Shoes for Barack

Thu, 02/24/2011 - 11:58pm — hipparchia

[Welcome pro-torture, pro-war, pro-bankster, pro-10% DISemployment, pro-HAMP, pro-foreclosure crisis ~~liberals~~ (poster's word) Obots! We have, in fact, "gotten to work"; this post is part of our work. And if the Ds want our votes, they should, but won't, take a lesson from 2010, where we did our work too, and stop sucking! Is that so hard to understand? So go shoot some other messenger, why donchya? Hey, how's card check coming? And the "shut the fuck up" is so 2008! Can't you move on? Then again, the video shows Our Beloved Leader just outright lying on the campaign trail, so I guess STFU is probably about the only tactic that has a chance of success... UPDATE The more I consider that post, the odder it seems. I mean, the Obots threw people like us out of their party in 2008, so why are they even worried about doing a takedown of a tiny, non-D blog that everybody hates and nobody reads? Unless.... Could it be that more people are kissing the Ds goodbye? --lambert]

Barack Obama, Nov 2007 (h/t):

And understand this: If American workers are being denied their right to organize and collectively bargain when I’m in the White House, I will put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself, I’ll will walk on that picket line with you as President of the United States of America. Because workers deserve to know that somebody is standing in their corner.

The quote starts at about 15:40 into the video, and originally I was going to post a clip of just those 20 seconds or so, but there's a lot more in this speech to hold him accountable for [at a later date], so here's the whole enchilada.

The first I ever heard of Method [#21] Delivering symbolic objects, was from NTodd's anti-war blog, Pax Americana, where he mailed spines to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. That was absolutely the coolest protest idea I'd ever seen.

I propose we deliver shoes to the President.

1. Email

Here's the contact form for the White House. My suggestion would be to just c&p the quote from the top of this post, and add a link to some comfortable shoes. It turns out there's a site called called most-comfortable-shoes.com, here's a link to their men's walking shoes. Or maybe you'd rather send a picture, here's a link to some free clip art. These are just suggestions, you can think up your own idea for comfortable shoes to link to.

2. Post cards

You can make your own, y'know. Buy a pack of post cards blanks wherever you buy your printer paper, follow the instructions, and bingo! you're ready to mail them.

I'd suggest a picture of some comfortable-looking shoes on the front of the card, with that quote on the left-hand side of the back of your card, and the address of the White House on the right-hand side of the back of your card, but please do feel free to improve on this.

An address and some free clip art for you:

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

3. The Real Thing

You could always mail him some real shoes, call up a local DC cab company or delivery service and have them deliver some shoes to the President, or if you're in the area, deliver them yourself. Do come back and tell us about it if you do that last one. I'd really like to hear about it, or better yet, see the video!

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Comments

Excellent catch

By Valhalla on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 12:25am

Will send some virtual shoes this weekend.

Because the problem is not that we have too little condescension from our tribe. -- okanogen

kudos first to the fdl poster michael monk

By hipparchia on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 12:32am

for finding and posting that quote, then to ntodd for the spines [which were apparently yet other people's idea]. i'm just standing on the shoulders of my fellow blogosphereans here.

Maybe we should

By letsgetitdone on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 12:25am

chip in and get the poor little rich guy a pair?

a pair

By hipparchia on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 12:29am

collectively from corrente? i'd love that. would you deliver them?

Buying the poor little rich guy

By cal1942 on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 1:34am

A PAIR implies more than just shoes.

But, if he's scared to anger his sponsors on Wall Street, THAT PAIR will probably be refused.

ha!

By hipparchia on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 8:48am

i totally missed that connotation.

Right

By letsgetitdone on Fri, 03/11/2011 - 2:42pm

You have it!

I just mailed the White House

By lambert on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 1:24am

Thanks for this awesome post.

First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win. -- Mahatma Gandhi

Heh

By lambert on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 2:11am

Called my shot ;-)

First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win. -- Mahatma Gandhi

shoes, who knew they were so versatile?

By hipparchia on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 8:46am

i didn't really intend for these shoes to have quite the same connotation, since the idea is to remind obama of a promise he once made, and to perhaps shame him into keeping that promise, rather than to diss him outright, or suggest that he leave office.

That BO, he's such a kidder, eh?

