The Swamp

Obama-Medvedev: Arms reductions

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:50:00 -0500

by Christi Parsons

MOSCOW -- President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced this morning that they had reached agreements on a range of issues including a framework to reduce their nations' nuclear arsenals and steps to fight terrorism, including the war in Afghanistan.

The announced agreements had been expected as Obama kicked off his weeklong trip to Russia, the G-8 in Europe and Ghana by meeting with Medvedev this morning.

"We reaffirm our commitment to the goals of the common fight against the threats of terrorism, armed extremism, and illegal drug trafficking in Afghanistan," Obama and Medved said in a joint statement. "We shall continue and develop our cooperation in the interest of enhancing the capabilities of the government of Afghanistan to accomplish key socioeconomic objectives, to raise living standards, and to ensure the security of its people."

The presidents are scheduled to hold a joint news conference shortly. Earlier, both presidents sounded an optimistic note about repairing relations in this, the first formal U.S.-Russia summit since early in the Bush administration.

"The United States and Russia have more in common than they have differences," Obama said he sat down with Medvedev.

"We'll have a full-fledged discussion of our relations between our two countries, closing some of the pages of the past and opening some of the pages of the future," Medvedev said, through a translator.

Obama-Medvedev: Arms reductions

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:50:00 -0500

by Christi Parsons

The announced agreements had been expected as Obama kicked off his weeklong trip to Russia, the G-8 in Europe and Ghana by meeting with Medvedev this morning.

"The United States and Russia have more in common than they have differences," Obama said he sat down with Medvedev.

Palination: Advancing in new direction?

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 07:15:00 -0500

by Mark Silva

You might not know it from the way things have turned out at the polls lately, but more Americans say their political views have grown more conservative, rather than more liberal, in recent years.

By a margin of two-to-one: 39 percent say more conservative, 18 percent more liberal. A substantial core of people, 42 percent, say they haven't really changed.

Maybe Sarah Palin, the failed Republican Party nominee for vice president in 2008 and governor of Alaska who captured the Fourth of July news cycle with her surprise announcement on Friday that she will resign on July 26, a year-and-a-half shy of the end of her first term, understood this in explaining that she really is not retreating, but rather "advancing in a new direction.''

Nearly six in ten Americans approve of the job that the John Roberts-led Supreme Court is doing -- up from 5 in 10 a year a ago - at a time when the Senate is about to debate the nomination of President Barack Obama's first justice, Sonia Sotomayor, confirmation hearings starting July 13..

Maybe Republican leaders in general are on to growing restlessness in the ranks of conservatives with their incessant drumbeat of doubt about all the initiatives that Obama, victor of the 2008 elections and still enjoying a honeymoon with the public, is pressing. His economic stimulus, they say, is only part of his runaway spending and deficits - "where are the jobs,'' House Republican Leader John Boehner asked over the Palinated holiday weekend. Healthcare reform is only piling more government on government spending, they say, the energy bill nothing but a 'national energy tax.''

The first test of who's on the right track will come with the midterm congressional elections next year. And the state of the economy at that turn will have a lot to do with it.

For now, the Gallup Poll's review of its surveys suggests just this: Ideologically, a lot of people are moving in a more conservative direction - nearly four in ten of all voters.

This may provide politicians such as Palin a growing base to work with in 2012, but it certainly poses a more complex challenge for the president's party: Convincing a broad swath of the American public that the stimulus has been worth it, that healthcare reform is essential and that their energy initiatives will deliver more of that independence that everyone was celebrating with fireworks over the weekend that belonged to one Sarah Palin, ex-mayor of Wasilla and soon-to-be ex-governor of Alaska, "passing the ball.''

Or, it may underscore the fact that the politician who owns the road will be the one driving down the middle of it.

Obama and Medvedev: Russian revival?

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:15:00 -0500

by Mark Silva

It may not be the "reset button'' that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented her Russian counterpart earlier this year - a symbol of the need to start over again in relations between the United States and Russia - but it appears to be a start.

There was something lost in the translation of that reset button no-gag gift, but the Obama administration maintains that's what it wants with U.S.-Russian relations.

"I believe that at present these relations have begun to revive,'' Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Sunday, in an interview with Russian and Italian media, as President Barack Obama was preparing to head for Moscow today and the two prepare to join other world leaders at the Group of Eight summit in Italy later in the week.

