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All along I've felt sorry for the daughters of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, but never sorrier than I felt Thursday while reading Amy Blagojevich's letter to former President Barack Obama.

The 1,516-word letter, posted to her mother's Facebook page, is bitter, recriminatory and, most of all, sad.

Amid her lashing of Obama for not commuting her father's 14-year federal prison sentence she called him "selfish and spineless," wrote "you are either a horrible parent or a horrible person" and added "I can see the blood on your hands" Amy, now 20, paints a picture of an innocent young woman wrecked by circumstance.

She was 12 when her father was arrested on public corruption charges at the family's Ravenswood Manor home and her world began to fall apart. She was 15 when he reported to prison in Colorado.

"I am shocked at how bitter and full of hate I have become," she wrote to Obama "I've dealt with depression, anxiety, insomnia, and aspects of PTSD. I've had days where I couldn't pry myself from bed, days where I can't stop crying or feeling the pain that has been inflicted continuously, and days where the fear of another eight years (with my father in prison) consumes me completely."

Neither she nor her younger sister, Annie, ever deserved any of it. They are innocent victims.

Victims not of a callous former president or a justice system gone wrong, but of their father's criminal venality and stubbornness. As governor, he was caught on tape repeatedly trying to use his official power for personal gain.

Among the reasons not to commit such crimes or any crimes, for that matter is that, if you're caught, your loved ones will also have to pay the price. The fact that Blagojevich, 60, put the happiness of his daughters at risk every time he abused his office aggravates his offenses in my mind.

And the fact that he refused to accept and acknowledge that he committed numerous felonies and refuses to this day! is almost certainly the reason he's still in prison.

He made things far worse for himself and for Amy and Annie by choosing to fight the charges in court and mounting a nationwide public relations campaign in which he chirped about his innocence and impugned the motives and integrity of the U.S. attorney's office.

As he was headed to prison, he told reporters that he has a "clear conscience," and his more recent appellate briefs have attempted to explain away his illegal scheming as merely the acts of "an overly zealous politician seeking to advance his political goals."

No.

A guilty plea along with a genuine confession not the dodgy "The jury decided I was guilty" statement he offered at his original sentencing or the vague apology for "mistakes" he offered at a hearing last summer would likely have resulted in a plea bargain for a far shorter sentence.

Amy Blagojevich's letter to Obama indicates that her father is still inflaming his family's sense of grievance. She wrote of the "horrific lies" told about the case. "You've betrayed the concept of justice like many other heartless individuals have done before you," she wrote. "You know as well as anyone, that my father is guilty of nothing. He made mistakes he's human, after all but nothing was illegal. ... you failed to release an innocent man."

She concluded, "You were a bystander to a completely un-American act of injustice. You're just as guilty as those who created it in the first place."

Such grievance can only enhance the pain of her father's absence

Yes, his sentence is unusually long. But his devious, selfish, remorseless violations of the public trust from the highest seat of power in Illinois were unusually flagrant, and his lack of repentance has been unusually galling.

I don't imagine that Amy's letter will cause Obama to regret his decision not to act in his final days in office on the former governor's commutation request.

But I'm not sure it was really intended for Obama, who no longer has any power in the matter. The family's hopes now lie in President Donald Trump, and by posting the letter to her Facebook page, Amy's mother, Patti, may be hoping to pique our impulsive, vindictive new chief executive with an opportunity to appear more merciful and kind than his predecessor.

After all, Trump knows Blagojevich from Blagojevich's 2010 pre-trial appearance as a contestant on Trump's "Celebrity Apprentice" reality show.

Trump referred to Blago as "a guy with great courage," and praised him for not "fold(ing) like a tent" after getting into trouble.

Whether Trump lunges at this bait or not, I'm sure I join everyone, even the "selfish spineless heartless" Obama, in wishing the Blagojevich girls nothing but the best. After what they've gone through, they deserve nothing less.

Re:Tweets

Before I reveal the winner of the most recent Tweet of the Week poll at chicagotribune.com/zorn, a word about the renewed importance of the Twitter micro-blogging platform.

It's not, as you know, simply a medium for 140-character quips, career suicide and self-promotion. It's a major, unfiltered megaphone for our new president, who rode it to the White House and continues to use it to communicate directly if intemperately with the public.

But both sides can play at the direct-access game. And in response to the Trump administration's crackdown on the official Twitter accounts of many federal agencies and departments, numerous unofficial insider accounts have sprung up.

The most prominent so far is @AltNatParkSer, billed as "the unofficial resistance team of U.S. National Park Service," which acquired nearly 1.3 million followers a week after Team Trump brought the hammer down on the park service's official account for displaying photos that revealed the comparatively small crowds at Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration.

