Archive for the ‘Obama’ Category

Obama’s last campaign – CNNPolitics.com

Standing at his last rally as a political headliner during the last day of his last campaign, Obama recalled the first time he heard the rallying cry "Fired Up, Ready to Go" from a South Carolina supporter named Edith Childs. Obama paused amid his urgent advocacy for Hillary Clinton to reflect upon his own political trajectory, which after more than a decade is coming to a close.

"When I ran for the presidency in '08, the truth is not many people gave me a chance," Obama said, resting his elbows on the podium that now bears a presidential seal. "I was a skinny guy with a funny name. When I look at pictures of me speaking, I look really young."

It wasn't the first time Obama recalled the Edith Childs story; his eyes welled up with tears in Iowa during the final stop of his 2012 reelection bid when he thought back to his earlier days, when he rolled his own bags through the airport and drove an hour and half through pouring rain to meet a handful of potential supporters.

In 12 years he's gone from a US Senate candidate, riding shotgun in an aide's sedan through small-town Illinois, to a president landing on Air Force One in three states in one day to campaign for someone else.

Unprecedented in its rigor, Obama's final week on the trail is a final act for a President whose vision of hope and change has always been best administered in front of rapt and rowdy crowds gathered in America's electoral battlegrounds.

"I'm feeling a little sentimental," Obama admitted during a rally in Michigan Monday -- the first stop on a frantic one day, three-state swing. "This will probably be my last day of campaigning for a while."

With his sleeves rolled up, his jacket removed, and his square Oliver Peoples sunglasses in place, Obama has jogged on and off Air Force One 17 times since Tuesday, usually destined for a college campus where crowds can easily be mustered.

His itinerary (Ohio, North Carolina, Florida -- then North Carolina and Florida again) has effectively become a map of states Democrats think they can win, but aren't convinced they will. He's been dispatched last-minute to areas where Clinton's edge seems to be slipping. His stop in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on Monday was announced only 36 hours ahead of time. A tightening race in New Hampshire prompted the Clinton campaign to schedule an election-eve appearance there in an attempt to shore up support among white, college-educated voters. He'll close the day with Michelle Obama and the Clintons in Philadelphia.

Despite the tightening contest, aides say Obama has maintained his regular calm. He's expressed some anxiety about lagging early vote numbers for African-Americans, but has been buoyed by surging statistics for Latinos. Any worry about a fresh probe into Hillary Clinton's emails was muted, even before FBI Director James Comey said Sunday the bureau's new look yielded nothing.

Some things have remained consistent. Obama has always most effectively argued his case for a progressive agenda when the election stakes are high and the odds not entirely in his favor. In 2008, he was the underdog who drew massive crowds to hear his vision of a different kind of Washington. In 2012, he was an incumbent who stumbled in his first re-election debate, only to emerge more determined to argue for another four years. And this year, he's making the case for a candidate far less popular than himself.

On most days last week Obama woke up at the White House with his schedule virtually cleared. Leaving around midday and returning late in the evening, he spent his downtime tossing a baseball around the Rose Garden with aides and tweaking his stump speech in the Oval Office. To unwind on his one night away from home, Obama stayed up late in his hotel room watching his hometown Chicago Cubs win the World Series, tweeting his congrats at 2 a.m.

In seemingly every spare moment, he's dialed African-American radio hosts across the swing states, chatting loosely backstage at his rallies and aboard Air Force One about his favorite hip-hop artists (Kendrick Lamar, Chance the Rapper) and his paternal dating anxieties (not high, his kids have Secret Service protection) as a prelude for urgent entreaties to vote.

"Do it for me," he told listeners to Artie Goins' drive-time show in Charlotte. "If you meet somebody who says I'm thinking about not voting, you can go ahead and say, the President asked me personally."

