McChrystal’s message to Obama seems to be that if the president wants a new strategy of nation building in Afghanistan he has to be willing to deliver the resources necessary.

“The assessment offers an unsparing critique of the failings of the Afghan government, contending that official corruption is as much of a threat as the insurgency to the mission of the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, as the U.S.-led NATO coalition is widely known.

‘The weakness of state institutions, malign actions of power-brokers, widespread corruption and abuse of power by various officials, and ISAF’s own errors, have given Afghans little reason to support their government,’ McChrystal says.”

Wall Street Journal — Obama Questions Plan to Add Forces in Afghanistan

The Obama team is smarting from the poor reception of their Sunday stunt of having the president appear on five talk shows and still must tape the entire hour with former funnyman David Letterman in New York today.

While Obama said nothing new about health care in his round robin of Sunday chat shows, he did make news about ACORN, racial attitudes, and most of all, Afghanistan. As Examiner colleague Susan Ferrechio points out, five interviews means five headlines.
The president, who will need forbearance from liberal members of his party in order to be able to declare symbolic victories on health and global warming, was looking to placate the anti-war base that made him the Democratic nominee.

But by pooh-poohing the rather desperate-sounding request for more troops that he had received from the man he put in charge in Afghanistan, Obama instead opened himself to criticism from the Left (unsatisfied with the status quo) and the Right (anxious that Obama will wimp out).

Just five months after announcing a bold and more ambitious approach to Afghanistan with a lamentation of his predecessor’s inattention to the Hindu Kush, the president seems to be having second thoughts.

“‘I don’t want to put the resource question before the strategy question,’ Mr. Obama told CNN’s ‘State of the Union.’ ‘There is a natural inclination to say, ‘If I get more, then I can do more.’ But right now, the question is—the first question is—are we doing the right thing? Are we pursuing the right strategy?’

Mr. Obama’s comments suggested that the White House could be reassessing its strategy in Afghanistan, ahead of an expected request for more troops from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. and NATO commander there. Mr. Obama, who has approved more troops for Afghanistan while ordering a drawdown in Iraq, has already agreed to send an additional 21,000 troops to Afghanistan, bringing the total number of U.S. forces there to 68,000 by year’s end.”

New York Times — Shepherding a Bill With 564 Amendments

Writer David Herszenhorn looks at the efforts on the Senate Finance committee to fix or destroy the unpopular health bill produced by Sen. Max Baucus after much fanfare and alleged bipartisanism.

As with everything on health care in the Senate, it comes down to not spooking Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.

The Baucus bill, which constitutes a huge middle-class tax hike and a major cost shift to already strapped states, is the subject of Democratic efforts to make the legislation more liberal. If they succeed, though, they will be increasing the deficit, which could be a deal breaker for moderate Democrats.

“For those watching the Finance Committee proceedings, which are scheduled to begin Tuesday, keep an eye out for amendments in these key areas:

AFFORDABILITY Mr. Baucus, pressed by Democrats and Ms. Snowe, is expected to increase the government subsidies to help moderate-income individuals and families buy insurance, and make subsidies easier to obtain.

TAXES Several Democrats will push to expand the bill in part by capping tax deductions for high-income Americans at the 35 percent tax bracket, an idea that many Republicans oppose. Republicans, meanwhile, will be pushing to eliminate new taxes on various sectors of the health industry. And there will be all sorts of wrangling over the proposed new tax on the most expensive insurance plans, those costing more than $8,000 for individuals and $21,000 for families.

MEDICARE AND MEDICAID Republicans will fight proposed reductions in government spending on Medicare; Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, will push to insulate some participants in plans, called Medicare Advantage, that are sold by private insurers to the elderly. Some Republicans will try to block a proposed expansion of Medicaid, the state-federal insurance program for the poor; while in other cases there will be fights over the potential added costs to states.”

Wall Street Journal — Climate Change to Take Center Stage at U.N. Talks
 

Aside from Afghanistan and health care, Obama is also hoping to work on global warming this week.

Obama and his promises of a dramatic departure from past U.S. policy on carbon emissions were greeted warmly by European envirocrats. But as the U.S. Senate makes clearer and clearer that it will not be taking up any greenhouse gas issues this year, the president is boxed in by his promise to his fellow leaders that he can make a deal at Kyoto II in Copenhagen in les than three months.
For most American presidents this would be no big deal because they didn’t really care what the Danish climate minister said. But the White House is acting concerned.

Writers Stephen Power and Ian Talley look at the stakes at the U.N. General Assembly meeting and G-20 summit, both primarily climate-focused, this week.

“‘Is the U.S. Senate really expecting all the other countries to make a serious effort on climate change at the Copenhagen Conference in the absence of a clear commitment from the United States?’ John Bruton, the European Union’s ambassador to the U.S., said in a written statement last Thursday. ‘Asking an international Conference to sit around looking out the window for months, while one chamber of the legislature of one country deals with its other business, is simply not a realistic political position.’

Republicans say whatever deal the Obama administration cuts in Copenhagen will likely be dead on arrival in Washington. The gaps between developed and developing nations’ demands, they say, are too wide to be bridged.”

New York Times — Resisting Obama, Paterson Vows to Seek Office

Gov. David Paterson is not a man of flawless political instincts, but even he understands that when the president of your own party tells you to step aside, you have to pay attention.

Paterson, informed that Obama thought he should not seek a full term as governor, says he’s still running “right now.”

The White House can ill-afford to become embroiled in Empire State politics right now, and Obama is in Troy, N.Y. today to announce his proposed federal takeover of student lending. He will be with Paterson and the administration’s preferred candidate, state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

By using a public leak to force Paterson out of the race, the White House has put another distraction in front of an already bogged-down chief executive.

“Last Monday, when Mr. Obama came to Wall Street to deliver a speech on the financial industry, his administration did not invite Mr. Paterson, a conspicuous snub of a fellow Democrat in his own state.

Instead, the White House political director, Patrick Gaspard, met with Mr. Paterson that day and told him that the president had lost confidence in his ability to win the 2010 election, and especially to hold off former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who is weighing a run for governor, according to two Democratic operatives briefed on the conversation.

‘It was very explicit,’ said one of the operatives, who is based in New York and has close ties to the White House. ‘He said, ‘I am here at the direction of the president, and we have lost confidence in your ability to run for re-election and win, and we would strongly like you to reconsider. And if you decide to go ahead, you will not have our support.’”

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