Obama: We are on the healthcare 'precipice,' but he meant that in a good way

President Obama's remarks after meeting with Democratic senators
THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. We just had a very productive session about the final stages of healthcare reform in the Senate.  And from the discussions we had it's clear that we are on the precipice of an achievement that's eluded congresses and presidents for generations -- an achievement that will touch the lives of nearly every American.

There are still some differences that have to be worked on. This was not a roll call. This was a broad-based discussion about how we move forward. But whatever differences remain, there is broad consensus around reforms that will finally, No. 1, protect every American from the worst practices in the health insurance industry.

No longer will these companies be able to deny you coverage if you have a preexisting illness or condition. No longer will they be able to drop you from coverage when you get sick. No longer will you have to pay unlimited amounts out of your own pocket for the treatments that you need. We are all in agreement on those reforms.

We agree on reforms that will finally reduce the costs of healthcare. Families will ...

Obama calls insulation 'sexy' (text here)

President Obama went to a Home Depot in northern Virginia today to pitch energy independence as a surefire way to produce jobs.

And he said, several times, that weatherizing or insulation is sexy, explaining that it's cool to save money.

"I know the idea may not be glamorous,'' the president said, alluding to a recent round-table talk. "Someone said insulation is not very sexy. ... I disagree. ... Here's what's sexy about it: saving money.

He also hinted that he was doing some of his Christmas shopping in the store. He mentioned specifically that Energy Secretary Steven Chu had asked for a few million energy-efficient light bulbs and that Press Secretary Robert Gibbs wanted something to prevent leaks.

Full text below, as provided by the White House.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo credit: Associated Press

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(UPDATE 3:22 p.m.: The White House issued the following correction to the text:

*Correction: The word in the 17th paragraph should be insulation not installation. “The simple act of retrofitting these buildings to make them more energy-efficient -- installing new windows and doors, insulation, roofing, sealing leaks, modernizing heating and cooling equipment -- is one of the fastest, easiest and cheapest things we can do to put Americans back to work while saving families money and reducing harmful emissions.”)

REMARKS BY PRESIDENT ON ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND JOB CREATION
 
THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, everybody.  Hello!  Hello!  (Applause.)  Thank you guys.  Thank you.  Everybody, please have a seat.
 

We've got a couple of special guests here today.  First of all, the outstanding senator from the great Commonwealth of Virginia, Senator Mark Warner is here.  Where's Mark?  Right there.  (Applause.)  We've got a couple of champions for job creation here in Northern Virginia -- Gerry Connolly and Jim Moran.  (Applause.)  Can I just ask, how come they got the Home Depot thing and you guys....

Biden: Don't underestimate steel in Obama's spine

Vice President Joe Biden is a creature of the Senate, having served there for 36 years.

So when he told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" today that there's been "a lot of gamesmanship" in the Senate over healthcare reform, he was speaking from experience.

Deflecting a question about whether Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut is being hypocritical by balking over extending Medicare to the 55-and-older crowd when he once backed the idea, Biden predicted that Lieberman would "see the light" and come around on healthcare.

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And Biden pushed the message that President Obama is expected to deliver this afternoon when the Senate Democratic caucus, Lieberman included, visits the White House: If healthcare does not pass in this Congress, "it's going to be kicked back for a generation."

Joe Scarborough, a former congressman who also knows something about the workings of the Capitol, asked Biden if Democrats on the Hill are dragging their feet on healthcare because, while they like Obama, they don't fear him. If so, said Biden, "they are underestimating the steel in this guy's spine."

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo credit: Joe Raedle / Getty Images

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A 'Gitmo North' to open in rural Illinois?

Maybe this is a new form of torture -- forcing terrorist suspects to trade the idyllic weather of Cuba for the harsh realities of winter in the heartland.

That's not the reason, of course, that the Obama administration is planning to move upward of 100 detainees from the detention center at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to Illinois' little-used Thomson Correctional Center about 150 miles from Chicago.

First the feds have to buy the facility from the state, then turn it into a super-max prison. Oh, and they have to weather the complaints of Republicans such as Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who dubbed the proposed new facility "Gitmo North" and said the administration has failed to explain how it will make the United States safer. "The American people and a bipartisan majority of the Congress have already rejected bringing terrorists to U.S. soil for long-term detention, and current law prohibits it," McConnell said.

