This week's news on Iraq polling station attack.
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Morning Brief: Greece swears in caretaker government
17 MayFP Passport
Greece swears in caretaker governmentTop news: Greece has sworn in a new caretaker government that will manage the country's affairs until a new general election can be held on June 17. A mix of diplomats, academics, and economists led by former judge Panagiotis Pikrammenos, the new government is a stop-gap solution after the country's party leaders failed to agree on a new government following inconclusive elections on May 6.
The two centrist parties that negotiated the controversial $170 billion loan agreement with international creditors in February, and were subsequently punished at the polls for it, have indicated that they will now seek to renegotiate some of the terms of the agreement if elected.
Alexis Tsipras, leader of the leftist Syriza bloc, which is now leading the polls, repeated his intention to tear up the agreement, known in Greece as the memorandum. "There is no memorandum. The memorandum is finished politically because it has not produced results," he said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel seemed to soften her position on Greek austerity somewhat on Wednesday, saying she was open to discussing stimulus measures to restart the country's economy and was committed to keeping the Greece within the euro. “I have the will, the determination to keep Greece in the eurozone,”she told CNBC.
Other European leaders have suggested that the June election should be considered a referendum on whether Greece remains in the single currency. “Wewant Greece to remain part of our family, of the European Union, and ofthe euro. Thisbeing said, the ultimate resolve to stay in the euro area must come from Greece itself,” said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, who added that the terms of the bailout agreement would not be renegotiated.
Fears about the stability of Greece's banks also increased Wednesday after reports that depositors pulled out $1 billion in a single day. "We're two ticks away from a run on banks," said one of the country's leading hedge fund managers. "If people were worried before, they're getting scared now."
Syria: Reuters reports that Syria is still the top destination for Iranian arms exports, defying a U.N. export ban.
Africa
- The International Criminal Court announced new charges against a former Congolese rebel leader.
- Seventeen civilians were sentenced to death for attacking a military base in Somaliland.
- Guinea-Bissau has reportedly chosen a new prime minister.
Europe
- French President Francois Hollande unveiled a new cabinet, which does not include Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry.
- The war crimes trial of Ratko Mladic has been indefinitely delayed due to errors by the prosecution.
- The EU's enlargement commissioner is visiting Turkey in a big to restart accession negotiations.
Asia
- Pakistan has proposed a $5,000 shipping fee for every NATO container that crosses its territory.
- A U.S. group says North Korea has resumed construction of a nuclear reactor.
- North Korea has seized two Chinese fishing boats and is demanding payment for their release.
Americas
- Quebec's government is suspending many university classes in response to a 14-week student strike over tuition increases.
- Five Mexican men have been sentenced to death for drug trafficking in Malaysia.
- Brazil inaugurated a truth commission to investigate human rights abuses under military rule.
Middle East
- Iraq has summoned the Turkish ambassador to protest the behavior of two Turkish diplomats.
- A suspected U.S. drone attacked a convoy in Eastern Yemen, killing three.
- The Palestinian authority swore in a new cabinet. Prime Minister Salam Fayyad gave up his second post as finance minister.
LOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP/GettyImages
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News: Armenian Bar, Trayvon Details, Virginia, Mary Kennedy
17 MayTowleroad News
Does a baby make a man more attractive? In the case of Chris Hemsworth, yes.
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Obama stops by The View to talk about the economy – US politics live
16 Maywww.guardian.co.uk
Obama appears on The View while Mitt Romney goes on the attack in Iowa
5.15pm: Finally: this really happened. Simon & Schuster is publishing Dog on the Roof! On the Road with Mitt and the Mutt –
Now for the first time, here is the completely true – and only mildly embellished – shaggy-dog story of Seamus Romney, the famously fetching Irish setter whose master, future presidential candidate Mitt Romney, plopped him atop the family station wagon for that infamous 1983 car trip.
4.45pm: The Club for Growth – the tax-cutting, regulations-bonfiring lobby group – is not happy with the batch of Republican members of the House of Representatives who were elected in the Tea Party wave of 2010.
A review of the voting record "has found that for many of the freshmen Republicans, promises of fiscal responsibility have proven to be empty":
In 2011, freshmen Republicans received an average score of 71% on the Club for Growth's Congressional Scorecard. The average veteran received a 69%. This means the freshmen Republicans voted, on average, about the same as the Republicans who were already in Congress.
Once again, political rhetoric failed to turn into action.
4.09pm: The White House has sent around the official 2011 financial disclosure forms of President Obama and Vice President Biden.
About the most exciting discovery is that Barack Obama's assets include a JP Morgan Chase checking account containing at least $500,000. Given JP Morgan recent problems, that counts as amusing.
Other details include that the Obamas have assets worth between $2.6m and $8.3m (the difference is that they only have to declare ranges, not specific amounts), and a 30-year mortgage on their Chicago home worth between $500,000 to $1 million at 5.63%.
Obama's childrens book Of Thee I Sing earned royalties of between $100,000 to $1m, with Obama donating the royalties to Fisher House, a foundation offering scholarships for children of US military.
Obama also holds US Treasuries worth $1m to $5m, and T-bills worth between $500,000 and $1m.
3.41pm: More on Romney's speech today. Attacking Obama on adding to the federal debt, he includes this line:
The interest rate on that debt is bound to go up, like an adjustable mortgage. And there's a good chance this debt could cause us to hit a Greece-like wall.
No it can't "continue to go up" because the bulk of the funding of that debt is in US Treasuries with a fixed coupon, meaning the interest rate is fixed. And "hit a Greece-like wall"? Entirely unlikely, since US debt is denominated in US dollars, meaning that the US doesn't have the current account difficulties of a country such as Greece (meaning it can print more US dollars to settle its debts).
