Irritated President Obama 'Stares Down' Reporter

When a reporter tried to quiz President Obama on Thursday about a lobbyist chosen for a top Defense Department job, the president quickly became agitated.

WASHINGTON -- President Obama paid a surprise visit to members of the White House press corps Thursday evening when he walked through their working area of the West Wing, but he quickly became agitated when he was confronted with a question by one of the journalists.

According to reports, when the Politico's Jonathan Martin asked the president about his nominee for deputy secretary of defense, William Lynn, Obama refused to answer, saying he was not there to take questions.

"I came down here to visit. I didn't come down here -- this is what happens. I can't end up visiting you guys and shaking hands if I am going to grilled every time I come down here," the president said.

Pressed further by the Politico reporter about his Pentagon nominee, Obama turned more serious, putting his hand on the reporter's shoulder and staring him in the eye.

"All right, come on," he said, with obvious irritation in his voice. "We will be having a press conference, at which time you can feel free to [ask] questions. Right now, I just wanted to say hello and introduce myself to you guys -- that's all I was trying to do," Politico.com reported.

The situation came to a close when a cameraman in the room interrupted, declaring: "I'd like to say it one more time: 'Mr. President.'"

The nominee in question, William Lynn, is a former lobbyist for defense contractor Raytheon, a pick Obama made in contradiction to his much-heralded anti-lobbying rules.

Obama was willing to field lighter questions, though.

Yes, he's discovered the gym in the White House residence. No, he hasn't played basketball yet on the outdoor White House court because it's been too cold.

The president's walk-through came without notice, causing a bit of a wild scene. Reporters started running toward him, wary of missing a single word. When one reporter who hadn't spotted Obama yet asked what everyone was rushing toward, another one responded: "The big guy."

Obama made it to the back of the briefing room, in a narrow hallway, where he shook hands.

"I've got to say, it's smaller than I thought," the president said as he looked around for the first time.

He introduced himself to those whom he didn't already know from the long campaign trail and said it would take a little while to learn everyone's names.

The president then continued on, walking by the media outlets' booths on the same floor.

Obama asked about the reasoning behind why certain media outlets had work space where they did. When he got an answer involving the intricacies of press corps protocol, Obama responded: "This is worse than the Middle East here -- who's sitting where and all that stuff."

As he walked through the area where journalists have lunch, Obama noticed a pair of vending machines that dispense soda and junk food.

"Looks like you have some healthy snacks, guys," Obama said.

Then he walked through the basement quarters, where several other news outlets set up shop. He said that was smaller than he expected too.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Bill Richardson

Bill Richardson
Has withdrawn as nominee for: Secretary of commerce
Would have brought to the job: While in Congress, he served as a roving diplomatic troubleshooter for President Bill Clinton, and was later named ambassador to the United Nations in December 1996. He earned a reputation as a tough and inventive negotiator, especially when dealing with America’s most entrenched adversaries, among them Iraq, Sudan, North Korea and Cuba. In the 1990s, he negotiated the release of a downed American pilot imprisoned in North Korea, some Red Cross workers held in Sudan and two American contractors detained by Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
Is linked to Mr. Obama by:Despite intense courtship by the Clintons and having served in Mr. Clinton’s cabinet, Mr. Richardson endorsed Mr. Obama during the epic primary battle. He also helped deliver the pivotal Hispanic vote in New Mexico for Mr. Obama, which helped flip the state to Democratic from Republican and ensure a Democratic victory.
In his own words:“I choose bold. I choose action. I choose what’s right for the people. I choose to make a difference.”
Used to work as:Since 2002, he has been the popular governor of New Mexico. In the Clinton administration, he served as ambassador to the United Nations, then as energy secretary. He ran for the Democratic presidential nomination this year, but withdrew after coming in fourth in the Iowa and New Hampshire nominating contests.
Carries as baggage:He said he was dropping out of consideration because of an ongoing investigation of a company that has done business with New Mexico. A federal grand jury in the state is investigating accusations that Mr. Richardson’s administration gave substantial contracts to a California financier who contributed heavily to the governor’s political action committees, The New York Times reported in December, citing a person familiar with the grand jury proceedings. Also, Mr. Richardson has no landmark achievement as a diplomat and has said, in hindsight, that he was wrong on several important issues: the first invasion of Iraq (which he opposed), the second (which he supported), and the North American Free Trade Agreement (which he helped pass). In the late 1990s, he was secretary of the Department of Energy during the disastrous security breeches at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the widely criticized prosecution of scientist Wen Ho Lee.
Also known for:By most accounts, he is the country’s most influential Latino politician. Hispanic groups are pushing hard for him to become secretary of state.
Résumé includes:Born Nov. 15, 1947, in Pasadena, Calif. ...was a major league prospect as a baseball pitcher with a wicked curve. ...graduate of Tufts, where he also earned a master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. ...during the governor’s race in 2002, he made the Guinness Book of World Records for the number of hands shaken in a single day (13,392 in eight hours at the New Mexico State Fair.) ...met his wife, Barbara Flavin, while hitchhiking in the late 1960s near Boston.