"At the moment I think we are all moderately optimistic,'' Medvevev said. "On Monday I'll be meeting with the president and we'll discuss things both formally and informally. I think we'll get to know each other better.''

Obama left the White House last night after 8 pm EDT, boarding Marine One for a hop to Andrews Air Force Base and the long flight to Russia. He was accompanied by his wife, Michelle, his young daughters, Sasha and Malia, who turned 11 on July the Fourth, and his mother-in-law, Mrs. Robinson. The president wore tan slacks and a black polo shirt.

"I think that there has been a time over the last several years where Russian-U.S. relations were not as strong as they should be,'' Obama said in an interview with Russian television last week. 'What I said coming in is that I wanted to press the reset button on relations between the United States and Russia.

"And I think the possibilities for our cooperation on economic issues, on defense issues, dealing with the threat of terrorism in both our countries, our ability to deal constructively with issues like Iran, increasing trade and commercial relations -- those are all issues that are important,'' the president said.

Obama also has suggested that another important Russian leader - perhaps the most important one - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, still has one foot in the Cold War and another in the modern era, a comment to which Putin's office took public exception. So Obama's time in Moscow, an his meetings with Medvedev and Putin, should be, if not a re-setting experience, the start of something big.

See the interviews of Obama and Medvedev below the fold:

Biden, Obama: 'Misread the economy'

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 12:50:01 -0500

by Mark Silva

A few months into the federal government's attempt to stimulate the economy, with unemployment at a 26-year-high of 9.5 percent in June, Vice President Joe Biden, the Obama administration's point-man on the stimulus program, allows that they "misread'' the severity of the problem.

"The truth is, we and everyone else misread the economy," Biden told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos in an interview that aired today on This Week.

Biden acknowledged that officials were too optimistic earlier this year when they predicted that joblessness would peak at 8 percent.

"The truth is, there was a misreading of just how bad an economy we inherited," said Biden. "Now, that doesn't -- I'm not -- it's now our responsibility. So the second question becomes, did the economic package we put in place, including the Recovery Act, is it the right package given the circumstances we're in? And we believe it is the right package given the circumstances we're in.''

Here courtesy of ABC News is a transcriptL

Sarah Palin's handoff: $2 million burden

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 11:45:00 -0500

by Mark Silva

This just in from Alaska:

Where Sean Parnell, the lieutenant governor who will be having quite an annual Alaska governor's picnic later this month as Gov. Sarah Palin "passes the ball'' 18 months shy of the end of her term, suggests that the former mayor of Wasilla is only looking out for her state in stepping down.

The state cost and time consumed by all of the controversy that critics of the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee wanted to stir had grown "insane,'' as Parnell puts it, echoing the complaint of the chief executive who suddenly announced her resignation on Friday.

"Gov. Palin accomplished more in two-and-a-half years in office than most governors accomplish in one or even two terms here,'' Parnell said on FOX News Sunday this morning, with host Chris Wallace

This is what the governor told him on Wednesday evening about her plans to resign:

"I think what I heard from the governor really had to do with the weight on her, the concern she had for the cost of all the ethics investigations and the like, the way that that weighed on her with respect to her inability to just move forward Alaska's agenda on behalf of Alaskans in the current context of the environment,'' Parnell said. "So that's what I saw....

"It was costing just about $2 million of state taxpayers' dollars just to fund the staff to deal with the records requests and the like, and that -- that was just over the top, and I think she used the word insane in her -- in her remarks,'' Parnell noted.

The governor-to-be isn't too happy about Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski's comment that the governor has "decided to abandon'' her constituents.''

"I was actually disappointed when I saw the senator's release. And does she have a point? I don't think so,'' Parnell told Wallace. "I think what the governor did was actually look out for Alaskans in this...

"She became a national figure -- an international figure during the last presidential race,'' Parnell said of Palin. "What that means is that she not only had the local press after her, the local party after her, she had the national -- national candidates, national party, after her -- international, perhaps, even....''

Palin "has plenty of time now within which to define how she will further her core values,'' Parnell suggested. "But I have to tell you, when she went to Kosovo and visited our Guard members and the wounded soldiers there and in Germany, she saw that she doesn't need a title to effect change and bring some hope to people who need it."

Swamp note here:

Imagine what the cost and time consumed might have been had Palin and Sen. John McCain won election.

