President Obama

Live Chat: Barack Obama, Pragmatist or Ideologue?

Troy K. Schneider — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:24:00 -0500

Whether the issue is health reform, Afghanistan or gays in the military, progressive supporters of President Obama are dismayed by the pace of change -- while critics continue to warn of radical ambitions being cloaked by moderate talk.

Andrés Martinez, director of New America’s Bernard L. Schwartz Fellows Program, will be here at noon ET / 9am PT today to discuss the true nature of our president -- and the implications of policy decisions he's made to date.

New America Foundation: Andres Martinez

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Past Chats

Previous New America/Politico chats have their full transcripts archived:

Schwartz Fellow Dayo Olopade on the Obama Administration's faith-based initiatives
Education Policy Program staffers Lisa Guernsey and Christina Satkowski on the future of Head Start
Health Policy Program Director Len Nichols on the current state of health reform
Energy Policy Initiative Director Lisa Margonelli on the prospects for real progress with climate policy legislation.
Schwartz Fellow Nicholas Thompson on Cold War lessons for Afghanistan
Global Assets Project Deputy Director Jamie Zimmerman on savings as a path out of poverty

Obama - - the Secret Weapon Against Climate Change

Terry Tamminen — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 22:10:00 -0400

Ten days after being elected, then President-elect Obama put a stake in the ground on climate change - - he announced at the Governors' Global Climate Summit in Los Angeles that the US would adopt the world-leading policies of California for the United States. Reduce greenhouse gases (GHGs) 80% by 2050 and, to make a substantial down-payment, cut them to 1990 levels by 2020. Of course the EU has agreed to deeper cuts in the near term (but they got started sooner), but no nation had committed to such a dramatic cut as California - - and now the U.S.

Then, before the inauguration night party hangovers had faded in DC, President Obama quietly told his USEPA to get started regulating GHGs as pollutants under the federal Clean Air Act (consistent with a Supreme Court ruling along those lines two years ago) to make good on his pledge. He adopted California's vehicle emission standards to slash GHGs from transportation and got ailing car companies to stand with him, even if their smiles were parked in Detroit, as he made the announcement in the Rose Garden. The President also proposed a cap-and-trade system in his first budget and supported the Waxman-Markey climate bill that recently passed the House.

Now, our President goes to the G8 Summit and extracts a pledge by developed nations to endorse his goals, while also snagging a huge concession from developing nations. Myopic critics complain that the big boys didn't go far enough, but they have completely missed the significance of the breakthrough. All of the world leaders - - developed and developing nations alike - - have now embraced the goal of keeping the average global temperature rise to no more than 2 degrees Celsius. To accomplish that, all nations will have to make significant short term GHG cuts as well as the important long term changes.

Not bad for less than six months on the job. Even more impressive, he's doing this relatively quietly, building the edifice a few bricks at a time without much fanfare, but clearly focused on an impressive finished product. A few more successes like this and the "secret weapon" will be a secret no longer. Remember he does all of this and still manages to get a night on the town in Paris with his wife. Now that's impressive!

Honduras "Coup" and The Plebiscite

Joe Mathews — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:19:00 -0400

Many of the news reports about the Honduran military's decision to remove President Manuel Zelaya have failed to explain clearly the context and timing of the removal. Zelaya was an elected president. But he was removed because of his abuse of democracy -- specifically Honduran direct democracy.

Zelaya called an unconstitutional referendum to lift the rule limited presidents to one, four-year term. The constitution of Honduras permits a national referendum, but only if it is approved by Congress. Zelaya pursued his plebiscite despite the opposition of Congress and a clear decision from the Honduran supreme court. The military, in removing Zelaya, was acting on the lawful orders of that court. This was not a coup -- it was a defense of the constitution -- and specifically its provisions on direct democracy.

The condemnations of Zelaya's removal are largely nonsense, and it's hard not to see the work of Zelaya's ally Hugo Chavez -- himself a devotee of plebiscites. President Obama's statement, in particular, is at best vague and at worst wrong-headed. In its full text, it read: "I am deeply concerned by reports coming out of Honduras regarding the detention and expulsion of President Mel Zelaya. As the Organization of American States did on Friday, I call on all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms, the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic Charter. Any existing tensions and disputes must be resolved peacefully through dialogue free from any outside interference."

