FIRST THOUGHTS.

*** Obama Takes The Wheel: Before he turns his attention to international affairs and the global economy later this week, President Obama today addresses the subject that has dominated his first 70 days in office: domestic affairs. At 11:00 am ET this morning, he delivers a speech from the White House on the U.S. auto industry. This speech, in which he'll announce additional aid for the industry, comes just after the White House ousted Rick Wagoner as CEO of GM. The reason: It was not happy with the restructing plans that GM and Chrysler submitted last month. In his remarks today, Obama will attach a number of strings to this new bailout money. GM and its new management team (led by GM veteran Fritz Henderson) get two more months to come up with a new restructuring plan, which Treasury officials believe needs to include the elimination of more GM brands. Chrysler, meanwhile, gets one more month to seal a deal that it's already been working on with Fiat. If it succeeds, the new company will get $6 billion from the government; if it fails, the government is likely to walk away.
*** The Executioner-In-Chief? It turns out that Wagoner is the fourth CEO the Obama administration has replaced. The others have been the heads of AIG, Fannie, Freddie, and (some claim) Citi. But Wagoner's dismissal -- which came as a surprise to industry insiders -- has left some liberal critics wondering why the Obama administration is demanding the head of GM's CEO, but not Bank of America's or Goldman's, etc. After the president's remarks on the auto industry this morning, he meets with Defense Secretary Gates (closed press), signs the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act into law (open press), and then heads over to Capitol Hill to meet with the House Democratic caucus (closed press).
*** Euro Trip 2: With President Obama tomorrow embarking on a trip to Europe and beyond -- which will take him to England, France, Germany the Czech Republic, and Turkey -- forgive us if we're experiencing a case of déjà vu. After all, more than eight months ago, during the summer of the general election, Obama took off on a similar and equally publicized trip. While the McCain campaign and GOP critics seized on a few of that trip's controversies (Landstuhl, the Berlin speech), it was an overall success. Why? Because the Obama campaign was able to sell the trip -- and the greeting it would receive -- as 1) an example of the type of change Obama would bring and 2) as evidence that the one-term senator could be seen by a majority of American voters as up to the task of president. Now, with European countries resisting calls for their own kind of economic stimulus and with them unwilling to provide additional troops to Afghanistan, the task for Obama is now take his popularity in Europe and turn that into actual results. There are concrete ways to measure the president's global influence, and they are coming very early in his term.
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