Mitt doesn't go into any detail on his own fiscal plans, apart from some tax cuts, which is sensible, given that as currently formulated they would add to the federal deficit and thus the national debt.
3.28pm: Mitt Romney delivers his big set-piece speech on the economy in Des Moines, Iowa this afternoon.
It employs the Romney signature mix of curious metaphor and wild exageration. Such as this:
When the men and women who settled the Iowa prairie saw a fire in the distance, they didn't look around for someone else to save them or go back to sleep hoping the wind might blow another direction. They knew that their survival was up to them.
A prairie fire of debt is sweeping across Iowa and our nation and every day we fail to act that fire gets closer to the homes and children we love.
Here's a thought: call the fire brigade?
Romney also returned to his hard to fathom use of Bill Clinton as a side-swipe at Obama:
Even a former McGovern campaign worker like President Clinton was signaling to his own Party that Democrats should no longer try to govern by proposing a new program for every problem.
President Obama tucked away the Clinton doctrine in his large drawer of discarded ideas, along with transparency and bipartisanship. It's enough to make you wonder if maybe it was a personal beef with the Clintons – but really it runs much deeper.
How many people know or care about a "McGovern campaign worker"? That was 40 years ago, it's ancient history.
2.40pm: Nate Silver says it's far too earlier to worry about polls and similar nonsense for the presidential election:
What I am less convinced by is the idea that anything in the campaign – the day-to-day stories that the news media covers – has mattered very much so far. One of the reasons that campaign stories have been so trivial lately is because if one of the campaigns has an especially strong line of attack on their opponent, or a great piece of opposition research, it does not make a lot of sense to drop it now when most voters are not paying attention yet. It is still extremely early for a general election campaign.
2.19pm: President Obama welcomes the LA Galaxy football team to the White House in recognition of their winning the so-called "Major League Soccer" championships – and like most people he uses the opportunity to take the piss out of David Beckham.
Here's the 44th president of the United States on Beckham:
Last year, at the age of 36, David had his best year in MLS... He did it despite fracturing his spine halfway through the season, injuring his hamstring the week before the championship game. He is tough. In fact, it is a rare man who can be that tough on the field and also have his own line of underwear.
Earlier, Obama joked that he gave Beckham a "hard time" during the meeting:
We also have a young up-and-comer on the team, a guy named David Beckham. I have to say I gave David a hard time – I said half his teammates could be his kids.
What? Oh of course, he only meant that Beckham was old enough to be their father.
Unrelated: an aging Jimmy Connors was peeved after losing to a young and disrespectful Andre Agassi at the US Open in 1989. "I'm old enough to be his father," fumed Connors at the post-match press conference. "He might be one of mine, I used to spend a lot of time in Vegas." Cue sharp intake of breath: Agassi was born in Las Vegas.
2pm: Finally some action: Senate Democrats plan to vote to confirm the two outstanding nominees to the Federal Reserve Board – Harvard University economics professor Jeremy Stein and private equity executive Jerome Powell – and overcome Republican Senator David Vitter's blocking action.
1.33pm: The New York Times is getting funky.
It's the Gregory Brothers – Auto-Tune The News, etc – on Mitt Romney, from the NYT's op-ed section.
1.15pm: Mitt Romney is in Florida tomorrow – meaning it's time for another chapter from the Bain Capital big book of business success:
In advance of Mitt Romney's fundraising swing through Florida tomorrow Democrats are highlighting one of the business ventures of Bain Capital while Romney was in charge: Dade Behring, which, saddled with debt, wound up shuttering two medical technologies facilities in Miami. Some 850 jobs were lost, while Bain walked away with $242m - an 800% return on its investment
The Dade Behring case has been well-documented, but here's a new wrinkle: The company under Bain's leadership sought and received millions of dollars in tax breaks for creating jobs in Puerto Rico - shortly before closing its facilities, costing nearly 300 jobs.
Mitt Romney the presidential candidate is opposed to such tax breaks, but Mitt Romney the vulture capitalist wasn't so sniffy.
1pm: There is a fascinating Republican primary in Nebraska today, with two Tea Party-backed candidates battling for the right to compete for Ben Nelson's old seat.
PPP did a late poll of the state and finds it too close to call:
We found a very close race with Deb Fischer at 37%, Jon Bruning at 33%, and Don Stenberg at 17%. With the poll's margin of error at +/-5.9% Fischer's lead is very much within the margin of error and the race could go either way tonight.
Bruning's image has taken a huge hit in the month and a half since our last poll of the race. His favorability rating is a net +13 at 49/36. That's a 27 point decline from late March when he was at +40 (57/17.) Stenberg's seen a large- although not quite as dramatic- drop in his numbers as well from +29 (49/20) to +12 (46/34).
In a three-way race anything could happen, but PPP notes:
If Fischer wins there will be inevitable attempts to spin it as a Tea Party triumph but her rise doesn't really appear to be about ideology. Bruning is actually winning the Tea Party vote 39-36 and among voters describing themselves as 'very conservative' Fischer is only up 38-37. The shift in this race has a lot more to do with the candidates' images than it does with issues or philosophy.
Fischer is regarded by Democrats as the weaker candidate, because of her lower profile and relative inexperience, and her nomination would give its candidate Bob Kerrey a better chance.
12.43pm: Now that Americans Elect, the big money backing an independent, third party presidential candidate, has flamed out, BuzzFeed Politics rounds up some of the most embarrassing predictions about its success.
Top of the list, of course, is Tom Friedman, as always:
Write it down: Americans Elect. What Amazon.com did to books, what the blogosphere did to newspapers, what the iPod did to music, what drugstore.com did to pharmacies, Americans Elect plans to do to the two-party duopoly that has dominated American political life – remove the barriers to real competition, flatten the incumbents and let the people in. Watch out.
