Photograph via United States Library of Congress

Group photo portrait of author and humorist Mark Twain (a.k.a. Samuel L. Clemens), center, noted American Civil War correspondent and author George Alfred Townsend. left, and David Gray, editor of the Buffalo Courier, right.

President Barack Obama, 100 days into his second term with a stumbling agenda, assured reporters at the White House today that any conclusions about failure are premature.

“If you put it that way, I may as well pack up my bags and go home,” Obama said to a question about his failed agenda three months in. “As Mark Twain said, rumors of my demise may be a little exaggerated at this point.”

“I am confident that there are a range of things we’re going to be able to get done,” he said, pointing to immigration reform under way in the Senate. He is confident that a bill will reach his desk, he said, “and that is going to be a historic achievement.”

“It is true that the sequester is in place right now, it is damaging our economy, it is hurting our people and we’re going to have to lift it,” the president said, suggesting that Republicans averted raising taxes at all costs and accused him of overstating the potential impact of the automatic budget cuts forced by sequestration.

“’The president is crying wolf — he’s Chicken Little,”’ Obama said of his critics’ complaints.

Then meat inspections had to be saved, he said, and airport delays had to be dealt with.

“What we now know is that what I warned earlier… is happening,” he said. “It has slowed our growth, it is resulting in people being out of work and it is hurting people across the country.”

He maintained that he has not lost hope.

“There are common-sense solutions to our problems now,” he said.“I cannot force Republicans to embrace those common-sense solutions… But ultimately, they themselves are going to have to say that they want to do the right thing.”

“Their base thinks that compromise with me is somehow a betrayal, they worry about primaries. I understand all that,” the president said. “It’s going to take some time.”

Original post is Obama: ‘My Demise Exaggerated’ by Political Capital.

Photograph by Louai Beshara/AFP via Getty Images

A Syrian officer is seen through the wreckage of a vehicle following an explosion in the Mazzeh district of Damascus on April 29, 2013, which is believed to have targeted the prime minister’s convoy.

Opening the second news conference of his second term without an opening statement of his own, President Barack Obama fielded an opening question about Syria.

The U.S. needs credible evidence that stands up here and in the international community, he said, before he can address what “range of options” the U.S. might take in response to the use of chemical weapons in Syria.

“I think it’s important to understand that for several years now what we’ve been seen is a slowly unfolding disaster for the Syrian people,” Obama said. “My policy from the beginning has been that President Assad lost credibility, that he attacked his own people… The only way to bring peace and stability in Syria is for Assad to step down… We have worked to strengthen the opposition…There are a whole host of steps we have taken… We’ve got to make sure we are doing everything we can to protect the Syrian people.”

“What I’ve also said is that the use of chemical weapons would be a game-changer,” the president said. “When you use these types of weapons, you have the potential of killing massive amounts of people in the most inhumane way possible… We don’t want that Genie out of the bottle.”

“What we now have is evidence that chemical weapons were used inside of Syria, but we don’t know how they were used, when they were used and who used them,” he said. “I’ve got to make sure I’ve got the facts… If we end up rushing to judgment without hard independent evidence,” he said, the U.S. could find itself in the position where it can’t mobilize international support. “It’s important for us to do this in a prudent way… to establish with some certainty what has happened in Syria, what is happening in Syria,” he said, and he is seeking “a clear baseline of facts.”

Still, he wouldn’t specify how the game will change.

“By game-changer, I mean that we would have to rethink the range of options that are available to us,” Obama said. “Obviously, there are options available to me that are on the shelf right now that we have not” used. That is “a spectrum of options,” he said.

Original post is Obama: ‘Game-Changer’ Means ‘Range of Options’ in Syria by Political Capital.

Photograph by Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg

President Barack Obama during a meeting with Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the Amir of Qatar, unseen, in the Oval Office of the White House on April 23, 2013.

One hundred days into his second term as president, today, April 30, President Barack Obama has plenty to talk about at a White House news conference.

