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Sen. Eric Lessers Obama-era colleagues are getting back together Tuesday evening for a virtual fundraiser in support of the state lawmakers bid for lieutenant governor, an event Lesser described as getting the band back together.

The gathering of Lessers former White House and campaign bosses comes as his campaign has raised over $648,000 between January and the end of May for a total of $1.07 million in cash on hand, according to the states Office of Campaign and Political Finance.

On the ticket for Tuesday evening: former senior advisor to President Barack Obama, David Axelrod; former economic policy advisor Austan Goolsbee; former White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations Alyssa Mastromonaco; and former Obama Campaign Manager David Plouffe.

Lesser said he has turned to the group for advice on state policy and during campaigns for state Senate and lieutenant governor. Lesser said he looked to Goolsbee for guidance as his legislative team helped craft a COVID-19 recovery bill earlier in the pandemic.

Austan, who is one of the most well-regarded economists in the country, actually helped and did a call with my team when we were writing that legislation, Lesser told MassLive. Its an inspiring team that, frankly, helped change the world with the election of Barack Obama. So really, really excited to get everybody back together.

Following his time at Harvard, Lesser joined Obamas 2008 presidential campaign where he traveled across the country during the primary and general elections. The senator then joined Obamas White House staff, first as a special assistant to Axelrod and later at the White House Council of Economic Advisors.

A clearer picture of the lieutenant governors race is set to emerge later this week at the Democratic Partys convention in Worcester where candidates must secure the support of 15 percent of delegates to make the ballot.

Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll raised $259,087 through the end of May, Bret Bero hauled in $234,850, Rep. Tami Gouveia raised $159,089, and Sen. Adam Hinds raised $126,730, according to the states campaign finance office.

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Sen. Eric Lesser is getting the Obama-era gang back together for virtual fundraiser - MassLive.com

Former President Barack Obama speaks about the Affordable Care Act, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 5, 2022.Photo: Carolyn Kaster (AP)

A teacher at a Michigan private school has been placed on leave after showing students pictures of animals with a picture of former President Barack Obama. They asked the class to identify the primate, per USA TODAYs report.

Reports say the teacher (who has not been named) worked at the Birmingham campus of the Roeper School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The campus holds the schools middle school and high school. Per USA TODAY, the assignment showed students images of different animals including monkeys and then a random picture of Obama.

Which of the following are primates, read the assignment. It was given to 30 biology students.

Read the schools response from USA TODAY:

The school in a statement to USA TODAY said, On behalf of Roeper Schools leadership, we want to acknowledge the disturbing racial offense contained in an assignment with an upper school class last week.

The choice to use this piece of curriculum was completely inconsistent with our Schools philosophy and mission and we sincerely apologize for its use and the harm it has caused. While the teacher has taken responsibility and admits the mistake of not properly vetting the resource, we know that is not enough and she has been placed on administrative leave until further notice, the statement continued.

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A concerned parent sent a letter to the school the day after the assignment was given out. Carolyn Lett, Roepers director of diversity, said this behavior wasnt acceptable, per The Detroit News.

The following morning, we were alerted that this went out, we discussed it ourselves and immediately spoke with the teacher. This is not anything weve seen before and nothing were used to, said Lett, whos worked at the school for 29 years.

Per The Detroit News, the school will be reviewing curriculum and working on professional development for staff and faculty focusing on diversity, equity and inclusion. Hopefully, this entails training more rigorous than a powerpoint presentation.

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Teacher Shows Picture of Obama with Monkeys and Asks Students to Identify the Primate - The Root

Theyre also providing travel and networking opportunities!

The Obamas have teamed up with the CEO of Airbnb to launch a $100 million scholarship, Bloomberg reports.

Barack and Michelle Obama have partnered with Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky to launch The Voyager Scholarship. Focused on offering support to college students looking to start a career in public service, the fund will provide financial aid to students as well as stipends for travel and networking opportunities. Chesky donated $100 million to the Obama Foundation to kick off the scholarship.

The scholarship will support 100 students in their first year, available to college students entering their junior year of college at an accredited four-year college or university in the United States. Students must be US citizens, permanent residents, or DACA recipients and demonstrate a financial need.

Scholarship recipients will receive $50,000 in financial aid for their junior and senior year of college along with a Summer Voyage work-travel experience that includes a $10,000 stipend and free Airbnb housing. Upon graduating, Airbnb will provide students with an additional $2,000 travel credit every year for 10 years, with participants gathering every fall for an annual summit to meet with President Obama, Chesky, and their peer Voyagers.

So many people have a passion for public service, but they dont go into public service because they cant afford to. They have too much financial burden looming over themWe need a generation of leaders who are willing to cooperate and build bridges, but its hard to build a bridge if you haven't seen the other side of the river, said Chesky.

The CEO, worth $9.45 billion, is part of 40 of Americas wealthiest people who signed the Giving Pledge by Warren Buffet and Bill and Melinda Gates, committed to giving away most of their fortune to tackle societal issues. The goal of the Obama-Chesky Scholarship for Public Service is to help alleviate the burden of college debt so that people will be able to serve their community and expand their perspective on the world.

Applications for the Voyager Scholarship are currently open. The deadline for submissions is June 14 with students expected to be notified in September. To learn more about the scholarship, click here.

Photo Courtesy of Jim Young/AFP/Getty Images

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The Obamas Have Teamed Up With Airbnb CEO To Launch $100M College Scholarship - Because of Them We Can

Former President Obama is urging Americans not to get frustrated by the slow pace of progress, while discussing the federal government and showing off his sandwich-making skills in a new Netflix show he produced.

