For the second time since the Barack Obama won the U.S. Presidential election, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev issued a none-too-subtle threat aimed at his soon-to-be American counterpart.
Medvedev — who is starting to make his patron, the former KGB apparatchik, Vladimir Putin, look soft — warned that Russia was prepared to use force to secure unspecified [...]

Now that Barack Obama is moving past the Rod Blagojevich scandal, we can make some assessments as to how Team Obama is liking to handle future political scandals and uncomfortable moments. Politico outlines Obama’s five rules of scandal management:
1 - Be transparent, to an extent
2 - Don’t let the news cycle dictate response
3 - No [...]

A fitting beginning to his presidency and hopefully a signal to all that his administration and leadership will be much more humble than his predecessor’s…

Barack Obama will be sworn into office with the same Bible that Abraham Lincoln used for his first inauguration in 1861.
The move further extends the parallels that Mr. Obama has drawn [...]

First, the reason why…
The more aggressive target, up from 2.5 million jobs set a month ago, comes after a four-hour meeting last week in which Obama’s top economic advisers told him the economy is now expected to lose as many as 3.5 million jobs over the next year. Obama was told that could drive unemployment, [...]

Now, this is actually a pretty interesting strategy by the the Obama team. Have Biden focus on the problems of the largest group in this country while Obama tries to save everybody.
From AP:
Vice President-elect Joe Biden will oversee an Obama administration effort to find ways of building up the ranks of the middle class, that [...]

The weekly radio address…

The team sounds impressive, mostly because there are actual scientists in this group and not just a bunch of industry lobbyists.
Steve Benen says it best…
I realize that it’s a testament to Bush’s presidency that I get so excited about a new president talking about science is such a progressive way, but I [...]

I know that as a gay man I should be joining like everyone else in condemning President-elect Obama in selecting Rick Warren to give a prayer at the inaugeration since he vigorously supported Prop 8 which banned same sex marriage in California, but I’m not.
I don’t agree with Warren’s views on this of course, but [...]

On its face, the Warren pick seems like a slap in the face to the progressive gay movement, and I can understand why this group would be incensed. Here you have the first African-American President inviting one of the most high profile supporters of Prop 8 to speak at the inauguration.
And it’s not like [...]

Looks like it’s a little bit longer than the 16 months Obama talked about during the primaries, but as long as the plan is to get out during his first term I bet he’ll allow the generals more time to execute a plan they think is realistic.
From NY Times:
The plan was proposed by the top [...]

This isn’t going to make gay rights activists happy.
Barack Obama has selected evangelical pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration. Once again, Obama seems more interested in reaching out rather than reaching inwards towards his base.
While Warren is not of the fire-and-brimstone mold, he did play a prominent role in the [...]

The Housing and Consumer Prices report came out yesterday and showed two extremely alarming trends.
First, this 18.9% drop is the biggest on record, and that means that home prices will continue to fall like a rock.
Second, consumer prices dropped 1.7% meaning that deflationary is only getting worse and there’s certainly no indication it will stop [...]

They said they would, and so here are the Qs and the As.
From Change.gov:
Q: “Will you lift the ban on Stem Cell research in your first 100 days in office?” James_M, Nashville, TN
A: President-elect Obama is a strong supporter of Federal funding for responsible stem cell research and he has pledged to reverse President Bush’s [...]

McCain did it a couple days ago when the RNC released an ad essentially trying to raise questions about the language Obama used during press conferences, and today Gingrich sounds the same alarm.
From Politico:
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is denouncing Republican attempts to link President-elect Barack Obama and disgraced Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.
Senator John McCain [...]

This is Lagan from ANP,
We sat down with James Risen, the New York Times national security corespondent who broke the domestic wiretapping stories, to talk about the dilemmas Obama faces with the unparalleled executive power he will inherit.
Dick Cheney recently said that Obama would appreciate all of the power they are handing over, but Obama [...]

At the New York Post, Kirsten Powers notes that the Barack Obama team has bungled the media management of the Rod Blagojevich scandal.
The Obama camp has managed to violate almost every tenet of crisis communications - starting with Rule No. 1: Get all the information out quickly, accurately and fully.
It’s imperative that reporters don’t learn [...]

The makers of crappy commemoratives know a good opportunity when they see one, and the impending inauguration of Barack Obama is apparently one of those opportunities.
First, we’ve got the Obama Commemorative Coin:

Yes, that’s right, for just $ 9.95 you too can be the proud owner of a fake coin with a badly painted picture of [...]

Just watch the following story from last night’s NBC Nightly News. Because while it’s supposed to be about the Dashchle appointment, it ends up being nearly 90% about Blagojevich and Obama.

And by the way, just the fact that I now don’t need to check my spelling when I type Blagojevich means that I’m focusing on [...]

I never understood why Republicans were so hot to talk about Reverend Wright in the general election when so much had been said in the primaries, but many in the GOP are still slamming McCain for not “getting tough.”
Well, guess what? McCain’s own people said that “getting tough” could have destroyed him.
From Politico:
John McCain’s top [...]

Giving Tom Daschle these two jobs is actually an extremely significant move, as the AP notes:
In previous administrations, the White House and not the Cabinet agency has led attempts to expand coverage, potentially at the expense of the health secretary’s decision-making power.
Daschle’s joint appointment “ensures that there is one primary voice speaking on behalf of [...]

Ambinder is talking to the Obama team, and they don’t think the economy is going to get better any time soon…
It’s quite unsettling to talk to members of Barack Obama’s transition teams these days, especially those who are helping with the economics portfolio. Without going into details, the sense I get from them is that [...]