Jim Yong Kim, the U.S. nominee for the next World Bank president, leaves Finance Ministry after meeting in Tokyo
(Reuters) – The World Bank on Monday chose Korean-born American health expert Jim Yong Kim as its new president, maintaining Washington’s grip on the job and leaving developing countries questioning the selection process.
Kim, 52, won the job over Nigeria’s widely respected finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, with the support of Washington’s allies in Western Europe, Japan, Canada and some emerging market economies, including Russia, Mexico and South Korea.
Unlike previous World Bank elections, the decision was not unanimous. “The final nominees received support from different member countries, which reflected the high caliber of the candidates,” the Bank said in announcing its board’s decision.
Kim, president of Dartmouth College, will assume his new post on July 1 after the Bank’s current president, Robert Zoellick, steps down.
The United States has held the presidency since the World Bank’s founding after World War Two, while a European has always led its sister institution, the International Monetary Fund.
Unlike previous heads of the World Bank, Kim is not a politician, a banker or diplomat. He is a trained physician and anthropologist who has worked to bring health care to the poor in developing countries, whether fighting tuberculosis in Haiti and Peru or tackling HIV/AIDS in Russian prisons.
There had been a three-way contest for the presidency of the poverty-fighting institution until Friday when former Colombian finance minister Jose Antonio Ocampo withdrew. He said the process, which was meant to be based solely on credentials, had become highly political.
South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan welcomed the fact that non-Americans competed for the post for the first time, but also said there were concerns the process was not fully merit-based.
“I think we are going to find that the process falls short of that,” Gordhan told the Foreign Correspondent’s Association in South Africa, adding that there were also “serious concerns” the decision was made without full transparency.
To have a rich history and be proud of it is a strong heritage. To want to re-write history is fool hardy. The latter is what the Japanese call sciolists and advise we should ignore because they are the biggest of fools.
The Hausas say “ban gwan kwali, uban dutse” which the Yoruba equivalent is “ogulutu baba oko” and the adulterated English version is “those who live in glass house don’t throw stones”. If anyone follows threads here well, I had reason to question the hordes of ‘lawyers’ in the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). Today, I can reveal that Christopher Green was the one who, on behalf of Sharks FC of Port-Harcourt, took the NFA to court after instigating fans against Rangers of Enugu to cause some confusion in the league.
I saw the court papers in the course of looking for another document and laughed myself hoarse wondering what they in the Glass House now say about taking football matters to court. Yet, this same Green (wonder if it were not he only read law courses) would chastise NANF and others who went to courts of the land because he’s now in the NFF (twice declared illegal by courts of the land). Chris Green was the secretary of Sharks FC when he instigated fans of the club against Rangers International FC of Enugu leading the NFA to descend on Sharks. Does Mr. Green think that our memory is so short? Or if we do not keep records?
I read his affidavits and feel like many of those in the saddle of football today are not just comedians of grave error. Is the same Green not the law illiterate who wrote the Police that I caused libel and defamation against the NFF? I have just briefed a lawyer to “sue the bastards” like a popular lawyers’ sticker screamed in advise. Their legal troubles will in a matter of days increase by one. I am going to court against them.
There can never be peace where justice is not served.
The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has warned the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) against continuing to
play the religious card in its desperate and ongoing attempt to
destabilize the South-west, saying the consequences
of such a misadventure will be too grave for the nation.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Monday by its National Publicity
Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said
the concocted accusations against Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola,
that he is trying to Islamize the state and
also engineer secession, are part of the PDP’s grand plan to use
religion as a destabilizing force in the South-west
in particular and the whole country in Nigeria.
It said the fact that the PDP desperadoes and their collaborators in
the security services could even try to link Governor
Aregbesola with Boko Haram is an indication of how low they are
willing to sink just to carry out their nefarious plot.
ACN also expressed surprise that in its desperation, the PDP ensured
that its collaborators in the security services –
in routing their imaginary security report – bypassed the normal
channel of communication on national security issues.