That $2 million bill for coping with controversy could have become billions. It's worth pondering whether Palin might have quit half-way through her term for the good of the country. Somehow, we doubt it.

Sarah Palin's Facebook: Misunderstood

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 08:15:00 -0500

by Mark Silva

Sarah Palin is online.

But Palin is not under investigation by the FBI.

It didn't take the resigning Alaska governor long to return with a public explanation of her plans for the future, following her surprise announcement of an early resignation on the eve of the Fourth of July.

She's on Facebook: "Happy 4th of July from Alaska!".

"I am now looking ahead and how we can advance this country together with our values of less government intervention, greater energy independence, stronger national security, and much-needed fiscal restraint," the Republican Party's 2008 vice presidential candidate writes in her Facebook posting.

Palin spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton vouches for the authenticity of Pain's posting in which Palin casts herself as just a soul who has been misunderstood.

"How sad that Washington and the media will never understand; it's about country," the statement says. "And though it's honorable for countless others to leave their positions for a higher calling and without finishing a term, of course we know by now, for some reason a different standard applies for the decisions I make."

In the meantime, Palin attorney Thomas Van Flein is warning all those people who think they've got a line on that "next shoe dropping'' on the surprise decision of the Alaska governor and former mayor of Wasilla to call it quits 18 months before her term ends to keep their speculation on the civil side of the libelous equation.

"For months now, I have consulted with friends and family, and with the lieutenant governor, about what is best for our wonderful state. I even made a few administrative changes over that course in time in preparation for yesterday. We have accomplished so much and there's much more to do, but my family and I determined after prayerful consideration that sacrificing my title helps Alaska most,'' Palin explains in the note on her Facebook page.

"And once I decided not to run for re-election, my decision was that much easier - I've never been one to waste time or resources. Those who know me know this is the right decision and obvious decision at that, including Senator John McCain. I thank him for his kind, insightful comments.''

"The response in the main stream media has been most predictable, ironic, and as always, detached from the lives of ordinary Americans who are sick of the "politics of personal destruction,''' Palin writes.. "But every American understands what it takes to make a decision because it's right for all, including your family.''

Sarah Palin: 'Time-out or flame-out?'

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 07:45:00 -0500

by Mark Silva

Sarah Palin's stunning declaration of independence from "politics as usual,'' standing up for her "beloved state of Alaska'' while standing down as governor 18 months before the end of her first term, has been interpreted variously as a bold venture into a new realm of political leadership or as an irreversible, destructive act of political self-immolation.

"Being right is better than being popular,'' Palin declared with characteristic defiance, standing by the dock of her lakeside home in the tiny town where she got her start as mayor and announcing that she will hand over the governor's office to Alaska's lieutenant governor by month's end.

Ed Rollins, a Republican consultant who traces his work to Ronald Reagan's heyday, has offered a blunt assessment of what Palin has done to herself: "It makes her look flaky, which is one of the dilemmas she's had to face all the way through this.'' He raises the question, too, of what's the "next shoe to drop'' in the Palin story.

Palin's supporters say the former mayor of Wasilla who represented her party on a presidential ticket, a self-styled political pitbull, has simply reinforced her credentials as a maverick.

"Time out or flame out?'' one of our newspapers is asking today. Our own Mark Z. Barabak writes of the governor's "disjointed and cryptic remarks'' explaining how, by quitting the office that she won in 2006 after failing at a campaign for the vice presidency in 2008 and being held out by many in her party as a prospect for 2012, she hopes to "effect positive change outside government.''

"Many took that to mean a full-fledged run for the Republican nomination, without the encumbrance of her office and the difficulty of navigating a national campaign while running a state thousands of miles from the action,'' Barabak writes. "But the fact that Palin, 45, will vacate her elected post without finishing the four-year term -- which would have bolstered a political resume already thin enough that it hampered her 2008 bid for vice president -- led some analysts to suggest that she had badly damaged herself, perhaps irretrievably.''

John McCain: 'Right side of history'

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 06:45:00 -0500

by Mark Silva

History has "a right side and a wrong side,'' Sen. John McCain says.

American independence was born of the right side, the senator from Arizona and war hero who survived five and a half years of imprisonment by the North Vietnamese says in the Republican Party's weekly address today. And the protestors storming the streets of Iran are standing on the right side, McCain says.

