The uninsured rate is the lowest it's been in decades, thanks to #Obamacare. Spread the word. https://t.co/cxdbkiOqbq pic.twitter.com/zH364SozNu
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 7, 2016
10
Oct
16
168 Responses to “Early Bird Chat”
Comments are currently closed.
Obama White House.gov
- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
WH Tumblr
- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
The People’s View
- Follow me at my new venture: Reclaim the Fight
- Ignore the bait: Why it’s the right strategy for Democrats to focus SCOTUS fight on health care
- BIG: Judge halts Trump administration attempt to shortcut the census
- Trump doesn't want peaceful transition of power. Legally, it doesn’t matter.
- Fauci goes off on Rand Paul
- Rule 44: Why Obamacare is not lost even in a deadlocked Supreme Court, but only if Biden wins
- Time to suit up. This is war.
- BREAKING: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has passed
- Bothsidesism comes to fact-checking: CNN's “fact-check” calling Biden ad 'misleading' proves the opposite
- Pardon me: How Donald Trump's stooges conspired with Julian Assange to exonerate Russia and undermine US Intlligence
Smartypants
- Durham to Right Wingers: "Blame Hillary"
- That Time When Refusing to Negotiate With Hostage-Takers Worked
- The Other Christian Nationalists: Leonard Leo and Opus Dei
- Hawley Demonstrates That He's an Ignorant Liar
- DeSantis Board Votes to Counter-Sue Disney Over Something...Anything
- Hunter Biden's Laptop Is a Total Nothingburger
- What DeSantis Couldn't Say in Response to Disney's Lawsuit
- Disney Skewers DeSantis With His Own Words
- Populism Without Civil Rights Is Fascism
- Glenn Greenwald gets triggered by smart competent women like Rep. Stacey Plaskett
Steve Benen
- Joe: Indictment could be something that had to be done and we have crossed a line that could be dangerous
- The effort to defend Trump is very haphazard, says former federal prosecutor
- Ari Melber: Jack Smith hasn’t said a word and he has the whole country listening
- A look back to 2019: Predicting Trump could run for re-election to shield himself
- Neal Katyal: Indictment makes clear no person can brazenly disregard the law without consequence
- Rep. Raskin: Trump has transformed Lincoln's party; he runs it like a religious cult
- Republican lawmakers react to Trump's indictment predictably
- Joe: Trump will now find out you can't bully federal judges or the feds themselves
- Ibram X. Kendi: When we assess structural racism, we are talking about groups not individuals
- Women are still pessimistic about the U.S. economy, polling shows
The Obama Diary 
GM!
Good Morning, DF!!! Congrats!!!
Good Morning TOD, congrats DF!
GM and Congrats on 1st!
I will be so glad when the truth about the opposition to this act, with the resultant improvements that could have been made, are addressed. She kinda tried to discuss the positves. So many believe the headlines without reading the real picture! Sheesh!
I agree, dee. The good that has resulted from the ACA gets little attention. Many are not even aware that some of the benefits they are experiencing is because of the ACA. Instead, you hear complaints about rising premium costs and deductibles/co-pays. But little is said about how much higher these costs would be without the act.
Some of the problems is because the act was not implemented as intended. That is due to all the push-back, especially from Republican governors. The insurance companies are trying to have their cake and eat it to. They enjoy the revenue from increased enrollment via the marketplace. Unfortunately, greed and mismanagement came into play, and some companies did not achieve the profits they could have. But instead of making internal changes, they choose to attribute their losses to the act and use it as leverage in negotiating changes more favorable to them (instead of consumers).
I think that a HRC administration can bring about improvements to the act without losing the benefits already enjoyed. I also think there would be more of an appreciation for the act if the benefits — especially little known benefits — were highlighted continuously.
So glad we know the truth, and can spread it to those within our reach! I can’t wait for it to fully come out, either. #ThanksObama
Look at the people in Kentucky who voted for a governor who promised to dismantle KYConnect, and when he did so, they were all surprised and shocked at what they were losing/
Good Monday, Nerdy…TOD Family.
GM and congrats on bringing us in to today DF. Have a great day. That shit show last night was just ridiculous. I watched it off and on after watching a movie. Couldn’t take looking at Trump. Ambulances showing up this morning already. Someone in the building is not well.
Bye – BBL.