For Obama, the stakes in this election are uniquely personal. His own speeches have cast the vote as a referendum on his record, and a Clinton victory could cement his progressive mantra of change. A loss, however, has become a nightmare scenario. Obama's vision of the US is so at odds with Donald Trump's he told a crowd of 16,000 college students in Chapel Hill the "fate of the world is teetering."

Unless Michelle Obama decides to grant the Democratic Party its most elusive wish and run for office -- something both she and her husband say isn't happening -- President Obama won't appear again at the type of loud and loose arena rallies that fueled his rise and could help elect a Democratic successor.

In 2012, during the final days of his reelection bid, Obama grew nostalgic about running his final campaign. There was little expectation then that his activity now would so closely resemble an urgent referendum for his own vision of America. For Obama, it's not an entirely unwelcome development.

"The President is having a heck of a good time being on the campaign trail," his press secretary Josh Earnest said as Obama jetted toward Columbus on Tuesday. "The President is not just having a good time, he looks like he's having a good time."

Hopscotching from swing state to swing state, Obama has skipped the retail campaigning that he delighted in during his own contests. Instead of finding the local barbecue joint or pizza parlor to glad hand and pick up a meal for the ride home, he sped from airport tarmacs directly to packed arenas and back, stopping only briefly to address overflow rooms packed with supporters who couldn't fit into his main venue.

His only detour from the campaign trail: a stop Wednesday night at a house across the street from Gloria Estefan's sprawling waterfront mansion in Miami to plot his post-White House plans. Looking out over Biscayne Bay, discussing his presidential library and foundation amid South Florida's upper echelons, the Iowa State Fair never seemed so distant.

"He's mindful of the fact that over the course of this week, this will essentially be the last big campaign swing of his political career," said Earnest, who has worked for Obama since 2007 before the primaries.

Deeply conscious of his impending exit, Obama has sought to extend the moment. His stump speech has grown longer, expanding to include new hits on Trump and new barbs against Republicans he says fueled the billionaire's ascent. Even as his supporters begin to stream out early -- "it's too hot," said one in Fayetteville on Thursday -- Obama keeps going, riling himself and the crowd over the dire state of the political discourse.

"Anybody who is upset about a 'Saturday Night Live' skit, you don't want in charge of nuclear weapons," Obama taunted in Miami on Thursday, only to pierce the anger with yet another exasperated "C'mon man!"

He's used the sarcastic meme meant to jokingly blame the President for any minor inconvenience to sternly demand credit for what Republicans claimed he could never achieve. Gas, he said in Charlotte Friday, "is two bucks a gallon."

"Thanks, Obama," he pronounced, his face glowering as he paused to turn and accept applause and cheers from the crowd.

Statistics showing key facets of his coalition turning out in smaller early vote numbers this year have driven the President to almost fatalistic language. His pitch for Clinton has evolved into a pleading call for participation by the groups whose support for him is strongest.

He took the get-out-the-vote mandate literally, listing off the closest precinct location down its street address during a rally in Jacksonville. Even his recitation of "10599 Deerwood Park Boulevard" was accompanied by cheers, applause, and a pep band.

That type of booming adoration won't be available for Obama much longer, at least in that way. This week, he's basked in it.

Stepping away from his podium in Charlotte Friday, Obama slapped the wooden sides three times -- a new custom as he works to punctuate his political legacy.

Listening to an arena explode after his closing cries of "choose hope," the President grew still. And then he pumped his arms. "Let's go!" he mouthed to no one in particular. "Let's go!"

"Grab your ticket and your suitcase," Bruce Springsteen blared on the sound system for the thousandth time, as Obama dove into another sea of hands to shake.

CLARIFICATION: This story has been updated to accurately reflect where Obama's Miami event took place.

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Obama's last campaign - CNNPolitics.com

Obama: Hillary Clinton’s ambition might be questioned if she …

"If and when Hillary is president, what do you think will be the female equivalent of 'you weren't born in this country?'" Samantha Bee, host of "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee" on TBS (a subsidiary of Time Warner, which also owns CNN), asked Obama.

