Bair Questions US Treasury Secretary Lew's Abilities

Former FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair questioned new US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew's ability to handle his job during a Q&A at The Atlantic's Economy Summit. She initially lamented that Obama did not reach outside his inner cycle to fill the position.

"The same voices are in the room. We have to get out of this rut," she complained.

Bair particularly did not like the choice of Jack Lew. She panned his overall intelligence by saying that "he is not a quick study". She is worried that Lew probably "will not take an assertive view of financial reform."

Even more troubling, she does not believe that he can handle one of his key responsibilities as Treasury Secretary.

Bair said, "As Treasury Secretary, he is chairman of the the Financial Stability Oversight Council. It is a key voice for financial reform.  He does not have a background in that."

An outspoken critic of administration, Bair continues to give the administration a low grade for their handling of the economy.

"We are not getting more jobs and lending out of this. It is troubling."

Bair, who wrote a vivid account of her time in office called "Bull by the Horns," made some interesting arguments for business to support more infrastructure spending.

She argued, "With interest costs, construction costs so low, it is fiscally irresponsible not to embark on major infrastructure spending. It would lower the cost of doing business."

She urged both sides to come together for a budget deal.

"The fiscal uncertainty, what is happening in Washington, affects the economy," she said.

Romney's Desecration of Jewish Holiday Underscores Staff's Incompetence

Presumptive Republican Nominee Mitt Romney is arriving in Israel this Sunday on Tisha B'av, the saddest day in the Jewish calendar. The somber holiday marks the date on the Hebrew calendar when both the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed. It would be the equivalent of a foreign leader arriving in the United States on 9/11 or in Hawaii on Pearl Harbor Day.  

The state orders all businesses, except those selling necessities, to be closed on Tisha B'av. It is prohibited for cafes, gyms, nightclubs, and movie theaters to be open on Tisha B'av. The only other day of the year that Israel enforces such a ban is Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year. 

Religious Jews observe the day by fasting. Secular Jews will commemorate the day in a more low key manner, but they will note it. There is no Israeli that does not feel the pull of the Temple and Wall. I have pictures of my great aunt Fela, who was an avowed secularist, rushing to visit the wall in the days after Israel recaptured it during the 1967 Six Day War. 

Israelis were buzzing with excitement upon the arrival of Obama in 2008. The Jewish press is already noting that Romney's arrival has received a ho hum reaction. Romney came to Israel to shore up his Jewish vote, but by arriving on a somber Jewish holiday he risks offending his mostly likely Jewish constituency-religious Jews. He has already been forced to change a fundraiser to the next day. 

I really hope that Romney does not exacerbate his mistake by desecrating the holiday with the staging of a photo opportunity at the Wall on its most somber day. Jews should be allowed to pray at the Wall on this special day without the distraction and interruption that a Romney visit and the accompanying media will bring.  

SALT Conference: Rove and Gibbs Almost Come to Blows

Being a little hung over from last night's terrific Maroon 5 concert, you can forgive me for thinking that I walked into the Roman Coliseum instead of a discussion between Republican mastermind Karl Rove and long time Obama advisor Robert Gibbs at the SkyBridge Capital's SALT Conference. Rove kept hitting Gibbs over the head with the demand that President Obama make a public statement that attacks on Romney's Mormon religion are off limits. Obama has already made a similar statement about the families of candidates.

He said, "The president should tell his followers to stop talking about his weird beliefs and underwear."

Gibbs weakly insisted, "The President never talks about Romney religion."

As a seasoned political observer, the amount of time that Rove spent on the weird Mormonism theme tells me two things. Their polling indicates that Romney is losing lost of votes due to his religion. Even though everyone says the election is about the economy and the room was filled with financial experts, the Republicans really do not have an economic message, except the tired old one of tax cuts.

Rove also wanted to know why the President has not returned the $1 million check of Bill Maher, who has been accused of misogynistic comments.

Gibbs, trying to skirt the issue, answered, "The President condemns those comments." He further asserted that a candidate can not be responsible for all the comments of his supporters.

At the beginning of the session, the two political pros discussed Obama's decision this week to openly support gay marriage.

