that is what the obama presidency means to me. [laughter] [applause] >> we are happy to keep you employed. [applause] >> if you look at what this administration has done in 125 days, whatever it has been now. from the signing of the lily ledbetter act or schip to tobacco regulation, this is what it means. standing there with the president when he assigning these, yesterday with him signing the memorandum on extending benefits in same-sex couples. people are in tears. people are impacted by this. this change is not abstract, it is real. the problems in national security are very difficult and people are working on them. some of this -- helpless and give us your ideas and stay with us as we work through them. >> i appreciate noel's candor although i am not so sure about the elected thing eight years ago. [applause] [laughter] >> i was trying not to use that word knowing the crowd i was in. >> not over it yet. look, i do think that it is hard to add to what was said about what president obama's presidency means. i will say that to se

so what could president obama do besides continuing what president bush did. we can't allow afghanistan to fall again. >> yeah. no, i agree. i think you have to go back and look at the very significant differences between the way the soviets attempted to pacify, to defeat the sovereign satisfying government and the way we tried to liberate the country both in terms of method of operation and also the difference in objective. based on what i read in the news which is my source is this it looks like president obama has understood the important efforts that were underway in the tribal areas and that, you know, despite some campaign rhetoric that criticized us for what we were doing but, in fact, in other instances president obama during the campaign talked about the importance of at times needing to make sure that -- i can't remember the words he used. i think he talked about cross-borders incursion in pakistan when necessary to defeat terrorism. so i think you're seeing some continuity there and i don't think you hear much about it because in some ways it's a li

president obama is the only president ever who spoke individually to every single member of the senate judiciary committees. all the democrats and republicans before he made this choice. i do not know of that means more are likely to vote for his nominee or not but the effort to reach out and listen to people, understand what was on their minds, factored into his decision making is a kind of approach that hopefully will set a better tone as we go forward in this process. >> i am trying to group the questions and combined them because we have so many. there is a number of questions that the president is doing too much but there is a decidedly the strain of questions that he is not doing enough in one particular area. that is the question of gay rights. including marriage, adoption, medical insurance, several questions about how he could have filed the doma race that was filed. i cannot know whether -- and do not know whether i am directing this to the right person. does anyone want to take that up? i do not know whether it has come across your desk, spencer or, ron, you want to discuss

president obama said he will try to finish the job. i hope some of these two are critical of president obama and his position will not make a political issue out of guantanamo if president george w. bush and obama agree it should be closed it's pretty clear to me at the highest level of government there is a bipartisan consensus. our colleagues on the other side of the aisle are criticizing president obama when it comes to guantanamo but the fact is they have no plan but to leave the facility open and continue to see it being used around the world against the united states as a recruiting tool for terrorists. i urge my republican colleagues to join with general colin powell and joined those on their side of the aisle who understand the closing guantanamo will make america safer. madam president, i yield the floor. >> the senator from delaware. >> i ask unanimous consent to proceed as if mourning business and time to count against cloture. >> without objection. >> madame president, today i'm introducing along with senator brown the educ

what is the obama presidency mean to you. you will get an answer that to. >> i think it really does mean free change. there's some things that our government things, components, turf battles, all this kind of stuff. but i think it really does mean change and i think it, for me, it means the fact that there are so many people who are in this room who are going to have an opportunity to contribute, participate in terms of government service. and i just really look at it as an opportunity for all of us. whatever time we have, it's really finite in terms of making a difference whether it's four, eight years, maybe longer in terms of, i don't know. that it is finite. and for those of you who have been engaged in one way or another, you know, maybe you're not part of the administration right now. what i would just say, please stay engaged. we've got a period of time to maintain the faith, continued to both pay attention, and also continue, you know, this is a marathon. it's not a sprint. the days seem like sprints, but, you know,