”The South-west as a region does not have a history of religious
intolerance as, in most families, adherents of the various
faith have co-existed peacefully through the ages. It is therefore
curious that a party that prides itself as pan-Nigeria will seek
to end the age-long religious tolerance in this region just for
political expediency,” ACN said.
The party said any keen observer of the way the PDP-controlled federal
government has handled the Boko Haram crisis will
not be too surprised that the party’s goons in the South-west, backed
by their clueless bosses at the federal level, are
resorting to religion in their inordinate quest to ‘recapture’ the
region they so mindlessly plundered in their first coming.
”The Boko Haram crisis has become the meal ticket for the PDP and its
chop-I-chop members, what with the huge chunk
(about a quarter of the 2012 budget) allocated to ‘combating’ it. It
is also the party’s trump card for maintaining a stranglehold
on the nation, hence its flame must be kept aglow at all costs – human
or material.
”It is also common knowledge that President Goodluck Jonathan of the
PDP has frittered away the goodwill that followed him
into office, through a succession of poorly-thought-out policies. With
his eyes firmly set on another mandate even when he
has not justified the current one, he and his party believe that his
surest ticket to another mandate is to keep the flame of Boko
Haram burning, and continue misinforming the international community
that the crisis is rooted in religion, rather than in years of
irresponsible governance, the type of which the PDP has foisted on
Nigeria since 1999.
”That is why the PDP federal government has paid only a lip service
to all efforts to find a lasting solution to the Boko Haram crisis.
It was the government’s insincerity (the mediators said so and the
government did not deny) that led to the collapse of the most
recent attempt to resolve the crisis. In the post-911 world, the best
way to attract sympathy from the international community is to
put the terrorism badge on any acts of brigandage or social disorder
and then link it with religion.
”However, the game is up for the PDP, and the party will know this if
it bothers to read between the lines the recent apt characterization
of the Boko Haram crisis by the Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African
Affairs at the US State Department, Mr Johnnie Carson,” ACN
said.
The party therefore warned: ”PDP should stop exploiting religion for
whatever purpose. It should stop encouraging those who are bent on
exploiting it to destabilize our country. And as Mr. Carson rightly
advised, let us make it impossible for Boko Haram or any group
whatsoever to ‘capitalize on popular frustration with leaders, poor
government service delivery and the dismal living conditions’ of many
of our citizens. The only way to do this is good governance, not scare
mongering. We hope the PDP is listening.”
Alhaji Lai Mohammed
National Publicity Secretary
Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN)
Lagos, 16April2012
Information available to 247ureports.com through the leadership of the apex Igbo organization, the Ohaneze Kano State Chapter indicates that the Christian community and non-indigenes of Kano State resident in Sabon Gari may have begun planning for revenge attack against the attackers responsible for the bomb attack in Sabon Gari yesterday night. This is as the leader of the Kano State chapter of Ohaneze, Chief Tobias Idika, condemned the bomb attack as a cowardly act by those who hate freedom and free democracy.
The Ohaneze leader, Chief Idika, in his condemnation of the attack called on the various Security agencies in the nation to wake up and see the plan of the cowards against the law abiding residents of Sabon Gari. According to Tobias Idika, the men of Boko Haram have made no secret their intent to chase the residents out of Sabon Gari – in order to take over the many precious real estates erected by the residents of Sabon Gari. Idika pleaded with the Joint Task Force to see the handwriting on the wall. He indicated that the residents of Sabon Gari who are predominantly Christians have began abandoning their buildings and homes for hiding places outside Kano.
“This incident was just a warning” stated the Ohaneze leader who explained that the casualty number was low because the visitors to the bar has yet to begin arriving to the outdoor joint when the bomb exploded. The three persons that were injured resulted from flying debris. The residents of the area who also spoke to our correspondent stated that they believe that the explosion was a warning for the residents to abandon the area.
Meanwhile the members and workers at the St. Stephens Anglican Church located opposite the crime scene are reported to be panicked – and as a result has abscond from work while some of the church members are said to have decided to decide on attending church services elsewhere.