Heres the thing that we have to remind ourselves: By design, change is hard in this country, Obama told host Adam Conover in the sixth and final episode of Netflixs The G Word.

The limited series premiered Thursday on the streaming site and pulls back the curtain on the surprising ways the US government impacts our everyday lives, from the mundane to the life changing, according to a promotional site. The documentary-style comedy show is produced by the Obamas company, Higher Ground Productions, as part of the multiyear Netflix deal the former first family inked in 2018.

I guarantee you that theres no president who was ever elected who doesnt at some point think, Ah, make me king for a day and I can just issue my edicts, Obama said during a discussion with Conover about change taking time.

We dont want a situation where an all-powerful, all-knowing individual or small set of individuals are able to make decisions for everybody. So were going to disperse power, which means things happen slower, Obama said.

The only thing we cant do is lapse into cynicism and say, well, because this hasnt changed at the pace that it should, theres nothing we can do about it.

Conover pressed the ex-commander in chief after he said that when a president is elected, theres a window of opportunity for us to make some changes.

Typically its not going to be 100 percent of what you want, but if we make things 10 percent better Obama said, before Conover interjected, Yeah, but 10 percent for climate change isnt enough.

When you ran in 08 you were the change guy, Conover told Obama. You didnt run on, Hey, if we made things 10 percent better.'

Thats completely fair, Obama replied.

It turns out [former Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell [(R-Ky.)] was elected, too. Precisely because the country is a big, diverse, complicated place.

Obama advised Americans to find the thing that youre passionate about, that angers you, that frustrates you, and you try to get some like-minded citizens to start changing.

You also have to remind yourself that government isnt just the federal government government is state government, government is city government, government is county government. So a whole bunch of decisions that are being made, arent being made by the president, theyre being made by somebody whos probably elected by 1,000 [or] 10,000 voters.

Obamas chat with Conover came after the pair crafted a snack suggested by the 44thpresident: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Im very particular about how you make PB&J, Obama said during the lighthearted segment. You have to get every corner, he advised as he spread the ingredients on the bread.

Originally posted here:
Obama discusses why change is hard in this country - The Hill

If you want to find somebody to blame for the current rise of populism, which is fueling the rise of unorthodox candidates who appeal to voters by defying the ruling consensus, dont just blame former President Donald Trump. Blame Barack Obama as well.

If that seems counterintuitive, remember that while Obama may not have been much of a populist, he wasnt much of an insider, either. In fact, to many Democrats who loathed Hillary Clinton, he was in some ways both an outsider and an insider.

Obama built much of his campaign on being more progressive than Clinton (even if he wouldnt be considered particularly progressive today), organizing the grassroots, being less corrupt and being willing to oppose the war in Iraq early on, defying the Washington consensus in both parties. He was an insider in that he was at least, partially recruited to run for president by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Yet, he was also an outsider, in that he was just a first-term senator with little governmental experience and none in an executive role. Its astonishing to remember, but before Barack Obama, the most recent commander in chief who wasnt a governor or a vice president was John F. Kennedy.

In the first two decades of the 21st century, weve had two presidents who werent governors or vice presidents, and had little to no governmental experience before running for president: Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Now, depending on your party, youre probably already registering a couple objections here. If youre a Democrat, youll probably argue that Obama had already been a state senator and a United States senator before running for president. Thats a fair point, but he hadnt served in either position for long: He first ran for public office in 1996, and ran for president in 2008. His entire political career was just 12 years long.

Meanwhile, other than flirting with a run for president before and being a donor, Donald Trump had no political career at all. Hed never as much as run for selectman or school board in his hometown, never mind the state legislature. Now, its easy to say that he was able to skip over those earlier steps because he was the CEO of a big corporation, but the last guy who got a sniff at the presidency on the basis of business experience alone was Ross Perot, who never really got close to victory. America has had plenty of celebrity CEOs over the centuries Lee Iacocca, Henry Ford, Steve Jobs but none made a presidential bid from the cozy confines of a corner office. Trump is unique in that. Like Obama, he tapped into populist anger on a number of issues that defied the Washington consensus in both parties: trade and immigration.

All of this helps to explain why so many counties swung from Obama to Trump in 2016, and it counters the simple explanation that people voted for Trump because they were racist. Instead, they were rebelling against insiders, even though one had gone to Harvard and been anointed by the Beltway elite, while the other had been successful in business and was from New York City, the center of the worlds wealth. Neither had exactly started a small business from scratch or worked themselves up from nothing, yet they appealed to people who aspired to do both.

Obama and Trump shared at least one other commonality, apart from their mutual distrust of their respective partys insiders: An opponent. Both of them built the bulk of their short-lived political careers running against Hillary Clinton, the consummate political insider who was widely loathed by huge segments of the population in both political parties. While Obama managed to win reelection, neither did quite as well when they werent running against her: Under Obama, Democrats immediately lost huge majorities down-ballot nationwide, while Trump simply lost.

The real question here is whether populism, from the left or the right, is truly its own sustainable political movement in the United States or merely a convenient foil to one person, Hillary Clinton: a single uniquely flawed major-party candidate.

These midterm elections will be the first step in answering that question, and in determining whether the presidencies of both Barack Obama and Donald Trump were truly transformational, ushering in a new era, or merely momentary aberrations, with Joe Biden representing a return to the norm.

Jim Fossel, a conservative activist from Gardiner, worked for Sen. Susan Collins.He can be contacted at:[emailprotected]Twitter:@jimfossel

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Jim Fossel: Trump and Obama had much in common - Press Herald