What Barack Obama will tell the Muslim world tomorrow

Back on Jan. 20 in his inaugural address, brand-new President Obama promised "a new way forward" in relations with the Muslim world.

Six days into his first 100, he threw a well-executed media curveball by granting his first TV interview to a Saudi-owned Arab network, whose correspondent's daughter worked on the Democrat's presidential election campaign.

And his words were closely studied for the fresh messages they might send the Muslim world with its 1.4 billion adherents. Barack Hussein Obama, for instance, describes his own faith as "Christian," but made a point of saying he has Muslim members of his own family and himself has lived in a Muslim country (Indonesia).

Today, Obama visits Saudi Arabia. Thursday, in Egypt, he will speak to the entire Muslim world. As usual, we'll have the full text of what the president actually says. But meanwhile, the guessing is about what he will say.

We are re-publishing here the full text of Obama's Al Arabiya interview from The Ticket on Jan. 29 for clues to Thursday's message and perhaps then a comparison of how the new president and his team have adjusted that message in these few intervening months.

The interview was with Hisham Melhem, the Washington bureau chief of Al Arabiya television, the Dubai-based, Saudi-owned international news network. The session was taped Jan. 26 in the White House. Melhem said later his network was picked by the White House for its regional moderation, for how Melhem had requested the interview after Nov. 4, and Melhem mentioned that his daughter was, in fact, a campaign volunteer for Obama last year.

Melhem said he found Obama had "a sharp analytical mind" and "a very sophisticated understanding of the world." Obama also hand-wrote souvenir letters to Melhem's wife and daughter. Some celebrity things are cross-cultural.

-- Andrew Malcolm

THE INTERVIEW:

Q:  Mr. President, thank you for this opportunity. We really appreciate it.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you so much.

Q:  Sir, you just met with your personal envoy to the Middle East, Sen. Mitchell. Obviously, his first task is to consolidate the cease-fire.  But beyond that you've been saying that you want to pursue actively and aggressively peacemaking between the Palestinians and the Israelis. Tell us a little bit about how....

Poll: Obama's team doesn't help his popularity at all -- and Pelosi hurts

A new Harris Poll reveals that no one in President Obama's Cabinet and administration is helping his strong popularity ratings at all.

In fact, instead of Obama's 60+% popularity being bolstered by colleagues, the Great Change Agent is carrying most of the favorability factor on his own shoulders.

If his figures ever slip, there's not much below to support him. On the other hand, for now there's no competition for publicity.

And while Vice President Joe "To Be Safe Don't Go Anywhere Near Anyone Who's Breathing" Biden isn't any help, House Speaker Nancy "Maybe I Wasn't Really Listening When They Lied to Me" Pelosi of California is the most unpopular of all.

The new online poll of 2,681 American adults taken last month shows that after eight years of the well-known Evil Crowd, many on Obama's team are not only not well-known, they're little-known. Almost unknown.

(Psst. This may be how The Boss wants it.)

Only Pelosi (66%), Biden (69%) and Secretary of State Hillary "Shame on You, Barack Obama" Clinton (83%) are known to most Americans.

While Treasury Secretary Timothy "Not Paying Taxes to One of the Departments I Now Run Was an Inadvertent Mistake" Geithner enjoys 16% positive opinions, fully 26% feel negatively about him. And 59% don't really have an opinion about the guy.

Pelosi has by far the worst ratings, more than 2 to 1 against -- 21% positive to 45% negative.

In Biden's case, 32% positive feelings, but 36% negative.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has nearly 2-to-1 positive ratings -- 28% positive to 15% negative. But despite being an Evil Crowd holdover, 57% have never heard of him.

Only 17% have not heard of Clinton, but those who have break 50%-33% positive-negative.

"None of his colleagues do much to help him politically," the Harris commentary notes. "Some commentators have written about the supposed strength of his team and his cabinet members. The public does not share this enthusiasm. And Nancy Pelosi is a political liability."

Other than that, it's seen as a very strong Obama administration team.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photos, from top: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images; Associated Press.

