One more step toward a Schauer gubernatorial candidacy

John Austin speaks to the Ann Arbor Dems earlier this year. Photo by Anne C. Savage

This morning John Austin, President of the Michigan State Board of Education, announced that he will not run for Governor of Michigan, something he has openly shown interest in over the past six months. Instead, he released a statement throwing his support behind yet-to-announce candidate Mark Schauer.

I am excited about a Mark Schauer candidacy, and encourage Democrats and all Michigan citizens to rally around Mark. He is a person of personal integrity and substantive strength. He knows what matters for Michigan and for its people to succeed. In particular, with education the issue most important to Michigan voters, I know Mark is committed to building up our public schools, not tearing them down.

We need to start early, rally around the strongest candidate, and Mark is positioned to run strong, unify Democrats, and win over independents who elected Governor Snyder in 2010. I look forward to forward to helping Mark any way I can, and working with Mark to promote what’s best for Michigan.

This is huge news and suggests that we may be hearing an announcement from Mark Schauer himself soon. With Schauer and Peters at the top of the ticket, perhaps without contested primaries, we would very likely see a very strong turnout by Democrats in 2014 both in terms of getting out the vote and at the polls. A strong Democratic turnout is essential in regaining control of our state government which is being systematically dismantled by ideological extreme corporatist Republicans.

Very exciting, indeed.

Adding… I just want to acknowledge what a terrific Democrat John Austin is. This couldn’t have been an easy decision but it’s the right one for the party, I think, and it’s good to know we have such a terrific Democratic bench in Michigan. He’d make a great Lt. Governor, come to think of it ; )

Let’s just remember who our opponent is in this race.

The race to win South Carolina’s 1st District Congressional seat in a special election on Tuesday is virtually a dead heat. Former Republican Governor Mark Sanford has closed in on Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch’s early lead, with at least one poll putting him one point ahead.

From what I’ve seen, Sanford has largely achieved this through attack ads and accusations. Although, honestly, I can’t believe voters aren’t shaking their heads over his talking-to-a-cardboard-cutout-of-Nancy-Pelosi stunt. I’m not even going to get into his personal transgressions.

But some Democrats aren’t exactly helping Colbert Busch’s cause, vilifying her for the comments she made about Obamacare during her debate with Sanford. I expected Republicans to pounce on it, but Democrats are piling on, too. Colbert Busch may not have chosen the best words, but what she was saying — that a huge, new federal program is going to have some initial challenges that need to be addressed — has been echoed by even the Affordable Care Act’s strongest supporters.

Here’s what Colbert Busch said, as quoted in the Wall Street Journal:

Obamacare is extremely problematic, it is expensive, it is a $500 billion [higher] cost than we originally anticipated, it’s cutting into Medicare benefits and it’s having companies lay off their employees because they are worried about the cost of it. That is extremely problematic, it needs an enormous fix.

Let’s remember that the companies who are laying off employees because of Obamacare wouldn’t be giving their employees healthcare coverage anyway, and many barely pay a living wage. It’s also important to remember that the “cuts” to Medicare are being reinvested into Medicare to ultimately expand benefits for seniors. In other words, it’s a spending shift, not a spending cut. And, if we’re going to parse every word said during the debate, let’s also pay attention to the fact that Sanford claimed not to hear Colbert Busch’s questions about his personal life or fiscal policies as Governor.

But let’s also compare the two candidates’ official positions on Obamacare. Sanford said during the debate he would defund Obamacare, while Colbert Busch has said she would work to improve it moving forward, as she outlined on her campaign website:

It’s time to be practical and not political. I believe there are good and bad provisions in the new law and that more needs to be done. I will work with patients, providers, hospitals and businesses in the 1st District to implement what works and fix what doesn’t.

I support covering everyone, without regard to pre-existing conditions or gender. I support allowing a parent to carry a child up to 26 years of age on their policy and giving Americans the security of knowing they won’t lose coverage if they change jobs or are laid off. And because of the law’s Medicare provisions, hundreds of thousands of South Carolina seniors have received free preventative care and together saved nearly $70 million dollars on the cost of prescription drugs since the law was enacted.

But we can do more. We must rein in the costs to our families, businesses and taxpayers. We can do more to root out waste and fraud, to promote preventative care, and to use electronic records to cut red tape.

I’m a staunch advocate for Obamacare and I don’t disagree with anything Colbert Busch said above. President Obama has repeatedly stated that implementing Obamacare is only the beginning, and advocates for healthcare reform wholeheartedly agree.

Colbert Busch’s comment during the debate wasn’t anti-Obamacare or anti-Democrat. It was centrist. And that may not be a bad thing, especially for a Democrat running in a traditionally Republican district.

So let’s not do what the opposition does and take a single quote out of its larger context. Let’s look at Colbert Busch’s entire platform and what she hopes to do in representing her district — whose interests and wishes she has clearly stated she’d put first.

Most important, let’s not risk giving up a seat in Congress because Democrats didn’t get behind a candidate over a single comment. I hope voters in South Carolina will do their homework and decide who will represent them based on all the facts, not just convenient sound bites.

I personally think it’s no contest. So I say: May the best woman win.

[Public domain photo credit: Chuck Kennedy | White House]

“[T]he grit and the determination and the confidence, the certainty, the absolute commitment that this country has…is more exemplified by Detroit, Michigan than any other state in the Union.”

All photos by Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog. Not for reuse without permission.

Last night’s Jefferson Jackson dinner was a rallying point for Michigan Democrats and every speaker from former Congressman Mark Schauer to Vice President Joe Biden called out Republicans for the harm they are doing to our country, our state, and the middle class and called on Democrats to rise to the challenge of seizing back the reins of power in Michigan.

Prior to the dinner itself, the Michigan Democratic Party Youth Caucus held a reception that was THE place to be. Here’s a partial list of those who attended:

• Senator Carl Levin
• Congressman John Conyers
• Congressman Dan Kildee
• DNC member Debbie Dingell
• State Rep. Vicki Barnett
• State Rep. David Knezek
• State Rep. Adam Zemke
• State Rep. Sam Singh
• Southfield Mayor Brenda Lawrence
• East Lansing Mayor Pro Tem Nathan Triplett
• Jackson City Councilman Derek Dobies
• Wayne State Univ VP of Economic Development Ned Staebler
• Ann Arbor Dems Chair Mike Henry

Debbie Dingell and Mark Schauer

Senator Carl Levin and Congressman Dan Kildee

Senator Carl Levin and Southfield Mayor Brenda Lawrence

The featured speaker was former MI-07 Congressman Mark Schauer who encouraged the young Democrats of the Youth Caucus to work hard to make sure that Democrats keep winning in Michigan and that they themselves play a role in the future of our state. Schauer said that he’s convinced that Democrats will be successful and that young Democrats are an important part of that. “You are the ones,” he said, “You young people, are the ones that are going to make that happen.”

