Former President Bill Clinton will be campaigning this week with Rhode Island Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Frank Caprio. The Clinton endorsement comes as Caprio is upset with President Obama for not endorsing him. Caprio Monday retaliated telling President Obama during a radio interview he could “shove it!” President Obama is responding to Caprio’s “shove it” during an exclusive phone interview Tuesday with April Ryan of American Urban Radio Networks.

“Q Well, you know, you talk about this change that we are still involved in, this effort to move forward. And passions are running hot. And were you able to read or hear about what happened in Rhode Island, the statements that were made about you?

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, you know, I saw that. I mean, that’s not a big deal. Obviously, a candidate for governor there was upset that I hadn’t explicitly endorsed him, and made a comment off the cuff –

Q Okay, and so –

THE PRESIDENT: And so one of the things you learn, April, in politics is you don’t worry about people saying stuff about you. As long as you know that you are focused on doing what’s right for people, then that’s your main priority.

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
____________________________________________________________________
Internal Transcript October 26, 2010RADIO INTERVIEW OF THE PRESIDEN

WITH APRIL RYAN

Via Telephone Call

3:15 P.M. EDT

Q President Obama, thanks for joining us on the eve of November 2nd’s historic elections. History shows that the tide is supposed to be for the other guy during the midterms. And how do you feel about that, especially as your efforts to get the out the base vote is historic all into itself?

We’re hearing that you will have at least more base voters than you’ve had at least in the past 12 years. What are your thoughts about that as history normally goes against you during the midterms, but you’re making historic moves right now yourself?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, look, it’s true that historically sitting Presidents, their party loses some seats during the midterms. That’s been a pattern. But these aren’t ordinary times.

We’re going through a recovery from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. And I think it is very important for us to understand that this election represents a choice between going back to the policies that got us into this mess in the first place, and supporting the policies that I’ve implemented, working with a Democratic Congress, to help get us out of this mess.

So just to use one example, the main Republican idea for growing the economy is to cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans, millionaires and billionaires. It would cost $700 billion. And part of the way they want to pay for it is to cut education spending by 20 percent.

Now, we’ve struggled over the last two years to make sure that we are putting billions of dollars — new money

into Pell Grants and into college scholarships and student loan programs so that young people have an opportunity to get an education because that’s what they’re going to need if they’re going to compete in this new global economy. That is a core choice in terms of what your priorities are.

And whether it’s them wanting to repeal the health care laws that we put into place to make sure that insurance companies have to treat you fairly and you can get affordable insurance; whether it’s them wanting to roll back financial reform that we worked to pass because we don’t want to see any more taxpayer-funded bailouts — these are the kinds of choices that are coming up in this election.

And I believe that if folks who worked so hard in 2008 to get me elected understand that this election is just as important as 2008 because it’s going to determine how well I can move my agenda forward over the next two years, I think we’ll have good turnout. And that’s what I’m really hoping for.

Q I talked to your senior advisor, Valerie Jarrett, recently. And she talked about things that were at stake, like the black farmers, as well as health care — repealing — the Republicans wanting to repeal health care reform.

Could you talk to me about what’s at stake, including those issues?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I just gave you one example, which is education. Health care is another. You mentioned the Pigford settlement that we have tried to broker to make sure that African American farmers who were discriminated against in the past in agricultural programs get a settlement. It’s a fair settlement, but it’s got to be funded by Congress. And frankly, it’s going to be tougher for us to be able to get that done if, in fact, we don’t have strong support from Congress.

Historically Black Colleges and Universities — we’ve put $850 million into those. But that money is not locked in. It could be taken away.

So on each of these issues, the question is going to be whether or not we prioritize investments in people, investments in our infrastructure, investments in economic growth, or are we going back to the policies of cutting taxes, cutting regulations, and then cutting middle-class families to fend for themselves.

And I think the choice should be clear. And folks who turned out in 2008, this is just as important an election, and I need everybody to make sure they’re going to the polls on November 2nd. And if you’ve got early vote in your state, you should go out even sooner, cast your ballot today or cast your ballot this weekend, to make sure that your voice is heard.

