Greeted like a rock star last year in Germany when he was a mere candidate for the White House, Barack Obama will see what reception he gets in Europe now that he’s actually president.

Obama, in dark suit, and his wife Michelle, in white coat with black trim, walked up the stairs to Air Force One, did the obligatory turn and wave, and then they were off.

The arms issue may be raised again if the first lady decides to go sleeveless.

No matter what they think overseas, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows Michelle Obama is quite popular at home, with 76 percent of those surveyed giving her a favorable rating.

And don’t touch those pistachios, they’ve been recalled.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed

President Barack Obama is now America’s car salesman.

Obama made his sales pitch on Monday as he laid out White House plans for restructuring the struggling auto giants General Motors and Chrysler. Buy a car, he said, and you might qualify for a tax deduction.

“The IRS is launching a campaign to alert consumers of a new tax benefit for auto purchases made between February 16th and the end of this year — if you buy a car anytime this year, you may be able to deduct the cost of any sales and excise taxes. And this provision could save families hundreds of dollars and lead to as many as 100,000 new car sales,” Obama said.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs followed up on this theme a bit at his daily briefing saying Obama “absolutely” would prefer for Americans to buy U.S.-made cars.

“I don’t want to turn this into an advertisement,” he said, but then noted that the Chevy Malibu was the 2008 Motor Trend Car of the Year while Buick was tied for first in a recent dependability study.

And Gibbs said he used to drive a Jeep and loved it. (He and Obama both own Ford Escape hybrids, though the president has a gas-guzzling, armored limousine to ferry him around while in office.)

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Larry Downing (Obama announces restructuring plans for GM and Chrysler.)

Be careful this week about buying wholeheartedy into any G20-related spin about supposedly savvy, free-spending Britain and America doing more to combat the world economic crisis than supposedly stubborn, overly cautious Germany and France. The actual figures show it is much more complex than that.

A Reuters calculation on discretionary fiscal stumuli and the International Monetary Fund's assessment show that, if anything, Britain is the significant laggard and that German spending almost matches the United States over the next two years. Here are the IMF's numbers (% of GDP):

                                                          2009                     2010

 Germany                                             1.5                       2.0
 France                                                 0.7                      0.7
 UK                                                      1.4                     - 0.1
 US                                                      2.0                       1.8

Just to add to the complexity, discretionary spending estimates do not include bank bailouts (which would boost UK and U.S. anti-crisis spending numbers)  But nor do they include automatic economic stabilisers such as existing social welfare schemes and safety nets (which would boost Germany and France versus the U.S.  where such things are rare to non-existant).

There is bound to be some squabble over who is doing what when the G20 starts on Wednesday. Just remember the numbers.

(Reuters photo: Juan Medina)

President Barack Obama gives his verdict on auto industry restructuring plans at 11 a.m.

Apparently GM and Chrysler, both seeking government money, did not pass with flying colors. White House forced GM chief Rick Wagoner out and wants Chrysler to work out a partnership with Italy’s Fiat — could that spawn a PT Cruiser Panda?

Lots of chatter on the ousting of Wagoner. Two main questions being raised — why was the White House tougher on automakers than bankers on this front and is it the proper role of government to depose the head of a private company?

Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm told NBC’s “Today” show that it was clear that Wagoner was a “sacrificial lamb.”

Don’t drink and drive. Beer wholesalers and brewers holding a conference in Washington this week, wonder what’s on tap… 

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Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (GM’s Wagoner wipes eye during meeting)

President Barack Obama to announce plan to send more troops to Afghanistan to help stabilize the country after Democrats for years criticized his predecessor, George W. Bush, of ignoring that war because of Iraq.

But the plan won’t overshadow White House focus on U.S. economic issues always lurking in the wings.

Obama to meet with bankers and talk about regulation. Sort of like a doctor meeting with a patient and talking about medicine that is not going to be very pleasant.

Red River rising forced parts of Fargo, North Dakota, to be evacuated.