Your choice of a description for last night’s debacle (*That shit show) was a perfect fit. Today, I feel like calling all of us “survivors.”
Agree JOB. I am still shaking my head. The Van Jones clip in the last thread was right on.
I’ll have to check it out!
I’ve always had respect for Hillary, even we she went up against President Obama in 2008. But last night my respect for her grew even more. It’s one thing to have your husband’s infidelities pushed in your face. It’s another thing to have them pushed in your face for the entire world to see. The things she’s had to endure would have crushed a lesser person, but as always she stood strong in the face of a relentless assault. If I had a daughter I would want Hillary to be one of her role models.
BRAVOOOOOO Don….
i have come to feel as you do…she has courage…..
I join both you and Don in where your thoughts have progressed on Hillary. Courage and strength. Glad to be able to recognize it!
I’ll add courage, strength and a kind, decent heart.
Morning all. If there was a woman watching the debate who was emotionally disturbed by the stalking DT or has someone like that in their lives, I hope they seek help (or an exit) today. I never thought to see anything so gross from a presidential candidate in my life. The Republican Party produced this monster and no amount of repudiation at this point can help them–even bogus claims that the odious creep stopped his campaign’s bleeding. Women voters saw something entire different in Trump’s loutish behavior and we will NOT forget it. Let’s overwhelm the polls with our numbers on election day.
I was not emotionally disturbed by Trump’s behavior jackie – but it took about 10 seconds to see how intimidating he was trying to be by stalking Hillary around the stage. Some men seemed to realise there was an issue – but every thinking woman watching that debate saw what he was doing. He has spent most of his 70 years learning how to use his large, overweight body to move into women and intimidate them. It was a continuation, without words, of the video tape from Friday.
I now look at every picture I see of him with a woman in a very different way.
The first words out of my wife’s mouth were about Trump trying to intimidate her by following her around the stage and standing directly behind her. He is a loser on so many levels.
I think for most women, that intimidation tactic stood out immediately.
99ts, as I mentioned earlier there are some friends of mine whose life experience of abuse were stirred up by the Trump tape and they spent an agonizing time trying to recover from the re-awakened fear. The Trump stalking and bullying during the debate last night is certain to have once again stirred up those memories for many women. Trump must be held accountable for this. He must not only be defeated, but all of his business interests should be permanently destroyed. I hope he is made a pariah for the rest of his life and ends up being heavily fined and jailed.
JackieG, I think he did stop the bleeding — TEMPORARILY. It’s not going to get any better, but for now, he may have held on to his staunchest supporters, and those GOP elite who, despite what they *say*, put party before country. But because the GOP has such low standards when it comes to Trump, this was enough for them to say, “It’s okay; we can still support him.”
The GOP has put this mess in place, and they really have no options but to see it through until the end and hope that the damage (down ticket) is mitigated.
“Trump’s real debate goal was to publicly humiliate Clinton. He failed miserably.”
There is a lot of chatter to the effect that Trump has “stopped the bleeding.” But this term needs to be refined. If it means, “Trump fired up demoralized hard-core GOP base voters with an exciting show of fight, which will make it harder for GOP lawmakers to continue abandoning him, requiring them to instead say he took steps towards righting his campaign,” then, yes, Trump probably “stopped the bleeding.”
…if Trump’s “bleeding” is defined by the fact that the college educated white voters he must win back continue to see him as racist and fundamentally unqualified and temperamentally unfit for the presidency, then it’s unlikely Trump stopped that bleeding.
Something about the debate last night disturbed me. Some of the pundits used the word, “dark”. There is that, but I think what bothered me as well was what appears to be DJT’s knack for setting the stage; setting the tone. After the preceding 48 hours, I thought that *this* would be the final blow. Instead, DJT’s campaign lives to fight another day, even if hanging by a thread. I hated that DJT was able to bring some of the circus atmosphere of the GOP primaries into this forum.
I have to give kudos to Hillary Clinton. A weak person would have cracked with all the things that Trump was throwing at her. He could not even startle or shake her when he was looming behind her and following her around while she was talking. It shows that she won’t be easily intimidated by those better than Trump.