That's precisely what happened. Honduran democratic institutions were respecting democratic norms and the rule of law. The Honduran Supreme Court, Congress and military removed a president who trampled on both.

Exhaustion Makes Preacher More Gay Friendly

Joe Mathews — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 01:30:00 -0400

In Prop 8-land, people are buzzing about this: The Rev. Rick Warren, the evangelical Southern California pastor who gave the invocation at President Obama's inauguration, told Larry King last week that he didn't campaign for Prop 8, the California initiative ban on same-sex marriage. In fact, he did. In this Politico story, Warren's pr agents try to walk this one back by arguing that Warren was too tired from his Holy Week duties. Apparently, exhaustion makes one more favorable to same-sex marriage. Which suggests a strategy for the likely initiative battle to overturn Prop 8 in 2010: set off fog horns and shine bright lights in key precincts in the middle of the night.

On a more serious note, Warren's vacillation is as strong a sign as any which way the public is moving on this issue.

Early Education is the First Pillar in President's Education Plan

Sara Mead — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:38:00 -0400

Today, President Obama gave a major education reform speech laying out his administration's vision and agenda for improving public education in the United States. The first pillar in that agenda: investing in early education.

Here's what the President said today:

[Eliminating funding for ineffective programs] will help free up resources for the first pillar in reforming our schools – investing in early childhood initiatives. This isn’t just about keeping an eye on our children, it’s about educating them. Studies show that children in these programs are more likely to score higher in reading and math, more likely to graduate from high school and attend college, more likely to hold a job, and more likely to earn more in that job. For every dollar we invest in these programs, we get nearly ten dollars back in reduced welfare rolls, fewer health costs, and less crime. That is why the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act I signed into law invests $5 billion in growing Early Head Start and Head Start, expanding access to quality child care for 150,000 more children from working families, and doing more for children with special needs. And it is why we are going to offer 55,000 first-time parents regular visits from trained nurses to help make sure their children are healthy and prepare them for school and life.

Even as we invest in early childhood education, let’s raise the bar for early learning programs that are falling short. Today, some children are enrolled in excellent programs. Some are enrolled in mediocre ones. And some are wasting away their most formative years. That includes the one fourth of all kindergartners who are Hispanic, and who will drive America’s workforce of tomorrow, but who are less likely to have been enrolled in early education programs than anyone else.

That is why I am issuing a challenge to our states. Develop a cutting-edge plan to raise the quality of your early learning programs. Show us how you’ll work to ensure that children are better prepared for success by the time they enter kindergarten. If you do, we will support you with an Early Learning Challenge Grant that I call on Congress to enact. That is how we will reward quality, incentivize excellence, and make a down payment on the success of the next generation.

We're pleased to see early education take such a prominent position in the President's education agenda, and we're also very pleased to see a clear focus on early education quality here. As President Obama mentions, research does show that early education programs can have long-term, positive impacts on children's lives. But it's also clear that only high quality early education programs have such benefits. While states have dramatically expanded early education investments in the past decade, and the federal government also makes substantial early education investments, many of the programs they fund are not of sufficient quality to improve students' learning over the long-term or prepare them for school. And with state budgets under increasing fiscal pressure, legislators in many states may be tempted to reduce the quality of their pre-k programs even further. Obama is exactly right to focus new investments on creating incentives for states to improve the quality of their early education programs.

A White House press release accompanying the speech provides a few additional details about the adminsitration's early education agenda:

· President Obama is committed to helping states develop seamless, comprehensive, and coordinated "Zero to Five" systems to improve developmental outcomes and early learning for all children.

· In the 2010 budget, Early Learning Challenge Grants will encourage states to raise the bar on the quality of early education, upgrade workforce quality, and drive improvements across multiple federal, state, and local funding streams.

· Incentive grants to states will support data collection across programs (Head Start, child care, Pre-kindergarten, and other early learning settings), push for uniform quality standards, and step-up efforts for the most disadvantaged children.