Others include @viralCDC, an unofficial information feed from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ("Actual facts, not alternative facts"); @RogueNOAA from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; @AltUSEPA and @UngaggedEPA from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and, along the same lines, @Alt_FDA, @ResistanceNASA and others.

I suggest following them if only to show solidarity with their determination not to be muzzled.

Now, admittedly, it's hard to be sure which of these feeds are run by genuine insiders, because the account operators are, naturally, anonymous.

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Amy Blagojevich's letter to Obama is sad, sensational and a plea to Trump? - Chicago Tribune

President Trump doesn't lack for self-confidence at least not outwardly. Everything is the best and the greatest, and everybody is always talking about how fantastic is that thing Trump did or said.

And in a new interview, he may have taken this to a whole new level.

Speaking to Fox News's Sean Hannity in an interview airing Thursday night, Trump reflected on his relationship with President Obama, and he said he thinks his predecessor has actually come to like him.

What amazed me is that I was vicious to him in statements, he was vicious to me in statements, and here we are getting along, we're riding up Pennsylvania Avenue, talk we don't even mention it, Trump said. I guess that's the world of politics. But I was tough on him, he was tough on me, and I like him, he likes me. I think he likes me. I mean, you're going to have to ask him, but I think he likes me.

For those who need a little history refresher, when you look up the birther movement on Wikipedia or seek old news stories about it, there's one man whose name appears almost as much as Obama's: Donald Trump. Trump for years led the effort to question whether Obama was even qualified to serve as president.

Here's a sampling of what Obama has had to say about Trump over the years.

And for good measure, here are some things Trump has said about Obama:

Is it possible Obama has truly come around to liking this man who for years wielded one of the most notorious political conspiracy theories in U.S. history against him? Sure. Anything's possible. Trump, after all, has shown an ability to win over Republicans who have said awful things about him.

But those Republicans have to deal with Trump over the next four years, just like Obama had to deal with Trump during the transition. Andin Obama's case, there is a certain protocol that says an outgoing president should avoid meddling in the affairs of his successor. It's called being diplomatic.

When the two start hanging out a la Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, then we'll talk.

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President Trump says of Obama, whose legitimacy he questioned for years: 'I think he likes me' - Washington Post

URBANA Throw a 150th birthday party and you probably want a special guest.

How about a popular former president?

Students at the University of Illinois have launched a campaign to bring Barack Obama to campus as the 2017 commencement speaker in May, complete with a dedicated Facebook page, Twitter account and hashtag, and a full-court social-media press on the former president and his staff.

With the UI's sesquicentennial celebration kicking off this year, it's the perfect time for Obama to return to his home state of Illinois and celebrate with the flagship university, said UI senior Alex Villanueva, one of several student senators coordinating the campaign.

"We figured if Rutgers could do it, why couldn't we do it?" he said, referring to Obama's commencement appearance at the New Jersey university on its 250th birthday last May. "It's a homecoming for him. There's no better time for him to come to Illinois."

A Change.org petition posted Wednesday evening had already collected 1,260 signatures as of mid-afternoon Thursday.

"We already beat Rutgers," Villanueva said. (That petition attracted 1,059 signatures.)

President Robert Jones actually extended a formal invitation to Obama last fall, via attorney Michael Strautmanis, a UI alumnus and vice president of the Obama Foundation in Chicago. He was formerly chief of staff for Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett.

"When we've asked students who they'd like to have, for the past eight years his name has always been high on that list," said campus spokeswoman Robin Kaler. "We know there's a lot of interest, and for many of them, he's the only president they really remember."

The speaker is chosen from a list put together by a committee that starts working shortly after the previous year's commencement, Kaler said. They take suggestions and extend invitations to potential speakers, and a decision is made closer to graduation day.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton spoke at the UI in 1994 when she was first lady. The campus had another speaker lined up just in case she couldn't make it, and Clinton's visit was confirmed just a week or two beforehand. Commencement was split into two ceremonies at that time, so Clinton spoke at one and the other speaker handled the second, Kaler said.

Kaler said the university didn't expect to hear anything back from the Obamas until after he left office this month.

There are already positive signs, with Strautmanis tweeting in reply to former student Trustee Jaylin McClinton's invitation on Twitter: "I'm for it!" and "let's try to make it happen!"

Villanueva said Obama likely gets hundreds of commencement invitations a year but he's hoping Strautmanis' ties to the UI will help, as will other student connections to the White House.

Several recent student government leaders have landed internships there, including McClinton, Matt Hill and Sarah Hochman.

And the UI was one of the most active schools in the White House "It's On Us" campaign against sexual assault on college campuses, which brought former Vice President Joe Biden to the UI in spring 2015.