To my annoyance, there was once again the “missed opportunity” discussion. First of all, there will always be missed opportunities in a ninety minute forum where moderators are dictating [at least trying to] the direction of the discussion. Given those parameters, if you are a debater with someone like DJT as your opponent — someone who has no concept of fact and truth and who shows little if any tact or respect — you have to make strategic decisions off-the-cuff when picking your battles. HRC said at the beginning of the debate that she wasn’t going to try to fact check everything DJT said. I’m sure that strategy extended to choosing which attacks to defend. So the Monday morning quarterbacking with all the shoulda couldas really annoy me.
I also applaud HRC for staying on Mount Everest when DJT was doing his darndest to pull her down into the Mariana Trench with him. *I* felt that DJT used all his weapons against her last evening. I don’t know what else he’s got other than sustaining the attacks that he’s already thrown out there. Of course, it also depends to what degree the MSM operates as an ally in keeping those attacks in the forefront.
On a side note, Mike Pence, IMO, was one of the biggest losers of the evening. After his performance at the VP debate, he has been given the perception that he could possibly be the nominee *this* election. He straddled the fence, voicing his abhorrence to the video and what Trump said, but never quite tipping. Throughout the day, there were rumors that Pence would quit the ticket. In the end, he gave Trump an atta-boy and pronounced his loyalty to the ticket. Add “self-serving wuss” to the list of negatives already attributed to him.
It was “reported” late last night that Trump wanted to bring the women accusers of Bill Clinton of two decades ago into the hall to sit directly near him, so they could confront him before the national audience – I guess before the debate started – but the Debate Commission nixed it. The latter decision did not make the Trump people happy, according to “reports.”
Truthfully, Trump is all about optics, being the carnival barker that he is. The women from Bill Clinton’s past mostly looked like “grandmothers” to me, not the beauty queens Trump’s so proud to have personally sexually assaulted. Looks don’t mean a damn thing in sexual assault charges – obviously, and I surely don’t mean that here – but I couldn’t help but think that to Trump’s sick mind, their appearance wasn’t working for his evil pursuits, to get them to help him bring down Bill and Hillary. Everybody needed two showers after all that.
I heard that too, JO’B.
One of the criticisms of these woman is how, while accusing Bill of assaulting them, could they go in cahoots with DJT — someone who has admitted to — bragged about even — doing the same.
Trump is a disgustingly horrible candidate, and is now running a gutter level campaign. He and his campaign have come to the conclusion in the last week or so that they have lost the campaign. He has no loyalty to the republican party even, and I suspect he may now be building up his basket of deplorables for his post election venture media with Bannon, Ailes, etc.
I agree that in this debate, Trumps objective was to humiliate HRC. From now till elections that will be all they do, flinging poo at all their opponents. The only upside is the Democratic party will win the presidency, and the senate, and put the house in play.
Yes, Trump will continue his mudslinging. But HRC will not be his sole focus since he now appears to be at war with the Republican Party. That can go along way in retaking the senate and if not getting the majority House, getting really close.
May I just chime in and say that the town hall format is a waste of time. No questions of substance were asked (imo) and there seemed to be very few questions at all…not for 90 minutes when you only get 2 minutes to speak! So much more SHOULD have been covered and wasn’t. Most people don’t know enough to ask the questions that really need to be asked.
Morning everyone:)
I don’t like Morning Joe. But I happened to pass by the show this morning and heard him say, Hillary did not defend herself when Trump said she had tremendous hate in her heart. I don’t know what the panel said in reaction because I turned the channel. But like swbluega mentioned above, I guess Joe was calling that a “missed opportunity” by her. But she could not answer everything he was throwing at her. She would have spend the whole night muddled in the weeds, in a back and forth about his lies and accusations. If anyone looked at the way she answered the audience members questions, you could see that she seems to be a very thoughtful and caring person. As opposed to him, who looked like a mean, angry stalker. I thought she did a great job. I am so proud of her and I believe that women will stand with her and vote against DT. She looked very presidential and he looked like a thug!
Joke spent the morning praising Trump’s performance and telling anyone who didn’t click off that the world has forgotten about the tape. Joke saw no sign of the stalking & if Mica noticed she wasn’t talking about it.
Joke actually does similar to the people on his show – he dares them to disagree and stares at them as if they are demented – and thenceforth ignores anyone who does in fact refute his words.
HRC let her actions speak for her. Instead of wasting words defending those type attacks, she used them to express empathy where appropriate, to talk about her plans and to try to actually answer the questions that were asked.