Gibbs said, "The President has been thinking about this for a long time."

Rove immediately shot down that theory. "The President came out earlier on this issue than he wanted because Biden screwed up, like he always does. He wanted to drag this out for another 18 months for political advantage. This could hurt him among the Catholics, whom are a large part of the swing vote. If he was going to come out, why did he come out the day after the North Carolina vote against gay marriage. The gay marriage advocates there must be asking where was he yesterday."

Both political strategists agree that it will be close election. 7-8% of the voters in 11 swing states will decide the election. Putting it other way,  hundreds of millions of dollars will be spent on advertising to change the minds of a few voters.

Rove surprised me by asking why the American taxpayer should pay for the healthcare of Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. If a Democratic had asked the same question, it would have been called class warfare. His comment indicates the Republicans might be open to having the rich pay their fair share, the four letter word of this campaign.

Gibbs also acknowledged that entitlements will have to be cut.

This round of the "Hunger Games" went to the feisty Karl Rove. The Democrats have to learn to fight with their elbows. Although he had been Obama's press secretary, Gibbs was not effective at delivering the president's message.

Spitzer and BU's Hurley Discuss SEC Reform

With President Obama and SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro called for increased penalties for violators of securities laws; it seemed prudent to check if this would actually protect the investing public. Professor Cornelius Hurley, director of Boston University’s Center for Finance, Law & Policy, supports the escalation in fines. “Companies will think twice about committing fraud if they can’t settle for chump change,” he said.

Hurley’s preferred reform would be to combine the SEC and CFTC. Combining the two agencies would save money by eliminating the duplication of oversight and allow for a more efficient deployment of a staff and other resources. “The collapse of MF Global suggests that we are paying a price for not combining the CFTC and SEC, which was suggested in a white paper about financial reform developed by the Treasury Department soon after Obama arrived in town,” he said. “Anyone can see that an organizational chart where two regulators are regulating the same space is absurd.”

Unfortunately, the greed of members of Congress killed the unification efforts. “The House and Senate Financial Services Committees oversee the SEC while the Agriculture Committee administers the CFTC.  Members of the agricultural committee did not want to lose the tremendous contributions to their campaigns from the commodities firms,” explained Hurley. He marvels at the hypocrisy of the Republican Party for championing the free market discipline, yet be against any efforts to increase transparency.

Former NY Governor Eliot Spitzer emphasized a different solution.  “The days of the neither admits nor denies must be over.” Neither admits nor denies is the controversial, decade’s long SEC practice of not extracting a confession from guilty parties in a settlement so that they can encourage settlements and avoid lengthy and costly trials against well-funded defendants.

Spitzer, known as the “Sheriff of Wall Street” during his tenure as NY State Attorney General, lauded Federal Judge Jed Rakoff for rejecting a proposed SEC settlement of Citigroup’s securities fraud charges partially over the lack of an admission of guilt on the part of repeat offender Citigroup. “We need more judges like Jed Rakoff that do not rubberstamp the SEC’s deals,” he said.

Hurley hopes the New Jersey federal judge overseeing the settlement of securities fraud by Wachovia, now Wells Fargo, considers the Rakoff decision when making her own decision. Although the Department of Justice insisted on an admission of guilt for the Wachovia settlement, the SEC inexplicably still used their boiler plate language of “neither admits nor denies.” Hurley said, “It defies logic that the two agencies can produce such different settlements."

The one problem with the elimination of “neither admits nor denies” is that it is difficult to sanction corporations that provide jobs for thousands of people. Spitzer conceded, “One of the Occupy Wall Street signs made the point – “Until the State of Texas executes a corporation, corporations are not people”.  You cannot just kill Citibank.”

Under the current system, it is the shareholders, not the corporate executives that committed the wrongdoing, that bear much of the financial pain of a corporation’s malfeasance. Spitzer wants to change that. “There must be individual responsibility. “Right now, the SEC now uses restitution as a proxy,” said Spitzer. “Executives of corporations must be held accountable for the corporation’s bad behavior.”

