I really really really hope you've seen VP Biden talking to Rachel yesterday. If you didn't, you really should. I don't know what more can be said.
A word to the White House: PUT THIS MAN OUT THERE DAY IN AND DAY OUT.
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Speaking of VP Biden, couple of excerpts from the excellent Atlantic profile The Salesman:
...."I was talking to the president about this just the other day," said David Axelrod, one of Obama’s senior advisers. "He was saying that choosing Joe was really the first presidential decision he made, and that as time goes on, he’s more and more convinced it may have been his best."
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"...If Hillary were elected or I were elected, and assume I did as good a job as I could possibly get done, it would have taken me four years to do what [Obama] did in four weeks, in terms of changing the perception of the world about the United States of America. Literally. It was overnight. It wasn’t about him. It was about the American people ... It said, these guys really do mean what they say. All that stuff about the Constitution, and all about equality, I guess it’s right."
But Biden has been impressed by Obama the man as well. "He has a backbone like a ramrod," the vice president told me. "He sits there, he gets handed the toughest damn decisions anyone has since Roosevelt, and he sits there and he wants an opposing view. He wants to hear all of it, and he’ll sit there and he’ll listen. He’ll ask really smart questions, and he’ll decide. And it’s like he goes up, he goes to bed, he doesn’t re-litigate it. I mean, the guy’s got some real strength. And the thing about him is—what I find impressive is—he really starts off almost everything from a moral and ideological construct, knowing exactly who he is ... He knows what he thinks. . When he talks about [the theologian and political theorist Reinhold] Niebuhr, it’s not because he’s trying to impress. He really does think about the social contract. I mean, the guy’s thought it through...
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Elizabeth Warren stuff:
Greg Sragent:
* Yes, Elizabeth Warren is in charge: Administration officials say that her new advisory role will give her full power to build and shape the new consumer financial protection bureau. Liberals cheer, and Chris Dodd weeps.
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Simon Johnson:
Republican Nightmare: Putting Elizabeth Warren to Work Now
President Obama is finally looking for bold, creative, and clever ways to change the way the US economy operates – preferably with measures that will take effect by the November midterms and change the tone of the broader political debate. His tax proposals this week have some symbolic value, but in the broader sense all of these fiscal suggestions are tinkering at the margins.
What could he possibly do that would grab people’s attention, mobilize his political base, and put his opponents on the defensive? There is an easy answer: Appoint Elizabeth Warren to start running the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) immediately.
And the brilliant part of this idea – is that the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation allows the person charged with setting up this new agency to be an outright appointment, rather than a nomination subject to Senate confirmation...
more....
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START treaty gets out of committee
(Reuters) - A Senate panel approved a new strategic nuclear arms control treaty with Russia on Thursday, advancing one of President Barack Obama's main foreign policy priorities to an uncertain future in the full Senate.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 14-4 to approve the new START treaty. The full Senate must consent to the agreement before it can go into effect, but it is unclear when the treaty will get a vote on the Senate floor.
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New jobless claims sink to lowest in 2 months
Third week in a row that claims for jobless benefits have dropped.
Applications for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week to the lowest level in two months, a sign the labor market is improving.
Initial jobless claims dropped by 3,000 to 450,000 in the week ended Sept. 11, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast was for a rise to 459,000, according to a Bloomberg News survey. The total number of people receiving unemployment insurance fell, and those getting extended payments plunged.
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President Obama Announce Major Expansion of "Educate to Innovate" Campaign
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today at the White House, as part of his "Educate to Innovate" campaign to raise American students to the top of the pack in science and math achievement over the next decade, President Obama announced the launch of Change the Equation, a CEO-led effort to dramatically improve education in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
Change the Equation, a new 501(c)3 non-profit organization, is a response by the business community to the President's "call to action" at the National Academy of Sciences in spring 2009 for all Americans to join the cause of elevating STEM education as a national priority essential to meeting the economic challenges of this century.
Within a year, Change the Equation will replicate successful privately-funded programs in 100 high-need schools and communities. These programs will expand summer science camps for girls, allow more students to engage in robotics competitions, improve professional development for math teachers, increase the number of students that take and pass rigorous Advanced Placement (AP) math and science courses, increase the number of teachers who enter the profession with a STEM undergraduate degree and provide new opportunities to traditionally underrepresented students and underserved communities. Change the Equation will also create a state-by-state "scorecard" to highlight areas for state-level improvement, and help companies increase the impact of their own engagement in STEM education.
Change the Equation was founded by astronaut Sally Ride, former Intel Chairman Craig Barrett, Xerox CEO Ursula Burns, Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt, and Eastman Kodak CEO Antonio Perez, with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
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The President speaks to the President's Export Council on his Administration's commitment to increasing American exports and creating new jobs. September 16, 2010.
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President Obama speaks to members and guests at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute's 33rd Annual Award Gala in Washington, D.C. September 15, 2010.
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The first couple at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute's 33rd Annual Award Gala (AP):
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Oh, really?!
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