Obama "optimistic" at G20 result

President Barack Obama: "confident and optimistic"

Appearing before journalists following the G20 Summit U.S. President Barack Obama said the meeting was “productive" and “historic”. There was no real sense of excitement as hundreds of journalists waited for the leader to give his thoughts on the outcome. Many were tired after a long day and it was, after all a repeat of what Gordon Brown had already said.

However, Obama was nonetheless the star of the show, exuding a sense of charisma not seen in other G20 leaders. Stepping onto the stage some 40 minutes later than expected, Obama said he was generally confident and optimistic in what had been achieved.

"By any measure the London Summit was historic,” he told the news conference, “not only because of the size and scope of the challenges we face, but also because of the timeliness and magnitude of our response."

"The challenge is clear, and the global economy is retracting," he declared, but said the world was now at the "turning point of our economic and global recovery."

"Today the world's leader have responded with a set of unprecedented and coordinated actions," Obama told reporters.

There was, he said a strong consensus in rejecting protectionism. "History tells us that turning inward can help turn a downturn into a depression" Obama said, declaring that the agreements reached signalled support for open markets. "Today we have learnt the lessons of history and we are committed to growth and job creation," Obama said

He said that there had been agreements on facilitating "bold action to help developing countries" and injecting huge sums into the IMF to help struggling economies. "In an age where our economies are more closely linked than ever before, the whole world is touched by this devastating downturn," Obama said.

The president then made a pledge to help those most vulnerable in the world. Obama saying he would seek authority from the U.S congress to enable 448 million dollars to be diverted into helping Africa's poor as well as those in Latin America. But he insisted this was not charity. It was, he said, an effort to help what he called "future markets" that would one day drive economic growth.

Turning to the importance if implementing a better regulatory system, Barack Obama said, "We must put an end to bust and bubble economic policies," adding that risk taking which had been so harmful to the economy must end. He and the G20 partners had also agreed to greater transparency and said new regulations would be applied to hedge funds and tax havens.

The President did concede that bringing together 20 nations and making a deal was not easy. “Each country has its own non-negotiable issues,” he said, and added that more work may yet need to be done.

"This is not a panacea but it is a critical step," he declared, "But we may have to take additional steps until we get it right." It was hard to bridge differences, Obama said, and not everything was solved. He therefore welcomed another meeting scheduled for late 2009. He said that the summit had however achieved a great deal, partly he said due to the hard work that Gordon Brown had put in to organise the meeting.

"America is a critical actor and leader on the world stage," he said boastfully, but, he added, "We may not always have the best answer" to the problems the world faces. "The proof of the pudding is in the eating."

While in general there was strong consensus, there did appear to be some conflicts of policy. In an apparent comment at Gordon Brown comments at attempting to stop the rampant bonus culture seen in Britain, Obama said, "We don't want the state dictating salaries." But he added that there must be more accountability.

There are no guarantees in life or economics, Obama said but insisted the steps in the communiqué were necessary.

In his final summing up Barack Obama was thoughtful and philosophical. He even joked with reporters during the Q&A that followed. But he also spoke as a true statesman, with confidence and with optimism.

"Ultimately the challenges of the 21st century cannot be met without collective action. Agreement will almost never be easy, and result will not always come easy. But I am committed to respecting different points of view and to forging a consensus instead of dictating our terms. That's how we made progress in the last few days and that's how we will advance the deals in the months and years to come."

"In a world that's more and more interconnected we all have responsibilities to work together to solve common challenges. And although it will take time, I am confident that we will rebuild global prosperity if we act with a common sense of purpose, persistence and the optimism that the moment demands."

Obama retakes oath of office

It was perhaps an effort to dispel the conspiracy theories, but Barack Obama has retaken the oath of office. The move to take the oath again came after he fluffed his lines after Chief Justice John Roberts delivered it incorrectly to him. During Tuesday’s inauguration Roberts mixed-up the words to the second clause (“That I will faithfully execute the Office of the President of the United States”), missing out the word “faithfully” and putting it at the end. This confused Obama, who once taught Constitutional Law at Chicago Law School.