By implication, but not by name, the Republican candidate for president in 2008 suggests that President Barack Obama is standing shy of the right side by not more forcefully speaking out for the rights of Iranians to be free.

It's ironic, perhaps, that McCain should be delivering his party's address today, the morning after his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, announced that she is stepping down as governor -- raising questions in the minds of many about what kind of fortitude is possessed by the candidate who hoped to serve as vice president, and thus a heartbeat from the presidency. But McCain already had distanced himself from Palin, pointing by name to other leaders within his party who hold promise for 2012.

The Declaration of Independence, McCain suggests today, on the Fourth of July, represented "not only the bold assertion that 13 former British colonies were and forever would remain free and independent states, but also the once radical idea that history has a right side and a wrong side, and that Americans stood and would always stand on the right side..

"We share a kinship of ideals with every man and woman on earth who struggles for their God-given rights. The world must never doubt where we stand in the liberation struggles of our time...

"Today, we stand with the millions of Iranians who brave batons, imprisonment and gunfire to have their voices heard and their votes counted. They do not ask us to arm them or come to their assistance with anything other than public declarations of solidarity, and public denunciations of the tyrants who oppress them. We have a moral obligation to do so...

"They are not fools, these brave and determined Iranians. They are on the right side of history, and the cynics among us, who think them fools, are on the wrong side. Liberty and justice will someday be theirs. Let us hope they will have reason to remember then, who their friends were in their struggle for freedom.''

See McCain's address above and read it below:

Obama summons spirit of independence

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 06:15:00 -0500

by Mark Silva

Think of it as the audacity of America.

The audacity of 13 colonies to declare independence from the British Empire, the audacity of their descendants to "blaze a westward trail,'' the audacity to build the world's greatest economic engine -- and now, says President Barack Obama, on the Fourth of July, the audacity to tackle a daunting recession, repair an "unsustainable healthcare system,'' fix broken schools and free the nation from dependence on oil.

That's how the president is framing the challenge for a nation on this Independence Day, a holiday on which to "kick back,'' Obama says in his weekly radio and Internet address, but not a time to kick the nation's problems "down the road.''

"We are called to remember how unlikely it was that our American experiment would succeed at all; that a small band of patriots would declare independence from a powerful empire; and that they would form, in the new world, what the old world had never known - a government of, by, and for the people,'' Obama said today.

:"Our economy - and our nation itself - are endangered by festering problems we have kicked down the road for far too long: spiraling health care costs; inadequate schools; and a dependence on foreign oil.

"We are not a people who fear the future. We are a people who make it. And on this July 4th, we need to summon that spirit once more. We need to summon the same spirit that inhabited Independence Hall two hundred and thirty-three years ago today.''

See the president's Independence Day address above and read it below:

Sarah Palin finished in Alaska, but DC?

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:40:00 -0500

by Mark Silva and updated

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is stepping down, announcing suddenly today that she will pursue other means of having an impact in the public arena, fueling speculation about her intentions for another bid for national office.

Palin will step down before her first term is finished, resigning as of July 26 -- while not offering a clear reason for her withdrawal. Having decided not to seek a second term, she said she did not want to remain as a "lame duck'' simply wasting taxpayer money with trade missions and the like.

"I know when it's time to pass the ball,'' said Palin, a basketball player in her high school days, almost tearfully announcing today in a long and rambling but not fully explanatory statement that she would hand the office over to the lieutenant governor. "All I ask is that you trust me with this decision,'' she said, allowing that it's "no more politics as usual...''

Palin maintained that the pressure, and expense, of confronting unfounded ethics complaints has gotten out of bounds. 'We're fishermen,'' said Palin, standing with her husband Todd, a commercial fisherman, and maintaining that they're not "going with the flow... Only dead fish go with the flow...

"Some are going to question the timing of this,'' she said.in an impromptu news conference at her home. "This decision has been in the works for a while.''

Standing with her husband and children at their lakeside home in Wasilla, their seaplane docked behind them, she said that a recent visit to wounded soldiers overseas had helped her make the decision. "We can all learn from our selfless troops,'' she said.

"We've got to put first things first.... I'm doing what's best for Alaska,'' she said, citing a family refrigerator magnet that suggests not trying to explain anything because critics won't believe it anyway.