"If he's going to go to Rutgers and Ohio State (2013), why not come to the orange and blue?" Villanueva said, noting that Obama also spoke at Michigan in 2010.

The goal now is to get students to write letters and tweet to the Obamas and their staffs, Villanueva said. The Twitter account is @ILinvitesObama, and the Facebook event page is "Invite Obama to Illinois 2017 Commencement."

Villanueva, who is also student body vice president, is working on the campaign with fellow UI seniors Mark Schaer and Ron Lewis, the student body president. Lewis and Villanueva posted their own letters to Obama on their Facebook pages.

"If there is anyone in America who embodies what the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign stands for, it's Obama. A man who built his own career, fought for all of us and a champion of the great things our generation cares about. He should be the one sharing his story with us, and helping mark the end of our time at Illinois and the beginning of our careers and futures. Help bring Obama back to Illinois," Lewis wrote on his Facebook page.

His letter said that many students in Illinois feel that the education system is "undervalued," given the lack of state support over the past two years. It said the UI has tried to ensure students remain a priority by hiring top-quality faculty and staff and had brought in diverse administrators such as Jones.

"With so much transition going on within our university and our country, we think that you would be the best speaker to talk about your story and how it is important for students to continue to value education," Lewis wrote.

Villanueva is a Republican who didn't vote for Obama, but he said hosting a former president would be "an honor."

"There's only so many presidents," he said. "He's got a great story whether you like him or not. He's got an inspiring story. That's what students need to hear when they're heading out.

"Every student I've spoken to has said, 'Oh my god, that would be so cool.' My job is to represent them," he said.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the names of the UI students who were White House interns.

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Obama sought as speaker for UI commencement - Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette

Two years ago, Barack Obama was a damaged-goods, lame-duck president who had just endured his second consecutive midterm drubbing thanks in large part to Republican efforts to tie Democrats to him and his eponymous health-care law.

Today, Obamais virtually tied for first place in a new poll of the greatest modern president.

TheQuinnipiac University pollindicates 29 percent say Obama is the greatest president since World War II just shy of the 30 percent who cite Ronald Reagan, the long-standing titleholder.

That's a vast improvement for Obama, who back in July 2014 was viewed as the greatest modern president by just 8 percent.

A big reason Obama has surged is that he has now gobbled up a bigger portion of the greatest-Democratic-president pie. The percentage saying the greatest modern president is Bill Clinton has dropped from 18 percent in 2014 to 9 percent. The number citing John F. Kennedy is down from 15 percent to 12 percent. Harry S. Truman and Lyndon B. Johnson dropped 2 points and 1 point, respectively.

But Obama also seems to have gobbled up some of the GOP's pie. Reagan dropped from 35 percent in 2014 to 30 percent today, and the GOP's share of the overall greatest-modern-president piece has dropped from 46 percent to 38 percent. Democrats, meanwhile, have risen from 50 percent to 56 percent.

Part of it is almost certainly proximity. Obama is just days removed from office, and perhaps that gives him a bump. He's also perhaps helped by the fact that the last Democratic president before him left office 16 years ago, and that president's wife just suffered a pretty bad defeat. The Clinton brand just isn't what it once was.

That proximity also hurts Obama when it comes to the worst modern president, which Quinnipiac also polled. For that honor, Obama (23 percent) is virtually tied with Richard Nixon (24 percent) and George W. Bush (22 percent) at No. 1. But even there he's improved; back in 2014, he was clearly the No. 1 worst modern president, with 33 percent saying so.

In other words, the polarized views of Obama certainly come into play here.

But Obama has also done himself plenty of good in recent months. As Americans were choosing between two candidates they didn't particularly like in the 2016 election, he suddenly saw a marked increase in popularity even as not much was truly accomplished in Washington and he exited with his best approval ratings since his first year in office, according to some polls.

The true measure of a president's legacy, it bears noting, isn't really measured six days after he leaves office, and these numbers are bound to shift around in the years to come.

But the early reviews of Obama's presidency are certainly better than we could have foreseen two years ago.

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Obama draws neck-and-neck with Reagan in poll of greatest modern president - Washington Post

Forbes

Barack Obama Is Likely To Get $20M Advance To Write His Memoir Forbes Regardless your political affiliation, there's an undeniable fascination with former President Barack Obama and per Esther Newberg, co-head of ICM Partners' publishing unit, this is one reason he is likely to get more than any president has with at ... Barack Obama's Memoir Could Fetch $20 Million AdvanceHollywood Reporter all 9 news articles »

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Barack Obama Is Likely To Get $20M Advance To Write His Memoir - Forbes