By votermom on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 12:27pm

I hear he has some snazzy shoes for his MoTown party.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
alas is crocheting daily at http://memorycrochet.blogspot.com/

motowno

By hipparchia on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 5:10pm

ok, now you're going to distract me with allusions to some of my favorite music...

Suggeston: Copy the emails, at least, to your DC reps and state

By jawbone on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 1:42pm

representatives. Especially if they're Dems.

Add note asking for their help in keeping union rights and in getting Obama to live up to his fine words.

Oh, and ask what they're doing to help the long-term unemployed, as well as those receiving unemployment compensation. In other words, What about some jobs?

But, hey, why not copy to Repubs?

good suggestion!

By hipparchia on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 5:17pm

ok, my original reply got eated...

cc em all, d or r!

I would like to

By Eureka Springs on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 2:20pm

remove the sole from these shoes... since he doesn't have any soul.

oh no, don't do that!

By hipparchia on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 5:18pm

help him out! give him more soles!

On the other hand,

By propertius on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 4:48pm

if you *happen* to have any old shoes lying around the house that you don't wear anymore, mailing them to 1600 Pennsylvania with a note seems like a great way to recycle them.

reduce, reuse, recycle!

By hipparchia on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 5:20pm

you gladden my treehugging heart.

also, mailing old shoes brings to mind rahm's trick of mailing dead fish...

The country is standing on

By Hugh on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 5:05pm

The country is standing on the brink of a cliff. It's good to know Obama has our backs. Oh wait, ...

Hugh

that's a scary thought

By hipparchia on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 5:24pm

ok, i'm going to go change my shoes...

madison, wi shoe stores

By hipparchia on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 5:35pm

madison, wi shoe stores

Deal is Obama needs comfortable shoes

By Valley Girl on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 10:46pm

This part of the quote really struck me-

"I will put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself..."

Geez, what arrogance, what hubris. Like the people marching picket lines all have "comfortable shoes"?

Translation- I will do this if I can be comfortable.

bringing arugula to a picket line

By hipparchia on Sat, 02/26/2011 - 12:52am

yep. i noticed that too. just a tad elitist of him. /snark

otoh, properly-fitting work boots [they're generally, though not always, expensive] can be quite comfortable. now that i no longer do construction-related work, i can probably spare my steel toe, steel shank 6" work boots. they're uninsulated, but i'm sure he could pick up some wool socks somewhere. of course, it would cost me small fortune to ship them....

Thanks for posting...

By Stephanie on Sat, 02/26/2011 - 12:32am

...the whole video.

So many lies, so little time.

so many lies, so little time

By hipparchia on Sat, 02/26/2011 - 12:38am

yes.

as i listened to the whole speech, waiting for the particular quote, i started jotting down the various lies, broken promises, wev, so i could blog them later. about halfway there [or approx 1/4 of the way into the video] i gave up because i couldn't write fast enough to keep up.

Nurses Offer to Buy

By hipparchia on Thu, 03/03/2011 - 9:38pm

Nurses Offer to Buy President's Shoes to March With Workers

By Rose Ann DeMoro
Executive Director, National Nurses United, AFL-CIO and California Nurses Association
The Huffington Post, February 28, 2011

The past two weeks have been a "Where's Waldo" moment for President Obama.

He's been largely a bystander while tens of thousands of American workers, joined by students, and community allies, marched in Madison's snow and freezing temperatures, and slept on the floors of the capitol to defend their most fundamental right to freedom of assembly and a collective voice.

On Monday, the President told U.S. governors, "I don't think it does anybody any good when public employees are denigrated or vilified or their rights are infringed upon."

But the President never addresses the heart of the problem, a clear statement of who is responsible for the crisis -- the corporate class and the right, aided by those like President Obama, who enable them. That's the giant elephant in the room that remains missing in the 'blame the workers' paradigm so often repeated by politicians and mainstream media alike.

Many of us recall the pledge made by candidate Barack Obama in Spartanburg, S.C. on November 3, 2007 when he declared:

"Understand this. If American workers are being denied their right to organize and collectively bargain, when I'm in the White House, I'll put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself. I'll walk on that picket line with you as President of the United States because Americans deserve to know that somebody is standing in their corner."

We're waiting. Nurses, who have been on the ground every day in Madison and at support rallies across the country, will buy his shoes.

Broken promises- the comfortable shoes part

By Valley Girl on Fri, 03/11/2011 - 12:17am

thanks!

By hipparchia on Fri, 03/11/2011 - 11:45am

thanks!

