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In one of the first public appearances of his post-presidency, Barack Obama will accept the Centennial John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award this spring for a career of grace under pressure and exceptional dignity and courage, receiving the honor on the special occasion of the 100th anniversary of Kennedys birth.

The 44th president was selected by a 14-member bipartisan committee at the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation comprised of figures in politics, media, and business, including Republicans Sen. Jeff Flake, former congressman Bob Inglis, and Viacoms Shari Redstone. The committee is chaired by Bloomberg View columnist Al Hunt.

According to Hunt, the award will go to Obama not for one particular legislative or political act, but for an entire life that was really a testament to courage, he said.

Established in 1989 by the Kennedy family, the annual award is meant to honor the 35th presidents birth and specifically offer a tribute to Kennedys Pulitzer Prizewinning book, Profiles in Courage, a 1957 account of eight US senators throughout history who put principle above politics. Each year, the Kennedy Library Foundation picks a lawmaker who demonstrates the same willingness to, as a foundation official put it, take a stand for good in spite of political consequences.

Obama will be the third former president to receive the award. In 2001, Gerald R. Ford was honored for his 1974 decision, widely vilified at the time, to pardon Richard Nixon. In 2014, George H.W. Bush received the award for raising taxes, breaking with his own major campaign promise in order to address a deficit crisis.

Unlike past honorees, Obama will not receive the award for any one decision. To mark the centennial of Kennedys birth, the committee wanted to do something different this year if we could, Hunt said. We thought, OK, this is different.

After a lengthy discussion, said Hunt, the committee was in total agreement.

Obama will deliver a speech at the special centennial event, a ceremony on May 7 at Bostons John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Former ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy and her son, Jack Schlossberg, will present the award.

The former president has kept a low profile since leaving office in January, very rarely weighing in on political developments. He is expected, however, to become a key player in a new redistricting effort led by his friend and former attorney general, Eric Holder. The National Democratic Redistricting Committee, or NDRC, will work to reverse the Democratic Partys historic state and local electoral deficits and help regain an advantage over Republicans when it comes to district-drawing.

Obama, Holder told reporters this week, is ready to roll.

After attending Donald Trumps inauguration, the newly retired president took an extended vacation in Palm Springs, Calif., and on the private British Virgin Islands estate of billionaire Richard Branson. He was seen last week with daughter Malia and adviser Valerie Jarrett at a Broadway showing of Arthur Millers The Price, and this week signed a lucrative deal for a forthcoming book.

The May 7 appearance in Boston offers Democrats a prominent opportunity to hear from their former president just more than 100 days into what has so far been a tumultuous Trump administration and a challenging time for the opposition party.

The decision to honor Obama, said Hunt, had nothing to do with Trumps election.

Bill Clinton admires an autographed copy of Profiles in Courage in 2000. Mario Tama / AFP / Getty Images

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In a statement, Schlossberg outlined the ways in which Obama personifies the opening lines of Profiles in Courage: This is a book about that most admirable of human virtues courage. Grace under pressure, Ernest Hemingway defined it.

During his two terms as the first black president, Schlossberg said, Obama represented all Americans with decency, integrity, and an unshakeable commitment to the greater good amid unrelenting political opposition.

The committee received submissions for this years award nominee from a record 30,000 people up 5,000 from the year before, a foundation official said.

In a statement provided by the Kennedy Library Foundation, Obama said he is deeply humbled to receive the Profile in Courage Award. The late Kennedy, he said, asked us to cast aside our narrow self-interest and take up the chase of a greater ambition: our collective capacity to do big things, especially when its hard.

Amidst the noisy and too often trivial pursuits of the politics of our time, Obama added, its a summons to service that rings as loudly as ever.

Read more:
Barack Obama Will Return To National Stage For Award Honoring JFK's 100th Birthday - BuzzFeed News

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Team Obama took steps to protect intel on Team Trump's Russia ties MSNBC Leading members of Team Trump, including the president and vice president, have insisted there were zero communications at the time, despite evidence to the contrary, and the New York Times reports that officials in President Obama's White House took ... and more »

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Team Obama took steps to protect intel on Team Trump's Russia ties - MSNBC

UPDATED, 8:17 AM: More numbers are coming in for Donald Trumps debut last night before a Joint Session of Congress, and they are looking good for the 45thPresident over his predecessors last State Of the Union.