The Nigerian police force has however discounted the bomb attacked as a minor incident. According to the police public relations officer, Malam Magaji, the attack was minor and was brought under control within five minutes after the bomb attack. Magaji stated that the bomb was a locally made bomb inside a small can drink container placed under a sport utility vehicle. He stated that the attack did not injure or kill any person- and that normalcy have returned to the area. Adding credence to the police force were other security operatives who spoke to 247ureports.com off the record. They indicated that the attack showed a weak sign of a defeated terrorist group desperate to make a showing. They confirmed that the explosive device used in yesterday’s had striking resemblance to those recovered at one of Boko Haram’s hide out locations in Kano.
In a related development, the leadership of MASSOB has reacted to the bomb blast. Talking to our correspondent on the telephone, the number two man in MASSOB, Chief Ezeonwuka, reminded the Igbo residents in Kano of MASSOB’s call to return their families home away from Kano. He stated that MASSOB had reserved an area in Okwe, Imo State for returnees. Stating this, the MASSOB leader warned the bombers to be careful not to harm any of the residents of Sabon Gari – or face their wrath.
After two years of absence the legendary Radio Biafra London (RBL) is back on air and will resume on SATURDAY 21 APRIL 2012 at 8pm broadcasting twice a week on 11870 kHz frequency on the shortwave band from its London Studio to all African countries with concentrated footprint in Nigeria. Listeners in the Greater London area can tune into 94.3FM at the same time whilst those outside London and elsewhere in the world can follow the program online by visiting http://www.radiobiafralondon.com and clicking on the daily broadcast play button.
RBL is a public service broadcaster and will serve as the eyes, ears and voice for millions of dispossessed, disenfranchised, abandoned and oppressed people of various ethnic nationalities in Nigeria. According to Nnamdi Kanu the Director of Radio Biafra London, the reason for the resuscitation of the popular radio station is to set a largely misinformed public free from the twin evil of tyrannical rule of a cabal of ill-educated and institutionally corrupt men and women and the sponsored sectarian killings directed against Christian Southerners living in Northern Nigeria by terrorists operating in the name of Islam. It will also serve to articulate a solution to the plight of impoverished and confused Igbo families abandoned by their leaders in Northern Nigeria to a fate worse than those endured by black slaves in plantations in the Americas.
Radio Biafra London will use and deploy every available resource to campaign for the rights of all oppressed indigenous peoples of Southern Nigeria to determine how they wish to structure their societies and live their lives. Radio Biafra London would broadcast debates on issues of national and international importance affecting the lives and rights of the indigenous peoples of Biafra and indeed indigenous people of all ethnic persuasions in Nigeria.
Radio Biafra London further wishes to give advance warning to all looters, embezzlers, kidnappers, sponsors of terrorism, child traffickers, corrupt judges, crooked university lecturers, murderous Nigerian security forces and all thieving individuals masquerading as public officials who steal public funds thereby preventing developmental projects from impacting positively on the lives of the ordinary people. These looters and workers of iniquity will be named and shamed. There will be no hiding place for common thieves who use the cover of high political offices to steal in the name of Nigerian politics. For Radio Biafra London, there will be nothing like no-go-areas in what can be reported, discussed and analysed. The governing principle of the Public-Right-To-Know of the issues affecting their lives will be rigorously upheld.
Four persons, including a ninety-five year old man and his three grand children in Akaeze village of Urum community in Awka North Local Government Area of Anambra State have died mysteriously in their sleep after allegedly inhaling fumes from an electric generating set.
According to witnesses, the septuagenarian, Chief Sopulu Nwankwo, and his grandsons, Dubem Nwajiobi,13 years old, Chigozie Nwajideobi and Favour Nwankwo, both of whom were 7 years old were discovered yesterday morning dead with foams in their mouth.
Villagers including old men and women, young girls and boys who quickly gathered at the family’s expansive compound shortly after the news broke to console and condole with family members of the victims variously described them as peaceful, cheerful and friendly.
Pa Sopulu Nwankwo’s son in-law, Mr. Charles Nwajideobi whose sons-Dubem and Chigozie were among the dead explained that the boys oftentimes slept in their grand father’s house to watch films and football matches.
He said he had come in the morning to take back his sons, as his house was close by, only to discover that the doors were still firmly locked and that nobody came out despite his desperate banging, loud calls and knocks on the gates.
