fashion some kind of withdrawl plan from Iraq.

The recommendations of the Baker-Hamilton group could come out this week. Watch for a big rollout.

And here is the latest from Durbin on the status of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), mulling a White House bid.
DURBIN: I did speak to Barack just a few days ago in Washington and I know that he and Michelle were sitting down and making some hard choices at this point. It's an important personal and family decision.

Click below for full comments of Durbin, who will be the Senate whip after the new Democratic controlled Senate convenenes in January.

President Bush, just returned from Viet Nam, leaves Monday for Estonia on a trip fraught with implications about the civililian government of Iraq. Until the Iraq government is able to control the sectarian violence, it will be difficult for the U.S. to extract troops from Iraq.

Bush attends a NATO meeting in Latvia and then heads to Amman for meetings with the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the King Abdullah of Jordan. The king was a guest on ABC News "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" Sunday morning. He said fixing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the key to ending the conflict in Iraq. What does that have to do with Iraq? The king said it "resonates" through the region. Is linking Iraq to other hot spots--Lebanon, Israel, Palestine--going to make it harder to resolve Iraq?

click for transcript

Morning all....the comment section is not working. Please save your comments and send them in later.

Meanwhile.....I'm booked to be interviewed on MSNBC around 9:30 a.m. central time this morning. The segment is supposed to be about Sen. Barack Obama.

What worse scenario could there be for Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), who fiercely values loyalty, than to have to choose between the 2008 presidential candidacies of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.)?

Comprehensive and eloquent, though not unique -- it was not intended to be -- Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on Monday laid out his vision of how the U.S. should proceed in Iraq.

Gov. Blagojevich is starting his second term making a smart choice for a top job. He's tapping wounded Iraq war vet Tammy Duckworth to be the new director of the Illinois Veterans' Affairs Department.

Potential presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (D-ill.) said Monday he is against sending in more troops to Iraq in the hopes of getting the U.S. out faster. In a speech delivered to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs he said there are "no good options" left. Obama said it was doubtful the Iraqi civilian government "can function for long" and there is little that the U.S. can do to stop sectarian violence. Obama also supports talks with Iran and Syria.

He is for--as he has been-a phased redeployment in four to six months (in his book he wanted this to start by the end of this year)

This reduction in U.S. troops should be tied to "precise levels and dates" and "should not depend on Iraqi approval." Obama is calling for troops to be redeployed to Afghanistan, to be part of a NATO force there.

Another test for 2008?
Obama again publicizing HIV screening -- and he's got a big speech on Iraq today

For the second time in 97 days, Sen. Barack Obama -- who is mulling a 2008 presidential run and giving a big speech on Iraq today -- will take another public HIV/AIDS test.
Given his marriage to his wife, Michelle, and the certainty he is not shooting up anything, Obama's test results will again be negative.

Two Sweet columns--from the Sun-Times and The Hill--on the Democratic leadership plan to try to send to the slammer anyone caught authorizing dirty trick election time robo-calls.

With their new power, Democratic leaders want to craft a constitutional way to stop voters from being flooded with robo-calls peddling deceptive information. They are floating the notion that authorizing calls with fraudulent content should be made into a crime.

Howard Dean, watch your back. James Carville wants you out.

Democratic strategist James Carville, in his trademark scorching rhetoric, said Wednesday he wants to dump Dean as chief of the Democratic National Committee.

I ran into Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) outside the Senate chamber this afternoon, and got this update on his presidential decision timetable. He is not going to “dilly dally,� he told me. Meanwhile, he will deliver a major speech on Iraq Monday and will talk to Wal-Mart critics as will 2008 potential White House rival former Sen. John Edwards. All this, plus new Obama committee assignments just a click away.