Q It’s ironic — you talked about the success of your election to President and the historic nature of it. And I’m in Greensboro, North Carolina — I just toured the Civil Rights Museum, the Woolworth Lunch Counter Exhibit. And the exhibit ends with you. And I couldn’t help but think about the fact that this is historic, and there is history because so many young people — your base — did not understand issues of suffrage. And then you have the issue of African Americans, historically, who fought for the right to vote. Could you speak to that, to all of that — your base, the young vote, the youth vote, the women’s vote, as well as the black vote, historically — in historic perspective?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, look, 2008 was an historic election because people participated at record levels. But that’s how it’s got to be all the time. I mean, what I try to explain to people is that bringing about change in this country, whether it was the civil rights movement, the movement for women’s rights, workers’ rights, these have all happened over the course of years. And the question is, do you sustain a movement for change.

Another way of putting it is you’ve got to play the whole game and we’ve just finished the first quarter. And if you’re only playing one quarter, even if you’ve got a lead in that first quarter, you could end up losing the game. Well, we’ve got — we’ve got three more quarters to play. And the only way we’re going to win them is if people make their voices heard.

Q Well, you know, you talk about this change that we are still involved in, this effort to move forward. And passions are running hot. And were you able to read or hear about what happened in Rhode Island, the statements that were made about you?

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, you know, I saw that. I mean, that’s not a big deal. Obviously, a candidate for governor there was upset that I hadn’t explicitly endorsed him, and made a comment off the cuff –

Q Okay, and so –

THE PRESIDENT: And so one of the things you learn, April, in politics is you don’t worry about people saying stuff about you. As long as you know that you are focused on doing what’s right for people, then that’s your main priority.

Q And moving forward, do you think November 2nd that there will be a win in the House and/or Senate? Or what do you think will happen? Because I’ve been polling some people in the House, and they’re saying they’re expecting a bump — it’s tight, but they’re expecting a bump up by a couple of Democratic wins, so they’re expecting to keep the House.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, here’s my expectation — is that if we turn out at the levels that we turned out in 2008, we’ll win. It’s pretty straightforward. And so we don’t have to prognosticate. We don’t have to predict. We don’t have to get a crystal ball. Our fate is in our own hands.

And that’s why everybody who is listening to your program, I am hopeful that if you haven’t already early voted, go out there and early vote. If you don’t have early vote, then turn out on November 2nd. If you don’t know where to vote, you can get on a website called raiseyourvote.com and get that information.

But there are no excuses here. We can continue to make progress putting people back to work, the investments we’ve made in blighted neighborhoods, the need to invest in infrastructure and putting people back to work, making sure that we continue investing in education and school reform and school construction, making sure that our young people are getting the college help that they need. All those things are contingent on whether people turn out to vote or not.

So, April, I just want, as I sign off, to say to everybody, don’t — just because I’m not on the ballot, don’t assume that this election is not important. This is very important. And it’s going to help determine how well we can move over the next couple of years.

Q Mr. President, thank you so very much. I know you’re busy, but thanks for taking time out.

THE PRESIDENT: Great to talk to you. Thank you very much. Bye-bye.

Q Take care. Bye-bye.

END 3:24 P.M. EDT

John Boyd, head of the National Black Farmers Association has not emerged to talk with reporters after a 10:30 am meeting with White House staff.   Before going into the session with Michael Strautmanis, Assistant to the President, Boyd did say he was hopeful to receive a financial settlement like the American Indians in their USDA discrimination settlement the day before.   “Hopefully we will have news on how we will proceed on the black farmer settlement. I am hopeful we will have different news than what we had been getting,” Boyd said.   Boyd has also been requesting a meeting with the President. That did not happen at the Wednesday meeting on the White House campus.

 
During Boyd’s interview before the White House session, he did say “about 5 percent” of any award would go to the attorneys and the rest would be “arbitrated” for those in the Pigford ll class action case.

President Obama allocated 1.25 billion dollars in his 2011budget to settle the 15 year old case.

But, late in the day the White House issued this statement.

Readout of the White House meeting with the National Black Farmers Association

Today, White House staff met with John Boyd, founder of the National Black Farmers Association, to discuss the Pigford II settlement. White House staff reiterated the President’s commitment on this issue and the need for Congress to act and implement funding for the Black Farmers.

The government is offering American Indian farmers who say they were denied farm loans a $680 million settlement.

The two sides agreed on the deal after more than 10 months of negotiations. The government and the Indian plaintiffs met in federal court Tuesday to present the settlement to U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan.