Obama: Quit Listening to Rush Limbaugh if You Want to Get Things Done

True Facts News: Obama: Quit Listening to Rush Limbaugh if You Want to Get Things Done

Obama creates an e-mail trail, raising questions about access to his electronic messages

WASHINGTON (AP) — Barack Obama is the first wired president, ready to exchange e-mail with close friends and advisers. When do the rest of us get to read them?

We may have to wait until as late as 2028, depending on when Obama leaves office as president. That's according to leading presidential historians who make their living hunting through records at the National Archives and Records Administration.

White House lawyers maintain that Obama's messages are subject to the Presidential Records Act, a post-Watergate law intended to stop former presidents from carting away the records of their time in office. But the law also gives ex-presidents exclusive access to their own records for lengthy periods, allowing them to cash in on memoirs that rely on material the public hasn't seen.

"Basically, anything that Obama's thumbs tap out into the ether is of historical value and has to be saved," said Tom Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, a private Washington-based group that seeks to open government information to the public.



Obama's electronic circle of friends includes some senior staffers and some personal friends who "are able to BlackBerry with the president so he can stay in touch with them," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Friday.

Historians already are drawing parallels between Obama's e-mails and the communications habits of some of his predecessors. President Richard Nixon dictated late-night memos on important and mundane subjects, giving historians an opportunity to peer inside the administration of the only president to resign from office.

"I wrote a whole chapter in my book from those late-night memos," said University of Wisconsin Professor Stanley Kutler, author of "The Wars of Watergate."

Under the Presidential Records Act, former presidents and vice presidents can restrict access to some of their records, including confidential communications with advisers, for up to 12 years. If Obama were to serve two full terms, that would put the release date for many of his records at 2028.

Former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush made such claims. Former President Bill Clinton was more open, waiving some of the privileges invoked by Bush and Reagan.

Five years after a president leaves office, the public can begin requesting documents. Reagan released huge chunks of material after only five years, including many on his meetings with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

In 2001, President George W. Bush gave former presidents and vice presidents more authority beyond the 12-year period to claim executive privilege. Obama overturned Bush's order on his first full day in office this week. Bush's order enabled the withholding of papers that contained military, diplomatic or national security secrets, communications among the president and his advisers or legal advice.

No terrorists please

DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) — Across Europe, President Barack Obama's decision to shut the Guantanamo Bay prison has raised an awkward question: Which EU states that railed against the camp will offer new lives to released prisoners?

The U.S. Defense Department says about 50 of the 245 prisoners awaiting freedom cannot go home again on security or political grounds, raising the need to find an alternative place to send them. But European Union members long critical of Guantanamo shied away Friday from any firm commitments to help.

Ireland has joined Portugal, France, Germany and Switzerland in saying it probably would participate in an EU-organized plan that might take shape at a summit of foreign ministers Monday in Brussels.

But it already appears likely that Europe will leave some of Guantanamo's inmates in limbo behind a policy of: No terrorists please.



Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said European Union members should agree on terms and conditions for housing at least some of the 50 "as a logical consequence of our arguing for the closure of Guantanamo."

He emphasized, however, that "no one is talking about terrorists or anything like that coming to EU countries. We're talking about non-combatants — people who clearly have no history of any terrorist activity."

Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said in a written statement to The Associated Press that all EU countries thinking of taking ex-prisoners "will have to have regard to difficult security issues which arise." He declined an AP request to explain what those concerns were and how EU leaders could overcome them.

Ahern said in his prepared remarks he expects the Brussels talks to promote "a united and positive response at EU level to any request made by the new U.S. administration for help in bringing about the closure of Guantanamo."

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said the Obama administration was carrying on diplomatic contacts begun on Bush's watch with "allies and partners, including a number of European countries," about the transfer of some detainees. He declined to discuss any specifics.

