All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

Vice President Joe Biden spoke at a fundraiser in Hartford, Connecticut for today for Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd - who decided he needed to remain in D.C. for Senate votes.

Dodd is facing long odds in his 2010 reelection effort.

One hundred and seventy-five people paid $500 each to hear Biden call Dodd "the single most gifted legislator in Congress, now that Teddy Kennedy's gone."

Biden acknowledged that Dodd is in a very tough race for re-election, saying: "Chris is getting the living hell beat out of him, the living bejesus beat out of him."

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Move over Leo Tolstoy. President Obama has now offered up his own treatise on war and peace - and did in it in far fewer pages than the prolific Russian author.

In his lecture today in Oslo accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, the president sought to address the incongruity of an American Commander-in-Chief, at war in two countries, receiving such an honor.

It brought to mind Edwin Starr's 1970 hit song which repeatedly asked and answered the musical question: "War. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!"

To the contrary, Mr. Obama argued forcefully that war is often inevitable and the only path to peace.

"I understand why war is not popular," said Mr. Obama, "but I also know this: The belief that peace is desirable is rarely enough to achieve it."

In a 35-minute speech at the end of a grand ceremony in which he was presented with the Nobel Peace Prize medal and diploma, Mr. Obama said the world must acknowledge "the hard truth" that violent conflict will not be eradicated in our lifetimes. But that, he added, is not necessarily a bad thing.

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President Obama plans to pressure top bankers next Monday to increase lending to the nation's small businesses.

A White House official confirms the president has summoned bankers and other financial industry CEOs to meet with him early next week to discuss his efforts to grow the economy and create an environment for more hiring in the private sector.

The meeting will follow yesterday's speech in which he announced a number of proposals to create jobs in the face of government numbers showing 15.4-million unemployed nationwide. Half that number lost their jobs since the recession began two years ago.

One proposal would use some of the $200-billion in unspent money from the TARP bank bailout fund as loans to small businesses, to help them expand and hire new employees.

Mr. Obama will also use Monday's meeting to push for more support of his proposal to create a new regulatory system for the financial industry – which opposes the idea. The plan has so far made little progress in Congress.

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Mark Knoller is a CBS News White House correspondent. You can read more of his posts in Hotsheet here. You can also follow him on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/markknoller.

There'll be no effort by Barack Obama to disguise or obscure the fact that he's a war president when he accepts the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on Thursday.

The ceremony takes place ten days after he announced plans to escalate the U.S. military engagement in Afghanistan by deploying another 30,000 American troops there.

Even the White House regards it as an odd "juxtaposition" and spokesman Robert Gibbs says the president will use his acceptance speech to address that irony.

It raises the question of whether the Nobel judges would have wanted to bestow one of the most highly-coveted awards on the planet on an American president newly-engaged in an expansion of military might in a conflict now in its eighth year.

The judges said they selected Mr. Obama to honor "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."

But asked specifically if Mr. Obama will be accepting the Nobel Peace Prize as a war president, spokesman Gibbs was unambiguous. "Exactly," he stated bluntly. And he will mention Afghanistan in his acceptance speech.

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SCHNECKSVILLE, Pa. – It's enough to make President Obama long for questions from the White House press corps. Well, almost.

At the end of a speech about the economy and today's drop in the national unemployment rate, the president invited members of his audience at Lehigh Carbon Community College to tell him what's on their mind.

Have you considered legalizing prostitution, gambling and drugs as a way of stimulating the economy, asked a college sophomore?

"I appreciate the boldness of your question," said the president as laughter filled the hall. But he made it clear the suggestion "will not be my jobs strategy."

He commended the college kid for questioning conventional wisdom. "You're doing exactly what you're supposed to be doing - which is thinking in new ways about things."

There are studies that show legalizing certain vices – and taxing them – would provide economic stimulus and reduce, if not eliminate, government deficits. But don't expect many politicians to get behind the idea.

Another questioner had a request, not a suggestion.

