Oct. 30, 2009: The President plays peek-a-boo with the daughter of White House staffer Emmett Beliveau in the Outer Oval Office.” (Official White House photo by Pete Souza)
President Obama will also record inteviews with NBC, CBS and ABC while he is in New York.
…And it still is. That has not changed.
When I think of the things he has been able to accomplish, in a very very negative political cycle … it amazes me….
…Because there is so much more left to be done does not for diminish how much that vote meant to me, and still does.. and how much I appreciate the progress we have made.
It is easy to be in the parade when the sun is shining, it is tough to keep walking when the storm clouds roll in.
***
A post by Peacetrain at a site (I refuse to link) now overrun by Professional Left types who opposed Barack Obama from the first day they laid eyes on him … so you can imagine the reaction to this post.
Love ya Peacetrain.
(Night everyone – again!)
Really insightful, scholarly reporting from Politico’s Julie Mason on the President’s speech tonight.
Kidding.
The race-obsessed Mason listened (presumably) to this incredibly important speech (you know, about America’s intervention when innocents were being slaughtered by a murderous dictator, and trivial stuff like that) and she shared two observations:
(1) The President used three teleprompters
and
(2) “The president also appeared to be wearing makeup – a concession to television he reportedly loathes and goes to some lengths to avoid. The fact they got some on him is another of those small but revealing clues about how seriously the White House took this speech.”
Honest, I’m not making this up.
I’m just surprised she didn’t comment on the color of the President’s tie. (“Commie red!!!) Or complain that he didn’t produce his birth certificate half-way through the speech.
Truly, this woman is just an embarrassment, a pitiful joke – she should be working for a Birther magazine that gives make-up tips. I think it’s fair to guess she hadn’t heard of Libya until last week.
****
PS Look at the photo and caption used for her bile tonight:
Seriously Julie, you need to take hate-management classes 😉
“To brush aside America’s responsibility as a leader and – more profoundly – our responsibilities to our fellow human beings under such circumstances would have been a betrayal of who we are. Some nations may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The United States of America is different. And as President, I refused to wait for the images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action.”
Text of speech here
“The United States will not be able to dictate the pace and scope of this change. Only the people of the region can do that. But we can make a difference. I believe that this movement of change cannot be turned back, and that we must stand alongside those who believe in the same core principles that have guided us through many storms: our opposition to violence directed against one’s own citizens; our support for a set of universal rights, including the freedom for people to express themselves and choose their leaders; our support for governments that are ultimately responsive to the aspirations of the people.
Born, as we are, out of a revolution by those who longed to be free, we welcome the fact that history is on the move in the Middle East and North Africa, and that young people are leading the way. Because wherever people long to be free, they will find a friend in the United States. Ultimately, it is that faith – those ideals – that are the true measure of American leadership.”
“…..But let us also remember that for generations, we have done the hard work of protecting our own people, as well as millions around the globe. We have done so because we know that our own future is safer and brighter if more of mankind can live with the bright light of freedom and dignity. Tonight, let us give thanks for the Americans who are serving through these trying times, and the coalition that is carrying our effort forward; and let us look to the future with confidence and hope not only for our own country, but for all those yearning for freedom around the world.”
President Barack Obama speaks about Libya at the National Defense University in Washington, March 28
President Barack Obama shakes hands with military officers after he spoke on Libya at the National Defense University in Washington
BWD has a live discussion thread on the President’s address at The Only Adult in the Room
BWD posted a link earlier to this wonderful post at Salon:
Tonight, when the President speaks to the nation about Libya, let’s do something different.
Let’s listen. Let’s listen, and then turn the television off and think about what he’s said. Mull it over in your mind, but only after having watched the thing and having imagined that the President was really talking to you.
You see, a lot of helpful people in the media think the viewing public is stupid. Well, a lot of them damned well know it. And the ones who don’t, have actually convinced the viewing public that, because they happen to be celebrity talking head on television, they know far more and far better what the President wants to say to you, and so they give you their interpretation and tell you that’s what he really, really, really meant to say…..
The rest of the post here
Steve Benen: In case it seemed the freak-show qualities of the GOP field couldn’t get worse, also note that disgraced former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, kicked off the bench for refusing to acknowledge federal law, is also interested in launching a presidential exploratory committee.