Mark Schauer speaks to the Michigan Democratic Party Youth Caucus

The Jeff-Jack dinner itself was kicked off by new Michigan Democratic Party Chair Lon Johnson who talked more about winning in 2014 and the importance of the “politics of addition” in our success, a theme he spoke about frequently during his run for the Chair seat earlier this year.

Johnson introduced the first speaker, Debbie Dingell, who, earlier in the day had announced she would not be running for Senate to fill Senator Levin’s seat in 2014.

In a subtle nod to her announcement, Dingell said, “I’m not here tonight to talk about my future or hopes, I’m here to talk about our shared future and hopes.”

She said that, as Democrats, “We have a vision for our country and state where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone gets their fair share and everyone follows the same rules of the road.”

Dingell said that our focus should not be only on 2014 but on an eight year campaign where “When we win it, we keep it, and we control the redistricting in 2020.” She also encouraged the assembled Democrats to stay focused on our true enemies and not fighting with each other.

Dingell’s speech was fiery and eloquent and even included a reference to Alexis de Tocqueville. It was so fiery, in fact, that before his invocation, Minister Boyd White joked that, “[Lon Johnson] said the invocation would be given by me but it sounds to me like it’s already been given!”, referring to Ms. Dingell as “The evangelist Debbie Dingell”.

Next up was Congressman Gary Peters, the current leading contender to replace Senator Levin (though nobody, including him, has announced their candidacy so far. A strong defender and ally of Detroit, Peters said, “You cannot have a strong Detroit area or a strong state of Michigan without a strong city of Detroit.” Democrats, he said, are committed to restoring prosperity in Detroit.

Peters also talked about the importance of organized labor, saying, “Workers have a fundamental right to organize and collectively bargain.” Part of that, he said, pay equity for women. “In the workplace,” he said, “We believe that women should receive equal pay for equal work and we won’t rest until they do.”

Peters thanked Vice President Biden for his help in saving he auto industry in Michigan. “Vice President Joe Biden and President Obama doubled down on Detroit,” Peters said to the crowd. Then, turning to the Vice President seated next to the podium, he said, “Mr. Vice President, we will never forget.”

The Congressman finished by telling a story of having a short conversation with Vice President Biden at an event last year where he had a brief moment to quickly explain an issue Pontiac was dealing with. The next day, Vice President Biden called him and said, “Gary, I’m here with my team and I think we have a solution for Flint.”

The next speaker was Senator Debbie Stabenow who was introduced by Congressman Peters.

“Good evening,” Senator Stabenow said to the crowd. “He kinda looks like a Senator don’t you think?” This received a hearty round of applause.

Stabenow expressed her frustration at the inability to get a bill passed by the U.S. Senate that would expand background checks for gun purchases. “90% of the Dems voted ‘yes’,” she said, “90% of the republicans voted ‘no’ and 90% of the American people want us to get this done.”

She also talked about how vital it is that Michigan is returned to Democratic control. “We need to send the right people to Lansing,” she said, “And that means taking back the state Capitol. We’ve got to be focused, we’ve got to be strategic and we’ve got to be united. And, sitting here tonight, we are united.”

She then introduced Senator Carl Levin who will be retiring in a 2014. “I can’t ask for a better partner in the senate,” Stabenow said, “And you can’t ask for a better senator than Carl Levin.”

With this the crowd got up and gave Levin a raucous standing ovation.

Senator Levin made it very clear that he has no intention of fading our in the Senate. “I’m a long way from leaving the U.S. Senate,” he said. “People have been coming up to over the past few weeks telling me I’ve had a great run. It has been a good run and it’s going to be an even greater next 20 months.”

Levin spent most of his time introducing Vice President Biden who he said is the most genuine politician you could ever hope to meet. “Maybe it’s because you can’t BS an old BS-er,” Levin said, “But Joe has a way of cutting through all the verbiage and getting to the heart of the matter…In a business that leads so many politicians to fake it, he just can’t. He’s just too genuine.”

Senator Levin told the crowd that Vice President Biden has always been a strong proponent for Michigan. “In the White House Joe Biden has been the go-to guy for Michigan … An ally.”

Following this, Vice President Biden gave a 52-minute speech that pure populist Joe. I’ve transcribed some of his speech below because his message is one we need to pay close attention, particularly here in Michigan. Following his speech, both State House Minority Leader Tim Greimel and Senator Rebekah Warren spoke to the crowd. Rep. Greimel talked about the difficulties Democrats are facing in the House and the importance of remaining fired up and ready to work for victory in 2014.

House Minority Leader Tim Greimel

Senator Warren reminded the crowd that the area she represents around Washtenaw County is not only one of most prosperous regions in the state, it is also the most Democratic.

Senator Rebekah Warren

Here are photos and quotes from Vice President Biden’s speech:

Folks, before I begin, it would be inappropriate for me to begin without acknowledging what you all know and what any American feels tonight and has felt particularly during this past incredibly difficult week. There was a fertilizer plant in West, Texas. Or those folks in Boston. Those innocent, innocent children who were mangled in a senseless act of terror along with the adults who lost their lives and limbs.

It was ironic that to me that, as Carl and Debbie know, I’ve come to know the families in Newtown well in-person, and I’ve spent now hours, I mean hours, in their homes, in their community and in my home with them, trying to grapple with the loss of those beautiful babies and those six teachers and administrators who literally died tried to protect them.

So much carnage. So much pain. So much … so much asking of ourselves, “What’s happened? What can we do for loved ones?” And every time I find myself getting down, I’m reminded of my mother, when I lost part of a family, said something I thought was incredibly cruel at the time and there’s not a cruel bone in her body. She said, “Joey, with everything terrible, something good will happen if you look hard enough.”

We didn’t have to look very far to see the resilience and the selflessness of those families in Newtown who literally came to Washington and relived their pain again and again and again in making their case. Every one of you in this hall tonight and at this table have suffered some loss. Some of you, grievous losses. And some of you know that, all of you know that it takes real courage to speak to that loss to try to see to some of us that don’t have it. Every time you speak to it, it brings home immediately, vividly the moment you learned of your loss.