Even with the dire economic times, Spring still manages to bloom. Washington’s annual homage to new beginnings, the Cherry Blossom Festival, starts this weekend. 

Happy Friday.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Yuri Gripas (cherry blossoms near Washington monument last year)

Legalizing marijuana is not the kind of change President Barack Obama can believe in – at least not as a remedy for the ailing U.S. economy.
 
Obama tackled the issue head-on, only half-jokingly, at an online townhall meeting where he noted that the idea was a favorite among the 3.6 million people who voted on more than 100,000 questions submitted on the White House website.
 
“I have to say that there was one question that was voted on that ranked fairly high, and that was whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy and job creation,” he said to laughter at the White House event.
 
“And I don’t know what this says about the online audience,” Obama said, tongue-in-cheek. “This was a fairly popular question. We want to make sure that it was answered.”
 
“The answer is, no, I don’t think that is a good strategy to grow our economy,” he said before moving back to a more sober discussion of unemployment and healthcare reform.
 
“Thank you for clearing that up,” said Jared Bernstein, Vice President Joe Biden’s chief economist, who was acting as moderator.
 
Many of the questioners suggested that regulating the marijuana industry could yield large tax revenues.
 
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs was later asked whether Obama, who admitted in his autobiography to experimenting with drugs in his youth, was leaving some wiggle room on the issue.
 
“The president opposes the legalization of marijuana,” Gibbs told reporters, emphasizing his seriousness. “He doesn’t think that’s the right plan for America.”
 
As for where the new administration stood on medical marijuana, he said to ask the Justice Department.
 
Gibbs suggested that marijuana advocates may have had a hand in stacking the deck by mobilizing supporters to send in questions and to go online and vote repeatedly for them.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Larry Downing (Obama speaks at White House townhall)

Nearly five months after the 2008 election, there’s no sign that either Norm Coleman or Al Franken will definitively be declared the winner in the race for one of Minnesota’s U.S. Senate seats, allowing him to spend the next six years in Washington.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell told Reuters in an interview that it could be many months before all legal challenges are exhausted. “I don’t think we’re going to see the end to this matter any time soon,” McConnell said.

For those who have forgotten about this cliff-hanger: Coleman, the Democrat-turned-Republican first-term senator running for reelection, lagged behind Democratic comedian-author-Franken by only 225 votes after a recount of nearly 2.4 million ballots cast for the two.

Legal challenges followed and the two candidates are awaiting a ruling any day now by a three-judge panel in Minnesota.

But McConnell said that won’t be the end of it. He said Coleman is likely to employ a Bush v. Gore argument and try to convince the courts that there needs to be a uniform standard of counting ballots throughout the state.

It “will be litigated out not only in state court but potentially in federal court as well,” McConnell predicted.

Asked whether he was concerned that Minnesota is going so long without a full team in the U.S. Senate, McConnell replied, “Yeah, it’s a shame.”

In the meantime, Democrats are two votes short of a filibuster proof majority in the U.S. Senate that’s needed to advance most major legislation, instead of the one vote short they would be if Franken was declared the winner based on his narrow margin.

Senator Dick Durbin, the number-two Democrat in the Senate, is getting impatient.

“There reaches a point where Minnesota is entitled to two senators and if it keeps coming up Al Franken the winner, Al Franken the winner,  I think it’s time for the national Republican Party to move on.” Asked whether he and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid might just try to seat Franken at some point soon, Durbin replied,  ”I’m not ready to say that.”

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Mitch Dumke (Franken and Reid meeting in January.)

President Barack Obama gets a bit of a reprieve from the Secret Service shield on the presidential use of Internet technologies and will answer questions submitted online from the public at 11:30 a.m. today.

The White House Web site has been taking questions in categories that include education, home ownership and jobs.

Activists for legalizing marijuana managed to flood the financial stability category with queries such as: “Has the administration given any thought to legalizing marijuana, as a cash crop to fuel the economy?” Let’s see if that one gets picked for a presidential response.

