OBAMA LINKS 2012 6-1-12 Obama to Hold Six Fundraisers in One Day- 5.31.12 http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2012/05/31/obama-hold-fundraisers-day/ With Republicans steamrollering ahead with a group of well-fed Super Pacs and an increasingly successful money effort by Mitt Romney, President Obama Friday will attend six fundraisers, a possible sign of budding desperation for a campaign that is lagging far behind its initial fundraising expectations. Obama will travel to Minneapolis, where he will ensconce himself at the Bachelor Farmer Restaurant for three successive fundraising events. Afterward, he moves on to Chicago for a fundraiser at the Chicago Cultural Center and then two events at what appear to be separate private residences. In April, Obama’s fundraising total actually declined by nearly $10 million from the $53 million he took in during March….. President Obama’s Tortureless Alternative to Waterboarding- Killing Secret ‘Kill List’ Proves a Test of Obama’s Principles and Will-NY TIMES -5.29.12 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/world/obamas-leadership-in-war-on-al-qaeda.html?_r=2&partner=MYWAY&ei=5065 . WASHINGTON — This was the enemy, served up in the latest chart from the intelligence agencies: 15 Qaeda suspects in Yemen with Western ties . The mug shots and brief biographies resembled a high school yearbook layout. Several were Americans . Two were teenagers, including a girl who looked even younger than her 17 years. …………… Mr. Obama is the liberal law professor who campaigned against the Iraq war and torture, a nd then insisted on approving every new name on an expanding “kill list,” poring over terrorist suspects’ biographies on what one official calls the macabre “baseball cards” of an unconventional war. When a rare opportunity for a drone strike at a top terrorist arises — but his family is with him — it is the president who has reserved to himself the final moral calculation. “He is determined that he will make these decisions about how far and wide these operations will go,” said Thomas E. Donilon, his national security adviser. “His view is that he’s responsible for the position of the United States in the world.” He added, “He’s determined to keep the tether pretty short.” Nothing else in Mr. Obama’s first term has baffled liberal supporters and confounded conservative critics alike as his aggressive counterterrorism record. His actions have often remained inscrutable, obscured by awkward secrecy rules, polarized political commentary and the president’s own deep reserve. In interviews with The New York Times, three dozen of his current and former advisers described Mr. Obama’s evolution since taking on the role, without precedent in presidential history, of personally overseeing the shadow war with Al Qaeda. They describe a paradoxical leader who shunned the legislative deal-making required to close the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, but approves lethal action without hand-wringing. While he was adamant about narrowing the fight and improving relations with the Muslim world, he has followed the metastasizing enemy into new and dangerous lands. When he applies his lawyering skills to counterterrorism, it is usually to enable, not constrain, his ferocious campaign against Al Qaeda — even when it comes to killing an American cleric in Yemen, a decision that Mr. Obama told colleagues was “an easy one.” His first term has seen private warnings from top officials about a “Whac-A-Mole” approach to counterterrorism; the invention of a new category of aerial attack following complaints of careless targeting; and presidential acquiescence in a formula for counting civilian deaths that some officials think is skewed to produce low numbers. The administration’s failure to forge a clear detention policy has created the impression among some members of Congress of a take-no-prisoners policy. And Mr. Obama’s ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron P. Munter, has complained to colleagues that the C.I.A. ’s strikes drive American policy there, saying “he didn’t realize his main job was to kill people,” a colleague said. Beside the president at every step is his counterterrorism adviser, John O. Brennan, who is variously compared by colleagues to a dogged police detective, tracking terrorists from his cavelike office in the White House basement, or a priest whose blessing has become indispensable to Mr. Obama, echoing the president’s attempt to apply the “just war” theories of Christian philosophers to a brutal modern conflict…… . Barack Obama is facing his Jimmy Carter moment-Telegraph.UK.5.25.12 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/mitt-romney/9289994/Barack-Obama-is-facing-his-Jimmy-Carter-moment.html Until recently, Barack Obama’s re-election was regarded as inevitable – in the