On Monday, Nobel-laureate Paul Krugman wrote that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's plan was not only doomed to fail, it was, in fact, filling him with despair.

But life can't be all despair for the Princeton prof. Earlier this month, an enterprising songwriter named Jonathan Mann wrote a catchy little diddy wondering why the New York Times columnist wasn't in the corner office at 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Tell us what you think. Should Obama dump Tim and put in Paul?

Seasoned U.S. diplomat Chris Hill showed some jitters on Wednesday over being nominated as next U.S. ambassador to Iraq.

“I just don’t want to screw it up,” said Hill, in fairly undiplomatic language at a confirmation hearing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

As new U.S. ambassador, Hill would oversee the drawdown of U.S. troops.

Hill has faced some opposition as next U.S. ambassador to Iraq but he had a fairly smooth hearing on Wednesday.

Critics Arizona Sen. John McCain and Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, who have questioned Hill’s lack of Middle East experience and whether he was tough enough in talks with North Korea, were not on the panel.

Hill is currently the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and has also served as ambassador to Poland, Macedonia and South Korea. He was also envoy on six-nation talks over scrapping North Korea’s nuclear program.

The veteran diplomat is expected to clear a vote by the panel next week but opponents could seek to delay a vote on the Senate floor.

The panel’s chairman, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and top Republican Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar urged Hill’s confirmation as soon as possible.

While showing some apprehension over his new posting, Hill said he was looking forward to a family reunion in Iraq. His son is stationed with the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency in Iraq.

Hill told senators he hoped he hadn’t blown his son’s cover by revealing that.

REUTERS/Jo Yong-Hak  (U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill speaks to reporters in Seoul)

It’s the day after President Barack Obama’s prime time news conference and two quotes that appear to have legs carrying over to today are:

“This is a big ocean liner, it’s not a speedboat, it doesn’t turn around immediately.”

And, in response to why he waited days to express anger at AIG’s bonuses: “It took us a couple of days because I like to know what I’m talking about before I speak.”

Some non-negative economic news out. New U.S. orders for long-lasting manufactured goods unexpectedly rebounded in February, rising for the first time in seven months.

Obama meets with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and then goes to  Capitol Hill to try and sell his $3.55 trillion budget to Congress by making remarks to the Senate Democratic Caucus. 

But then it’s off to the Greek islands, OK not quite. Obama will make remarks at an event to commemorate Greek Independence Day at the White House later in the day. Let the ouzo flow.

And speaking of freedom closer to home, the crown of the Statue of Liberty may reopen to visitors by the July Fourth holiday.

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Photo credit: Reuters/George Thande (luxury liner docked in Saychelles), Reuters/Carlos Barria (speedboat off Miami)

Tackling the financial crisis and other pressing White House business leaves little time for reflecting on what a reporter termed his “rather historic presidency,” Barack Obama  said on Tuesday.

At his second prime-time news conference since taking office on Jan. 20, Obama, the first African-American president, was asked whether the issue of race has come up during White House policy debates, or in how other leaders and the American public perceive him. ”Or have the last 64 days been a relatively color-blind time?” the reporter asked.

Obama said there was justifiable pride at his inauguration because the United States had crossed a racial barrier — but that, he said ”lasted about a day.”

“I think that the last 64 days has been dominated by me trying to figure out how we’re going to fix the economy, and that affects black, brown and white,” Obama said. 
     
He said he thinks the American people are judging him exactly the way he should be judged. 
    
“And that is: Are we taking the steps to improve liquidity in the financial markets, create jobs, get businesses to reopen, keep America safe?” Obama said. “And that’s what I’ve been spending my time thinking about.”

Here's another one that you can loosely file under "Government aid to newspapers," even though there's no money that taxpayers would fork over to newspapers. Maryland Democratic Senator Benjamin Cardin introduced a bill on Tuesday to allow newspapers to become non-profit organizations to help them survive.

Cardin points out that this wouldn't help big chains facing bankruptcy, falling advertising revenue or some combination of the two. Instead, it's designed to let the little guys -- the community newspapers -- survive, he says.

SENATOR CARDIN INTRODUCES BILL THAT WOULD ALLOW AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS TO OPERATE AS NON-PROFITS

His Goal is to Help the Newspaper Industry Survive

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD), today introduced legislation that would allow newspapers to become non-profit organizations in an effort to help the faltering industry survive.

In recent months, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Rocky Mountain News, the Baltimore Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle, among others, have either ceased daily publication or announced that they may have to stop publishing. A number of other publications, including newspapers owned by the Tribune Company, owners of The Baltimore Sun, have filed for bankruptcy or have had to institute severe cutbacks that have impacted news coverage.

The Newspaper Revitalization Act would allow newspapers to operate as non-profits, if they choose, under 501(c)(3) status for educational purposes, similar to public broadcasting. Under this arrangement, newspapers would not be allowed to make political endorsements, but would be allowed to freely report on all issues, including political campaigns. Advertising and subscription revenue would be tax exempt and contributions to support coverage or operations could be tax deductible.

The measure is targeted to preserve local newspapers serving communities and not large newspaper conglomerates. Because newspaper profits have been falling in recent years, no substantial loss of federal revenue is expected.

"We are losing our newspaper industry," said Senator Cardin. "The economy has caused an immediate problem, but the business model for newspapers, based on circulation and advertising revenue, is broken, and that is a real tragedy for communities across the nation and for our democracy.

"While we have lots of news sources, we rely on newspapers for in-depth reporting that follows important issues, records events and exposes misdeeds. In fact, most if not all sources of journalistic information - from radio to television to the Internet - gathers their news from newspaper reporters who cover the news on a daily basis and know their communities. It is in the interest of our nation and good governance that we ensure they survive."