in the first few months now of president obama presidency we have learned much. i think many of us hope as he was elected and sworn in that he would be a moderate, but we've learned the past several months he will not governor from the center. we've also learned as we have seen on his last two trips he isn't a strong defender of american exceptional as some and believes there's a moral equivalence in areas of foreign policy including between the united states for example and iran. he wants to expand federal government so that it permeates every nook and cranny of our daily lives and he's going to raise our taxes. he thinks bureaucrats ought to choose our doctors and prescribed medical care and i believe the american people will quickly grow weary of a set of policies that are to paraphrase president obama, quote, so contrary to american ideals. i believe we as conservatives have an obligation to make sure the administration is held accountable when it takes us down a dangerous path and i want to talking moment this afternoon about two areas in particular where we

obama do besides continuing what president bush did? how can we win this war because this is the heart of the war on terror. we can't allow afghanistan to fall again. >> i agree. i think you have to go back and look at the very significant differences between the way the soviets attempted to pacify, to defeat the sovereign afghan government and the way that we have operated attempting to elaborate country in terms of the difference in a method of operation and difference in our objective. and i think that based what i read in the news which is my source for this it looks like president obama has understood the important efforts underway in the federally administered tribally areas and that despite some campaign rhetoric that criticize us for what we were doing but in fact other instances president obama during the campaign talked about the importance at times needing to make sure i can't remember the words he used to think he talked about cross border incursions in pakistan when necessary to defeat terrorism, but so i think you're seein

did you talk about this with president obama? there's a continuing threat emanating from north korea and journalists are still being detained. what is your thought about that complex? did you talk with president obama about this? were there concerned about that industrial complex? >> has reacted aggressively to the new u.n. security council resolution, which was expected. of course, the north koreans may react by firing another round of missiles or taking action. we can't expect that from them as well. tom barber, north koreans must understand that they will not be able to gain compensation by creating a keifecrisis. this is a firm u.s.-korea cooperation an alliance that will not allow that. a recent security council resolution is not simply about words. if it is about taking up follow- up action and vigorously implementing the u.n. security council resolution. we will make sure we fully implement the u.n. security council resolution. like i said, the north koreans must understand that their past behavior will not stand. not only

president obama and president medvedev will be meeting soon in moscow. our group's is focusing on reducing nuclear arms. what makes us somewhat different is we're not only focused on the near term, the negotiation which are now under way between the united states and russia on further strategic arms reduction, but we are in the process of putting together what we call an end to end plan of how actually to get to zero. that means not only another phase of u.s.-russia reductions, but a multilateral reduction, which would include all nuclear powers to reduce and then go down to zero. i will be spelling them out in a few minutes. in work we did yesterday and today, the people i will surely introduce focused on the specifics of what a realistic, practical, hard-nosed plan to get to zero would look like. i want to take this opportunity to thank my fellow members of the commission for the work they have done. it is a work in progress. we have not solved all of the problems. we continue to believe this is a realistic goal that can be achieved over the next two d

in the first few months of president obama's presidency, we have learned much. many of us hope as he was elected and sworn in that he would be a moderate. we have learned in the past several months that he in fact will not govern from the center. we have also learned, as we have seen on his last two foreign trips, he is not a strong defender of american exception listen. he believe there is a moral equivalence in many areas of foreign policy including between the united states and iran. he wants to expand the federal government so that it permeates every nook and cranny of our daily lives. he will raise our taxes. he thinks bureaucrats ought to choose our doctors and prescribe our medical care. i believe the american people will quickly grow weary of a set of policies that are, to paraphrase obama, so contrary to american ideals. i believe that we as conservatives have an obligation to make sure the administration is held accountable when it takes us down a dangerous path. i want to talk for just a moment about two areas in particular where we have seen some tro

president obama and i are going to do everything we can to meet the goals we stated. in the end, as always, it will be the enduring spirit and the boundless ingenuity of the american people that will ultimately allow us to prevail. to sum it up, encouraging signs, but along, long way to go. thank you all very much. >> what does "ramp up" mean, mr. vice president? >> thank you very much. >> next, new york times columnist david brooks talks about the obama administration. president obama holds a press conference with german chancellor angela merkle, and that -- look at the latest unemployment figures. >> there is still time to get your copy of c-span's 2009 congressional director, with information on house and senate members, the cabinet, supreme court justices, and the nation's governors, plus the street maps and how to con tact committees and caucuses. >> now, "new york times" columnist david brooks speaking about president obama. mr. brooks was at the national conference of the american advertising federation as the keynote speaker at the oak the new york times" lunc

