Obama tries to remain calm during political storm
By Eli Saslow
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 4, 2010The president who so famously rejects drama and derides political theater walked into the East Room at 1:45 p.m. during one of the wildest political stretches in recent memory. In the past few days, a White House spokesman was forced to defend Obama's pugnacious chief of staff and his departed social secretary. A Republican senator held a spending bill hostage, despite protests within his own party. A Democrat considered resigning as chairman of a major House committee, then vowed to stay on, then announced he would take a leave of absence. As this chaos ricocheted through the Capitol, the president entered in a pressed black suit, shoulders straight, eyes calm, voice measured. The chairs inside the East Room were arranged in perfect rows of 10. Doctors wearing long white coats stood with hands clasped behind their backs and flanked Obama onstage. "At stake right now is not just our ability to solve this problem," he said, "but our ability to solve any problem." Also at stake now for Obama is his trademark composure, which will be tested like never before during the next two weeks. With governance already seemingly in disarray, Obama announced that he wants Democrats to push through his health-care reform legislation by calling for a simple-majority vote within the next few weeks. It is a process sure to further inflame the capital, and it raises a question central to Obama's presidency: Will his evenness help ease the disorder around him? Or will the rising tension undo his signature bill? On Wednesday, at least, he seemed to believe that steadiness and cogency still could be effective, despite contrary evidence that continued to mount even as he spoke. The Democratic…

 Preoccupations: What My Mentors Have Taught Me Keecia Scott of UCB recommends finding a mentor to help with your career.     

 Rachel Uchitel flies to LA to meet lawyer Gloria Allred after Tiger Woods crash Rachel Uchitel, the woman at the centre of the Tiger Woods car crash mystery, flew to Los Angeles on Sunday to meet a lawyer as she works to counter allegations that she had an affair with the world's top golfer. By Nick Allen in Los Angeles Rachel Uchitel, the woman at the centre of the Tiger Woods car crash mystery Photo: AP  Miss Uchitel, a 34-year-old high-flying party organiser and former television producer, was besieged by photographers as she left her New York apartment. "I wish I could say something but I can't," she said. Two American tabloid magazines romantically linked her to Woods, which Miss Uchitel vehemently denies. The allegations are believed to have led to an argument between Woods and his wife Elin Nordegren. Woods then crashed his car into a fire hydrant and a tree in the early hours of the morning. In an interview last year Miss Uchitel said: "Although I've been romantically linked to a famous baseball player, a Broadway star, a musician, and various film and television actors, I will never kiss and tell!" Miss Uchitel, who lost her fiancee in the Sept 11 terrorist attacks, flew to Los Angeles on Sunday to meet the high-profile lawyer Gloria Allred, as she seeks to counter the allegations. Mrs Allred met her at the airport, when the lawyer said: “At some point we’ll decide what the next step should be.” Miss Allred has been involved in a number of high profile celebrity cases. She represented Paula Jones in her sexual harassment case against former US President Bill Clinton, and Nicole Brown Simpson's family in the OJ Simpson case.

  From The Times of London
May 21, 2009 Sham colleges open doors to Pakistani terror suspects

 The World Bids Farewell to Obama US President Barack Obama suffered a painful defeat in Massachusetts on Tuesday. With mid-term elections looming, it means that Obama will have to fundamentally re-think his political course. German commentators say it is the end of hope.US President Barack Obama has had a number of difficult weeks during his first year in the White House. Right after he took office, he had to wade through a week full of partisan bickering over his economic stimulus package combined with a tax scandal surrounding Tom Daschle, the man Obama had hoped would lead his health care reform team.  Then there was the last week of 2009, when a failed terror attack on a flight inbound for Detroit exposed major flaws in US efforts to identify and stop potential terrorists.  This week, though -- a week when Obama should have been celebrating the first anniversary of his inauguration -- may have been the president's worst yet. Scott Brown, an almost unknown Republican member of the Massachusetts Senate, defeated the Democratic candidate Martha Coakley for the US Senate seat vacated by the death of Senator Edward M. Kennedy. The defeat in a heavily Democratic state not only highlights Obama's massive loss of popular support during his first year in office, but it also could spell doom for his signature effort to reform the US health care system.  There were immediate calls for a suspension of health care votes in the Senate until Brown is sworn in. The loss of the Massachusetts seat means that the Democrats no longer control the 60 Senate seats necessary to avoid a filibuster. Obama's reform package, which aims to provide health insurance to most of the over 40 million Americans currently lacking coverage, may ultimately fail as a result.More than that, though, the…