I actually think Hillary addressed her love for children, women and voters in answering the audiences questions too. They may have been considered a prebuttal to the coming accusation. Staying high as Michelle would say. It was a redeeming quality.
HRC did a great great job.
Yes, by trying to refute that, she would have sounded weak and defensive. It would only have given the comment more notice. Instead she ignored it and went on with her agenda.
Good West Coast morning TOD family. Thanks NW 🌹
I’m proud of Hillary on her steadfast performance last night. Stay classy Hillary 💐
I got this…understood what he was doing with this…
Good that there are code crackers that can catch these dog whistles and disclose them.
I actually felt bad for both clintons last night… That was horrible.
Trumps experience is real estate and the apprentice..
Anybody that gets in his way he will try to destroy.
Idk I went to bed in a bad mood Bc of that debate…
Not Bc of Hillary but Bc of trump…
Good Morning Everybody.
Beautiful! Happy Indigenous Peoples Day!
And you have to remember about joe Scarborough…he was part of that evangelical family values movement… that voted to impeach bill Clinton and supported GW bush -Bc he was an evangelical ..so to him last night was perfect 👎👎👎😩😩😩😑
Slammed.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/10/10/everything-donald-trump-says-about-syria-is-crazy-wrong-or-both.html
Yup. Here’s the original tweet, JER!
Yep, my mouth literally dropped open when Trump called Hillary the devil, I mean who talks like that.
a vile self-absorbed narcissist misogynist talks like that.
It highlights the level of his language df that all he has is insults. Two debates – two to Hillary – I am at a complete loss as to why the GOP candidates could not do this.
During the primary, the other candidates chose not to attack Trump for fear of losing the support of the party deplorables.
That worked out so well for them 🙂
Gee…if that’s the case, then I wonder why DT invited her to his wedding…..Just askin’
He didn’t think she was the devil then. Probably that the invite might be good for business. Why they went perplexes me.
Their kids were friends.
Ah! That’s right.
The bottom of the barrel at CNN.
They just hosted as legitimate analysts, Betsy McCaughy, the originator of the ” Death Panels ” and Fred Malek, Richard Nixon’s ” Jew Counter ” to discuss the town hall.
Disgusting.
What is Trump doing to that chair? And note how he kept holding the microphone the whole evening
I think he’s doing some “business” on the chair…. we had this discussion last night when you were sleeping….Pretty nasty.
He has to be one of the most revolting men on the planet – I doubt I could stand being in the same room with him
LOL!!!!!
I’m with both you and df – Ugh!
Ick!
Yup!
Trump’s wanderings reminded me of McCain’s during that debate too. Only I attributed McCain’s to senility rather than an attempt to intimidate.
Ha. Mark Cuban’s going all out. He even live tweeted last night: “Don’t get mad. VOTE!”
I wonder if this is part of the Trump campaign’s attack on Republicans who pulled their support.
Well, this is a lie right off. Conway makes reference to “when I was younger and prettier.” Ugh.
P.S. Meant to add: It’s what’s inside that makes you “prettier.” She’s got a dark inside that would rival Trump’s.
I hate listening to her.
Me, too. Felt that way long ago!
Good morning, good people. Hope you have a good Monday.
I feel like i need to take another shower. Last night was just so disgusting. UGH UGH UGH.
Please give your drink a good stir!!
Standards at “Today” seem to somewhat higher than the standards for a GOP Presidential candidate
Karma!!!
But then, the Black folk always have to clean up after the white boys mess up: Lester Holt, cleaned-up on aisle 9 after Brian Williams, and PBO had to clean up and remodel most of the world after Dubya’s colossal screw-ups.
So all of those reports that the NBC heads were upset with Al Roker after he went off on BB for his defense of another frat boy/man, Ryan Loccte, ummm. How you like him now; stir on Al!
Ugh, the ignorant comments make me wanna bash something.
I try not to read ’em all.
Guess I’m a glutton for punishment 😑
I’m a partial glutton, myself!
Wassup Fam!!!!
Wassup!
Hello Darlin’! 😘
❤
{{{D-ette}}} GM
Hiya VC! 😘
Hello, vc!
Hel-lo there, Maryl! How ya doing? 🙂 🙂 Had to step out for a bit to discuss a possible home job with a workman.
