By Steve Holland - Analysis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - From reluctant CEO to chief U.S. medical adviser, President Barack Obama showed how many hats he wears at a news conference marking his 100th day in office on Wednesday.

Shrugging off critics who say he has taken on too many tasks in his young presidency, Obama said all the issues had landed in his lap at the same time and had to be dealt with simultaneously:

* First off, he was his own U.S. surgeon general, since he has yet to appoint anyone to the job, offering common-sense advice to Americans on how to deal with the threat of swine flu.

"Wash your hands when you shake hands, cover your mouth when you cough. I know it sounds trivial but it makes a huge difference," he said. "If you are sick, stay home. If your child is sick, keep them out of school."

* Obama was the top U.S. human rights advocate, saying the interrogation technique known as waterboarding used during the Bush administration is torture and questioned its use.

Those who insist the techniques gained useful information from terrorism suspects that saved lives fail to answer a core question, he said.

"Which is: could we have gotten that same information without resorting to these techniques? And it doesn't answer the broader question, are we safer as a consequence of having used these techniques?"

* The president, who taught law at the University of Chicago, showed himself to be a bit of a philosophy professor, talking about how he wants to leave behind a legacy of change, that he hopes in 10 or 20 years the next generation will look back and see this was a period of transformation.

"This metaphor has been used before, but the ship of state is an ocean liner. It's not a speedboat," he said.

TOP DEMOCRAT

* Which brings us to the next hat he wore, a comfortable one called top Democrat.

Obama came to the news conference reveling in an approval rating well over 60 percent, his Republican opponents held at bay and their numbers reduced, what with the defection on Tuesday of Senator Arlen Specter to the Democratic side.

"I do think that, to my Republican friends, I want them to realize that me reaching out to them has been genuine. I can't sort of define bipartisanship as simply being willing to accept certain theories of theirs that we tried for eight years and didn't work and the American people voted to change," he said.

* Along those lines, he reprised a familiar role from his Chicago past -- community organizer, trying to get politicians in Washington to come together for the common good at least until lawmakers start seeking re-election in 2010.

"I would like to think that everybody would say, you know what, let's take a time-out on some of the political games, focus our attention for at least this year, and then we can start running for something next year. And that hasn't happened as much as I would have liked," he said.

By Louis Charbonneau

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States cannot solve world problems alone and will work with the United Nations to fight terrorism, poverty and other major challenges, the U.S. envoy to the international body said on Wednesday.

In a speech at New York University, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said Washington must lead by example, acknowledge its mistakes, change its policies and strategies when necessary and treat others with respect.

"The global challenges we face cannot be tackled without U.S. leadership," Rice said. "(But) while U.S. leadership is necessary, it is rarely sufficient. We need the effective cooperation of a broad range of friends and partners."

U.S. President Barack Obama has promised a "new era of engagement" with the United Nations, which was often criticized and occasionally ridiculed by members in the administration of former President George W. Bush.

Rice said the new administration would avoid the "condescension and contempt" that she said had crept into U.S. government attitudes toward the international community. She did not specifically mention Bush or his administration.

"Everyone notices when a superpower becomes an agent of change -- in word and deed, in policy and tone," she said. "We are demonstrating that the United States is willing to listen, respect differences, and consider new ideas."

She noted how Washington had decided to join the U.N. Human Rights Council, which the Bush administration spurned as an anti-Israel forum, as an example of the new approach to world issues.

"We work for change from within rather than criticizing from the sidelines," Rice said. "We stand strong in defense of America's interests and values, but we don't dissent just to be contrary. We listen to states, great and small. We build coalitions. We meet our responsibilities. We pay our bills."

Last week Rice announced that Washington would hand over more than $2 billion in new and old contributions owed to the U.N. peacekeeping department.

Relations between the United States and the world body reached a low point in 2003, the year of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan branded the war an illegal act by the Bush administration.

Rice said the 192-nation United Nations needed reform, continued to single out Israel for criticism and let "political theater distract from real deliberation," but she also described it as an "imperfect yet indispensable institution."

"There is no substitute for the legitimacy the U.N. can impart or its potential to mobilize the widest possible coalitions," she said. "There is no better alternative to sharing the costs and burdens of U.N. peace operations and humanitarian missions around the world."

Among the problems at the United Nations are a Security Council that remains divided on the conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region, Zimbabwe's reconstruction efforts, the military government in Myanmar and other issues.

By Sue Pleming and Felix Onuah

ABUJA (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Wednesday blamed failed government for Nigeria's huge poverty gap and urged Africa's most populous nation to toughen up on corruption and fix a "flawed" electoral system.

Clinton said Nigeria -- the continent's biggest energy producer and its second biggest economy -- should rank among the world's most important developing nations but its reputation for graft undermined its international standing.

