When he's mad, President Barack Obama gets eerily quiet.
Reggie Love, a 26-year-old former Duke University football and basketball star improbably became then-Senator Obama's right-hand man during his first presidential campaign in 2007.
Love went on to work as Obama's personal aide for five years, crisscrossing the nation with America's future president, serving him meals, carrying around his luggage, buying him clothes, challenging him on the basketball court, and babysitting for his children.
Babysitting for his children? Do the kids take a turn at babysitting the Narcissist-in-Chief or something?
In a new memoir, " Power Forward: My Presidential Education ," Love discusses being by Obama's side "on the ca mpaign trail when no one believed in him" and in the "seconds before stepping onstage to be sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America." Though most of the stories are positive, Love also shared stories of what it was like to upset the president.
In 2007 after a fundraiser in Florida, Love accidentally misplaced then-Senator Obama's Tumi briefcase containing his keys, wallet, credit cards, and notes he needed for his coming debate in South Carolina.
"The plane was airborne, the bag was missing, and I proceeded to have a full-blown panic attack," Love writes. "Sweat began to bleed through my clothes. My heart raced like a cornered rabbit. In my head I prayed he wouldn't notice, that I'd have time to find the bag and by some miracle get it back to him before he realized it had vanished."
Love was able to contact a campaign finance assistant who then notified a Secret Service agent about the missing bag. The team was able to recover the Tumi briefcase and send it with a campaign member who was also en route to watch the debate in Columbia.
"When we landed in Columbia, I was feeling a modicum of relief, believing maybe disaster had been averted, maybe this would all resolve without any drama, and it was precisely at that moment that the candidate turned to me and said, 'Hey Reg, where's my bag?' I went with, 'It's on its way.' ' What do you mean 'on the way? ' he asked. 'It's coming from Florida,' I said. 'You left my briefcase in Florida,' he stated, incredulous."
Love describes what seemed to be the worst part about upsetting Obama, the silence.
"The silence, felt worse than being reprimanded," Love writes. "As we rode to the Columbia campaign headquarters without another word passing between us I thought, That's it, I'm fired. I kept hoping he would break the tension and yell at me."
Once they arrived at the campaign office, Obama asked for a private room so that he could have a meeting with Love. With a calm and "even and firm" voice, Obama began: "Listen, Reggie, I think you're a great guy. But, (Obama paused and leaned forward) if you're not up to doing this job, I can get someone else to do it. You have one job and if I have to worry about all this stuff, then you're not making it easy for me to do my job.
"Get your act together, Reggie. Help me do my job," he said as he rose from the table and walked out of the room.
That's actually ... reasonable ... as a reprimand to a trusted aide.
In December 2007, Obama's schedule was filled with back-to-back campaign events that ran over the allotted time limit. Love was responsible for informing various organizations that the candidate would be tardy but was unable to do so.
"Obama turned to me and said through tight teeth, 'Reggie, this is messed up.' And I, cracking from the day and the stress and the hours still left to go, stupidly replied 'Well, if you didn't stay so long at the luncheon, we wouldn't have this problem.' The air went still. It was like that eerie calm before a tornado swoops in and levels your entire house. Nobody said anything."
According to Love, Obama then turned to aide Marvin Nicholson and said "Marvin, talk to Reggie because I am not having this conversation with him."
That way the ever-so-clever Obumble doesn't end up looking like the idiot.
Champ has a fixer named Marvin?? I was ahead of my time!
After Love was "schooled" by Nicholson, he accidentally made another error: He got Obama's lunch order wrong.
After the same luncheon that caused Obama's schedule to go awry, Love forgot to save the candidate a meal while Obama was "working the room, giving a talk, and fielding questions."
"You got my taquitos, Reggie? he inquired wearily. 'I left the taquitos at the venue, sir, I assumed you wouldn't want them; they were three hours old,' I confessed. Obama looked at me with blank disbelief. I might as well have left his bag in the car again," Love writes.
Love was responsible for most of Obama's meals while on the campaign trail and quickly learned that the senator wanted his food "as healthy as he could get on the road." According to Love, Obama preferred grilled fish or chicken, sandwiches, salads with either ranch or vinaigrette dressing, and lots of Gala apples.
"There were days when he specifically wanted X," Love writes. "And Lord help me if he'd made his mind up about what he wanted and I delivered the wrong thing. Or if it came with mayo. Or was undercooked. Or soggy. If there was one thing you didn't want to watch, it was the time-pressed candidate scraping a gooey, loathed condiment off the only food he was going to eat for the next seven hours."
