President Obama just delivered a near hour-long speech on drone strikes and counterterrorism policy. There was a lot there; he announced, among other things, new steps the administration is taking to close Guantanamo Bay, changes in policies regarding drone strikes, and a more lenient policy for the transfer of Guantanamo detainees. He defended the strike that killed Anwar al-Awlaki and the practice of drone strikes in general, but also acknowledged their limitations. You can read the full text of the speech here (Photo credit: AP) source
Any one of those stories would be enough to knock an Administration back on its heels. All three — and with the IRS and AP stories coming in rapid succession over the past 96 hours — threaten to permanently derail Obama’s plans to fortify his presidential legacy in the first 18 months of his second term.
The problems are both practical and symbolic. They have both short term and long term political consequences. And almost none of it portends well for President Obama and his Administration.
Another point here worth considering: “Remember that President Obama was elected in 2008 in no small part because of his pledge to be the anti-George W. Bush. That is, prizing competence over all in governance and putting a premium on transparency. And both of those pillars are undermined by developments in the past four days.”
Speaking on behalf of the White House Correspondents Association, I can say a broad cross section of our members from print, radio, online and TV have today expressed extreme frustration to me about having absolutely no access to the President of the United States this entire weekend. There is a very simple but important principle we will continue to fight for today and in the days ahead: transparency.Fox News White House Correspondent Ed Henry • Speaking on behalf of the White House Press Corps, expressing the group’s frustration at being given limited access to President Obama before/during/after his weekend golf game with Tiger Woods. The White House has defended its handling of the press pool, saying that officials’ actions were consistent both with previous presidential golf games and what was promised to reporters who traveled to Florida last week. source
Under state law, a public employee may not provide services to a candidate or campaign during his or her work hours. Nonetheless, it is evident that your office has become an opposition research arm of the Obama reelection campaign.Mitt Romney’s campaign manager, Matt Rhoades • Offering a bit of a rip with a FOIA request sent to Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick’s office, in response to a story released earlier today that claims that the former Massachusetts governor’s staff deleted e-mails before Romney left office. The key phrase in that statement above? “Opposition research arm.” Someone, please, make a T-shirt with that phrase on it. source (via • follow)
Romney staff facing heat over deleted e-mails: “The governor’s office has found no e-mails from 2002-2006 in our possession,” says Mark Reilly, current governor Deval Patrick’s chief legal counsel. What say you? Is the fact that Romney’s gubernatorial staff actively flew in the face of transparency a big deal?
OK, this isn’t nearly as sexy as, say, EveryBlock or the Sunlight Foundation. But throwing records of the past decade of crimes online represents a new era of transparency for a famously-guarded city. Or as Brett Goldstein, the city’s chief data officer and former police officer, puts it: “It’s a whole new era of openness and transparency. You determine your own analysis.” And on top of that, EveryBlock could totally plug into this database if they wanted to. Some have been a bit critical of what isn’t in the data — race, for example — but many analysts note that this is more than a lot of cities offer. You done good, Rahm! source
Copyright 2009-2013 Ernie Smith • Ask us stuff! • E-mail us • Follow us on Twitter • Follow us on Facebook
