Mediaboss Marketing

This post has been updated

January 2017 will definitely see an onslaught of A-list tourists at the White House. But theyre not coming for the inauguration.

President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama will host a goodbye party for close friends and major donors Friday, according to a person with knowledge of the marquee affair. The Obamas themselves confirmed during an interview with People Magazine last month that theyd have one final bash at the White House. The president told a young fan that theyd have a grown up party before packing their bags.

Of course, theres no official word from the White House yet. Typically the Obama administration keeps a tight lid on celebration details until the 11th hour, releasing a just-the-facts statement the day of the event. But the big names thought to be on the guest list have been slowly trickling out this week.

Old standbys such as singer Usher and actorSamuel L. Jackson will most likely be there, according to another person with knowledge of the invitees. Also currently practicing their sweet moves aremedia titan Oprah Winfrey, whosnagged an exit interview with the first lady last monthon her fellow invitee and bestie Gayle Kings network CBS; actor Bradley Cooper, who showed up to the French state dinnersans underpants; Beyonc, who sang at both of Obamas inaugurations, and her husband, rapper Jay Z, are both whispered to be performing. Were also hearing that Stevie Wonder, who has performed at the White House, directorJ.J. Abrams and director George Lucas make the list.

If this star-studded shindig follows the traditional Obama script for private parties, the first couple will be footing the billthemselves as they did for the Prince concert in 2015. Cell phones will be confiscated at the White House security gate and social media crumbs will be few. But afterward, tales of the presidents dance moves and sore feet will make the late-night talk show rounds.

The White House party will act as the kickoff of a goodbye tour of sorts for President Obama, who will head to Chicago todeliver a farewell addressJan. 10.

First lady Michelle Obama sat down with Oprah Winfrey at the White House to discuss her husband's legacy in the wake of Donald Trump's election victory. (Reuters)

The rest is here:
President Obama to host a goodbye party at the White House on ...

"I'm thinking about them as a chance to say thank you for this amazing journey, to celebrate the ways you've changed this country for the better these past eight years, and to offer some thoughts on where we all go from here," Obama wrote.

President Obama said he was following the precedent set by George Washington, who penned a farewell address to the American people over 220 years ago.

George W. Bush also delivered a farewell address in 2009 from the White House.

"Since 2009, we've faced our fair share of challenges, and come through them stronger," Obama wrote Monday.

"That's because we have never let go of a belief that has guided us ever since our founding -- our conviction that, together, we can change this country for the better."

President Obama has said that while he won't weigh in on every issue once he is out of the White House, he would consider speaking up about issues that go to "core questions" about American values and ideals.

Chicago is where President Obama got his start in politics after graduating from Harvard Law School and where the first family called home before moving to the White House. Obama's presidential library will also be located in Chicago.

See the original post here:
Obama to deliver farewell address in Chicago (CNN)

Sean Spicer, the incoming White House communications director, suggested Sunday that President Obamas imposing Russian sanctions related to email hacking was politically motivated, considering China recently did far worse without punishment.

Maybe it was; maybe it wasn't, Spicer said on ABCs This Week. China took over a million records. And a White House statement wasn't even issued. So there is a question about whether there's a political retribution here versus a diplomatic response.

Obama, a Democrat leaving office next month after two terms, has insisted the hacking probe is non-political, saying, There is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections that we need to take action."

But he also has made clear his belief that the Russian hacking "create(d) more problems for the Clinton campaign than it had for the Trump campaign."

Obamas announcement Thursday of the sanctions follows the U.S. intelligence community making statements that connect Russia to the hacking and releasing of emails from the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta, the campaign chairman for 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Clinton supporters argue that the emails contributed to Clinton's defeat by Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Spicer insisted several times Sunday that Trump will decide after meeting this week with U.S. intelligence officials about whether Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin were indeed involved.

Meanwhile, he suggested that Americans, including the mainstream media, immediately and overwhelming accepted the assumption about Russias involvement without all of the facts.