He said it was when he used the inlaw’s spare key in his possession to open the door that he found the four corpses and his daughter, Ogochukwu Nwajideobi who was still alive but struggling to and gasping for breathe.
She was then rushed to a private hospital in Awka immediately for medical attention.
Though many attributed their death to smoke from the generating set, with which they watched films and slept the previous night, others, including Mr. Nwajideobi suspected they were poisoned, as there were whitish foams oozing from their mouths.
At the hospital where little Miss Ogochukwu Nwajideobi was placed on a life support machine, the physician incharge of her case, Dr. E.I Onwubuya said they were doing their best to resuscitate her. He however declined to comment on how critical the girl’s condition was as a result of inhalation of fumes.
Sympathizers at the hospital who spoke to journalists were praying for miss Ogochukwu’s recovery so she can tell what really happened.
The doctor however said that inhalation of carbon monoxide especially large quantity from a generating set could lead to death and make one foam from the mouth, if there was convulsion in the process.
The Police Public Relations Officer for Anambra State Command, Mr. Emeka Chukwuemeka could not be reached to confirm the incident. But people are praying for miss Ogochukwu Nwajideobi’s revival so she can tell what really happened.
Information coming into 247ureports.com indicates that a bomb explosion has rocked Kano State.
The bomb explosion occurred in Sabon Gari – an Igbo dominated area of Kano State. The bomb explosion happened at 7:30pm at a popular bar/drink outdoors joint -at 38 New Road opposite St Stephen’s Anglican Church.
The explosion was said to have injured three persons and six vehicles. The details are still unfolding. The police and the joint task force have arrived on the scene -and has taken control of the crime scene.
Eyewitness reports indicate that the bomb was planted inside a sport utility vehicle parked near the bar.
The member representing Ndokwa/Ukwuani Federal constituency of Delta state in the Federal House of Representatives, Hon. Ossai Nicholas Ossai is said to be currently on the run over his alleged involvement in the kidnapping of one Barrister Greg Ikoko.
According to State Security Service (SSS) impeccable sources who confided in this reporter, the lawmaker had on Saturday, March, 3, 2012, conspired with some of his thugs namely, Frank Omosor, Israel Ezegbor, Chuks Okosa and Frank Okwudili to kidnap the said Barrister Greg Ikoko who was the returning officer of the congress in the council.
Investigations revealed that shortly after the news filtered into the ears of Hon. Ossai.N.Ossai that he was been searched for by the SSS in the state, he immediately disposed off his MTN line which he was known with for the past ten years. It was also observed that for fear of any possible arrest, the lawmaker shunned the recent Delta state PDP congress held in Asaba.
It would be recalled that men of the Nigerian Army, 3rd battalion Effurun, Delta state had arrested the four alleged kidnappers at Asaba and were paraded at the three battalion Headquarters, Effurun, Uvwie local government area of the state .Speaker to newsmen, the victim, Barrister Greg Ikoko disclosed that, as the returning officer for Ukwuani local government area for the PDP congress, he went to Grand Hotel in Asaba to meet with the party officials who came from Abuja to preside over the congress, noting that, as he walked into the Hotel, a man came to him to confirm his identity after which he brought out a gun and asked him to move into a waiting car.
He said he resisted and four other men joined the gunman to force him into the waiting car adding that due to his resistance the alleged kidnappers started beating him and attempted to force him into a Camry car when men of the three battalion intervened.
In an interview, the driver of the Camry car who gave his name as Frank Okwudili denied knowing the other three alleged kidnappers but disclosed that he was directed to carry the victim in his car.
The other suspects denied their involvement in kidnapping the victim but could not explain their presence or mission at the Hotel. For his part, Major Hassan Buker explained that the suspected kidnappers were arrested by his men on patrol.