Including what hasn’t happened at home — where his fervent pleas for new gun controls following the killing of 20 schoolchildren in Newton, Connecticut, in December have gone unheeded in Congress.

And what hasn’t happened in Syria — where the president warned months ago of a red-line not to be crossed, the use of chemical weapons by a government under siege by rebels, and now the U.S. concludes “with varying degrees” of confidence that a chemical agent, sarin gas, has been deployed.

One thing has happened: The Senate is underway with a debate over immigration, focused on precisely the sort of comprehensive reform that Obama is seeking — a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants already in the U.S., an overhaul of visas for the low-skilled and high-skilled alike, and tougher border security going forward.

It may not be the past 100 days so much on people’s minds today, as it is the next 100.

The president will field questions from reporters at the White House at 10:15 am EDT.

Original post is Obama: 100 Days In, Red Line Deadline? by Political Capital.

Photograph by Sascha Darmer/DAPD/AP Photo

Beyonce in Berlin in this file photo.

Beyonce played Obama’s inauguration.

Beyonce is going to play the Super Bowl.

The singer was lip-syncing outside the Capitol on Inauguration Day.

She was not lip-syncing, it appeared, at her news conference today in advance of her Super Bowl half-time performance Sunday.

The singer asked the attendees of the conference to stand.

Then she belted out the National Anthem a cappella.

“Any questions,” she asked.

Yes, there was a question about that inaugural performance.

“I am a perfectionist,” she explained, somewhat nervously. “I practice until my feet bleed… I did not have time to practice with the orchestra (The President’s Marine Band) … I did not feel comfortable taking a risk” in the singing of the anthem for President Barack Obama’s second swearing-in on Jan. 21. “I am very proud of my performance.”

Come Sunday, the show will not be on Memorex: “I will absolutely be singing live,” she said of Super Bowl XLVII. “This is what I was born to do.”

Original post is Beyonce Belts Out Anthem: Super Bowl Preview by Political Capital.

Photograph by Pete Souza/The White House

U.S. President Barack Obama working in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington.

President Barack Obama was asked today about some persisting criticism:

The “truism” about him being too insular, not socializing enough on Capitol Hill.

The diversity of the second-term Cabinet taking shape, the first big appointments all going to men.

“I’m very proud that in the first four years we had as diverse, if not a more diverse, White House and Cabinet than any in history,” he replied to the question at the final press conference of his first term.“I intend to continue that.”

When you look for the best, he said, you will find that it is a diverse team.

“If you think about the first four years, the person who probably had the most impact on my foreign policy was a woman,” he said, alluding to retiring Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (Sen. John Kerry will replace her). The people who pressed for his health-care agenda were women, he said. His two appointees to the Supreme Court are women, and 50 percent of his White House staff were women.

“I would just suggest that everybody… wait until they have seen all my appointments,” he said, “before they rush to judgment.”

“We’re not going backwards,” he said. “We’re going forward.”

“With respect to me not socializing enough and not patting people on the back,” he said, “I’m a pretty friendly guy, and I like a good party.”

“I think really what’s gone on with some of the paralysis in Washington… just has to do with some really stark differences in policy,” he said.

“I like Speaker Boehner personally, and when we went out and played golf in 2011, we had a great time, but that didn’t get a deal done,” the president said of House Speaker John Boehner. Obama hosted a nice congressional picnic at the White House, he said, “but it doesn’t prevent them from going on the floor of the House and blasting me for being a big-spending socialist.”

“Now that my girls are getting older, they don’t want to spend that much time with me anyway,” the president joked. “So I’ll be probably calling around, looking for somebody to play cards with me or something, because I’m getting kind of lonely in this big house.”

The bottom line, he said, is that business has to get done — this time, raising the debt ceiling.

“That’ll be true,” he said, “whether I’m the life of the party or a stick in the mud.”

Original post is Obama Maybe No `Life of the Party,’ President Says, It’s Business Time by Political Capital.