Everyone in the media wants to jump forward and make a conclusion based off...anonymous sources that are coming out of the intelligence community, Spicer said.

He also argued that the Obama administrations report on the sanctions was supposed to prove Russias involvement but instead pointed out lapses in the DNCs Internet security.

What this says is that the DNC had a problem with their IT security and people tried to hack it and that (the DNC) needs to do a better job of protecting it, Spicer said.

He also seemed to suggest that Obamas punitive actions on Russia were politically motivated, considering their severity and because theyll be put in Trumps lap when he takes over the White House in three week.

You haven't seen a response like that in modern history for any action, Spicer said about Obama expelling 35 Russian diplomats and closing separate Russian compounds in Maryland and New York.

He argued that Obama took no known action two years ago when China took the million-plus records that included sensitive data on federal employees including him.

They sent everyone who had worked in the government a letter saying that youll get free monitoring of your credit, Spicer said. That's all they did.

More:
Spicer hints Obama's Russian sanctions 'politically motivated'

President Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe scatteredpetals togetheron the waters of Pearl Harbor on Tuesday in a symbolic act aimed at laying to rest the enmity of the Japanese attack 75 years ago that drew the U.S. into World War II.

In a moment consumed with history, both leaders were fixed on the future. They expressedconcernthat the lessons of the war might be forgotten amid a shifting world order and the anti-internationalist sentiment that has swept over politics around the globe, most notably with the ascendance of President-elect Donald Trump.

Even when hatred burns hottest, even when the tug of tribalism is at its most primal, we must resist the urge to turn inward, Obama said. We must resist the urge to demonize those who are different.

The ceremony was conceived of as an affirmation of close U.S. relations with Japan, once a bitter wartime enemy, andObama and Abe underscored the importance of building bonds between nations and the risks of slipping into isolationism. Their remarks also appeared to bewarnings forTrump, whose divisive campaign took aim at longstanding alliances and stoked fears with harsh rhetoric about immigrants and minorities.

Ours is an alliance of hope that will lead us to the future, Abe said, speaking to World War II veterans after paying tribute at the Pearl Harbor memorial. What has bonded us together is the power of reconciliation, made possible through the spirit of tolerance.

Obama, as has been his custom in public remarks since the election, argued for the merits of his own worldviewwithout naming Trump, saying,There is more to be won in peace than in war.

During the campaign and since his election, Trump haschallenged assumptions about U.S. commitments to the security of Asia. One of the central tenets of Obamas foreign policy was a commitment of resources toward Asia with an eye toward countering the rise of China.

But Trump has obliterated long-established protocols. He spoke with Taiwanese leader Tsai Ing-wendespite the U.S. policy of officially acknowledging no Chinese government other than the one in Beijing. And when he met with Abe last month in New York, Trump brought not a battalion of Asia experts but rather his daughter Ivanka.

Trump also promised last week to expand Americas nuclear arsenal after decades of a deliberate shrinking of the American and Russian stockpiles.

Let it be an armsrace, he told an MSNBC host, unnerving leaders in Asia, where North Korea and China are growing more aggressive.

Though the U.S.-Japan relationship has evolved considerably in recent decades, the healing over World War II has gone more slowly, making Abes visit to Pearl Harbor, and Obamas tripin May to Hiroshima, Japan, the site of one of the two nuclear attacks that ended the war, significant gestures.

Abe became the first Japanese prime minister to make a highly publicized visit to the USS Arizona Memorial, though three of his predecessors are thought to have visited Pearl Harbor more quietly.

Under a bright, sunny sky, Abe and Obama rode a small boat to the white memorial building in the harbor that looks out over the sunken remains of the Arizona, attacked by the Japanese on Dec. 7, 1941, killing2,403 people and thrustingthe U.S. into World War II.Abe laid a wreath in honor of the dead.

Veterans of the war gathered across the harbor to hear Obama and Abe deliver their brief speeches.

Among those in the crowd was Sterling Cale, 95, a sailor at Pearl Harbor on the day of the attack.

