Pete Seat.com

CBS White House Correspondent Chip Reid blogs today about an exchange between White House press secretary Robert Gibbs and veteran reporter Helen Thomas.  The questions actually followed up on something Reid himself asked during Friday’s daily press briefing: when will Obama do another press conference?

The most recent Obama press conference was on July 22, 2009.  You’ll recall that for the first few months of the Obama presidency he was all about press conferences, holding them quite frequently.  In addition, he made numerous visits to the press cabin on Air Force One before stopping that practice. 

So here’s the question: why the shift?  Has the White House heard the criticism about Obama’s supposed overexposure and shifted strategy?  Have they soured to a press corps that gave them a good 100-day honeymoon and is now asking tougher questions?  Did they decide it is best to put him out there when he has something positive to talk about rather than spend an hour on the defensive?  Or, have they finally decided using their surrogates is a good strategy (John Brennan and Carol Browner have both received high marks for their recent TV appearances).  (Columns I have written on those topics linked above)

The answer could be a combination of all these things.  But no matter the reason, the press corps always loves a press conference, you can’t argue with that!

Gary, Indiana, leaders, fearful of having to cut their excessive spending, have asked the State of Indiana to grant them the ability to continue collecting the highest property taxes in the State instead of following tax caps that every other municipality must adhere to.

In today’s Times article posted here it’s reported Gary’s revenue from property taxes would be cut in half, from $60 million to $30 million, when and if, they begin collecting under Indiana’s property tax caps - 1% of assessed value for personal property, 2% for rentals and 3% for commercial. 

A big chunk of money to be lost, yes, but is it really fair to be charging the citizens of Gary the highest rates in the State when according to the Census Bureau the median household income of the City stands at $27,195 compared to Indiana’s average of $41,567.  The residents of Gary already face a greater burden based on those numbers and yet their Mayor wants to make it worse instead of cutting spending like a responsible leader would.

Whoa! 

Howard Dean yesterday and today has been been making some good sense on the desire of Democrats and President Obama to pass anything they can possibly label as healthcare reform in order to claim they kept a campaign promise.  This isn’t necessarily news.  For weeks and months they have been watering down the bill to bring along members of their own party and attempt to snag a few Republicans along the way (which hasn’t been working all that well) while still calling the product healthcare reform.  But it’s certainly a problem when a Doctor and former Chairman of the Democratic National Committee says it.

When this all started healthcare reform meant a public option, if not a single-payer system, to Democrats.  Today, it doesn’t mean anything near that, at least in the Senate. 

During an interview with Good Morning America’s newest co-host George Stephanopoulos, Dean said this: “We’ve gotten to the stage, George, you know this better than most, in Washington, where passing any bill is a victory. And that’s the problem. Decisions are made about the long-term future of this country for short-term political reasons. And that’s never a good sign.”

He is absolutely right.  If Democrats are successful in getting this passed it will be a watered down version of what they originally wanted but every member that votes for it will run in 2010 on the fact that they were the first Congress and President to pass “meaningful” healthcare reform.  Problem is, that’s far from the case.

You can read the transcript and see Dean’s interview here.

Secretary Robert Gates made an unannounced visit to Kabul today (ironically, Al Roker is also in town) to reassure the Afghan government that our commitment to them is strong.  In return, President Hamid Karzai, who has come under fire since his recent re-election for potentially unfair electoral practices said that while his government intends to take over security in the country within five years they wouldn’t be able to fund a full security apparatus for 15 more years.  You can see the whole story here.

So the question is where does that leave us?  President Obama in his post-Thanksgiving address on Afghanistan said that forces would pull out in July 2011.  He seems pretty firm on that.  Robert Gibbs has seemed firm on that.  But Gates and Secretary Hillary Clinton have tried to downplay the significance of the date saying it isn’t a hard and fast rule.  Does Karzai’s announcement mean that even though forces are out of the country (or at least the majority of them) we will still be sending millions, if not billions, of dollars to Afghanistan to fund their security forces for the next decade?

For a country that needs to seriously look at putting a dent in our deficit that probably isn’t the best financial scenario - but would it be better that a potentially disastrous relationship develop between Afghanistan and future investors?  Perhaps it’s a no-win on this one.

The journeys continue…

Click here for Journeys without George: The Emirates Strike Back.

And here for Journeys without George: The Return of Jordan.

I will be speaking at Purdue University on September 25, 2009, at 1:30pm in MTHW 210.  If you’re on campus or around West Lafayette, please stop by.  The topic of my remarks is Media & Politics: A Digital Marriage.

Other events coming as well - so stay tuned!

He lived a long life - 97 years - including an Oscar, an Emmy and serving as the head of the Motion Picture Association of American.  Gary native Karl Malden passed away today.

Twice I wrote to Malden about our common backgrounds.  The first time was after I read his book, When Do I Start?.  A few months later he sent back a handwritten letter apologizing for not having gotten back to me sooner.  The second time I wrote to him while I was at The White House and he sent another letter, just a few days letter, addressed to me at The White House.

Will post some quotes from the letters soon.