The View From Here

Happening tonight: Obama's second Oval Office address

1. President Obama will make the second Oval Office address of his presidency tonight, declaring the end of combat troops in Iraq. But what is the outcome of the war for the U.S.? Eugene Robinson writes in his Washington Post column: "Only one thing is clear about the outcome: We didn't win. We didn't lose, either, in the sense of being defeated."
2. Our debate on MTP this Sunday is picking up steam. Florida's Senate candidates Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-FL) and former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio (R) will join us...Gov. Charlie Crist (I-FL) has declined. Read what the Miami Herald is reporting, here.
3. Will Democrats be safe this fall? A new survey released by Gallup shows Republicans with an "unprecedented 10-point lead," according to the Huffington Post.
4. John McCain's piece in the Wall Street Journal: The Surge and Afghanistan
5. Buzz still surrounds Glenn Beck's rally this past weekend. Jonah Goldberg writes about "Glenn Beck's ecumenical moment" in the Los Angeles Times.

MTP in New Orleans: Five years later

It has been five years since the people of New Orleas had to leave their homes while the rest of the country watched helplessly.  Brian Williams filled in for me today on Meet The Press from New Orleans.  The images and emotions - like Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard's plea for help on MTP in '05 - were a chilling reminder of what Hurrican Katrina did.  For those of us who have not had to live with the storm's aftermath, it is easy to lose perspective on how horrible the it was.

Two of the area's most notable politicians and siblings, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, sat down with Brian to discuss what New Orleans went through and where it is now.  Did Katrina help prepare this country for the BP spill?

Here's what they said:

On Friday, Brian talked to Brad Pitt about his foundation, "Make It Right," that has been working to rebuild the Lower Ninth Ward.  More than 4,000 homes were destroyed in that area, and Pitt's organization hopes to rebuild 150 of those houses.  Here's what we put on MTP.

Plus don't miss this discussion with three men who have worked tirelessly to repair the area that means so much to them.  Actor Wendell Pierce, New Orleans radio talk show host Garland Robinette, and historian and author Douglas Brinkley.  They converse about what the disaster meant to them and what it displayed about race.

You can catch all of the show on our website.  I'll be back next week.  If it's Sunday, it's Meet The Press.

This Sunday: We remember Katrina, 5 years later

It has been five years since Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans. This week, a special edition of Meet the Press live from the Big Easy. What progress has been made to rebuild since Katrina?

Our guest moderator, Brian Williams, will sit down with prominent New Orleans siblings, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Mayor Mitch Landrieu. How is the government helping revitalize the city? We will also talk with the founder of the Make It Right Foundation, actor Brad Pitt, on his efforts to rebuild the area closest to the levee breach, the Lower 9th Ward. And finally, an in-depth discussion with a few dedicated men credited for their efforts to help the city they love: Wendell Pierce, a New Orleans native, star of HBO's "Treme", and President of the Pontchartrain Park Community Development Corporation; Garland Robinette, long-time New Orleans journalist and Host of WWL-Radio's "Think Tank"; and Douglas Brinkley, Author of "The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast." Be sure to watch this special hour dedicated to remembering Katrina this Sunday on MTP.

A few pieces remembering Katrina from around the web:

• Wall Street Journal: Rethinking New Orleans
• Times-Picayune: Katrina rewrites the book on education in New Orleans
• Washington Post: Uneven Katrina recovery efforts often offered the most help to the most affluent
• Time: New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward: Still Recovering from Katrina
• John Barry, Huffington Post: Is New Orleans safe? BP and the 5th anniversary of Katrina
• Rebecca Solnit, The Nation: Reconstructing the story of the storm: Hurricane Katrina at five

 