WSJ: Remember Judge Roy Moore? He was the Alabama Supreme Court chief justice removed from office over the Ten Commandments monument he erected outside the state courthouse. Now, he’s about to jump into the presidential election in Iowa…
Eight years after a state panel removed him from the bench over the commandments spat, and five years after he lost in the Republican primary in the Alabama governor’s race, the 64-year-old judge is preparing to launch a presidential exploratory committee and enter the Iowa fray, according to multiple Iowa GOP officials.
Judge Moore’s entry in Iowa will only intensify the feverish competition among GOP hopefuls for the state’s large bloc of evangelical voters … the pack this time is likely to include former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, Texas Rep. Ron Paul and former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain. Judge Moore could bring the field to six…
A child of a pro-Gadhafi soldier, Tripoli, March 6
Peter Beinart: There are plenty of smart objections to America’s Libya intervention. But when President Obama addresses the nation on Monday night, he should rebut the stupidest one: that America shouldn’t wage humanitarian war in Libya because we’re not doing so in Congo, Zimbabwe and every other nasty dictatorship on earth.
The consistency argument … has nothing to do with Congo and Zimbabwe. Most of the people who invoke those ill-fated countries showed no interest in them before the Libya debate and will go back to ignoring them once Libya is off the front page. Ask someone who demands moral consistency in humanitarian war how exactly they propose to intervene in Congo and you will quickly realize that the call for moral consistency is actually a call for immoral consistency.
The point of invoking the horrors of Congo is not to convince the US to act to stop the horrors of Congo; it is to ensure that, out of respect for the raped, murdered and maimed in Central Africa, we allow innocents to be raped, murdered and maimed in North Africa as well….
There will always be horrors that outside powers cannot or will not prevent. But the fact that they cannot be stopped everywhere is no reason not to try to stop them somewhere.
….humanitarian war is not possible everywhere because war is never waged for humanitarian reasons alone. There is nothing strange or scandalous, for instance, about considering logistics. NATO is intervening in Libya in part because Libya lies relatively close to the NATO countries that are doing the intervening, as did Bosnia and Kosovo. That means the operation can be done more cheaply, at less risk to American and European lives, and with a greater chance of success, than in Zimbabwe or Congo. Those are all valid considerations, as valid as a doctor choosing to operate on the patient he has the best chance of saving.
…There will always be horrors that outside powers cannot or will not prevent. But the fact that they cannot be stopped everywhere is no reason not to try to stop them somewhere. And showing that they can be stopped somewhere – first in Bosnia and Kosovo, hopefully now in Libya – may make dictators pause to reflect that they could be next. That’s moral progress, which in the ugly, real world is a pretty impressive thing.
More here
President Barack Obama with Univision news anchor Jorge Ramos, during a town hall with students, parents and teachers at Bell Multicultural High School, in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, March 28
Bloomberg: President Barack Obama said bolstering the education system is as crucial to the U.S. as keeping defense strong, saying “we won’t be able to project military strength or any other kind of strength” without an educated population.
“Over the last 10 years the defense budget was going up much more quickly than our education budget,” Obama said at a discussion with about 600 students, parents and teachers in Washington. “We are only going to be as strong as we are here at home.”
The president was speaking at a town hall-style event that is part of an administration campaign to make the case that improving the education system is vital to the nation’s future….
The question-and-answer session is scheduled for broadcast at 7 p.m. Washington time on Univision…
Asked to preview his speech on Libya, the president repeated his message that U.S. involvement in Libya “is going to be limited both in time and in scope.”
…Obama said he’s proposed putting more money in his fiscal 2012 budget proposal for early childhood education even as other federal programs are being frozen or cut.
…he said he still believes the Dream Act can be passed …. “We’ve got to keep the pressure up on Congress,” he said, urging Hispanics to contact members of Congress to contact their lawmakers to help get it passed. He said the immigration system is “broken right now” and he said there has to be “pathway to citizenship” to immigrants to the U.S. even while borders are being secured.
The president has called on Congress to overhaul the country’s signature education law, known as No Child Left Behind, before the start of the next school year. Duncan said the law is too punitive and it needs to be more flexible and reward success.
In response to an audience question the President said he has an iPad and a BlackBerry, but he took off the latter before the start of the program
“I didn’t want it going off during the show.”
Asked if he owns a personal computer, Obama replied, “I’m the president of the United States, you think I don’t have a computer?” to laughter.
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