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Study: Desperate for Attention, White House Reporters Abandon Tough Questions of Obama

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Photo Credit: Pete SouzaA groundbreaking new study of White House press conferences over the past 23 years reveals that the events are in a death spiral, especially under President Obama. Reporters, desperate to keep the press conferences alive, have switched to asking easy questions in a bid to coax the president to host more of them, the study says.

Noting that the days when reporters like Sam Donaldson and Helen Thomas pestered President Reagan are long gone, the study in the authoritative journal American Politics Research said that adversarial questions have become rare as presidents have rebelled at them.

“The press want to encourage presidents to hold more of these direct exchanges to benefit their own reputations and media’s prestige,” said the study provided to Secrets. “The press will be less adversarial in these rare meetings to encourage more of them.”

The trend started with former President Clinton as he, former President George W. Bush and Obama curtailed press conferences and especially cut back on solo meetings with the press. Joint press conferences generally feature the president with a foreign leader and are considered easier to handle, said the study. In his first term, Obama held 38 joint and 27 solo press conferences, according to the study.

Read more from this story HERE.

President Obama’s Second Term Shaping up as a Train Wreck

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Photo Credit: APSuccessful presidential second terms have been hard to come by since the end of World War II. Dwight Eisenhower signed the 1957 Civil Rights Act and dispatched federal troops to escort black students to public schools in Little Rock, Ark., but then came Sputnik and the 1958 recession. Richard Nixon resigned in the wake of Watergate early in his second term, Ronald Reagan was distracted by Iran-Contra, Bill Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives, and George W. Bush was preoccupied by the economic collapse of 2007 and the Great Recession that followed.

So perhaps no one should be surprised that President Obama’s prospects for his second term took a beating in April. Between the growing consensus that implementing Obamacare is a “train wreck” and confirmation that his administration is preventing Benghazi massacre survivors and whistle-blowers from testifying before Congress about what really happened in Libya, the outlines of a second-term collapse could take shape in the next several weeks.

A portent of trouble ahead came early in April when Time magazine’s Joe Klein, normally a reliable Obama enthusiast, warned that “we are now seeing weekly examples of this administration’s inability to govern.” Then the Obamacare train wreck meme flashed across the headlines when Sen. Max Baucus, one of the health reform law’s chief sponsors, told Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius that “I just see a huge train wreck coming down. You and I have discussed this many times, and I don’t see any results yet.” Despite Baucus’ subsequent efforts to walk back his comments, the “train wreck” quickly became a staple of political conversation across the ideological and media spectrum, fueled by growing evidence that health insurance premiums for millions of Americans will soon skyrocket because of Obamacare.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Campaigns for Immigration Reform . . . in Mexico

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Photo Credit: APPresident Obama will ramp up his calls for comprehensive immigration reform during a trip to Mexico and Costa Rica that comes amid growing obstacles in Washington to his preferred pathway to citizenship for the 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States.

White House officials framed immigration reform as the “backdrop” of the three-day trek that begins Thursday, an attempt by Obama to move the needle on an issue in which he’s left the bulk of negotiations to lawmakers. The president will look to build momentum for the reforms while not jeopardizing talks on Capitol Hill.

The trip takes on even greater importance considering the fragile state of negotiations. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., widely seen as the most influential conservative in the immigration debate, conceded that the current immigration bill crafted by a bipartisan group of senators would not pass the GOP-controlled House.

Obama, recently dealt a bitter defeat on gun control, is desperate to avoid another high-profile loss. Experts said the trip to Latin America is a crucial opportunity for the White House to allay fears that immigration reform would trigger a new flood of illegal immigrants into the U.S.

“Obama can present a more accurate picture of Mexico, which is extremely important in the domestic debate about immigration,” said Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg, who attended a meeting this week with Obama and Vice President Biden previewing the presidential trip. “There’s a real concern about recreating the flow of [undocumented immigrants] from Mexico. Mexico has changed, and it’s not something a lot of people in Washington know about.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Report: Obama Knows Identity of Benghazi Mastermind but Does Nothing

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Photo Credit: Allison HargerBy Adam Housley. The U.S. has identified the mastermind of the Benghazi attack, sources tell Fox News, though the individual apparently is walking free in Libya.

