‘Top Line’ — White House’s ‘Week of a Lot of Relaxed Exhales’
EmailABC News’ Rick Klein reports: In a high-stakes week for President Obama — between a new Afghanistan strategy, the start of the Senate’s health care debate, and the release of new unemployment figures — things could have gone a whole lot worse for the White House.
“No champagne corks — but this is a week of a lot of relaxed exhales for the White House,” George Stephanopoulos told us on ABCNews.com’s “Top Line” today.
“They went into the Afghanistan speech fully expected to get blasts from all sides — worried that public support might just drop out on them; it didn’t happen,” he said. “Most polls, including the White House’s own, [are] showing by the end of the week … that a fair majority supports giving the president’s strategy a chance.”
“Number two, on this jobs number, they have been hoping for about 10 days that there might be a nice up-side surprise here because of some seasonal variations in the numbers, but they really weren’t expecting for the number to come down a full … two-tenths of a percent. So this was good news. They know it’s going to go bounce around for the next several months. They know it could go up again. But any encouraging news at this point is something they’re going to take to the bank.”
Stephanopoulos will be talking Afghanistan strategy on “This Week” Sunday, with headliners Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, plus Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., one of the leading critics of the president’s decision to send additional troops to Afghanistan.
The White House wants a majority of Democrats to support the president’s plan for Afghanistan, but “that’s going to be hard,” Stephanopoulos told us. “I think they’re hoping that the Democrats are going to feel a little bit better if health care passes, that they’re going to feel, you know, a strength in unity if that happens.”
“Number two, I think they’re hoping for some positive signs in Afghanistan over the next several months, because they are probably going to be able to get to the spring before this vote comes up,” he said.
Watch the segment with George Stephanopoulos HERE, and be sure to tune in to his program Sunday.
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The best we can hope for, is the troop build-up will be more about taking action, instead of tip-toeing around, trying to pacify religious maniacs.
Posted by: Rick McDaniel | December 4, 2009, 4:06 pm 4:06 pm
If your so scared of the boogeyman, sign up, believe me they WILL take you, even if you are over 40 or a violent convicted felon… Nah, better we let the 18 year old kids or the middle aged men with children get their arms and legs blown off, and their eyes blown out of their head… I feel safer already. After all, we all know just how “peaceful” a person gets when somebody bombs their home or murders their family.
Funny the whole reason for the “war on terror” were people who killed civillians for things they did not do… So then we go out across the world and kill even more people for things they did NOT do… This is just policy? No, this is INSANE!
Speaking of which, we now have a President who “won” a “peace” prize for escalating a war. Left is Right, and Right is Left. The only change we’ve had is the nameplate, the policy NEVER changes.
What were you afraid of? That a mere President would stand up to the military industrial complex? Sleep well, even this one, doesn’t have the gravitas or the integrity to attempt something so “audacious”.
Posted by: jafo | December 5, 2009, 9:11 am 9:11 am
When did ABC give the previous adminis-
tration a “breather” week gold star?
What you are telling us is that Obama
stepped into “it”, deeply, but you
(and he) are thankful he didn’t actually
disappear in “it”. Sounds like YOU
are the one’s exhaling slowly.
Posted by: grizzlybare | December 5, 2009, 10:43 pm 10:43 pm