President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden released their 2008 tax returns last night. President Obama paid $855,323 in federal taxes on a combined household income of $2,656,902. In a press conference yesterday, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs explained President Obama's hefty return as being due to his book royalties. More surprising perhaps is that Joe Biden appears to be the poorest Senator. Biden's tax return showed only $269,256 and paid $46,952 in federally taxes. Our man on Capitol Hill, Todd Zwillich, joins us with a look at the bounty of public disclosures yesterday.
Our partners The New York Times have all 67-pages of the Obamas' tax return. Click here.
President Obama is on his second full day of his visit to Turkey. He finished his trip with a town hall meeting with students and an appeal to Turkish youth. The President said he understands the frustrations felt in the Muslim world about some of America's actions and that he wants to turn the page. So how are Turks reacting to the new President? Are they ready to turn the page and renew ties with America? To help answer that question, we are joined by journalist Asli Aydintasbas, who wrote an op-ed in yesterday's New York Times, and Jeff McAllister, BBC political commentator.
For more, read Asli Aydintasbas' op-ed piece, Turkey in Full in the New York Times.
Here is Al-Jazeera's report on the protests that greeted President Obama's visit to Turkey:
It is the second full day of President Obama's visit to Turkey, the last stop on an eight-day European tour that included stops at the G-20 summit and the NATO 60th anniversary meeting. He is wrapping up his visit with an appeal to Turkish youth a town hall-style meeting. But arguably the most important thing President Obama did on his trip was his visit to the Blue Mosque in Istanbul today. The Blue Mosque is of huge symbolic value and religious importance to the Islamic world, having survived for through hundreds of years of upheaval in the region. His visit to Turkey is seen as an attempt to renew a flagging relationship with an important Islamic ally, so what does President Obama's action symbolize? We go to Istanbul for the answer with Turkish journalist, Mithat Bereket, formerly of CNN Turkey who is now on Pusula-TV, a private television station.
He’s the first sitting president to appear on a late-night talk show. He’s been on the cover of GQ and Vanity Fair. His weekly “radio” address airs on YouTube and his emails are still going out regularly to supporters. President Obama is using the media in a way no president ever has. Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and co-author of Presidents Creating the Presidency, joins John with an analysis of how the President's communication strategy is working.
"Part of the role is functioning as educator-in-chief, explaining to the public what the challenges are and how we're going to get the solution. Mobilizing the public to endorse presidential action is as much a part of the job as taking presidential action." —Kathleen Hall Jamieson, co-author of Presidents Creating the Presidency, on Obama's recent media appearances
Obama's most recent media appearance was on 60 Minutes last night. The first part of that interview is below.
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