Besides no allocution of guilty behavior, the SEC settlement required Citigroup to only pay $285 million -$160 million for disgorgement of profits and $125 million in fines. Goldman Sachs for a similar offense paid $535 million in penalties. Spitzer and many others were shocked at this light punishment for repeat offender Citigroup.

“The issue of corporations’ recidivism must be addressed,” he said. “When I was an assistant district attorney, I worked in the career criminals unit. Those that had committed more than two felonies were punished more severely. They were sent away for a long time.  For corporations that repeatedly offend, we need to increase exponentially the financial penalties and insist on structural changes such as compensation.” He urges the SEC to drop standard practice and use creativity to tackle recidivism.

None of the experts contacted thinks that there needs to be additional laws or new agencies to regulate the financial industry. Barbara Roper, director of investor protection at the Consumer Federation of America, just wishes that Congress would increase the budget of the SEC.

Spitzer urges the SEC to be more aggressive. “If Congress does not like it, take your case to the public,” suggests Spitzer. “The SEC has enough power. They just need the will to use it.”

Hurley pointed out that the collapse of MF Global violated long existing securities laws about customer account segregation not newer regulations like Dodd Frank. “Regulation is about individuals, culture.  Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan could have protected the mortgage borrower with powers given to him in the Home Owners Equity Protection Act had he been a different person – not a free market champion and devotee of Ayn Rand,” he said.

He was reserved in his praise for the current group of regulators. He was happy to see that Shapiro is changing the SEC culture by hiring more financial professionals to investigate fraud. Yet there was no reason for her to do Wall Street's bidding by lobbying successfully to exclude brokerage firms from the oversight of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Hurley wonders how CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler, a former Goldman Sachs colleague of former MF Global chairman Jon Corzine, “could have seen no conflict of interest while regulating MF Global but now that the CFTC is investigating wrongdoing he suddenly has a conflict of interest.”

Spitzer may have summed up the problem with the SEC best. “Whenever I was down there, I could not wait to get out of there.”

ABC's Checkbook Journalism -Casey Anthony $200,000, Obama $500

Howard Kurtz at the Daily Beast wrote today that ABC has ended the practice of paying for access. The network had taken much heat after it was revealed that ABC contributed $200,000 to Casey Anthony's legal defense.

As a freelance producer for ABC, I applaud the decision. The practice was preventing the dissemination of important news because the news budget was being allocated to sensationalism.

Casey Anthony was not the only questionable mom that they paid. Back in May, ABC offered $10,000 for the interview with the mom that claimed that she had injected her daughter with Botox to make her more competitive on the beauty pageant circuit. After she appeared on Good Morning America, she admitted that she had made up the whole story and used a false name. Good Morning America rightfully withheld payment.

The payment to the Botox mom caught my eye because I was negotiating with ABC the same week. I had gotten an exclusive from former President George Bush, which I sold to ABC for $500. Bush had revealed the details of his conversation with President Obama after the death of Osama Bin Laden.

More than 1800 outlets linked to the story that I gave ABC. The entire tenor of the debate about the death of Osama Bin Laden changed after the publication of my story. After reading Bush's comments, even conservatives on Fox stopped doubting that Bin Laden was dead and whether Obama had handled it correctly. Sites such as Politico noticed that Bush could not find the time to come to Ground Zero after the death of Bin Laden but had earned $15 million making speeches to well heeled executives.

I also had some exclusive comments from former Secretary of State Colin Powell about the Pakistani government's knowledge of Bin Laden's whereabouts and former Senator Dodd backing away from Dodd- Frank. ABC had the chutzpah to ask me to thrown them in for free even after my initial story had spread like wildfire.

It has always struck in my craw that a mother, who could have murdered her child, and a mother, who claimed to endanger her, were able to outbid me especially when I was selling such an important piece of history.

My White House Press Credentials

Let's hope that the Secret Service does not read my blog. I thought that you would get a kick out of seeing my White House press credentials for the Obama fundraiser in Philadelphia. Whenever you cover the President, you are always given something which says that you are a member of the White House press corps.

At the AIPAC conference, they handed us a thick coaster like picture of the White House. It was snatched from us minutes after President Obama spoke. For his fundraiser in Philadelphia, they gave up a picture of the White House stamped Property of the US Government, but this time they personalized it with our names, the paper that we represent, and the date. I was able to keep it.