Breaking from vacation

1. President Obama, who has been spending a little R&R with the family in Martha's Vineyard this week, time yesterday to take care of some presidential duties. The White House announced that next Tuesday, the President will make his second-ever public address from the Oval Office, officially declaring the end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq. Obama also took a look at the country's economic outlook. He phoned his economic advisers, including Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and head of the National Economic Council Larry Summers, "to discuss recent data reports, global markets and economic growth," The Hill reports. The conference call came a day after House GOP Leader John Boehner (OH) said Obama should fire Geithner and Summers
2. The GOP senate race in Alaska remains up in the air. Tea party backed Joe Miller continues to lead U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski. The Anchorage Daily News says, though, Miller's lead has, "slightly narrowed to 1,668 votes with all the election precincts counted Wednesday." A lot of coverage of the race is looking at Sarah Palin's role in the election. The Associated Press calls Palin a "key figure" and that this primary "is an indication of the influence Palin wields in midterm elections as she looks ahead to a possible White House bid in 2012."
3. "The mayor needs to get a grip and apologize to those he has insulted," a Examiner editorial writes, regarding remarks by NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg about the proposed mosque location near Ground Zero. Bloomberg says in a New York Post piece: "In that spirit, let me declare that we in New York are Jews and Christians and Muslims, and we always have been. And above all of that, we are Americans, each with an equal right to worship and pray where we choose. There is nowhere in the five boroughs that is off limits to any religion."
4. Talk about the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico has subsided slightly but a Wall Street Journal article sheds new light on the rig's final day.
5. E.J. Dionne's column in the Washington Post, Tuesday's tutorial: A GOP too far right.
6. Karl Rove's op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal: Honey, I shrunk my approval ratings.

Recapping one of the last major primary days before November

1. Alaska: Republican senate race still too close to call. With 98 percent of election day precincts counted, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) trailed political newcomer Joe Miller by 1,960 votes, the Associated Press reports. Murkowski was predicted to beat Miller, who received backing from Sarah Palin and tea party activists. Final results could take days. 
2. Arizona: Incumbent Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) came out on top in his Republican primary despite a tough race with former Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ). McCain, "took nothing for granted in his bid for a fifth term," the Washington Post reports and, "outspent Hayworth by a ratio of roughly 8 to 1."
3. Florida: A victory for President Obama's candidate in the Democratic senate primary. Rep. Kendrick Meek easily defeated Jeff Greene, a billionaire businessman who spent $20 million on his campaign. But, the Washington Post writes,"the Democratic nominee will start as a distinct underdog in the general election." Meek will face Republican nominee Marco Rubio and Gov. Charlie Crist (I-FL) in November.
4. Plus, check out a few opinion pieces from around the Web: Martin Luther King III writes in the Washington Post about still striving for the dream his father envisioned; an editorial in the Boston Globe questions Mitt Romney's stance on the mosque debate; and The Denver Post's David Harsanyi says, "get ready for the most productive and decent political condition known to man: sweet gridlock."

As midterm loom, mosque near Ground Zero dominates debate

Summer is quickly coming to close and that means more Americans will be turning their attention to the fall election season.  That's why this week, MTP put the focus on fall elections.  I asked Sen. McConnell (R-KY) about the GOP strategy for 2010, had a tea party debate with Dick Armey and Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D-MI), and a lively roundtable discussion. 

But the issue that is trumping all right now is the proposed Islamic cultural center and mosque near Ground Zero.

The president came under fire for saying: " As a citizen and as President, I believe that Muslims have the right to practice their religion and everyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan in accordance with local laws and ordinances. "

Some Democrats frame it as a Constitutional issue, saying that this is a case of freedom of religion and is exactly what America is all about.  But Republicans like McConnell and former Rep. Rick Lazio (now running for governor of NY), say it is more an issue of sensitivity to those who lost loved ones on 9/11.

What this debate has shed light on is the perception of the president's religious views.  A Pew Research Poll shows 18 percent of Americans mispercieve Obama as a Muslim.  Among Republicans, that number is 31 percent.  Here is what McConnell told me about those numbers:

And during our roundtable, Rick Lazio said this about the Iman trying to bring the mosque to Lower Manhattan: "There are millions of peace-loving, good Muslims in America.  This Imam Rauf is not one of them.  He's not a bridge builder."

But Gov. Granholm said this should be seen as a learning opportunity for Americans and the Muslim community.  And the BBC's Katty Kay made this point: 

When you have Newt Gingrich come out and effectively equate Muslims with Nazis, you wouldn't get away with doing that with any other minority group in America.  New Gingrich couldn't have said that about gays, women or Latinos and had any political future in this country.

I'm interested to know your thoughts. And a note about next week's show - Nightly News anchor Brian Williams will be filling in for a special MTP from New Orleans.  We'll examine how that city continues to recover five years after Hurricane Katrina. 