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WEST POINT, NY (CBS) – Ending two-and-a-half months of sometimes anguishing deliberations, President Obama concluded the only responsible way out of Afghanistan is to first send in more troops. Thirty-thousand more troops.

The word "victory" did not appear in the president's address to the nation. Instead, he said his objective is to bring the war in Afghanistan "to a successful conclusion."

Making his first appearance as Commander-in-Chief before an audience of cadets here at the U.S. Military Academy, the president sought to explain what he portrayed as an unavoidable decision to escalate the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan.

"If I did not think that the security of the United States and the safety of the American people were at stake in Afghanistan, I would gladly order every single one of our troops home tomorrow," he said.

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Of the 366 statements, remarks and comments President Obama has delivered since taking office, tonight's speech at West Point is his first one billed as an address to the nation.

He'll use it to unveil his new strategy on Afghanistan and Pakistan. He'll announce deployments of upwards of 30,000 additional troops; explain how the government will provide the $30-billion a year in funding for them, and also make it clear the U.S. military commitment there is not open-ended.

It's unusual but not unprecedented for Mr. Obama to deliver an address to the nation from a venue other than the White House.

His immediate predecessor, President George W. Bush, delivered 23 addresses to the nation during his 8 years in office of which 7 originated from sites other than the White House:

• August 9, 2001: Stem Cell Research – Bush Ranch
• November 8, 2001: War on Terrorism – World Congress Center, Atlanta
• September 11, 2001: First Anniversary of 9/11 – Ellis Island, N.Y. Harbor
• October 7, 2002: Threat Posed by Iraq – Cincinnati Museum Center
• May 1, 2003: End of Major Combat Operations in Iraq – USS Abraham Lincoln, 30 miles off coast of San Diego
• June 23, 2005: War in Iraq – Fort Bragg, N.C.
• September 15, 2005: Response to Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans

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Former U.S. Chief of Protocol Donald Ensenat, who served in that post for most of President Bush's 8 years in office, says "the Secret Service is being made the scapegoat" in the party crasher incident.

Ensenat is seen at left with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2004.

In an e-mail to CBS News, Ensenat blames the Office of the White House Social Secretary for not having staffers with the invitation list at each of the access checkpoints for guests. Ensenat thinks it's the Social Secretary's job to have refused entry to anyone not on the guest list.

"The Secret Service are not bouncers," writes Ensenat. "Their job is security which they perform superbly putting their life on the line everyday."

In prior administrations, it has been standard practice for staffers from the Social Office to be physically present at access checkpoints to provide guidance to the Secret Service.

But ultimately, it's the responsibility of the Secret Service to ensure that individuals not on the guest list are not permitted entry to the White House. And Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan acknowledged this in his public statement last Friday.

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Here's the latest from the Obama Pardon Scoreboard:

People: 0
Turkeys: 1

President Obama has yet to grant any pardons or commutations to people since taking office. Over 1,000 pardon requests are pending for Mr. Obama, who has received 232 since he took office.

He pardoned his first turkey today.

President George W. Bush granted no pardons until Christmas of his second year in office.

At one point, his pardon scoreboard was Turkeys: 4, People: 0.

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Mark Knoller is a CBS News White House correspondent. You can read more of his posts in Hotsheet here. You can also follow him on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/markknoller.

Nothing a president does lends itself more easily to a punch line – deliberate or inadvertent - than the annual pardon of a Thanksgiving turkey.

"I think it's kind of funny, and it's an annual ritual," said President Clinton at his first turkey pardon ceremony in 1993.

He said the pardon was easy for him "because I've been around turkeys all my life." Upon realizing the double meaning of his statement, Mr. Clinton was quick to add: "I didn't mean it like that."

At the turkey pardon in 2001, President George W. Bush observed that "our guest of honor looks a little nervous. Nobody's told him yet that I'm going to give him a pardon."

In 1990, then-President George H. W. Bush sought to allay the fears of his audience that a "terrible fate" awaited the turkey presented him.
"We've decided to spare him. He will not be subjected to questions from the Washington press corps after this ceremony."

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