Rep. John Conyers holds hearing for Atty. Gen. Eric Holder to hear him

Yes, sure, Democratic Rep. John Conyers is alleged to be from Michigan. But, seriously, what planet do these folks come from?

Watch this amazing video below that we came across from the House Judiciary Committee hearing this morning.

First off, what's Congressman Conyers chewing so much? It wasn't lunch time. But, more importantly, this is what's considered dialogue on Capitol Hill?

This is how members of the legislative branch communicate with members of the executive branch of President Barack Obama, in this case Attorney General Eric Holder?

No wonder the AG looks so flummoxed. Anybody did this in the real world and the HR folks would be stopping by.

Good thing the Democrats control Capitol Hill and the White House. Otherwise, we might have some real  communications challenges going on within our federal government.

BTW, as a sign of unity with other hard-pressed Americans in these difficult economic times, Congress gave itself a $4,700 raise this winter. Helps stimulate their economy. And as you can see from this video, the country is sure getting its extra money's worth.

(UPDATE: A loyal Ticket reader calls our attention to another hearing video, this one of Rep. Conyers' wife, Monica, a member of the Detroit City Council and third in line to the mayor's office, during a recent council exchange that is, uh, more lively than her husband's. We'll add that one to the stack below.

(Wonder who gets to talk at the Conyers' dinner table.)

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Michael Steele's first 100 days as RNC chairman: oh brother

Michael Steele marked his first 100 days as chairman of the Republican National Committee over the weekend, and few noticed.

The RNC had no public events, no press conference enunciating Steele's greatest accomplishments, no media rollout to cement a gain in public opinion.

In fact, the only thing of note that happened to Steele over the weekend is that he was ridiculed by President Obama for his use of street jargon. In a riff at the White House Correspondents' Assn. dinner, Obama said he'd noted that Steele was "in the house tonight -- or as he would say, in the heezey."

Responding to the rib, Steele told PoliticsDaily that "It was good love between two brothers ... I appreciate the president giving me a shout out. I've given him a few over the years, so he just returned the favor." Steele added, "Look, this worm will turn. My time will come -- trust me."

A growing number of Republicans think Steele's time has already come and gone.

While Obama was piling up an impressive list of first-100-day achievements -- closing Guantanamo Bay, beginning the drawdown of troops from Iraq, steadying the economy with a $787-billion stimulus package -- Steele was getting himself into one controversy after another.

Steele began his tenure by picking a fight with conservative icon Rush Limbaugh, calling the radio talk show host "an entertainer" whose show is "incendiary" and "ugly." He later apologized.

Steele also gutted the RNC staff, threatened to withhold party support from moderates running in GOP primaries (like Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe) and raised eyebrows by using street lingo in promising a "hip-hop" GOP outreach effort and saying he would show one Republican politician some "slum love."

This week the Republican National Committee plans a special meeting in Maryland, where, our colleague Paul West reports, he plans to deliver a major speech at the party gathering. The idea: relaunch his chairmanship, and staunch the hemorrhaging.

"There were some bumps out of the gate, obviously, which everyone acknowledged, including him," said media consultant Curt Anderson, a close adviser.

-- Johanna Neuman

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Sunday shows: Pretty much Sebelius, Napolitano everywhere. And Romney

ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos": Sens. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius,  Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Acting Director Dr. Richard Besser. Also a round-table with PBS' Gwen Ifill, Gerald Seib of the Wall Street Journal and ABC's George Will.

Bloomberg's "Political Capital with Al Hunt": Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro and Bloomberg's Rich Miller, Hans Nichols, Greg Stohr and Kate O'Beirne.

CBS' "Face the Nation": Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), Secretary Sebelius, Secretary Napolitano and the CDC's Besser.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS": Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates (taped).

CNN's "State of the Union With John King": Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, ex-Clinton Press Secretary Joe Lockhart, former Rep. Susan Molinari (R-N.Y.), Secretary Sebelius, Secretary Napolitano and the CDC's Besser.

"Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace": Secretary Sebelius, Secretary Napolitano and the CDC's Besser, Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and John Ensign (R-Nevada) and "Power Player" Christopher Buckley.