look, i do think that it is hard to add to what was said about what president obama's presidency means. i will say that to see -- what this presidency means is change but change at a time when the nation so desperately needs to change. it is the combination of the man, the agenda, and the moment that are so powerful for me and so moving for me. why i am willing to get up early in the morning and stayed late at night and missed my kids and do all the things i do to serve because i think you have an extraordinary leader. an extraordinary person in terms of judgment and talent and ability to lead the country. an agenda, a policy program that really can put the country out of the cycle of boom and bust economics we have been on an ad of the problems we have had on the domestic and international front and put us on the right footing at the time when we could not needed anymore as a nation and as a world. the demand for this kind of change and action is so acute and so urgent and i think when you put those things together, i do believe we're at an historic moment and witnessing a historic pr

obama and south korean preside president. >> good morning, everybody. >> president lee, on behalf of the american people, it is my pleasure to welcome you to washington. >> thank you. >> i'm looking forward to continuing our conversation over lunch and i know that first lady michelle obama is very much delighted to host your wife today as well. >> the republic of korea is one of america's closest allies. our friendship has been forged through a history of shared sacrifice, and it is anchored in our shared democratic values. mr. president, i'm pleased that the friendship between our countries has only grown stronger under your leadership. we meet at a time of great challenges on the korean peninsula, north korea has abandoned its own commitment and violated international law. its nuclear and ballistic vessel programs pose a grave threat to peace and security of asia and to the world. in the face of these threats and provocations, the people of the republic of korea have shown a steadiness and a resolve that has earned the respect of the united states and of the world. today president

in january, president obama was here in this area. he was taking his oath as a historic event to be the first african-american to become the president. his statement mentioned it democracy and freedom. but his own statement was censored by the chinese in their country. to this day, we did not hear president obama object to that. it is not only president obama's voice that was silenced in china. it was the chinese people's voice that has been silenced in china. let us hope and work together that we will, at one point, find a time where families will be able to cry and to mourn for their own in china. they will find justice to what happened 20 years ago. we will never forget the victims and the suffering of the families. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, kumar. but like to now give the podium to dr. lee who will introduce the speaker of the u.s. house of representatives, miss nancy pelosi. >> before the speaker arrives, i would call someone else to the stage. mr. lee, chai ling? tashi? may we stand on stage and wait for the

what is president obama's objective? what is mine ultimately? is that turkey may play its full part, essential role as a bridge between east and west. that is an essential role. where there is a difference, it's how to go about doing this. be traditional, the position of america is the integration of turkey and this is the president's position and president clinton's position, the position of all united states presidents. mine you're familiar with. it is not integration into the european union, not succession to the european union. but together with the russians and together with the turks to think about having a common economic and security era. we have no druthers to the objective we're thinking to achieve, simply the way of going about it, turkey, the objective is turkey play a role as a bridge between east and west. i said to president obama it's important that europe has borders, frontiers because that is a stabilizing factor and i cannot allow that stabilizing factor in the world to be undermined. that doesn't mean we have to push back tur

for more than one year now i have been -- senator obama, now president obama -- i want to know what president obama will do about slave descendants reparations. that debate was just in the house and senate. a couple of things were done as far as apologies. i can give you an example that the media has protected him from that issue. right now i will tell you that this guy is a can-kicker. the gay issues, he kicks the can down the road. those folks, the slave reparations issue, is kicking that can down the road. we need to hear from this president to go on a microphone and tell us if there will be reparations. what we will do about it, how will be done if we were to do. and enough is enough. all these people, these folks, you made promises to -- we knew about the promises down cell during the campaign about reparations and now you are hiding from that. enough is enough. -- you are hiding down south during the campaign talking about reparations and now you're hiding from them. host: here is a piece concerning this president and the previous two in office concerning their first period of time in o