What "drugstore.com did to pharmacies"? Note also the classic Friedmanism: "two-party duopoly".
12.37pm: A new CBS/New York Times poll has upset the Obama campaign – Stephanie Cutter, Obama's deputy campaign manager, called it "significantly biased" – but the results on the issue of gay marriage are timely:
While most respondents said the candidates' position on the issue would not affect their vote, about 4 in 10 said it would, and that played against Mr Obama. Twenty-six percent of respondents said they were less likely to support Mr Obama as a result, while 16 percent said they were more likely to. Many of those who described themselves as less likely to vote for Mr Obama were Republicans who might not have anyway, but in a tight race, even small numbers can matter.
On the other hand, in five months time when Obama's shift on gay marriage has long faded from the news agenda, it may not even make that small difference.
12.15pm: George Bush has just endorsed Mitt Romney for president. I'm not saying it was a grudging endorsement – but Bush made it while in an elevator as the doors were closing, after a reporter shouted a question at him.
Here's ABC's The Note:
Mitt Romney has the support of George W Bush.
"I'm for Mitt Romney," Bush told ABC News this morning as the doors of an elevator closed on him, after he gave a speech on human rights a block from his old home — the White House.
Bush's endorsement isn't a surprise, given that Romney is virtually the Republican Party's nominee. But the 43rd president has been absent from the 2012 campaign and hasn't made any public comments showing his support for Romney.
But what did Bush say after the doors had closed? "I'm for Mitt Romney... [close] ... being drummed out of the GOP."
12.06pm: Meanwhile, the Ron Paul campaign is holding a conference call with reporters after making strenuous denials today that Paul is dropping out of the presidential contest.
Jesse Benton of Paul's campaign sent this memo around this morning:
Let me be very clear. Dr Paul is NOT ending his campaign.
As Dr Paul has previously stated, he is in this race all the way to the Republican National Convention in Tampa this August.
And he is deeply grateful for every resource he has been entrusted with to run an historic campaign that continues to defy all expectations.
Looking ahead, our campaign must honor that trust by maximizing our resources to ensure the greatest possible impact at the National Convention.
So while our campaign is no longer investing in the remaining primary states, we will continue to run strong programs at District and State Conventions to win more delegates and alternate delegates to the National Convention.
Ok, Paul isn't dropping out, it's just a "new phase of the campaign," according to Benton. A phase in which it doesn't spend any money.
11.58am: Joy Behar wants to know if Obama celebrated the death of Osama bin Laden by having a quick cigarette. No I didn't, says Obama, because of his daughters.
And that's it. As usual, Barbara Walters is a true pro and can ask a good question. But the political parts didn't last long enough.
11.46am: Now it's The View's pop culture quiz for Obama.
He gets the Kim Kardashian question right. But he can't name Fifty Shades of Grey. "I'll ask Michelle when I get home."
He also knows Sherri was on Dancing With The Stars, but can't identify Jessica Simpson's baby.
Malia and Sasha both watch Modern Family, so he gets a question about that right. And having seen Avengers, he easily name three superheroes from the movie.
"What is your guilty viewing pleasure on TV? "Michelle will say I will watch any sport – curling, luge, whatever." But he uses the DVR to watch Mad Men and Homeland, especially catching up on long flights.
"You're very young," says Walter, you'll still be a very young man even if you win another term. What do you want to do next? But Obama won't play ball:
No, I think at this point, what I want to spend the next five years doing is recreating that America where if you work hard, you can make it, regardless of where you come from, what you look like.
"Sometimes you hear that America's declining," Obama says, a veiled jab at Romney. "We've got all the ingredients for success for the next 100, 200 years."
11.41am: Presidential daughters Malia and Sasha don't have Facebook pages, and are not allowed to use cell phones except on the weekend, Obama says. In fact Sasha doesn't even have a cell phone.
Facebook's IPO price plunges on this news.
"I am not much of a tweeter," Obama replies to a question about a well-known social media network, although he admits: "I have a tweeting account." Ah yes, a "tweeting account".
Ad break, more creepy pet food ads.
11.37am: On The View, the politics appears to be over and we have moved onto the personal stuff, with Obama riffing on how terribly the First Lady teases him.
Now Whoopi Goldberg is imitating how the President gets off the plane.
And we learn that Obama also coaches his daughter Sasha's basketball team, and Obama ties it into the passage of Title IX boosting women's sport.
Asked who he thinks will win the NBA title, Obama appears to think they all will, which is nice.
11.33am: In a spooky bit of timing, while Obama's segment is appearing on The View, in real life President Obama is speaking at a memorial service for 156 peace officers killed in the line of duty:
Every American who wears the badge knows the burdens that come with it. You carry these burdens so the rest of us don't have to.
11.29am: So, says Walters, Mitt Romney's really rich. How about that? Hey I hear he's a nice guy, responds Obama, before rolling out a Joe Biden-derived joke: "Don't compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative."
Then it's an ad break, and one of those creepy pet food ads in which owners treat their dogs like children.
11.27am: Elisabeth Hasselbeck is back with another question, bringing up Obama's 2009 comment about turning the economy around in three years, and wants to know his view now. "I don't want to give a letter grade, it's still incomplete," says Obama, who then lists the US economy's various failings, including the housing market, which he calls the biggest drag on the economy.
Hmm, that line from 2009 is a big talking point on the right, and Obama should have figured out a better response to it by now.
11.23am: "I watched this JP Morgan Chase thing go down," observes Whoopi Goldberg, and wants to know what Obama is going to do about it. This exchange leads to the rather kind comments by Obama about Jamie Dimon, as previously reported.