Probably because the United States values freedom of the press so highly, there was very little to do to apply for White House press credentials. When I applied, they do not ask for social security number. This probably means that they do not do a background check. They also do not ask for a letter from your editor confirming that you are covering the event. The Phillies even ask for that.

A security want was waved over me and dogs smelled my bag, so I guess they do not have to worry who you are.

Dodd Backs Away from Namesake Bill

At the Salt conference in Vegas, former Senator Dodd make it clear that he was not a fan of his own bill, Dodd-Frank. He joked,"I did not want the bill named after me. My children are going to have to change their name."

He tried to downplay his own role as chairman of the Senate Finance committee. "Congress not a meritocracy. I became chairman because I outlived everyone else," explained Dodd, who now heads the Motion Picture Association.

Dodd acknowledged the problems with the "too big to fail" provisions. He conceded, "I know that the too big to fail provisions in Dodd Frank are controversial. They are not meant to prevent another bank from being too big to fail. They are to prevent them from metastasizing so that they we can avoid another Lehman style bankruptcy."

Dodd halfheartedly tried to justify the bill. He said,"It was our best effort. The markets needed certainty. At first, people complained that the provisions were going to take too long to take effect. Now they are saying we are moving too quickly."

"We didn't want to strangle innovation and needed to balance it with good regulation and offer harmonization of rules." When we were working on the bill, we were faced with time constraints and high emotion," continued Dodd.

Dodd, a Democrat, laid off some of the blame on the Bush White House. He said, "During the financial crisis, I could not the attention of the Bush adminstration until October."

He also faulted the furor over executive pay and the new consumer bureau for preventing a discussion about other provisions in the bill. He recalled,"I met with the National Business Roundtable. I took staffers from the banking committe. I thought that we were going to talk about derivatives. Instead the whole hour and half discussion focused only on the consumer bureau and execuitve pay."

Dodd painted a picture of how dire things were during the crisis. "People need to remember that on the Sunday night of Bear Stearns, we were 10 minutes away from declaring a bank holiday on Monday," pleaded Dodd. "Two weeks later, all the leaders of Congress gathered in Speaker Pelosi's office. Ben Bernanke then told us,'If you do not act in days, the fiscal system is days will suffer from a complete meltdown. We authorized $700 million on the basis of a 2 1/2 page bill. There was no limitations on how they spent the money."

Dodd was disappointed that Republicans, who crossed the aisle and worked with Democrats to pass the bill, did not win re-election. "It is upsetting to me that Bennett and others were defeated because of their vote for the bill. They were good men," said Dodd.

For the time being, Dodd thinks we are stuck with the current bill. "The bill that attempts to repeal Dodd Frank will not pass," said Dodd. "If it does, it will be vetoed by the president. Let's be constructive and stop the political posturing that would wipe out the bill."

In closing, Dodd gave a hearty defense of Obama. He argued,"Obama faced the worse economic problems since Roosevelt."

W Unplugged

Former President Geroge W. Bush participated in a Q&A moderated by CNBC's Melissa Lee at the SALT conference in Las Vegas. The conference is organized by Skybridge Capital. Anthony Scarmucci, the managing director of Skybridge, shot to fame when he asked President Obama at a town hall meeting, "When are you going to stop whacking Wall Street."

It was clear from the start of the session, that this was a different Bush than the one that led the country. He was jocular, relaxed, and sprinkling his talk with four letter words.

He introduced himself by saying "I am a simple retired guy - a Medicare guy." The reference to being a Medicare Guy seemed to Bush's way of interjecting himself into the Medicare debate started by Congressman Ryan.

When asked what he has been doing since leaving office, Bush answered, "Much to alot of people's surprise, I wrote a book, "Decision Points." Many thought I could not even read. The book tells what it is like to be in the eye of the storm. I am hoping that it will be a data point when the objective historians show up. It is too soon for my presidency to be judged. Short term history can not be objective. I did not write this book to be judgemental or tell the critics they are wrong and I am right."