I watched those parents, marveling, and realized how much more courage they had than I did during the same time. I met troopers who went to that school. I watched the first responders on television in Texas. I sat for hours in the Situation Room with the President coordinating and listening to the response of our first responders from the federal level to local as they absolutely were determined to apprehend those men who committed that heinous act in Boston.

And, out of all of that, I’m reminded that my mother is probably right. What it showed with each of these tragedies, what it showed was the incredible resilience, heroism, commitment and love of the people who responded to these tragedies. It’s pretty remarkable. It’s pretty remarkable the commitment that continues in these communities to try to make it right for those people. It shows that every time there’s a crisis anywhere in this country, we have first responders but we also have neighbors, friends, ordinary Americans. Ordinary Americans. You probably thought, as I did, watching the replay of the bombing at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, how some of those people, after running 26 miles increased their pace, sprinting across the finish line and kept going. They kept moving. And I wondered, what in the heck are they doing? Really. Were they running away from harm? They were running THROUGH it! They were running to a hospital. They were running to help their fellow runners and citizens watching. It was an instinct. Something stamped in our DNA. It’s one of the incredible things about this country. We owe them all such a debt of gratitude.

Being here in Michigan tonight for me — as they used to say in the Senate, excuse a point of personal privilege — seems so appropriate to me. I grew up the son of an automobile man. No, no, this is absolutely straightforward. As Carl points out, very few people doubt what I say. They always know I mean what I say. The problem is I sometimes say all that I mean!

But, I want to tell you something about a kid growing up in Scranton and then in Claymont, Delaware … the little steel town of Claymont, how we always looked to Detroit. Detroit was sort of a citadel. No, for real. Detroit was the place, Detroit was the fable. Labor in Detroit was the reason why I knew I was able to live in a three-bedroom house in a middle class neighborhood. I want you to know something about yourself from the outside lookin’ in. {…}

For so long, for so much of the last century, Detroit had been the figurative and literal engine of the middle class in America. We have the middle class because of organized labor. That’s why it exists.

So… being here at the end of such a tough week for so many people in America seems almost appropriate because you represent the grit and the determination and the confidence, the certainty, the absolute commitment that this country has. It’s more exemplified by Detroit, Michigan than any other state in the Union.

I can say without fear of contradiction, there’s no one with whom I’ve worked that I’ve admired more, there’s no one with whom I’ve worked who possesses any more integrity than Carl Levin … He had the courage to stand when an awful lot of other people I know crouched. {…}

We could have used a little more of what Carl’s made of, if just four more Republicans would have had the courage to stand up to the NRA.

As Carl and Debbie will tell you, I still have relationships with some [members of Congress], Democrats and Republicans. I was incredibly proud to serve with them as long as I did. I think it’s a great institution. So I called everyone in both parties who I knew or believed supported what we were doing but I was worried they might be worried they couldn’t do it. So I called over 15 of those people, Democrats and Republicans. Not one of them, not ONE of them offered a substantive reason why they would vote against that background check. Not one. Not one. But, all but five of them voted against it. And they five who voted for it believed they may be writing themselves into the second edition of “The Profiles in Courage”!

You know, folks, this is not your father’s Republican Party. This is not even Gerald Ford’s Republican Party. For real. Folks, let’s face it, this Republican Party has been taken over by ideologues and the rest of the Party that knows better is yielding to them and the interest groups that support them. In my entire career, I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Ideologues and extreme interest groups and right wing talking heads have become the Republican Party. And those elected few in the Party who know better have been intimidated into compliance.

They offer a lot of excuses. They say, “Joe! The gerrymandered districts! Single-party districts! I’ll be primaried!” They say, “Joe, the cost of modern campaigns are so significant I can’t risk alienating the groups on my team’s side and I sure can’t afford not to have their help.” But you would have thought the last election — and I’ve been remiss in not saying “thank you” for the last election — that they would not only realize that their significant major ideas and platform are out of step with the vast majority of the American people, they would have realized that if they showed a little courage and spoke up, they would not be punished, they’d be rewarded. The American people are looking for gumption. They’re looking for someone who represents something other than the conglomerate of interest groups. The vast majority of American people — liberals and conservatives — know that their interests are not represented by any single group.

You would have thought they would have changed. But they haven’t. Look, look at the Republican budget introduced by Congressman Paul Ryan this year. It’s just as devastating to the middle class as the budget we debated in our vice presidential debate (which was fun!)

But look what it does. It’s the same budget! We had a referendum on that budget … but once again they call for vouchering Medicare. Once again they cuts hundreds of thousands of kids from Headstart. Once again, millions, millions of people get kicked off of Medicaid. Once again it cuts research & development money from science, technology and medicine right when we’re at the cusp of so many significant breakthroughs. At a time when we’re finally regaining our footing in manufacturing, they continue to call for a territorial tax incentivizing manufacturing companies to go abroad so they’ll pay NO American taxes!

I remember meeting with two leading columnists before the election having breakfast in my home and they said, “Joe, how does this break? When does the fever break? How does this logjam break?”

And I said, “Oh, it will break because the intensity of the almost vitriol of my good friend Barack Obama when they are not able to deny him a second term, the fever will break and they’ll finally say, ‘Okay, we gotta start cooperating, we can make some serious compromises…’” I really believed it and I’m a pretty good politician!

But I was dead wrong. Dead wrong.

After a presidential election that was, in part, a referendum on tax fairness, they maintain and call for the same tax policy of cutting taxes for the wealthy, giving additional tax breaks for people making over $250,000, raising taxes on the middle class. That’s what they call for in their budget. And then along comes a new leader for the Republican Party, a Senator named Ted Cruz. I’m confident he’s an honorable man. But I’m also confident that this new leader does nothing more than reprise old, outworn, failed ideas. This is a guy, once again, calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme. {…}

And he’s followed (or led, I’m not sure) by Rand Paul of Kentucky who has no problem with the NRA, nor do I, walking the halls of Congress making their case — it’s a free country — but when the families of Newtown showed up to make their case on gun safety and asked to meet with Senators just like NRA representatives and others do, he said we were using them as props.

When we say, as Democrats, that you have a right — a right — to health care, Paul Ryan says, quote, we “believe in slavery”.

