The Talk Show American

THE TALK SHOW AMERICAN: 05/06/2012 - 05/13/2012

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Bush, Not Obama, Secured Unanimous U.N. Measures Against Iran

Vice President Joe Biden claimed Tuesday that when President Obama took office, “there was virtually no international pressure on Iran” and that the U.S. was diplomatically isolated.

Defending the administration’s approach towards Iran before a conservative Jewish audience, Biden painted a picture of Bush failure and Obama success.


“When we took office – let me remind you – there was virtually no international pressure on Iran




We were the problem. We were diplomatically isolated in the world, in the region, in Europe. The international pressure on Iran was stuck in neutral.”


This is absolutely not true and Biden knows it, the Bush administration was twice able to accomplish what its successor has not – a unanimous (15-0) Security Council vote for sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear activities. Those resolutions were passed in Dec. 2006 and Mar. 2007.

Furthermore, on a third occasion (Mar. 2008) the Bush administration achieved a 14-0 vote for a sanctions resolution (Indonesia abstained). And a fourth resolution (Sept. 2008) – which did not impose new sanctions but reaffirmed the previous measures – also passed unanimously.

In contrast, the Obama administration has steered just one sanctions resolution through the Security Council (resolution 1929 in June 2010) and was unable to get all members onboard. In a 12-2 vote Turkey and Brazil opposed the measure, while Lebanon abstained.

 The unanimous votes achieved during the Bush years did reflect a unified position on Iran’s nuclear activities by the world body’s most powerful organ.

And Bush administration diplomats succeeded in getting the resolutions passed unanimously in 2006, 2007 and 2008 while dealing with a Security Council whose membership was no friendlier to the U.S. than the one faced by U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice in 2010.

Her Bush-era predecessors managed to win over several skeptical members, including Qatar (2006 and 2007), Indonesia (2007), South Africa (2007 and 2008), Vietnam (2008) – and Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya (2008).
“Despite the Obama administration’s vows to cripple Iran with economic sanctions, it is leaders in Congress and Europe who have seized the lead in the West’s long-running campaign to punish Tehran for its suspected nuclear weapons program”
... the Los Angeles Times  
 “In recent months, the toughest moves to deter Iran from pursuing its presumed nuclear ambitions have come from a bipartisan group in Congress and European allies, especially Britain and France,” it said. “The White House at first resisted these steps before embracing them as inevitable.”




Read More Here:
Biden Ignores That Bush, Not Obama, Secured Unanimous U.N. Measures Against Iran | CNSNews.com

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Obama Faces Possibility of Decisive Defeat 

This presidential election is coming down to two immutable facts that have become increasingly clear as November draws closer: President Obama will be running for a second term under a stagnant economy, and his two most significant legislative accomplishments—health care reform and a job-goosing stimulus—remain deeply unpopular. It doesn’t take a professional pundit to recognize that’s a very tough ticket for reelection.



But there is a glaring disconnect between the conventional wisdom, which still maintains that Obama has a slight edge in the electoral-map math, and the fundamentals pointing to the possibility of a decisive defeat for the president.

The three most recent national polls—Democracy Corps (D), Gallup/USA Today, and thePolitico/George Washington University Battleground Poll—underscore how tough a reelection campaign Obama faces and why it’s fair to call him an underdog at this point. He’s stuck at 47 percent against Mitt Romney in all three surveys, with the small slice of undecided voters tilting against the president. His job approval ranges from 45 percent (Democracy Corps) to 48 percent (Battleground). Those numbers are hardly devastating, but given today’s polarized electorate, they’re not encouraging
either.

Obama’s scores on the economy are worsening, even as voters still have mixed feelings on who’s to blame. In the Battleground survey, nearly as many voters now blame Obama for the state of the economy (39 percent) as those who don’t think it’s his fault (40 percent). In both the Battleground and Democracy Corps polls, 33 percent said the country is on the right track, with 59 percent saying it’s on the wrong track—numbers awfully similar to the state of play right before the 2010 Republican landslide. These are several leading indicators that suggest the trajectory could well get worse for the president as the election nears.

Read More Here: http://nationaljournal.com/columns/against-the-grain/obama-the-underdog-20120508

Monday, May 07, 2012

‘Real’ Unemployment Rate Remains at 14.5 Percent

The “real” unemployment rate – a broader, more inclusive measure of the country’s jobless picture than the one usually used – remained unchanged at 14.5 percent in April, as the economy created a paltry 115,000 jobs.

Known formally as the U-6 unemployment rate, this measure includes those formally counted as unemployed, those known to be marginally attached to the workforce, and those who are working part-time because they cannot find full-time work.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the U-6 unemployment rate remained flat in April at 14.5 percent – meaning some 22.8 million people are either unemployed, have stopped looking for work, or need full-time work but can only find part-time employment.
The U-6 rate is considered to be a more accurate measure of the unemployment picture because it includes a broader sample of those affected by poor economic conditions. By including both unemployed persons and those marginally attached, this measure captures people the BLS would normally count as out of the workforce.

Read More Here: ‘Real’ Unemployment Rate Remains at 14.5 Percent | CNSNews.com