David Plouffe, Elizabeth Edwards Get Book Deals
(AP Photo/Tom Mihalek)
Plouffe's seven-figure deal is for a book on the presidential election entitled "The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama's Historic Victory."
In a statement, publisher Viking said it would examine "the deliberations about whether to run against long odds, the epic primary battle with Hillary Clinton, the drama of the general election campaign against John McCain and the strategic roads taken — and not taken."
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Is The White House Quietly Fighting Stimulus Pork?
(CBS)
The bill now being debated in the Senate includes, as Couric noted, "$6.2 billion for home weatherization, $100 million for children to learn green construction, $50 million for port modernization water and wastewater infrastructure needs in Guam, $50 million for the NEA, the National Endowment for the Arts."
"Well, let's think about it," the president said, seizing on the weatherization example. "We're going to weatherize homes, that immediately puts people back to work and we're going to train people who are out of work, including young people, to do the weatherization. As a consequence of weatherization, our energy bills go down and we reduce our dependence on foreign oil. What would be a more effective stimulus package than that?"
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Day 15: Obama Takes Stimulus Fight To Public As Nominees Drop Out
(AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)
"We have to act. We have to act now," the president told CBS News' Katie Couric.
"Now that doesn't mean that the package can't improved and that's what I said to the leadership last night," he continued. "Let's improve it. Let's make this a package that is big enough for the moment."
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Transcript: The Obama/Couric Interview
(CBS)
The president said he "screwed up" regarding Tom Daschle's nomination for Health and Human Services secretary and defended his stimulus package, the subject of a tough fight in the Senate.
We've posted the full transcript of the interview. You can read it here.
Does Coleman Still Have A Chance In Minnesota?
(CBS/AP)
But a three-judge panel's decision today suggests that Republican incumbent Norm Coleman may not be finished just yet.
The panel found that nearly 4,800 rejected absentee ballots may be reconsidered in the recount trial, the Star-Tribune reports.
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Highlights Of The Senate Stimulus Bill
(AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)
As we noted in a similar post on the House version of the bill, the details of the package often get lost in all the coverage of the back-and-forth between lawmakers. So we're publishing the Associated Press' breakdown of the highlights of what's in the package.
A few points: One, many provisions below expire in two years. Two, the list does not reflect efforts by Democrats Dianne Feinstein and Patty Murray to add $25 billion in infrastructure projects to the bill. (Republican senators blocked the effort today, though it garnered 58 votes.) And three, members of both parties are planning to introduce amendments to the bill as the debate goes on, and the final version is unlikely to look exactly like this.
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Daschle Withdraws HHS Nomination
(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Daschle would have overseen Mr. Obama's efforts to reform the health care system.
The news comes on the same day that Mr. Obama's choice for chief performance officer withdrew from consideration for the job, also citing tax problems.
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Video: Obama Introduces Commerce Pick Gregg
(AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)
"Clearly Judd and I don't agree on every issue, most notably who should have won the election," the president said. "But we do agree on the urgent need to get American businesses and families back on their feet. We see eye to eye on conducting the nation's business in a responsible, transparent and accountable manner."
Watch Gregg's comments:
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Obama Calls Iraqi President, Prime Minister
(Getty Images/Ali Al-Saadi)
"The President offered the best wishes of the American people as Iraq's new provincial leaders begin to assume important new responsibilities on behalf of the Iraqi people," the White House said in a release. "President Obama described the review of U.S. planning on options for executing a responsible military drawdown that he directed on the first day of his administration. He reiterated his commitment to consult with the Iraqi Government as the process moves forward."
Mr. Obama also spoke to Korean president Lee Myung-bak. In a conversation dubbed "warm and substantive" by the White House, the president "conveyed his deep commitment to the United States-Republic of Korea alliance."
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Obama Performance Czar Withdraws Candidacy
(AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson)
"I recognize that your agenda and the duties facing your Chief Performance Officer are urgent," Killefer wrote in a letter to President Obama that was released by the White House. "I have also come to realize in the current environment that my personal tax issue of D.C. Unemployment tax could be used to create exactly the kind of distraction and delay those duties must avoid."
"Because of this I must reluctantly ask you to withdraw my name from consideration," she wrote.
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Day 14: Obama Expresses Stimulus Optimism
4768866On his fourteenth day in office, President Obama predicted that his stimulus plan will attract GOP support in the Senate – even though it got no Republican support in the House and Republicans suggested they wouldn't back the bill over the weekend.
"I am confident that by the time we have the final package on the floor that we are going to see substantial support, and people are going to see this is a serious effort," the president said.
Watch Chip Reid's CBS Evening News report on the continuing debate below:
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"I am confident that by the time we have the final package on the floor that we are going to see substantial support, and people are going to see this is a serious effort," the president said.
Watch Chip Reid's CBS Evening News report on the continuing debate below:
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Dems, MoveOn Target GOP Lawmakers Opposing Stimulus
(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
MoveOn, which claims a membership of 5 million, asked members to "pledge now to make sure senators know that voters will hold them accountable for their vote."
"...right now, the stimulus doesn't have the votes to pass," the group said, citing an Associated Press report that GOP leaders doubt the bill will attract enough support to get through the Senate. "Republicans and conservative Democrats are teaming up to strip out the good stuff—college loan assistance, health research, tax cuts for poor folks, and more—in favor of more tax cuts for corporations. If they don't get their way, they'll block the plan."
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Michelle Obama Visits Department Of Education
(AP)
The first lady had kind words for the department's employees.
"I am a product of your work," Obama said. "I wouldn't be here if it weren't for the public schools that nurtured me and helped me along. And I am committed, as well as my husband, to ensuring that more kids like us and kids around this country, regardless of their race, their income, their status, their -- the property values in their neighborhoods, get access to an outstanding education."
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Senate GOP Offers Alternative Stimulus Plan
(CBS)
The total cost of the GOP plan, as laid out in the working draft linked below, is $713 billion – significantly less than the Obama administration's $800 billion-plus plan. The majority of the alternate plan, $430 billion, comes in the form of tax cuts. Republicans have criticised the Obama administration's plan as too reliant on spending.
This morning, McCain said "we're a long way away" from agreement on the plan. The president, by contrast, describes the differences between Republicans and Democrats as "very modest."
Senate Democrats need at least some GOP support since they are slightly shy of the 60 votes they would need to override a Republican filibuster.
To read the GOP's seven-page working draft, click here. (PDF)
UPDATE: The complete text of the stimulus bill is now available on the Senate Finance Committee site. Read it here> (PDF), if you have some time -- it presently clocks in at 736 pages. (This document combines the packages approved by both the Finance and Appropriations Committees.)
Following Ethics Questions, Dodd To Refinance Homes
(CBS)
Dodd, a Democrat, said that the homes, in Dodd's home state of Connecticut as well as Washington, will be refinanced with a different company. He will do so through a third party "in an abundance of caution."
"[Wife] Jackie and I acted properly in our mortgage refinancing negotiations. We did not seek or expect any special rates or terms on our loans and we never received any," Dodd said in a statement. He said "the rates and terms we did negotiate were widely available in the market when we refinanced."
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