Human Decency

Last night, Russia launched a brazen attack on the people of Ukraine, in violation of international law and basic principles of human decency. Here’s my statement on what it means, and what should happen next. pic.twitter.com/Wa0C8XGwvK

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) February 24, 2022

Grieving

Like so many of you, Michelle and I were heartbroken to hear about the terrorist attack outside the Kabul airport that killed and wounded so many U.S. service members, as well as Afghan men, women, and children.

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 27, 2021

As president, nothing was more painful than grieving with the loved ones of Americans who gave their lives serving… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

—
Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 27, 2021

Our hearts go out to the families who lost a loved one, and to everyone continuing the mission in Kabul. We’re also… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

—
Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 27, 2021

May God bless the memory of those we lost, and protect those who remain in harm’s way.

—
Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 27, 2021

Compassion

My heart goes out to the victims and their families in London. No act of terror can shake the strength and resilience of our British ally.

—
Barack Obama (@BarackObama) March 23, 2017

rise and shine

BBC

Some news agencies (eg Reuters) are reporting that he has died – but there is no confirmation yet.

Update: He’s dead.

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President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama talk with staff while ordering pizza at Anna’s Pizza and Italian Kitchen in Hampton, Va., Oct. 19, 2011. The President and Mrs. Obama had lunch with four veterans during the stop, a part of the President’s three-day American Jobs Act bus tour. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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Love this:

Thanks Meta – original video here

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Woot! Thanks Meta 😉

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From yesterday:

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Poor Mitt …. if this is what his GOP buddies are doing to him, just wait for the 2012 campaign 😉

More here from Steve Benen on Romney v Perry

The pulled Romney ad:

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A gazillion thank yous to everyone who has helped the Drive for Five (Thousand) – my eyes nearly popped out when I saw the figure this morning:

You’re a bunch of gems 😉

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Tim McCarver, the Fox Sports guy, will probably be hired soon by Romney as an economic advisor – he’s, eh, really good with numbers:

SportsGrid

fighting back

Mediaite: This week the Obama campaign launched a new front in the heightened information wars that come with presidential campaigns, with a starkly designed and somewhat controversial new website called Attack Watch. The site enables user-generated submissions of what Obama supporters deem to be unfair or untruthful media attacks on President Obama, his political campaign and his administration’s policy….

…. the site has so far been a big hit. A source within the Obama campaign has told Mediaite, that in just the first day, the user-generated research tool has been nothing short of an enormous success. “In less than 24 hours we’ve had over 100,000 people sign up at the website, which indicates significant interest from supporters.”….

….. the very least this digital effort did its job bit perhaps instilling a little fear in the GOP campaign efforts. It’s not difficult to imagine social media staffers at the RNC scratching their heads and saying “why didn’t we think of that?”

The essence of AttackWatch is the Obama campaign outsourcing of opposition media research to its army of loyal supporters …. In the brave new world that is political smear campaigns, leveraging the passion of one’s political base is not something that we should fear, but rather a smart and savvy political move.

Thank you Loriah

Sign up here

Follow @attackwatch on Twitter

‘get the facts, fight the smears’

Link – this is a seriously excellent site, part of OFA. I’ve added it to the blogroll here if you ever need the link.

Sign up here

Follow @attackwatch on Twitter

Thanks Jovie and Tien Le

oh mitt…..

Steve Benen: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is already struggling badly to claim credibility on job creation. It makes problems like these that much more embarrassing:

As misery goes, Ryan King appears to be pretty deep in it in the new Mitt Romney video that slams President Barack Obama’s economic stewardship through the story of a struggling, seemingly unemployed college graduate. “Frustration is the big word,” Ryan says as somber music plays and hard-scrabble images roll by of Midland, Mich. “…. because of the economy and the way it is, there are so many people that are looking for jobs, at the same time my hands are tied, how can I get experience if no one is going to hire me in?”

….there’s a subtle problem with the new attack ad … Ryan King isn’t unemployed at all.

Though the commercial features King saying he “can’t get a job,” it turns out the young man is a recent graduate of a public university (Republicans want to cut higher-ed funding, too), and actually got a job shortly before appearing in the attack ad.

….there’s more to his background than that. As Greg Sargent noted, “In 2009, King was identified in the local press as the vice treasurer for the Midland County Young Republicans. He seems to have been a local Republican activist since; his Facebook page shows him partying away at the 2011 state GOP convention.”

….If Romney’s best example of a struggling Michigander is a fully employed graduate of a public university, doesn’t that make Obama’s record look better, not worse?

Full post here

fox eats palin-tea

Politicususa: Tim Pawlenty was on Fox News Sunday today, but instead of getting softballs tossed his way like Sarah Palin did last week, he was hammered for his economic plan. It looks like Pawlenty is not one of the FNC chosen ones.

At a time when Republicans are introducing non-economic economic plans on a regular basis, Pawlenty’s plan is so ridiculous that it is attracting ridicule from many conservatives, but what a difference a week makes on Fox News Sunday.

Seven days ago, Sarah Palin was on the show and given the fawning drooling treatment by Chris Wallace.

More here

and so it begins…..

The Hill: Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin took a direct shot at Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign on the same day Romney made his bid official, and in his own backyard.

Less than an hour before Romney was set to officially announce his presidential bid, Palin criticized him for signing Massachusetts’s healthcare plan…”In my opinion, any mandate coming from government is not a good thing, so obviously … there will be more the explanation coming from former Governor Romney on his support for government mandates”….

….Palin’s sharp rhetoric toward Romney sends a clear signal that she’s not willing to let the former Massachusetts governor have his day in the sun. Tea Party activists might be less inclined to vote for Romney because of his healthcare law, Palin said. “That perhaps will be a big challenge for him because tea party activists are pretty strident, in a good way, in making sure that the candidate that many of the tea party patriots will support – the candidate has a record of living out the principles that tea party patriots do embrace”…

More here

They’ll eat each other alive 😉

Thank you Jovie!

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Mitt really is having a wuff day

just sayin’

Michael Shear (NYT): In a speech almost 18 months before he assumed the presidency, Barack Obama issued a blunt warning to President Pervez Musharaff of Pakistan: “If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won’t act, we will.”

The line was eerily prescient, as it turned out. In his late-night statement on Sunday announcing the death of Osama bin Laden, Mr. Obama said that the United States had acted inside Pakistan to capture or kill the Al Qaeda leader on just that kind of actionable intelligence.

…But in the middle of 2007, when Mr. Obama gave the speech it instantly provided his Democratic rivals an opportunity, which they seized aggressively … The criticism was part of an effort by Mr. Obama’s rivals to cast the young senator as naïve and inexperienced when it came to national security and foreign policy. Months later, Mrs. Clinton ran a hard-hitting campaign ad that asked whether people would feel comfortable with Mr. Obama in the White House when the phone rings at 3 a.m.

Senator John McCain picked up the criticism. On several occasions, Mr. McCain paraphrased Mr. Obama incorrectly, saying that the Democrat had promised to bomb Pakistan. “Will we risk the confused leadership of an inexperienced candidate who once suggested invading our ally, Pakistan?” Mr. McCain asked during his victory speech in the Wisconsin Republican primary in February 2008.

…Now, however, it may be more difficult for the Republicans to make that case stick. Not only did Mr. Obama achieve what his predecessor, former President George W. Bush, fail to accomplish for nearly seven years, but he did so by following his own advice from long before he was in office.

In a statement late Sunday night, Mr. McCain praised the man he once called “confused” and “inexperienced.”

Full article here