Barack and I mean exactly what we say: that rebuilding the middle class is the defining issue of our time. Rebuilding the middle class. It’s a make or break moment and we intend to seize this moment. That’s why we ran. That’s why we ran again.

America, right now, is better positioned than any nation in the world, to be the leading economy of the 21st Century. I’m so tired of hearing about the inevitability of China. Carl and Debbie and I want China to expand, we want China to grow… we welcome the competition.

It has never — NEVER — been a good bet to bet against America! I want China to grow. I want China to be successful. But let’s put this in perspective. The per capita GDP of American citizens is TEN TIMES what it is in China. Our GDP is three times plus larger. America America has THE most productive workers in the world! America. That’s not Joe Biden talking about American chauvinism. It’s the Boston consulting group pointing out that American workers are three times as productive as workers in China. That’s why, in our first term, not just because I’m the son of an automobile man, not just because — although it is important — that the automobile is an iconic symbol of what made America great, no just because of that and in spite of the voices of caution and opposition, the President and I, Debbie, Carl, you’re whole delegation, we had NOT doubt that if we put our faith and commitment behind auto workers, they would rebuild this industry! That wasn’t based on hope, that was based on the history of this industry…

You know what my father would have been proudest of? … My dad, I swear to God, he would have been most proud of one thing today: America once again builds the best automobiles in the world, the highest quality automobiles in the world.

It makes sense for us to clean up the Great Lakes. It just makes sense. It makes economic sense. It makes environmental sense.

We will fight, as my mother would say, “tooth and nail”, the continued attempt to suppress the minority vote in this country which is the single most un-American thing any party has done. It’s un-American. You want to make sure folks vote? Try to tell them they can’t vote! … I met a lady 102 years old who stood in line for eight hours to vote. 102-years old. She said, “Honey, they’re not stopping me now.”

Think of what it’s become if you think the only way you can win is to stop certain people from voting or making it harder.

Folks, we have one critical task. All of what I’ve just said leads up to make one, simple, straightforward point: we will continue to be able to stop bad things but not do all the incredibly good things we can help do if we do not change 17 votes in the United States Congress… 17 votes, as the Dean [of the House John Dingell] will tell you, will allow the Democrats to once again control the United States Congress.

And you say, “Okay, Joe, even if you control the Congress, what would have happened in the Senate?” Let me tell you the reason why so many Senators who know better will tell me why they’re gonna vote against their interest, what they think is the right interest, and support their party’s ideological approach. They say, “Carl, Joe, don’t ask me to do this because if I do, it will never pass the House.” Those of you that know politics a little bit know a gigantic difference it will make if we have Speaker Nancy Pelosi sitting there.

We Democrats stand with and for the American people and they understand that we know that the future of this country is going to continue to be built on the back of the middle class and we understand that it was organized labor that built that middle class. Therefore, labor must have a seat at the table. Not this “right to work for less” but the right to have a say in determining their own destiny. The interests of every single American. White collar. Blue collar. Non union. Union. Everyone. {…}

We see an America where my four granddaughters have every single opportunity my grandson has. We see an America where women actually make equal pay for the work they do. Where who you love should determine who you marry and nothing else. We see an America where no millionaire pays a lower tax than a middle class American. Where access to the ballot is protected and extended, not limited. Where access to college is based on only one criteria: qualification, regardless of the neighborhood in which you grew up. Where we lead the world again in the highest percentage of college graduates, where science and innovation are valued and encouraged and listened to. We see an America that once again leads the world in manufacturing, where Social Security is protected, Medicare is expanded, Medicaid fulfills its original mission.

Folks, look, the middle class is not a number… where I come from the middle class is a value system. Seriously. The middle class is a set of values. It’s a way of life. It’s about being able to own your own home, not just rent. It’s about being able to send your kid to a decent public school… What drove me the craziest last campaign … one thing that really offended me was when … they started talking about their dreams. As if, in the neighborhood where I grew up, we didn’t have dreams! As if my mother didn’t think I could be anything in the world I wanted to be — president, chairman of the corporation, a great athlete — nobody, nobody in the neighborhood I grew up in didn’t have dreams. It had nothing to do with their economic standing.

But they talk about it — like the 47-percent and all this malarkey… By the way, some people have asked about the definition of “malarkey” after I used it during the campaign — seriously it is now in the Oxford English dictionary. So I can contribute one thing to my Irish heritage: “malarkey” is now in the Webster’s dictionary!

We heard our dad say scores of times when someone loses their job, he’d say, “Joey, a job is about so much more than a paycheck. A job’s about your dignity. Your job’s about your place in the community. Folk’s it’s time to change this Congress so that we can get about the business of restoring the dignity and respect to so many decent hard-working, decent American people.

Senator Carl Levin says goodbye to Vice President Joe Biden

Vice President Biden salutes the Michigan Dems

Sorry, Mitt. But you’re going to have to pay some taxes.

With President Obama busy spending much of his time trying to stop House Republicans from purposely destroying the economy in order to get the kind of cuts to Medicare they’ve spent years campaigning against, most of America has missed that we now have what some experts are calling the most progressive tax code since 1979.

The “fiscal cliff” deal raised taxes on the richest that come into effect just as new taxes to fund ObamaCare begin:

That deal includes a host of tax increases on the rich. It raises the tax rate to 39.6 percent from 35 percent on income above $400,000 for individuals, and $450,000 for couples. The rate on dividends and capital gains for those same taxpayers was bumped up 5 percentage points, to 20 percent. Congress also reinstated limits on the amount households with more than $300,000 in income can deduct. On top of that, two new surcharges — a 3.8 percent tax on investment income and a 0.9 percent tax on regular income — hit those same wealthy households.

These taxes are going to the people who can most afford them and have benefited the most even as millions are out of work. Basically, Mitt Romney will go from paying around a 9%-13% tax rate to something closer 20%. Will that stopping him from “taking risks” like sitting around and reaping massive gains from investments he made a decade ago? Not likely.

After taxes went up on the rich in 1993, a massive economic boom followed. You can’t say the tax increases caused the longest economic expansion in American history — though conservatives would surely crow if tax cuts led to such a boom — but it certainly didn’t prevent it.

65 years of shifting the tax burden from the rich to the middle class hasn’t led to growth as promised, instead it’s led to a massive accumulation of wealth by the richest 1%, according to report by the Congressional Research Service.

