let’s move newark!

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First Lady Michelle Obama visits Maple Avenue School in Newark as part of her Let’s Move! initiative to reduce childhood obesity

up and running

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First Lady Michelle Obama exercises with Harlem children at a “Let’s Move” event at the New York Police Athletic Center in New York City on November 18

mr president? you have permission to brag ;-)

President Barack Obama makes an announcement about the success of the government bailout for GM on November 18, 2010. General Motors stock began trading today at the New York Stock Exchange recovering from bankruptcy and a bailout

Text of remarks

‘true to his word’

Newsweek: Note to critics: Read (or reread) his books. Obama is doing just what he said he would do.

Extracts:

….the president’s critics on the right deride him as a radical socialist seething with anti-American rage….to the left, Obama is a tragic failure who squandered his chance for dramatic change…. even at odds with his own principles….

….yet Obama is doing exactly what he said he would do. Perhaps the critics should read—or reread—the president’s own books.…. almost everything you need to know about Obama is there on the printed page…

….in contrast to the charges coming now from right and left, Obama is neither a rigid ideologue nor a spineless wimp. The Obama who wrote Dreams and Audacity stands in a long tradition of American reform, wary of absolutes and universals, and committed to a Christian tradition that prizes humility and social service over dogmatic statements of unbending principle…..

…throughout his career, Obama has refused to demonize his opponents. Instead, he has sought them out and listened to them. He has tried to understand how they think and why they see the world as they do. His mother encouraged this sense of empathy ….since January 2009, Obama has watched his efforts at reconciliation, experimentation, and consensus-building bounce off the hard surfaces of political self-interest and entrenched partisanship, but there is no reason to think he will abandon that strategy now….

…the shrill tone of Obama’s critics makes reading his books especially illuminating today. In Audacity, Obama explained why, because of our national traditions, the United States would never have a single-payer health-care system and would have to find a distinctively American hybrid relying on existing insurance plans. That’s what we have now. He explained why, although he favors regulation to protect against abuses, he rules out socialism and remains firmly committed to a market economy. His financial reforms follow that pattern….

…after almost two years as president, Obama has failed to satisfy the left for the same reason that he has antagonized the right. He does not share their self-righteous certainty. Neither his personal restraint nor the achievements of his administration should surprise anyone who has read his books….

…in November 2010, President Obama remains the man who wrote Dreams and Audacity, a resolute champion of moderation, experimentation, and deliberative, nondogmatic democracy. It’s just that the distorting mirrors of political commentary in America’s fun house can make it hard to recognize him….

Full article here (worth reading every word, it’s brilliant)

ok, i’m not fonda henry, but…..

…..if he helps persuade Teapublicans to ratify the START deal with Russia…well, na, I still won’t like him 😐

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger listens as President Barack Obama hosts a meeting to discuss the importance of the passage of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington November 18

From left on the far side of the table are: former US Senator Sam Nunn, former US Secretary of State James Baker, Vice President Joe Biden, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, US Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General James Cartwright, former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft

it’s just as well he’s young….

President Obama will leave Thursday for Lisbon, Portugal, to attend the NATO and European Union summits. He is scheduled to leave around 11:30 p.m. The last item on his public schedule is a meeting in the Oval Office with Vice President Biden and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.