According to Barclays Capital, newspaper advertising revenue was down by about 25% for 2008, and circulation continues to steadily decline at most major newspapers as readers increasingly turn to alternative electronic news sources.

Senator Cardin added: "This may not be the optimal choice for some major newspapers or corporate media chains, but it should be an option for many newspapers that are struggling to stay afloat.

(Photo: Reuters)

President Barack Obama treated astronauts on the International Space Station to a little levity of his own as they traveled at 17,500 mph, circling the planet once every 90 minutes. “Do you guys still drink Tang up there?” the president asked to laughter.

It took some effort, but the 10 astronauts in blue shirts, including some from Japan and Russia, bobbed but managed not to float off during  the presidential session by holding onto a rail with their toes.

The astronauts appeared on a screen in the White House Roosevelt Room, and Obama initially did not realize he had to use a telephone to speak to them.  “The handset sir,” a staffer instructed.

Obama and the astronauts talked about the mission on the space station, where the crew is adding solar panels, but the most fun came from the other questions. Obama asked the one female astronaut whether she had been tempted to cut her hair shorter.

“I think it’s a real fashion statement,” he said as her long dark brown hair floated around her head as if it were alive.

A group of children who watched with Obama had their own questions:

“What do you eat?”

Astro-Answer: “It’s kind of like backpacking food.”

“Can you play video games in space?”

Astro-Answer: ”We can, in fact.”

“Have you found any life forms?”

Astro-Answer: “We unfortunately haven’t found anything here.”

“What things did you have to study?”

Astro-Answer: “There really is room up here for everybody,” noting that the current crew includes doctors, geologists and school teachers.

Commander Michael Fincke’s response to a boy who asked how many stars there were in space was illuminating.

“Aboard the International Space Station, we can look down and see our beautiful planet Earth, and we can also look up and see the rest of the cosmos. And we can see that there are so many stars out there that it’s very hard to count them all,” he said.

“So maybe we’ll someday be able to count how many stars that we have, because we’re starting to go to the stars as human beings together.”

Photo credit: Reuters/Larry Downing (Obama talks with astronauts on International Space Station)

The economy is expected to dominate President Barack Obama’s news conference at 8 p.m. But perhaps the power of his prime time presence can be judged by his ability to change the TV line-up –  the popular “American Idol” has been moved to Wednesday.

NBC’s “Today” show asked White House spokesman Robert Gibbs whether Obama wanted to risk angering the show’s 31 million viewers and, more scary, judge Simon Cowell.

“No I think taking on Simon along with the economy might be one too many things to take on,” Gibbs said with a laugh. 

“But I think it’s important that the president talk to the American people about our economic recovery and we’ll just build up the suspense for American Idol,” he said.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke go to Capitol Hill in the morning to appear before a House Financial Services hearing on “Oversight of the Federal Government’s Intervention at American International Group (AIG).”

Predict more talk about corporate bonuses, since it seems AIG can’t be mentioned without someone yelling about the bonuses it paid employees while taking a government handout.

And after 23 years of dating, late-night television host David Letterman married his girlfriend.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Larry Downing (Obama and Geithner)

The Internet is abuzz over what to make of President Barack Obama’s laughter during a CBS “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday.

Interviewer Steve Kroft, as they discussed the ailing automobile industry, said to Obama: “You’re sitting here, and you’re — You are laughing about some of these problems.  Are people going to look at this and say, ‘I mean, he’s sitting there, just making jokes about money’.”

He went on to ask Obama how he explained his mood and laughter.  ”Are you punch drunk?” Kroft asked.

“No, no. There’s got to be a little gallows humor to get you through the day,” Obama said.

What do you make of Obama’s laughter?

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Photo credit: Reuters/Ho New

Spoiler alert: Reading this may or may not (we don’t really know) spoil a surprise in a pilot for a new CBS action series called “Washington Field.”

But Washington-area residents probably should read this so they don’t get alarmed at the 20- to 30-foot fireball from a simulated explosion on Wednesday near a bridge that connects Georgetown to Virginia.

The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments issued an advisory saying there will be a fake explosion on Wednesday between 9:30 a.m. and noon near Key Bridge that will produce a fireball that will last for about two minutes.

The explosion on the Potomac River will be for a scene in which one of six sculling boats blows up in the pilot for a television series about the Washington field office of the FBI.

The Homeland Security Department, Washington police and fire departments, and the Washington Airports Authority have been alerted.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Hyungwon Kang (Potomac River and Georgetown University during fall)

It’s all about toxic assets today.

The Obama administration has come up with a plan to deal with those loans that are so underwater you need a deep-sea diving outfit to find them (kind of like my NCAA bracket, but that’s another sad story).

The plan is for the government to partner with the private sector — including hedge funds (remember their role in bringing the markets down?) — and provide an antidote for the  toxicity of the bad loans.

Christina Romer, a White House economic adviser, in her explanation of the program managed to mix a sports metaphor with a coin toss (again we’re back to the NCAA bracket).

“This is really tails both the government and the private sector win, heads both the government and the private sector lose,” Romer said on ABC’s “Good Morning America”  show. “We both are going to have, as the saying goes, skin in the game.”

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner gets a chance to comfort jittery financial markets by providing details of the plan this morning. Let’s see if his performance improves over last time, when he layed out an outline and the markets tumbled.

And then again there’s always the birthday cake analogy. “It’s kind of like a horrible birthday cake with fire, the candles are burning all over it, we’re trying to blow out the candles in every direction,” Austan Goolsbee, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers told Reuters Financial Television.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (Geithner at White House event earlier this month), Reuters/stringer Shanghai (panda eats birthday cake at zoo in China)