The results of the analysis in this report suggest that changes over the past 65 years in the top marginal tax rate and the top capital gains tax rate do not appear correlated with economic growth. The reduction in the top statutory tax rates appears to be uncorrelated with saving, investment, and productivity growth. The top tax rates appear to have little or no relation to the size of the economic pie. But as a small proportion of taxpayers are affected by changes in the top statutory tax rates, this finding is not unexpected.

However, the top tax rate reductions appear to be correlated with the increasing concentration of income at the top of the income distribution. As measured by IRS data, the share of income accruing to the top 0.1% of U.S. families increased from 4.2% in 1945 to 12.3% by 2007 before falling to 9.2% due to the 2007-2009 recession. At the same time, the average tax rate paid by the top 0.1% fell from over 50% in 1945 to about 25% in 2009.

We’ve reversed this trend of ever increasing giveaways and we’ve done for a crazy reason: to make sure all Americans have access to life-saving healthcare.

There are imperfections in everything, which is why I oppose all purity tests except for food and drink. I keep wondering who will be the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, for instance, who proposes saving $100 billion over the next decade by implementing a public option.

The Bush tax cuts were designed to break a budget that had been balanced to justify eventual cuts to government services. I still believe that. Thus we still have a structural deficit that will require extraordinary growth to fix, something the GOP will do whatever they can to prevent until they take the White House.

But let’s not miss the big story here: Those who benefit the most are being asked to pay more to help making America a healthier fairer place. That sounds suspiciously like change I can believe in.

Fired up! Ready to go!

We’ve spent a LOT of time talking about this election but now it’s time to take our conversation to the streets and Get Out The Vote (GOTV)!

A recent Gallup poll showed that President Obama is UP over Mitt Romney among registered voters. But, here’s the thing: he’s DOWN by several points among likely voters. That’s where YOU come in. The fact is, if we get our Democratic-supporting voters to the polls, we win. Period. And we don’t just re-elect President Obama. We ensure our Democratic candidates up and down the ticket a victory, too.

The best bang for your buck in terms of GOTV is the Obama for America (OFA) campaign. Starting this weekend, all across the country, OFA is doing “dry runs” for their final four-day GOTV push. There are shifts the next two Saturdays and Sundays, most starting at 10:00 a.m. with the last shift at 6:00 p.m. (this may vary from place to place, of course.)

They will be doing both phonebanking and the more impactful canvassing (door knocking.) What we need from you is to sign up for as many shifts over the next two weekends to ensure this is a success. The OFA GOTV ground game is unparalleled and is what will ensure our success on November 6th. It’s how we overcome massive expenditures by corporate interests that are trying to influence our elections.

Contact your local OFA office TODAY and get involved. If you don’t know how to reach them, try contacting your local county Democratic Party. Or, click HERE and sign up to volunteer.

Please don’t wait. Our future is at stake.

Thanks.

UPDATE: You can also just “walk in” at OFA offices across the county. If you need to know where the one nearest you is, click HERE. Simply enter your zip code and, viola!, you’ll get the information that you need!

DNC photo-extravaganza!

I would love to have shared more images with you last week, but there just wasn’t enough time for uploading and editing images unless I wanted to lose more sleep, and that wasn’t an option. However, for those of you who were there, the timing of this photo post is probably just right, giving you the weekend to catch up on sleep and email.

Several people have asked me what it was like to be at the DNC so my next post will be more photos from behind the scenes and I’ll talk a little about what it was like to be a photographer at the 2012 Democratic Convention. It was quite an experience!

The large images below are from the last night at the DNC and below them are two slide shows, one from the first two nights and one from the last night. Enjoy!

Vice President Joe Biden and family

Mary J. Blige

Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters

Former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, hero

Former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm

Eva Longoria

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry

Vice President Joe Biden

Vice President Joe Biden and Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama

President Barack Obama

Confetti canons took the place of the traditional balloon drop due to the last-minute change in venue

The Obama family including Sasha and Malia

A recap of the convention on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Click on any image to view large. Use arrow keys to advance slideshow.

Photos from Thursday.

Hmmm…

UPDATED: I was unaware that a “No” vote on the repeal of Public Act 4 means that the law will NOT go back into effect. “No” is the desirable vote. I have edited accordingly. My apology for the error.

In what will be a huge disappointment to many progressives across Michigan, Democrats chose not to support a key ballot initiative at their convention this weekend. They will not be supporting the initiative to require 25% of our energy to be from renewable sources by 2025 (Proposal 3) but will be supporting the repeal of Public Act 4.

A November ballot proposal seeking a 25 percent renewable energy mandate in the state constitution will not get endorsed by the Michigan Democratic Party at the party’s state convention this weekend.

But the Michigan Energy Michigan Jobs campaign did win the endorsement Sunday of the United Auto Workers.

“I think it’s good for the Big Three,” UAW President Bob King told The Detroit News after urging members to vote “yes” for Proposal 3.

The ballot campaign, however, suffered a setback when construction and utility unions protested inclusion of the initiative in the Michigan Democratic Party’s 2012 platform, arguing that mandating more solar and wind power could lead to fewer union jobs at coal-burning power plants.

The issue exposed a rift between labor unions that Democratic Party leaders hoped to smooth over Sunday as activists prepared to vote on the party’s platform. {…}

Democrats are urging a “no” vote on Proposal 1 to repeal the emergency manager law, Brewer said.

The killing of the resolution to support Prop 3 is a short-sighted, selfish move, in my opinion. It puts the desires of a two groups of union members over the welfare of everyone in our state. The support by the UAW is suggestive, too, I might add. As Muskegon Critic pointed out in his piece at Blogging for Michigan, Prop 3 would actually INCREASE the number of jobs in Michigan and pave the way for a solid renewable energy industry in our state. It would also be a step forward in decreasing the harmful environmental and health impacts of burning coal in our state.

The decision to support the repeal of the Emergency Manager Law is the correct one. Public Act 4 has already proven that it does not work. None of the cities where it has been implemented have come out from under an Emergency Financial Manager and their are countless examples of the EFMs doing more harm than good.

The Dems are supporting Proposal 2, the Protect Our Jobs/Protect Working Families ballot proposal, as well as the home health care proposal (Proposal 4.) They declined to take a position on the bridge and casino proposals, however.

I’m hopeful that Prop 3 will succeed without the support of Michigan Democratic Party but it’s a profound disappointment that they didn’t find their way to put their weight and support behind this progressive initiative.

