Michelle Obama cites Jesus as model for citizenship... While hubby raises money

[Bonenanza]

Seems a little ironic to me.


Michelle Obama cites Jesus as model for citizenship
By Devin Dwyer | ABC OTUS News – Fri, Jun 29, 2012

First lady Michelle Obama Thursday offered a rare public reflection on her religious faith, telling a conference of the African Methodist Episcopal church that the life of Jesus Christ is a model for democratic organizing.

"It's kind of like church," Obama said. "Our faith journey isn't just about showing up on Sunday for a good sermon and good music and a good meal. It's about what we do Monday through Saturday as well, especially in those quiet moments, when the spotlight's not on us, and we're making those daily choices about how to live our lives.

"We see that in the life of Jesus Christ. Jesus didn't limit his ministry to the four walls of the church," she said. "He was out there fighting injustice and speaking truth to power every single day. He was out there spreading a message of grace and redemption to the least, the last, and the lost. And our charge is to find Him everywhere, every day by how we live our lives."

Obama, who is not a regular churchgoer, said citizenship like the practice of faith is "not a once-a-week kind of deal."

"Democracy is also an everyday activity," she said. "And being an engaged citizen should once again be a daily part of our lives."

The first lady said such engagement involved "the tireless, the thankless, relentless work of making change, you know, the phone-calling, letter-writing, door-knocking, meeting-planning kind of work."

Her appearance at the Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville, Tenn., was dubbed an official event by the White House to recognize the history and legacy of the AME church, particularly its role in the civil rights movement.

"Time and again, history has shown us that there is nothing - nothing - more powerful than ordinary citizens coming together for a just cause," Obama said. "And that is particularly true of folks in the AME church."

The first lady concluded her trip to Tennessee with a campaign fundraiser in Memphis.


http://news.yahoo.com/michelle-obama-cites-jesus-model-citizenship-155359755--abc-news-politics.html


President Obama has spent more time raising money than any of his predecessors in recent history, crisscrossing the country on Air Force One to 175 re-election fundraisers so far in his first term.

Obama's Air Force One Call to Donors Reveals Money Worries
By Devin Dwyer | ABC OTUS News – Mon, Jul 2, 2012

President Obama has spent more time raising money than any of his predecessors in recent history, crisscrossing the country on Air Force One to 175 re-election fundraisers so far in his first term.

His campaign, the Democratic National Committee and their joint accounts reported more than $173 million cash on hand at the end of May, $61 million more than rival Mitt Romney and Republicans.

And after smashing fundraising records in 2008, tapping $746 million from a historic donor roll of 3 million names, Team Obama has appeared on pace to do it again.

Still, Obama and Democrats are sounding the alarm for what would seem to be unthinkable: that they are poised to be outraised and outspent by Romney, the GOP and allied outside groups.

"We see where we stand, and right now on a month-to-month basis, we've fallen behind," Obama told a group of high-dollar donors Friday on an 18-minute conference call from Air Force One, according to The Daily Beast, which obtained audio of the call from a participant.

"We just can't be outspent 10 to 1," Obama said. "That's what happened in Wisconsin recently. The Koch brothers and their allies spent more than the other side's entire campaign, our side's entire campaign.

"We are going to see more money spent on negative ads through these super PACs and anonymous outside groups than ever before. And if things continue as they have so far, I'll be the first sitting president in modern history to be outspent in his re-election campaign."

An Obama campaign official confirmed the veracity of the recording to ABC News, describing the meeting as a "routine finance call." (Obama uses a non-taxpayer-funded phone for political calls from the plane, the official said.)

Obama's message - that he could be the first incumbent U.S. president outspent - seeks to instill a sense of urgency in supporters as the campaign heads into a crucial stretch before the fall conventions. It also comes as part of an aggressive public and private fundraising drive that has sharply escalated in the past few weeks.

In the 48 hours before Saturday's June 30 monthly fundraising deadline, the Obama campaign sent out an unusual five email blasts pleading for cash; the appeals coming from Vice President Joe Biden, First lady Michelle Obama, DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida and the president himself.

"We might not out-raise Mitt Romney," Obama wrote Saturday morning in an email with the subject line "This is important." "But I am determined to keep the margin close enough that we can win this election the right way."

Obama has also significantly stepped up his fundraising activities on the trail, attending 33 money events in 30 days in June, triple the number he held in May and his biggest month of the year.

"We don't have to match these guys dollar for dollar because we've got a better grassroots operation and we've got a better message," Obama said on the Air Force One call. "The American people, the nice thing is they agree with our message when they hear it. We just can't be drowned out."

Obama's campaign advisers have estimated that Romney and pro-Republican outside groups, including nonprofit advocacy organizations and super PACs, will spent more than $1.2 billion to try to defeat Obama.

Democratic outside groups, including pro-Obama super PAC Priorities USA Action, have so far not shown the ability to keep pace with the other side.

The Romney campaign is expected to report raising more than $100 million in June. Obama campaign officials said they don't expect the president to match that number, but declined to offer specifics on their monthly haul

http://news.yahoo.com/obamas-air-force-one-call-donors-reveals-money-151549168--abc-news-politics.html

[joan1984]

Wow, she finally agrees with George W. Bush on something...