"That's an interesting question," Obama said, later adding, "I think the equivalent will be, 'She's tired, she's moody, she's being emotional.'"

"There's just something about her?" Bee asked.

"There's something about her. When men are ambitious, it's just taken for granted. Well of course they should be ambitious," he said. "When women are ambitious, why? That theme, I think, will continue throughout her presidency and it's contributed to this notion that somehow, she is hiding something."

"What a nasty woman," Bee responded, referencing what Republican nominee Donald Trump said during the final presidential debate while Clinton was speaking.

Obama discussed the importance of young people voting, noting it was the first time his daughter, Malia, voted in an election.

"The pride that she took, I think, in casting her ballot, is a pride that I think a lot of young people feel, but, you got to talk to them about the things that they care about," he said.

The President also complied with Bee who asked him to share a "spooky story" about what happens if people don't vote.

"Donald Trump could be president," Obama said.

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Obama: Hillary Clinton's ambition might be questioned if she ...

Obama: Trump’s rigged election claim ‘whining before the …

"You start whining before the game's even over?" Obama said during a news conference in the White House Rose Garden, adding that Trump's claim is "not based on facts."

Trump and his surrogates have increasingly claimed the US election system is "rigged," coming after two lackluster debate performances and a drop in poll numbers nationally and in key swing states. He's urged his supporters to monitor polling sites for potentially ineligible voters attempting to cast ballots.

The rhetoric has been brushed off even by Republican governors, who say there are no signs of corruption in their states' voting systems.

Obama echoed those sentiments Tuesday, saying there's "no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even rig America's elections."

And he claimed Trump's warnings could abrade faith in the US political system.

"One way of weakening America and making it less great is if you start betraying those basic American traditions that have been bipartisan and have helped to hold together this Democracy now for well over two centuries," Obama said.

He derided Trump's remarks as reflective of an unpresidential attitude, declaring again that the Republican nominee's temperament was disqualifying.

"It doesn't really show the kind of leadership and toughness that you'd want out of a president. You start whining before the game's even over? If whenever things are going badly for you and you lose you start blaming somebody else? Then you don't have what it takes to be in this job," Obama said.

And he said the warnings of a "rigged election" are entirely unprecedented in modern American political history.

"I have never seen in my lifetime or in modern political history any presidential candidate trying to discredit the elections and the election process before votes have even taken place. It's unprecedented," Obama said alongside Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

Trump has at times embraced the label of "whiner," telling CNN in an interview last year, he is "the most fabulous whiner."

It was Obama's latest salvo in what's become a bitterly negative campaign against Trump. At the beginning of Tuesday's news conference, Obama said he planned to be "a little more subdued" in his discussion of Trump, given the diplomatic setting just outside the Oval Office.

And while he didn't slip into his campaign cadences, he unleashed a harsh rebuke of the Republican candidate, describing his behavior as "unprecedented" on multiple fronts.

Obama called Trump's "flattery" of Russian President Vladimir Putin "out of step" with US norms, and called out Republicans who support their nominee as hypocritical.

"You'll have to explain to me how it is that some of the same leaders in the Republican Party who were constantly haranguing us for even talking to the Russians and who consistently took the most hawkish approaches to Russia, including Mr. Trump's selection for vice president, now reconcile their endorsement of Mr. Trump with their previous views," he said.

But he reserved his harshest rhetoric for Trump's assertions about the upcoming election.

"I'd advise Mr. Trump to stop whining and go try to make his case to get votes," Obama said. "And if he got the most votes, then it would be my expectation of Hillary Clinton to offer a gracious concession speech and pledge to work with him in order to make sure that the American people benefit from an effective government, and it would be my job to welcome Mr. Trump, regardless of what he said about me, or my differences with him on my opinions, and escort him over to the Capitol, in which there would about peaceful transfer of power."

