It was very clear that the first family were focused on making their time worth it since they arrived in Maine on July 16, wherein they spent most of their time inside the park.Once they have landed, the first family started their weekend vacation by motorcading from the landing port to the park’s bike trail and spent one hour of biking. After spending an hour at the park, their motorcade went to the Mount Desert Island, and they also went to the Frenchman Bay for some boating.

Aside from that, the first family also hiked on the nature trail of the park, went for a swim on the pool, went lighthouse touring, ate lunch and had dinner at the restaurants in the harbor side and most importantly, they stopped for some ice cream. But the highlight of the weekend getaway of the first family was when they went to the Cadillac Mountain’s summit and witnessed the spectacular view of the granite hills.

While the dark times of the economy affects millions of lives in the United States, the hope that he gave to his supporters in the election of 2008 begins to fade away as well, together with the trademark of self-confidence of the Americans.As we speak, the number of people who are questioning the leadership capabilities of Obama grows, which is also partnered with other problems like the BP’s oil spill which is termed as the country’s worst disaster, the war in Afghanistan and the very high unemployment rate.

This led to the fear of the Democrats losing their control of the Senate and the House of Representatives in the upcoming November elections, which is backed up by results of polls during the recent weeks. Also, political analysts backed up this theory, but despite everything that is happening right now, Barack Obama still remains very popular.

It was recently when the president won from the landmark registration which revamped the regulations of the Wall Street, but he is still facing the challenge of having a lot of people lose confidence over his economy handling and he wants to show the citizens of the United States that he is aiming to reviving the growth of employment, and he is also planning on ending the down surge of the number of unemployed Americans. The Republicans are resisting the request of the president because they believe that this action should be included in the budget instead of deficit spending.

Obama also aims to put the Republicans in the line of defense with the upcoming congressional elections in November wherein the president’s Democrats are on the verge of suffering big losses. An official of the US government stated that the president will be talking about individuals who are in need of the said benefits, and Obama will also have powerful words for those Republicans who have extended the same benefits under the presidency of Republicans but denies the request of help for middle class individuals and families of today.

The donations were in different denominations ranging from 2 to 500 GBP, which averaged £32.79. Although he was successful in his campaign, Ed Miliband was not able to convince the rich into backing him up when they have pooled in their money to help his brother, David Miliband who was the front runner in the campaign and the shadow foreign secretary.The records of the Electoral Commission disclosed that David Miliband had the support of wealthy people in the UK which includes the supermarket tycoon Lord Sainsbury who was believed to have donated £31,000.

The donations received by David Miliband totaled £200,000, which overshadowed Ed Balls’ (shadow education secretary) ad Ed Miliband’s donations which were £30,000 and £15,000 respectively.On the other hand, two other candidates namely Diane Abbott and Andy Burnham ended up having received no donations. The campaign team of Ed Miliband is positive that they will raise enough money to support Miliband’s campaign by following the strategy of US president Barack Obama.

He also discussed the exploration of space with John Glenn, former senator and astronaut who orbited the planet aboard the Mercury spaceship back in 1962. On that same Monday night, the president and his first lady Michelle Obama hosted the Broadway salute which showcases the music from famous theatrical productions.Prior to his busy day Monday, the president called in last Sunday and asked for his fellow Americans to do community service to honor the 92nd birthday of Nelson Mandela.Barack Obama stated in his statement in the White House, “On behalf of the United States, I wish Nelson Mandela a very happy 92nd birthday”. Nelson Mandela is the former president of South Africa who was imprisoned for 27 years and after his sentence led his country and turned it to an all-race democratic voting from the white-minority rule.To end his greeting, Obama stated that on July 18, 2010, they will be celebrating the very first yearly Nelson Mandela International Day, which was earlier proclaimed by members of the United Nations.

The reasons for Obama not receiving the proper recognition and credit are complex. First of all, the economy is nowhere near normalcy; in fact in it is still in a very shaky state. Next, the approach he has taken - big government-big deficit - did not go down well with many of his supporters, especially the Independents. Finally, the backroom deal making was seen as a betrayal of his campaign promises and young idealists have lost faith in him as a result.However, all is not lost. Whatever Obama has done so far is with a view to fixing things in the long term.

As such they are not things that would have shown results immediately, which is why there is still hope for the beleaguered President. If all of the processes he has put into action bear fruit next year, Obama still could have a chance to be re-elected. Currently though, he has to sell the dream to the public and hope that they have the patience to stay with him - even if the dreams don’t come true before the next election.

The figure may be smaller than the Iraqi war cost of $708 billion, but it is mounting and it is expected to surpass the Iraqi figure if a solution isn’t arrived at in the near future. This is because Iraqi operations are winding down whereas Afghan operations are still in full flow.The end of the current fiscal year will see a significant fact emerging. For the first time ever, spending on Afghanistan will surpass spending in Iraq. $72.3 billion has been allocated to the former whereas $64.5 billion has been allocated to the latter. Currently the problem for lawmakers is justifying the expenditure. Their lack of faith in the Karzai government and its inefficiency in combating corruption could be an influential factor in future spending decisions.

The Obama Administration has tried to address this problem by pumping in $2.4 billion into the advanced battery industry. The injection of funds has turned the U.S. electric battery manufacturing industry into a potential world leader. Out of the 30 plants under construction now, 26 are beneficiaries of the funding and nine of those are lithium-ion plants. But there is a hitch. All of this is based on projections that the consumer market will switch to energy efficient cars in the coming years. That premise is based on the expectation that car manufacturers will churn out more and more electric cars. If those expectations and projections do not come through, the battery plan will create more of a mess than the one it was supposed to clear up.

But what is done is done and the President and his family certainly seem to have enjoyed their little break away from the daily routines. The Obama’s spent an action packed few days at Bay Harbor, Maine and the local residents were quite pleased with the visit. Friday was spent biking along a beautiful lake called Witch Hole Pond. The family then went for a drive up Cadillac Mountain to take in the view of Frenchman Bay. They then returned to the harbor for some ice cream and went for a boat ride in the bay. The ride had to be cut short as clouds gathered, fog rolled in and rain threatened. Saturday morning started out with a workout and then the family enjoyed some time at the pool. The President later took his daughters to visit the lighthouse that overlooks the harbor.

Using the filibuster in the Senate, a procedure which requires 60 votes out of the 100, Republicans have managed to obstruct a minimum of three initiatives that were designed to lengthen the period of unemployment insurance.

Their excuse for the move is a need to reduce government spending in light of the massive budget deficit. They also point out that more spending on top of the stimulus package was also unwise. The President criticized this move heavily and pointed out that in the last few weeks over 2 million Americans had lost their unemployment insurance.The reason why Obama is keen to extend unemployment insurance is linked to the stimulus package. The package was designed to bring the U.S. out of the recession and it has done that - but very slowly. Although job creation is one of his highest priorities, the slow progress has hurt Obama’s reputation as well as the Democrats. What all of this really boils down to is - re-election. With congressional elections looming in November and a Presidential election not far away from that, the Democrats and Obama face a very sobering loss if things don’t turn around. Currently the unemployment rate stands at 9.5 percent and it is this figure that Obama and his administration are desperately trying to reduce to stay alive.