I’ll just sleep in mid-November…

Anne and I arrived home from the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC at about 11:30 p.m. Friday night. The next morning I was on the road at 6:30 a.m. to the Michigan Democratic Party’s State Convention which took place over two days this weekend at the Lansing Center in Lansing. Like me, there were a LOT of faded looking people there but, despite their weariness, Day One of the convention was a huge success; well-attended and with high energy.

[Note: please excuse the poor-quality iPhone photos. Anne was home processing the thousands of photos she took in Charlotte.]

My day started at the first-ever “Bloggers Caucus” meeting, organized by my pal Christine Barry of Blogging for Michigan.

State Rep. Jeff Irwin addresses the Bloggers Caucus

The Bloggers Caucus is not actually an official caucus of the MDP (yet). However, we are moving toward making that happen. There is a great deal of benefit for Democratic officials, candidates, and bloggers themselves from having better coordination of our message and better communication in general. Having a somewhat more organized group will help with that. In addition, being a formal caucus will allow us to have a bit more of a voice when it comes to issues impacting bloggers (FOIA reform, keeping the internet open and accessible, etc.) What is clear is that the role of bloggers is becoming recognized as a valuable way to get out the Democratic message which is often given short shrift by the mainstream media outlets.

One of the things we discussed at length was what the term “blogger” means. There was general consensus that this umbrella phrase encompasses actual blogs as well as those who are online activists using other techniques (podcasting, Facebook activism, online news site comment “reputation management”, etc.) — what some call the “netroots”.

One of the candidates that addressed our group was University of Michigan Regent candidate Mark Bernstein, one of the hardest-working candidates I have ever met. Mark had his “Bernstein Bus” parked out front of the Lansing Center and served hot dogs to folks at lunch.

Another candidate who spoke to us was David Curson who is running to fill the remaining two months of disgraced Congressman Thad McCotter‘s term in Michigan’s 11th District. Curson is a Viet Nam veteran and autoworker who works for the Ford Motor Co. For the past 39 years he has served as a UAW Representative including serving as a member of the international union for 27 years.

Curson will face tea party Republican Kerry Bentivolio in the special election for this very short term. As he pointed out during his comments, lame duck sessions almost always see an incredible amount of legislative activity so, although the term is short, it is exceedingly important to have a solid Democrat in place in MI-11 during that time.

During the District Caucus meetings, I attended the meeting for the 7th District. The Democratic candidate for MI-07 is Kurt Haskell who showed up late in a lime green shirt and a lime green & orange striped tie. He gave a lackluster appeal for our support, saying he is running as “a political outsider”. It’s difficult for me to express how absolutely disappointed I am that we have Haskell as our candidate in MI-07, thanks mostly to the non-campaign of Jackson Democratic Party chair Ruben Marquez who couldn’t even be bothered to put up a website during his primary “campaign”. As I have written before, Haskell is “a conspiracy theorist who worries about ‘government overreach’, talks about cutting taxes in the middle of a recession and isn’t a proponent an essential part of the Affordable Care Act.” Haskell does not seem to be taking this race much more seriously than Marquez did and is running on a “please vote for me, I have no experience” platform that is a loser from the start, in my opinion. It’s unqualified, inexperienced lawmakers at both the state and federal levels that have screwed things up so royally these past two years and I fail to see how that is a compelling argument for any candidate.

There were three things that were specifically emphasized at the convention on Saturday: the importance of electing the “Three Supremes” to the Supreme Court, the passage of the Protect Our Jobs/Protect Working Families ballot proposal and the re-election of Senator Debbie Stabenow.

While the election of Stabenow is an easy sell for Democrats, the other two pieces are more difficult because they appear on the non-partisan section of the ballot. The three candidates for the Supreme Court, all women, are terrific. All Democrats need to start imprinting their names in their brains over the next two months so that there is no confusion at the polls:

• Southfield District Court Judge Shelia Johnson
• Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Connie Marie Kelley
• University of Michigan Law Professor Bridget Mary McCormack

I’ll be interviewing Professor McCormack on Thursday and will have interviews with the other two candidates over the next couple of weeks.

The Protect our Jobs ballot proposal will be Proposal 2 on the November 6th ballot. It finally cleared the last hurdle — the state Supreme Court — this past week, clearing the way for the campaign to begin in earnest. This is, as I have said before, perhaps the most compelling item on the ballot for turning out Democrats in Michigan. Any of our labor brothers and sisters who may be feeling unenthusiastic to get involved with the election this year surely will be motivated by Proposal 2 which will put protections for collective bargaining in the state constitution. I’ll be writing much more about this in the coming weeks — it’s incredibly important.

Debbie Stabenow supporters took a few minutes from their convention day to pose for a photo with the Senator and her mother:

Senator Stabenow has had a busy week of her own. She was in Charlotte, as well, and addressed our state caucus breakfast meeting. She’s a fiery candidate whose positions are in stark contrast to Pete Hoekstra. Hoekstra is actually campaigning for Senate, in part, on a platform that would take away your right to vote for Senators. His hypocrisy is breathtaking. He also finds laws that require paying women the same as men for the same job to be “a nuisance”. As Senator Stabenow said yesterday, we find Pete Hoekstra himself to be a nuisance and, hopefully, this will be his last campaign and he will sink into obscurity after yet another political defeat.

Congressman Gary Peters took over emceeing duties for part of the day yesterday, introducing the convention attendees to many of the Congressional candidates on the ballot this fall.

Peters is on his game right and exuded leadership as he boomed out over the convention hall, highlighting the accomplishments of the various candidates. Kurt Haskell was mentioned but was absent.

Finally, the Michigan Democratic Party has kicked off a new project called “Turn Out 2012″ with the tagline “2012: It’s ALL on the Line”. During the convention, they handed out signs where people could write in what they see as “on the line” this year.

Yesterday showed me just how motivated for victory Michigan Democrats are. Not only are they enthusiastic about re-electing Barack Obama, they are determined to regain the majority in the state House of Representatives and to send as many Democrats as possible to Washington, D.C. to help President Obama finish the job.

I was unable to attend to today where it’s mostly rules training and the passage of resolutions. There are rumors that there will be a bit of fireworks around a resolution to support the “25 by 25″ renewable energy standard ballot proposal which will be Proposal 3 on the November ballot. While most Democrats are fully behind this proposal to require that 25% of Michigan’s energy come from renewable sources by 2025, there are a handful of unions that are not — those that benefit from the status quo of burning coal which pollutes the air, causes extensive harm to the environment and does nothing to promote job growth in Michigan.