At the State Security Service command shortly after the parade of the arrested kidnapping suspects, in press statement signed by the Mrs. Florence Ikanone, mni, State Director of Security, Delta state command gave the names of the suspects as “Frank Omosor, Israel Ezegbor, Chuks Okosa and Frank Okwudili who were arrested by the Army on 3rd March, 2012 at Grand Hotel, Asaba and handed over to the Service for further investigation and prosecution on 6th March, 2012 for attempt to kidnap one Greg Ikoko. Three (3) of the four (4) suspects are hereby presented for this briefing, while Israel Ezegbor is unavoidably absent because of serious injuries he sustained during a motor accident at Abavo on 6th March, 2012 while being conveyed to Asaba from Warri.”
Meanwhile the kidnap victim, Barrister Greg Ikoko has petitioned the federal lawmaker to the
National Security Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan. In its petition entitled “Petition Against Hon. Ossai.N.Ossai, Mr. Henry Olokor, Mr. Theophilous Opia and others for Attempt Kidnap, Robbery, Assault and Battery.” signed by Barrister Greg Ikoko, and made available to this reporter in Asaba explained that “On the 3rd day of March, 2012 at 17.00hrs or thereabout, Hon. Ossai.N.Ossai masterminded a kidnap, robbery, assault and battery against me. About 15minutes to the time of the attack, Hon. Ossai.N.Ossai had confronted me within the premises of Grand Hotel Asaba to demand for the congress materials for Ndokwa West local government area of Delta state since according to him, my name was announced as the returning officer for Ndokwa West LGA for the PDP ward congress slated for the 3rd of March, 2012 across the entire country. I told him that I did not know anything about the congress since I was away to my village.”
Continuing, Barrister Ikoko alleged that “He threatened that if I or any other person removes any congress material from the Hotel that he would deal with the person in a most ruthless manner. He went further to say that as the House of Representative member representing Ndokwa/Ukwuani Federal constituency that his lists of ward executives for the three local government area of Ndokwa nation, especially, Ndokwa West, must be the list to be returned. After his threats, he made some phone calls and about 20 minutes later, his “dare devil squad” otherwise known as ‘APA Boys” arrived in one L.300 bus and two Toyota Saloon car. For your information sir, the APA BOYS of Kwale in Ndokwa West local government area of Delta state is a terrorist group founded by Hon. Ossai.N.Ossai in his days as a member of the Delta state House of Assembly.”
According to the victim “The pre-occupation of this group is to terrorize, intimidate, witch hunt and oppress political opponents of Hon. Ossai.N.Ossai. The APA BOYS that came in the three vehicles were numbering over 40 young men. They met me at the entrance of Grand Hotel Asaba. They were all staring at me menacingly as they were talking and pointing at me. So I beat a quick retreat into the Hotel. As I was walking back into the Hotel premises, the leader of the gang, one Mr. Theophilous Opia, a former councilor in Hon. Ossai.N.Ossai’s ward, rushed up to me and pulled a double barrel short gun (Cut to size) at me. He ordered me into a waiting vehicle. I resisted him and enquired what my offence was and where he was taking me to. In response, he said that Mr. Henry Olokor, the Personal Assistant to Hon. Ossai.N.Ossai ordered them to kidnap me and bring me dead or alive to him for accepting to be a returning officer without clearance from Hon. Ossai.N.Ossai. He also said that I was planning to work against Hon. Ossai.N.Ossai in the congress of that day. I promptly told him that I did not have any congress material and that I have not met the PDP Officials from Abuja. Before I knew what was happening, the gang leader beckoned on the over 40 young men that were with him and they swooped on me.
“They started beating and dragging me into the boot of a waiting car. But I was able to resist them with the help of some police men on duty and other security staff of the Hotel. Due to their numerical strength, they overpowered the police men and other security guards at the Hotel. It was at this junction that the CSO of the Hotel made a distress call to the Army Special Squad in Asaba, who came to my rescue. But before their arrival, the hoodlums had removed my wrist watch, necklace, two GSM phones and my car key. While some were beating me and pushing me into the get-away car, others were busy ransacking my car in pretence of looking for congress materials. At the end of the end, they made away with my two laptops, a briefcase containing clothes, a galaxy tab and other personal effects. It was the arrival of the Military men that foiled the kidnap.”