NBC's "Meet the Press" with David Gregory: Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), Secretary Sebelius, Secretary Napolitano and the CDC's Besser; a round-table with MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and former counselor to President George W. Bush Ed Gillespie.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times

Weekly remarks: Obama on flu and GOP Rep. Lynn Jenkins on $$$$

Good morning, loyal Ticket readers. Have you washed your hands yet today -- or again?

This Saturday's weekly remarks start off with President Obama reviewing steps his administration has taken in recent days to counter the swine flu outbreak.

The Republican remarks below this week are by Rep. Lynn Jenkins of Kansas, who, not too surprisingly, is a Republican. She's a former state treasurer and a freshman in the House, who talks about the immense spending plans of the new White House administration.

(UPDATE: If you'd rather watch video excerpts of the two addresses, scroll down to the bottom. We have videos of both there.)

Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama

Over the last week my administration has taken several precautions to address the challenge posed by the 2009 H1N1 flu virus. Today, I'd like to take a few minutes to explain why.

This is a new strain of the flu virus [see photo], and because we haven’t developed an immunity to it, it has more potential to cause us harm.

Unlike the various strains of animal flu that have emerged in the past, it’s a flu that is spreading from human to human. This creates the potential for a pandemic, which is why we are acting quickly and aggressively. 

This H1N1 flu has had its biggest impact in Mexico, where it has claimed a number of lives and infected hundreds more.

Thus far, the strain in this country that has infected people in at least 19 states has not been as potent or as deadly. We cannot know for certain why that is, which is why we are taking all necessary precautions in the event that the virus does turn into something worse. 

This is also why the Centers for Disease Control has recommended that schools and child care facilities with confirmed cases of the virus close for up to fourteen days.

It is why we urge employers to allow infected employees to take as many sick days as necessary.

If more schools are forced to close, we’ve also recommended that both parents and businesses think about contingency plans if children do have to stay home.

We have asked every American to take the same steps you would take to prevent any....

Fashionable First Lady Michelle Obama helps the poor in $540 sneakers

Oops!

First Lady Michelle Obama, who's become quite the fashion role model with her J.Crew wear and buff-arm-spotlighting sleeveless frocks, is under scrutiny for what she wore on her feet the other day.

They're trendy Lanvin sneakers. Which look really nice and comfy and all. Trouble is, they cost $540. If you can find a pair anywhere.

And, of course, if you've got $540, plus -- what? -- 9 or 10% tax in some places. Which seems like a lot for two shoes not guaranteed to benefit your jump shot.

The other trouble is that -- wait for it -- she wore them to a poverty event, a Capitol Area Food Bank for Feeding America to provide much appreciated help and publicity to benefit the food bank.

Mrs. Obama  also has gone to serve a lunch hour at soup kitchens in Washington, where an unidentified presumably homeless person showed up with a camera cellphone to capture Mrs. Obama, who kindly posed for the man.

We have a video review below of Michelle Obama's first 100 days too.

The sharp-eyed Amy Diluna was first to spot the first lady footwear contradiction here.

Sharp-memoried politics readers will recall all the positive attention Mrs. Obama garnered during the presidential campaign for her everyday, every-woman $150 dresses from Black & White Market.

While Cindy McCain, John's wealthy wife, and some woman from Alaska both attracted negative attention for their expensive clothing, some of it reputedly borrowed.

(FYI, Michelle Obama is a Democrat. The other two women are Republicans. But what could that have to do with anything?)

Diluna also notes about Mrs. Obama: "A week ago, she shoveled dirt at a tree planting while wearing the line's chiffon tank. Dresses and strappy pumps cost upward of $1,500, while tops go for $400 to $1,000." An online poll by the N.Y. Daily news finds 59% think the shoe choice was in poor taste for a poverty event.