indian relations in the age of obama, and president obama to my mind hasn't spoken very much about the relationship with india. he certainly hasn't used a very pipelined rhetoric that we have all been, become used to from president clinton and president bush. but in my mind, to my mind there is every evidence that president obama is perfectly in accord with everything that has happened up until now. and he accepts this relationship as it exists now as a given. and furthermore, given obama's stress on partnership and on coalitions and his interest, his stated interest in making progress on global problems, such as energy and climate change, ending the economic crisis, nonproliferation. it's perfectly reasonable, i think, to expect president obama to put less stress on achieving the special relationship because we are already there and more emphasis on using it to some and. and i think we got a pretty good clear picture from secretary clinton last week in her address to the u.s.-india business council because she said, and michael, my hope in president obama's hope is that the next aid i

hand by president obama. france and the united states are totally aligned on this. we cannot in any way except the insane statements made by president ahmadinejad on north korea. -- on north korea we have total convergence with the american presidents and of course france is delighted to have fully reintegrated nato, as i said to the american president. so it is a pleasure to work with barack obama. we work regularly together. he knows that france is a friend of the united states. we basically are coordinated on all issues and hope to continue that. barack obama, welcome. welcome to your family. >> it is wonderful to be back in france, particularly on this day, because this day marks not only the triumph of freedom, but it also marks have the transatlantic alliance has allowed for extraordinary prosperity and security on both sides of the atlantic. the fact that france fully reintegrated into nato this year under president sarkozy's leadership is just one further indication of the degree to which u.s., french

i am here to cooperate with the president' obama as i did with president clinton and president bush. i hope we can build a friendly relationship. i will be more than happy to do so with president obama. i think we have a good start. >> absolutely. we have had a very good start. what i expect from the prime minister is an honest, frank sharing of views and their recognition that the united states and italy share common values and interests. our economies have very strong commercial ties. if we are acting on those mutual interests, then we will continue to see strong corroboration. as i said before, his assistants on our efforts to close guantanamo bay is very important. bermuda has done as a great service on that front as well. we are grateful to them. when it comes to afghanistan and pakistan, we are part of the same coalition that wants to make sure the afghan government is able and strong to sustain development for the afghan people and make sure they are not serving extremists. when it comes to the world economy, all of us have an interest in improving financial regulations that w

in addition to president obama and president sarkozy, the prime minister as well as britain's prince charles, presumably all of them will be making speeches today as part of the memorial. the commemoration of the 65th anniversary of d-day. our first call from arlington, virginia. caller: thank you very much. i wanted to just say, number one, that i was delighted that you were playing president sarkozy live. i lived in france. i'm just sorry for the americans listening to this that there was no translation because it was extremely touching to pay tribute. >> tell us about what he said. >> he talked about. he went through a tribute to the canadians and what they had done. he said for the canadians there was no need for them, their land wasn't in danger. there was no need to be taken overtaken fwi germans. but he also spoke about the fear that these young 20-year-old soldiers must have imagined when they were coming to shore and to see the huge guns facing down. he said they realized that they either had to fight to kill or to be killed. and he said imagine what these young sons of farm

over the first 50 days of the obama presidency that newscast devoted 28 hours to his presidency compared to eight hours for george debbie bush over the same time. a 50% of the obama evaluations were positive compared to 33 percent for bush and 44 percent for clinton during their first 50 days. so then the cold of the activist presidency is not only be reinforced by and large and enhanced in the medium ones which is not to say that the media has been deprived of this cult or this perception. it was already there as evidence during the campaign and since the election and the excitement generated by the obama candidacy among the american people and of the election after all was about change and obama has gone about with all the powers available to project and deliver on the change since he became president. the media coverage reflex i think of the public interest and excitement surrounding obama and inviting. activist presidency to his daily schedule and travels. schip was mentioning, he was on a plane yesterday of the time of filing reports zero even though you follow the presidency he cou