He joked about the speech that he was giving, "I am committing white collar crime. I am giving speeches for money."

Since this was a financial conference, he was asked about TARP. Bush said, "I am a free market guy. It was a very hard decision for me to authorize Tarp. My buddies in Midland,Texas probably think that I was drinking the cool aid in Washington."

"When you run an organization, you need to bring in people that you trust and delegate. Hank Paulson knew the markets. I was a history major in college. I did not know what a TED (treasury/euro dollar) spread. He and Bernanke were urging me to commit Tarp unless I wanted to create a Depression. Growth in the economy would not be enough."

His recipe for economic growth is: tax policy, certainty in regulation, free trade, and a rational immigration policy, "It does not make sense for us to educate a child from India and then tell him he has to go back.

The nuclear treaty that he signed with India was about more than nuclear safety. "India has 350 million people and all of them are middle class. We want to be friends with them."

He decries the "isms" -isolationism and protectionism. "Americans often wonder why we should carry about a fight in Afghanistan. Isolationism leads to stagnation. We should not fear India and China."

America will triumph because "our entrepreneurial spirit is strong."

He talked about the difficulties in arranging meetings with the Hu Jingtao. When he met with Putin, it was two on two -the leaders and translators. When he met with the Jingtao, it was 7 on 7. "While I usually had more on his mind than table seating arrangements, one time I arranged for the Chinese leader to sit between Condi and me. Then I got the chance to ask him what keeps him up at night. Another terrorist attack keeps me up at night. Jingtao's worry was 25 million new jobs for his people. His answer gave us alot of information. He was worried about the unemployed people in his country because it could lead to government instability."

Being a former oil man, he could not resist saying a few words about oil. 'It is interesting that the price of oil has gone from $20 a barrel to $ 150 a barrel and there is no inflation. I suspect it has to do with conservation. After the price hikes from 1973-1979, conservation gained."

He also credited the low inflation to "the Chinese goods coming into the country. Americans have more goods available at lower prices."

"Some parts of the country like to demagogue oil. We need to find as much oil as we can. We have the technology to search for it in the deep waters. I know about the green stuff. We still need to extract gas from the shale."

"Our energy policy is backwards. When I became President, they told me that we had to subsidize the heat for the elderly in New England. I shook my head and asked what about the old people suffering in the heat in Texas."

"In Marcellus Shale, the critics are opposing the exploration of gas because of the polluting the water. We have been fracking in Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana for years, it has not polluted the water."

The hardest decision he made was "to use taxpayer money to bail out Wall Street." "Paulson, who I think the world of and Bernanke, who had worked for me in the White House before I appointed him Fed chief, told me that I had to do the bailout or the country would face a Depression. If I had not done something and there was a depression, I would have been criticized because I did not do something to prevent a depression."

"People said TARP is a four letter word. Duh, I know that," said an obviously irritated Bush. He reminded, "We created instant liquidity."

Congress originally passed authorization for an asset auction. 'It was easier to get the vote the second time after the market had fallen $1.3 trillion."

When asked if Tarp was a bait and switch on the original plan, he said that Paulson said the auction would not work. Things were freezing so quickly, In midst of crisis can't take Gallup polls or care if people like me."

"Overregulation will dampen the economy."

While he said he did not want to criticize his successor because "he did not like when former presidents criticized him, he proceed to say, "I am worried about the Boeing case in South Carolina that I read about in the Wall Street Journal on my ipad (I have gone modern). It is a sign of the pendulum swinging too far. Capital flows not regulatory bodies should make decisions."

When asked how sure was he when he was making the decisions about the financial crisis, Bush said, "not very sure. We were not very sure. Paulson and the really smart people that he attracted to the treasury felt that it was the right thing to do."

Bush explained that the financial crisis was not the only thing that he had on his mind. "Presidents do not deal with a single issue at a time. The job is complex. At the same time, I was dealing with Hurricane Ike, Georgia invading Russia, homeland threats, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

The result is what counts. Bush said, "No depression occurred. That is what matters."
The one mistake that he made during the financial meltdown had to do with the Lehman bankruptcy. "The administration should have more clearly explained why the Lehman bankruptcy went down. Why it was different than Bear Stearns, which had a buyer. Barclays left in the middle of buying Lehman. But this was not a presidential responsibility but the Treasury or Federal Reserve."