Catch all of today's show on our Web site.

If it's Sunday, it's Meet The Press.

This Sunday: A midterm debate

This Sunday, we'll talk November.  Joining me will be the head Republican in the Senate, Mitch McConnell.  Will the midterms be a referendum on Obama?  And if so, does that spell trouble for Democrats?

Then a debate about how your government should spend your money.  Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX) and Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D-MI) give their takes on the financial future of this country.

Plus our roundtable weighs in everything from combat troops leaving Iraq to the proposed mosque near Ground Zero.

It's all this Sunday on Meet The Press.

U.S. combat troops leave Iraq

1. U.S. withdraw from Iraq is underway. Two weeks ahead of schedule, the last combat troops crossed into Kuwait last night. All troops are preparing to leave the country by the end of 2011 and to fill the void, "the Obama administration is planning a remarkable civilian effort, buttressed by a small army of contractors," according to the New York Times. But the Washington Times reports this is not the end of the mission and "No one should think that the American intelligence presence in Iraq will draw down when the U.S. military starts withdrawing additional troops."
2. President Obama a Muslim? A new Pew Research Center survey shows that almost 20 percent of Americans wrongly believe that he is a Muslim and, according to the Washington Post, these numbers "suggest that there could be serious political danger for the White House as the debate continues" over the mosque issue.
3. Karl Rove's op-ed in the Wall Street Journal examines Harry Reid. "Mr. Reid," Rove writes, "Is drawing attention to some of his party's very worst impressions." 
4. "This is my sour August reflection on the two months of travel ahead of me on the campaign trail," David Broder writes in his Washington Post column.
5. Mitt Romney writes a piece in the Boston Globe: "IT’S NOT happening the way President Obama had planned. Unemployment blew past his 8 percent ceiling and hasn’t looked back." But The Huffington Post's Robert Reich says, "Romney's wet-noodle economics won't create American jobs."

 

In the news: Blagojevich's trial and the mosque

1. The jury is in: Rob Blagojevich was found guilty on only one charge - lying to the FBI - and declared a mistrial on all the rest. "This jury shows you that the government threw everything but the kitchen sink at me," Blagojevich said. "They could not prove I did anything wrong — except for one nebulous charge from five years ago." Is it worth it to retry Blagojevich? The Chicago Sun Times says, "You bet." Valerie Jarrett writes in the Chicago Tribune, "In truth, Blagojevich awakens Wednesday as a convicted felon."
2. The mosque debate continues as more voices weigh in. President Obama says he has 'no regrets' about entering the debate last week. The Wall Street Journal writes, "divisions emerged within each party over what has become a surprise issue in the 2010 elections." Plus, Maureen Dowd's column in the New York Times, "Our mosque madness."
3. Looking at the 2010 midterm elections, The Washington Post says Ohio could tell all. The state's senate and house races, the Post writes, "may provide the nation's clearest test of whether the Democrats' strategy of running against Bush and Wall Street can overcome a political climate tilted clearly toward the Republicans."
4. Townhall's Walter Williams asks, "Will Republican's save us?"
5. Richard Eskow writes about social security for the Huffington Post and asks, "With all these GOP threats to a popular program, why do polls show that the Democratic Party's advantage on this issue has collapsed?"

Mixed feelings on many issues

1. The political debate about the proposed mosque near Ground Zero continues. After President Obama joined the controversial discussion this weekend, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) weighed in: Reid wants the mosque built somewhere else. Read the New York Times editorial, "The constitution and the mosque." Plus Chuck Norris writes for Townhall, "President Obama: Muslim Missionary?"
2. Same-sex marriage hits another obstacle in California. The Los Angeles Times reports that a federal appeals court put same-sex marriages on hold until at least December when the court could hear the case. Robert Knight asks in the Washington Times, "Will 'marriage' backers charge sedition?"
3. Is the oil gone? Researchers at the University of Georgia don't think so. They say"more than three-quarters of the oil spilled in the Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon drilling-rig explosion could still be in the Gulf threatening fisheries and marine life."
4. "Today the ranks of  this citizen rebellion can be counted in the millions," Dick Armey and Matt Kibbe write in the Wall Street Journal.
5. AP: Suicide bomber strikes Baghdad military headquarters, kills 60.