Barack Obama’s staffers are getting a little too imperial for their boss’ good.
A year ago, when Obama was running for president, he appeared before the national convention of the NAACP and was a great hit. His biggest crowd-pleasing line was how much he was looking forward to coming back in a year as the first African American president. It got him a five-minute standing ovation and millions of votes.
Fast forward to this year. The NAACP invites the president to speak to the group July 16, the last day of its six-day convention at the Hilton in New York.
The White House’s response: Absolutely, he’s coming.
Then the Secret Service comes and says, “No,” the Hilton is not suitable.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg says, “Why don’t I give you Yankee Stadium?” It would be the president’s biggest event since his inauguration.
A couple of days later comes the answer from someone in Obama’s operation: We don’t want to project that kind of image. We want something bigger than the Hilton, but not as big as Yankee Stadium.
The NAACP people have to bust their ass to come up with another place - and they do, finally, finding an armory in Harlem. There’s no air conditioning, however, and we are talking New York in July here. The governor steps in and says he’ll provide temporary air conditioning.
The White House then says, “OK, but we want to change the time - 2 p.m. for the president’s speech is not acceptable anymore. We want 5 o’clock.”
The NAACP says, wait a minute - this speech is supposed to take place on the biggest day of the convention, the day we hold the awards banquet. If Obama goes on at 5 p.m., we’ll have to bus hundreds of people from the downtown Hilton all the way up to Harlem, two or three hours before the president arrives. Then we’ll have to bus everyone back and get everyone into their black ties for the awards dinner.
We can’t do that.
So those little bitty people in the NAACP send back the message: Advise him that it’s 2 o’clock and we hope he shows.
Former President Clinton has placed a call to the Jackson family after the death of Michael Jackson. President Obama sent a letter in the mail to the family Saturday after the outpouring from around the world.
Friday Robert Gibbs was tossed the question about the presidents feelings on Micheal Jackson.
Monday, a reporter tossed the question to the president he walked out of the room without addressing it. Friday Robert Gibbs said the president was anticipating a question on the death. The White House journalists have been abuzz about the whole Jackson issue and his past presidential affiliations.
On Capitol Hill, members of the Congressional Black Caucus paid tribute to Michael Jackson on the House floor.
The White House issued a “clarification” of Time magazine’s report that Obama has finally chosen a church home–Evergreen Chapel, the nondenominational church at Camp David.
“The President and First Family continue to look for a church home,” a White House official said in a statement this morning. “They have enjoyed worshiping at Camp David and several other congregations over the months, and will choose a church at the time that is best for their family.”
At the daily White House Press Briefing June 19, 2009, April Ryan asks Robert Gibbs about President Obama’s “thoughts about slavery” and before she could finish her question, he jumps in and answers, “Opposed…
Q And also real fast on something, the Senate has unanimously passed a symbolic resolution apologizing for slavery and racial segregation, and sent the measure to the House. This being the first black President — Bill Clinton did not apologize for slavery; George W. Bush said he would not do it as Africans were also involved in the slave trade. Does this President think that that’s something that should indeed happen?
MR. GIBBS: Well, I have not spoken with him specifically about the Senate resolution and I’d want to get his view on that.
Q Okay, well, what is the President’s thought about slavery, especially since he invoked –
MR. GIBBS: Opposed. (Laughter.)
Q Excuse me?
MR. GIBBS: Opposed.
Q Especially since –
MR. GIBBS: April, you just asked me what the President’s view on slavery was. What did you think I was going to say? (Laughter.)
Q You didn’t let me finish my –
MR. GIBBS: Okay, look, this is a very serious topic –
Q Yes, thank you.
MR. GIBBS: — I just want to note that that was your question. Go ahead, I’m sorry.
Q Okay, but I want to finish the statement –
MR. GIBBS: And it does drive me crazy when one doesn’t get a chance to finish their entire statement before somebody else — I’m sorry, I’m off track, go ahead. (Laughter.) It is Friday, guys; I’m just trying to have a little fun.
Q Anyway, you know, especially dealing with this issue of slavery, especially since he invoked the issue of slavery over a year ago in his Philadelphia speech on race, is it something that this White House could indeed tackle? Bill Clinton tackled it and tabled it in his second term when he dealt with the race initiative. Is this something –
MR. GIBBS: Tackled and tabled what? I’m sorry.
Q The apology — the possibility of an apology for slavery.