Going low on the hyperbole and heavy on the history, the Presidents highly anticipated speech was a fairly polished performance on a very big stage that caught a lot of Americans attention around 22.7 million actually. Thats up over 25% from what Barack Obamas final SOTU drew among the Big 4 back on January 14, 2016.

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As was the case in the metered-market numbers earlier this morning, NBC was the highest-rated network to show the its f0rmer Celebrity Apprentice hosts 9-10:09 PM ET remarks, drawing a 2.0/7 rating among adults 18-49 and 8.3 million viewers. A strong lead-in by the highest-rated show of the night, The Voice (2.6/10), was no hindrance. ABC was next with a 1.2/4 rating and an audience of 5.13 million. CBS followed with a 1.0/3 and 6.59 million tuning in, and Fox had a 0.8/3 rating and 2.72 million watching between 9 and 10:30 PM.

Overall, the speech had a combined demo of 5.0 or 19% better than Obamas last SOTU last year.

NBC saw the biggest jump with Trumps speech over last years SOTU in the 18-49 demo with a 33% surge. ABC was up 20%, Fox rose 14%, and CBS stayed the same as Obama last official address to Congress among the key demo.There still are more adjusted ratings to come in and the cable newers of CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC need to be factored in before a final number for last nights speech can be asserted. (UPDATE: Read cable news ratings for the speechhere.) Apples to almost a decade ago, POTUS 44s first Joint Address of February 24, 2009, ended up with a total viewership of just under 52.4 million over 10 national reaching nets from NBC to Fox News Channel and Univision

With the cable news networks and a few others added in, Obamas final SOTU had a total audience of 31.3 million watching over 13 networks an all-time low.

In the meantime, there were a few other things on TV on Tuesday before the Presidents speech like anNCIS (0.9/3) encore on CBS. Fox had originals of New Girl (0.9/3) and The Mick (0.9/3), which were down a tenth and even from last week, respectively.

After its latest season premiere on Monday, NBC had more of The Voice on Tuesday at 8 PM. The singing competition series from Apprentice EP Mark Burnett dropped a not-so-bad 16% from the debut of the night before. Compared to the 8-10 PM Tuesday premiere of a year ago, which did not share the night with a POTUS, Voice declined 13%. Comedy led into Trumps remarks on ABC with out-of-their-regular-slots Fresh Off the Boat (1.2/4) and The Real ONeals (1.1/4). Both up from their February 21 shows, by a tenth and two-tenths, respectively. The CWs The Flash (1.1/4) had a good night with 10% demo rise over last week.

PREVIOUSLY, 7:38 AM: As Arnold Schwarzenegger can tell you, Donald Trump has never made any secret of his fascination with ratings. It was a bit too early in his term to call last nights speech a State of the Union but the 45th Presidents debut primetime Joint Address on Tuesday before members of the House of Representatives, the Senate, the Supreme Court, the Joint Chiefs and more looks like a winner with Americans watching at home.

The wide-ranging, primarily upbeat, sometimes emotional and frequently GOP applauded 9 10:09 PM ET speech was up from President Barack Obamas last SOTU last year in the early numbers across almost all the Big 4 networks.

NBC was the highest rated network in metered market results to show the ex-Celebrity Apprentice hosts remarks with a 5.6/9 rating thats up 17% in the early numbers from Obamas last SOTU on January 14, 2016. CBS followed with a 4.5/7 MM result for Trumps speech in the 9 10 slot, basically steady with what Obama got on the House of Moonves last year. ABCs 3.8/6 was up 3% over the 2016 SOTU and Fox jumped up 11% from Obamas last SOTU of last year to a 2.1/3 MM result for Trump last night.

Well get a greater sense of the larger response when viewership and demo numbers come in later this morning. Right now, in an era of changing TV viewing habits, the best comparison for Trumps speech on Tuesday again is the final SOTU of President Barack Obama from January 12 last year. In the early ratings, the 44th POTUS snagged 18.1 million viewers and a cume demo of 4.2 in early 2016 an all-time low for the two-term Democrat.