The confirmation from multiple sources comes more than seven months after the assault on two U.S. locations in Benghazi, Libya, where four Americans — including Ambassador Chris Stevens — were killed. President Obama pledged after the attack that “justice will be done.”

But one source told Fox News the government is “sitting on” information.

“We basically don’t want to upset anybody, and the problem is, if Ambassador Stevens’ family knew that we were sitting on information about the people who killed their son, their brother, on and on, then, and we could look them as a government in the face, then we’re messing up. We’re messing up,” the source said.

Fox News spoke exclusively with one special operator who watched the events unfold in real time and has debriefed those who were part of the response. He remains anonymous for his safety and has decided to talk because he says he and others connected with the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks in Benghazi are frustrated with the excuses and lack of a military response since Stevens and three other Americans were killed. Read more from this story HERE.

GOP says Benghazi whistleblowers will ‘expose new facts’

By Jonathan Easley and Julian Pecquet. Eyewitnesses with potentially damaging information on the Obama administration’s handling of last year’s terror attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi will testify at a hearing next week, Republicans said.

The House oversight committee is holding a hearing next week that will “expose new facts and details that the Obama administration has tried to suppress,” oversight chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said Wednesday.

Two of Issa’s lieutenants said the witnesses at the hearing would include federal employees with direct knowledge of the attack that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in Libya.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the oversight subpanel on national security, said people with “personal firsthand knowledge” would testify about the attack. Asked if any “whistleblowers” would be among the witnesses, Chaffetz said: “I think they will be appearing. Some of them.”

“I think you will see — again I can’t release any names to you yet, but next Wednesday I think those of us who are concerned about this issue … we’re finally going to get some answers,” Chaffetz told Fox News on Wednesday. Read more from this story HERE.

Shock Poll: Wealthy, Not Middle Class, Support Obama

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Photo Credit: Washington Examiner President Obama’s approval numbers are starting to mimic Mitt Romney’s.

According to a new Economist/YouGov poll, it’s the rich — not the poor or middle class — who back Obama more despite his 2012 campaign attacking the rich.

The poll found that fewer than half of those with incomes less than $100,000 per year approve of Obama’s performance, while he enjoys a 54 percent approval rating among those with incomes higher than that.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama’s Press Conference: ‘I’m Still Relevant’ and ‘It’s Everyone Else’s Fault’

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller President Obama: I’m still relevant

By Glenn Thrush. If ever 47 minutes illustrated the frustration, tantalizing promise and ambivalence of a second term, this was it.

President Barack Obama, marking the 100th day since he delivered an ambitious inaugural address brimming with expansive plans, sparred with the White House press over a succession of issues over which he has conspicuously clipped control — from his response to the “game-changer” revelation that Syrian government forces used sarin gas, to the failure of his gun control push, to his continued efforts to shutter the Guantanamo Bay detention facility over the objections of Congressional Republicans and Democrats.

“Mr. President, you are a hundred days into your second term…my question to you is do you still have the juice to get the rest of your agenda through this Congress?” asked ABC’s Jonathan Karl — eliciting a surprised chuckle and “goll-y” from the commander-in-chief during a Tuesday morning press conference in the White House briefing room.

“You know… as Mark Twain said, you know, rumors of my demise may be a little exaggerated at this point,” said Obama, who seemed a lot less lighthearted than during his sharp-elbowed stand-up routine at the White House Correspondents Association dinner on Saturday. Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Blames Everybody

By Neil Munro. President Barack Obama spent most of his surprise April 30 press conference on the defensive, blaming the Senate, budget cuts, Republicans, Syria’s dictator and much else for the shaky start to his second term.

He had nothing major or new to announce, and no theme or message to steer media coverage.

About a third of the way through the press conference, Obama responded to a question about his political clout by saying sardonically that “as Mark Twain said, rumors of my demise may be a little exaggerated at this point.”

“In the Senate, this habit of requiring 60 votes for even the most modest piece of legislation has gummed up the works there,” he complained. Read more from this story HERE.