My good friend Muskegon Critic has a marvelous piece up at Blogging for Michigan about Proposal 3:

The single most important thing to know about the 25×25 ballot proposal (Proposal 3), is that it will create jobs in Michigan. It will create jobs. Objectively. A Michigan State University study shows the ballot initiative will create tens of thousands of jobs in Michigan and bring in $10.3 billion in investment into our state.

This November, Michiganders will be able to vote to amend Michigan’s constitution to increase our renewable energy standard to 25% by 2025. That’s 25% of our power from renewable resources such as wind, solar, or biomass. That’s clean power whose components can be, and already are, manufactured right here in Michigan.

A couple months ago I was at a booth at Bike Time, a biker convention in Muskegon (Think Harley, not Huffy) talking up renewable energy to event attendees. A man with an enormous beard and a black T-shirt came up to our display, pointed to a picture of Michigan made wind turbine blade molds being EXPORTED overseas from out of a Muskegon port, and said “I helped build that!” {…}

Proposal 3 will jump start renewable energy demand in our state and encourage the use of Michigan manufacturers, adding fuel to this growing Michigan industry.

It protects consumers and businesses from rate increases from the proposal, limiting them to no more than 1% per year. In fact, increasing the use of renewable energy is expected to curb electricity cost increases in Michigan as we steer clear of building new and expensive coal plants and toward more economical renewable energy. The Michigan Public Service Commission puts the cost of renewable energy at $75 per mWh vs. $133 per mWh for new coal plants. Renewable energy is cheaper than power from new coal plants.

Finally…a Citizen Initiative driven constitutional amendment is the most effective way we can get to this goal to nurture Michigan innovation and businesses, and put people to work.

I highly commend your attention to Muskegon Critic’s piece. It has a photo of the first wind turbine blade on a ship taking it to another country — a true renewable energy EXPORT.

I’ve been critical of MDP conventions in the past but this one was a notable success. Coming as it does on the heels of an equally successful national convention, the Democrats in Michigan are clearly fired up and ready to go.

Want to get involved? Click HERE.

Sleep? What’s that?

Wow! Did you SEE that last night? I don’t have much of a sense of how the National Democratic Convention came across to the people of the USA but I can say that, without any reservation whatsoever, the people in the arena were positively ecstatic.

Here’s Joe Scarborough from NBC at Politico:

Republicans should be particularly glum this weekend. The further Democrats progressed into their convention this week in Charlotte, N.C., the more glaring the shortcomings of last week’s GOP convention became. By the time the last of the confetti fell on the Democratic convention floor, it became frustratingly clear that the most compelling speaker in Tampa, Fla., had been Clint Eastwood’s chair.

Game. Set. Match. Democrats crush Republicans in convention wars.

— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) September 7, 2012

The highlight of the night in terms of the speeches was, of course, not Vice President Obama or even President Obama. It was former Michigan Governor and my friend Jennifer Granholm. If you haven’t seen this, you NEED to see this:

The entire auto industry, and the lives of over one million hard-working Americans, teetered on the edge of collapse; and with it, the whole manufacturing sector. We looked everywhere for help. Almost nobody had the guts to help us – not the banks, not the private investors and not Bain capital. Then, in 2009, the cavalry arrived: our new president, Barack Obama!

He organized a rescue, made the tough calls and saved the American auto industry. Mitt Romney saw the same crisis and you know what he said: “Let Detroit go bankrupt.” Sure, Mitt Romney loves our lakes and trees.

He loves our cars so much, they have their own elevator. But the people who design, build, and sell those cars?

Well, in Romney’s world, the cars get the elevator; the workers get the shaft.

The only time when the crowd was louder than when Granholm spoke was the very end of the President’s acceptance speech. Granholm all but stole the show.

Gabby Giffords leading the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance was another highlight, an exhibition of great courage and strength and patriotism unlike any I have ever seen.

The amount of effort and fearlessness that it took for Congresswoman Giffords to do what she did is hard to convey. Her good friend DNC chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, was by her side, the whole time.

Of course, Vice-President Biden knocked it out of the park. He went off-script about as much as President Clinton did the night before and he was completely genuine and convincing in the comments he made.

Finally, President Obama, always the calm voice in the room, made a compelling appeal for four more years to complete his work. As was pointed out so many times over the past few days, the mess that he is cleaning up was nearly a decade in the making and will not be wiped clean in just four years but we are well on our way. When President Obama finished his speech, the crowd in the arena was absolutely deafening.

For Anne and I, this was our first national convention and it was an amazing experience. I come away awed by the level of effort, coordination and planning that goes into an undertaking like this. The switch of venues for the last night was incredibly disruptive, yet things went off without any noticeable hitches. As someone covering the convention but also interested in experiencing a bit of the fun, we spent the day covering it, hauling around our laptops and iPads and with Anne carrying around over 30 pounds of photographic equipment. Then, after the speeches had ended at around 11 and we were able to get out of the arena, we would go out to one of the many receptions to have some drinks. The earliest we got back to our hosts’ home was last night — actually this morning — when we got in at 2:00 a.m. Then it was up again at 7:00 a.m. each morning to do it all over again. It was physically challenging but the excitement of it kept us moving.

Anne has thousands of photos and we’re on the road back to Michigan. We’ll have more posts with her photos along with more reflections and observations about the convention over the next few days so be sure to stop back.

The Main Event

I just checked in with the progressive news sites to find out that right is going absolutely batshit crazy trying to make it sound like the Obama campaign moved the President’s acceptance speech from the outside stadium venue to the arena that holds fewer people. Weather reports leading up to today suggested the there would be thunderstorms and they simply couldn’t take the chance of people getting hurt by lightning or the combination of rain and massive amounts of electric cables and equipment.

Check this out (from Charles Krauthammer):

It wasn’t the weather, they knew what the weather was going to be months ago. This was clearly a response to the fear of a sea of empty seats, and that’s why this is being done.

“They knew what the weather was going to be months ago.”

You know, the right accuses US of worshiping President Obama and giving him superhuman powers but I don’t know of a single liberal who has EVER suggested that he could predict the weather months in advance.

The reality is that 65,000 folks had activated their “community credentials” to attend the last night of the convention and there was a waiting list for another 19,000 on top of it. And, crazy as this may sound, despite decent weather during the early part of today and patches of blue sky at the moment (5:20 p.m.), we got positively HAMMERED about 3:30 by torrential rains and crazy-looking black clouds.