i think president obama is doing exactly what he should do. we need to stay out of that right now and the ayatollah over there i think it is beginning to understand that this twitter thing -- he cannot stop the people from communicating with the outside of. if they could have done that, then i think this would have all gone away. -- he cannot stop them from communicating with the outside world. host: the twitter aspect is the subject of several stories today. the new type of revolution is spreading -- it says that they are not only a mast industries, but have swamped the internet with huge numbers channeling anger into 140 characters or less. social networking is allowing members to broadcast anchor, fear, observations to the entire world. there are several other important twitter-related stories today. hear this story says that twitter is a player in the drama. the state department asks the social networking site twitter to delayed scheduled maintenance to avoid disrupting communications among the tech- savvy iranian citizens. this move illus

this is silly but it infuriates me when i listen to the news of barack obama, president obama being accused of doing all of these things. i like the way he has been handling it very gingerly, but if we're being accused of doing all of these things, i say why not go ahead and do it? at least to show the iranian people that we are in support of their efforts? guest: i agree with you with the way that president obama has handled this has been excellent. it is quite right that statements should be made, as, for example, the foreign ministers of the group of eight leading countries, including russia. yesterday, that was a very important statement to continue to convey the message, particularly repressing peaceful protests by violence are simply unacceptable. host: next up is richmond, virginia, greg on our line for independents. caller: good morning. i wanted to know how come we haven't heard more from some of the more moderate and middle eastern countries? where is their voice, like jordan, yemen, what have they been saying about this, and shouldn't they be speaking out for more democracy, in t

the cooperation as president obama envisioned it

obama's vice president and secretary of state but this year president obama, vice president clinton and secretary-- vice president biden, excuse me and secretary of state: have gone silent on the bill. when asked about recently the vice president's communications director said "no comment on this from here." the legislation goes exactly in the wrong direction. so much so that even president obama, vice president biden and secretary of state clinton are running away from it. so should we and i yield back the balance of my time. >> i thank the gentleman and i now recognize the distinguished chairman of the full committee for an opening statement. >> thank you chairman, thank you ranking member in marriages, i mean chairman emeritus. the president is running away from a lot of things, so this is just one more of them. that doesn't mean that the consideration is not extremely important. we have been here before ladies and gentlemen. i am for state secrets. there are some secrets that we have got to keep away from citizens and congress people, and everybody else, bloggers. but, wait a mi

so far, president obama has been able to be president every minute of his time. biden has been healthy, so he has done his job perfectly so far. i did have a comment about the previous thing. one of the comments that john lott kept saying is that there is competition right now and there really is not. most of the health care that is not government like medicare or medicaid or veterans' is through employers. the employers contract competitively with different companies to helfor health insue as long as they're healthy, but now the insurance companies turn people down. the doctors will figure out what to do with a patient when they're sick. and there's that calls for the insurance find out it is not and then they have to redo it. the person cannot change companies. that is not competition. if you are sick and they do not cover it now with the private insurance you cannot change companies because they will turn you down if you have a pre- existing condition. host: will move on to illinois on our line for independents. caller: i think vice president biden has done a

now president obama announces an $80 billion deal with u.s. drug companies to help cover costs to medicare recipients. from the white house, this is about 10 minutes. >> i want to thank you for having us here, mr. president. we certainly appreciate it. aarp is proud to stand with you, chairman baucus, senator dodd, to announce that the gap in medicare, the drug coverage gap known as the dougnut hole to all of you, will be substantially filled for millions of middle income americans as part of health reform. i want to applaud chairman baucus and senator dodd, who continue to be champions for this issue and have always fought for people who are struggling to make ends meet. we are honored to stand with both of you. senator baucus, it is your strong leadership of the senate finance committee and your creativity which led to the development of this very unique solution. we also support your finance committee's process, and we look forward with