[joan1984]

[Lois]

It only seems ironic to those with right-wing blinders on.  But the fact is that Jesus taught things like loving your neighbor and charity.  Jesus was much more of a liberal than a conservative.  The black church has long recognized this.  Ms. Obama is speaking as her traditions have taught her.

America’s Christian hypocrisy
The Bible preaches tolerance and liberal economics. So why do its proponents embrace right-wing politics?

Here’s a newspaper headline that might induce a disbelieving double take: “Christians ‘More Likely to Be Leftwing’ and Have Liberal Views on Immigration and Equality.” Sounds too hard to believe, right? Well, it’s true — only not here in America, but in the United Kingdom.

That headline, from London’s Daily Mail, summed up the two-tiered conclusion of a new report from the British think tank Demos, which found that in England 1) “religious people are more active citizens (who) volunteer more, donate more to charity and are more likely to campaign on political issues,” and 2) “religious people are more likely to be politically progressive (people who) put a greater value on equality than the non-religious, are more likely to be welcoming of immigrants as neighbors (and) more likely to put themselves on the left of the political spectrum.”

These findings are important to America for two reasons.

First, they tell us that, contrary to evidence in the United States, the intersection of religion and politics doesn’t have to be fraught with hypocrisy. Britain is a Christian-dominated country, and the Christian Bible is filled with liberal economic sentiment. It makes perfect sense, then, that the more devoutly loyal to that Bible one is, the more progressive one would be on economics.

That highlights the second reason this data is significant: The findings underscore an obvious contradiction in our own religious politics.

Here in the United States, those who self-identify as religious tend to be exactly the opposite of their British counterparts when it comes to politics. As the Pew Research Center recently discovered, “Most people who agree with the religious right also support the Tea Party” and its ultra-conservative economic agenda. Summing up the situation, scholar Gregory Paul wrote in the Washington Post that many religious Christians in America simply ignore the Word and “proudly proclaim that the creator of the universe favors free wheeling, deregulated union busting, minimal taxes, especially for wealthy investors, and plutocrat-boosting capitalism as the ideal earthly scheme for his human creations.”

The good news is that this may be starting to change. In recent years, for instance, Pew has found that younger evangelicals are less devoutly committed to the Republican Party and its Tea Party-inspired agenda than older evangelicals. Additionally, surveys show a near majority of evangelicals agree with liberals that the tax system is unfair and that the wealthy aren’t paying their fair share. Meanwhile, the organization Faith in Public LIfe has highlighted new academic research showing that even in America there is growing “correlation between increased Bible reading and support for progressive views, including abolishing the death penalty, seeking economic justice, and reducing material consumption.”

Of course, many Americans who cite Christianity to justify their economic conservatism may not have actually read the Bible. In that sense, religion has become more of a superficial brand than a distinct catechism, and brands can be easily manipulated by self-serving partisans and demagogues. To know that is to read the Sermon on the Mount and then marvel at how anyone still justifies right-wing beliefs by invoking Jesus.

No doubt, only a few generations ago, such a conflation of religion and right-wing economics would never fly in America. Whether William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” crusade or the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s poor people’s campaign, religion and political activism used to meet squarely on the left — where they naturally should.

Thus, the findings from Britain, a country similar to the United States, evoke our own history and potential. They remind us that such a congruent convergence of theology and political ideology is not some far-fetched fantasy: It is still possible right here at home.

http://www.salon.com/2012/04/20/americas_christian_hypocrisy/

[joan1984]

[Gina Marie]

[Lois]

Obama's Air Force One Call to Donors Reveals Money Worries
By Devin Dwyer | ABC OTUS News – Mon, Jul 2, 2012

President Obama has spent more time raising money than any of his predecessors in recent history, crisscrossing the country on Air Force One to 175 re-election fundraisers so far in his first term.

This is what the Citizens United ruling has brought us.  Even with all Obama's activity it looks like the corporate superpowers backing Romney will outspend Obama by a large margin.

[joan1984]

Wait, you mean President Obama, who along with his Campaign predicted he will spend over One Billion Dollars this election season, is not collecting enough money?

Maybe it is his "unprecedented accomplishments" being rejected; maybe being "aloof" and out of touch with us all: nah, must be the fault of the Billion Dollars, and of course someone Else's fault.

Blame it all on George Bush? I don't think so.

Keep your word. Just raise the Billion, and his troubles are gone, right?

Obama's Air Force One Call to Donors Reveals Money Worries
By Devin Dwyer | ABC OTUS News – Mon, Jul 2, 2012

President Obama has spent more time raising money than any of his predecessors in recent history, crisscrossing the country on Air Force One to 175 re-election fundraisers so far in his first term.

This is what the Citizens United ruling has brought us.  Even with all Obama's activity it looks like the corporate superpowers backing Romney will outspend Obama by a large margin.

[watcher1]

[Bonenanza]

I believe in total funds raised Obama is still well ahead of Romney but he is catching up. I expect the total funds raised will be pretty even this time. Last election I think Obama held a big edge in money raised. People had dreams and believed that he was going to fix things, that he was different, but now not so much.

[joan1984]

In the 2006 to 2008 Campaign, Obama and McCain pledged to limit their Campaign to the "matching funds" rule, initially. McCain foolishly stayed with that pledge, and Obama broke from it, as he had lots of private money available at the time.

[watcher1]

I just read that Romney, if he continues with his fund raising, will be the first person to outspend an incumbent president for the job.