There are a LOT of disappointed people with community credentials, of course. And the folks that have spent weeks and months getting the stadium ready for tonight were crushed. I spoke to a DNCC intern today who said that convention planners and staff were literally crying when the announcement on the venue change came out.

Here’s part of what President Obama told community credential holders on a conference call this afternoon:

Well, listen everybody, thanks, first of all, for taking the time to join me on the call. And I just want to begin by saying how much I regret that we’re not all gathering together in one place to deliver my acceptance speech tonight.

Obviously, I’m looking forward to laying out what are the stakes in this election and what my vision for the future is. And because of the nature of our campaign, we’ve always been about getting everybody involved, making sure everybody is participating and making sure everybody has got access. And that’s why we took a chance in Denver four years ago, and that’s why we wanted to take a chance when it came to North Carolina.

The problem was a safety issue. I could not ask you — our volunteers, our law enforcement, first responders — to subject themselves to the risk of severe thunderstorms. And you guys can imagine, with all the magging that goes on and the security issues involved, getting 70,000 people into a place is tough; getting them out of there is even tougher. And if we had started seeing severe thunderstorms and lightning, in particular, it would have been a problem. And we would have had a situation where we were putting you guys at risk.

So I know it’s disappointing. I’ve got to tell you, I saw some of my key staff who had come down here and they’ve literally been working non-stop for months just getting the logistics of this all put together. And obviously, they were a little bit crestfallen. And I know it’s especially disappointing for a lot of you who worked hard to get your tickets to the event, or traveled or planned to travel a long way at your own expense to be here.

So all I can tell you is how much I appreciate everything that you’ve done. Some of you earned your tickets through the 9-3-1 program — nine hours of volunteer work over three days for a community credential ticket. You’ve registered to vote. You’ve talked to your neighbors. You’re doing unbelievable work that’s making a difference in this close race. And you’ve also shown that there’s plenty of enthusiasm out there. The issue in this election is not going to be enthusiasm, because I think about you all on buses and in carpools and airplanes traveling here to Charlotte. I know it’s not just to see me, but it’s also to see each other and to share common stories and hopes for this country, which is ultimately what this convention is really about.

This morning, Anne and I attended a Joining Forces/USO event where CARE packages were assembled and volunteers were addressed by Dr. Jill Biden and First Lady Michelle Obama. The two women then helped pack packages for about a half hour. I’ll have a post up about that in the coming week.

We spent the afternoon at The PPL, an off-site location for lefty bloggers to cover the convention. I did an interview with Democracy For America and, in addition to their amazing staff, many of whom have become good friends like fellow Michigander Julielyn Gibbons, we met some amazing folks including Senator Barbara Boxer, Heather Holdridge (Digital Strategy Director for Planned Parenthood), Matthew Butler (CEO & President of Media Matters), Tory Brown (Outreach Directo for Media Matters), California Secretary of State Debra Brown (a Michigan State University alumnus like me), and Zach Wahls who was a voice for the kids of LGBT families when he testified before the Iowa House of Representatives and author of the book My Two Moms – Lessons of Love, Strength, and What Makes a Family. Zach will speak this evening around 6:45.

The feeling in the convention hall today is much more electric than last night. The media space we’re working is absolutely jam packed.

The area near where we are near the radio broadcasters is a magnet for folks looking to be interviewed. We’ve seen Jesse Jackson, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, and Governor Michael Dukakis just in the past half hour. Former MSNBC news anchor David Schuster is broadcasting right behind me.

If you didn’t watch President Bill Clinton last night, you should find the video and watch it. His prepared remarks had 3,136 words. His actual delivered remarks had almost 5,900. The person running the teleprompter had to have been challenged as Clinton ad-libbed nearly half of his speech.

After his electrifying speech, Clinton was joined on stage by President Obama:

Here is the livestream for tonight’s event:

Here’s the speaker schedule from 6 p.m. on (all times Eastern):

6:00 PM – 7:00 PM

The Honorable John Lewis
Member of the US House of Representatives, Georgia

Stronger Together Video: Don’t Ask Don’t Tell

American Voices
Jason Crow

Live Performance
Mary J. Blige
Singer/Songwriter

The Honorable Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Chair of the Democratic National Committee
Member of the US House of Representatives, Florida
The Honorable Antonio R. Villaraigosa
Chair of the 2012 Democratic National Convention Committee
Mayor of Los Angeles, California
The Honorable Tammy Baldwin
Candidate for US Senate, Wisconsin
Member of the US House of Representatives, Wisconsin
The Honorable Michael Nutter
Mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Stay Stronger Together Video: Marriage Equality

American Voices Remarks
Zach Wahls

7:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Jim Messina
Campaign Manager, Obama for America

American Heroes Video: Auto Workers

American Voices
Kenyetta Jones, Ryan Case, Ed Meagher, Martha Figueroa, Lucas Beenken, Rob Hach

Vice Presidential Nomination Intro
The Honorable Antonio R. Villaraigosa
Chair of the 2012 Democratic National Convention Committee
Mayor of Los Angeles, California

Nominating Remarks
Beau Biden
Attorney General of Delaware and Son of Vice President Joe Biden

Live Performance
Foo Fighters

The Honorable James E. Clyburn
Assistant Democratic Leader and Member of the US House of Representatives, South Carolina
Scarlett Johansson and Kerry Washington
Actresses

8:00 PM – 9:00 PM

Caroline Kennedy
Author and Attorney
The Honorable Xavier Becerra
Democratic Caucus Vice Chair and Member of the US House of Representatives, California
The Honorable Jennifer Granholm
Former Governor of Michigan
Eva Longoria
Actress
The Honorable Brian Schweitzer
Governor of Montana
The Honorable Charlie Crist, Jr.
Former Governor of Florida
The Honorable John Kerry
Member of the US Senate, Massachusetts

9:00 PM – 10:00 PM

Video: Veterans

Admiral John B. Nathman
United States Navy, Retired

Angie Flores

Dr. Jill Biden
Second Lady of the United States

Vice President Joe Biden Video

The Honorable Joe Biden
Vice President of the United States

10:00 PM – 11:00 PM

The Honorable Dick Durbin
Member of the US Senate, Illinois

President Barack Obama Video

Barack Obama
President of the United States

Benediction
His Eminence Timothy Dolan
Roman Catholic Cardinal and Archbishop of New York