A hearing on preliminary approval of the deal is set for Oct. 29. Sullivan indicated he was pleased with the agreement, calling it historic and coming down off his bench to shake hands with lawyers from both sides.

The lawsuit filed in 1999 contends Indian farmers and ranchers lost about $500 million because they were denied USDA loans. The government settled a similar lawsuit filed by black farmers, more than a decade ago.    Currently,  the black farmers are looking for Congress to fund their 1.25 billion dollar Pigford ll discrimination settlement the President placed in his 2011 Budget.  They black agrarians have been waiting 15 years for the financial restitution.

Senior Advisor to  President Obama, Valarie Jarrett said Monday from her West Wing office the black farmer settlement funding is “at stake” in this 2010 Mid Term election. 

Farmer advocate, Shirley Sherrod contends, “going on and settling Pigford [Pigford ll], the Hispanic, the Native American, the women and any of the others that pop up, is a step forward to get to a point where we can live in this country as people, Not as blacks not as whites, not as Hispanics or Native Americans but as people.”

POLITICO

 By KENDRA MARR

President Obama took questions from black news outlets on a conference call on Monday afternoon.

About 30 newspapers and weeklies from around the country - including the Chicago Defender, The Los Angeles Sentinel and the New Pittsburgh Courier - were invited to participate, according to an administration official.

The call was part of the White House’s outreach to black media. On Friday, Obama met with the Trotter Group, an organization of black columnists, and last Monday, the White House hosted the first “African American Online Summit” for outlets like The Root and AOL Black Voices.

LINK TO REPORT

David Bositis of the Joint Center for Political and Economis studies says the White House and Democrats are “doing more to get out the black vote during this Mid Term election, than in the past 12 years for the Mid Terms.” He says,”it should make a difference in cutting into the anticipated losses of Democrats next month.” The question is by how much? Bositis says, “that remains to be seen” on November 2, 2010.

 
Bositis just released a study, In Anticipation of November 2nd Black Voters and Candidates in the 2010 Mid Term Elections.    Bositis says of the reports findings, “This actually is the year where black voters are very strategically placed in terms of affecting the outcome of House, Senate and Gubernatorial elections. There are 20 House elections where the size of the black turnout is not really much question about what direction African Americans are going to vote, they will vote Democratic. There are 20 House districts, there are 14 U-S Senate districts, that is U-S Senate seats, and 14 Gubernatorial elections were the size of the African American turnout would have a direct impact on the elections.”

 
The White House and the Democratic Party are relying on polling in the African American community.  The black and youth vote is the party base.  Subsequently, polls also show black support of President Obama is higher than it was for Bill Clinton at this same period during Clinton’s Presidency. Overall, President Obama’s approval ratings are in the 40’s, but higher than Presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan at this same time during their administrations.

 
Understanding all these dynamics, The White House contends, people are still “frustrated” by the “9.6 percent unemployment rate” in this country. Many Americans are also discouraged about not feeling tangible results of the so called end of the recession.

 
President Obama won the Oval Office in 2008 for his push for change of the American economic landscape and on other issues. When it comes to that word change, a high ranking administration source says, “People have to understand it is not a product but a process.”

Obama, Condoleezza Rice chat about foreign policy, books

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President Barack Obama met Friday at the White House with former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice for a chat on foreign policy and her new memoir, officials said.

 
Rice gave the president a “personalized copy” of “Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family,” in which Rice describes her childhood in segregated Birmingham, Alabama, a White House spokesman said.

 
The Oval Office meeting marked the first time Rice has been back to the White House since former president George W. Bush left office.

 
They discussed “a range of national security issues, and we’re going to leave it at that,” said Tommy Vietor, a White House spokesman.

 
Deputy White House Press Secretary Bill Burton earlier would not say whether the topics for discussion included Afghanistan or Iraq, subjects on which Obama and Rice have sharply divergent views.

 
“She was going to be in town,” Burton told reporters as he flew to Philadelphia with Obama for a campaign event. “The president obviously couldn’t make the book party later today, but he wanted to bring her in and have a chat with her.”

 
At her meeting with Obama, Rice also gave the president a copy of the young adult version of her memoir for his daughters Sasha and Malia, Vietor said. The book went on sale Tuesday.

 
Obama and Rice are both racial pioneers. He is America’s first African American president, and author of his own memoir “Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance,” and she is the highest-ranking black woman in the history of the executive branch of the US government.