He reiterated, "TARP prevented the dominoes falling."

It was hard for him to leave a part owner of General Motors Citicorp,. "But I didn't curl up in the psychological fetal position. Sometimes, I did think why me, but not for long. Nothing more pathetic than self pity. You learn in life, sometimes things happen, you just have to deal."

"September 11 changed my presidency and redefined out lives. I am afraid it is becoming like Pearl Harbor day."

"The Bush doctrine is you go on the offense and deal with threats before they happen."
"On 9/11, my most important responsibility was to protect the homeland."

He talked about the capture of Khalid, the mastermind of 9/11 and "the killer of Danny Pearl." "By the way, Danny Pearl made a great statement of courage, 'My grandfather is a Jew, my father is a Jew, and I am a Jew."

According to Bush, "Khalid said, I will talk to you when I get my lawyer in New York. Al Queadawas already trained to resist the standard interrogation techniques. When I was presented with 13 alternatives, the first thing I asked was 'is it legal?" I was sworn in to uphold the laws of the land. I immediately took 2 techniques off the table, but left waterboarding. The Khalid information saved alot of lives. If we had not found the information, as president, I would have been responsible for the loss of lives." Bush was the most emotional during this section of the speech.

When he was told that Obama wanted to talk to him (about Osama's death), "I was eating souffle at Rice Restaurant with Laura and two buddies. I excused myself and went home to take the call. Obama simply said "Osama Bin Laden is dead. I was not overjoyed. I did not act out of hatred but to extract judgement."

After Obama described the mission in detail, Bush told him "Good call."
"The intelligence services deserve alot of credit. They built a mosaic of information, piece by piece."

"I met Seal Team 6 in Afghanistan. They are awesome, skilled, talented, and brave. I said, "I hope you have everything you need. One member said to me, "We need your permission to go into Pakistan and kick ass. One of the last things that I did as President was visit them in Norfolk Beach, Virginia,"

"The guy is dead. That is good. Osama's death is a great victory in the war on terror.He was held up as a leader. Long term solution is to promote a better ideology, which is freedom. Freedom is universal." People who do not look like us want freedom just as much. The relatives of Condileeza Rice over 100 years wanted freedom. It is only when you do not have hope in a society that you join a suicide bomber team."

"One of the most amazing movements of my presidency was when Koizimu, the Japanese Prime Minister, said after 9/11. We stand shoulder to should with the United States. My dad quit college to fight our enemy the Japanese. Now they are our ally. It is because Japan instituted Japan style democracy in 1945. 60 years later the enemy becomes a friend."

"Something will happen in the Middle East, but not in my lifetime. Democracy takes a long time. I only have 20 years left."

"I did not worry about bloodshed in the Far East -Vietnam, Korea. The democracy that took hold in South Korea stabilized the region but it took ? years. Truman was excoriated for his decision, but it was a courageous decision that benefitted all mankind. Democracy takes a long time."

"In the Middle East, young people gave a damn about what happened in their country. Laura and I want to help change the Middle East by helping women. It will be a long time before there are open free elections. The established parties will steamroll over the young activists. There are good things happening in Tunisia and Iraq. We need someone safer than the dictators that we put in place."

While not getting the intelligence briefings any more, he believes that "we are safer."

"I was mocked for my appearance, religion and the way I spoke. I was called Nazi, war criminal etc. I do not give a damn about polls except the one that counts election day. If you chase polls, then you are willing to forgo principals."

"It was much harder to hear the criticism as a son about the guy that I love. I was mean to reporters that wrote not nice things about my dad."

Laura helped him cope during the crisis. "Laura was awesome, unbelievable, and a source of comfort. When I came up from the Oval Office, she did not ask why I said dead or alive."

Reid's criticism rankled him."The Majority Leader of the Senate, the senior Senator from Nevada called me a liar. It will discourage people from going into public office. But I did not respond to my critics because it is not what presidents do. I did my best. You worry about the effect on the people you love - my daughters and wife. How do I feel? I am pissed off. But I did not let it get me down. I did not have time. I was too busy solving problems. By the end of the day, I wanted to go to bed."

