Former Vice President Dick Cheney tonight joins a chorus of critics who say President Barack Obama is taking way too long to decide whether to send another 40,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan.

Cheney, no fan of any of the current administration’s foreign policy initiatives, prodded the White House to fulfill the president’s promise to give the U.S. armed  forces a clear mission in Afghanistan and to do it now.

“It’s time for President Obama to make good on his promise. The White House must stop dithering while America’s armed forces are in danger, ” Cheney said in remarks prepared for delivery at the Center for Security Policy, a Washington think-tank.

“Having announced his Afghanistan strategy last March, President Obama now seems afraid to make a decision, and unable to provide his commander on the ground with the troops he needs to complete his mission,” Cheney said.

Cheney also refuted what he said was a complaint by White House chief of staff  Rahm Emanuel that “the Obama administration had to start from scratch to put together a strategy.”

“The new strategy they embraced in March, with a focus on counterinsurgency and an increase in the numbers of troops, bears a striking resemblance to the strategy we passed to them,” Cheney said.

“Now they seem to be pulling back and blaming others for their failure to implement the strategy they embraced. It’s time for President Obama to do what it takes to win a war he has repeatedly and rightly called a war of necessity,” he added.

Earlier in the day, Obama said he could reach a decision on a new strategy before the outcome of Afghanistan’s presidential run-off on Nov. 7 And he pushed back against  critics who accuse him of vacillating.

“We are going to take the time to get this right,” Obama told MSNBC.

“We’re not going to drag it out because there is a sense that the sooner we get a sound approach in place and personnel in place, the better off we’re going to be. But we also want to make sure that we don’t put resources ahead of strategy.”

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Photo credit:Reuters/Joshua Roberts (Cheney speaking on national security in May)

Guess what? There’s more bad news about the economy today.

Numbers out today show the unemployment rate has risen to its highest rate in 25 years as companies buckled under the strain of a recession that is showing no signs of ending.

Want to hear more? The head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Keith Hall, testifies to Congress about the employment picture at 9:30.

In the Obama administration’s first public overture to Tehran, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has invited Iran to a conference on Afghanistan planned for this month. Traveling in Brussels, Clinton also said the problems of climate change and the economy should be tackled simultaneously.

President Obama travels to Columbus, Ohio to show the $787 billion stimulus package at work: police cadets who would have been let go will instead be sworn in as officers. Attorney Eric Holder joins him.

photo credit: REUTERS/Mike Segar (People wait in line at a job fair in New York, March 5)

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Bill Clinton has some advice for President Barack Obama — lighten up a little on the economic comments, dude.

In an interview with ABC News, the former president said he likes the fact that Obama does not engage in happy talk when he says “the economy could get worse before it gets better,” and that the $787 billion economic stimulus plan is only a start on the road to economic recovery.

“I’m glad he shot straight with us,” the husband of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

But, he added, “I just want the American people to know that he’s confident that we are gonna get out of this and he feels good about the long run.”

American presidents often have a tendency to talk up the good things about U.S. policy as a way of trying to encourage Americans, but sometimes that can go too far, as evidenced by President George W. Bush’s repeated reassurances about progress being made in the Iraq war when clearly things were going down hill there.

Clinton, as he did when he was president, took a few shots at the Republicans after most of them voted against the stimulus.

“I think there are some of them who really believe that just-say-no politics is good politics,” he said.
Photo credit: REUTERS/Christian Hartmann (Clinton speaks in Davos, Jan 29)

Guess what? The economy is still in terrible shape.

The Dow Jones Industrial average plunged to its lowest level in six years yesterday, and all signs point to another lousy day on Wall Street today.

U.S. stock index futures are falling in early morning trading as worries about the fate of major banks mount. Shares of Citigroup were down 6.4 percent and Bank of America was down 8 percent in trading on the Frankfurt exchange.

President Obama has had a busy week. After signing the stimulus bill, unveiling his mortgage rescue plan and visiting Canada, he’ll talk up the stimulus at 10:30 a.m. today.

Every other economic indicator is in the toilet these days. How’s inflation? We’ll find out at 8:30 a.m., when the Labor Department releases its Consumer Price Index figures. Analysts say the numbers are expected to be moderate, with deflation more a concern than rising prices.

Authorities have tracked down accused fraudster Allen Stanford in Fredericksburg, Virginia. The FBI served the billionaire cricket promoter with civil charges accusing him of masterminding a “massive, ongoing fraud” with a price tag of roughly $8 billion.

Hillary Clinton had some tough talk for North Korea. On her first foreign jaunt as Secretary of State, she called the isolated country a “tyranny” and said it needs to settle down and return to nuclear talks.

Looks like they have a new prime minister in Israel. Right-wing leader Benjamin Netanyahu will be asked to form the next governent, 10 days after a parlaimentary election provded no clear winner.

Photo credit: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

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By Ayesha Rascoe

After a tough week of haggling over an economic stimulus package and cabinet nominee dramas, President Barack Obama took some time to unwind on Friday night and stepped out for a dance show with his family.

Obama, first lady Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia attended a 50th anniversary celebration performance by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.

The audience at the sold out show greeted the Obamas with raucous applause as the first family waved from a red VIP box decorated with the presidential seal.

The Ailey company is a celebrated predominantly African-American modern dance troop founded in 1958.

The group has performed for estimated 21 million people in 71 countries.

After their date night on Friday, the Obamas will go to Camp David on Saturday for their first visit to the presidential retreat outside Washington.

Reuters photo by Kevin Lamarque.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama met with families of victims of the September 11 and USS Cole attacks to defend his decision to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba.

Obama told about 40 family members in an at-times emotional discussion on Friday that his goal was to keep the country safe.