Obama leads on to a wider discussion about financial regulation and the need for Wall Street reform. "We're still fighting this battle ... a lot of Wall Street is still fighting them, they've hired lobbyists and pushed back against a lot of things," says Obama.
Are you going to do anything more? asks Walters, who is as usual top notch at this interviewing thing. Did you know she used to date Alan Greenspan. True fact. Anyway, not much of answer from Obama, other than more of the same.
11.17am: Sherri Shepherd now asks if the 2012 election is going to be tight. "When your name is Barack Obama, it's always going to be tight," responds Obama.
More seriously, "There are a lot of folk still hurting out there... in that kind of environment, it's a tough environment." People might like the president, Obama says, before wandering off vaguely to talk about "other options," by which he presumably means: voting for Mitt Romney.
"Who's going to win?" asks Walters. "Oh, I'm going to win," says Obama, confidently. As you'd expect.
11.14am: Now it's Elisabeth Hasselbeck, The View's token Republican. Your position is just like Mitt Romney in leaving gay marriage up top the states, says Hasselbeck, so what would you do differently.
That's not right, says Obama, reminding her that Romney supports federal law to recognise marriage as only between a man and a woman.
11.13am: But will you campaign to change the law, asks Walters.
"Look, Congress is clearly on notice that I think this is a bad idea, and this is clearly going to be a big contrast in the campaign," says Obama, and hits Mitt Romney for wanting a constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage.
That's not exactly a full-throated commitment.
11.11am: What about changing some federal laws that affect gay marriage, asks Walters. Will you now fight for a federal bill?
"A lot of this has to do with the Defence of Marriage Act," says Obama. "This is part of the reason why my justice department has said to the courts, we don't think this is constitutional."
11.07am: And now it's over to The View – and here's the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama. Cue applause.
"It's good to be back," says Obama.
Is it true that you were going to announce your change on gay marriage, asks Barbara Walters. "It was a possibility," says Obama, who explains that he had been thinking about it "for months".
10.54am: Mitt Romney's campaign is in Iowa today for a full-frontal attack – based on his pre-released remarks – on the federal stimulus package passed in 2009.
The visit comes complete with this long and Ken Burns-like ad on the struggles of the unemployed and underemployed in Iowa.
10.40am: After yesterday's mini-documentary from the Obama campaign aimed at Mitt Romney's record as a vulture capitalist at Bain, the Obama-supporting super Pac Priorities USA Action launches a new and much harder-hitting variation on the same theme.
The most effective hit is a former steel worker from the steel plant that closed under Bain's ownership, looking at the camera and saying:
He promised us the same things he's promising the United States. And he'll give you the same thing he gave us. Nothing. He'll take it all.
That in a nutshell is the Democratic party's 2012 election campaign theme.
10.15am: Well-known soccer-baller David Beckham appears to be unfazed by the thought of meeting President Obama at the White House with the LA Galaxy today. He told ESPN:
It's going to be great to go meet the president and the first lady, and we're obviously going to enjoy that. And then it's back to business.
David Beckham didn't get where he is today by saying anything interesting.
9.45am: President Obama makes a daytime TV moment when his taped appearance on The View is aired today, while Mitt Romney is ratcheting up the rhetoric in Iowa with a verbal assault on the White House's 2009 stimulus package.
But the biggest photo opportunity of the day is when Barack Obama gets to meet David Beckham as the Los Angeles Galaxy football team visits the White House this afternoon to celebrate their MLS championship. Beckham has probably met more heads of state than Obama but then he's been doing this for longer.
Here's a summary of this morning's politics news from Ryan Devereaux.
Barack Obama has made his first comments on the JP Morgan fiasco, saying it underlined the need for tighter financial services legislation. But Obama was careful in his comments in his interview on The View on ABC, saying JP Morgan was "one of the best managed banks" and praising chairman and chief executive Jamie Dimon as "one of the smartest bankers we got". He said his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, wanted fewer regulations.
Obama has indicated that he believes the economy will ultimately determine the outcome of this year's election. Elsewhere in his interview on The View, taped yesterday and airing today, Obama said it's "hard to say" whether his new stance supporting same sex marriage will hurt his chances. Giving a gave a commencement speech at Barnard College on Monday Obama he highlighted the role of women in public life. Obama, whose sister Maya Soetoro-Ng graduated from the school in 1993, urged the nearly 600 female graduates to "fight for a seat at the head of the table."
Romney will be appearing in Iowa this afternoon, where he is expected to criticize the president's handling of the national debt. The topic marks a turn from social issues – such as same sex marriage – which have dominated the headlines in recent weeks. Romney has not visited Iowa since this year's caucuses kicked off there.
Texas congressman Ron Paul announced on Monday that he would no longer be actively campaigning for president, though he is not dropping out of the race. In an email to his supporters, Paul did not mention Romney, nor did he vow to help him defeat Obama. Instead Paul vowed to continue his "delegate strategy" as the Republican National Convention draws near.
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Remarks by the First Lady at a Campaign Event
15 MayWhite House.gov Press Office
Hilton Lincoln Centre
Dallas, Texas4:12 P.M. CDT
MRS. OBAMA: Wow! (Applause.) Thank you so much. See, now, usually when I come on stage I have to pull the mic up. With Vince, one of the few people I have to pull the mic down for.
You all, thank you so much. Thank you. (Applause.) Let me tell you, I am beyond thrilled to be with all of you today.
Let me start by thanking Vince, not just for that kind introduction -- now, I feel bad now. (Laughter.) He was not with his mother to come introduce me. I just love -- don’t you love him?
AUDIENCE: Yes!
MRS. OBAMA: Let me tell you, my husband loves Vince Carter. So he has just been amazing. We are so proud of him not just for the athlete that he is, but for the citizen, the man, the father the role model. Let's give him a round of applause. (Applause.)
