Archive for the ‘Obama’ Category

Michelle Obama Inadvertently Provides the Best Response to Trump Administration Fat-Shaming – Vanity Fair

Democratic National Convention, August 2008

With the world's eyes on her, Michelle Obama chose a simply beautiful turquoise dress by Chicago-based designer Maria Pinto for the Democratic convention in 2008.

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Her red-and-black dress with a crisscross corset by Narciso Rodriguez attracted nearly as much attention online as Barack Obama's victory speech.

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The First Lady dazzled in a one-shouldered white silk chiffon gown embellished with organza flowers and Swarovski crystals at the 2009 inaugural balls in Washington, D.C., and made designer Jason Wu an overnight sensation.

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At a dinner for governorsthe couple's first White House black-tie eventMrs. Obama looked sparkly-chic in a strapless gown by Peter Soronen and a crystal-and-pearl necklace by Tom Binns.

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At an evening celebrating Stevie Wonder, who won the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, FLOTUS wore an emerald-green silk chiffon dress by Kai Millathe musician's wife.

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A new kind of statement piece: Mrs. Obama looked chic in a marigold J.Crew cardigan and pencil skirt for a women's event. In the ensuing years, she'd also proudly wear pieces from Gap, H&M, and Target.

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She arrived in a pretty Tracy Reese floral for the President's three-day official visit to Mexico.

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The First Lady was the picture of polished-cool in a bronze polka-dot Kevan Hall shirtdress.

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When one wants to appear regal for a state dinner with Queen Elizabeth but still flash some shoulder, one wears an ivory Tom Ford dress with a crossover bodice, waistline ribbon detail, and a flowing chiffon skirt.

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The First Lady capped off the couple's visit to London with a fitted black, off-the-shoulder evening gown by Ralph Lauren.

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Few things are more stylish than encouraging youth to kick childhood obesity, as Mrs. Obama did when she started the Let's Move! initiative. Here she is, as David Beckham himself looks on, being a role model in a sporty outfit hours before the start of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

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She wowed in a fitted Tracy Reese pink toile dress with gold brocadeand blue trim, of course.

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Once again, Michelle Obama chose a Jason Wu gown for inaugural festivities, this one a stunning ruby chiffon and velvet number with cross-halter straps.

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A sunny $169 dress from Talbots kicked off a vacation in Martha's Vineyard, one of several Talbots pieces she was spotted in during her eight years in the White House.

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Her FLOTUS-ness rocked a teal chiffon Marchesa gown with off-the-shoulder allure at a gala for Kennedy Center honorees.

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The First Lady spoke at a luncheon at the L.A. museum in a Phillip Lim midi with a window-pane design.

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At the Phoenix Awards dinner, taking center stage in a graphic white gown with a pleated skirt by Bibhu Mohapatra.

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The First Lady made a lasting impression during her first visit to Japan in a vibrant flared Kenzo dress with a mirrored belt.

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Michelle Obama wore a marigold Narciso Rodriguez dress for the President's last State of the Union address; it sold out online before his speech was done.

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She addressed the crowd at the Phoenix Awards dinner in a strapless gold Naeem Khan gown with hand-painted gold leaf over black tulle.

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Michelle Obama Inadvertently Provides the Best Response to Trump Administration Fat-Shaming - Vanity Fair

A Trump PAC fakes appeal from Obama to lure blacks to vote Republican in crucial Ga. race – Washington Post

In the eighth chapter of his 1995 memoir, Dreams From My Father, Barack Obama describes a barbershop haircut he got in Chicago in the 1980s, just days after he moved to the city for his new job asa community organizer.

Obamas barber, named Smitty, speaks in the passage of the racial and political tension in Chicago before the city elected Harold Washington as its first black mayor in 1983, and the neglect African Americans felt from the Democratic Party at the time.

In the paperback version of the book, Obama directly quotes Smittys words. In the audio version, Obama reads them aloud.

Now, a pro-Trump super PAC isusing that passage from the first black presidents bookto lure black voters away from Democrats with a misleading attack ad targeting Georgias 6th Congressional Districts special election.

Great America Alliance, which brands itself as the largest and most effective pro-Trump Super PAC, is among the many outside political groups pouring money into Tuesdays election, the most expensive congressional race in U.S. history as The Washington Posts Robert Costa reported and one that could have far-reaching consequences for Republicans nationwide.

Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel are in a dead heat for the seat, traditionally a stronghold for conservatives,which was vacated by Tom Price when Trump appointed him secretary of health and human services.

National politics are impacting the special election in Georgia's 6th Congressional District. (The Washington Post)

Ossoff has been highly critical of Trump. Handel, whom the president endorsed on Twitter Monday, has not. The results could serve as a road map for how Republican members of Congress should navigate their relationship with Trumpduring their own reelection campaigns.

The district in the northern suburbs of Atlanta has been in Republican hands since 1979. The population is about 13 percent African American, but a turnout gap among black voters in 2016 and in the first round of the special election has Democrats worried, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which is one of the reasons civil rights legend Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) has campaigned there for Ossoff.

Great America Alliances radio ad targets black voters by taking Smittys words and Obamas voice out of context.

The radio ad opens with a monologue from conservative political activist Autry Pruitt, a black man and Trump surrogate who often argues that Democrats have taken black voters for granted.

Hi, my name is Autry Pruitt, a fellow black American working hard every day, just like you, Pruitt says. It may seem out of season, but all of a sudden, Democratic politicians have started coming around again. We normally only see them every other November, swarming around and making promises to get our vote. But nothing ever changes for us, does it? Heres what President Barack Obama had to say about it.

Then Obama begins speaking, but the ad provides no context for his words.

A plantation. Black people in the worst jobs. The worst housing. Police brutality rampant, Obama says. But when the so-called black committeemen came around election time, wed all line up and vote the straight Democratic ticket. Sell our souls for a Christmas turkey.

Then Pruitt tells listeners not to sell out for another Christmas turkey.

A video version of the ad turns the phrase into a hashtag.Take Obamas Advice, it says. Dont sell out for a #ChristmasTurkey.

But in the greater context of the memoirs eighth chapter, its clear the words dont belong to Obama and from Smitty they take on a different meaning.

Here is the full scene in Dreams From My Father:

Had to be here before Harold to understand what he means to this city, Smitty said. Before Harold, seemed like wed always be second-class citizens.

Plantation politics, the man with the newspaper said.

Thats just what it was, too, Smitty said. A plantation. Black people in the worst jobs. The worst housing. Police brutality rampant. But when the so-called black committeemen came around election time, wed all line up and vote the straight Democratic ticket. Sell our souls for a Christmas turkey. White folks spitting in our faces, and wed reward em with the vote.

PolitiFact, a fact-checking publication run by the Tampa Bay Times, assigned the Great America Alliance ad its Pants on Fire rating for being misleading.

Though a spokesman from the PAC, Pruitt told PolitiFact that the Obama quote was not taken out of context.

The clip of President Obama was absolutely in context on this issue and helps make our point in the ad, which is why we used it, Pruitt said, according to PolitiFact.

Great America Alliance co-chair Eric Beach told CNN that the ad was an outside the box attempt to show creatively the Democrats history with black voters.

Its like any ad, Beach told CNN about the edited quote, those are his words and we want to use his words and Ill leave it at that.

Eric Schultz, a senior adviser to Obama, told CNN that the use of the former presidents voice in the ad was fraudulent and a shameful, indefensible tactic.

Deceptively using President Obamas voice to suggest people sit out of the democratic process is a form of voter suppression and it not only signals weakness, it runs counter to our American values, Schultz said.

In response to a tweet asking about the ad Monday night, Pruitt wrote: Not an effort to suppress votes; it is an effort to get my fellow Black Americans to run screaming from lying democrats #christmasturkey

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A Trump PAC fakes appeal from Obama to lure blacks to vote Republican in crucial Ga. race - Washington Post

Trump calls Warmbier’s treatment a ‘total disgrace,’ suggesting Obama is to blame – Los Angeles Times

President Trump on Tuesday implicitly blamed his predecessor, former President Obama, for the death of American college student Otto Warmbier, calling it "a total disgrace" that the young man did not get to return home from captivity in North Korea until last week.

"Frankly, if he were brought home sooner, I think the results would have been a lot different," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office as he met with Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko. "He should have been brought home a long time ago."

Warmbier died Monday at an Ohio hospital five days after he was evacuated in a coma from North Korea, where he had been held for 17 months. Doctors said he had extensive loss of brain tissue a result, his family said in a statement, of the "awful torturous mistreatment" he received while imprisoned.