At the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is yet again at a congressional hearing. Wonder if he’s getting comfortable in that witness chair and at deflecting those probing questions from lawmakers (helpful hint: AIG bonuses bad).

Today’s testimony is before a House Financial Services Committee hearing on financial regulation reform and Geithner is expected to offer up some ideas.

While the Treasury honcho faces a storm of questions on the Hill, there’s real weather happening in the upper Midwest.

The Red River Valley region of North Dakota has been dealing with serious flooding from heavy rains.

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Photo credit: Reuters/stringer (Marijuana plants at greenhouse in Mexico’s Baja California)

As the Democratic-controlled House Budget Committee considered dozens of Republican amendments on the 2010 budget Wednesday night, an old friend of many lawmakers — and an enemy to a few — dropped by to say hello, catching many by surprise. 

President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, the former Chicago congressman known for his brusque style, walked into the committee room nine hours after it started and took a seat on the edge of the dais to chat with fellow Democrats as they worked on Obama’s $3.55 trillion budget proposal.

Republicans and even some Democrats have expressed concerns about the deficits the proposed budget could produce. Obama earlier on Wednesday met with Senate Democrats to try to convince wavering lawmakers to support his budget priorities.

As the House committee work continued, several Democrats jumped up from their seats to chat with Emanuel, including Texas Representative Chet Edwards and Connecticut Representative Rosa DeLauro. The Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt ambled over to greet him before they went behind closed doors for talks.

“I came up to see my old friends,” Emanuel told reporters after his 45-minute visit. He declined to answer most questions, including reports that he sent cake to members and staff expected to work late into the night finalizing the chamber’s budget plan.

Republicans have excoriated Obama’s budget plan and congressional Democrats for ramping up spending and allowing certain tax cuts to expire.

Asked if he missed life on Capitol Hill, Emanuel replied, “No, I just wanted to thank everybody for their hard work on behalf of the president and economic staff.”

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst (Emanuel on Capitol Hill last month)

Republican U.S. Senator Arlen Specter, 79, of Pennsylvania appears to face a tough run next year for reelection to a sixth term.
    
And he can blame his problems largely on his decision last month to break ranks with fellow Republicans and vote for President Barack Obama’s $787 economic stimulus package.
    
Those are the findings of a Quinnipiac University poll of about 1,000 Pennsylvania voters released on Wednesday.
 
The Connecticut-based university found that Specter, viewed as a moderate, trails former conservative congressman Pat Toomey, his likely Republican primary challenger, by a margin of 41 percent to 27 percent. Specter narrowly defeated Toomey in a 2004 primary battle.
 
Another and somewhat smaller poll by Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania was a mixed bag for Specter.
 
While the survey showed Specter leading Toomey 33 percent to 18 percent, it found that 49 percent of respondents were undecided or favored others.
    
That survey of 662 people also found that less than half — 40 percent — believe Specter deserves another term, with 46 percent saying it is “time for a change.”
    
The Quinnipiac survey showed Democrats and independents backed Specter’s support of Obama’s stimulus package. But Republicans opposed it — 70 percent to 25 percent.
 
Both surveys were conducted in recent days and had a margin of error between plus or minus of three to four percentage points.
 
“Pennsylvania Republicans are so unhappy with Sen. Specter’s vote for President Barack Obama’s stimulus package and so-called pork barrel spending that they are voting for a former congressman they hardly know,” said Clay Richards, assistant director of Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
 
Richards added, however, if Specter survives the primary, he would have a lot going for him in the general election since there currently seems to be no strong Democratic contender.
 
But Specter faces other problems.
 
He stepped into a political hornet’s nest on Tuesday when he opposed a bill to make it easier for workers to unionize, a top legislative goal of organized labor but anathema to many in the business community and his own party.
 
So if Specter wins the Republican primary, he can expect to be opposed by energized union supporters in the general election. 
 
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