Obama Signs 9/11 First Responders Bill

CNN reports:

Washington (CNN) — President Barack Obama signed the 9/11 health bill into law in Hawaii on Sunday, White House spokesman Bill Burton said.

Obama signed the bill during his Hawaiian vacation, with no signing ceremony held. In a statement issued later, the president said he was “honored” to sign the bill, which pays for health care for responders believed to have been sickened by pollution at the ruins of the World Trade Center in New York.

“We will never forget the selfless courage demonstrated by the firefighters, police officers, and first responders who risked their lives to save others,” Obama said. “I believe this is a critical step for those who continue to bear the physical scars of those attacks.”

The bill made a long journey in order to get signed. A printed copy of the bill flew with a White House staffer from Washington to the Hawaiian island of Oahu, so Obama could sign it from his vacation rental in Kailua.

“It came out with a member of the staff so that it could be signed in a timely fashion,” Burton said.

The legislation, officially titled the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, provides health coverage to workers who helped clear the rubble and search for human remains at the site of the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history. The $4.2 billion legislation also reopens the federal Victim Compensation Fund to provide economic relief to those harmed by the attacks, which killed more than 2,700 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

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Obama: GOP Are Like “Hostage Takers”

Ryan Streeter writes:

In his news briefing this afternoon, Obama said that the Republicans are like “hostage takers” and that he only negotiates with hostage takers if he fears that the “hostage” will be harmed. In this case, “The hostage was the American people.”

So let’s get this straight:

The President of the United States just characterized the opposing party in a way that comes eerily close to comparing them to terrorists.

And by making poor use of a metaphor, he sent a message to real hostage takers (such as real terrorists) that he would negotiate with them if he feared they were going to harm their hostages.

I don’t want to make too much of the metaphors, however, but his remarks appear to be part of a calculated “stick to my guns” wartime tone in which he has also described the American people as “collateral damage” in Washington’s partisan warfare. In a time of war this type of rhetoric is especially cheap and inappropriate.

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Obama: I Read Bible and Pray Every Day

The Hill reports:

Praying and reading the Bible are part of his everyday life, President Obama said in a wide-ranging interview broadcast Friday.

Speaking with Barbara Walters, Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama also described how they involve their daughters in daily prayer.

“Michelle and I have not only benefited from our prayer life, but I think the girls have too,” the president told Walters. “We say grace before we eat dinner every night. We take turns.”

“[I]n the end, we always say we hope we live long and strong,” the first lady said.

“Long and strong. And that we give back.”

Obama has been dogged by criticism about his faith since he took office. A poll released in late August showed that a growing number of Americans — one in five, up from one in ten in March — say he is a Muslim.

When asked if he prays himself, the president said: “I do. Every night.”

He also says that he reads the Bible, and, asked to explain why so many Americans deny that he is a Christian, blamed the internet.

“Well, you know, the Internet has a powerful effect these days, and so, the way rumors can take on a life of their own ends up being very powerful,” he said.

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York: Polls Point to Obama Defeat in 2012

We’re fast approaching the halfway point in Barack Obama’s term. With Nov. 2 behind him, everything the president does will be calculated to boost, or at least not harm, his chances of re-election in 2012. What’s not clear is whether he fully appreciates how badly the coalition he led to victory in 2008 has frayed in just two years. A look inside his poll numbers suggests that if he cannot turn around some key trends, he’ll be a one-term president.

Just look at the exit polls from 2008, which reveal the demographic contours of Obama’s support. Compare those with Gallup’s weekly analysis of the president’s approval rating, drawn from multiple polls broken down by age, gender, political philosophy, and the like. Throw in some insights from the midterm elections, and the mix shows a dramatic deterioration in Obama’s 2008 support. “His majority coalition is not there,” says Republican pollster David Winston. “What he put together, at least in the way he put it together, just isn’t there.”

Start with voters who call themselves independents. Obama won 52 percent of them in 2008; now, according to Gallup, he is at 42 percent. Obama’s party as a whole fared even worse among independents in the midterms, losing them to Republicans by 19 points. If Obama does anywhere near that badly in 2012, he’ll lose.

Next, women. In 2008, Obama won 56 percent of female voters. Today, he’s at 49 percent. If that number doesn’t improve, he’ll be in deep trouble. (Obama is also down with men, from 49 percent in 2008 to 44 percent now.)

