President addresses National Action Network 20th Anniversary Gala...After an afternoon speech in Pennsylvania, President Obama traveled to New York City on Wednesday evening, for his second visit in a week. He gave the keynote address at a gala for the twentieth anniversary of the National Action Network, a coalition of civil rights groups run by Rev. Al Sharpton. It was part of the plan to re-motivate his African American voting base; on Monday, the President announced his 2012 re-election bid. (Above: The President with Sharpton on stage)
Clad in a dark suit and backdropped by a portrait of Martin Luther King Jr., the President started his speech with a Let's Move! moment.
"I told Reverend Al backstage he’s getting skinnier than me," President Obama said to the huge crowd from the podium in the ballroom of the Sheraton New York Hotel. "He’s getting skinnier than Spike. But he hasn’t lost his sense of style."
The President received big laughs, including from film director Spike Lee, who joined New York Governor David Paterson, former NY Mayor David Dinkins, and Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY), Stevie Wonder, Magic Johnson, and Bill Cosby in the audience. (At left, the President greets the skinny Lee after his speech)"The other thing that hasn’t changed is the National Action Network’s commitment to fight injustice and inequality here in New York City and across America," President Obama said. "I want to commend you for the work that you’ve done over the last two decades to lift up not only the African American community but the broader American family."
He noted that his last visit to to the National Action Network was four years ago, in April of 2007.
"I said that we were facing extraordinary challenges in this country, but that what was stopping us from solving them wasn’t a lack of policies; it wasn’t a lack of plans. What was stopping us was a broken politics," President Obama said.
He was elected thanks to the African American community, the President said.
"You made our campaign your own, because you believed in our ability to shape our own destiny, we won that chance to bring about real change," President Obama said. "And I said on inauguration night in Chicago that that was simply the end of the beginning, and that now the real business started. We won the election so that we could then actually get moving on all the work that had been left undone."
The President ticked off his achievements in the last two years, then went on to chide the GOP for failing to reach an agreement on the 2011 federal budget.
"I’m not asking you to think about what we’ve already done so you can be satisfied with our progress," the President said to more laughter. "I know this isn’t the National Satisfaction Network. This is the National Action Network. But I am asking you to draw inspiration from the fact that we know change is possible. I am living testament that change is possible."
The President's current Campaign 2012 slogan is "are you in?" and he didn't say it during his remarks; instead he asked his supporters to help him "reclaim the American Dream in our time."
After the Gala, the President returned to the White House for an 8:45 PM meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), a budget tete-a-tete added to his schedule late in the day on Wednesday. There was no agreement reached to avoid a government shutdown. There was, however, a celebration on Air Force One, en route to Washington. The President helped pool reporter Sunlen Miler of ABC celebrate her thirtieth birthday.
*Getty photos
