Recently in Barack Obama Category

WASHINGTON--In a surprise move, President Obama made a very rare briefing room appearence on Tuesday afternoon, taking the podium usually occupied by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs to report bi-partisan meeting with the House and Senate leaders.

He is also took several questions from the press, the first time he has taken questions from the White House press corps since a press conference in July.

Obama has been stepping up his outreach to Republicans. Obama said he hoped " this will be first of a series of meetings I will have with the leaders of Congress."

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release February 9, 2010

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

AT SIGNING OF MEMORANDUM ON CHILDHOOD OBESITY

Oval Office

9:16 A.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning, everybody. I am so proud of the work that the First Lady, along with the Cabinet Secretaries behind me, have done in trying to tackle one of the most urgent health issues that we face in this country, and that is the increase of childhood obesity.

And because of the outstanding planning that they've done, they are going to be rolling out a terrific plan of action that involves the private sector as well as government agencies coordinating much more effectively a lot of public information out there to help parents make good decisions about allowing their children to be active and eating healthier.

And what the executive order I'm going to be signing today does is to create a 90-day plan that allows optimal coordination as we move forward, in addition to the coordination that we're doing with private sector companies and not-for-profits and other organizations out there that are interested in this issue.

So we think that this has enormous promise in improving the health of our children, in giving support to parents to make the kinds of healthy choices that oftentimes are very difficult in this kind of environment. And so I just want to say how proud I am of the First Lady for her outstanding work and I will now sign this order.

(The executive order is signed.)

There you go.

MRS. OBAMA: Nice job.

THE PRESIDENT: It's done, honey. Thanks. (Applause.)

MRS. OBAMA: Now we work.

THE PRESIDENT: Now they get to work. Thank you, guys.

END 9:19 A.M. EST

Watch CBS News Videos Online

President Obama and First Lady Michelle are inviting members of Congress, the Obama cabinet and some soldiers injured in Iraq and Afghanistan to their Super Bowl party Sunday.

The Obamas will host seven members of Congress; six men and one female; six Democrats and on Republican. Of the cabinet level invitees, there are five men and four women.

Click below for the names.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said at Monday's briefing President Obama and First Lady Michelle "will be traveling to Indonesia and Australia in the second half of March." Obama spent part of his youth in Indonesia with his mother and step-father.

"This trip is an important part of the President's continued effort to broaden and strengthen the partnerships that are necessary to advance our security and prosperity. Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous country, the third largest democracy; is home to the largest Muslim population in the world; and an important partner in the G20," Gibbs said.

President Obama on Monday will propose a $3.8-trillion fiscal 2011 federal budget that includes $237 million for the purchase and upgrading of a prison in Illinois to house detainees now at the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba.

Obama sends his spending blueprint to Congress, with the money to buy the nearly vacant Thomson Correctional Center in northwest Illinois, 150 miles west of Chicago, in the Department of Justice funding request. The State of Illinois and the federal government are currently negotiating over the purchase price of Thomson.

Where have we heard this before....

Republican Peter Roskam and Democrat Barack Obama served in the Illinois state senate together. Now Roskam is a House member from a suburban Chicago district and Obama, we all know is president, who in his first year failed to yield the post-partisan era he promised during his presidential campaign.

At the GOP retreat in Baltimore on Friday, Roskam asked Obama how both sides can reduce the heat in 2010.

Asked Roskam to Obama, "So here's the question: Moving forward -- I think all of us want to hit the "reset" button on 2009 -- how do we move forward?"

click below for transcript of Roskam-Obama exchange...

Obama State of the Union address fact checked at FactCheck.org

WASHINGTON--The Senate voted to confirm Ben S. Bernanke to a second term as chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on a 70-30 vote.

Ten Democrats broke from the Obama administration and voted against Bernanke, making it a true bi-partisan vote--rare these days. Illinois Democratic Senators Dick Durbin and Roland Burris voted for confirmation.

BY MARY WISNIEWSKI AND LYNN SWEET Staff Reporters

Illinois will get $1.1 billion to make track improvements to enable 110 mph passenger trains between Chicago and St. Louis, under a new federal stimulus plan to be announced Thursday by President Obama.

President Obama devoted the biggest portion of his first State of the Union address on Wednesday night to various aspects of job creation. While I appreciate Obama's aspirational and inspirational speeches -- in Cairo on Islamic relations and in Oslo on waging war, to name two standouts -- I welcome some nitty-gritty coming from the president.