I also want to recognize a couple of other people. Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson for her leadership -- who is here looking good -- and her service. And I want to give a big shoutout to my dear friend and his family, Hall-of-Famer Emmitt Smith -- (applause) -- your family. They are here. They have just been amazing. They brought their mentees with them, as well as their kids. And they are just -- they have just been tremendous supporters and friends. And I love you all so dearly. I really do.
And finally, I want to thank all of you -- truly -- for taking the time out of what are I know busy lives to be with me today. And I know that you all are here and busy, but I know you've got families to raise and jobs to do. But there is a reason why you all have taken the time to be here, and it's not just because we all support one extraordinary man who is our President. And I am biased. (Applause.) I think we have an amazing President.
And it’s not just because we want to win an election -- which we do. But we’re here because of the values we believe in. We're here because of the vision for this country that we all share. We’re doing this because we want all of our children to have good schools –- the kind of schools that push them, and inspire them, and prepare them for good jobs and an excellent future. We want that for all our kids.
We want our parents and our grandparents to be able to retire with dignity because we believe that after a lifetime of hard work, these people who have given us everything should be able to enjoy their golden years. (Applause.)
We're here because we want to restore that basic middle-class security for all of our families because we believe that in America, folks shouldn’t go bankrupt because somebody gets sick, and that folks shouldn’t lose their home because someone loses a job. Not in America. We believe that responsibility should be rewarded, and hard work should pay off. And we believe that everyone should do their fair share and play by the same rules.
These are basic American values -- basics. They’re the values that so many of us were raised with, including myself. As many of you know, my father was a blue-collar city worker, worked for the city water plant his entire life. My father grew up -- my family grew up on the South Side of Chicago in a little-bitty apartment -- South Side! South Side! (Laughter.) And neither of my parents had the chance to go to college.
But let me tell you something they did do, which was just as important -- they saved and they sacrificed, and, let me tell you, they poured everything they had into me and my brother because they wanted us to have the kind of education they could only dream of.
And while pretty much all of my college tuition came from student loans and grants, my Dad still had to pay a small portion of that tuition himself. And every semester, he was determined to pay his portion on time. My Dad was so proud to be sending his kids to college, and he could not bear the thought of me or my brother missing that registration deadline because his check was late. Like so many people that we all know in this country, my father took great pride in being able to earn a living that allowed him to handle his business, his responsibilities to his family, to pay all of his bills and to pay them on time. That’s what gave him a sense of being.
And really, more than anything else, that is what’s at stake in this election. That’s what we're fighting for. It’s that fundamental promise that no matter who you are or how you started out, if you work hard you can build a decent life for yourself -- and an even better life for your kids. It is that promise that binds us together as Americans. That is it. That’s what makes us who we are.
And from now until November, let me tell you, Barack needs all of you to get out there and tell everyone you know about our values, about our vision, and about everything that’s at stake in this election. That’s what we need you to do.
You can start by telling them about how Barack fought for tax cuts for working families and small businesses, because an economy built to last starts with the middle class and with folks who are creating jobs and putting people back to work. (Applause.) I want you to remind people how back when Barack first took office -- remember -- our economy was losing an average of 750,000 jobs a month. That’s what he inherited. But let them know that for the past 26 months, we’ve actually been gaining private sector jobs –- a total of more than 4 million jobs in two years. (Applause.) Make sure they know that.
So while -- let's be clear -- we still have a long way to go to rebuild our economy, we still have more work to do, today, millions of people are collecting a paycheck again. Millions of people like my dad are able to pay their bills again. Make sure they know that.
You can also remind people about how so many folks in Washington were telling Barack to let the auto industry go under with more than a million jobs on the line. Remember that?
AUDIENCE: Yes!
MRS. OBAMA: But what happened? Your President had the backs of American workers. He put his faith in the American people. And today, as a result, the auto industry is back on its feet again and people are back to work, providing for their families again. (Applause.) Make sure people understand.
You can tell people how, because we passed health reform, insurance companies will have to cover preventative care -- things like contraception, cancer screenings, prenatal care at no extra cost. (Applause.) Because of health reform, millions of our senior citizens have saved an average of more than $600 a year on their prescription drugs. Make sure they understand that. And because of that reform, our kids can now stay on their parents’ insurance until they’re 26 years old. And that is now how 2.5 million of our young people are now getting the health care they need. 2.5 million. (Applause.)
You can tell people how Barack is working to raise standards in our public schools and make college more affordable for millions of young people so by the end of this decade, more Americans will have a college degree than any other country in the world. That’s his vision for this country. (Applause.)You can tell people how Barack has been fighting hard for the DREAM Act because he believes that it’s time to stop denying citizenship to responsible young people just because they’re the children of undocumented immigrants. (Applause.)
You can remind folks that Barack kept his promise to bring our troops home from Iraq. (Applause.) And remind them about how our brave men and women in uniform finally brought to justice the man behind the 9/11 attacks. Let them know, remind them. And we need you all to make sure you tell them that our troops no longer have to lie about who they are to serve the country they love because Barack finally ended "don't ask, don't tell." (Applause.)
You can tell people that it’s now easier for women to get equal pay for equal work, and that’s because of the very first bill he signed into law -- the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Remind them about that. And let them know that Barack signed this bill because he knows that closing that pay gap can mean the difference between women losing $50, $100, $500 from every paycheck, or having that money in their pockets to buy gas and groceries, and put clothes on the backs of their kids. You let them know that Barack did this because when so many women in this country are now breadwinners for our families, women’s success in this economy is the key to families’ success in this economy. (Applause.) They have to understand.
