Michelle Obama joins stump on behalf of Democratic hopefuls
First Lady Michelle Obama shook off the rust and hit the campaign trail – at least the campaign fundraising circuit – ahead of the November midterm elections.
Praising her husband’s accomplishments in just a year-and-a-half in office, she urged supporters to “have his back” by getting out the vote for fellow Democrats so he can pursue promised change with a friendly Congress.
Republicans are expected to make inroads in the November mid-term election.
“This is my first day out on the campaign trail. In fact, I haven’t been on the trail since a little campaign a couple of years ago,” Obama told a well-heeled crowd attending a $750-a-plate fundraiser for U.S. Senate hopeful Alexi Giannoulias.
She said she looked forward to voting early Thursday in her Chicago hometown, after a night’s rest “in my own bed.”
If she was out of practice after two years off the campaign trail, it didn’t show. While not rousing, the first lady delivered on familiar themes: the enduring struggles of American families to put food on the table, to get a good education for their children, to get health care.
She pledged support for military veterans — an issue she has adopted personally — but acknowledged it might take longer than one hoped to expand job opportunities in what has been an anemic economic recovery.
Chicago River is plenty clean, Mayor Daley says
Photo Credit: REUTERS/Jeff Haynes
Upset that the federal government instructed Chicago to clean up its namesake river to make the water swimmable, Mayor Richard Daley suggested Washington attend to the Potomac River and leave him alone.
“Go swim in the Potomac,” Daley told reporters when asked about the letter from the Environmental Protection Agency addressing the condition of the Chicago River. “We’re trying to make this river every day more cleanable.”
The mayor was just warming up.
“They send letters all the time. They should get down to BP and start saving the people down in Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and Alabama — all their lives and their livelihood — instead of sending us letters,” Daley said.
“The (Chicago) River’s been cleaner and cleaner every year,” he added.
A century ago, engineers reversed the flow of the river to direct the city’s filthy sewage away from Lake Michigan, the source of the city’s potable water. The river has since been rerouted, hemmed in, and used as repository for untreated run-off during heavy rains.
Washington blizzard finally gets respect from ‘flinty’ Obama
President Barack Obama, who famously chided Washington for not being “flinty” enough in dealing with snow compared with his hometown Chicago, isn’t scoffing any more as a winter storm threatens to dump up to 30 inches on the U.S. capital this weekend.
“I think even a transplanted Hawaiian to Chicago has sufficient respect for a forecast of nearly two feet of snow,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters as snowflakes fluttered against the window of his West Wing office.
Midwesterners like Obama like to brag how tough they are in winter weather compared with their East Coast brethren. That said, Gibbs noted the president was not going to have to shovel the White House’s many paths, although he allowed that the Obama daughters Sasha and Malia might well play in the drifts or get out the First Family’s sled.
Washingtonians, whose city is far enough south to rarely face this sort of severe winter weather, do not deal well with snow. Schools shut after only a smattering of snow gathers on the ground – which was the basis for Obama’s original complaint – and traffic descends quickly into chaos.
“Being from Alabama, I am happy to inform you I will be getting off the road and watching you all try to drive,” Gibbs said.
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Photo credit: Reuters/Molly Riley
Want to be Obama’s neighbor? House in Chicago for sale
CHICAGO – Be President Barack Obama’s neighbor for a cool $1.85 million.
The 17-room, 6,000 square foot (557 sq metres) brick house for sale adjacent to Obama’s Chicago home needs work to update the kitchen and bathrooms, but there is no need to worry about break-ins, the seller says.
“It’s definitely got phenomenal security. A whole team of Secret Service agents is posted 20 feet (6 metres) away” night and day, real estate agent Matt Garrison said.
”Some people may view that as a negative thing but we’re looking for buyers who see it as a positive thing,” Garrison said.
Prospective owners won’t face daily searches, Garrison said, but visitors will likely have to be cleared in advance.
The Obama family, of course, lives in the White House for now and their Chicago home in the Kenwood neighborhood is presumably vacant. The Chicago Police Department recently scaled down its around-the-clock presence at the house.
But when the Obamas and their two daughters were there, they sometimes chatted with neighbor Bill Grimshaw and his wife, who preceded them in the neighborhood. The Grimshaws, whose children have grown, bought the home for $35,000 in 1973.
if i had to have my neighbors permission to have visitors there’s no way i’d move into the neighborhood. shouldn’t he live in the white house anyway?
Obama Olympics Ouch!
So. What happened?
President Barack Obama dashed overnight to Copenhagen, waved the flag, praised everyone in sight, and came home with Nothing, Nada, Naught, Zero, Zip, Zilch (couldn’t find the Danish word or would have thrown that in too).