The Republican former mayor of Wasilla and self-styled "hockey mom'' and political "pitbull" remains popular among the most conservative base of the party that nominated her for vice president in 2008. She carries high negative ratings among the general public, however, according to the latest polls, questioning the role she might play in another party ticket for 2012.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who had been considered another possibility for Arizona Sen. John McCain's running mate when McCain sought the presidency last year, also has announced he will not seek another term -- setting up the more moderate Midwestern Republican as another prospect for his party to consider in 2012.

Palin was first elected in 2006 on a populist platform and was one of the nation's most popular governors for a while. But her popularity has waned as she engaged in partisan politics in the presidential campaign and since then.

Her term would have ended in 2010. Palin said she plans to make a "positive change outside government," without elaborating on her plans. Remaining as a lame duck would be wasteful, said Palin, who has attempted to portray an image as a fiscal hawk.

"I cannot stand here as your governor and allow the millions of dollars and all that time go to waste just so I can hold the title of governor," Palin said.

Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, who was surprised as anyone else about the announcement, will be inaugurated at the annual governor's picnic in Fairbanks at the end of the month.

Biden in Iraq: 'We're going to be involved'

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:45:00 -0500

by Mark Silva

As U.S. military forces withdraw from the urban front lines of a six-year war in Iraq - and prepare to pull out of the country altogether by 2011 - Vice President Joe Biden said today in Baghdad that Americans "stand ready if asked and helpful'' to help with the political reconciliation that remains elusive there.

"There is a hard road ahead,'' and "it's not over yet,'' Biden, capping a two-day stop in Iraq, said in appearance with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The Iraqi leader saluted "the common partnership and common efforts" between the U.S. and Iraq in defeating al Qaeda.

They stood in the same room where, not long ago, former President George W. Bush had to duck the two tossed shoes of an irate Iraqi as the American who authorized the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 made his final appearance there as president.

Sandstorms prevented the vice president from flying by helicopter into Baghdad. Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, made the call, and the vice president's 22-car motorcade made its way toward the Green Zone. The ride took well over an hour because an armored truck carrying reporters could not fit under one bridge so the caravan took a long route.

Biden met with the two vice presidents, al Hashemi and al Mahdi, and other Iraqi representatives in a sandstone building with stained glass windows called the Presidency Diwan. This is a ceremonial building, the place where Zal Khalilzad had president his credentials to President Jalal Talibani after the 2005 elections.

Beau Biden, an Army captain serving in Iraq, had breakfast with his father this morning in the private room where the vice president had spent the night.

Colin Powell: 'Concerned' over spending

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:45:00 -0500

by Mark Silva

Retired Army Gen. Colin Powell, former secretary of state under the last President Bush and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff under the first President Bush, has faced unfriendly fire from within his own Republican Party about the purity of his GOP essence - endorsing President Barack Obama's candidacy last year had something to do with that questioning.

While supportive of Obama, Powell allows that he is "concerned'' now about the breadth of the presdient's agenda and the cost of it all -- "I'm concerned at the number of programs that are being presented, the bills associated with these programs and the additional government that will be needed to execute them.''

Powell, a guest on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday, sat through a replay of his own words from the Republican National Convention in 1996.

"I became a Republican because I believe, like you, that the federal government has become too large and too intrusive in our lives,'' Powell told his party during that failed mid-term attempt to unseat then President Bill Clinton with the then-senator from Kansas, Bob Dole. "We can no longer afford solutions to our problems that result in more entitlements, higher taxes to pay for them, more bureaucracy to run them, and fewer results to show for it..''

The party applauded.

John King, host of CNN's Sunday show, asks Powell this: "Has president of the United States, in that regard, when it comes to financial institution bailouts, General Motors bailouts, spending by government, whether it's health care reform, whether it's the debate now about climate change, when it comes to spending and the reach and role of government, does President Obama meet the test Colin Powell laid out in '96?"

"Well, first, let me say, that was a pretty good statement, I thought,'' Powell replies. "And I believe in all those things. But I also believe that we should have a government that works.

"I don't like slogans anymore like "limited government,''' Powell says. "That's not the right answer. The right answer is, give me a government that works.''

Powell also takes a moment to remember singer Michael Johnson in this interview - recalling the spirit he saw on the stage for the Jackson Five, those "fresh, exciting kids with the 'fros.'' Acknowledging the "challenges'' in Jackson's life, the former chief diplomat for the United States suggests that we all "celebrate his art.''

