President Obama made it official today, interrupting his Martha's Vineyard vacation to nominate Ben Bernanke  for reappointment to another four-year term as chairman of the Federal Reserve.

The president said all the predictable things -- that the Fed chair had brought "bold action and outside-the-box thinking" in a way that "helped put the brakes on our economic free-fall." You can read his full remarks below.

And a lot of commentators suggested that Obama had no choice -- despite economic advisor Larry Summers' evident hunger for the job. The president opted for a stability that would make Wall Street happy and avoided further inflaming relations with Congress at a time when Republicans are fighting healthcare reform and criticizing Atty. Gen. Eric Holder's probe of CIA abuses. (Bernanke's reappointment still has to be confirmed by the Senate.)

But it's just possible that Bernanke won his job on television. Bernanke has been a new kind of Fed chairman. First appointed by President Bush, the federal government's banker has shown an Obama-like sensibility to public outreach.

In February, amid the greatest economic meltdown in nearly a century, he appeared before the National Press Club.

In March, he surprised Wall Street by giving an interview to CBS' "60 Minutes," allowing unprecedented  access to his thinking and his biography, even walking the streets of his hometown in Dillon, S.C., with CBS' Scott Pelley. No Fed chair had ever granted a television interview before.

One financial website called it "a move by Bernanke to connect with Main Street, as U.S. citizens feel lost with the billions of bailout money being given to financial institutions while job losses mount." The U.S. News & World Report described it simply as "a great public relations move."

Then in July, the former professor and expert on the history of the Great Depression stunned the world of finance by agreeing to a town hall moderated by PBS' Jim Lehrer in Kansas City, Mo. Taking questions from owners of small businesses and social workers grappling with the effects on clients of home foreclosures, he translated complex Fed policy into common-sense language.

Asked by a Kansas City mother why federal bailout money kept going to big firms, Bernanke explained, “When the elephant falls down, all the grass gets crushed as well.” 

Today, Obama made no mention of Bernanke's public outreach. But both men seemed to be in sync on one front: wearing dark blazers and white shirts, they sported no ties as they stepped to the podium. Hey, it's summertime on Martha's Vineyard.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Steven Senne / Associated Press

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Now that he's safely on vacation on Martha's Vineyard, what is President Obama imbibing?

Beer probably. Maybe Sam Adams from Boston or Goose Island, a Chicago favorite that he served at his election party.

But what did other presidents prefer? LBJ (Lyndon Baines Johnson) loved Fresca. He is said to have had a Fresca fountain installed in the White House.

Richard Nixon liked rum and Coke. Gerald Ford preferred gin and tonic (same as Queen Elizabeth II). 

Harry Truman was a bourbon guy. Bill Clinton likes tequila and Tabasco sauce. George W. Bush liked too many things in his younger days and now drinks O'Doul's.

The other presidential GW, George Washington, liked homemade beer. (But he had slaves to make it for him.) The first prez also liked bread in warm milk. (But he had bad teeth.)

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Time for vacation, even for a presidential Democrat named Barack Obama.

As he prepares for a week off with his family, leaving right after lunch, the president will read in Friday's Washington Post results of a new poll that shows his numbers sharply down.

It almost seems like the harder he's worked to sell his healthcare reform program all summer, the more they've seen him speaking earnestly and well in town hall after town hall, the less confidence Americans have developed in the president.

The new Post/ABC News poll of 1,001 Americans between Aug. 13-17 shows that only 49% now believe Obama will make the right decisions for the country.

That's down from 60% at the 100-day mark of his presidency. Worse, only 49% now think he will achieve significant improvements in his hallmark campaign of healthcare reform, a drop of 20 points from last winter.

Fifty-five percent now see the nation as seriously off-track, up from 48% in April.

The president's overall approval now stands at 57%, down 12 points from April. Disapproval has jumped to 40%, the highest of his seven months in office.

Despite all the travel and good talking, fully 42% now "strongly disapprove" of Obama's work on healthcare, with support collapsing especially among seniors and the highly-prized sector of political independents. A bare majority (52%) still support creation of a public option, but that's fading too -- down sharply from late June's 62%.

If congressional members are detecting the same themes during their August recess visits in their states and districts, that could present serious problems for the political prospects of the reform efforts when everyone returns to the capitol after Labor Day.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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The Obama Justice Department acknowledged today for the first time that laws meant to preclude gay marriage are, simply put, wrong.