Even younger voters, a key part of Obama’s coalition, are peeling away. In ‘08, Obama won 66 percent of voters 18-29 years of age. Now, he’s at 58 percent. That might seem pretty good, but not when you consider his deterioration among other age groups. Obama has dropped 5 percentage points among voters in and around middle age, and 8 percent with voters above 65. If those trends continue, he’ll lose.

Then there are white voters. In ‘08, Obama won 43 percent of whites. Now, he’s at 37 percent — a dangerously low number for his re-election hopes. He won 67 percent of Hispanic voters in 2008; now, he’s at 58 percent. Even support among black voters, a bedrock for Obama, has ticked downward; after winning 95 percent of blacks in ‘08, he’s now at 89 percent.

Just one group has stuck with Obama through it all. In ‘08, he won 58 percent of people with graduate degrees. Now, he’s at 59 percent. It appears that academic types will be with Obama always, but they’re not enough.

Everyone expects some of Obama’s lost voters to come back in 2012. “Presidential elections are different from midterms,” says David Winston. “You’ll see a slightly larger turnout among younger voters, a slightly larger turnout among African-Americans, making the electorate a little more liberal. But everybody across the board turns out at higher rates.”

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Obama: N. Korea is ‘Serious’ Threat

ABC News reports:

President Obama today strongly condemned North Korea’s attack on South Korea and, in an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Barbara Walters, urged China to take a stand against aggression.

“This is a — just one more provocative incident in a series that we’ve seen over the last several months, and I’m going to be talking to the president of Korea — South Korea this evening and we’ll be consulting closely with them in terms of the appropriate response,” the president said. “We’ve strongly condemned the attack…We are rallying the international community once again to put pressure on North Korea.”

Obama wouldn’t speculate on military actions the U.S. may take, but reiterated that South Korea is “one of our most important allies” and “a cornerstone of U.S. security in the Pacific region.”

“We want to make sure all the parties in the region recognize that this is a serious and ongoing threat that has to be dealt with,” the president added.

He specifically called on China to stand firm and “make clear to North Korean that there are a set of international rules that they need to abide by.”

A White House official today told ABC’s Jake Tapper that the United States is discussing a number of measures with its allies, including action at the United Nations Security Council and further sanctions, and more joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises, to demonstrate solidarity and support.

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Obama To Senate: Ratify Nuke Treaty

Politico reports:

President Obama told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Sunday that he’ll push the Senate in coming weeks to ratify a nuclear arms treaty the two leaders signed earlier this year.

“I reiterated my commitment to get the START treaty done during the lame duck session,” Obama said after meeting with Medvedev. “And I’ve communicated to Congress that it is a top priority.”

But the treaty, which Obama and Medvedev signed in April in Prague, has run into Republican opposition. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), the minority whip, is leading a bloc of GOP senators who are withholding their support in exchange for concessions from Obama on modernizing the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Obama needs Republican support for the two-thirds Senate vote necessary to ratify the treaty, which would reduce the United States and Russia’s nuclear arsenals by about one-third

If Obama can’t get the treaty through the lame duck session, ratification would be left to a new Senate with fewer Democrats and more Republicans likely to oppose the treaty.

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Obama Open to Tax Cut Deal

Reuters reports:

A conciliatory White House said on Thursday it was willing to negotiate with Republicans on tax cut extensions, but Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell took a hard line against compromises with President Barack Obama in a new Congress.

In the first possible policy shift since Democrats suffered heavy election losses two days ago, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs signaled Obama was open to talks on a temporary extension for the wealthy of Bush-era tax cuts that expire at the end of the year.

The fight over tax cuts looms as one of the biggest clashes since the election between Obama and Republicans, who will control the House of Representatives in the new Congress that convenes in January.

Obama invited top leaders from both parties to a meeting and a dinner at the White House on November 18, and he said the tax cuts will top the agenda.

Obama has insisted on keeping the tax cuts for families making less than $250,000, but let them expire for wealthier Americans, while Republicans want them extended for all income levels. If no agreement is reached, all Americans will see higher tax rates on January 1.

But White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the president was willing to discuss keeping all lower tax rates, at least temporarily.

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