...PRESENT...PRESENT...PRESENT....:

Obama sits out budget brawl: Mum on cuts as shutdown looms (Kara Rowland, 2/23/11, The Washington Times)

As prospects for a government shutdown grow, the Obama White House has been largely absent from the political debate, issuing a veto threat to try on the Republicans’ spending-cuts bill but declining to offer publicly a counteroffer on what President Obama would be willing to accept.

Obama Sits Out State Fights (JONATHAN WEISMAN, 2/23/11, WSJ)

President Barack Obama, after initially lending his support to organized labor, has stepped back from the fights spreading in state capitals from Wisconsin to Tennessee, leaving union officials divided about his tactics.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 24, 2011 7:23 AM