The linked post is quite compelling

By vastleft on Fri, 03/11/2011 - 6:33am

If "shut up and be a robot" isn't democracy at its finest, I don't know what is.

democracy is

By hipparchia on Fri, 03/11/2011 - 11:52am

having the freedom to tell somebody to stfu.

of course, democracy is also the freedom to NOT stfu and NOT be a robot, to go on making demanding that govt work for all of us, even when lots of people want you to just go away.

[Pats self on back for admirable self-restraint]

By lambert on Fri, 03/11/2011 - 12:20pm

What I added:

So go shoot some other messenger, why donchya?

What I might well have added:

So go steal another election, why donchya? Now call me a racist.

I guess I'm just too nice....

First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win. -- Mahatma Gandhi

It's all about winning the future....

By Valley Girl on Fri, 03/11/2011 - 12:53pm

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/04/us/pol...

Similarly, the White House mostly has sought to stay out of the fray in Madison, Wis., and other state capitals where Republican governors are battling public employee unions and Democratic lawmakers over collective bargaining rights. When West Wing officials discovered that the Democratic National Committee had mobilized Mr. Obama’s national network to support the protests, they angrily reined in the staff at the party headquarters.

Administration officials said they saw the events beyond Washington as distractions from the optimistic “win the future” message that Mr. Obama introduced in his State of the Union address, in which he exhorted the country to increase spending for some programs even as it cuts others so that America can “out-innovate and out-educate” its global rivals.

"Distractions" -- nice!

By vastleft on Fri, 03/11/2011 - 1:04pm

n/t

Nice catch.

By jm on Fri, 03/11/2011 - 5:29pm

The article's subsequent two paragraphs are telling, as well:

Mr. Daley and Mr. Plouffe illustrated the administration’s fealty to that message on Tuesday. Mr. Daley, as usual, spoke to the business audience, addressing via video conference a Florida meeting of the board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Plouffe met with the executive council of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.

The events were not advertised by the White House and were closed to the news media. But a White House official said the two men’s message was the same: Win the future.

You gotta love that whole transparency thing. We can be confident about the subtext of the message conveyed by Daley. If the administration steps into the recent labor unrest at all, it will be to mobilize the military. Meanwhile, I'd have loved to be a fly on the wall at Plouffe's meeting. What was his underlying point? "Resistance is futile (so keep on funneling money to the Democratic Party and, at least, we'll take care of the AFL-CIO leadership)"? I suspect Big Labor belongs on lambert's list of Big Money, Big Media, Big Oil, Big Food, Big Pharma....

Also, I especially liked the photo accompanying the article:

Which, of course, immediately reminded me of this image:

Interesting that the DNC acted like that first.

By jumpjet on Fri, 03/11/2011 - 7:44pm

I suppose it's still a reflex in old-line Democrats to support organized labor. Those must have been some holdouts Obama hadn't gotten around to purging.

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

I wonder if this chart

By madamab on Sat, 03/12/2011 - 12:21am

Would qualify as a distraction?

http://jackdean.posterous.com/must-see-c...

Via comments at Sky Dancing.

Never vote for people who hate you.

ERA Now!

The Widdershins

Win the what?

By I am the walrus on Fri, 03/11/2011 - 4:56pm

Oh, oh, oh, now I remember... the WTF.

There was a great reply to the diary BallonJuice quoted in full

By Tony Wikrent on Fri, 03/11/2011 - 7:09pm

soon after Obamabot Eclectblog posted it on DailyKos (yeah, yeah, I know, the Big Orange Satan, and all that), there was a great reply posted by mostevilangel: This whole "Appease Republicans" thing is working out so perfectly isn't it?.

Very much worth clicking through and reading. And, I'm happy to report, mostevilangel's reply got many more recommends than Eclectblog's p o s did.

Also, TomP flew into a delightful rage in his take-down of Eclectblog's p o s, Lies and Strawmen Prevail: No One Was "Teaching Obama" Anything, pointing out that in the 2010 elections, turnout and votes for Democrats among liberals and progressives was not that much different than in the 2008 elections. Where the really big difference was, and which decimated Democrats, was among moderates and independents. Now, you can argue this shows that Obama is right to try to track to the right to regain that lost support, but issue polls have consistently shown that on almost all issues, a majority of voters prefer more progressive solutions than Obama has even considered the past two years.