"The most immediate source of the disconnect between Nigeria's wealth and its poverty is a failure of governance at federal, state and local level," she said in a speech at a town hall meeting of several hundred civil society leaders.

"Nigeria should be in a position to be part of the G20 but -- a big but -- the corruption reputation ... it is a problem," she said in the capital Abuja, after meeting earlier with President Umaru Yar'Adua and his foreign minister.

Mismanagement and graft over decades have imperiled Nigeria's development, deterred investment, undermined democracy and deepened conflicts such as the insurgency in the southern Niger Delta and bouts of religious violence in the north.

Clinton said the World Bank had concluded in a recent report that Nigeria had lost more than $300 billion over the past three decades as a result of corruption and other problems.

Citing United Nations figures, she said the poverty rate had risen to 76 percent from 46 percent over the past 13 years alone despite the country pumping 2 million barrels per day of oil.

Clinton said Washington was keen to support efforts to increase transparency and bolster democracy before national polls in 2011 and said the two countries planned a commission to tackle issues from Niger Delta violence to electoral reform.

Nigerian Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe described the talks between Clinton and Yar'Adua as "candid, encouraging and mutually inspiring" and said the Nigerian president had acknowledged there were major issues to face.

"Electoral reforms and commitment to the rule of law, the fight against corruption -- the president acknowledged that we have serious challenges there," Maduekwe told reporters.

TURBULENT OIL DELTA

Corruption has been a theme of Clinton's trip to seven African countries, echoing U.S. President Barack Obama when he visited Ghana last month. U.S. officials had said Clinton would take a tougher line in private than in public with Washington's fifth biggest oil supplier.

In the decade since the end of military rule, elections have been far from exemplary in a country that considers itself the biggest democracy in the black world.

The April 2007 polls that brought Yar'Adua to power were so marred by ballot-stuffing and voter intimidation that observers said they were not credible. A reform bill before parliament is meant to avoid a repeat performance in 2011 polls.

Besides good governance, Clinton said Nigeria's future also depended on "respect and understanding among religions, particularly among Islam and Christianity."

Posted by: Jeff Mason
President Barack Obama awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, considered the highest U.S. civilian honor, to 16 people on Wednesday including a celebrated scientist, the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court, a gay rights pioneer, and a top leader against apartheid in South Africa.

“There are many honors and privileges bestowed on the occupant of this house, but few mean as much to me as the chance to award America’s highest civilian medal to the recipients that are here today,” Obama said during a ceremony at the White House. OBAMA/

“This is a chance for me — and for the United States of America — to say thank you to some of the finest citizens of this country, and of all countries,” he said.

Honorees included scientist Stephen Hawking, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, deceased gay rights campaigner Harvey Milk, and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu of South Africa.

The honorees were not invited to speak during the ceremony, but one slipped in a few words anyway. Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow - High Bird, wearing a headdress of brightly colored feathers that created a challenge for the president in draping the medal around his neck, moved over to the microphones to declare the he was deeply honored. Obama, smiling, gently maneuvered him away from the podium and back towards his seat.

Other awardees included breast cancer activist Nancy G. Brinker; doctor to the homeless Pedro Jose “Joe” Greer, Jr.; sports star and former Republican vice presidential nominee Jack Kemp, now deceased; healthcare advocate and longtime Senate statesman Edward Kennedy, who was represented by his daughter; tennis great Billie Jean King; civil rights activist Reverend Joseph Lowery; acclaimed actor Sidney Poitier; actress and dancer Chita Rivera; former president of Ireland, Mary Robinson; cancer scientist Dr. Janet Davison Rowley; and microcredit pioneer Muhammad Yunus.

By Peter Henderson

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The biggest California gay rights advocacy group on Wednesday said it needed three years to build a coalition to repeal a ban on same-sex marriage in the state, creating a rift in the movement with those who want to go back to the polls next year while anger is hot.

California, the most populous state and often a standard-bearer for social liberalism, is the biggest prize in U.S. culture wars. Its next fight over gay marriage is sure to draw in national organizations, cost $100 million or more, and may affect the next U.S. presidential campaign if it takes place in 2012.

California's November 2008 vote to ban same-sex marriage, months after the state's top court legalized it, bolstered the power of social conservatives and sparked nationwide protests among gays and their allies. It was followed by legalization of gay marriage in a handful of mostly Northeastern states and a court challenge aimed at the U.S. Supreme Court.

"It takes time, commitment and lots of lots of volunteers to undo the untruths that our opponents have been telling," said Marc Solomon, marriage director of Equality California, in a conference call. "We can have majority support by 2012."

His group raised the most money and led the 2008 campaign against Proposition 8, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman and was approved by California voters.

Big donors are not ready to fund a new fight so soon after failure, and a door-to-door campaign will take time, he said. A bigger turnout in the 2012 presidential election year, as well as more younger voters, will add 4 percentage points to the margin of victory, the group estimated.

