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A sweet video with President Obama
Barack Obama is a good president and a good person. My wife and I are both proud to have volunteered for his election and reelection. I’ve been especially privileged to meet so many wonderful people along the way this year.
I also would note that my superpac spent $1,000 to help one candidate-who won. It supported GOTV in two states, which the president carried. Sheldon Adelson spent something like $53 million for two candidates, who both lost. #Justsayin’.
I hope that you find the below video as moving as I do (h/t @DylanByers).
Author: Harold Pollack
Harold Pollack is Helen Ross Professor of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago. He has served on three expert committees of the National Academies of Science. His recent research appears in such journals as Addiction, Journal of the American Medical Association, and American Journal of Public Health. He writes regularly on HIV prevention, crime and drug policy, health reform, and disability policy for American Prospect, tnr.com, and other news outlets. His essay, "Lessons from an Emergency Room Nightmare" was selected for the collection The Best American Medical Writing, 2009. He recently participated, with zero critical acclaim, in the University of Chicago's annual Latke-Hamentaschen debate.
View all posts by Harold Pollack
19 thoughts on “A sweet video with President Obama”
Thank you for bringing this to my attention.
Despite all odds, our President prevailed. He still has an uphill battle fighting a Red House which has blocked his every move in an attempt to squash his goals of bringing the Middle Class equal pay, women’s rights, gay rights and affordable healthcare. The Bush Administration drove our economy into a swift nose dive and Obama is still the patsy. Watch conservative hands paint him in Blackface with a visual commentary of how Barack has been bamboozled at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2012/10/bamboozling-obama.html
One word: Mensch.
It’s a sign of our times that, yes, many of your readers will watch that and be touched by it, but post it on Hot Air and hundreds of comments would follow about how it reveals the perfidy of Barack Obama.
Yep. Don’t for a second think the battle for control of America’s reality is over.
And don’t for a second think that SuperPac money wasn’t vitally important.
A question that got asked a lot the last 3 months was: “Why is this election so close? Romney is a WallStreet chameleon slick with snake oil.”
Here is my view: It was close because of right-wing SuperPac money.
True Aldeson went 0 for 6:
What’s more, the millions of dollars Sheldon Adelson poured into races around the country garnered nothing. Adelson was 0-6 on the night. All the candidates he funded — George Allen, Shmuley Boteach, Adam Hasner, Connie Mack, Allen West and of course Mitt Romney — went down. In addition, the neoconservative Emergency Committee for Israel’s preferred candidate in the Wisconsin senate race went down.
But I would severely caution anyone from thinking Big Money doesn’t matter.
Which is all to suggest: The Democrats need to create a fund for their Presidential 2016 nominee.
And we little people can feed $10 bucks a month into starting right now.
That’s really the only way we can battle the rogue billionaires to a stalemate in 2016.
I’ve been wondering about this myself. There’s no way to answer this but, how close would the election have been if Citizen’s United had been decided merely on the actual case before the court?
It must be a strange thing to have just be re-elected President of the United States. You are the most powerful person on earth and yet the final chapter of your career is also written in stone. For a youngish and energetic politician like Obama the effect must be overwhelming.
If he wants to have a lasting impact of the most meaningful kind, then he needs to stop being a mensch for a while and take his crew for a long weekend At camp David and tell them they can go home to their families the minute they have a name and a backup name for every open judicial seat in the federal bench.
There are, what 40-50 federal lifetime appointments to the most powerful judiciary on the planet where Obama hasn’t even mustered the energy to put forward a name.
HE may be done with politics, but politics is not done with us, and for all his many virtues and failings, if he fails us in this, then he fails us in everything. Forget issues for a minute, and think like a party who plans to be around and doing stuff for a while. JOB ONE IS, by December 1, submitting a name and having a backup ready for every open seat in the judiciary, and extracting a blood oath from the GOPsters, announced on tv, that each one will get an up or down vote in the judiciary commiittee and, for those who emerge, on the Senate floor, by February 1. Or no deal on “the fiscal cliff.â€
No more hostages. If the Mcconnell’s thugs want to explain where all the pork went to their corporate masters, fine.
Let’s quit with the euphoria for a minute. Now is the moment to strike on judicial appointments. It should have been in the works long ago.
A little slight smidgen angstrom oversold, overwhelmed by exhaustion and emotion no doubt. But he’s manifestly a very GOOD, smart, capable, caring man. Thank God for Barack Obama!
And, I really do feel we dodged a bullet this time.
Nice. I’m a skeptic, but the bullet was nevertheless a 105-mm howitzer shell, at close range.
Eh. He’s proud of his volunteers for working so hard to elect him. It reminds me of Michele’s infamous statement that “this is the first time in my adult life I can say that I’m truly proud of my country.”