In a brief filed this morning in the case of a gay couple suing the federal government for the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act that prohibits gay marriage, the Justice Department said:

When word first leaked in June that DOJ was planning to defend DOMA, gay rights activists were furious. Amid the outcry, the Justice Department has now toned down its defense, publicly noting its view that the law discriminates against gay Americans.

Still, the White House is bracing for political brush back from Democrats -- such as California gubernatorial candidate and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom -- who might argue the Justice Department stance is too wimpy. So President Obama himself issued a statement this morning, saying:

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Two women kiss during annual Gay Pride activities in Paris in June. Credit: Associated Press

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Here's something that might have slipped passed while you were postponing the weekend by working so very late Friday night.

First, to state the obvious: In the 50 states, everyone has two senators and one House member representing them in Washington. Those members of Congress are presumably back home now getting an earful in public meetings from both sides about the hot summer's hottest issue, the broad healthcare reform legislation favored by President Obama, who was going to bring folks together.

There was much talk from the same two sides all last week about packing of those local get-togethers that Investor's Business Daily so deliciously calls "clown hall meetings." Supporters and opponents charged that the other side was busing in adherents and packing the sessions, and even being anti-American with their dissent.

The president, who held three healthcare talk-fests himself, also complained about the media focusing mainly on the disorderly sessions. How strange! That would be like the media focusing on one lousy plane crash instead of the thousands of safe flights each day. Or residents gossiping about a neighborhood divorce, instead of the dozens of happy nearby marriages.

Anyway, here are some startling lesser-known facts, pulled together by two diligent Bloomberg News reporters, Lizzie O'Leary and Jonathan Salant:

Every one of those 534 members of Congress now has six (6!) lobbyists working on them -- and that's just for healthcare.

A total of 3,300 lobbyists have registered to drive the sizzling healthcare issue in Washington -- three times the brigade of lobbyists representing the entire defense industry.

And three more healthcare lobbyists join the ongoing fray every day.

They reported spending more than $234 million massaging and informing and persuading those legislators during the first six months of this year, way more than a million bucks a day, seven days a week.

So, whatever your side, who do you suppose will still be standing -- and talking -- when the congressional recess is over and the elected representatives return to their safe homes inside the Beltway?

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Getty Images

Former Vice President Dick Cheney is writing his memoirs. That in itself is something of a surprise, because Cheney has long -- and openly -- disparaged people who do. The presidency is owed loyalty, or anyway that was Cheney's view when folks like former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and former White House press secretary Scott McClellan told tales out of school.

But now, writing his own account of his eight years as George W. Bush's vice president, Cheney is telling friends that "the statute of limitations has expired" on tensions between them. As Time magazine reported last month, Cheney was furious at Bush for not pardoning Scooter Libby, the vice presidential aide who, in Cheney's words, "was asked to stick his neck in the meat grinder" by not disclosing all he knew about who leaked CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity to the press.

Writing his memoirs out in longhand on yellow legal pads, Cheney is apparently sharing his recollections with groups of friends and associates, sort of prepping them for the disclosures to come in his 2011 book.

And, some of those friends have been talking to the Washington Post. After one group session, one Cheney associate told the Post's Barton Gellman that the former vice president is mad at 43 for being "shackled" by public opinion:

In the second term, he felt Bush was moving away from him. He said Bush was shackled by the public reaction and the criticism he took. Bush was more malleable to that. The implication was that Bush had gone soft on him, or rather Bush had hardened against Cheney's advice. He'd showed an independence that Cheney didn't see coming. It was clear that Cheney's doctrine was cast-iron strength at all times -- never apologize, never explain -- and Bush moved toward the conciliatory.

Some conservatives rebut the argument, noting that Bush was nothing if not stubborn in the face of political and public opposition. Commenting on the story, Joe Scarborough pointed out on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that Bush was defiant about the surge in Iraq despite the polls.

But apparently Cheney, sometimes called the Darth Vader of American politics, even disagrees with his old boss about what constitutes a good book.

Told in one session that Bush, in his own memoirs, hoped to explore his personal feelings, Cheney responded that he had no intention of doing that.

"He sort of spat the word 'personal,' " said one person in the room.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Reuters

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It seems that, despite all the media attention lavished on e-mail appeals to his supporters, not everyone pushing for President Obama's embattled healthcare reform plan these warm August days is an idealistic volunteer in it for the sake of helping move the country forward and gaining medical attention for millions of uninsured Americans.

