Democratic Chatter 3-24-2009

George Wenschhof Bio

This morning, President Barack Obama meets with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd - Time.com has more here. Tonight, the president will address the nation from the White House at 8:00 PM ET. He will be discussing his proposed budget, his economic recovery plans, and most likely the A.I.G. bonuses.

The president also wrote an Op-Ed which was published in 31 newspapers around the world today on the need for global cooperation in the economic crisis. The Chicago Tribune has it here.

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Dow Jones jumps by 500 yesterday after news of Geithner plan to rid Banks of toxic assets - it was the highest one day increase since October. The last two weeks also showed gains and were the the first time this happened this year. In early trading today, the Dow is down 60. MSNBC.com has more here.

Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner testify before Congress today. Their testimony and the reaction to it will most likely impact the markets today.

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Help is on the way for Geithner as Obama names appointments to Treasury - the top slots have been difficult to fill. White House economic adviser Neal Wolin has been named deputy Treasurer, Lael Brainard undersecretary of international affairs, and Stuart Levey undersecretary of terrorism and financial intelligence. CNN.com has more here.

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DNC Chair Governor Tim Kaine (Va.) appoints 37 member commission to study Democratic primary system - He charged the group to make recommendations in three areas - 1. changing the window for primaries and caucuses, 2. reducing the number of superdelegates, and 3. improving the caucus system. The NY Times Caucus Blog has more here.

Let's see if anything substantive comes out of this committee. In August 2008 another committee was charged with similar tasks. All as a result of the 2008 Democratic primary which exposed the many flaws in the nominating process. I wrote a column about this process during the campaign last year. You can read it here. Reform is definitely needed in the Democratic party presidential nominating process.

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