Barrister Ikoko further disclosed that only four of the suspects were apprehended by the military personnel while others escaped stressing that those arrested are currently undergoing some interrogations in the hands of some security personnel in the state and urge the NSA to use his good office to ensure that the matter is thoroughly investigated and the culprits brought to book, as nobody, no matter how highly placed is above the law. He stated.
When contacted Hon. Ossai.N.Ossai swiftly debunked his alleged involvement in the kidnap saga stressing that “I am not aware of any security agents or even the SSS in search of me for whatever reasons. Of cause if they are looking for me they know how best to go about and as I talk to you now no security agents have called me to say they are looking for me in connection to a kidnapping matter. I did not send anybody to kidnap anybody. As a pastor and a federal lawmaker I couldn’t have condescend so low to mastermind any kidnapping. I think someone is trying to blackmail and tarnish my good name that I have built for a decade and it will not work.”
When asked while he was not present at the recent state PDP congress and while the sudden change of mobile line, he replied “I was sick and hospitalized in Abuja and I also took permission from my state governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan why I will not make it to the congress following the illness. For my mobile line, the line is bad and I decided to buy another one pending when the faulty one will be ratified.”
The recent uproar over the threat to the administration of the President of the federal republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebelemi Jonathan by the Islamic terrorist group, the boko haram, which resulted to counter threats / warnings from former Niger Delta militants challenging the Islamic group to consider a threat to the President of Nigeria a call to arms against the Islamic group – has turned a new face.
Information available to 247ureports.com through sources within the ranks of the Islamic group indicates that the leadership of the group are welcoming of the reactions by the militants of the Niger Delta. According to the source who spoke on the telephone to our correspondent, the response by the militants of the creeks plays into the plans of the Islamic group who intends to bring about unrest in the major sensitive regions of the country. In particular, the Islamic group points to the OPC of the south west and the militants of the south south geo-political regions as integral parts of the Islamic groups broad agenda to destabilize the Jonathan administration and by extension the country.
Agitations from the sensitive parts of the nation is anticipated by the group. They aim to induce aggravating conditions to precipitate retaliatory actions on the part of the many militant groups scattered across the nation. Specifically, the source reveals that the group is expecting that the likes of Asari Dokubo [whom they claim to know very well] to rise to action with arms. The group also pointed to Captain Mark Anthony of the Niger Delta Liberation Force [NDLF] as another expected ignition point.
Meanwhile, the Islamic terrorist group is reportedly engaged in massive movement of weapons and equipment of destruction in preparation for a heightened impact and frequency of attacks. This is according to a usually credible source. The source explained that the Islamic group is determined to show the international community its capability and access to sensitive targets in Nigeria.
It won’t always be like this for Mitt Romney, but the presumptive Republican presidential nominee could hardly be happier about the way in which the general election season has begun.
For three consecutive weeks, President Obama’s re-election campaign has been blown off its talking points by unnecessary blunders. First it was the hot microphone bungle with Dmitry Medvedev and Obama’s post-election “flexibility” on U.S. missile defense, then it was warning the Supreme Court not to take the “extraordinary” step of overturning Obama’s health law and now it’s the president having to personally denounce the blunder of a B-list Democratic strategist who attacked Romney’s wife, Ann.
The idea was that Obama would open the full-fledged general election with a series of fusillades against Romney for his support of the House Republican budget overhaul plan, for what Vice President Joe Biden calls “the war on women” over sexual and economic issues and culminating in a week of attacks on Romney’s massive personal wealth and tax rates.
It has been an article of faith on both the right and left since 2008 that Obama is an extraordinarily gifted politician and that his campaign organization is full of wizards of messaging and organization.
Even as Dana Milbank, a left-leaning columnist for the Washington Post, was panning Obama for the “gimmickry” of his melodramatic attack on Romney for using the capital gains rate to pay a tax rate of less than 15 percent, Milbank lamented the waste of Obama’s “unrivaled political skill.”
This is part of a set of beliefs that was encapsulated in the best-selling book by political journalists from New York magazine and MSNBC, “Game Change.” The HBO movie about the book was mostly about 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, but the book is more of a paean to Obama’s political skills and the effectiveness of his campaign organization. The title seems to refer mostly to Obama as the game-changing candidate in the arc of American political life.