"Sometimes he'd mutter, 'This was the thirty minutes I had to myself, and now I can't even enjoy my meal."
The night before Love's first official trip as Obama's "chief of stuff" he made a trip to a local supermarket to buy black and silver Sharpie's, black pilot G2 Gel Roller pens, Trident chewing gum, and trail mix.
Love recalls mulling over the plethora of options for trail mix: "Salted or dry roasted? Sweet or spicy? With or without dried fruit or candy? I realized I hadn't a clue what the man (Senator Obama) would like. I also had an accompanying thought: how much could it possibly matter? He'd be grateful regardless, right?"
Turns out, the selection did matter to Obama.
Hours later Love flew with the senator on a commercial flight from D.C. to LaGuardia. While on the flight Love offered Obama the bag of trail mix.
"The senator opened the bag of trail mix I'd bought and proceeded to pick out every M&M, holding them all in his palm like pieces of candy-coated toxic waste. 'I'm not going to eat these,' he said while pushing his hand in my general direction. 'Do you want them?' he asked, wrinkling his nose. 'No thank you, sir,' I answered, then made the first of what would be thousands of notes to self: No candy with the trail mix."
#4
Actually he sounds like Obama never really got that mad but Reggie was crushed by disappointing his boss. This reads more like a press release from the Obama campaign than any sort of tell-all book.
#8
I worked with a guy who once was doing some wiring under Lyndon Johnson's desk when he was governor. Johnson came in and told him to get out and he said, "I'll only be another minute". He said the next thing he knew his head was shoved so hard into the front of the desk he got a bump and his ass was stinging from where Johnson had kicked him. Johnson said , "Goddman it, I told you to get out". He never went back to finish and went back to Texas just to spit on his grave.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/10/2015 16:12 Comments ||
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#9
Good old LBJ. I still think he was worse than Obama. He had balls and that made him a lot more dangerous. Obama gets silent. LBJ kicked ass.
[Iran Press TV] A senior British business leader says the upcoming UK general election is bad for business regardless of the outcome of the early May vote.
The head of Wire and Plastic Products plc (WPP), Martin Sorrell
Who? Not a company or person I've ever heard of, though I admit my knowledge doesn't extend much beyond Unilever, British Airways, and The Daily Mail...
has described the UK general election as a no-win choice between Tory uncertainty over Europe and Labour "bashing business".
Sorrell, a close ally of David Cameron ... has stated that he is certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite, which means he's not. Since he is not deeply ideological he lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger, but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ... , said: "It's difficult. You've got the Europe referendum on one side [triggered by a Conservative election victory] and then Labour having a go at business or bashing business on the other."
"It doesn't matter who wins, both are going to have to deal with a big deficit," the Guardian quoted him as saying on Monday.
Asked about the impact of multi-party politics amid the growing popularity of Ukip and the Greens, Sorrell said: "Obviously coalition governments are not strong governments by definition; that may nor may not be a bad thing.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
"It doesn't matter who wins, both are going to have to deal with a big deficit,"
[Aypee] Two helicopters carrying passengers filming a popular European reality show crashed Monday in a remote area of northwest Argentina, killing eight French citizens and two Argentines, authorities said.
The helicopters crashed while flying near Villa Castelli in La Rioja province, about 730 miles (1,170 kilometers) northwest of Buenos Aires, La Rioja Secretary of Security Cesar Angulo told television station TN. All 10 people on board both aircraft were killed.
"An explosion occurred and it's believed that they collided," said Angulo. Photographs showed the burning and smoking wreckage of the helicopters on the ground in dry scrubland with people gathered nearby.
A statement from La Rioja's government said that among the 10 dead were French sports stars, including Olympic gold medal swimmer Camille Muffat, Olympic boxer Alexis Vastine and champion sailor Florence Arthaud.
The French sports figures were part of a team filming the reality show "Dropped," a survivalist program with several versions across Europe, said the mayor of Villa Castelli, Andres Navarrete.
[Iran Press TV] Venezuela has recalled its top diplomat in the United States in reaction to US President Barack Obama I inhaled. That was the point... 's move to impose new sanctions against seven Venezuelan officials.
"We call Maximilien Arvelaiz, charge d'affaires in the United States, for immediate consultations," Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez said in a Monday message posted on Twitter.
