The Obama Timeline

CIA director Leon Panetta announces on April 8 that the agency will be closing all of its secret detention centers. (There is no official word as to how terrorists reacted to the announcement.) [2273]

Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, in words clearly intended for Obama, states, “Those who think that through concessions they will gain respect and peace are wrong. It’s the other way around—it will lead to more wars.” There is no doubt that Israel will be a thorn in Obama’s side, with Obama wanting significant concessions from the Jewish state in order to appease Palestinians, Iran, and the rest of the Arab world, and Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu wanting to stop Iran’s nuclear program and prevent further attacks from Hamas and other terrorists backed by Iran and Syria. Israeli President Shimon Peres states that while he hopes that U.S.-Iran talks could be productive, if they are not Israel will “strike him (Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad).” [2320, 2331]

The White House announces that Obama plans on immigration legislation in 2009 to secure a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. (There already is a “pathway” for them, but it involves returning to their homeland and then entering the United States legally.) Such a bill may be a tough sell in the middle of a recession. Roy Beck, executive director of NumbersUSA, an organization that favors tighter controls on immigration, states, “It just doesn’t seem rational that any political leader would say, let’s give millions of foreign workers permanent access to U.S. jobs when we have millions of Americans looking for jobs.” [2257]

Obama asks Congress for $83.4 billion for continuing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, despite having criticized former President Bush for making the same kind of off-budget supplemental funding requests in the past. [2266, 2530]

Republican strategist Karl Rove calls Vice-President Joe Biden a liar by for a story he told about an alleged encounter with former President Bush. Biden claims that Bush had once told him in the Oval Office, “I’m a leader,” and Biden (according to Biden) replied, “Mr. President, turn around and look behind you. No one is following.” Biden also alleges he had spent “many hours” speaking privately with Bush. Rove states the story is “fictional,” and says, “If you notice, all of these incidents have the same structure: Joe Biden courageously raises the impudent question; the president befuddles the answer; and Joe Biden drives home the dramatic response.” Former Bush staffers agree with Rove, and they confirm that Biden was probably never alone with Bush and certainly never spent hours with him. (Biden has a history of making up stories, exaggerating events, and plagiarizing.) [2268]

Pharmacy chain Walgreens pulls the “Chia Obama” product off its shelves after some shoppers complain that it makes fun of Afro hairstyles and is racist. The Chia Obama is the latest addition to the “Chia pet” line of planters shaped like animals or people that grow “hair” from tiny plants. The product’s inventor and promoter, Joseph Pedott, had asked Jesse Jackson for his opinion and was told by him, “I think this is a fine product.” Pedott’s ad campaign includes the pitch, “Can you grow one? Yes you can!” [2269]

Obama’s head of the National Economic Council, Lawrence Summers, addresses the Economic Club of Washington on April 9 and says the unemployment rate will likely go higher. “I don’t think we can hold out the prospect that unemployment would stabilize at the current level,” says Summers. When asked to guess how high the rate might go he refuses to be pinned down, saying, “There are seven cameras there, which means there are seven too many for me to provide a number for the number at which it might be likely to peak.” [2279]

Attorney Philip J. Berg announces he will appeal the case Hollister v. Soetoro. The case is one of many that challenge Obama’s eligibility to serve as president. The judge, James Robertson, had denied the lawsuit because he felt the issue of Obama’s citizenship had been sufficiently “vetted, blogged, texted, twittered” during the campaign. [2342]

Texas Governor Rick Perry announces his support of his state’s sovereignty resolution, stating, “I believe that our federal government has become oppressive in its size, its intrusion into the lives of our citizens, and its interference with the affairs of our state. That is why I am here today to express my unwavering support for efforts all across our country to reaffirm the states’ rights affirmed by the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. I believe that returning to the letter and spirit of the U.S. Constitution and its essential Tenth Amendment will free our state from undue regulations, and ultimately strengthen our Union. Millions of Texans are tired of Washington, D.C. trying to come down here to tell us how to run Texas.” [2341, 2351]

On April 9, Obama hosts a Jewish Seder dinner. Aides brag that it was likely the first president-hosted Seder at the White House. DebbieSchlussel.com calls it a “stunt and a Jewish minstrel show,” as well as hypocritical because the food served was not Kosher but simply Jewish ethnic food. Schlussel labels the event “lipstick on an unkosher pig.” No rabbi or religious scholar joins Obama for the meal, but political advisor David Axelrod (who is Jewish) attends. [2338, 2339, 2356]

Kentucky’s Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Leslie A. Fugate asks the state’s Attorney General, Jack Conway, to investigate the issue of Obama’s eligibility to be on the ballot in Kentucky. [2294]