We particularly like that the state incentive grants will support data collection across diverse early learning programs. Right now children are served in a hodge podge of programs that often don't coordinate data, so it can be difficult to obtain an accurate picture of how many children in a state or served, and where and how well they are being served. Improving data collection and coordinating data across programs would be a valuable improvement and an important first step towards improving coordination between programs in order to better serve all children in early education, regardless of setting or funding streams.

In addition to early education, the education agenda the President laid out today has four other components: 1) supporting world class standards, assessments, and data systems; 2) recruiting, preparing, and rewarding outstanding teachers; 3) promoting innovation; and 4) providing every American with a quality higher education. It's clear that the administration views the first three of these ideas as focusing primarily on the K-12 education system, but it's important to realize that the same issues--the need for high standards and good data; the primacy of quality teachers; and the need for innovation--also apply in early education. For instance, states should ensure that new data systems they establish for elementary and secondary schools are integrated with data they collect on early education, so that educators can track students' progress from preschool through elementary and secondary schooling. Similarly, efforts to recruit and reward high-quality teachers should include pre-K, as well as K-12, educators. And, as we've noted previously, the early education field has in many ways been more innovative than K-12, so efforts to advance innovation in the public education sector should be informed by innovation that's currently taking place in early childhood.

The President's speech today took an important stand on the importance of early education and laid out some parameters for what the administration's early education approach will look like. He also laid out a strong vision for elementary and secondary school reform. As the administration works to enact and implement this agenda, they must also ensure that their early education and broader school reform agendas are integrated with and support one another. Early Ed Watch will continue to keep a close eye on these policies as they develop further.

Does President Obama Drink Tea?

Terry Tamminen — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 19:32:00 -0500

Tea or coffee? It must be the former, because everyone I know is trying to read his tea leaves, especially when it comes to energy and environment policy.

Crystal balls and beverage dregs may be reliable methods of forecasting some things in our future, but when it comes to sustainability (and that's really what you mean when you say "energy/environment" or "climate" policy) look to California for a hint of where to focus your personal or corporate viewpoint in the coming months. Here are three big areas where the Golden State is leading and, I believe, the Obama Administration will gladly follow.

First, climate policy. On November 18, 2008, shortly after his election, then President-elect Obama delivered a speech to our Governors' Global Climate Summit in Los Angeles that left no doubt he will expand California's climate action plan - - and greenhouse gas reduction targets - - to the federal level. If you missed that important speech, visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvG2XptIEJk

The second California sustainability trailblazing that we should watch is in what's called "green chemistry". Governor Schwarzenegger set policies and signed laws that require a growing number of manufacturers to formulate products, from bug spray to baby bottles, with non-toxic ingredients and chemicals. Given the anti-science approach taken by the Bush administration on environmental and public health issues, look for the new President to rapidly order his bureaucracy to build on the sound science and smart policy of states like California on a host of these programs that make us healthier.

Last, take a look at energy efficiency. Californians are 40% more energy efficient than average Americans and it's not because we don't enjoy watching the SuperBowl on a 72" Hummer of a TV. It's because of state energy efficiency standards for appliances and buildings that save people lots of money, along with regulatory policy that incentivizes utilities to invest in energy efficiency programs for consumers. Watch for the feds to do a quick cut-and-paste.

There are other ways the feds will follow California in these matters, with more to come now that so many are inspired by the new President or scared straight by climate change, so stay tuned. But for now, I've got to run - - I think I hear the kettle whistling.

With Obama in White House, Denver ET Initiative Put On Hold

Joe Mathews — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 18:10:00 -0500

It appears that even those who believe in space aliens are optimistic about President Obama.

Readers of this blog know your blogger has been closely monitoring the effort to qualify a ballot initiative in the city of Denver to establish an extraterrestial commission. It's being pitched as a sort of civil defense thing--preparation for attack (and Denver is at some altitude, so the aliens would probably go their first).

Now the initiative's sponsor, Jeff Peckman, says he's putting the measure on hold. He tells the Rocky Mountain News that the initiative isn't needed because he's confident Obama will take the ET threat seriously. Perhaps this is part of the new Obama diplomatic strategy of engaging our adversaries.