Conservatives and liberals alike hew to this narrative. Even those who denounce the president’s policies in the strongest terms often marvel at his political skills and the nimbleness and efficacy of his never-ending campaign.
No doubt, Obama is more politically skilled than most Democrats on the national level since Bill Clinton and his campaign has been innovative and audacious. But after watching the blunders of the last three weeks, the narrative of Obama-the-invincible looks pretty much shot.
Obama, with months to prepare and tens of millions of dollars in the bank, badly muffed the opening round of the 2012 general election campaign.
In the 29 weeks to come, Mitt Romney will probably experience more days like the one Obama experienced yesterday as he and his campaign scuttled away from the comments made by erstwhile adviser Hilary Rosen on the Cable News Network. But on Thursday, it was Obama’s turn in the dunking booth.
Rosen declared that Ann Romney had “never worked a day in her life.” A big no-no about a candidate’s spouse, particularly when that spouse has been a stay-at-home mother of five who survived breast cancer, suffers from multiple sclerosis and, most dangerously, is a very effective campaigner.
Rosen was trying to reinforce the same narrative that Obama and Biden have been hammering away at this week: the Romney family is too rich and too callous to the concerns of ordinary Americans for Mr. Romney to deserve the presidency. Rosen was trying to reinforce the message Obama made the week before that staying at home is a “luxury” reserved for the wealthy. She blew it, and then twice compounded her error by trying to defend her stance. What is the point of a paid political operative who will not follow a politically expedient course?
Rosen eventually saw (or was made to see) the folly of her path and abjectly apologized, but in the course of her ego trip managed to thoroughly ruin what was supposed to be the rising crescendo of Team Obama’s attack on Romney’s wealth.
The plan was targeted to Tax Day and stirring resentments against Romney’s capital gains rate on his huge investment income and refusal, so far, to release the more than two decades of tax returns demanded by the Obama campaign. As Obama and Biden released their 2011 tax returns today, the goal was to have the Cable News Network and other establishment press outlets hounding Romney for the release of his 1040s dating back to the 1980s and to have Rosen and her fellow pundits blasting the former Massachusetts governor for not paying more in the years from which we have already seen Romney’s tax bill.
Rosen, as she fully demonstrated, is no big-time Democratic strategist. She is on the periphery of Team Obama. Her dozens of visits to the White House and multiple meetings with the president (though, as Press Secretary Jay Carney observed, there are multiple people in America named Hilary Rosen) were no doubt not to shape strategy, but to receive it.
Even so, the president ended up wasting what were supposed to be a series of interviews with swing-state local television reporters by explaining that he respected stay-at-home moms and that Ann Romney seemed like an admirable person. Obama wanted to be pumping up the pressure on Mitt Romney, not lauding his wife. It’s not Obama’s fault that Rosen was bad at her job, but his team seemed unable to deal with what should have been a small matter.
How is it possible that a woman who makes her living from the largesse of the Democratic Party needed nearly a full day to be convinced that defending a position she took in a television debate with another Democratic strategist and a Republican blogger was less important than the president’s re-election bid? One suspects that the campaigns of Bill Clinton in 1996 or George W. Bush in 2004 would not have needed so much time to make that case to foot soldier.
That Rosen made her stumble in service of a gambit that the president himself was caused to say was “a gimmick” makes the matter even more embarrassing.
But the previous two big blunders — being incautious with a whispered message for Vladimir Putin and inveighing against the Roberts Supreme Court — were not those of a peripheral strategist or his campaign team. They were his and his alone.
Romney is plenty gaffe-prone himself and his organization knows well the pain of days wasted on unforced errors. Any enjoyment Team Romney takes at watching the president endure the Rosen affair is surely tempered by the knowledge that the next seven months would bring plenty of similar days for the Republican nominee. The phrase “Gov. Romney will you denounce…” will not suffer from under-use this election cycle.
But having seen Team Obama and the president stumble through their spring offensive, the Romneyites can at least be happy to know that the political gifts of the president and his team are far less than advertised.