The prison for terrorism suspects is widely seen as a stain on the United States’ human rights record. Obama took action in his first week in office, ordering an end to controversial trials by military tribunals there.

“He explained why he believes that closing Guantanamo will make our nation safer and help ensure that those who are guilty receive swift and certain justice within a legal framework that is durable, and that helps America fight terrorism more effectively around the world,” a White House statement said.

D. Hamilton Peterson, whose father and stepmother, Donald and Jean Peterson, died on the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001, said he opposed the prison’s closure but appreciated the president’s candor.

“I was impressed with his sincerity and his willingness to hear from people who are pro-Guantanamo,” he told Reuters by telephone. He said Obama kept an open mind about the issue.

What do you think? Is the president doing the right thing by seeking to close the prison? Will it have positive or negative consequences for U.S. national security?

Reuters photos by Joshua Roberts (parents of a USS Cole victim in Arlington National Cemetery) and Enrique Castro Mendivil (a protest in Lima, Peru against the Guantanamo prison)

ON BOARD AIR FORCE ONE - Barack Obama, wearing a new jacket with his name and “Air Force One” embroidered on it, took his maiden voyage aboard the presidential Jumbo jet as commander in chief on Thursday.

“What do you think about this spiffy ride?” the president asked, smiling, as he walked into the journalists section at the back of the large plane. “I’ve got my spiffy jacket so I thought I’d come and show it off.”

Obama, who was traveling to Williamsburg, Virginia, to speak to gathering of Democrats from the U.S. House of Representatives, chatted briefly about the economic stimulus bill in Congress before heading back to his quarters at the front of the plane.

He had a cheeseburger and fries during the short trip, an aide reported.

The famous plane, a Boeing 747, has an executive suite for the president including an office, stateroom, and a bathroom with a shower.

“Thank you for giving me a reason to use Air Force One,” he told the gathering in Williamsburg later, smiling broadly. “It’s pretty nice.”

Reuters photos by Kevin Lamarque.

WASHINGTON — New Hampshire Governor John Lynch appears to have cleared the way, at least politically, for Democratic President Barack Obama to name Republican Senator Judd Gregg as U.S. commerce secretary.
 
Lynch, a Democrat, indicated in a brief statement on Monday that he would yield to Gregg’s demands and appoint a Republican to replace him in the Senate if Obama, as anticipated, picks the 61-year-old New Hampshire senator as head of the U.S. Commerce Department.
 
A Senate Democratic aide wrote in an e-mail to Reuters that if Obama picks Gregg, Lynch will indeed replace him with another Republican in order not to upset the balance of power in the Democratic-led Senate.
 
If Gregg was replaced by a Democrat and Minnesota’s Al Franken survived a court challenge of his apparent victory, Democrats would have 60 seats in the 100-member Senate, enough to ram through Republican procedural roadblocks.
 
Gregg did not want to do that to his fellow Republicans.
 
“I have had conversations with Senator Gregg, the White House and U.S. Senate leadership,” Lynch said in the statement issued by his office.
 
“Senator Gregg has said he would not resign his seat in the U.S. Senate if it changed the balance in the Senate. Based on my discussions, it is clear the White House and Senate leadership understand this as well.”
 
Without specifically saying he would replace Gregg with a Republican, Lynch said: “It is important that President Obama be able to select the advisors he feels are necessary to help him address the challenges facing our nation.
 
“If President Obama does nominate Senator Gregg to serve as Commerce Secretary, I will name a replacement who will put the people of New Hampshire first and represent New Hampshire effectively in the U.S. Senate.”

Photo credit: Senator Gregg’s website (http://gregg.senate.gov/public/)

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama shared Washington’s high-society spotlight on Saturday night with an unlikely co-star — Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.
 
Wearing a black satin evening gown, Palin was spotted by journalists making her way into the ballroom at the Capitol Hilton for the Alfalfa Dinner, an annual closed-door roast of the city’s political and business elite.
 
Following in the footsteps of White House predecessors, Obama served as headline speaker at the light-hearted black-tie affair, which in accordance with a 96-year tradition bars reporters.
 
So it was not known whether the president had any choice words from the podium for Palin, who as Republican vice presidential nominee in the 2008 election rarely missed a chance to lash into Obama.
 
But, according to a few of Obama’s joke excerpts released by the White House, he had a few zingers for his hard-driving chief of state, Rahm Emanuel, who has a reputation for sometimes harsh language.
 
“It was actually Rahm’s idea to do the swearing-in ceremony again,” he said. “Of course, for Rahm, every day is a swearing-in ceremony.”
 
“Rahm Emanuel is a real sweetheart,” Obama added. “Every week the guy takes a little time away to give back to the community. Just last week he was at a local school, teaching profanity to poor children.”
 
Of his battle to guard part of his pre-White House lifestyle after his Jan. 20 inauguration, he said, “In just the first few weeks, I’ve had to engage in some of the toughest diplomacy of my life. And that was just to keep my Blackberry.”
 
And Obama, the first black U.S. president, also poked fun at the Alfalfa Club’s founding in 1913 by a group of Southern gentlemen.
 
“Many you are aware that this dinner began almost one hundred years ago as a way to celebrate the birthday of General Robert E. Lee. If he were here with us tonight, the general would be 202 years old. And very confused,” Obama said.

Photo credit: Reuters/Tami Chappell (Palin at a campaign rally for Senator Saxby Chambliss)

Barack Obama became the first black president of the United States on Tuesday. In his much-anticipated inaugural speech, he said the “economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.”

But the new president also said the United States remained “the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth,” and that “we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.”

What did you think of the speech? Did it meet the hype? Were you moved, or dismayed?