Photograph by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Speaker of the House John Boehner outside his office at the Capitol on Dec. 7, 2012.

Written with Mark Silva

House Speaker John Boehner and fellow Republicans have maintained from the start that their opposition to tax increases on people earning more than $250,000 involves the impact this could have on small-business owners.

The data show that small-business owners are a small percentage of that top-2 percent of earners whom President Barack Obama wants to tax more, with the expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts posing an increase from 35 to 39.6 percent in the top income bracket.

Yet the speaker, who has maintained adamant opposition to increases in anyone’s tax rates, left a window open today when asked if Congress might fashion a way to prevent small businesses from paying more: An exemption for small business owners who file as individuals, people who derive their income from the partnership or Subchapter S corporation formed to run the business.

At a news conference on Capitol Hill today, the speaker was asked if he could “see some way” to accept “a tax-rate increase and protect small businesses at the same time” that might include the top rate “going up to 37 percent or some middle ground” instead of the top rate of 39.6 percent.

Boehner replied: “There are a lot of things that are possible to put the revenue the president seeks on the table. But none of it’s going to be possible if the president insists on his position, insists on my way or the highway,” he said. “That’s not the way to get an agreement” that “is important for the American people and very important for our economy.”

Boehner’s spokesman, Michael Steel, declined to comment on the speaker’s comment.

Negotiations over an agreement to avert that convergence of tax increases and spending cuts slated to take effect at year’s end familiarly known as the fiscal cliff have come down to direct talks between the president and the speaker.  Boehner said today that President Barack Obama has “wasted” another week with his insistence on tax increases. Yet all the talk around these talks has pointed to willingness among both sides to consider, in some fashion, the tax increases the president wants and the spending cuts the speaker demands.

Original post is Boehner’s Opening: Tax Carve-Out for Small Business Owners? by Political Capital.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., center, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., right, at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Nov. 14, 2012, stating they'd block the nomination Susan Rice as Secretary of State. Photographer: J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo

President Barack Obama had some fighting words today for the senator he faced in 2008:

If Sen. John McCain and allied Republican Lindsey Graham want to complain about the administration’s handling of the attack against the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, Obama said, the senator who served as the Republican Party’s presidential nominee in ’08 shouldn’t be picking on U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice — they should “go after” him.

The president’s ire for his erstwhile rival from Arizona and political ally from South Carolina involves his reported interest in nominating Rice for secretary of state, which he wouldn’t confirm in a White House news conference today. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton plans to step aside soon, opening the nation’s chief diplomatic post for appointment. McCain, criticizing Rice for her public representations of what initially happened in Benghazi, is speaking out against her nomination as secretary of state.

“If Senator McCain and Senator Graham and others want to go after somebody? They should go after me,” Obama said today. “And I’m happy to have that discussion with them.”

“But for them to go after the UN ambassador who had nothing to do with Benghazi?” he said, “And was simply making a presentation based on intelligence that she had received? And to besmirch her reputation is outrageous. And, you know, we’re after an election now.”

“But when they go after the UN  ambassador, apparently because they think she’s an easy target, then they’ve got a problem with me,” the president said.

McCain, who had raised his complaints about Rice during the 2012 election campaign, is drawing a certain line now.

“I will do everything in my power to block her from being the United States Secretary of State,” McCain, an outspoken critic of the administration’s explanations of Benghazi, said in an appearance on Fox News. “She has proven that she either doesn’t understand or she is not willing to accept evidence on its face. There is no doubt five days later what this attack was.”

Without confirming his thinking on the State appointment, Obama said at his news conference: “Let me say specifically about Susan Rice, she has done exemplary work. She has represented the United States and our interests in the United Nations with skill, and professionalism, and toughness, and grace. As I’ve said before (on the question of Benghazi), she made an appearance at the request of the White House in which she gave her best understanding of the intelligence that had been provided to her.”