Obama's BlackBerry: You've got prayers

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:30:00 -0500

by Mark Silva

The address queue for President Barack Obama's BlackBerry is one of the White House's better-kept secrets.

But the president now has allowed that at least one of his most faithful aides has his number: Joshua DuBois, a former associate pastor and an advisor to Obama in his Senate office and campaign who runs the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

And each morning, Obama says, DuBois delivers a prayer to the president's BlackBerry.

Obama, who still has not found a permanent house of worship for the first family since moving into the White House, spoke with reporters from the religious press this week.

The Brody File has notes on all of it -- including Obama's comments about his relationship with the Catholic Church, in the aftermath of his commencement address at Notre Dame and near the eve of Obama's meeting next week with the pope at the Vatican.

"Joshua does a wonderful service for me, and he actually sends me a devotional on my BlackBerry every morning, which is actually something that he started doing I think when I was really having a tough time during the campaign,'' Obama said in the interview.

Some of that "rough time," of course, had to do with the president's longtime association with a Chicago pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose "incendiary'' words about race and America from the pulpit forced Obama to disavow Wright and ultimately sever his ties with Trinity United Church of Christ..

"I am now disruptive wherever I go,'' the president laments of his attempts to visit churches since his arrival at the White House - he and his wife, Michelle, attended St. John's Episcopal Church, across a park from the White House, at Easter, and created quite a stir in the streets and pews alike.

Obama was asked about his search for a new church - with Time magazine jumping the gun this week with a report that the Obamas had settled on the Evergreen Chapel at Camp David, the presidential retreat. It turns out that Obama says the family has been going there, during their infrequent Sundays at the Maryland mountain resort, but they still are in search of a sanctuary.

Obama's welcome: From Russia w/ love

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:30:00 -0500

by Mark Silva and updated

From sole to soul: The American view of the Russian presidency has fabled moments in modern times: Ranging from Nikita Kruschev's fist- and shoe-pounding at the United Nations general assembly in 1960 to President George W. Bush's discovery of Vladimir Putin's "soul'' in 2001.

"I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straight forward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue,'' Bush famously said of Putin during his first year in office. "I was able to get a sense of his soul.''

Yet despite that rapport, relations between the two nations in the years that followed deteriorated into what the sitting Russian president calls a low-point unseen since the Cold War.

Their successors, Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev, have not exactly bonded, but they have gotten off to a solid start. As Obama embarks for Moscow in a few days, on his way to a Group of Eight summit in Italy next week, the American president's Russian host has rolled out the Internet Age's equivalent of a red carpet.

(Who knew the president of Russia had a video blog?)

""When I met with President of the United States Barack Obama for the first time in April, we agreed that he would visit Russia in July,'' Medvedev said on his blog this week.

"Today, I want to say a few words not just about what I hope for from these upcoming talks, but also share my vision of the history of Russian-American relations and the outlook for their development.

"Unfortunately, relations between our two countries have worsened over these last years,'' Medvedev said.

"A crisis of confidence, lack of action, unwillingness to take any new steps - call it what you will, but the fact remains that, although our countries' presidents had a good personal rapport, Russian-U.S. relations declined to a level practically on a par with the Cold War era,'' the Russian leader said this week, on the eve of the American president's first visit to Moscow.

It appears, however, that Obama and Putin, now prime minister, still face some reconciliation. In an interview with the Associated Press near the eve of his departure for Moscow, Obama said that, while Medvedev understands this, Putin needs convincing that the U.S. wants cooperation rather than "an antagonistic relationship."

"K's important that even as we move forward with President Medvedev that Putin understand that the old Cold War approaches to U.S.-Russian relations is outdated," he said. "Putin has one foot in the old ways of doing business and one foot in the new."

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said today that Obama was wrong about the premier. "Such a point of view has nothing to do with a true understanding of Putin," he told the AP, and suggested the reason for Obama's view was simply that he "has not yet spoken with Putin -- they are not acquainted." The two will talk in Moscow on Tuesday.
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(Presidents Obama and Medvedev are pictured just above at a Group of 20 summit in London. Presidents Putin and Bush are pictured above at a Bush visit to Moscow when the American got to drive the Russian's collectible car.) Photos by AP. See Medvedev's video above and read the rest of his words below.)