MR. GIBBS: Well, one, I don’t know if this is even something that — just purely legislatively, I don’t know if the resolution per se ultimately comes here or not for signature. I don’t know the answer to that.
Look, I think the President has spoken on any number of occasions about the stain that slavery left on this country, that throughout our history we have sought to better perfect our union and have had many bumps along the way. And one of the most significant of those stains is that of slavery; that it is clearly something that we continue to struggle with. The President obviously hopes that we can make progress on race relations and that we all have a deeper and better understanding of backgrounds and beliefs.
The White House would not issue a statement on the death of Michael Jackson the day he died. Friday, apparently White House Officials changed there mind after the massive outpouring. The president was ready to answer a question on Michael Jackson’s death. The problem, no reporter asked the president at the joint press conference. The president’s statement was delivered by White House Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs. There will be no written statement by President Obama. Other leaders like former South African President Nelson Mandela and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger issued a written statement on the Jackson death.
1984: Jackson accepts an award at the White House from President Ronald Reagan for his work helping people overcome alcohol and drug abuse. Reagan writes Jackson a letter which reads, in part: “You’ve gained quite a number of fans along the road since ‘I Want You Back,’ and Nancy and I are among them.”
Reagan would later write in his journal (published decades later) that he was “surprised at how shy” Jackson was and said Jackson “is totally opposed to Drugs & Alcohol & is using his popularity to influence young people against them.”
1990: President George H.W. Bush presents Jackson with the “Artist of the Decade” award at the White House.
“[H]e has a tremendous following,” says Bush. “He does good work, what we call the Points of Light concept.”
1992: Jackson swings into town to receive an award from the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters. Jackson tells Ebony magazine that “I never get into politics.”
1993: Jackson plays a big role in President Bill Clinton’s inauguration, performing at the Lincoln Memorial along with Bob Dylan and Elton John, as well as at the Presidential Gala at USAir Arena.
At the gala, Jackson pleads with Clinton to provide sufficient money to fight HIV/AIDS. While in town, he swings by the Children’s Hospital to visit patients.
2001: Jackson performs at RFK stadium for a post-9/11 concert - “United We Stand: What More Can I Give” - to benefit the American Red Cross.
2002: The Washington Post reports that “Washington film production company owner Joe Becker
says close associates of Michael Jackson have stiffed him for the six-figure sum he advanced for an abortive music video of Jackson’s tune, ‘What More Can I Give?,’ which was supposed to have featured the aging Prince of Pop and a cast of rock stars at the Lincoln Memorial.”
2004: Jackson makes a trip to Capitol Hill to get help in the fight against HIV/AIDS. He remains mum during a news conference, and the Congressional Black Caucus is less than eager to meet with him.
USA Today reports: “They had turned down his request to attend its meeting Wednesday, saying they were too busy dealing with legislative issues affecting black Americans.”
2007: Jackson tours the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space and American Indian museums. Jackson scopes out potential summer homes on the Eastern Shore, causing quite a buzz that he might move to our neighborhood.
Republican Senator John McCain, known as a huge boxing fan, wants a pardon for boxing great Jack Johnson. The late black heavyweight champion Jack Johnson, was sent to prison nearly a century ago because of his romantic ties with a white woman.
Johnson became the first black heavyweight champion in 1908 - 100 years before Obama was elected the nation’s first black president. Johnson was convicted in 1913 of violating the Mann Act, which made it illegal to transport women across state lines for immoral purposes.
Senator McCain at the White House said, “Jack Johnson was one of the great athletes in history. He was done a gross mis justice and he should be pardoned because he was not guilty of anything expect a victim of racism.” McCain is hopeful the House will follow the Senate’s lead. The Senate approved the resolution by voice vote Wednesday. When asked about the pardon resolution, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs admitted he was not familiar with the issue.
The White House office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood partnerships is working to implement the Obama Cairo speech with more outreach to the Muslim community on American soil. The June speech is credited with inspiring elections change in Iran. Administration sources admit the Obama Cairo address affected the margins in the Iranian elections. To what extent, it is not known. Republican National Committee chairman, Michael Steele contends, “the Cairo speech was something that stuck in the minds of a lot of the activist out there. I think that they feel empowered in so many ways. But again, when you empower people you have got to sustain that empowerment. You cannot empower them and then walk away from it.” Meanwhile, Tuesday President Obama gave his strongest statements yet on the turmoil in Iran since elections there. He said he was “appalled and outraged by the threats, beatings and imprisonments of the past few days.” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned President Obama to “avoid interfering” in Iranian affairs. “Do you want to speak with this tone? If that is your stance then what is left to talk about?” Ahmadinejad said of Obama.