Unselfconscious egotism.
Ladies and gentlemen of RBC, we seem to have attracted a troll in the past few days. Do not feed.
He’s proud of a group of young people who’ve worked hard to achieve something they believe in. He believes a similar experience at a similar age was the making of him. I’m sure the politician of your choice could have made a similar statement to a similar crowd, without similarly inspiring such an unbecoming and embittered display from you.
But hey, thanks for the callback to a golden oldie of deliberately, maliciously misinterpreted Michelle Obama.
Thank you for bringing this to my attention.
Despite all odds, our President prevailed. He still has an uphill battle fighting a Red House which has blocked his every move in an attempt to squash his goals of bringing the Middle Class equal pay, women’s rights, gay rights and affordable healthcare. The Bush Administration drove our economy into a swift nose dive and Obama is still the patsy. Watch conservative hands paint him in Blackface with a visual commentary of how Barack has been bamboozled at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2012/10/bamboozling-obama.html
One word: Mensch.
It’s a sign of our times that, yes, many of your readers will watch that and be touched by it, but post it on Hot Air and hundreds of comments would follow about how it reveals the perfidy of Barack Obama.
Yep. Don’t for a second think the battle for control of America’s reality is over.
And don’t for a second think that SuperPac money wasn’t vitally important.
A question that got asked a lot the last 3 months was: “Why is this election so close? Romney is a WallStreet chameleon slick with snake oil.”
Here is my view: It was close because of right-wing SuperPac money.
True Aldeson went 0 for 6:
But I would severely caution anyone from thinking Big Money doesn’t matter.
Which is all to suggest: The Democrats need to create a fund for their Presidential 2016 nominee.
And we little people can feed $10 bucks a month into starting right now.
That’s really the only way we can battle the rogue billionaires to a stalemate in 2016.
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/11/obamas-victory-highlights-a-bad-night-for-the-jewish-right.html
I’ve been wondering about this myself. There’s no way to answer this but, how close would the election have been if Citizen’s United had been decided merely on the actual case before the court?
It must be a strange thing to have just be re-elected President of the United States. You are the most powerful person on earth and yet the final chapter of your career is also written in stone. For a youngish and energetic politician like Obama the effect must be overwhelming.
If he wants to have a lasting impact of the most meaningful kind, then he needs to stop being a mensch for a while and take his crew for a long weekend At camp David and tell them they can go home to their families the minute they have a name and a backup name for every open judicial seat in the federal bench.
There are, what 40-50 federal lifetime appointments to the most powerful judiciary on the planet where Obama hasn’t even mustered the energy to put forward a name.
HE may be done with politics, but politics is not done with us, and for all his many virtues and failings, if he fails us in this, then he fails us in everything. Forget issues for a minute, and think like a party who plans to be around and doing stuff for a while. JOB ONE IS, by December 1, submitting a name and having a backup ready for every open seat in the judiciary, and extracting a blood oath from the GOPsters, announced on tv, that each one will get an up or down vote in the judiciary commiittee and, for those who emerge, on the Senate floor, by February 1. Or no deal on “the fiscal cliff.â€
No more hostages. If the Mcconnell’s thugs want to explain where all the pork went to their corporate masters, fine.
Let’s quit with the euphoria for a minute. Now is the moment to strike on judicial appointments. It should have been in the works long ago.
A little slight smidgen angstrom oversold, overwhelmed by exhaustion and emotion no doubt. But he’s manifestly a very GOOD, smart, capable, caring man. Thank God for Barack Obama!
And, I really do feel we dodged a bullet this time.
Nice. I’m a skeptic, but the bullet was nevertheless a 105-mm howitzer shell, at close range.
Eh. He’s proud of his volunteers for working so hard to elect him. It reminds me of Michele’s infamous statement that “this is the first time in my adult life I can say that I’m truly proud of my country.”
Unselfconscious egotism.
Ladies and gentlemen of RBC, we seem to have attracted a troll in the past few days. Do not feed.
He’s proud of a group of young people who’ve worked hard to achieve something they believe in. He believes a similar experience at a similar age was the making of him. I’m sure the politician of your choice could have made a similar statement to a similar crowd, without similarly inspiring such an unbecoming and embittered display from you.
But hey, thanks for the callback to a golden oldie of deliberately, maliciously misinterpreted Michelle Obama.
deliberately, maliciously misinterpreted Michelle Obama.
Can you elaborate on how she was misinterpreted?
No, he can’t because we aren’t feeding the troll and you have access to Google.
“Like.”
I’m sure he’s the nicest person ever to order a summary execution.
Or to absolve torturers of criminal culpability.
The President is clearly reaching out to John Boehner. JB can return the favor not defaulting on the national debt.