TPMDC Morning Roundup
Obama Tells Turkey: U.S. Not At War With Islam
Speaking to the Turkish Parliament today, President Obama said: "Let me say this as clearly as I can: the United States is not at war with Islam. In fact, our partnership with the Muslim world is critical in rolling back a fringe ideology that people of all faiths reject."
Obama's Day In Turkey
President Obama is in Ankara, Turkey, today. At 3:50 a.m. ET, he laid a wreath at Ataturk's Tomb. At 4:55 a.m. ET he met with President Gul, and the two made a statement to the press at 6:56 a.m. ET. At 8:30 a.m. ET he addressed the Turkish Grand National Assembly. At 9:25 a.m. ET he will meet with Prime Minister Erdogan. At 11:10 a.m. ET he will leave Ankara for Istanbul, arriving at 12:10 p.m. ET.
Biden Throwing Out First Pitch At Orioles Game
Vice President Biden is in Baltimore today, where he will throw out the first pitch at the Orioles Opening Day at Camden Yards. Biden will be accompanied at the mound by eight boys and girls from the Baltimore Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities League.
Gates To Announce Shifts In Defense Spending
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is set to roll out today a major shift in proposed Defense spending, restructuring expenditures from conventional warfare to modern needs. "This is a fundamental shift in direction," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told CQ. "And the secretary's point of view argues for an unconventional approach in explaining that shift to the American people."
Poll: Outreach To Muslims Important -- But Opinion Of Islam Is Low
A new ABC/Washington Post poll finds that 81% of Americans say it is important for President Obama to improve U.S. relations with Muslim nations. At the same time, only 41% have a favorable opinion of Islam, compared to a 48% plurality with an unfavorable opinion.
NYT: Time Is Short As U.S. Presses Pakistan
The New York Times reports that President Obama faces obstacles in enlisting the further help of Pakistan against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, due to the country's own preoccupation with India and a lack of further patience with America. Said Lt. Gen. Javed Ashraf: "Pakistan is an ally. But then you say we are linked with the Taliban. The serving army people will say, 'To hell with them if this is what we are going to get after laying down more than 1,500 lives."
WaPo: Organizing For America "Sputters" In First Effort
The Washington Post examines the recent activism by Organizing For America, the Obama activist group created from his presidential campaign, finding that its recent push for signatures in favor of the budget plan was a bust at only 214,000 signatures and no influence on Congress. OFA spokeswoman Natalie Wyeth said the group was a "work in progress" and the process is ongoing: "This is still a very new project, a new effort, and we're learning as we go."
| TOPICS: Barack Obama, Budget, Defense Spending, Joe Biden, Robert Gates
Josh
Matt
Eric
Brian
Republicans blocking torture memo release by blackmail? http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-04-05/are-republicans-blackmailing-obama/full/
According to the story linked above the GOP is blocking Dawn Johnson and Harold Koh and are threatening to "go nuclear" on the two on the two nominations should the torture memos be released.
And since they were supposed to be released last week, did the threat work? Why not just out the threat and make the GOP the party that defends Cheney and torture. Cheney's approval ratings are at 20% afterall. If the GOP was so worried about the torture memo's why didn't they speak up when they were first written?
April 6, 2009 9:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
Huh?????? Well, that sucks big time. Obama should release the memos and release the threat to the public. The public has a right to know WTF was going on. Release the memos and do a speech that he is releasing them in the face of threatened retaliation from republicans. Bottom line, at a minimum the public has a right to know.
April 6, 2009 11:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
My guess is the President is waiting until he gets back to the US to address the issue. I can see him doing a live news conference to discuss the content of the memos and make it clear that the transparency policy around releasing the memos also applies to the holds put on his nominees. President Obama can be absolutely brilliant at conflating two such apparently different situations.
April 6, 2009 12:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Pakistan is soon to be another one of Bu$h's failed states - joining Afghanistan and Iraq. The real problem is the Paki's have the bomb and the Taliban looks to be working their way to becoming the defacto government with the support of the Paki military. In short, the Taliban will have an A-bomb before Iran. Seems Bu$h was always fighting the wrong boogie-man.
April 6, 2009 10:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
You sound surprised. Anyone not associated with PNAC has known this for ages.
April 6, 2009 10:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
WHY IS OBAMA TALKENG TO TURKEYS?!!!!! WHEN IT IS A NATIONAL! CRISIS?!?!
April 6, 2009 10:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
At least he's not slaughtering them. Or giving interviews in front of them being slaughtered.
April 6, 2009 10:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
Pakistan's issue is the ISI is throughout the Government and they've been "fighting the good fight" in Kashmir using extremists as proxy fighters to the point they are intertwined. So basically you have Muslim extremists with strong connections all the way though the Pakistani government.
April 6, 2009 10:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
Nothing about NK?
What I can't figure out is that Rasmussen poll claiming 57% of Americans want a military response to North Korea?
Can that be true? It seems a little high to me.
April 6, 2009 10:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's a ratsmussen poll. What do you expect? Now if the question was gee, we bomb north korea and the result is a 50/50 chance that north korea attacks south korea and starts another war on the penninsula are you in favor of token bombing of north korea to send a "message", what do you think the result would be? They wouldn't even get many wingers to go for that one.
April 6, 2009 10:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
Most folks don't understand what it would mean.
April 6, 2009 10:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
The Rasmussen poll asked, "If North Korea launches a long-range missile, should the United States take military action to eliminate North Korea’s ability to launch missiles?" There's too much room for error and false assumptions in that question. For example, it doesn't specify if North Korea is launching a missile at us or at our allies. It doesn't specify if the missile is nuclear. It doesn't specify if the missile is active and will actually work. Really, I'm kind of surprised it only got 57%.
If the question had been, "If North Korea test-fires a long-range missile, should the United States take military action to eliminate North Korea's ability to launch missiles?" you would have gotten a very different result.
Rasmussen isn't just right-leaning. It is an organization that often phrases questions very poorly. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS check the actual survey questions when you read their results.
April 6, 2009 11:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
I can't wait to see the wingers heads exploding when gates reveals his defense budget. It will be an awesome sight. Someone is finally tackling the pork barrel spending on the military industrial complex. Finally.
April 6, 2009 10:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
And a Republican holdover from the Bush administration, at that.
April 6, 2009 12:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
That critical factoid explains why obama kept him on and why obama will be able to accomplish what he wants to accomplish with the military. He could only do it with gates' help. If he appointed a dem, as people were demanding, he would be getting flamed by the right and blocked by congress. The silence is deafening. Gates is the man.
April 6, 2009 12:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm going to take a moment to support the unfavorable view of Islam/support greater engagement of Muslim nations point of view. Islam, like many religions, is on the whole backwards-looking and acts as a vehicle for social conservatism and a retardant for progress. The world would be better off without it. The same is true of the majority of Christian sects as well. This, of course, ought not prohibit dialogue or promote bigotry.
April 6, 2009 10:42 AM | Reply | Permalink