GRASS-ROOTS WON'T WAIT

But smaller groups have said waiting will sap momentum among gays and their allies still smarting from the unexpected ballot results. They vowed to mount a 2010 challenge, which would coincide with federal mid-term elections.

"This is not some kitchen table group. If you stop that momentum now, those people won't necessarily be there in 2012 when you decide to start your campaign back up," John Henning, executive director of Love Honor Cherish, said ahead of Equality California's expected announcement.

Henning's group has a plan to gather more than a million signatures with volunteers and says a $32 million war chest would be enough to win the fight.

The California debate reflects a national question over how solid opposition is to same-sex marriage. Many advocates say that exposure to stable same-sex couples and assurances that churches will not be forced to marry gays will convince a silent majority that anyone should be able to marry. But most states explicitly ban such gay unions, and have often done so by popular vote.

Activism among gay rights groups has intensified since the November defeat in California, but social conservatives with deep pockets and legendary organizational skills are preparing for the next fight, too.

"California will continuously stay in play and it is a big prize," said Tom McClusky, vice president of the legislative arm of the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian lobby. "Of course we would be willing to go toe to toe again."

ProtectMarriage.com, which helped coordinate passage of the ban, scoffed at the division among gay marriage advocates. "While the other side issues many press releases about their activity, we are quietly but effectively building on our majority in California," it said in a statement.

Proponents of the 2010 challenge say the decision will be made from the bottom up and that big groups will join as a campaign plan is laid out and early efforts show success.

(CNN) -- The question may have been lost in translation, but a visibly angry Secretary of State Hillary Clinton bluntly told a town-hall meeting in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday, "I will you tell you my opinion, I'm not going to channel my husband.
The unscripted moment happened as Clinton spoke to students at a Congolese university in Kinshasa, the Congo capital.

A male student rose to ask a question about Chinese financial contracts with Congo.

The student asked Clinton what President Obama would think of the deal, but pool reporters in the room said the translator made a mistake, posing the question as what would Bill Clinton think.

Clinton looked surprised when she first heard the translation in the headset, and then sharply replied, "You want me to tell you what my husband thinks? My husband is not the secretary of state, I am. You ask my opinion. I will tell you my opinion; I'm not going to channel my husband." Video Watch Clinton react to question »

At the State Department, Assistant Secretary P.J. Crowley said the question she heard "struck a nerve," that her opinion on the matter was apparently of less interest than that of her husband, the former president.

Crowley told CNN that Clinton's answer must be considered in the context of her African trip.

"The secretary of state is going to Goma Tuesday, to draw attention to the plight of women who are victims of rape as a weapon of war" in Congo, Crowley said.
"She did react to what she heard," Crowley explained, but regardless that the interpreter may have gotten it wrong, "you can't separate the question from the setting."

He said "If Africa, if Congo is going to advance, women have to play a more significant role. She was in the setting of a town hall, and the questioner was interested in what two men thought, not the secretary of state."
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Crowley, who has just returned to Washington after traveling with Clinton during the first part of her trip to Africa, said the State Department has not yet reviewed recordings of the original question, in French, to learn whether the student clearly intended the question to refer to Obama, not former President Clinton.

"She did talk with the student afterward, and they seemed to have reached an understanding," Crowley said.

To: Interested parties
From: John King, CNN chief national correspondent
Re: Monday Memo
(CNN) -- Interesting tests for President Obama on the world and domestic stages top the look at the week ahead, but the nation's political mood could be shaped just as much by the earnings reports from a few big retailers.

Last week, Obama found a glimmer of hope in the Labor Department report showing a small dip in the national unemployment rate and a less drastic bleeding of jobs from the economy. To be clear, 247,000 more Americans were thrown out of work in July. But the number of job losses had been double that or more in some months of late, so the White House saw the change as evidence the worst is over.

But consumer confidence remains low, something Republican pollster Bill McInturff believes will be a drag on Obama's political standing for some time.

As McInturff put it: "I've done a lot of work looking at consumer confidence, and there's only been four times since post-World War II that numbers have been this bad. Every other time that they've been this bad, it's taken between two to four years to improve.

"We've had 17 months. We have a long, long way to go, historically, before these numbers get better. And the problem for the president is not this year but next summer. And by next summer, people are going to have, kind of, a fuzzy memory of George Bush, and it will be the 'Obama Administration economy'."

With that in mind, it won't just be Wall Street looking deep for any evidence of an uptick in spending when Wal-Mart, Macy's and JC Penney, among others, release their earnings.
Obama opens the week in Mexico for a summit with the leaders of Mexico and Canada. The economy will be the top issue, and other items on the agenda include preparations for the next wave of the H1N1 flu virus and efforts to help Mexico deal with its drug cartel violence.

