More than 1,500 people were fired up on Thursday to see First Lady Michelle Obama at the Upper Dublin High School gymnasium.
Dan Siegel, the Montgomery County regional field director for Obama's re-election campaign, told the audience that in 2009, his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. He said they were lucky to have full health insurance to cover to costs of her medical expenses. However, he added that the Affordable Care Act, passed by President Obama, means his mother's illness will never be considered a pre-existing condition and cannot be grounds for denial of health coverage.
Montgomery County Commissioner Josh Shapiro said he and his wife spent time at the White House and were surprised by how much the President and First Lady are like “one of us.”
“The First Lady gets it – the real challenges of our families," Shapiro said. “They have done so much for us."
“The president and the First Lady aren’t done working for you,” Shapiro continued. “I’m working as hard as I can to make it eight [years]... It’s up to us and up to you to make the difference."
Julie Haywood, a local resident, welcomed the First Lady to Upper Dublin High School. Haywood said after helping on the 2008 campaign, she felt compelled to get more involved in her community, so she ran for school board in Cheltenham, where she lives.
“I stand with Obama because he stands with working mothers like me,” said Haywood.
She said she believes "Our economy should work for everyone," and with that, she introduced First Lady Michelle Obama.
Obama began by thanking those volunteers who have helped move the campaign forward. She said that during the last campaign, grassroots campaigning was what won the election, and she told the crowd that “we’re going to do it again."
Obama said her husband is running for a second term “because of our values…the values we believe in…[and] the vision for this country that we believe in.”
The First Lady also said her husband “knows what it means when your family struggles,” because both Obama and her husband grew up in middle class families. She added that the stories that her husband has heard along the campaign trail and during the last three and a half years have kept him going.
“He stood up for our most fundamental rights again and again and again,” said Obama. “All of that’s at stake and so much more... The chance to finish what we’ve started."
As the speech drew to a close, the First Lady drove home that elections are about the world we want to leave for our children.
“We can’t turn back now, we’ve come so far.”
Editor's note: Special thanks to Patch user for adding his fantastic photos to our gallery! If you have your own photos from the event, feel free to add them as well!
Not a flack or operative, I'm afraid, just an American citizen praying that Obama is re-elected in November.
Obama's Ties to Socialism, Marxism, and Communism 1. Obama's Father Wrote About Socialism 2. Obama's Mother Was a "Communist Sympathizer" 3. Obama's Parents Met in a Russian Class (Back then it was the Communist USSR) – 4. Obama's Teen Mentor was Frank Marshall Davis (a known Communist Party USA member) 5. Obama's Brother Roy and Cousin Odinga are Marxists - 6. Obama Attended Socialist Conferences at Cooper Union 7. Obama Was Hand Picked by Alice Palmer to Succeed Her in the Illinois State Senate 8. Obama's Run for the Illinois State Senate was Launched by a Fundraiser Organized at Bill Ayers' and Bernardine Dorhn's Chicago Home 9. Obama Had a Close Relationship with the "Anti-Capitalist" Group ACORN 10. Obama Attended Several Meetings with the Democratic Socialists in Chicago and Was even Endorsed by by Them. 11. Obama Endorsed Openly Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders 12. Many Obama Supporters Idolize Che Guervara 13. The Communist Party USA Endorsed 14. Obama's Church is Rooted in Liberation Theology which is Rooted in 15. Obama's Opening The Decemberists performing the Soviet National Anthem:
May the Lord bless you.
The problem with talking points and angry accusations is that they prevent a rational analysis of policies and I believe that if one were to examine Obama’s economic and foreign policies, one wouldn’t see a liberal at all. On the foreign policy front, Obama has basically been a continuation of Bush and has expanded the Bush policies of the expansion of the security state and foreign incursions abroad. Obama has greatly expand targeted assassination through drone warfare while killing many innocents, has provided covert and overt aid in the overthrow of governments on Libya and Syria and has overseen the implementation of the National Defense Authorization Act which provides for indefinite detention of American Citizens.
All of this is totally absent from the political debate and these are very real issues rather than Obama’s supposed socialism and leftist policies. Those on the right would have a legitimate criticism of the president if they were to go after him here, but they fall silent. Those on the left could push this president away from these dangerous policies, but they fall silent too. In effect, there’s a tacit agreement between both left and right about what they’re going to discuss and what they’re not. The real issues are simply not going to be discussed and we will go through the entire presidential campaign with gaffes on both sides and Romney’s taxes being the only issues discussed. And the result that will be the public going once again into the voting booth with little to vote on other than how they “feel”. Facts and analysis are beside the point. This is by design. BTW, I’m a man of the left and I have major issues with Obama.
This is evidence of how effective right wing propaganda is and the people who buy into it. The left is no better to be perfectly honest. You don't "NO" the truth.
I agree totally and it only takes a small group of unchecked fools to turn the nation's politics into a nasty argumentative morass. We've had thirty years of right wing talk radio and they created a monster. They're looking for someone to burn down the Reichstag and almost anything will do with them having been prepped with years of propaganda. Dangerous times indeed for the nation. The worst thing is that whatever they're upset about isn't really the issue.
Look at his record, not his 'values' or 'visions'. Cute buzz words do not work anymore.
Check out the following and you decide what is wrong with our administration: http://www.churchmilitant.tv/daily/?today=2012-08-08
Bingo. This clown radical surrounds himself with other amateurs, radicals, and "academics" who never held a real job in their lives, and they're making decisions on the economy? Unemployment went through the roof after this clown started implementing his European-socialist wealth redistribution policies. They tanked the housing market and people lost their homes - the single biggest investment anyone ever makes. He doesn't deserve a second term. We hire a manager to manage the country, the economy, and the security of the country. He's in way over his head, and he needs to be fired, downsized, laid-off, or whatever euphemism is in use today. And if it's NOT just incompetence, then what else is it? Deliberate? One wonders.
We should be discussing what the landscape will look like when the United States of America is dismantled, just as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was taken apart. In case you haven't realized it, America is a failed experiment, and it has already died. The America that conservatives speak of has been gone for decades. The America that liberals speak of has proven to be unsustainable, as witnessed by the USSR, Greece, Italy, England, and our own history over the past 50+ years. Look at the facts... we cannot win military campaigns anymore, we cannot create or sustain our own economy, we can't maintain our own infrastructure, and we can't properly educate our children. What "hope" would anyone have for a nation that can't do anything to help itself? The true "vision" of America is one where, in the future, many countries will occupy the land that was once the US of A. You should be packing your "values" in preparation of moving to the emerging country that best represents your beliefs. The question we should be asking ourselves is, how do we get there? Peacefully? or by way of war, as these things have been accomplished throughout history?