July 5, 2016

Obama Makes His Pitch for President Hillary Clinton

“Let me tell you, my faith in Hillary Clinton has always been rewarded.”


President Barack Obama joined Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail for the first time on Tuesday, addressing a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, with an impassioned speech to boost support for the presumptive Democratic nominee.

“There has never been any man or woman more qualified for this office than Hillary Clinton—ever,” Obama said. “And that’s the truth. The bottom line is, I know Hillary can do the job, and that’s why I am so proud, North Carolina, to endorse Hillary Clinton as the next president of the United States.”

He continued lavishing praise on Clinton, focusing on her vigorous performance as his Democratic primary opponent in 2008 and her later tenure as his administration’s secretary of state to highlight her willingness to put the country’s direction above politics. Obama also took shots at Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, and painted him as an unskilled candidate focused on self-promotion.

“Everybody’s got an opinion, but nobody actually knows the job until you’re sitting behind the desk,” he said. “Everybody can tweet, but nobody actually knows what it takes to do the job until you’ve sat behind the desk. I mean, Sasha tweets but she doesn’t think she should thereby be sitting behind the desk.”

The president’s appearance in the swing state came just hours after FBI Director James Comey announced the agency would recommend no charges against Clinton in the criminal investigation into her use of a private email server while secretary of state. While he did not directly address the federal probe, Obama sought to use her tenure as secretary of state to emphasize her strong leadership and dedication to public service.

“Hillary continues to understand that a bunch of hard talk doesn’t replace diplomacy,” Obama said. “A bunch of baloney doesn’t keep us safe. She offers a smarter approach that uses every element of America power to protect our allies.”

He added, “She is and will be a stateswoman that makes us proud around the world.”

Shortly after the speech concluded, Clinton tweeted in gratitude:

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

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