He said:  “And should I choose, if I think that she would be the best person to serve America in the capacity at the State Department, then I will nominate her. That’s not a determination that I’ve made yet.”

Original post is Obama to McCain: `Go After Me’ by Political Capital.

Arizona Dream Act Coalition staff members, who advocate for young immigrants. Photograph by Ross D. Franklin/AP Photo

When’s the last time Telemundo got a question near the top of a presidential news conference?

What was the Hispanic vote for president on Nov. 6?

President Barack Obama 71 percent, Republican Mitt Romney 27 percent.

Immigration reform, the president told his Telemundo questioner at a White House news conference today, is on the way.

“My expectation is that we get a bill introduced, and we some progress in Congress very soon after my inauguration,”Obama said — that bill being a “comprehensive immigration reform,” with tougher border control, sanctions for companies that hire undocumented immigrants and “a pathway for legal status” for those obeying the laws as well as protection for so-called “Dream Act” children born of those here illegally.

The outcome of the presidential election is likely to provide some impetus for that legislation, which former President George W. Bush was unable to obtain during his second term. Congressional Republicans are watching a key and growing constituency gravitate to Democrats.

At 27 percent, Romney’s Hispanic vote was smaller than Bush’s  in 2004 — then  44 percent for the former Texas governor — and Arizona Sen. John McCain’s 31 percent in 2008 (and he was one of the sponsors of that failed Bush-era immigration reform), according to exit polls.

The low water mark for the party came in 1996, when Republican Bob Dole garnered only 21 percent of the Hispanic vote. Democratic President Bill Clinton achieved the high mark, at 72 percent.

Latinos accounted for 9 percent of the electorate in 2008, with 19.5 million eligible to vote.  Now, nearly 24 million Hispanics are eligible to vote, with the number of registered Latinos  increasing by 26 percent in the last four years to 12.2 million, according to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.

“I think what was incredibly encouraging was to see a significant increase in Latino turnout,” Obama said today. “This is the fastest-growing group in the country and, you know, historically what you’ve seen is Latino vote — vote at lower rates than the broader population. And that’s beginning to change.

“You’re starting to see a sense of empowerment and civic participation that I think is going to be powerful and good for the country,” the president said. “And it is why I’m very confident that we can get immigration reform done.”

Original post is Obama: Immigration Reform Coming by Political Capital.

“I have no evidence at this point, from what I’ve seen, that classified information was disclosed that in any way would have had a negative impact on our national security,” the president said at a White House news conference, asked also if he was surprised to have learned of the inquiry only recently.  “The FBI has their own protocols on how they proceed.”

Obama, who accepted Petraeus’ resignation from the CIA last week, did not learn of the FBI probe that uncovered the affair until the day after his own re-election, according to the White House.

“General Petraeus had an extraordinary career,” said Obama, who sent the four-star general to Afghanistan to run the war there and made him director of the CIA. “He served this country with great distinction… By his own assessment, he did not meet the standards that he felt were necessary at the CIA” in the relationship with the general’s biographer that was revealed by the FBI.

“We’re not supposed to meddle in criminal investigations,” he said, “and that’s been our practice.”

Original post is Obama: No Security Breach in Petraeus Affair by Political Capital.

“We should not hold the middle class hostage while we negotiate taxes for the wealthy,” the president said.

This was the president’s first White House news conference since June 8, when he answered just a few questions, and a formal one in March — and of course his first meeting of the press since winning re-election Nov. 6 with 50.8 percent of the popular vote and an Electoral College count of 332-206.

Unlike the “shellacking” of the 2010 mid-term elections, the president’s party came out of  this year’s campaign with more seats in the Senate and House, yet still a party-divided Congress.

“Our top priority has to be jobs and growth — you’ve got to build on the progress we’ve made,” Obama said. The economy “can’t afford” the taxes and spending cuts that come without action on the fiscal cliff.

Original post is Obama: `Very Clear Deadline’ — Don’t `Hold Middle Class Hostage’ by Political Capital.