same way that summer follows spring, or a monsoon follows a hosepipe ban. The president’s poll lead over Mitt Romney was strong, while the Republican’s character was assassinated by a primary fight that permanently spoiled the reputation of his party………………. But in the last two weeks, things have changed. Obama’s re-election is no longer guaranteed; some pollsters think it is unlikely. Day by day, the odds are improving that Mitt Romney will be the next President of the United States. What changed? For a start, voters are getting gloomier about the economy. Joblessness remains high and debt is out of control . According to one poll released this week, only 33 per cent of Americans expect the economy to improve in the coming months and only 43 per cent approve of the way that the president has handled it. Voters think Obama has made the debt situation and health care worse…… ….The president has tried to distract from America’s economic misery by playing up the so-called culture war. Earlier in the year he decided that he would force Catholic employers to provide contraception to their employees through their insurance plans, and he followed that swipe at social traditionalism by endorsing gay marriage. This embrace of Sixties liberalism has backfired. …..Rasmussen puts Obama only one point ahead; Gallup calls it a tie. With Romney doing better than the president in key swing states North Carolina and Florida, Gallup has publicly stated that Obama now has a higher chance of losing rather than winning………… ……In 1980, Democratic president Jimmy Carter faced an uphill struggle for re-election. Yet, despite an index of inflation and unemployment far higher than Obama’s, he was actually doing slightly better in the polls. In March of that year, Carter led his Republican opponent, Ronald Reagan, by around 25 per cent. By May, Gallup gave him a lead of 49 to 41 per cent – higher than Obama’s today. Carter’s advantage evaporated in the months that followed, but he regained ground in October and by the last week he was running even. None the less, Carter eventually suffered a landslide defeat. The scale of his humiliation was hidden by the fact that people were unwilling to commit themselves to the conservative Ronald Reagan until the very last minute. It was only when they went into the polling booth and weighed up all the hurt and humiliation of the past four years that they cast their vote against the president. It looks like Barack Obama will be the Jimmy Carter of 2012. Obama, Hollande (France) agree on much - but not Afghanistan-REUTERS-5.18.12 http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/18/us-obama-hollande-idUSBRE84H17Y20120518 (Reuters) - New French President Francois Hollande told President Barack Obama on Friday that he will stick by his pledge to withdraw France's troops from Afghanistan at year's end, a note of discord in an otherwise convivial first meeting between the two leaders. ….The euro zone is a main topic for the two-day talks Obama will host at the Camp David retreat in Maryland. The G8 summit of leaders of the world's leading economies will begin Friday evening. Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron will be among the participants. "We're looking forward to a fruitful discussion later this evening and tomorrow with the other G8 leaders about how we can manage a responsible approach to fiscal consolidation that is coupled with a strong growth agenda," Obama said. The comment underscored his solidarity with Hollande on the view that measures to spur economic growth - and not just fiscal austerity - are needed to fix Europe's economic woes. Obama added that solving the euro zone crisis was of "extraordinary importance, not only to the people of Europe, but also to the world economy." Hollande told Obama that growth must be a priority and said the two leaders discussed their concerns about Greece . "We share the same views, the fact that Greece must stay in the eurozone and that all of us must do what we can to that effect," he said. Obama and other U.S. officials have repeatedly pressed European leaders to do more to spur economic growth. Obama's support for Hollande's view could put pressure on Merkel, who has stressed the need for fiscal discipline to restore the health of the euro zone economies , even as voters have toppled belt- tightening governments……. COMMENTS: Massagat wrote: May 18, 2012 It’s interesting that new French President is France’s First Socialist President in seventeen years and that President Obama has apparently made a good rapport with Hollande. AnnieP1 wrote: May 18, 2012 Yes, Mr. Obama, multi-millionaire, and Mr. Hollande, who owns five houses on the Riveria, are very good at hiding the fact that they are the 1%. They are also very good at enlarging the government ruling class and using other people’s money to do it with.