I’m doing just fine! How about your beautiful self? I have lots of home jobs – maybe send him my way! One thing retirement does is give you lots of time to see exactly how much housework you haven’t done over the years!
I’m :cool:…..literally. 😀
Can’t send him yet; he’s measured and suggested and listened and is not off to push the figures around. I do like his ‘honest aura’ as well as his suggestions. Am a little anxious about what the price will be. We shall see.
Price is what scares me too. That’s why I’m trying to do so much of this stuff by myself.
The truth is I can’t do this stuff by myself as I’ve 2 left hands and no aesthetic feelings at all in the design/decorating area. One small example, I tried painting a couple of times, took forever and made more mess than was originally the case. I gave up a long time ago (with one lapse lately) and live with things until I can call someone in. I know the price area I’d like him to fall into, but from his hesitation to guesstimate before compiling his figures (and from word of mouth at work) I strongly doubt he will. Sigh! /perking up/ Anyhoo, I’m going to try to roll with the punch……..if it’s not too, too harsh. 😀 😀 😀
Truly, vc. I paint and stuff, but I haven’t had much experience withrepair jobs. I did recently install a little shut off valve on the water line to my refrigerator. It involved shut off the water and a lot of help from the local hardware store, but I was pretty proud of myself. I can’t get over the people I know who are having their kitchen/bathroom/deck/floor redone. I don’t know how they can afford it!
Hi Dudette!
Hi Sweetie-Pie! 🤗
So Strickland is trying to breathe some life into his campaign.
Happy Monday TOD family!
How appropriate that the thing that DT opened 26yrs ago will go down as a failure just like him in Nov 2016.
Happy Monday jojo 🙂
Hi Miss Sporty! Did you have a great weekend?
Correct…and Dems should hit the cowards hard for this
nah, if we wait, we can hit the unendorser unendorsers. gop has brought bad name even to corruption and mendacity.
G’morning Nerdy & TOD! Wishing everyone a pleasant Monday. Congrats df on #1 🙂
Hypocrites, all.
Nawp, he wants the blacks executed.
zing.
For the first time ever, Carly Simon is allowing the use of her song ‘You’re So Vain’ for political purposes. And it comes at the expense of Donald Trump.
Carly Simon’s anti-Trump ad
That is fantastic and clearly shows the Republicans knew who they were nominating.
Robert De Niro goes ballistic on trump.
Love me some De Niro
amen
Truth, Bob!
Another RWNJ “super hero”:
HAH-HAH…I’M IN………………………REGISTERED A LONG TIME AGO……………………….STRAIGHT TICKET DEM.
On the attack…We Will Take Back the Senate!!…PA will do its part!
Hillary had to go so high last night, that *I* almost got a nose bleed, but, she didn’t crack or crumble.
You made us proud Hillary!
I ❤️ My President!
That’s right Mr. President! 🙂
back to work ….
#ALL50
Hello TOD.
Thanks NW, you are doing a fantastic job. 🍸
Congrats to all the Gold ⭐ winners since Saturday Evening.
{{{ ❤ Chips ❤ }}}
How’s that sex predator thing working out for you, Donald?
BOOM!!!! What a real billionaire’s tax returns look like. No carry forward tax losses
Photo of Lupita & David says something, something! 🙂
No wonder Ryan is in panic mode…
IN-Q September 22 at 4:09pm
This is the Single Most Important Vote You’ll Ever Cast.
I’m #VotingAgainst Hate, Fear, Racism, Sexism, Bigotry, Xenophobia, Violence and Ignorance. What are you Voting Against?
Register at Vote.org
Learn more at VotingAgainst.com
Powerful!
DAYUM! DAYUM! DAYUM! I HAD CHILLS THIS IS SO EPIC!! THANK YOU FOR POSTING! YES I’M YELLING. I feel just like this but could never articulate it like this. I’m not on Facebook but found it on YouTube so I can share it far and wide. Spoken word gets to the heart of the matter so eloquently and powerfully. DAYUM!
“Sometimes you need a great villain to make a great hero and that great villain is here and that great hero is you. There’s no question in my mind what we all have to do.” DAYUM!
#IAmVotingForOurFutureByNotVotingForOurPast
New post.
https://theobamadiary.com/2016/10/10/chat-away-877/
she hits him on his thugliness.