president obama did talk about this in his speech yesterday. there are a lot of christian minorities. throughout islamic history, the jews played a very important part in muslim culture and civilization that tends to be discarded. especially when we talk about israel and palestine. all we hear within that discourse is that muslims hate jews and judeo-christian heritage forces muslim heritage. the reality of it is much more complex than that. the reality is that is long, at various point in history, was a lot more accommodating to jews than christianity was, certainly in the 19th and the 20th century in europe, given the holocaust that actually took place there. host: our guest is the washington bureau chief for al jazeera arabic, abderrahim foukara. he also worked for wgbh in boston. thought want to share with you one of the many editorials. this one is from "the wall street journal. a one of the points is that hanging over all of this, the question of iran and how to deal with it. then this point that if mr. obama is serious about stopping to

president obama was elected, shouldn't he have the people he wants to work with him? perhaps those watching and listening think this is how the senate always operates. mr. president, you are a new senator. this isn't how it used to operate. let me put the delays this context: in the first four months of the bush administration, second bush administration, i'm sure it was the same -- i'm sorry in the second bush administration; i'm sure it was the same in the first bush administration, when the senate was controlled by the president's party and we were in the minority, there wasn't a single filibuster of a bush nominee; not one. but in the first four months of the obama administration, republicans have filibustered eight of the nominees, the ones we had to file cloture on. i've indicated there are many others with the constraints we have, with the rules in the senate, i can't file cloture on every one of these. those eight filibusters in the first four months of president obama's administration are twice as many as president bush faced in his first four years. four mon

president obama's made it clear. he said -- and i quote -- "preventing this detainee from coming to our shores would prevent his trial and convicti conviction, and after over a decade, it is time to finally see that justice is served and that is what we intend to do." now, even senator kyl appears to have softened his position. on the floor of the senate yesterday, he spoke about ahmed ghalani and said -- and i quote -- "everybody acknowledges there are some people who need to be tried for serious crimes. in effect, like war crimes, and they should be tried in the united states." i commend senator kyl for this statement. i think it is a sensible, reasonable position. but let us acknowledge the obvious. if we are going to try these guantanamo detainees in the united states, we are going to incarcerate them while we try them. there's no other reasonable alternative. and if they are found guilty and face imprisonment, what will we do with them? i'm glad senator kyl acknowledged the obvious. of course we have to bring th

and tonight president obama people want to think of it as a policy as much as a passion, he put aside 240,000 -- 200 million acres of wild america and so now as people are talking about environmentalism and green movements roosevelt is becoming the key figure to understand because he was the only politician of his day who had observed darwin and understood biology and understood the bird migratory patterns and understood mating habits of deer and elk and antelope and actually did something. >> sunday on kube and a, the first of two hours with the douglas brinkley on wilderness warrior. sunday night at eight on c-span or listen on xm satellite radio or download the c-span podcast. >> earlier today the chairman of several key house committees discussed their drafts of legislation to overhaul the nation's health care systems. speakers included representatives george miller of education and we will show you this now, it is about 40 minutes. >> today i'm honored to be joined with chairman charles rangel of the ways and means committee, chairman waxman of the energy and commerce committee,

at the same time she serves on president obama's economic recovery advisory board. anna knows a lot about inside-outside strategy to win changes, and how we have to change to win. so please welcome anna berger. [applause] >> thank you. it is great to be here. this is an incredible panel. it is a long-time coming. we worked hard. we have stratjiesed about how to have america's future now, not some day, not after some next election, but actually changing america's future now. i'm very excite excited to have all these kfings with you. it was just a year ago we had this conference for take mac -- back america, and we did it. that was even before the economic collapse. that was about greed, corruption, and a bush administration that cared about the top 1% and not anybody else. i want to officially welcome you to washington. i know there have been lots of welcomes already. i want to welcome you to washington, d.c., the nation's capital, where the people have reclaimed our capital and our country and we have secured our leader in the white house. this is a new day in ameri