The website's large-type headline announces: "Work to Pass Obama's Healthcare Plan and Get Paid to Do it! $10-15 hr!"

It's a web ad on Craigslist: "You can work for change. Join motivated staff around the country working to make change happen. You can make great friends and money along the way. Earn $400-$600 a week."

So both sides appear to have paid lobbyists in this colossal summertime struggle for public opinion and control of the multi-billions flowing into the nation's burdened healthcare system.

The ad links to the Boston-based Fund for the Public Interest, an umbrella organization that rounds up people to round up support, money and signatures for all kinds of campaigns, including healthcare reform and the environment.

It's hiring and assigning canvassers to work in at least 28 states, including California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Oregon, Massachusetts, Minnesota and New Jersey.

"Now is our chance to make health care work," says the ad to recruit recruiters in support for the president's proposals. "America’s health care system is broken. Health care costs are spiraling out of control, throwing families, businesses and government into financial crisis.

"Families are worried their health coverage won’t be there when they need it. Our country can’t afford to wait for health reform that keeps costs down and protects consumers"

It sounds much like the president at one of his healthcare town halls; (next stops, Montana and Colorado). "We’re fighting for healthcare that will protect families’ financial health, lay out a clear path for all Americans to afford healthcare, and improve patient safety and quality care.

"Help make change happen," pleads the advertisement. "If you're good with people and feel passionately about the environment and human rights, you'll make money working for the Fund."

Sounds like an ideal kind of idealism, the profitable kind.

Meanwhile, a want ad memory:

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Top photo: A Massachusetts Obama supporter outside Obama's New Hampshire town hall this week discussing healthcare reform with opponents. Credit: Joel Page / Associated Press

Bottom: Obama speaks inside the high school. Credit: Alex Brandon / Associated Press

One day after enduring tirades from constituents in a town-hall meeting that erupted in vein-splitting anger directed at him, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania -- who just switched parties from Republican to Democrat in a state that can turn blue-to-red on a dime -- talked about the experience.

"It's more than healthcare," Specter said on CBS' "The Early Show." "I think there is a mood in America of anger with so many people unemployed, with so much bickering in Washington ... with the fear of losing their healthcare. It all boils over."

The Washington Post's Dan Balz agreed, calling the furor over healthcare reform "a proxy for an even larger fear" that the federal government is taking over the private-sector economy.

Some Democrats -- like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- accuse right-wing organizations of stirring up Tea Party activists with instructions to disrupt rather than debate, calling it "un-American." Texas Democrat Lloyd Doggett, who was peppered with angry questions last week, agrees. "This notion of a grass-roots campaign is totally and completely phony," he said. "The Republican Party has coordinated this apparent outrage and stirred it up."

But Missouri Democrat Claire McCaskill said it was "a huge mistake" for Democrats to call the protests "manufactured." True, she said, "both sides are organizing, but that's what we do in a democracy."

And the organizers insist they only tapped a vein of genuine anger.

"Those inside the Beltway need to know that you can't fake this sort of outrage outside the Beltway," said Max Papas of Freedom Works, one of the groups fanning the protests. "It only happens when they are very concerned about what is going on inside of Washington, and it's a clear sign that people are very concerned."

Whatever the reason, the town-hall meetings around the country on President Obama's healthcare reform  are offering a vivid display of rage.

In Georgia, moderate Democrat David Scott, an African American representing a majority-white district near Atlanta, had a contentious community meeting on healthcare recently. Tuesday, someone marked up a sign directing constituents to his office, defacing it with a swastika.

"We have got to make sure that the symbol of the swastika does not win, that the racial hatred that's bubbling up does not win this debate," Scott said. "There's so much hatred out there for President Obama."

As for McCaskill, at a town hall on Tuesday, voters shouted, frothed and stomped their feet at the centrist politician who is known as a common-sense moderate. At one point, constituents shouted down her explanations so completely that the senator asked if they wanted her to just go home. 

"I don't understand this rudeness," McCaskill said. "I honestly don't get it." Later, when a man shouted over another person's question, the senator said, "This can't be about who's the loudest."

With 20 more town halls scheduled for today, the protests are likely to continue. And maybe that's just the pull of the American tradition of dissent, the right to disagree with your political leaders without fear of retribution.

As Mary Ann Fieser of Hillsboro, Mo., who attended the McCaskill town hall, explained, "If they don't let us vent our frustrations out, they will have a revolution."