And finally, don’t forget to tell them about those two brilliant Supreme Court Justices Barack appointed, and how for the first time in history our daughters and our sons watched three women take their seats on our nation’s highest court. (Applause.)
But also let people know that all of that -- and more -- is what's at stake this November. It's all on the line. In the end, it all boils down to one simple question: Will we continue the change we’ve begun and the progress we’ve made? Or will we allow everything we’ve fought for to just slip away?
I mean, we in here, we know what we need to do, right?
AUDIENCE: Yes!
MRS. OBAMA: We cannot turn back now. We need to keep moving forward, keep moving forward. (Applause.)
And more than anything else, that’s what we’re working for –- the chance to finish what we started; the chance to keep fighting for the values we believe in and the vision we all share. That’s what my husband has been doing every single day as President.
And let me tell you something -- over the past three and a half years, I have had the chance to see up close and personal what being President looks like. (Laughter.) So let me share something with you. I’ve seen how the issues that come across a President’s desks -- always the hard ones. The problems with no easy solutions; the judgment calls where the stakes are so high, and there is no margin for error. I have seen this.
And as President, you're going to get all kinds of advice and opinions -- I tell you -- from all kinds of people. Going to flood you. But at the end of the day, when it comes time to make that decision, as President, all you have to guide you are your life experiences, are your values, is that vision. That’s all you have in the end.
In the end, when you’re making those impossible choices, it all boils down to who you are and what you stand for. And we all know who my husband is, don't we?
AUDIENCE: Yes!
MRS. OBAMA: And we certainly all know what he stands for. (Applause.)
He’s the son of a single mother who struggled to put herself through school and pay the bills. That’s who Barack is. He’s the grandson of a woman who woke up before dawn every day to catch a bus to a job at the bank -- his grandmother. And she worked hard to help support his family, and she was good at her job. But like so many women she hit that glass ceiling, and men no more qualified than she was were promoted up the ladder ahead of her.
So let me tell you something -- Barack knows what it means when a family struggles. He knows what it means when someone doesn’t have a chance to fulfill their potential. And today, as a father, let me tell you, he knows what it means to want desperately something better for your kids. Those are the experiences that have made him the man and the President he is today, and we are blessed to have him. (Applause.)
So remind people of that. Remind people that when it comes time to stand up for the American workers and American families, you know what my husband is going to do. When it's time to make that choice about protecting our rights and our freedoms, you know where Barack stands. And when we need a leader to make those hard decisions to keep this country moving forward, you know you can count on Barack Obama, because that is what he’s been doing every single day as President of the United States. He has proven.
But I have said this before, and I will say it again, and again, and again -- he cannot do this alone. Barack needs your help.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes, we can!
MRS. OBAMA: Yes, we can. Yes, we must. Yes, we must.
He needs you to make those calls. He needs you -- more importantly -- to register those voters. He needs you to take those “I’m in” cards -- because I know you've got them. Take them. Use them. Sign up your friends and your neighbors and your colleagues. Sign them up. Convince them to join you in giving just a little part of their lives each week to this campaign -- just a little bit.
And as Barack has said, this election will be even closer than the last one -- that you can count on. And what I want you all to know and really understand -- if you have any doubt about the difference that you can make, I just want you to remember that in the end, this election could all come down to those last few thousand people we register to vote. That is true. It could all come down to those last few thousand folks we help get to the polls on November the 6th.
And I just want you to think for a minute about what these kinds of numbers mean when they’re spread out over an entire state. It might mean that registering just one more person in your community. It means that helping just one more person get out and vote on Election Day. That could be the difference -- one more person.
So consider this as you're working and as you're bringing people into the fold and you're multiplying yourselves. With every door you knock on, with every event you host, with every conversation that you have, I want you to remember that this could be the one that makes the difference. Think like that -- this could be the one. Because that is the kind of impact that each of us can have. That’s why we invest so much time in our grassroots work and people on the ground connecting, and talking, and explaining, and reminding, and educating, and giving people the information that they need. Because all it takes, potentially, is one more person from each of you -- one more person.
But I’m not going to kid you, this journey is going to be long and it is absolutely going to be hard, and there will be plenty of twists and turns along the way. But just understand that that is how change always happens in this country. It always happens that way. Real change can be slow, but if we keep showing up, if we keep fighting the good fight, keep doing what we know is right, then eventually we’ll get there. You know why? Because we always do. We always have, we always do, we always will. Maybe not in our lifetimes -- remember this -- but maybe in our children’s lifetimes, maybe in our grandchildren’s lifetimes.
Because in the end, when it's all said and done, that’s what this is all about. That’s what I think about when I tuck my girls in at night. I think about the world that I want to leave for them. Everything I do is for the next generation -- all these kids in this room. It is about them.
I think about how I want to do for them what my Dad did for me, and so many who came before. I want to give them a foundation for their dreams. I want to give them opportunities worthy of their promise. I want to give them that sense of limitless possibility –- all of our kids -- that belief that here in America, there’s always something better out there if you’re willing to work for it. (Applause.) That’s what we're doing for our kids. That is our vision. (Applause.)
So let me tell you something Dallas, we can’t turn back now. (Applause.) We have come so far, but we have so much more to do for our children.
So let me ask you one last question: Are you in?
AUDIENCE: Yes!
MRS. OBAMA: Are you -- no, no -- are you in in? (Laughter.) I mean, are you ready to roll up your sleeves and work, and talk, and get people signed up, and call on the phone, and talk to the people who don’t want to talk to you, and convince the neighbor that doesn’t understand? Are you ready to do that work? Are you ready to find 10 more people like you -- all the kids out there, there's stuff you can do, right? Young people, talk to your parents. Make sure they're registered to vote. This is about your future right? We are fighting for you.
So if you're in, I'm way in. If you haven't noticed, I am so far in. (Laughter.)
