night everyone

President Barack Obama meets with staff in the Oval Office, May 11. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

****

Thursday:

The President’s town hall from today airs at 8:00 AM on CBS

In the morning, the President will deliver remarks at the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast at the Mellon Auditorium.

Later in the morning, the President and the Vice President will meet with the Senate Republican Caucus in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building to discuss his legislative agenda and look for common ground on important issues

In the afternoon, the President and the Vice President will honor the National Association of Police Organizations (NAPO) TOP COPS in the Rose Garden.

Later, the President will meet with the Congressional Black Caucus.

Later in the day, the President is interviewed by Telemundo.

Afterwards, the President will be interviewed by KINC Univision/Entravision Las Vegas, WLTV Univision 23 Miami and Telemundo Dallas.

****

****

Thank you sooooooooo much again to everyone who donated to Obama/Biden 2012 through The Obama Diary page on OFA – we reached our $1,000 target last night, just a couple of days after setting the page up, which was completely brilliant 😉

Some of you very kindly got in touch today to ask me to up the limit from $1,000 so that they could donate too, so I’ve done that – thank you again.

I’m going to spare you all these reminders about the fundraiser, I’ve just put a link to the OFA page in the sidebar on the right, so if you ever have a spare $10 or so and feel like donating that would be great.

The legend that is Meta also has a fundraising page at OFA – here – which is heading towards $5,000. You’re a star, Meta.

****

This is for Suzanne:

Music: Nocturne by Secret Garden

****

I’ll post videos from the Poetry night at the White House as soon as they appear on YouTube

****

See you tomorrow 😉

poetry night (full video added)

President Obama speaks during a celebration of American poetry and prose at the White House, May 11

poetry (video added)

Amiee Mann performs for students from around the country at a White House poetry, music and arts workshop held by First Lady Michelle Obama, May 11

Amiee Mann

Mexico’s first lady Margarita Zavala

50+

Reuters: President Barack Obama comes out ahead against the field of potential Republican hopefuls for the 2012 presidential election, with more than a 10-point lead over the closest of the pack – Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

When Obama was pitted against each possible Republican candidate, he scored more than 50 percent. His highest rating came against Donald Trump with 57 percent saying they would vote for Obama versus 30 percent for the New York real estate magnate….

***

UPI: President Barack Obama could win six key states against all but one of four potential GOP opponents, a Marist poll released Wednesday indicates.

The Marist Institute for Pubic Opinion found that Obama is leading in 23 out of 24 hypothetical match-ups tested in six of the nine states that George W. Bush won in 2004 and Obama won in 2008.

The president leads former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in Florida, Iowa, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia.

Match-ups also have him leading former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

The only potential GOP candidate the president currently trails is former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and it is only by one point in the state of North Carolina.

…Marist said with the exception of Huckabee, voters in the six states generally do not like Republicans running for president.

(Thank you Donna Dem)

townhall

*** The town hall airs at 8:00 AM Thursday on CBS ***

President Barack Obama with CBS News correspondent Harry Smith and Early Show co-anchor Erica Hill during a break at a CBS News Town Hall Meeting on the economy, May 11, at the Newseum in Washington

heads up

Live here

‘live by the freak show, die by the freak show’

Greg Sargent (Washington Post): A funny number from Gallup, which finds that Donald Trump’s “positive intensity score” among Republicans and GOP leaners has plummetted to a lower level than that of any other 2012 GOP presidential hopeful: “….Trump has the unenviable distinction of receiving a Positive Intensity Score of 0 ….”

And let’s not forget that all this was followed by the killing of Osama Bin Laden.

….What a ride! At first the Donald skillfully played the media, adopting a strategy of deliberately tracking in lurid, freak-show-friendly falsehoods in the full knowledge that the resulting media attention – even if negative – would buoy his presidential hopes among GOP primary voters. At first, it worked. But Trump was defined by the freak show, too, and his antics quickly came to look pathetically buffoonish and small when reality – Obama’s birth certificate, the killing of Bin Laden – came along and popped Trump’s balloon, causing him to crash back down to earth.

Live by the freak show, die by the freak show.

Full article here

****

My most loved finding in that poll is that 4% of Republicans still don’t ‘recognize’ Sarah Palin’s name and 2% have never heard of Donald Trump …. hey, aren’t they lucky! 😉

oh, these people…..

hiya

Hey everyone, I won’t be able to catch up with your emails until later today, just wanted you to know I’m not ignoring them! Talk to you all later 😉

morning!

In case anyone missed it, I added the video of the President’s speech in Austin here last night

****

President Obama will take questions at a CBS News town hall Wednesday afternoon, but we won’t get to hear any of his answers until Thursday morning. The forum, which will be taped at the Newseum, is embargoed until it’s shown on the “Early Show” at 8 a.m. Thursday.

****

****

Time: President Barack Obama’s approval rating has hit its highest point in two years — 60 percent — and more than half of Americans now say he deserves to be re-elected, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll taken after U.S. forces killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

In worrisome signs for Republicans, the president’s standing improved not just on foreign policy but also on the economy, and independent Americans — a key voting bloc in the November 2012 presidential election — caused the overall uptick in support by sliding back to Obama after fleeing for much of the past two years.

Comfortable majorities of the public now call Obama a strong leader who will keep America safe. Nearly three-fourths — 73 percent — also now say they are confident that Obama can effectively handle terrorist threats. And he improved his standing on Afghanistan, Iraq and the United States’ relationships with other countries.

Despite a sluggish recovery from the Great Recession, 52 percent of Americans now approve of Obama’s stewardship of the economy, giving him his best rating on that issue since the early days of his presidency; 52 percent also now like how he’s handling the nation’s stubbornly high 9 percent unemployment.

Full article here

***

PPP