[speaking in french] >> more now from president obama and french president nicolas sarkozy. they met earlier today in france and questions from some reporters on the middle east peace process, north korea's nuclear weapons and their policy towards iran. this is 35 minutes. >> i would like to say to the president of the united states of america how proud france is to work with you. for the second time this year, this afternoon we will be talking about the ceremonies and the commemoration of the d-day landings but i want to say in the strongest, most sincere terms that never in the history, perhaps, of our two countries the united states and france, have been so close to one another on major issues, major questions. i say to the president that we are determined to help him in his decision to close down -- shut down guantanamo. i told president barack obama to what extent we support his open, outstretched hand initiative to russia, that we improve and endorse this policy. i said to the president that we totally agreed with him. on the israeli and palestinian issue. two states t

host: can president obama really bridge the gap? do the people have to? guest: the israelis and the palestinians, obviously, have a very major role to play since they are basically the main people concerned with this. nothing that is going to happen between the israelis and palestinians is going to happen outside of the american context. the united states is obviously a very close ally of israel. it has always supported israel very strongly. it has always sought the best interest of israel materially and morally, the united states is supporting the israeli side. president obama is saying that he also wants to support the palestinians, morally and materially. morally is very important. i think that is probably one of the most important things that he mentioned in his speech, the moral support of getting justice for the palestinians. without the united states come in one way or another, morally, physically, historically, politically in every way -- without the united states, i do not think we could expect anything major to happen between the israelis and th

at 6:15, president obama and angela merkel. then at 7:00 a.m., "washington journal". >> this week, judge sonia sotomayor was in washington in advance of her confirmation hearings. >> i would like people to say this is the best hearing we have ever had. >> she is a very human person of great legal mind, and i think that is the right person to be on the supreme court. >> watch her with senate leadership and members of the judiciary committee on c-span's "america and the courts "today at 7:00 p.m. eastern. >> today campaign for america's future. this included john podesta and clust discussed ways to advance the progressive movement with the obama administration. this is an hour. >> good morning. my name is roger hickey. this is the take back america conference. in this last historic election we did take back america. we took it back from the edge of disaster. so the people in this room deserve a lot of credit. i'd like you all to give yourselves and president barack obama a big round of applause. [applause] >> for progress siffs t

and the answer that question is enough to president obama, it is up to us. thank you very much. [applause] >> this has been a great piano, a great group of speakers and great group of leaders. we have caught up a little bit in terms of our time so we have a little bit to have a discussion here and i don't know if any of our speakers want to have an exchange or ask some questions with our other panelists? i'm sorry, we did not prepare for that, we will get to you in a second to hear and let me make an interesting comparison between the two efforts on health care health care and have a conversation about how we do parallel paths. mitch, you send the there were three principles guiding the effort by organizing for america merited there is a larger coalition called health care for american now which is lying great emphasis on the need for a public plan. we have taken the responsibility forgetting members of congress to step up to that hearing aid is in the plan in that obama campaign on, it certainly aims at controlling costs in the way that he has made that a priority but my gu

president obama as a candidate for president, then senator obama hired acorn to get out the vote and wrote the check to one of their subsid year corporations for over $800,000. there's three ways the president is tied. more than three ways the president is tied to acorn. one is as their attorney. one is as an employee of project vote heading up project vote in chicago, receiving paychecks. acorn through project vote into president obama. one is hiring. the third one is hiring acorn to get out the vote. there are rumors that donor lists got circulated back and forth. i haven't been able to chase that down. the fourth component is the white house has hired -- the white house has hired acorn to participate in the census. now, over 400,000 fraudulent registrations turned in, admitted by acorn, i suspect significantly more. i never met someone who admitted to such wrongdoing and admitted to it in the full magnitude of their wrongdoing. they always try to minimize. so at least 400,000, and now the president who has worked for acorn in two compass its, hired acorn in at least one capacity,

what came up in the discussions between angela merkel and president obama? caller: we are not exactly sure the specifics of the discussions. they had so much on their plate including middle east peace and the guantanamo base. president obama said that he enjoyed hearing some of the ideas, he called it the intellectual talks from the chancellor on what has happened with the automotive industry here in germany. but as far as specific as to what types of global financial regulations will come out of that, we were not given that many specifics from their meeting. in fact, the two were spending all day together, so we are likely to learn more about what came of it. it is certainly one of the most pressing issues for the two leaders and their countries. host: i want to share with our audience one of the many photographs in the paper this morning, from "the new york post." the president toward the pyramids in egypt and he leaves tonight for paris. he will be in the normandy region tomorrow. , sightseeing on this trip? caller: and considerable amount of sightseeing.