So I hope that all of you are fired up. (Applause.) I hope you all are ready to go. I cannot wait to see you out there in the campaign trail in the weeks and months ahead.
Thank you all for your prayers, your love, your work. (Applause.) God bless you all.
END
4:32 P.M. CDT -
Meet France's new power couple
14 Maywww.guardian.co.uk
French president François Hollande and his partner Valérie Trierweiler are now France's first family. So how will they differ from the Sarkozys?
On a stage in a country town square, the accordion band struck up Edith Piaf's bitter-sweet love song, La Vie en Rose. François Hollande, just elected France's first Socialist president in 17 years, attempted a few steps of a waltz with his partner Valérie Trierweiler before she stepped back, perhaps realising they might look a little ridiculous on TV. "Kiss! Kiss!" demanded the crowd gathered in Tulle in Hollande's rural powerbase of Corrèze. It was Trierweiler who had chosen the Piaf song, stock soundtrack of France, and who had asked the mayor to play it.
The music marked the return of the accordion to French politics, not seen since the faux-rustic former president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing played it in the 1970s – an important message about Hollande's rural, Mr Normal image. But it also showed the subtle importance of Trierweiler behind the scenes. Moments earlier, the political journalist – who began a relationship with Hollande after years covering the Socialist party for Paris Match magazine – had sat with him as he put the last touches to his victory speech. Hollande might have won the election by styling himself as the Ordinary Guy, a powerful political branding exercise, but it was Trierweiler who appeared to have coined the term, having described him as "the Normal Man" in a profile she wrote in 2004.
Prickly, protective of her private life and not averse to calling journalists to chide them for what she claims are errors – such as reporting that Hollande dyed his hair – Trierweiler has been dubbed "Tweetweiler" for tweeting her disapproval whenever she feels wronged by the media. She is now under intense scrutiny as France's "first lady". The position doesn't officially exist in France or French protocol, but Sarkozy, who had two wives while he was in office – Cécilia Attias, followed by the former supermodel Carla Bruni – appears to have started a trend for partners appearing in the spotlight too.
If she keeps her job, Trierweiler could be revolutionary – the first president's partner to hold down a salaried post. However, she will also have to tread the minefield of being a journalist while being partner of the president. Polls have shown French people overwhelmingly want her to keep working, and approve of her independence. But Trierweiler has also been the target of attacks that show, even in the post-Dominique Strauss-Kahn era, that French political life is saturated with sexism. When Lionnel Luca, a rightwing MP from Sarkozy's party, called her "Rottweiler", and then added it was "unfair to the dog", Trierweiler said he should have been sanctioned by the head of parliament. A sports commentator was cut loose from his radio station this week for sending a tweet that read: "To all fellow women journalists: shag wisely, you could become the next first lady of France."
Hollande, 57, a moderate, jovial, moped-riding Joe Average, is so much the anti-Sarkozy character, so far the opposite of the bling, frenetic outgoing president, that Carla Bruni recently warned he could mean the death of French journalism: "If my man gets beaten, what are you going to write about?" she asked a reporter. Yet Hollande's personal life has been almost as complicated as the former president's and the subject of cover stories for years. The challenge now is how to handle it.
Trierweiler, 47, has been a political reporter for Paris Match for decades, covering the Socialists – not only Hollande, who lead the party for 11 years, but his former partner and mother of his four children, the politician Ségolène Royal. Hollande and Royal were the great political power couple of France, described as more competitive than the Clintons, though they never married because they saw it as too "bourgeois". Even in the 1980s, they began a blurring of the lines between private and public life, inviting cameras into their flat as their young children played or ate breakfast. In 1992, Royal, then a government minister, gave a controversial interview from a maternity ward, having just given birth to her youngest daughter. Trierweiler was the journalist who conducted it.
If this year's French presidential election has been defined by how loved-up the candidates were – Hollande and Trierweiler kissing and giggling, Sarkozy and Bruni doing the same – the last race in 2007 was dominated by relationship breakdowns. When Sarkozy was elected in 2007, his marriage to Cécilia was floundering, despite his attempts to suggest otherwise in front of the cameras. She would soon divorce him, and he recently blamed her for the worst of his showy excesses. His 2007 election-night party was at a flash Champs Elysées restaurant among the richest people in France, followed by a celebratory cruise on a billionaire's yacht. She has denied being responsible.
Royal, who ran against Sarkozy, was also in emotional agony. Hollande had left her for Trierweiler, a relationship that had begun in 2005 and had resulted in Trierweiler leaving her husband as well. But this was still officially a secret. Only after the election did Royal announce they had split and that she had asked Hollande to leave. But the rift in their relationship pervaded her campaign and came to be seen as a metaphor for the poisonous divisions running through the Socialist party.
These conflicts threatened to open up again last year when Royal decided to run against Hollande for the Socialist ticket, but instead the former couple went out of their way to avoid confrontation on the hustings. After Hollande won, Royal became a key ally on the campaign trail and TV talkshows. To publicly end the rift, she appeared with Hollande at a rally in Rennes. Beforehand, Trierweiler approached her for a hand-shake for the cameras. Earlier she had confessed that she had not turned out to vote for Royal in the 2007 election.
Two years ago, the author Serge Raffy approached Hollande about writing his biography. It was at a time when Holland was in the political wilderness and was being seen as only a rank outsider for the presidency. Raffy says his interest in Holland was in part driven by curiosity at how intermeshed Hollande's private life was with his political one, but that Hollande had no concept of this. "I don't think he was aware of the storybook quality. He doesn't have that novelistic approach. I call him 'the Geometrist' – he sees political life as a series of equations."