Now, the video below.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Top photo: Michelle Obama, Jill Biden, second from left, and volunteers at the Capitol Area Food Bank for Feeding America event. Credit: Paul Morigi / Getty Images

Bottom photo: Lanvin shoe closeup. Credit: Reuters

Friday Tickets: Aunt Janet, A. Specter, Elizabeth Edwards, Joe Biden

Fridays are always good times to straighten things out with questions nobody knew needed asking:

First, as part of the new American protocol, have you washed your hands several times already today, as Auntie Janet, the director of Homeland Security, has instructed? You never know whether your mouse has been exposed to swine flu. We disrespectfully decline to use H1N1 virus; too labby.

Where flu flies

Swine is a really great word. So's mollycoddle, an all-time favorite. "Toxic assets" was good while it lasted but now we're handed "legacy assets." As in, previously owned. Words are important in politics, as North Carolina Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx discovered this week when she gratuitously threw in the word "hoax" while describing the brutal 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard.

Remember last year how excited everyone got when some Ohio radio host at a John McCain rally kept saying Barack Obama's Muslim middle name, Hussein? Then Obama himself goes and uses it in his inaugural oath. Must be OK now. And radio talk jock and now MSNBC shouter Ed Schultz called former POW McCain a "warmonger" at an Obama rally and everyone yawned?

Now, who's launching his own troop surge in Afghanistan?

A boil-brained scurvy knave

BTW, we've found the best website to generate original political insults with Shakespearean words. Click a button, which we'll do right now to see what to call GOP defector or Democrat hero Arlen Specter. And it gives us "Thou abominable hag-born scut." Again: "Thou artless beef-witted wrinkle-witch."

Do you suppose swine worry about catching human flu? If anyone sees the family of....

David Souter retires; Barack Obama gets early Supreme Court pick

What a coincidence.

News out on the 101st night of Barack Obama's presidency that Supreme Court Justice David Hackett Souter has informed the White House that he will retire soon.

The 69-year-old jurist from New Hampshire was named to the court in 1990 by Bush I, who hoped his nominee would be a conservative. The president was sadly disappointed. Instead, Souter proved to be a centrist, leaning more liberal recently.

Souter will finish out the court's current term, which will be issuing major decisions come summer. And he reportedly has agreed to stay on until a successor is confirmed by the Senate.

Born in Massachusetts the son of a banker, Souter lived much of his childhood on a family farm in New Hampshire.

After a Harvard education and Rhodes scholarship, he spent a career in private practice, the state attorney general's office, state courts and, briefly, as a federal appeals court judge,

Souter filled the Supreme Court seat held by Justice William Brennan.

Souter was confirmed by the Senate 90-9, but his opponents included both of neighboring Massachusetts' Democratic senators, Ted Kennedy and John Kerry.

Obama's choice will be closely watched. Will he name another centrist? If so, that would be unlikely to produce change to believe in and would simply continue the current court status quo.

A woman, because the court's only current female is the aging Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who's been treated for pancreatic cancer? A liberal to satisfy the party's left impatient after eight years of not controlling such White House appointments?

Obama shouldn't have much trouble getting his nominee through a Senate now likely to contain 60 Democrats.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Justice David Souter. Photo credit: Associated Press

Out-Foxing NBC: TV drama draws a million more viewers than Obama

Well, it looks like Fox made the correct business call in opting not to broadcast President Obama's latest prime-time news conference last night. (Full transcript here, as usual.)

After 100 days and three prime-time news sessions, has the entertainment value drained out of the new guy talking for 55 minutes with no laugh track or applause? (Despite the "enchanted" president item.)

Overnight ratings show that Fox's ironically named drama "Lie to Me" easily beat NBC's coverage of Obama's Wednesday evening news conference, drawing nearly 8 million viewers to the Peacock's 6.7 million in second place.

On those broadcast networks, a little less than 19 million viewed the news conference.

Overall, about 28.8 million people watched the White House media session on 10 TV channels, a sharp 29% dropoff from the last session March 24. Nearly 50 million watched Obama's first news conference. Oh, and Fox News' Obama coverage won the ratings combat on the cable side.

"Lie to Me" is the story of a doctor (Tim Roth) who's, in effect, a living lie detector through his ability to read human expressions and nuances. We could maybe use him at some political events! Meanwhile, here's a sample.

We have a video excerpt below. Of the news conference, that is.

--Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Ron Edmonds / Associated Press