Others, like Illinois Republican Rep. Mark Kirk, running for the Senate, charge the move would put a big target on the state for jihadists.

But the White House insists that emptying Guantanamo, long an irritant in world opinion, will actually protect U.S. interests. In a statement issued last night, the administration said closing the facility that was first opened by President George W. Bush is "essential to protecting our national security and helping our troops by removing a deadly recruiting tool from the hands of Al Qaeda."

President Obama, who promised in his first week in office to close the facility within a year, is set to announce the policy later today.

-- Johanna Neuman

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Photo: Military police escort a detainee to his cell at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in 2002. Credit: Reuters

Washington's open season on RINOs and DINOs in both parties

It seems President Obama is not quite there yet in fulfilling his hopeful campaign promise to change the harsh partisan tone in the nation's capitol.

In the true joyous spirit of the approaching family holidays, both parties are being convulsed these days with attempts to root out ideological infidels. And it's all exacerbated by the approaching emotional crunch of the neverending healthcare debate.

Some on the Republican right are going after RINOs, Republicans in Name Only, those perfidious politicians who proclaim allegiance to the party of Lincoln without standing on all its planks.

Right now, top accused RINO there is Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina senator who had the audacity to vote for a Democrat Supreme Court nominee and to negotiate with Democrats over cap-and-trade. NetRightNation.com Monday called Graham "the Watermelon Man," as in "green on the outside, pink on the inside."

Over on the left the hunting parties are tracking a DINO, Connecticut's Joe Lieberman, who's incurred their wrath because he's opposed to a government option in the healthcare bill and mentioned he might support a Republican filibuster if it ever came to that.

He's also done all kinds of traitorous things like support and campaign for Republican John McCain in last year's presidential election and speak at the GOP convention.

Perhaps worst, Lieberman was photographed publicly hugging Sarah Palin, who is so irrelevant and politically inconsequential that many are still talking about her a year later.

The trouble about denouncing Lieberman for not really being a Democrat is that he's not really a Democrat. His party dumped him in the 2006 primary over his Iraq war support. So he ran as an Independent, Republicans silently let their guy swing in the wind and JL won. He meets now with the Democratic Senate caucus, which badly wanted to spank him after 2008.

The problem with that is, Lieberman is that crucial 60th Democrat vote that could neuter Republican opposition to whatever, giving the son of a liquor store owner what they call "clouf" in Chicago. Rahm Emanuel, Obama's chief of staff who like his boss was raised in the wily ways of the just-do-whatever-it-takes-to-win Chicago political machine, reportedly sent word over to Senate leader Harry Reid to work something out with Joe.

Still, the pressure builds. Jane Hamsher, a longtime harsh Lieberman critic and founder of FireDogLake.com, is now going after Lieberman's wife, Hadassah, as a spokesman for the Komen Race for the Cure because of her husband's opposition to the government option. One survey shows 80% of Democrats want Lieberman stripped of his Senate chairmanship if he goes GOP on healthcare.

So will Lieberman, who knows about being a losing Democrat VP candidate from 2000, ever pull a Specter and walk across the aisle to join the other party? Probably not. He'd just be one of a small crowd over there. As much as it annoys Reid right now, Lieberman's in the pilot's seat where he is.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Chris O'Meara / Associated Press

Congress goes after those annoying TV ads that are WAY LOUDER THAN THE PROGRAMS

You know how sometimes those folks on TV -- even on our favorite Sunday political talk shows -- are conversing so softly that you turn up the volume a little? And then forget about it?

Until the commercial comes on and it's WHOA! SO MUCH LOUDER THAN THE SHOWS?

So you scramble for the remote, fiddle with the volume button and curse the product being advertised, ranting about how these stupid things should be illegal.

Even though, come to think of it, there's a serious question about inviting the feds in to control television volume in individual homes.

Apparently, this loud volume has also struck the ears of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse. He's a Democrat, of course. From Rhode Island.

He's now introduced legislation called the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Migration Act of 2009 -- the unnecessary "M" word obviously thrown in to construct the cutesy acronym, CALM. Feels better already, right?

The bill proposes that the Federal Communications Commission regulate commercials, mandating that the sales pitches must remain at the same decibel level as the show that precedes them. Rep. Anna Eshoo, of Menlo Park, another Democrat, has introduced companion legislation in the House.