In his first daytime news conference yesterday, President Obama preempted “All My Children,” “Days of Our Lives” and “The Young and the Restless.” But the soap viewers shouldn’t have been disappointed: The president had arranged some prepackaged entertainment for them.
After the obligatory first question from the Associated Press, Obama treated the overflowing White House briefing room to a surprise. “I know Nico Pitney is here from the Huffington Post,” he announced.
Obama knew this because White House aides had called Pitney the day before to invite him, and they had escorted him into the room. They told him the president was likely to call on him, with the understanding that he would ask a question about Iran that had been submitted online by an Iranian. “I know that there may actually be questions from people in Iran who are communicating through the Internet,” Obama went on. “Do you have a question?”
Pitney recognized his prompt. “That’s right,” he said, standing in the aisle and wearing a temporary White House press pass. “I wanted to use this opportunity to ask you a question directly from an Iranian.”
Pitney asked his arranged question. Reporters looked at one another in amazement at the stagecraft they were witnessing. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel grinned at the surprised TV correspondents in the first row.
The use of planted questioners is a no-no at presidential news conferences, because it sends a message to the world — Iran included — that the American press isn’t as free as advertised. But yesterday wasn’t so much a news conference as it was a taping of a new daytime drama, “The Obama Show.” Missed yesterday’s show? Don’t worry: On Wednesday, ABC News will be broadcasting “Good Morning America” from the South Lawn (guest stars: the president and first lady), “World News Tonight” from the Blue Room, and a prime-time feature with Obama from the East Room.
“The Obama Show” was the hottest ticket in town yesterday. Forty-five minutes before the start, there were no fewer than 107 people crammed into the narrow aisles, in addition to those in the room’s 42 seats. Japanese and Italian could be heard coming from the tangle of elbows, cameras and compressed bodies: “You’ve got to move! . . . Oh, God, don’t step on my foot!” Some had come just for a glimpse of celebrity. And they wanted to know all about him. “As a former smoker, I understand the frustration and the fear that comes with quitting,” McClatchy News’s Margaret Talev empathized with the president before asking him how much he smokes.
Obama indulged the question from the studio audience. “I would say that I am 95 percent cured. But there are times where I mess up,” he confessed. “Like folks who go to AA, you know, once you’ve gone down this path, then, you know, it’s something you continually struggle with.”
This is Barack Obama, and these are the Days of Our Lives.
As if to compensate for the prepackaged Huffington Post question, Obama went quickly to Fox News for a predictably hostile question from Major Garrett. “In your opening remarks, sir, you said about Iran that you were appalled and outraged,” Garrett said. “What took you so long?
“I don’t think that’s accurate,” Obama volleyed testily, calling his toughening statements on Iran “entirely consistent.”
The host of “The Obama Show” dispatched with similar ease a challenge from CBS’s Chip Reid, asking whether his hardening line on Iran was inspired by John McCain. “What do you think?” Obama replied with a big grin. That brought the house down. And the studio audience laughed again when ABC’s Jake Tapper tried to get Obama to answer another reporter’s question that he had dodged. “Are you the ombudsman for the White House press corps?” the president cracked.
The laughter had barely subsided when the host made another joke about Tapper’s reference to Obama’s “Spock-like language about the logic of the health-care plan.”
“The reference to Spock, is that a crack on my ears?” the president asked.
But yesterday’s daytime drama belonged primarily to Pitney, of the Huffington Post Web site. During the eight years of the Bush administration, liberal outlets such as the Huffington Post often accused the White House of planting questioners in news conferences to ask preplanned questions. But here was Obama fielding a preplanned question asked by a planted questioner — from the Huffington Post.
Pitney said the White House, though not aware of the question’s wording, asked him to come up with a question about Iran proposed by an Iranian. And, as it turned out, he was not the only prearranged questioner at yesterday’s show. Later, Obama passed over the usual suspects to call on Macarena Vidal of the Spanish-language EFE news agency. The White House called Vidal in advance to see whether she was coming and arranged for her to sit in a seat usually assigned to a financial trade publication. She asked about Chile and Colombia.