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: John Bazemore / Associated Press

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For those sentenced to watch every one of the president's summertime blizzard of healthcare town halls, the torpid gatherings turn out to offer as much drama, excitement and compelling interest as some new TV show called "Real Housewives of Amish Country."

Of course, the Obama infomercials -- hang on, there are two more this week alone, including one in Montana (Hello, Senate Finance Chair Max Baucus) -- are not meant as entertainment to compete with county fair fireworks, the confection conspiracies of reality shows or languid beach walks.

They are part of an unfolding continental struggle over lasting healthcare changes involving hundreds of billions of dollars and something even more valuable to the White House and Republicans: political prestige, heading into next year's crucial midterm elections. (When the party controlling the White House historically loses congressional seats.)

Ticket coverage of Tuesday's New Hampshire town hall is available here and the full Q and A transcript is here.

At the moment, Obama, as eloquent as he can be, appears to be playing PR defense, trying to prove that what most people have and think they like now in health insurance could possibly maybe not be there someday because of costs they don't now see and don't think they pay.

And as a result, they should jump over to his ill-defined new plan that even dozens of congressional Democrats have doubts over and Republicans and simply anti-Obamites are feeding fears about.

The White House's strategic problem is that the more many Americans learn about the incomplete reforms the less they understand them and, thus, the more they fear them. Which briefcase do you want, the imperfect but familiar one in your hand or another one around the corner that we can't show you right now? Trust us.

While Obama's poll popularity has slipped somewhat, the popularity of his keystone ...

It must have been music to the president's ears, a spontaneous crowd rendition of "Yes We Can!" from the crowd of 1,800 at Portsmouth High School in New Hampshire. "I remember that," he said with what sounded like a mixture of nostalgia and rue.

For the rest, President Obama's foray into the turmoil that has roiled town hall meetings across the country was a disappointment.

Outside the hall, protesters were loud and insistent. On a church lawn overlooking the high school, they toted signs that said "Hands Off My Healthcare," "Obamacare, It's to Die For," and "Obamacare, Down the Chute Granny."

But inside, questions were, well, polite. With his poll numbers slipping and public skepticism about healthcare reform growing, White House aides had hoped Obama would get a nasty question, like those that have greeted members of Congress on the issue. A tough question would have allowed the president to knock down some of the fears about his healthcare plan -- much as Bill Clinton did in calming voter fears that he was too liberal to be president by distancing himself from hip-hop artist Sister Souljah in 1992.

So, without a good pitch to hit, the president took batting practice -- setting up his own pitches and knocking down some of the myths that have stirred up fear.

On death care: The rumor about "death panels," Obama said, got started because of an amendment in the House bill -- authored by a Republican -- that would have allowed seniors to get Medicare reimbursement for consultations with doctors about end-of-life care like hospice and living wills. They are spreading a rumor, he said, that we want to "pull the plug on Grandma because we decided it's too expensive to let her live anymore."

"I am not in favor of that," Obama said, adding that the underlying argument -- rationing of care -- is at the core of opposition to healthcare reform, a fear that "some bureaucrat ... some bean counter" will decide whether a patient can get a test or procedure.

"I don't believe anyone should be in charge of your healthcare decisions except you and your doctor," he said. "I don't think government bureaucrats should be meddling. But I also don't think insurance company bureaucrats should be meddling."

On costs and taxes: "I won't sign a bill that adds to the deficit or the national debt," he said, belittling Republican critics in Congress who "say with a straight face that we've got to be fiscally responsible" when they supported the cost-heavy prescription drug bill enacted by the Bush administration. Noting that "paying for it is not simple," Obama argued that insurance companies are getting $177 billion a year in overpayments from Medicare that can serve as an important down payment on reform.

On the public option: There's "nothing inevitable" about a government-funded program forcing out private insurers as long as it's self-sustaining, Obama said, adding, "UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. It's the post office that's always having problems."

Finally, on the last question, a man from Derry, N.H., seemed to get Obama's goat when he asked about the new White House website and email address -- flag@whitehouse.gov -- that invites Americans to flag any misinformation circulating on the Internet on healthcare.

Calling it "another example of the media distorting" things, Obama said there is no intention to collect "an enemy's list," only to correct the record. "Come on guys," he said, "we're trying to be responsive to the questions being raised."

Obama has two more town hall appearances this week: On Friday, he does a town hall in Bozeman, Mont., and on Saturday he holds one in Grand Junction, Colo.

Maybe somebody will rail.

-- Johanna Neuman

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