Tag: barack obama

Harper congratulates Obama: Full statement

Here’s the statement just issued by Prime Minister Stephen Harper from New Delhi, India:

STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER OF CANADA ON BARACK OBAMA’S RE-ELECTION AS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

“On behalf of the Government of Canada, I would like to congratulate President Barack Obama on his victory in tonight’s election and on being re-elected by the American people for a second term.

“Canada and the United States enjoy one of the closest and most extensive relationships in the world.

“Over the last four years, the President and I have worked on several important bilateral initiatives to generate jobs and growth in both our countries. This includes the Beyond the Border Action Plan, which will speed up trade and travel across our borders while also enhancing security.

We are also working together with other partners to conclude the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, which seeks to boost trade in the Asia-Pacific region.

“I look forward to working with the Obama Administration over the next four years to

continue finding ways to increase trade and investment flows between our countries. This includes putting in place the transportation and security infrastructure necessary to take bilateral commercial relations to new heights and reducing red tape so companies on both sides of the border can create more jobs.”

“I also look forward to continuing to work with President Obama on pressing global economic issues as well as on security challenges, such as those in Iran and Syria.

“I would also like to congratulate all incoming and re-elected Members of Congress and Governors. Close cooperation between our two countries will be essential as we seek to create jobs, growth and long-term prosperity over the coming months and years.”

Why Obama lost to the Rockefeller Republican and other tales

A couple of pieces that caught my eye in the wake of the first U.S. presidential debate in Denver on Wednesday night.

First, Matt Miller, who worked in the Clinton White House, writes in the Washington Post that on Wednesday, “at long last came the full-throated return of the Rockefeller Republican many suspect is Romney’s true political nature.” Miller goes on to say:

If he wins, of course, Romney and his advisers will be hailed as geniuses for their timing, for bonding the party faithful to the ticket with the choice of Paul Ryan and a conservative-themed convention, and then dashing to the center for the home stretch.

Read the rest  Matt Miller: The audacity of Romney – The Washington Post.

Here’s David Frum, Continue reading Why Obama lost to the Rockefeller Republican and other tales

'Moneyball' politics: Bill James vs SuperPACs

Bill James, as Huffington Post writer Sam Stein correctly describes him,  is the high priest of baseball number-crunching. His statistics-based analyses of Major League Baseball were at the foundation of Oakland A’s manager Billy Beane’s approach to building a championship team on the cheap. Beane’s experience, of course, was chronicled in the Hollywood hit Moneyball. Stein writes that James is now turning his attention to U.S. politics, which last year entered an entirely new and, if you ask me, weird era in which money is literally no object. Continue reading 'Moneyball' politics: Bill James vs SuperPACs