Trump did not name Obama, but hiscomments suggesting the Obama administration should have been able to secure Warmbier's return sooner echoed comments from Warmbier's father, Fred, at a news conference last week.

Warmbier said his family was advised by the Obama administration "to take a low profile" as they worked to bring him home from North Korea. After Trump took office, Warmbier said, he and his wife "decided the time for 'strategic patience' was over" using a term that had been used to describe the U.S. policy toward the rogue, nuclear-armed government in Pyongyang.

Warmbier said it was his understanding that, at Trump's direction, State Department officials "aggressively pursued" a resolution.

A spokesman for Obama said that during his administration, "we had no higher priority than securing the release of Americans detained overseas."

"North Koreas isolation posed unique challenges, but we worked through every avenue available to us including through the Swedish, our protecting power, as well as through our representatives in New York to secure the release of Mr. Warmbier," said Ned Price, a former National Security Council spokesman.

"These tireless efforts resulted in the release of at least 10 Americans from North Korean custody during the course of the Obama administration. It's painful that Mr. Warmbier was not among them, but our efforts on his behalf never ceased, even in the waning days of the administration," Price added.

David Axelrod, a longtime Obama advisor, tweeted that Trump's "not-so-veiled attack ... truly IS sad!"

Trump also told reporters:"It's a total disgrace what happened to Otto. It should never, ever be allowed to happen." But he did not suggest what response, if any, the United States would take. Other Americans remain hostage in North Korea.

UPDATE: In a Twitter message, Trump said the U.S. "again condemns the brutality of the North Korean regime as we mourn its latest victim." But the tweet links to an Instagram video of his Oval Office remarks seeming to criticize the Obama administration for Warmbier'sultimate fate.

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Trump calls Warmbier's treatment a 'total disgrace,' suggesting Obama is to blame - Los Angeles Times

Poll: Obama, George W. Bush are popular post-presidency – CBS News

A majority of Americans view both former Presidents Obama and George W. Bush favorably, according to a Gallup survey released Tuesday.

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How do the presidents of our era compare with those who came before?

The poll found that 63 percent view Obama favorably and 59 percent view Bush in the same way, with Bush's favorability rating rising 7 percentage points over the last year. Just a few months after he left office in 2009, only 35 percent of the public viewed Bush favorably.

Obama's current rating mirrors the rating Gallup measured for him during the last leg of his presidency -- from November of last year through this past January. The poll found that Obama is viewed favorably among all major demographic groups -- whites, nonwhites, men, women people of all ages.

This comes as President Trump's approval rating takes a dip. A CBS News poll released Tuesday finds that 36 percent of the public approve of his job, down from 41 percent in late April.

The poll surveyed 1,009 adults between June 7 and 11 with a 4 percentage point margin of error.

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Poll: Obama, George W. Bush are popular post-presidency - CBS News

Most Americans Still Like Both George W. Bush and Barack Obama, Poll Says – TIME

Former President George W. Bush (2-R), his wife Laura (R) stand with President Barack Obama (2-L) and First Lady Michelle Obama (L) as Bush departs from the U.S. Capitol after the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the U.S. on Jan. 20, 2009 in Washington, DC.PoolGetty Images

More than half of Americans hold favorable views of the United States' previous two presidents, Barack Obama and George W. Bush , according to Gallup .

Fifty-nine percent of Americans saw former President George W. Bush positively in June, a new post-presidential high for the leader whose favorability rating stood at just 35 percent in 2009.

The poll found that 63 percent of Americans felt favorably about former President Obama in June, five months after his farewell address . Americans' feelings differ starkly depending on their party politics, however, as only 22 percent of Republicans felt favorably towards Obama this month compared to 95 percent of Democrats.

The poll surveyed 1,009 adults across the country from June 7 to 11. It has a margin of error of +/- 4%.

Other presidents have seen their favorability ratings climb after vacating their seats behind the Resolute Desk. Former President Bill Clinton had a post-presidential rating of 39 percent in March, 2001, but it rose to 69 percent in 2012, according to Gallup.

President Trump's approval rating was 38% in the most recent Gallup tracking poll .

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Most Americans Still Like Both George W. Bush and Barack Obama, Poll Says - TIME