Under Obama's order, the US property and bank accounts of seven officials, including the former national guard chief Antonio Benavides, intelligence chief Gustavo Gonzales and national police chief Manuel Perez, would be frozen. Washington claims that the group has been involved in human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. violations and public corruption in the South American country.
Last year, US Congress adopted a legislation that allowed for penalties that would freeze the assets and ban visas for anyone Washington accuses of carrying out acts of violence or violating the human rights of those opposing Venezuela's government.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Venezuela's new post-Hugo El Supremo Maduro is repor caling for his Govt to give him "decree powers" to protect the country from possible US-led mil invasion + other measures.
[Iran Press TV] Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says pro-Russia forces have withdrawn "significant" amount of weaponry from the eastern Ukrainian frontlines.
Poroshenko made the announcement during a televised interview on Monday, he added that the pro-Russians' move is in accordance with the latest ceasefire deal.
"Ukraine has withdrawn the lion's share of its rocket and heavy artillery systems. The Russian-backed fighters have also withdrawn a significant amount," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Everyone stands down and promises to play nice, and Russia has the buffer zone it wanted.
#2
OTOH BIGNEWSNETWORK > [Radio Free Europe = RFE] US SAYS MORE RUSSIAN TANKS HAVE ENTERED UKRAINE.
As per #1, Darth Vlad has repeatedly said on the MSM-Net that he is NOT interested in conquering or taking back all of the Ukraine, + has repeatedly ruled out Russian-led unilateral war agz Ukraine, SO IMO THE QUESTION THEN IS HOW LARGE OF A POST-CRIMEA BUFFER ZONE DOES PUTINIST RUSSIA NEED OR REQUIRE BOTH TO ASSERT MAJOR INFLUENCE IN NATO-EU, KEEP GERMANY + TURKEY IN CHECK, + ESPEC TO DEFEND AGZ THE SOON-TO-BE-NUCLEAR ISLAMIST JIHAD?
[Iran Press TV] American political commentator Mickey Z. has said that white supremacy still rules in the United States and it is even worse than fifty years ago.
He made the comments while people in the US marked the 50th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday" civil rights march.
The demonstrators on Sunday commemorated the march from Selma to Montgomery that resulted in a bloody confrontation between police and peaceful protesters on March 7, 1965.
In 1965, Alabama police beat protesters that helped bring about the 1965 Voting Rights Act, a landmark achievement of the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement.
The march "demonstrates this country's love of denial because we mark anniversaries like this as if they are relics of the past, while white supremacy still rules and is perhaps more insidious than ever," the author of "Occupy this Book" told Press TV on Monday.
"Fifty years later, we still have to be reminded that black lives matter," he added.
The United States today is still the scene of protests against the police killings of unarmed African-Americans.
Mickey Z. also called on the protesters to honor the day, but "stop falling for the propaganda."
"The United States is built on genocide and slavery and fancy words on Sunday afternoon reinforced this foundation of white supremacy," the analyst said.
"These staged celebrations are just designed to distract us from the real issues that remain," he concluded.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2015 00:00 ||
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From a country who executes women foe being raped.
Posted by: chris ||
03/10/2015 0:35 Comments ||
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#2
I think Tranzis love Muzzies so well due to similarities in their basic psychological makeup.
#3
If white supremacy ruled there'd have been fire hoses on the bridge. Or machine guns. Instead there were present and past Presidents marching in rememberance.
#4
Last time I checked 'democracy' was about majority rule. If the vast amount of your population was white, that would make it white majority rule (see - black majority rule in South Africa [darling of the Left]). Now sharing power among tribes or special interest groups regardless of proportional representation would at best be an oligarchy.
#8
Many blacks such as Sharpton, Jessie Jackson, Obama, the Black Caucus, etc. (not all) are heavily invested in keeping the white boogie man alive as it results in considerable power and boodle coming their way.
h/t Rottweiler
A recent survey by the Oklahoma State University Department of Agricultural Economics finds that over 80 percent of Americans support "mandatory labels on foods containing DNA,"
#1
WARNING: This product contains deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). The Surgeon General has determined that DNA is linked to a variety of diseases in both animals and humans. In some configurations, it is a risk factor for cancer and heart disease. Pregnant women are at very high risk of passing on DNA to their children.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
When he's mad, President Barack Obama gets eerily quiet. 
[Iran Press TV] A senior British business leader says the upcoming UK general election is bad for business regardless of the outcome of the early May vote.
David Cameron
[Iran Press TV] American political commentator 