Obama technically became president a few minutes before he took his oath because the proceedings overran. Under Amendment 20 of the US Constitution, ratified in 1933, the term of the outgoing president ends at precisely noon on January 20. However, section 2 of the US Constitution states the oath must be read out as written. Thus came the dilemma.

Following the inauguration Barack Obama had also signed the declaration. But in an attempt to quash any criticism or conspiracy theories, the White House quickly organised another ceremony in the map room. Some conspiracy nuts may not be entirely placated as a picture showed the President taking the oath without the bible. However, Sky’s Tim Marshall described the whole affair as a bit “frothish” and said, “I don’t think it actually matters”. Greg Craig, the White House counsel, called the retaking of the oath an “abundance of caution” while another White House spokesman said it was a “precaution”. The President was a little more jovial about the whole affair. "We decided that because it was so much fun ...," Obama said jokingly to reporters. Earlier, Vice-President Joe Biden had made light of Chief Justice Robert’s misreading of the oath. “My memory is not as good as Justice Roberts, Chief Justice Roberts," Biden said as he asked for a copy of the oath to swear in senior members of the White House staff on Wednesday. The comment was met with laughs and groans from journalists present and President Obama seemed less than happy with the comment [CNN].

It is not the first time an incoming president has fluffed his lines at the inauguration ceremony. Herbert Hoover said “preserve, maintain and defend the Constitution of the United States” instead of “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States”. However, Hoover did not take the oath again. Both Calvin Coolidge and Chester Arthur retook their oaths. Arthur, who served from 1881 to 1885, was sworn in by the Chief Justice of the New York Supreme Court at his home in a private ceremony following the assassination of former president James Garfield. Arthur was sworn in a second time by the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court two days later at the Capitol.
In Coolidge's case, he took the oath of office at his father's Vermont home following the death of former president Warren Harding. Coolidge's father was a justice of the peace and administered the oath. Concerns about the jurisdiction of Coolidge's father led to Coolidge taking a second oath later in Washington.

Thus Obama stands as the third president to retake the oath of office [Sky News / BBC / CNN].

Departing Bush defends War on Terror

President Bush has made his last speech as Commander in Chief. In his 17 minute address he said he had helped keep America safe. “There has not been a terror attack on US soil in seven years” he said. The outgoing leader made a tribute to the men and women in the US military and their fight in the War on Terror. He said America was leading the world “towards a new age where freedom belongs to all nations”.

The toll would be far worse if we had not acted and he insisted America would return to a position of strong economic growth. The decades ahead will bring more hard choices.
With regards the war on terror, Bush said America did nothing to seek a war and added that it was important to “reject isolationism” and to defend the United States from those that wanted to harm the country.

“We will never tire, never falter, never fail” he said.

In departing, he thanked the American people and paid tribute to President-Elect Barak Obama. “Goodnight, God bless this house and our next president” he said before leaving the stage [BBC / CNN / White House].

Bush attacked with shoes in Iraq

George W Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq on Sunday, but not all went well after someone threw a pair of shoes at him. President Bush shrugged off the incident saying, “so what if a guy threw a shoe at me, it is one way to get attention. It’s like going to a political rally and having someone yell at you. It’s like driving down the street and have people not gesturing with all five fingers”. He dismissed the ‘attack’ as a way of getting attention but said he did not know what the man’s cause was. He added that he “didn’t feel the least bit threatened by it” and went on to say that other journalists in the room had apologized for the reporter’s actions.

During the press conference a journalist had stood up shouting in Arabic, "this is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog" before throwing a pair of size 10 shoes towards the President. Both shoes missed the President one only missed him by inches and security seemed slow to restrain the man who was eventually pulled to the ground [BBC / CNN / Sky News / al Jazeera].

The shoe throwing incident detracted from the main reason President Bush visited the country. He and Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki had arranged the meeting to sign a new security agreement between the two countries. However footage of the American leader ducking the flying footwear dominated headlines. The throwing of shoes is an Arab insult and after the fall of Saddam Hussein many Iraqis were seen to throw shoes at Saddam’s portraits and statues. Only recently protesters in Baghdad were seen to throw shoes at an effigy of George Bush.