president obama and president medvedev will be meeting again soon in moscow. our group, as other groups, is focusing on the importance of nuclear arms reductions. perhaps what makes us somewhat different is we're not only focused on the near term, that is the negotiations which are now underway between the united states and russia on further strategic arms reductions, but we are in the process of putting together what we call an end to end plan of how actually to get to zero. that means not only another phase of u.s./russia reductions but a multilateral negotiation which would include all nuclear powers to reduce and then go down to

, for the life of me, i cannot understand why president obama does not support this concept. i know that he's getting a hard time from speaker pelosi and from several other members there in the house of representatives, although steny hoyer is in favor of the commission approach to solving our entitlement and tax reform crisis. we all know that we can't get this done through the regular order of business. we know it. we won't be able to get it done. and the proof of it is we haven't been able to do it thus far. and so we're going to need the commission. everybody understands that we're going to need it. as i say, if i were the president, if i were the mayor of cleveland, governor -- and i know the president wants to move on health care. i know he wants to move on climate change. but he's got to know that from a substantive point of view and a political point of view, he's going to have to do something about this long-term financial crisis that we find ourselves. and it would seem to me that he could go forward with climate change, he could go forward with health care reform,

into power, well, what are you going to do about it, president obama? the point is, we don't need another engagement. i think we ought to take care of iran, china, and russia. yes, we need to look at it, but i support hillary clinton's position and i think she can handle it. let her candle lit. she is the secretary of state and i believe -- let her handle it. it. she is secretary of state, and i

president obama today was asked about this and he will also meet with president bachelet of chile in just a bit. let's go to fort lauderdale, florida. mrs. cynthia on our other line. >> caller: i just want to say it is refreshing to hear a president of the united states express awareness of international tensions and international situations and have some understanding that as of the superpower of the united states needs to listen to other people. and i think that is one of the things that we have been waiting for for a long time, a president who listens to what other people have to say, even people who disagree with him. >> on capitol hill today the house and senate are back at 2:15 p.m. to continue work or they're hoping to bring to the floor legislative spending for fiscal year 2010. life coverage here on c-span2 at 2:15 p.m. this is new york city. bruise on the republican line. >> caller: how are you doing? >> very well. >> caller: i watched obama. i do like him as a person. as a president we have to back him but i feel he is way off the mark. there was no comment about north kor

obama's vice president and secretary of state. but this year president obama, vice president clinton and -- or vice president biden, excuse me, and secretary of state clinton have gone silent on the bill. when asked about it recently the vice president's communications director said, quote, no comment on this from here. the legislation goes exactly in the wrong direction. so much so that even president obama, vice president biden and secretary of state clinton are running away from it. so should we. he yield back the balance of my time. >> i thank the gentleman. i now recognize the distinguished chairman of the full committee for an opening statement. >> ranking member emeritus -- i mean, chairman emeritus. the president is running away from a lot of things so this is just one more of them. that doesn't mean that the consideration is not extremely important. we've been here before, ladies and gentlemen. i'm for state secrets. there are some secrets that we've got to keep away from citizens and congress people and everybody else, b

and we will be hearing from president obama as well as the french president and the british prime minister. and we'll go to that as soon as those gentlemen start speaking. first, back to the phones. chris on the line. good morning and welcome. caller: good morning. my respect to all the d-day veterans still with us. my dad was with the army air corps group that went from north africa into france and germany. but a lot of people talking about the russian effort. with our effort to go after the energy resources of germany, the bombings in all cordors, getting them out of north african africa and stuff, didn't that happy and could you expand? thank you. guest: sure. that's a great point. one way the soveyts were hated by the western powers is the strategic bombing campaign that they could concentrate on having their air force just provide close air support for their armies along the eastern front and the campaign to bomb germany abserbs about a million plus german soldiers for antiaircraft duties and things of that nature, plus much of the german air force is redeployed home. this definitely