News and Political Round Up for Yesterday

Obama Changes Tune On Iran

By Daniel PolitiPosted Wednesday, June 24, 2009, at 6:42 AM ET
The New York Times, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal's world-wide newsbox lead with, while the rest of the papers off-lead, President Obama delivering his harshest criticism of Iran's post-election crackdown of protesters. After days of criticism from Republican leaders who said the president wasn't showing enough support for the Iranian demonstrators, Obama said he was "appalled and outraged by the threats, beatings, and imprisonments of the past few days." Despite the tough words, Obama only took it so far. While stating that there are "significant questions about the legitimacy of the election," he emphasized the United States has no way of judging who really won. He also didn't mention any possible sanctions against the regime if it continued down its current path and, more importantly, refused to state that his administration was giving up on its goal to have talks with Iranian officials.
The Washington Post leads with news that the Metro subway train that crashed into another on Monday had its emergency brakes activated. Investigators also said the train was in automatic mode, which means that the train's computers should have stopped the train long before it got close to the stationary train. The paper also reports that the first two cars of the striking train were two months overdue for scheduled maintenance on its brakes. The Los Angeles Times leads with a look at how a significant portion of the tactics that California's lawmakers and governor are proposing to deal with the state's fiscal crisis involve gimmicks that will only ensure the problem gets kicked down the road. What kind of gimmicks? Well, one proposal would have state employees receiving their June 2010 paychecks at 12:01 a.m. on July 1 so California would only have to meet 11 months of payroll in the new fiscal year.
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Daniel Politi writes "Today's Papers" for Slate. He can be reached at todayspapers@slate.com.

LOOKING BACK AT TODAY.

What do naked hiking and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford. Check out this set of facts.
Fact 1: Sanford went missing Thursday and hasn't been seen since.
Fact 2: His staff has since told us that the governor has been hiking the Appalachian Trail.
Fact 3: Sunday was "Naked Hiking Day" on the Appalachian Trail.
We kid you not. http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/06/23/1974627.aspx
Sanford's staff now says he'll be back at work tomorrow
and that he was "taken aback" by all the attention his trip received. http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/06/23/1974476.aspx

In advance of President Obama's televised town hall tomorrow on health care, the Republican National Committee is airing a new 60-second TV ad that criticizes Obama's plans to overhaul the system. http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/06/23/1975008.aspx
Meanwhile, the RNC is also going after Democrats again on cap-and-trade. While Vice President Biden visited Perrysburg, Ohio, to promote the administration's green jobs initiative, Rep. Bob Latta (R-OH) blasted President Obama's cap-and-trade proposal on a national party conference call. http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/06/23/1974993.aspx
But an energy bill may very well be going forward in the House. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) expressed his desire to bring an energy reform bill to the House floor by Friday, NBC's Luke Russert reports. "It is quite possible maybe even probable that we will go to the energy bill on Friday and complete the energy bill late Friday," Hoyer predicted. http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/06/23/1974830.aspx
And are Republicans criticizing President Obama kind of like a 1987 Buick pointing out the dents and potential engine trouble of a 2008 BMW sedan. The latest polls suggest so. http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/06/23/1974503.aspx
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