A tourist from France says she’s not sure if the high DOW numbers are just temporary. She adds that she’s not sure if it will go down again. (0:21)
By Laura Woodhead – Talk Radio News Service
A panel of foreign affairs experts argued Tuesday that France’s re-entry into the Northern Atlantic Treaty Organization’s military command is not a “Trojan Horse” plot to undermine the power of NATO. Speaking at the Atlantic Council’s discussion “Going from Oui to fait Accompli: France’s Normalization with NATO” the panel discussed the key role that France will play in bringing together the European Union and the United States within NATO.
Leo Michel, a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies, says the idea that France’s re-involvement in NATO will allow them to undermine the organization is ridiculous.
“This is a win, win outcome. It is not cover for some a nefarious French plot to hobble NATO.”
“French reintegration is a vote of confidence in the trans-Atlantic community and provides an example to the rest of the Europe of a common effort towards meeting challenges coming at us” explained Jim Townsend, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO policy.
However, the panel stressed that France’s new role did not mean that the relationship between France and the United States would be “simple and easy.”
” There are some in town that think that the clouds are going to open and rainbows are going to appear and all of a sudden divisions after division of French forces are going to flow into the NATO system…that is just not realistic.” However, Townsend added, “The addition of French strategic thought back into NATO military command…will be a tremendous plus for the alliance.”
Liz Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs during the Bush administration, told Talk Radio News that she believes Obama pursued global interests at the expense of U.S. interests during his recent trip abroad (0:18)
By Courtney Ann Jackson- Talk Radio News Service
While President Obama is scheduled to travel next week to Egypt, Germany and France, his administration has not found its foreign policy footing, according to analysts at the Heritage Foundation.
“This trip next week is going to be watched very closely all over Europe, all across the world,” said Nile Gardner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation, “Every statement he makes will be scrutinized very carefully to see whether he is seeking to further atone for America’s past, which I think would be disastrous for the President to do so. The fact is that President Obama is increasingly being viewed as a soft touch on the world stage.”
On the President’s last visit to Europe he discussed American arrogance and Gardner believes it was a “huge strategic error in judgment” for him to “condemn his own country on foreign soil.”
On this tour, Obama is expected to give a speech on foreign policy while in Egypt but James Phillips, senior research fellow of Middle Eastern Affairs at the Heritage Foundation, believes the focus should be on a comparison between the people’s future defined by the Islamists and a future defined by freedom.
The consensus of the analysts was that the worst thing Obama could do on his visit is to succumb to the idea of incessantly apologizing for America’s past and issues like what the Bush administration dubbed the “War on Terror” and instead step up to the challenges boldly.
Gardner said he believes the President “needs to toughen his act on the international stage, project strong international leadership, and stand up to both the threat of a nuclear armed Iran as well as a nuclear armed North Korea.” He added that this is the time for strong U.S. leadership.
by Christina Lovato, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service
Today at a discussion titled, “The Implications of the G-20 Summit for the Political Sovereignty and Economic Freedom of the United States,” J.D. Foster, a senior fellow in the economics of fiscal policy at the Thomas Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies of the Heritage Foundation, spoke about the upcoming G-20 summit in April and how France’s President, Nicolas Sarkozy is suggesting that Europe take the lead of the country and the United States follow. Foster said that Barney Frank (D-Mass.) would not allow that to happen. (01:09)
By Kayleigh Harvey – Talk Radio News Service
Eric Farnsworth, Vice-President for Council of Americas suggests Brazil and Mexico should be allowed to join the G8 at a Subcommittee meeting on the Western Hemisphere. February 4, 2009.
“The reality is not that Barack Obama has a tax-cut, or even a plan to make jobs. The reality is that he has a plan that is riddled with bad incentives, full of targeted handouts, and fundamentally based on redistribution of wealth, and stands in sharp contrast to John McCain’s approach.” This was stated by Doug Holtz-Eakin, Senior Policy Adviser for the McCain-Palin campaign, in response to Senator Barack Obama’s (D-IIll.) tax reform plan. Nancy Pfotenhauer, Senior Policy Adviser for the McCain-Palin campaign, said Obama’s tax plan “punishes achievement”.
The campaign advisers claim Obama’s tax reforms amount to “sending checks to individuals, many of whom may not be working, and who certainly do not have a tax liability”. They added that Obama’s tax cuts for job creation in American businesses are “too little too late”, and too small to offset the supposed damages his own policies would do. Pfotenhauer said, “if this is his prescription for our economy, at a time when we’re already ailing, I cannot think of any kind of medicine that could be worse”.
“Barack Obama’s overall economic policy can be characterized as the Europeanization of the american economy, because it is effectively a high tax, high spending protectionist approach,” Pfotenhauer said, “and it doesn’t work. All you need to do is look at the economies in say Germany or France, where you have, even in our tough economic time, unemployment rates that are significantly higher, growth rates that are significantly lower, and a quality of life or living that is about a third lower than in the United States.” Holtz-Eakin and Pfotenhauer were participating in a conference call on Obama’s tax plan, which according to the McCain advisers, includes approximately a trillion dollars of new spending and increased tax credits for Americans that do not pay income taxes.
White House Gaggle
Briefer: Dana Perino
President’s Schedule
President Bush had his normal briefings this morning at 8 am. At 1.05 pm, he will participate in a photo op with the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Champion. He has also has a series of private meetings and policy time at 11 am.
White House Press Secretary Dana Perino will brief the press at 12.15 pm today. (more…)