The White House is rolling out its IPhone app--you can watch and hear the State of the Union Wednesday on your IPhone, at www.whitehouse.govor on cable, network tv or radio. The speech starts at 8 p.m. Chicago time and 9 p.m. eastern time. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is the pitchman in this slick spot promoting the new application. Not all White House videos comes with music in the background--this one does.

WASHINGTON--The Obama team is sending out text messages on Tuesday urging people to attend State of the Union watch parties on Wednesday night. The text message list, accumulated during the Obama for American presidential campaign, was transferred to the Democratic National Committee, which runs a grass-roots/net-roots operation called Organizing for America.

By Abdon Pallasch
Sun-Times Political Writer
CHICAGO--In his State of the Union speech Wednesday night, President Obama will acknowledge his party's loss of a Senate seat in Massachusetts and attribute the loss to distrust of Washington in general -- not Democrats, Obama senior advisor Dave Axelrod said Monday.

WASHINGTON--President Obama finally admitted on Monday that he broke his pledge to open up negotiations over health care--even have them televised on C-SPAN. This comes after administration spokesmen and top advisors for months now have been pretending that Obama was not breaking an oft repeated campaign promise.

The admission came during an interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer in advance of Wednesday's State of the Union address. Obama said he would "own up" to what he called a "legitimate mistake" during his speech before a joint session of Congress. Obama's promise of opening up the backroom deals--using C-SPAN--was a standard line on the 2008 campaign trail, a crowd pleaser that always, always won him applause.

WASHINGTON--The Obama White House will propose in its fiscal 2011 budget--unveiled next Monday--a freeze in non-security discretionary spending in 2011, 2012 and 2013.

The White House calculates that "the savings from the three year freeze will amount to $250 billion over the next decade," a senior administration official said on Monday.

WASHINGTON--President Obama delivers his State of the Union address on Wednesday, at 8 p.m. Chicago time, 9 p.m. eastern. A new poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & The Pressasks people how important they view the speech.

From Pew: "The survey finds that 39% of the public thinks that Obama's Jan. 27 State of the Union address will be more important than previous addresses, 45% say it will be about as important, and 9% say it will be less important. Obama's upcoming State of the Union is viewed as more important than former President Bush's last three State of the Union speeches. In January 2002, however, a higher percentage (54%) said Bush's State of the Union would be more important than say that about Obama's address today."

WASHINGTON--President Obama--a basketball player and fan since his boyhood days in Hawaii--on Sunday took daughters Malia and Sasha to a gym to shoot some hoops.

Ths morning visit to the Department of Interior gym came a day after the president attended Sasha's basketball game Saturday at the Jane Lawton Community Center in Chevy Chase. Md., just outside of Washington.

On Sunday Obama left the White House with his daughters at 10:31 a.m. for the three minute drive to the gym. With them were Reggie Love, Obama's personal assistant and a frequent hoops companion and trip director Marvin Nicholson, also part of the inner circle of staffers who golf and shoot hoops with the president.

According to the pool report, First Lady Michelle Obama was not with them.

The group left the gym to return to the White House at noon.

David Plouffe, (l) and David Axelrod (r) at the 2008 Democratic convention at a breakfast for reporters sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor (photo by Lynn Sweet)

WASHINGTON--David Plouffe, the soft-spoken Obama presidential campaign manager, is stepping up his White House role, advising on the 2010 races as Democrats are reeling in the wake of the loss of the Massachusetts Senate seat last Tuesday.

Plouffe is a senior advisor at the Chicago based political firm AKPD Message and Media, the company founded by David Axelrod, now a White House Senior Advisor. Plouffe took on advisor status at the firm after the 2008 presidential election. During the past year, he wrote a book, The Audacity to Win and has been out on the lecture circuit.

"David is value added, we love him and he has been off writing a book for a year. We are happy to have his talents back with us on a more regular basis," Axelrod told CNN's John King on "State of the Union." Over at NBC's "Meet the Press," Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett told host David Gregory used the same phrase, saying Plouffe is "value added" to the White House political operation.

"David Plouffe has been a regular adviser to the president throughout the course of the year. He ran a magnificent campaign. He's been off writing a book and on a book tour, and now that that's running to a close the president asked him to come back. The president has full support of his team, and that team will work closely with David Plouffe. He's value added, and we're delighted to have him back," Jarrett said.