"That's what Americans do," Obama said.

CNN's Julia Manchester and Jeremy Diamond contributed to this report.

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Obama: Trump's rigged election claim 'whining before the ...

Obama goal: Send humans to Mars by the 2030s – CNN

In an op-ed published Tuesday on CNN, Obama set a "clear goal" to send humans to Mars by the 2030s and to have them return to Earth safely, "with the ultimate ambition to one day remain there for an extended time."

"Someday, I hope to hoist my own grandchildren onto my shoulders. We'll still look to the stars in wonder, as humans have since the beginning of time," Obama wrote. "But instead of eagerly awaiting the return of our intrepid explorers, we'll know that because of the choices we make now, they've gone to space not just to visit, but to stay -- and in doing so, to make our lives better here on Earth."

Achieving the goal, Obama added, will "require continued cooperation between government and private innovators" -- a collaboration that will begin in the coming years when companies send astronauts to the International Space Station.

To that end, Obama announced that the government is "working with our commercial partners to build new habitats that can sustain and transport astronauts on long-duration missions in deep space."

The White House in a joint blog post with NASA said that seven companies have received awards to develop habitation systems. And this fall, NASA will provide companies with the opportunity to add modules and other capabilities to the International Space Station.

Obama who's in the final months of his eight-year presidency is also looking to set in motion plans, which could pan out to be a key part of his legacy.

"I expect to be around to see it," Obama said in the speech.

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Obama goal: Send humans to Mars by the 2030s - CNN

Obama commutes XX more sentences

Obama continues to shorten sentences for people with nonviolent drug offenses. Newslook

President Obama(Photo: Jorge Guerrero, AFP/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON President Obama commuted the sentences of another 102federal prison inmates Thursday, continuing his move to dramatically reduce the number of inmates in prison for drug crimes.

"The vast majority of todays grants were for individuals serving unduly harsh sentences for drug-related crimes under outdated sentencing laws," White House counsel Neil Eggleston said in a statement. "With todays grants, the President has commuted 774 sentences, more than the previous 11 presidents combined. With a total of 590 commutations this year, President Obama has now commuted the sentences of more individuals in one year than in any other single year in our nations history."

Thursday's announcement follows a record-breaking month in August, when Obama commuted the sentences of 325 inmates.

What started as a relatively simply move to reduce the sentences of those convicted of drug crimes has turned into a moveto grant commutations to inmates convicted of more serious crimes. That has meant commutingsentences without immediately releasing the inmates in what are known as "term" commutations, as opposed to the more common "time served" commutations. They represent a remarkable departure from recentpast practice. Unlike a full pardon, commutations shorten sentences but leave other consequences of the conviction in place.

A USA TODAY analysis of Obama's 673 commutations through August showeda marked change in strategy on his clemency initiative, one of the key criminal justice reform efforts of his presidency.

USA TODAY

For Obama, a shift in clemency strategy

Before August, almost all of the inmates whose sentences were commuted were released within four months, enough time for the Bureau of Prisons to arrange for court-supervised monitoring and other re-entry programs.But the last two rounds of commutations granted in August showed that39% came with a year or more left to serve on the sentence.

Obama has also commuted the sentences of even more serious offenders. Before August, 13% of inmates receiving clemency had used a firearm in the offense. For those granted presidential mercy in August, it was 22%. On Thursday, 11 of the 102 commutations involved sentences involving a firearm.

In Thursday's announcement, 21 inmates were scheduled to be released from prison on Feb. 3, 2017. The rest will be released later in 2017 or years in the future, which is a continuation of the trend toward term resentencing.

Contributing: Gregory Korte

USA TODAY

The 102 inmates whose sentences were commuted

USA TODAY

Obama says he's proud to have 'reinvigorated' long-neglected clemency power

USA TODAY

With 111 more commutations, Obama has nearly doubled his total in one month

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Obama commutes XX more sentences