"My favorite president, after my dad, was Abraham Lincoln. He was belittled while in office. The difference is that modern presidents have to face a 24 hour news cycle."

"In my book, I say that the media "contributes to the death spiral of decency." "Loudest screamers gets the attention. Nameless bloggers are not held accountable."

"I still is the best system in the world. I love our democracy."

"It is not a sacrifice to serve a cause that you care about."

"Eight years is plenty. Time to move on. It was a honor to serve."

Bush now gets to do neat things. " I was able to ride my mountain bike with serviceman that lost limbs in combat. Chris Seif was on the back of my bike."

"I do miss Air Force One. the deserts from the White House pastry chef, and being Commander in Chief. I miss saluting men and women who volunteer to serve our country."

"I do like being out the spotlight. I am not addicted to it. Fame does not mean much."
"I plan to influence policy not politics."

He made fun of people saying that he is shaping his legacy. "Iam not shaping my legacy. My legacy is shaped. The critics can pound sand. I will not be around."

"The office of the President is more important than one individual. I brought honor and dignity to the office."

"Now I want to live life and contribute to the improvement of mankind. I am not going to be a bloviator."
He will pursue a freedom agenda. He has established his museum and institute at Southern Methodist. "The archives include 25000 boxes and 190 million emails. I am the first email president. Clinton had some emails although not any from me."

"Part of the museum will include the archives of dissidents to inspire future dissidents. The work of dissidents will be memorialized forever. "The Dalia Lama came to visit last week and gave me the Tibetan constitution with his handwritten notes."


--

Obama's Jewish Problem

Ever since Obama's May speech on the Mid East that mentioned pre 1967 borders as a starting point, Obama has been perceived as having a problem with the Jews. Media outlets such as Politico are churning out stories with dire headlines - "The Jews are abandoning Obama."

Republicans have a big incentive to win over Jewish voters. Ari Fleisher pointed out at the AIPAC conference in May, "If Republicans are successful at attracting 30% of the Jewish vote during a presidential election, they win the election."

All of the Philadelphia Democratic Jewish establishment were chairmen of the Obama fundraiser in Philadelphia on June 30 at Comcast's Executive Vice President David L. Cohen's Mt Airy home. Beside Cohen, the chairman included lawyers Daniel Berger, Alan Kessler, Ken Jarin and Mark Alderman. Jewish guests included Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, Steve Cozen, and developer Israel Roizman, an Israeli who rode a tank during the 6 day war in 1967.

Kessler said, "We raised a little less than $2.5 million. (According to DNC sources, the goal was $3 million.) This was a good number considering where we are in the campaign cycle and the state of the economy. People are more focused on getting to the shore and how they are going to pay for their gas to get there than they are on the next election."

The issue of Israel came up often during the fundraising. Kessler said, "With Jewish voters who care about Israel, it took more to convince them to donate. 15-20% did not donate because of the President's comments about the pre 1967 borders."

He then walked me back from those estimates. Fundraisers often find that people who can no longer afford to give will not admit it and trot out a political reason for their lack of giving. Having been a fundraiser and a target for donations myself, I would say that this probably means that we should cut Kessler's estimate in half -7.5% -10% did not give because of the President's Mideast speech. This is still a large, significant number.

Kessler also pointed out that it will be easier to fundraise when Obama is running against someone in particular.

Steve Cozen, an ardent supporter of Israel, directly asked the President at the fundraiser about his support of Israel. He came away convinced that the President has unwavering support for Israel and its security. Cozen said, "In practically terms, this President is providing more financial and logistical support to Israel than any other administration. The Iron Dome has prevented many attacks."

Cozen believes that "some of the President's reasons for stating that the pre 1967 borders should be a starting point of the negotiations is the upcoming UN vote about a Palestinian state in September." Cozen explained, "The President does not want the United States to be the lone veto vote of the resolution. With his comments about the 1967 borders, the President hopes that he will be able to convince others to join us in that veto."