Obama to be Democratic Nominee in 2016?

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Photo Credit: WNDA new poll of Democrats on their preferred candidates for the 2016 presidential race has produced the Obama name, which pollster Fritz Wenzel described as “bizarre.”

The results come from a poll by Wenzel of Wenzel Strategies, who found that Hillary Clinton is winning 55 percent of the support from respondents who said they plan to vote in the Democrat Party primary.

But in the No. 2 position was Michelle Obama, with support from 19 percent of the respondents.

“In a limited field of just four candidates – Clinton, Joe Biden, Michelle Obama, and John Kerry, Michelle Obama finished a very distant second place at 19 percent support. The second-place finish of Obama is every bit as bizarre as Clinton’s first-place finish is predictable,” he said.

“Joe Biden’s support by just 8 percent of likely Democratic voters is simply pathetic, and if John Kerry ever harbored a thought that his current role as Secretary of State might support a presidential comeback, this survey shows he should discard such a thought,” Wenzel said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama: ‘I Don’t Want These Individuals to Die,’ Seeks Closure of Guantanamo

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Photo Credit: IndyDina with Mr. WonderfulPresident Barack Obama on Tuesday renewed his pledge to close the prison for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but the impediments that have thwarted him thus far remain.

At a White House news conference, Obama said he would try to persuade Congress to end restrictions that have prevented him from closing the facility. The president’s comments followed the arrival Monday of medical reinforcements at the U.S. naval prison to help deal with a hunger strike by about 100 of the 166 detainees there. The forced feeding of detainees has refocused human rights concerns on the issue.

“I don’t want these individuals to die,” Obama told reporters.

He added that the situation was “not sustainable” and that he had asked advisers to review it. He also said he would press the issue with lawmakers.

“I’m going to re-engage with Congress to try to make the case that this is not something that’s in the best interest of the American people,” he said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Claims Ignorance of Admin. Pressure on Benghazi Survivors Not to Testify (+video)

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During the President’s press conference today, a Fox News reporter directly ask Obama about his knowledge of the administration’s ongoing efforts to block the testimony of Benghazi’s survivors:

“… there are people in your own State Department saying they have been blocked from coming forward, that they survived the terror attack and they want to tell their story. Will you help them come forward and say it once and for all?”

Obama responded that, although he was “not familiar with this notion that anybody has been blocked from testifying,” he would “find out what exactly you’re referring to.”

The President continued, “What I’ve been very clear about from the start is that our job, with respect to Benghazi has been to find out exactly what happened, to make sure that U.S. embassies, not just in the Middle East but around the world, are safe and secure, and to bring those who carried it out to justice. But I’ll find out, what exactly you’re referring to.”

The Fox News reporter then pointed out that the Benghazi whistle-blowers “hired an attorney because they say they’ve been blocked from coming forward.”

Obama insisted that he was “not familiar with it.”

American Pastor Now Moved to Solitary in Iran may be Suffering Organ Failure

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Photo Credit: ACLJThe American pastor jailed in Iran for his faith has been placed in solitary confinement and may now be suffering organ failure, according to family members in Iran who are increasingly alarmed at his deteriorating health.

Saeed Abedini, the 32-year-old Christian and American citizen who is serving an eight-year prison term in Iran, was put in solitary confinement following a “peaceful, silent protest” in an outside courtyard at Iran’s notoriously brutal Evin prison, according to family members. Conditions at the prison prompted Abedini and other prisoners to sign a petition decrying the lack of medical care and the threats and harsh treatment facing family members who come to visit.

The protest angered prison officials who retaliated by placing Abedini and nine others in solitary confinement.

“Saeed had previously told his family that when he was in solitary confinement in the past, that was the hardest time in his life. That every hour was like one year and that he was losing his memory and his health was deteriorating quickly,” said his wife, Naghmeh Abedini, who is at the family’s home in Idaho with their two young children.

“We believe that he is being beaten in solitary confinement. We have no way of finding out about his health. There will be no more visitations allowed and we will have no way of knowing how Saeed is doing,” she said.

Read more from this story HERE.