The Olympics Oracle, after much fumbling with the envelope, read the winner and Rio de Janeiro scooped up the 2016 Summer Games.
Chicago — the hometown for Obama, his wife, and close advisers like David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel — was left out in the cold, not even making it to the T2 (Top Two).
Was it the unbridled enthusiasm in Rio for bringing home the Olympics, compared with the protesters from Chicago who didn’t want the games anywhere near their town?
“I think that the city of Chicago would have welcomed having the Olympics in 2016,” said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly, also a native of Chicago. “I don’t think this necessarily demonstrates that Chicago is not a welcoming place.”
Was it the warmer welcome from Brazil to international travelers, compared with the post-9/11 U.S. security consciousness?
I THINK HE SHOULD BE MORE WORRIED ABOUT WHATS GOING ON IN OUR COUNTRY. HE SHOULD NOT BE ENVOLVED AT ALL IN THE OLYMPICS.I DON’T FEEL HE IS DOING A VERY GOOD JOB FOR WE TAXPAYERS.
The First Draft: Sex scandal and the Olympics
They’re not linked, but the stories that topped the news shows this morning had to do with sex and with the Olympics.
Late-night comedian David Letterman made an unusual confession on his show last night: he was the victim of a $2 million extortion plot by a man who threatened to write a screenplay about Letterman having afffairs with female employees.
The talk show host quoted a blackmail note as saying: “I know that you do some terrible, terrible things and I can prove that you do these terrible things.”
Initially, Letterman’s audience didn’t understand and thought he was telling a joke. They laughed as he said he found a package in his car three weeks ago from a person who was trying to blackmail him.
Then the audience seemed kind of stunned, not knowing how to react as the 62-year-old comedian spoke about the “very bizarre experience” as he admitted that he had had sex with women who work for him on the show. He then went on to say he hoped to protect his family and his job.
An employee with CBS’s “48 Hours” was arrested in the case.
The other top story: President Obama’s Olympic plea to try to win the 2016 Summer Games for Chicago.
thanks cheese actually i work in hollywood ,what i should have said ,was the entertainment industry,same difference.
The First Draft: Iran …and the Olympics
When President Barack Obama was running for president, he was heavily criticized by his rivals — including his current secretary of state, Hillary Clinton — for saying he would be willing to sit down with the leaders of countries like Iran.
Well, today is the day the United States takes part for the first time as a “full participant” in talks between Iran and six world powers to discuss Tehran’s nuclear program.
Obama is not participating but he will likely be closely following results of the one-day talks in Geneva. U.S. officials have said Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns — the head of the American delegation — would not actively seek a one-on-one meeting with Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator but would not reject one if the opportunity arose.
Though he’s not going to Geneva, Obama will jet over to Europe this evening for a brief, cameo appearance in Copenhagen, where he hopes his star power and charisma can help woo International Olympic Committee members and convince them to choose Chicago as the venue for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Possibly as part of an effort to avoid criticism that he is skipping work to lobby for the Olympics, Obama will put in a full day at the White House — including Oval Office meetings with Clinton and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner as well as a fundraising speech for the Democratic Governors Association — before setting off for Denmark, where he will be on the ground for just about 4 hours.
No incumbent U.S. President has ever addressed an IOC session before. A star-studded advance team including First Lady Michelle Obama, television star Oprah Winfrey and American Olympians have spent the last couple of days trying to win over votes in the hard-fought battle for the 2016 Games.
So what will Obama’s pitch be? Is there some surprise sports-related event that he’ll take part in to convince the IOC to pick Chicago instead of the other three finalists: Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo?
The First Draft: Obama’s next diplomatic challenge: Olympics victory
If you think President Barack Obama has it tough negotiating with the G20 over the global economy and Iran over its nuclear program, take a look at his next international diplomatic challenge:
Going head-to-head with the International Olympic Committee over the venue for the 2016 Summer Games.
Obama thinks it ought to be held in his hometown of Chicago.
He’s so sold on the idea that he’s flying to Copenhagen Friday to put in a personal appearance at a meeting of the IOC — the first time a sitting U.S. president has done so.
Chicago is up against Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo as the site for the Olympics.
The Windy City has never hosted a Summer Olympics, nor has Madrid nor Rio.
Tokyo hosted the Summer Olympics in 1964. It also won the bid for the 1940 games but was stripped of the right after the outbreak of its war with China. The 1940 games were ultimately canceled due to World War II.
Apparently only half of the people in chicago want the games,and this increases if it is not self financing.But they will suggest like the health care bill no money will be needed.