With the cable news networks and a few others added in, Obamas final SOTU had a total audience of 31.3 million watching over 13 networks. That was also an all-time Obama SOTU viewership low by less than 2% from his 2015 address.

Coming just over a month after he was sworn in, Obamas Joint Address of February 24, 2009 had a total viewership of just under 52.4 million over 10 national reaching nets from NBC to Fox News Channel and Univision. George W. Bushs February 27, 2001 first speech to Congress, also not a SOTU, was watched by 39.8 million in total. In a very different era when FNC wasnt even on the air, Bill Clintons February 17, 1993 Joint Address hit a motherlode total audience of 66.9 million a number that only Ws pre-Iraq war 2003 SOTU approached in the last two decades with its viewership of 62.1 million.

Well update with more numbers for Trumps speech later on today, especially when the FNC, CNN, MSNBC and more numbers come in.

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Donald Trump's Speech Ratings Up Nearly 20% Over Obama's Last SOTU Update - Deadline

Former president Barack Obama waves with his wife Michelle Obama at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland on Jan. 20, 2017. Brendan McDermid / Reuters, file

"We are absolutely thrilled to continue our publishing partnership with President and Mrs. Obama,"

Dohle vowed their book launches will be "global publishing events of unprecedented scope and significance."

Neither Dohle nor the heavyweight Washington lawyers who repped the Obamas Robert Barnett and Deneen Howell of Williams & Connolly dished any details about when the books would be published, what their titles might be, or how much the former first couple are being paid.

Nor would a spokesman for

Barack Obama's book is expected to be a behind the scenes account of his eight turbulent years in the White House. Michelle Obama's planned book is described by the Associated Press as "an inspirational work for young people that will draw upon her life story."

The

Obama was a critically-acclaimed writer even before he got to the White House in 2009. His books "Dreams From My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope" were both best bestsellers and earned him millions.

The former first lady is also already a published author. Her book about food and gardening, "American Grown," was published in 2012.

The Obamas are expected to donate what Penguin Random House called a "significant portion" of their proceeds to charity as well as the non-profit Obama Foundation.

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Barack and Michelle Obama Ink Multi-Million Dollar Book Deal - NBCNews.com

Ive not done a full count on how many times that President AssFace has said former President Obamas name, but at this point Im expecting him to follow Obama out of an L.A. club and force his way into Obamas SUV.

He literally cant stop saying Obamas name. During an interview with the fake news show, Fox and Friends, Trump literally said that he believes that Obama is behind the leaks within his administration. He also added that he believes that angry town hall folks are plants put there by Obamas administration and not because hes the worst president to ever president.

No, I think that President Obama is behind it because his people are certainly behind it, Trump said during the show that aired Monday, CNN reports. And some of the leaks possibly come from that group, which are really serious because they are very bad in terms of national security. But I also understand that is politics. In terms of him being behind things, thats politics. And it will probably continue.

I dont know how to say this lightly but Obama doesnt give a fuck about you, in fact, hes currently filing a restraining order against your ass because you are acting crazy and disturbing his happy place after eight years of running this abusive ass country the best he could.

Trump doesnt want to see you. He doesnt want your job. He doesnt want you calling him. He broke up with America and its time that you let it go. Hes moving on with his life and your starting to look real stalker-ish with the amount of times you mention his name in interviews as if hes still pinning away about you.

Step your tanning game up and worry about your own shit, according to the latest polls, half of America cant stand you and trust me when I tell you that Obama is in the half. He doesnt want to see your fail or win, in fact, and this may be the hardest part to swallow, is that he doesnt care about anything youre doing because he doesnt fuck with you.

And that might be the hardest part for Trump to swallow, when Obama walked away from the White House he didnt look back. In fact, those of us who are still grieving his absence have been having trouble watching him move on without us. His tan is better than yours, his wife is better than yours, his cabinet is better than yours, his presidency up until this point has been better than yours, and that has to burn. But while its burning, do us all a favor and stop with the conspiracy theories. He isnt calling your phone and hanging up. He isnt checking your Twitter feed to see what youve posted. He doesnt fuck with you and its time to move on and keep his name off your lips; trust me its better for all of us.

Read more at CNN.

The rest is here:
Trump Can't Keep Obama's Name out of His Mouth, and He's Starting to Look Like Chris Brown - The Root