By Tuesday, it will be back into the trenches of the health care reform debate and back to New Hampshire for his first visit as president.

With the health care debate crackling at meetings being held by members of Congress home for the August recess, what Obama says at a town hall of his own will be closely watched.

More topics to watch:

• Whether the president will add anything publicly to what some of his advisers are discussing more and more privately -- the possibility the votes aren't there to pass a so-called "public option" in the Senate.

Obama has long held out such a government insurance option as critical to compete with private insurers and drive down costs, but finding the votes is proving difficult.

Obama's closest friend in the Senate, Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin, told CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday that he's open to legislation without a public option if Democrats can't find the votes to pass a bill more to his liking.

"Just understand that after we pass this bill, and I hope we do in the Senate, it will go to conference committee, we'll have a chance to work out all of our differences," Durbin said. "So we'll see how this ends, but I don't want the process to be filibustered to failure, which unfortunately, many senators are trying to do. I want to make sure we do something positive for the American people."

• Whether Obama has anything to say about the vocal complaints and disruptions at many town halls hosted by Democrats. Video Watch senators discuss town hall meetings »

Top House Democrats have called these "manufactured" outbursts coordinated by foes of the president's approach, but other Democrats have said they see little to be gained by such attacks and should try to turn the focus back to the policy choices.

The week will close with additional government data for the debate over whether the economy is beginning to bounce back:

• On Thursday, the Commerce Department releases its report on retail sales in July.

• On Friday, the Labor Department offers its latest Consumer Price Indexes report -- the government's barometer of inflation.

GUADALAJARA, Mexico (CNN) -- President Obama said Monday the United States remains Mexico's partner in the fight against drug cartels, despite some calls in the United States to delay counter-narcotics aid because of alleged human rights violations by Mexican soldiers.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon reaffirmed his commitment to transparency and human rights in his offensive against the cartels, Obama said.

Some $100 million in anti-drug aid, known as the Merida Initiative, could be delayed because of concerns about human rights violations, it was reported last week.

"We have been very supportive of the Merida Initiative, and we remain supportive," Obama said.

Obama also said the United States would work to reduce demand for drugs and stop the illegal flow of weapons south to Mexico.

The remarks came at a summit of North American leaders in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper also expressed support for Mexico's strategy, saying that the drug cartels were a problem shared by all three countries.

Turning to immigration, Obama said he is committed to "fix the broken immigration system."
The three North American countries depend on their borders being safe and secure, Obama said, adding that he supports "orderly and legal" migration, while respecting the American tradition of welcoming immigrants.

He also responded to critics who say that the United States has not been forceful enough in demanding the return of ousted Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya to power, calling them hypocritical.

"The same critics who say that the United States has not intervened enough in Honduras, are the same people who say that we're always intervening and that Yankees need to get out of Latin America. You can't have it both ways," Obama said.

"We have been very clear in our belief that President Zelaya was removed from office illegally, that it was a coup, and that he should return," Obama said.

The United Nations and Organization of American States, including the United States, have called for Zelaya's return, but more than one month later, the interim government of Roberto Micheletti remains firm and talks between the two sides have so far been unsuccessful.

Harper agreed with Obama's stance.

The United States has very clearly stated its position while letting a multilateral process take the lead, he said.

"That's precisely what we want to see from the United States," Harper said.

Turning to trade, Obama said a "Buy American" provision in his economic stimulus plan had little effect so far on the multibillion-dollar trade partnership with Canada.

Obama told journalists that Harper has raised the issue every time they have met.

Harper has complained the "Buy American" provision is protectionist and could harm trade relations between the closely linked North American economies.

"This in no way this has endangered the billions of dollars of trade taking place between our two countries," Obama said, standing beside Harper and Calderon at a final news conference.

Harper responded to the same question by saying the leaders had a good discussion on the issue, and their respective trade ministers also were talking about it.

Canada is the top trade partner of the United States, with cross-border commerce worth more than $1 billion a day.

The $787-billion stimulus package enacted in February included a provision that only American goods be used in stimulus projects. It also stipulated that the measure would not override existing U.S. trade treaties such as the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Obama also talked about comparisons between the U.S. and Canadian health care systems, saying Canada's government-run health care model won't work in the United States. "We've got to develop a uniquely American approach to this problem," he said.

Opponents of health care legislation in the U.S. House and Senate say it will lead to a single-payer system like the government-run program in Canada, with some warning the Canadian system means restrictions on treatments and long delays.

Obama noted the U.S. system is based on employers providing health insurance for most Americans. Throwing that out would be too radical an overhaul, he said.

However, he said he expects opponents of health care legislation to continue to make what he called the misleading comparison between proposed U.S. legislation and Canada's system.

"I suspect that you Canadians are going to continue to get dragged into the debate," he said.