Of those killed that day, 1,177 were crew members of the Arizona. It was Cales job to pull bodies from the burning battleship.

Herecalled watching ashes rising from the deck of the ship. He and his crew were able to remove about 100 bodies.

On Tuesday, he looked across the water where the Arizona is submerged.

He did not come hoping to hear Abe apologize, he said.

Sorry is just a word, Cale said. What matters more is the action of coming here and going out there with our commander in chief. That says more than words.

Abe did not issue a formal apology, even as he detailed the horror of the sinking of the Arizona.

Each and every one of those servicemen had a mother and a father anxious about his safety, Abe said. Many had wives and girlfriends they loved, and many must have had children they would have loved watching grow up.

Rest in peace, precious souls of the fallen, he went on. I offer my sincere and everlasting condolences to the souls of those who lost their lives here.

After that somber expression of sorrow, Obama stepped to the lectern and declared the site a symbol of reconciliation.

Today, the alliance between the United States and Japan, bound not only by shared interests, but also rooted in common values, stands as the cornerstone of peace and stability in the Asia Pacific, and a force for progress around the globe, Obama said.

In what may be his final visit with a world leader before he leaves office in January, Obama expressed hope.

As nations and as people, we cannot choose the history that we inherit, he said. But we can choose what lessons to draw from it and use those lessons to chart our own futures.

christi.parsons@latimes.com

Follow @cparsons for news about the White House.

Will the Fed's Janet Yellen 'take away the punch bowl' after Trump takes office?

As Democrats ponder their future, Joe Biden makes a plea for a focus on the middle class

Obama says he could have beaten Trump

UPDATES:

5:10 p.m.:This story was updated with more comments from Obama and Abe.

This story was originally published at 3:50 p.m.

More here:
At Pearl Harbor, Obama says 'we must resist the urge to ...

President Obama suggested in an exit interview with his former top adviser that, had he been able to run, he could have won a third term in the White House.

Describing his confidence in an America that is tolerant and full of energy, Obama said: I am confident in this vision because I'm confident that if I had run again and articulated it, I think I could've mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it.

President-elect Donald Trump fired back Monday in a tweet: "He should say that but I say NO WAY!" He cited the rise of the Islamic State terror group and trouble with Obama administration agenda items including ObamaCare.

The outgoing president made the comments as part of an extensive interview with David Axelrod, for his podcast produced by CNN and the University of Chicago. Axelrod was one of Obamas top advisers during the 2008 campaign and his first term in the White House.

I know that in conversations that I've had with people around the country, even some people who disagreed with me, they would say the vision, the direction that you point towards is the right one, Obama told Axelrod, defending his assertion.

Obama was term-limited and could not run, clearing the way for his former primary rival and secretary of state Hillary Clinton to be the partys standard-bearer in 2016. She nevertheless ran in large part on Obamas agenda, vowing to preserve some of his signature policies as Donald Trump and his Republican allies campaigned against them.

As other top Democrats have done in the wake of President-elect Trumps victory, Obama did acknowledge that Democrats and progressives face political challenges, especially in rural areas.

If we can't find some way to break through what is a complicated history in the South and start winning races there and winning back Southern white voters without betraying our commitment to civil rights and diversity -- if we can do those things, then we can win elections, he said.

Obama also warned about an era where we are looking for simple solutions that we end up starting to shut ourselves off from different points of view, shutting down debate, becoming more dogmatic, becoming more brittle. And I don't see that being a successful strategy for us winning over the country.

He reminded listeners that his party won the popular vote on Election Day, but said: We don't have very good population distribution from a democratic perspective.

Vice President Biden offered a somewhat tougher critique of his party in a similar exit interview with the Los Angeles Times.

He said his party failed to connect with working-class, largely white voters, and warned that a bit of elitism has crept in to party thinking.

He recalled watching a Trump rally in Pennsylvania near where he grew up. Theyre all the people I grew up with, he said. Theyre their kids. And theyre not racist. Theyre not sexist. But we didnt talk to them.

Excerpt from:
Obama: I could have won third term | Fox News