"In my 17 years in the House of Representatives," she tells The Times, "I've never carried a bill which has been received with so much enthusiasm. Only the do-not-call list has even come close."

But how will we know which candidates to vote for? Besides reading politics blogs, naturally? We often pick whomever talks the loudest in their campaign commercials. Come to think of it again, that's just like the used-car ads.

-- Mark Milian

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Photo: Mark Milian / Los Angeles Times

What Obama said he said to the Mr. Potters of American banking

As The Ticket noted here earlier today, President Obama, who does not need a bank loan anytime soon, called some of the nation's top bankers out to the White House woodshed today for a private talking-to.

Last night on an interview aired on "60 Minutes" the president called them "a bunch of fat-cat bankers on Wall Street," a place everyone loves to hate until it's time to live off those 401(k)s. Such tough talk is supposed to cause everyone to believe that the commander-in-chief really read them the riot act at their meeting today.

The president, whose job approval has sagged faster than any freshman White House chief executive in about six decades, has some problems. One is that word is out now that his cost-cutting healthcare legislation will actually cost more than leaving the American system alone.

Another is the economy. Blaming the Texas Brushcutter isn't washing anymore. Unemployment remains in the double-digits despite . . .

Sarah Palin ends 'Going Rogue' book tour. Now what?

She's back in Alaska.

Sarah Palin -- the former Republican governor of the state who quit in midterm, the vice presidential candidate who wowed some voters in 2008 and antagonized others -- is home.

"This book tour has been an amazing and inspirational experience for me and my family as we crisscrossed the country and met so many wonderful Americans," Palin wrote on her Facebook page. "At nearly every stop we met someone with a connection to Alaska -- usually through the military from being stationed at one of Alaska’s bases. With that in mind, we’ve decided to hold the final book signings at Alaska's Elmendorf and Eielson AFBs."

No question the book, 'Going Rogue,' was a huge bestseller, 1 million copies so far.

So what's next on Palin's agenda? There are a few paid speeches scheduled. After that, well, there's a political action committee to steer, a midterm election to fight for, a presidential contest looming and a lot of fans eager to hear her message.

For her part, Palin was not giving any hints Sunday. Her last book tour tweet: "22-degrees below zero here @ Eielson Air Force Base but so many warm hearts made r book signing event toasty, energizing, welcoming! Thx Frbnks.”

-- Johanna Neuman

Related item:

Surprising Sarah Palin's appearance on Conan O'Brien's show (video)

Photo: Palin. Credit: Win McNamee / Getty Images

Obama tells Oprah he deserves a 'good, solid B+.' Critics cry grade inflation. Your thoughts?

It's been almost a year since President Obama took office.

And last night, in an interview with Oprah Winfrey during her White House Christmas special, the president assessed his first year. His Santa-I've-been-good list: The economy has been rescued from the abyss, U.S. involvement in the war in Iraq is winding down, the deployment of 30,000 more U.S. troops in Afghanistan will protect U.S. interests, and American prestige has been restored around the world.

Asked to put a grade to his achievements, Obama, a former professor and star student at Columbia University and Harvard Law School, gave himself "a good, solid B+." And if Congress passed healthcare reform, he added, it would boost his grade to A-.

Critics were quick to pounce. BBC radio political correspondent John Romano noted that, according to the Gallup Poll, only 48% of Americans currently approved of Obama's performance, suggesting that voters might not be as generous in grading.

In a "political perspective from an African American mom," Joni Hudson-Reynolds suggested that -- with 16 million Americans out of work, a rate particularly high among black Americans -- perhaps the president is grading himself on a curve. "President Obama is a likeable guy, but no way has he earned such high marks with the American public," she wrote.

And one self-described Florida conservative offered a point-by-point analysis of Obama's performance, giving him a C on healthcare and an F on the economy. "This is why schools don't ask teachers for self-evaluation," he concluded.

Let us know what you think.

-- Johanna Neuman

Related items:

What Obama said he said to the nation's Mr. Potter bankers

Each Obama stimulus job costs #$246,436 to create

Photo: Pete Souza / White House

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Obama takes bankers to White House woodshed

President Obama, famous for his cool, was hopping mad.

First, the nation's top bankers got a life-support infusion of billions of dollars in taxpayer funds. Then they promptly sat on the money, reluctant to lend to the small businesses that helped fund the banks' rescue -- thus delaying any bounce in job recovery. Finally, and this one really galls the White House, the bankers unleashed their lobbyists on Capitol Hill against a financial regulatory bill that would among other things curb their salaries.