Diplomatic and security officials across Europe acknowledge that in the Obama era their nations risk exposure of double standards — complaining of American injustice, but presuming that ex-Guantanamo prisoners are too hot to handle themselves. Most nations in the 27-country bloc remain in the position of waiting for an EU request that they might prefer never comes.

Italy, whose conservative government long supported former President George W. Bush's "war on terror," is among those skeptical that Europe will easily embrace fugitives from Azerbaijan, Algeria, Afghanistan, Chad, China, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

"Here we have the first example of how this new Obama politics will demand more of Europe — not less — than Bush's so-called unilateralism," said Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, who declined to add Italy to the list of willing destinations for ex-Guantanamo inmates. "America will probably ask some European countries to take in these people, who will no longer be at Guantanamo but won't be free to wander the streets of New York."

Switzerland, which has made positive public comments about an EU-wide initiative, now cautions that such a decision is really up to authorities within its individual cantons. And those local authorities are sounding cool on the idea.

Karin Keller-Suter, vice president of the Conference of Cantonal Justice and Police Directors, said its members "would expect a thorough security examination" before any ex-Guantanamo prisoners win admission to Switzerland.

In France, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner mirrored the Irish line that the EU must lead the way. He said France would cooperate in principle — but would adopt a "case by case" approach to sheltering ex-inmates.

A few European nations say, bluntly, that the United States created the Guantanamo problem itself and should bear the consequences on its own, too.

"I've spent most of my waking hours the last three years in this post cleaning up after the U.S.," said Swedish Migration Minister Tobias Billstrom, who argued that Sweden had already made a home for thousands of Iraqi refugees since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003. "I think that the U.S. perhaps should start to do some cleaning on its own before asking for help from others."

Obama will abandon or reverse pro-life policies

On Monday, the eve of Obama’s inauguration, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops unveiled a letter urging him to retain federal policies that protect healthcare workers’ conscience rights, ban funding of stem-cell research that destroys human embryos, and block foreign aid to overseas organizations promoting abortion.
The ad comes amid heightened anxiety that Obama will abandon or reverse pro-life policies established by President George W. Bush.




The ad reads
"This child's future is a broken home. He will be abandoned by his father. His single mother will struggle to raise him. Despite the hardships he will endure this child will become the 1st African-American President." The ad ends with a photograph of President Obama and this message: "Life: Imagine the Potential."

"We are committed to not only reducing abortion, but to making it unthinkable as an answer to an unintended pregnancy," George wrote to Obama. "If your goal is to reduce abortions, that will not be achieved by involving the government in expanding and promoting abortions."

Obama to Lift Ban on Overseas Abortion Funding

President Obama is expected to sign the executive order one day after the 36th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion in all 50 states.

President Obama on Friday is expected to lift a ban on federal funding for international groups that promote or perform abortions, reversing a policy of his predecessor, George W. Bush.
Obama will sign the executive order one day after the 36th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion in all 50 states.
Liberal groups welcomed the decision while abortion rights foes criticized the president, who was long expected to make this move during his first week in office.
The so-called Mexico City policy requires any non-governmental organization to agree before receiving U.S. funds that they will "neither perform nor actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other nations."
It is also known as the "global gag rule," because it prohibits taxpayer funding for groups that even talk about abortion if there is an unplanned pregnancy.
The policy was first instituted by President Ronald Reagan in 1984 and continued by President George H.W. Bush. The policy was reversed by President Bill Clinton in 1993, and re-instated by President George W. Bush in 2001.
Both Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who will oversee foreign aid, had promised to do away with the gag rule during the presidential campaign. Clinton is to visit the U.S. Agency for International Development, through which much U.S. foreign aid is disbursed, later on Friday.
Organizations that had pressed Obama to make the abortion-ban change were jubilant.
"Women's health has been severely impacted by the cutoff of assistance. "President Obama's actions will help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies, abortions and women dying from high-risk pregnancies because they don't have access to family planning," said Tod Preston, a spokesman for Population Action International, an advocacy group.
Anti-abortion groups criticized the move.
"President Obama not long ago told the American people that he would support policies to reduce abortions, but today he is effectively guaranteeing more abortions by funding groups that promote abortion as a method of population control," said Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee.
Obama has spent his first days in office systematically signing executive orders reversing Bush administration policies on issues ranging from foreign policy to government operations. On Thursday, he signed three executive orders to rein in secretive U.S. counterterror policies and end harsh interrogations.

President Barack Obama 2009 Inauguration and Address