A couple of more questions and Obama called it a day. “Mr. President!” yelled Mike Allen of Politico. “May I ask about Afghanistan? No questions about Iraq or Afghanistan?”
ATLANTA, June 23, 2009, 2:45 p.m. - President Obama today dodged a question about escalating black unemployment, while taking only one question from the black-owned press during his news conference.
The nation’s first black president dodged American Urban Radio’s April Ryan’s question about what he will do to stop black unemployment from hitting 20 percent. The unemployment rate for blacks is at 14.9 percent, compared to 9.4 percent for all Americans.
“We know that the African American unemployment rate, the Latino unemployment rate are consistently higher than the national average,” Obama said. “If the economy as a whole is doing poorly then you know that the African American community is doing poorly and they are going to be hit even harder … The best thing that I can do for the African American community, or the Latino community, or the Asian community - whatever community - is to get the economy as a whole moving. If I don’t do that then I am not going to be able to help anybody.”
During his answer, Obama told her to “hold on” but never came back to her.
In March, Obama also sidestepped a question about race during his second news conference, when he was asked if “race has come up” in “any of the policy debates that you’ve had within the White House.”
“I think that the last 64 days has been dominated by me trying to figure out how we’re going to fix the economy, and that affects black, brown and white,” Obama said. “And, you know, obviously, at the inauguration, I think that there was justifiable pride on the part of the country that we had taken a step to move us beyond some of the searing legacies of racial discrimination in this country, but that lasted about a day.”
Obama called on Ebony magazine and Univision during the March news conference. He was assailed for overlooking the black press at his first news conference.
In March, he also distanced himself from his newly appointed Attorney General Eric Holder, who said that America is “a nation of cowards” on matters of race.
“I think it’s fair to say that if I had been advising my attorney general, we would have used different language,” the Democrat said. “I’m not somebody who believes that constantly talking about race somehow solves racial tensions. I think what solves racial tensions is fixing the economy, putting people to work, making sure that people have health care, ensuring that every kid is learning out there. I think if we do that, then we’ll probably have more fruitful conversations.”
What’s more, his answers on the issue of race have also mirrored remarks he made to the “State of the Black Union” in April.
“These are [economic] policies that will make a big difference in the African American community,” he told the group via video. “You know that tough times for America often mean tougher times for African Americans. This recession has been no exception. The unemployment rate among black Americans is a full five points higher than the rate among Americans as a whole.”
HERE IS THE ENTIRE TRANSCRIPT OF THE QUESTION AND ANSWER FROM THE PRESS CONFERENCE
Okay. I’ve got time for two more questions. April. Where’s April?
Q Right here. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: There you are. How are you?
Q I’m fine. Back on the economy, Mr. President, people are criticizing this road to recovery plan. Specifically, there are reports in The Washington Post that say that the African America unemployment rate will go to 20 percent by the end of this year. And then you had your Chairman of Economic Advisers say the target intervention may come next year if nothing changes. Why not target intervention now to stop the bloodletting in the black unemployment rate?
THE PRESIDENT: Look, first of all, we know that the African American unemployment rate, the Latino unemployment rate, are consistently higher than the national average. And so, if the economy as a whole is doing poorly, then you know that the African American community is going to be doing poorly, and they’re going to be hit even harder. And the best thing that I can do for the African American community or the Latino community or the Asian community, whatever community, is to get the economy as a whole moving. If I don’t — hold on one second, let me answer the question — if I don’t do that, then I’m not going to be able to help anybody. So that’s priority number one.
It is true that in certain inner-city communities, the unemployment rate is — was already sky high even before this recession. The ladders available for people to enter into the job market are even worse. And so we are interested in looking at proven programs that help people on a pathway to jobs.
There was a reason why right before Father’s Day I went to a program here locally in Washington called Year Up, which has a proven track record of taking young, mostly minority people, some of whom have graduated from high school, some maybe who’ve just gotten their GED, and trained them on computers and provide them other technical skills, but also train them on how to carry themselves in an office, how to write an e-mail — some of the social skills that will allow them to be more employable. They’ve got a terrific placement rate after this one-year program. If there are ways that we can potentially duplicate some of those programs, then we’re going to do so.
So part of what we want to do is to find tools that will give people more opportunity, but the most important thing I can do is to lift the economy overall. And that’s what my strategy is focused on.
