The AP: “President Barack Obama sought to calm jittery Democrats Wednesday as they prepared to head home to face voters, assuring them they’re ‘on the right side of history’ despite problems with the launch of his massive health care overhaul and an immigration fight with Republicans. In back-to-back closed sessions with House and Senate Democrats, Obama delivered his broad message about economic prosperity and expanding the middle class. But in return he was confronted with questions from Democrats who are nervous about implementation of the health care law as they look ahead to town hall meetings during the August recess — and to midterm elections next year.”
Obama defended Larry Summers from liberal Democrats at closed-door Hill meetings. Obama said he won’t name a new Fed chairman until this fall and threw a new name into the mix, former vice chair Donald Kohn.
USA Today points out that “Federal Reserve Vice Chair Janet Yellen, a leading contender to succeed her boss, Ben Bernanke, may soon be the only female on the board of the central bank.”
The AP: “When President Barack Obama ran for re-election last year, he and his advisers were quick to condemn comments from Republicans that were deemed offensive or demeaning to women. But now, with two prominent members of Obama’s Democratic Party admitting to lewd online behavior and facing allegations of sexual harassment, the White House is conspicuously silent. Republicans say that smacks of hypocrisy. But White House officials draw a distinction, saying Obama’s comments last year were in response to the policy implications of the controversial views espoused by the two Republicans who were, at the time, running for Senate.”
President Obama will be on Leno Aug. 6.
It’s not just MidEast talks… AP: “U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Pakistani counterpart, Sartaj Aziz, said Thursday that the two countries will resume high-level negotiations over security issues. Kerry also said he had invited Pakistan's newly elected Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, to come to Washington to meet with President Barack Obama.”
Obama on the state of journalism and local newspapers going away in an Amazon Kindle interview: “What’s true in journalism is true in manufacturing and is true in retail. What we have to recognize is that those old times aren’t coming back.” (via The Hill.)