Democratic News Chatter 4-14-2009

George Wenschhof Bio

Today, President Barack Obama will deliver a speech on the status of the U.S. economy at Georgetown University - It is scheduled for 11:30 AM ET.

This comes as reports show retail sales were down 1% in March after a 0.3% gain in February. Bloomberg.com has more here.

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Minnesota Court rules Democrat Al Franken the winner in U.S. Senate race - 51/2 months after the election, the three judge panel voted unanimously that Franken be declared the winner by 312 votes and certified by the state board of elections. Republican Norm Coleman is expected to file an appeal with the state supreme court. Politico.com has more here.

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Is this the best the Republicans can do? - continuing their theme of let's hope the Obama administration fails, their latest action is national "tea parties" aimed at protesting the Obama fiscal policies. Another is scheduled for Wednesday with events occurring across towns in the U.S. - of course this comes after years of fiscally irresponsible deregulation by the former Republican George W. Bush administration which led to the current economic crisis. CNN.com has more here.

Meanwhile, a CNN/Opinion Research poll conducted April 3-5 shows 60% of Americans feel President Obama is on track with the economy. You can read more here.

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Obama administration may change approach to talks with Iran - the u.S. may drop insistence that Iran shut down nuclear facilities as a precondition for talks. The new strategy would be a move toward Iran eventually agreeing to open inspections of their nuclear program. The NY Times has more here.

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Pakistan does not want conditions tied to U.S. aid - the proposed 83.4 billion war supplemental budget presented to Congress by President Obama includes 7.5 billion to Pakistan. The billions of U.S. aid to Pakistan under former President Musharraf was largely unaccounted for and drew questions from many. Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) recently met with President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani who also want the missile strikes by military drones to stop. TheHill.com has more here.

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