My friend, Richard Rothwharf, points out the problem with analyzing the Jewish community. "We are the only minority group that votes against our interests meaning Israel."

Berger agrees that Jewish concerns are not monolithic. He commented, "The Republicans are always trying to peel off the Jewish Democrats. Of course, Israel is an issue. But when Jews consider the commandment Tikkun Olam, (fixing the world), they have no choice but to vote Democratic."

I attended the lower minimum fundraiser ($100-$2500) at the Bellevue Hyatt earlier in the day. With the exception of Obama's base in the African American community, the rest of his base did not come out. With the $100 ticket price for younger voters (Gen 44), it was surprising that the DNC were not able to attract more of them.

Looking at a list of chairmen for Romney's fundraiser the same day, I did not see any Jewish defections from the Democratic party. The Jewish chairman included Charles Kopp, Jeffrey Orleans, Mitch Morgan, and Ira Lubert. As far back as I can remember, these 4 have always been Republicans.

Ben Smith from Politico's article on Obama may be losing the Jews, which seemed to indicate a huge problem in the Jewish community with Obama, has some problems. I specifically asked Daniel Berger about his comments in the article. Berger, who is no fan of Politico, swears he said nothing negative about fundraising for the Obama dinner to Smith. Then how was Smith able to get this particular quote?

Ben Smith stands behind his reporting. When contacted, he said, "You are, to my eye, printing an innuendo. I'll give him a call tomorrow and can share my notes if he wants. The quote is totally accurate. He said a ton of things I didn't include, as does everyone one interviews." Smith never answered my email if he had checked with Berger.

Betsy Sheerr, who works tirelessly to get women elected to public office, was a major supporter of Hilary Clinton in the 2008 election. She never really got behind Obama so her quote on this subject is meaningless.

I hope that this quells some of the hysteria about Obama's Jewish problem.

response to Phillies fans about Madson's I hate the fans comment

America is known as the land of second chances. I ask that I be given a second chance like everyone else. My writing should be judged on its merits not the events of 8 years ago.

Martha Stewart and Larry Mendte are still on television after their convictions. Eliot Spitzer won a tv show after consorting with a prostitute.

President Obama praised the Eagles for hiring Michael Vick fresh from prison. Now the fans, who have obviously forgiven him his dog fighting charges, have voted him a finalist in the Madden competition.

Milton Street, an ex-con, is running for Mayor of Philadelphia with endorsements from major unions.

David Carr writes for the New York Times even though he published a memoir about his crack addiction.

Joyce Carol Oates Tongue Tied with Obama

Prolific author Joyce Carol Oates, fresh from being awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Obama, spoke at the Free Library last night. I got a chance to ask her about her visit with President Obama.

Although her red diaper baby second husband asked her to deliver a message of raise taxes to the rich and end the war in Afghanistan, Joyce Carol Oates, the author of more than 50 books and countless essays and book reviews, was tongue tied with the President.

When posing with Michelle Obama, who is taller than her husband, and the President, she only said, "I like tall people." When actually awarded the medal, she managed to say "thank you."

Obama told her, "I bought your book, ("A Widow's Story: A Memoir"), but I have not read it yet. Instead of being excited, she was nonplussed. Her thinking was that "everyone says that." Still incoherent, she answered Obama, "I am sure that you have been busy."

She was not shy about articulating her feelings about NY Times book reviewer Janet Maslin. Oates asserted,"She is hateful. Her review was an assault."

Although she deeply loved her first husband Raymond Smith, she remarried 13 months later. In general, she was surprised about the backlash from her book and her remarriage. About the book reviews- "It isn't Mein Kampf so it seems disproportionate," said Oates.

She is philosophical about the bad reviews. "Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Moby Dick all got bad reviews."

Oates was the first person in her family to graduate high school so her "parents had no expectations of her."

Her first husband, who was an editor, never read any of her books. Her second husband, fellow Princeton professor Charles Gross, insists on reading everything. To avoid that fate, Oates freely admits that she lies to her husband about having finished a work.

Since they are my favorite tv shows also, I am happy to report that Oates watches "The Good Wife," and "Mad Men." I would have disappointed if she liked "Keeping up with the Kardashians."