I’ve honestly lost count of the number of requests I’ve had to post more of my exquisite DC photos from four years ago, this post leaving many of you gasping for more (Not to gloat or anything, but you saw this, yes?)
Well, alright, I’ve actually had no requests at all, but they probably just got lost in spam, which can happen with WordPress. Gremlins. 🙄
So, by popular-ish demand:
Bruce singing right in to my eyes at the We are One concert:
Bono desperately seeking me out while mouthing ‘in the name of love’:
The President-elect – the next line actually read ‘Obama Diary is here’, I truly regret not lowering my focus:
I don’t know yet if I’ll make it to the inauguration, but if I do you can look forward to some truly exceptional photos – like the ones I took last time.
This was probably the best – eat your heart out, Scout Tufankjian:
Although – and I shouldn’t boast – I got one of Sasha’s hands, and a third of Michelle too:
And this was Joe waving to me:
I also got Bush leaving DC – I wished him well, needless to say, while almost falling off the balcony with glee while I tried to focus:
And I managed to get about, oh, 97 shots of toilets – and you can never, ever have enough of them:
And I made a new friend in DC:
Then there was President-elect Obama, Denzil and me at the ‘We Are One’ concert – we were practically cheek-to-cheek we were so close:
I met President-elect Obama again next day, while walking down the street – you can see by his face that he recognized me from the concert:
More toilets:
Sadly, I also met some not-so-nice people. I’m a sports nut – so I was very offended:
More toilets:
The most impressive photos I took, though, were in the early hours after the inauguration:
…. and out the window of the cab on the way back to where I was staying:
It was a very good day/night. 😕
So, if I make it in January, you can anticipate more top class photography of this kind.
What hurts, though, after all of this, was that Pete Souza got the WH photographer’s job and not me. To this day, I will never understand why.
Michael Cohen (The Guardian): Two conventions, two Americas. Seldom has the divide been greater – Witnessing both conferences is to see anger from the Republicans and abiding hope from the Democrats
…. the philosophical and tonal divide between them has never felt broader. Quite simply, Democrats and Republicans operate in two completely distinct realms, one that is defined by an attachment to reality and one that is increasingly detached from it.
…. Republicans reside in a fantasy world where government plays no role but that of malevolence, where the free market is the salvation to all that ails this nation and where the country is locked in a Manichaean struggle between the forces of freedom and a failed, socialist interloper named Barack Obama.
…. For four decades, Republicans have relied on an undercurrent of white resentment toward social and economic change to maintain their pre-eminence in national politics. But with an African-American president and the country moving closer to “minority-majority” status, that dominance is slipping away and it feeds the sense of anger and desperation they tried to keep hidden in Tampa, but that all too often crept to the surface….
…. the contrast between the hues in Charlotte and Tampa was remarkable. The Democratic party is a party that looks like the palette of the American experience, not just in skin colour, but in class level. The Republican party (the one in the Tampa convention hall) is one that looks like Sunday brunch at a country club.
AP: Ford is adding 1,200 workers to a suburban Detroit factory to build the Fusion, a sign of confidence that the revamped sedan will be a big seller.
Ford Americas President Mark Fields told workers at the Flat Rock plant Monday that the Fusion’s market segment is growing two times faster than the rest of the U.S. auto industry. The new Fusion goes on sale this fall.
…. Ford will hire the 1,200 new workers starting next spring. It will also invest $555 million in new equipment at the plant.
President Obama demonstrates size of bounce received by Romney after Republican convention:
Florida, Sept. 9
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R.E.M.‘s “Losing My Religion” was used in the Fox News coverage of the Democratic National Convention last night. R.E.M. today, through its music publisher, Warner-Tamerlane Music, demanded that Fox News cease and desist from continuing its unlicensed and unauthorized use of the song. Michael Stipe said, “We have little or no respect for their puff adder brand of reportage. Our music does not belong there.”
Steve Kornacki (Salon): Barack Obama is winning …and he has been pretty much all year
The final evidence isn’t in yet, but there are strong indicators that Barack Obama received a real boost from the Democratic convention – bigger than the paltry bump Mitt Romney got out of his party’s gathering and potentially big enough to push Obama’s national lead to heights not seen since Romney emerged from the GOP primaries back in the spring.
Gallup’s daily trendline, which remained flat during and immediately after the Republican convention, has spiked in Obama’s favor over the last few days; as of Sunday afternoon, his lead was five points. He’s also pulled a few points ahead in Rasmussen’s daily poll, which has tended to be more Romney-friendly than other surveys, grabbed a four-point lead in a Reuters/Ipsos poll, and seen his job approval rating crack the 50 percent mark. A PPP poll released Sunday night also showed Obama hitting 50 percent in Ohio…..
The movement in Obama’s direction reinforces a point that many neutral campaign observers have been reluctant to make for months now: The presidential race is not, and has not been, a virtual tie – Obama is, and has been, winning.
Today Pauline Beck will be at the White House to watch as President Obama announces proposed changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) that will affect home healthcare workers like herself. Today’s event has special significance for Pauline, because it was the day then-Senator Obama spent “in her shoes” that informed him of the important work these Americans do and the need to level the playing field so they are fairly compensated for their efforts. Take a minute to watch the video and learn her story..
ThinkProgress: Rep. John Fleming (R-LA) appeared on MSNBC with Chris Jansing this morning to attack President Obama’s new deficit reduction plan, which includes some tax increases on the wealthy…..
Fleming is himself a businesses owner, so Jansing asked, “If you have to pay more in taxes, you would get rid of some of those employees?” Fleming responded by saying that while his businesses made $6.3 million last year, after you “pay 500 employees, you pay rent, you pay equipment, and food,” his profits “a mere fraction of that” – “by the time I feed my family, I have maybe $400,000 left over…..”
The Obama Diary 
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