Transcript: President George W. Bush Radio Address | Gaza Crisis Fault of Hamas | January 2-3, 2009

(Source: White House Press Office, Radio Address to be Broadcast Saturday, January 3)

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Over the past week, I have been monitoring the situation in the Middle East closely with the members of my national security team. Secretary Rice is actively engaged in diplomacy. And I’ve been in contact with leaders throughout the region — including the King of Saudi Arabia, the King of Jordan, the President of Egypt, the President and Prime Minister of the Palestinian Territories, and the Prime Minister of Israel.

This recent outburst of violence was instigated by Hamas — a Palestinian terrorist group supported by Iran and Syria that calls for Israel’s destruction. Eighteen months ago, Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in a coup, and since then has imported thousands of guns and rockets and mortars. Egypt brokered a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, but Hamas routinely violated that ceasefire by launching rockets into Israel. On December 19th, Hamas announced an end to the ceasefire and soon unleashed a barrage of rockets and mortars that deliberately targeted innocent Israelis — an act of terror that is opposed by the legitimate leader of the Palestinian people, President Abbas.

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Transcript: Bush Delivers Defense/Terrorism Speech at West Point | December 9

(Source: White House Press Office)

11:25 A.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Please be seated. Thank you, General, for your warm welcome. Thank you for inviting me here to West Point. I now know why you’re so happy I’m here — (laughter — all classes were cancelled. (Applause.)

I had the honor of sitting next to the General and Judy during the game over the weekend. I am disappointed I could not bring the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy with me. However, you just get the Commander-in-Chief. (Applause.)

This is my last visit to a military academy as President, so I thought I would exercise a certain prerogative of office one last time: I hereby absolve all cadets who are on restriction for minor conduct offenses. As always, I always — I leave it to General Hagenbeck to determine what “minor” means. (Laughter.) Read more

Transcript: Obama News Conference Announcing Hillary Clinton and National Security Team | December 1

(Source: CQ Transcripts Wire)

SPEAKERS: PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA; SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, D-N.Y.; SUSAN E. RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY POLICY WORKING GROUP LEADER, OBAMA-BIDEN PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION TEAM; GENERAL JIM JONES (USMC, RET.) SECRETARY OF DEFENSE ROBERT M. GATES;
GOVERNOR JANET NAPOLITANO, D-ARIZ., ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER, OBAMA-BIDEN PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION TEAM; FORMER DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER; VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.

[*] OBAMA: Good morning, everybody. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Last week, we announced our economic team which is working as we speak to craft an economic recovery program to create jobs and grow our struggling economy.

Today, Vice President-elect Biden and I are pleased to announce our national security team. The national security challenges we face are just as great and just as urgent as our economic crisis. We are fighting two wars. Our old conflicts remain unresolved. And newly- asserted powers have put strains on the international system. Read more

Video: Obama’s National Security Team, Face the Nation, Woodward, Zakaria, Mayer, Dyson | November 30

The following 16 minute video is well worth watching – insightful talk with Bob Woodward, Fareed Zakaria, Jane Mayer and Michael Eric Dyson regarding President-elect Barack Obama’s announcement tomorrow unveiling his national security team.  One interesting comment from Woodward:

SCHIEFFER: …the president, if all goes as expected, at 10:50 Eastern time tomorrow will
announce his new national security team, to be headed by Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of
state.

Mr. WOODWARD: She never goes away, she and her husband. It’s an amazing national security team that Obama appears to have selected. It’s kind of like “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.”

You’ve got too cool, which might be–or at least appropriately cool, General Jones as the national security adviser; Gates is kind of just right, in the middle; and Hillary Clinton, hot. This is going to be a whole new center of gravity for the news media, for the whole world. My assessment without having any knowledge, really, is that the economists and the economic team around Obama convinced him that the economic crisis is so deep and going to require to much time, go ahead and give Hillary and Bill the world.

Yikes.  I’m not sure that’s what I voted for, Bob.

Does High Drama Clinton Serve ‘No Drama Obama’?

 Drudge’s Headline Brings Pause for Thought

A story in the International Herald Tribune earned the following headline on Drudge Report:

Now, if you read the entire story, you find that most of the piece is about President-elect Barack Obama’s and Sen. Hillary Clinton’s relationship and how it mellowed after their primary fight.  Drudge, though has shown an uncanny ability to pull the bothersome thread from the garment in the past, many times before the rest of the media catches up.  When I saw this headline, I thought, “Oh no, shadow government, Barack’s been too magnanimous and he’s going to pay for it.”

I read the story and Drudge’s headline – and therefore judgement on what the real story is – comes down to this:

By this past Thursday, when Obama reassured Clinton that she would have direct access to him and could select her own staff as secretary of state, the wooing was complete.

In the context of the reporting, it sounds pretty innocuous.  Drudge doesn’t think so, he thinks this is the story.  We won’t know if he’s right for months. But another nugget buried further in the piece is pure Clinton politics and may support why some remain worried about Hillary Clinton as one of Barack’s closest associates:

Clinton, it should be said, was herself diligent in advertising how hard she was working for the man who defeated her. When announcing her appearances, her press office included tallies of how many events she had held for Obama, and in how many states. At some rallies, organizers would distribute “Hillary Sent Me” buttons, as if Clinton was being magnanimous by “sending” her followers to vote for Obama.

You see, Bill and Hillary Clinton have never been ones for humility.  Part of the power and appeal of Barack Obama is that he is cabable of humility.  The mere fact that he surrounds himself with strong intellects and encourages robust policy debate and divergent opinions in his decision-making process is testament to this.  At the end of the day, Obama is still a man who ran for president and won and that qualifies his ego as one of the larger among us.  The reason why he appears to be not cut from the same political cloth as so many others with presidential-sized egos is that he is even more in tune to what’s going on around him.  He is self-aware and world-aware in a way that tempers the ego.

Can the same be said for either Hillary or Bill Clinton? 

I don’t want to ignore the contributions either the former president or the current senator have made to our country.  I will be only cautiously optimistic for now on whether Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State will work for America and the world.

Along with the Clintons’ contributions came colossal drama.  Conditions are too critical and the stakes here and abroad are too high in present times for drama.  I hope the rest of the ‘No Drama Obama’ team has considered this.

Why I’m Voting for Obama – Reason 2 of 3 – Our Standing in the World

Where you can blame about half of our economic woes on Congress and Clinton-era policies, there is no doubt that our poor standing within the family of nations lies squarely at the feet of Bush and Cheney. Around the world we are either derisively snickered at for being brutish or boorish, or, worse, feared or hated. The tragedy is that sometimes the fear and hate are born of events and rational analysis due to our seeming irrational actions in places like Iraq. Read more

Video: First Presidential Debate – Oxford, MS