Editor In Chief

I've read this story three times, and I think I'll read it again. I doubt I'm the only one who thirsts to see this degree of thoughtfulness in our country's leadership again.

Powerful story about workshopping speeches with @BarackObama by @apfrankel: https://t.co/4ymihA5xws

— Jess Zafarris 📚 (@JessZafarris) November 17, 2019

The President’s Thinking Hours

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Michael D. Shear: Obama After Dark: The Precious Hours Alone

“Are you up?” The emails arrive late, often after 1 a.m., tapped out on a secure BlackBerry from an email address known only to a few. The weary recipients know that once again, the boss has not yet gone to bed. The late-night interruptions from President Obama might be sharply worded questions about memos he has read. Sometimes they are taunts because the recipient’s sports team just lost. Last month it was a 12:30 a.m. email to Benjamin J. Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser, and Denis R. McDonough, the White House chief of staff, telling them he had finished reworking a speechwriter’s draft of presidential remarks for later that morning. Mr. Obama had spent three hours scrawling in longhand on a yellow legal pad an angry condemnation of Donald J. Trump’s response to the attack in Orlando, Fla., and told his aides they could pick up his rewrite at the White House usher’s office when they came in for work. Mr. Obama calls himself a “night guy,” and as president, he has come to consider the long, solitary hours after dark as essential as his time in the Oval Office.

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He works on speeches. He reads the stack of briefing papers delivered at 8 p.m. by the National Security Council staff secretary. He reads 10 letters from Americans chosen each day by his staff. “He is thoroughly predictable in having gone through every piece of paper that he gets,” said Tom Donilon, Mr. Obama’s national security adviser from 2010 to 2013. “You’ll come in in the morning, it will be there: questions, notes, decisions.”  One night last June, Cody Keenan, the president’s chief speechwriter, had just returned home from work at 9 p.m. and ordered pizza when he heard from the president: “Can you come back tonight?” Mr. Keenan met the president in the usher’s office on the first floor of the residence, where the two worked until nearly 11 p.m. on the president’s eulogy for nine African-Americans fatally shot during Bible study at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. Three months earlier, Mr. Keenan had had to return to the White House when the president summoned him — at midnight — to go over changes to a speech Mr. Obama was to deliver in Selma, Ala., on the 50th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday,” when protesters were brutally beaten by the police on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. “There’s something about the night,” Mr. Keenan said, reflecting on his boss’s use of the time. “It’s smaller. It lets you think.”

More here

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The March on Washington: The Speeches

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Five Years Ago This Week….

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Five Years Ago This Week – What A Perfect Choice. Love and Best Wishes to @BeauBiden, @VP and @DrBiden pic.twitter.com/z1DHb82AJn

— TheObamaDiary.com (@TheObamaDiary) August 21, 2013

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Europe ♥ The Obamas!

A recap of a most fantastic three days. First, the Obamas departed America for Europe

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Then they arrived in Belfast

President Obama, the First Lady and their daughters Sasha and Malia are greeted by Joan Christie, the Queen’s official representative in Northern Ireland, upon their arrival at Belfast International Airport

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Then Pres. Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama delivered fantastic remarks!

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hey, smart!

Janet Kavandi, Director of Flight Crew Operations at Johnson Space Center, presents President Obama with a jacket during a drop by with the crew of the Space Shuttle Atlantis in the Oval Office, Nov. 1, 2011. The jacket features patches from several past space shuttle missions. Pictured in the background, from left, are: Pilot Doug Hurley, Mission Specialist Sandy Magnus, Commander Chris Ferguson and Mission Specialist Rex Walheim. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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Wednesday

11:25 The President delivers remarks in front of the Key Bridge at Georgetown’s Waterfront Park in Washington, DC

12:30 Jay Carney’s press briefing

2:30 Michelle Obama hosts the PCAH’s National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Awards

4:15 The President and Vice President meet with Senate Democratic leadership

7:0 The President departs Joint Base Andrews en route to Nice, France

7:0 The Vice President and Jill Biden host Eric Cantor and his wife Diana for dinner at the Naval Observatory

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President Obama will have at least three bilateral meetings while in France this week for the G-20, and he plans to end the week with a press conference.

On Thursday, he’ll meet with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel and on Friday he will meet with Argentine President Cristina Kirchner.

The President’s press conference will be on Friday, before he returns to Washington.

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May 2011:

Thanks Lisa – you have to wonder how Mittens will cope with the pressure if he makes it as far as the Presidential campaign ……. 😉

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Hi everyone, I’ve just added a section on the site for videos of your very, very, very most loved speeches by the President – you’ll see the link on the sidebar on the right. I’ll update it over the next few days, but would be huuUUuugely grateful if you could let me know in the comments (here) which speeches were your favorites – I’ll be be happy to include them. Thanks people.

morning everyone

I’l try to find more video from the the President’s three speeches in Chicago yesterday – you can see the transcripts here

Updates will be a little slower today, I have to go and about again, but will catch up later – promise 😉

more white house videos from south & latin america