"I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat-cat bankers on Wall Street," Obama said on CBS' 60 Minutes last night. "What's really frustrating me right now is that you've got these same banks who benefited from taxpayer assistance who are fighting tooth and nail with their lobbyists up on Capitol Hill, fighting against financial regulatory control."

Watch CBS News Videos Online

So today, fresh from the '60 Minutes' interview, the president has invited a group of financiers to the White House where, according to his economics guru Lawrence Summers, Obama plans to "have a serious talk with the bankers." As Summers told ABC, "The country did incredible things for the banking industry...No major bank would be intact, in a position to pay bonuses, if that extraordinary support had not been provided. The bankers need to recognize that...they've got obligations to the country after all that's been done for them."

The all-CEO guest list for the president's tough-love talk: Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, Ken Chenault of American Express, Richard Davis of US Bancorp, Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan Chase, Richard Fairbank of Capital One, Bob Kelly of Bank of New York Mellon, Ken Lewis of Bank of America, Ron Logue of State Street Bank, John Mack of Morgan Stanley, Dick Parsons of Citigroup, Jim Rohr of PNC and John Stump of Wells Fargo.

As usual, bankers will have the last word. As one wag pointed out, after all, they get to keep the money.

-- Johanna Neuman

Related items:

What Obama said he said to the nation's Mr. Potter bankers

Each Obama stimulus job costs #$246,436 to create

Photo credit: Getty Images

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Oops! Turns out Obama's cost-cutting health plan won't save a dime; cheaper to do nothing

It's probably just coincidental that bad numbers about President Obama's much-coveted healthcare legislation came out late last week when few people were paying attention.

This is the absolutely crucial healthcare reform plan that simply had to be drafted, discussed, debated, amended and passed before early August. It's supposed to cover millions more Americans and reduce the nation's soaring medical costs.

Turns out, not.

Here's a little chapter review before semester finals:

Analysts in the Obama administration's Health and Human Services Department reported Friday that the nation's $2.5-trillion annual healthcare tab will not shrink at all under the Democrats' legislative blueprint as being pushed by happy Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader in the Senate.

Instead, they said, the nation's medical costs will actually grow faster under the new bill than....

From Proposition 8 to Maine and John Perez to Annise Parker, it's an uneven year for gay politics

It's been a topsy-turvy year for gay rights and political empowerment. For those who support gay marriage or gay candidates, every advance seems to be countered by a setback — or the sting of every defeat relieved a bit by a victory.

In May the California Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8, the voter-approved measure that banned gay marriage in the Golden State. And in November, voters in Maine overturned a state law that would have allowed gay marriage there. But on the same day Mainers went to the polls, voters in Kalamazoo -- yes, Kalamazoo, Mich. -- voted to strengthen legal protections for the city’s gay citizens.

And now, as The Ticket reported earlier tonight, voters in Houston elected Annise Parker as their mayor. Parker, the 53-year-old city controller, becomes the first openly gay mayor of such a large American city. Houston, with 2.2 million residents, is the nation’s fourth-largest city.

Two days earlier, Democrats who control California’s Assembly unanimously picked John A. Perez of Los Angeles to be their speaker. He will be the first openly gay lawmaker to hold the powerful post once held by Antonio Villaraigosa (now L.A. mayor) and the famously quotable Willie Brown.

This month also saw New York lawmakers reject legislation that would have made their state the sixth to allow gay marriage.

But again, as part of the topsy-turvy pattern, the District of Columbia Council this month took a step toward legalizing gay marriage in the nation’s capital. As our colleague Alexander C. Hart in Washington recently reported:

"In order to legalize same-sex marriage, the council must vote again to pass the bill, which is expected to occur Dec. 15. Once it is signed into law by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty as expected, it will be sent to Congress for review. If Congress takes no action to block the law within 30 legislative days, same-sex marriage would become legal."

But even if the measure goes down in defeat, gay rights groups can take heart with the arrival of the new year. A law making same-sex marriage legal in New Hampshire takes effect Jan. 1.

-- Steve Padilla

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Top photo: Parker, right, and her partner, Kathy Hubbard, celebrate on election night. Bottom photo: John A. Perez. Credit: Associated Press.