If Hollande is to hold on to his image as dependable Mr Normal, he must keep all perception of his family and relationship life away from the excesses of the Sarkozy era. The final nail in Sarkozy's early popularity was when he paraded his Disneyland first date and Petra mini-break with Bruni, quickly making her his third wife only months after they had first met. His announcement at a formal presidential press conference in 2008, that "as you guessed, it's serious" with Bruni, went down so badly, he never gave another one.
Bruni, whose fortune is estimated at €18m (£14.4m), and whose love tokens to Sarkozy included a £45,000 watch, tried to downplay the bling during the recent campaign, saying they were "modest" people and revealing she travelled around Paris on the metro disguised in a wig. She once described herself as "the most apolitical animal possible", yet she is said to have influenced her husband on some areas, including the draconian Hadopi law on music and film piracy, and the appointment of her friend Frédéric Mitterand as culture minister.
Trierweiler, who says she feels as if she has walked through a looking-glass into the subject of one of her stories, claims to be better placed than Bruni to handle the workings of power. "I am and remain passionate about news. I know politics, I know the media. Bruni came from a world totally alien to that of politics. She didn't necessarily know the codes," Trierweiler commented recently.
This means that one line of attack Trierweiler has already had to dodge is that she influences Hollande, pulling strings. Journalists were surprised to find she had an office with her name on the door at Hollande's campaign headquarters. Comparisons were inevitably made with Sarkozy's first wife Cécilia, who advised her husband's political career and influenced appointments. Some began referring to Trierweiler as "the Duchess", always watching the manoeuvrings at court. She has admitted she has a strong personality and has refused to stop expressing herself on Twitter. "I thank my colleagues for respecting our private life and that of our neighbours. Please don't camp in front of our home," she tweeted last week. She also used her feed, @valtrier, to rail at her employers for sexism when she discovered herself on the cover of Paris Match, described as Hollande's "charming asset". During the campaign, the magazine trod a fine line, saying she was still working for them but not at editorial conferences or decision-making. Having previously hosted a TV politics chatshow, during the campaign Trierweiler switched to interviewing arts and sports figures. Paris Match says it will discuss her professional future after Hollande takes power today. She has already written her first lines about the campaign, captioning photos for a campaign book to be published in June.
Constance Vergara, a former colleague at Paris Match, is the only writer who Trierweiler has collaborated with for a book about herself which is titled, Valérie, Carla, Cécilia, Bernadette and the Others on the Campaign Trail. Vergara says Trierweiler bats off the Duchess tag. "She's very reserved, modest, quite shy and like many shy people, she can have an air of distance, coldness. That's how she protects herself. People think she's cold, contemptuous or haughty. In fact, I'd say it's the opposite; she's someone who laughs a lot. For 20 years she was in the role of observer and now she's become the object of observation. It's not easy to change status like that. She has already covered the G20, been to the White House, shaken Nelson Mandela's hand. It's not something that turns her head."
Vergara describes her as someone who always had an "element of class struggle". Trierweiler grew up one of six in western France in a council house in Angers. Her mother was a cashier at the ice-rink, her father lost a leg aged 12 while playing with an unexploded shell in the second world war. She refutes the "Cinderella" tag, pointing out that her grandfather was a banker, but she is still seen as a rebel, an outsider. She has always kept her job as a reporter: "She always refused promotion, wanted to keep her freedom," says Vergara.
Despite describing her as shy, Vergara concedes that, like Sarkozy and Bruni, Hollande-Trierweiler are prone to public displays of affection. He publicly calls her "the love of my life" and when she telephones, "My love" flashes up on his phone. "The kissing on the lips is new," Vergara says. "But both these couples are recent couples, second relationships, which flourished after 50. They're very much in love and it's on display. When Hollande won the Socialist primary race in October, it was the first time he kissed Valérie on the lips in public. She was really surprised and still hasn't got over it. For her, that really officialised the relationship."
After the ritz of Sarkozy and the right in power, Hollande is under intense scrutiny to prove that he lives a normal life, particularly as he is likely to have to call for financial sacrifices from the French people. He has already indicated that we would rather live with Trierweiler in their modest nondescript flat in Paris's 15th arrondissement with its Ikea furniture than the 370-room Elysée Palace with its private cinema and 900 staff, including white-gloved factotums who set the pendulums on its scores of gold clocks. He must avoid the shameless personal spending that has marked the right's two decades in power, particularly under Jacques Chirac. As mayor of Paris, Chirac and his wife's personal food bills came to £1.4m in eight years, including £40 a day on herbal tea. In some respects, Sarkozy cut the Elysée budget, in others – namely air travel, security and more than doubling his own salary – he was accused of raising it.
In some ways, Sarkozy broke taboos, on what constitutes a modern family for example. Hollande's inauguration will be the second time that a famille recomposée, or blended family, take possession of the Elysée. In 2007, Sarkozy put his second wife, two stepdaughters and three sons from different marriages centre stage at his inauguration. He leaves office with a third wife, a new baby daughter, another stepson and two grandchildren.
Hollande and Trierweiler are not married. He has four grown children with Royal; Trierweiler is twice divorced with three teenage sons. Royal has stated that none of her children will be present at the inauguration. "It's François Hollande who has been elected president, not a family, not his friends or his mates" she says.
Hollande's eldest son, Thomas, a lawyer who worked on his father's campaign, as he had on mother's, is the only child to have been in the public eye. On election night, the bearded and geeky 28-year-old wiped away tears of joy and took a phonecall from his dad live on TV just after his victory – the call coming up on his iPhone as "Papa". But, embarrassed by the attention, he has now retreated from the cameras. "He doesn't like talking about himself," Thomas has said of his father. "He's not very narcissistic." It's another sign that the Hollande family operation looks to be very different from the Sarkozys'.
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