 
But politically they are miles apart. Rice served in the White House as Bush’s national security advisor from 2001 to 2005. She then was secretary of state from 2005 to 2009.

 
A Republican, she was a key player in the US decision to invade Iraq in 2003, a course of action that Obama campaigned against in his 2008 run for the presidency.

 
Obama also frequently criticized Bush’s White House team for neglecting the Afghan war, as he formulated a new strategy last year.

Michelle Obama Campaigns for Embattled Democrats

October 13, 2010, 7:22 PM EDT

She raised money this afternoon for three-term Democratic Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, who is running behind his Republican challenger, businessman Ron Johnson, in most recent state polls. Tonight she raised money in her hometown of Chicago for Democratic candidates including Alexi Giannoulias, who is in a close contest with Republican U.S. Representative Mark Kirk to fill the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by her husband.

She told 700 Democratic donors in Milwaukee at an event for Feingold that the change President Barack Obama promised takes time and that this election is a chance to “finish what we’ve started.” 

“Here is something that I asked you all when I was on the campaign trail, I asked you all to make sure you had my husband’s back, right?” she said. “He cannot do this alone. He needs strong leaders like Russ to help him.”

In contrast to the attacks on Republicans that the president delivers at his campaign stops, the first lady took a softer approach in her speech at the Feingold event.

‘More as a Mom’

“Like every parent I know my girls, my children, are at the center of my world, and my hopes for their future are at the heart of every single thing that I do,” she told members of the audience, who paid between $250 and $500 each to attend. “I come to this stuff more as a mom.”

The message resonated with Tia Johnson, a stay-at-home mother of two young children who lives in Beloit, Wisconsin. 

“Before I had children, I was not much concerned about politics,” she said. “Being a mother, and seeing what my kids are dealing with in school, thinking about the economy and the future, it changes you.”

In Chicago, she carried a similar message to a crowd of about 300 people who paid amounts ranging from $500 a person to $10,000 per couple. The money is being split between the Giannoulias campaign and the state party, according to Giannoulias spokesman Scott Burnham. The first lady also is raising money for three House candidates, including incumbent Representative Debbie Halvorson.

The first lady’s itinerary complements the blitz of political trips by the president in the final weeks before the Nov. 2 elections to decide control of Congress. Their travel provides a road map to the races that the White House views as critical. Her role largely is to rally the party faithful and raise money. 

President Obama met with Actor George Clooney on matters of the Sudan.  The main focus of the talk, the January 9, 2011 elections on Southern Sudans attempts to break from the North.  Clooney contends he will be on hand for the elections.

 Last month, at the United Nations, President Obama said of the Sudan, “ What happens in Sudan in the days ahead may decide whether a people who have endured too much war move forward towards peace or slip backwards into bloodshed. And what happens in Sudan matters to all of sub-Saharan Africa, and it matters to the world.” 

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is engaged with Sudanese leaders to convey the United States expectations for the January 9th vote and for what comes after. The united states diplomatic presences has been stepped up in the region.

After meeting with the President,  Clooney told reporters , “The people of the Sudan have been enslaved, and have been sold, raped and slaughtered for generations.  They  earned the right to vote for their freedom in 2005.  They believe they have that right on January 9th. They are going to vote that way it seems.  And  they seem very resolute.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir said he would not accept an alternative to unity despite his commitment to a peace deal with the south that offers an independence referendum.

The peace deal gave the former southern rebels, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, semi-autonomous powers and a share in government, and promised a referendum on southern independence.

Analysts say the vote is expected to favor independence.

Former Clinton Transportation Secretary, Rodney Slater is working with the Obama administration to move the ball forward on securing $50 billion from Congress to help make long-term improvements for roads, runways and the U.S. rail system. Slater is expecting, “bi-partisan” support for the bill after the November 2, 2010 Mid Term Elections. He says during the Clinton years, a similar bill received support from both sides of the aisle.  Slater expects the same for this effort to repair what President Obama calls, a “crumbling” and “aging” infrastructure.

 
President Obama believes the six year project would get people back to “work right now.”   Former Transportation Secretary Slater says once the bill is passed, work will begin immediately on highways, bi ways, runways and railways. 

Once approved, states that are in warmer climates year round would see work 12 months out of the year. States in the grips of cold winters will see work begin in the spring and end in the fall and or early winter. President Obama says currently one in five construction workers are unemployed.