Michelle Obama

Wednesday July 20, 2016

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Wednesday July 20, 2016 RNC official cites 'My Little Pony' to defend Melania Trump Who said it: Melania Trump or Twilight Sparkle from "My Little Pony"? After Trump's controversial speech from the first night of the Republican National Convention that has some accusing the Trump campaign of plagiarizing passages from a speech by first lady Michelle Obama in 2008, Republican National Convention chief strategist Sean Spicer said the lines being discussed are common phrases. "We're talking about 70 words, three passages," Spicer told Wolf Blitzer on CNN Tuesday. "Melania Trump said, 'the strength of your dreams and willingness to work for them.' Twilight Sparkle from 'My Little Pony' said, 'This is your dream. Anything you can do in your dreams, you can do now,' " Spicer said. He also compared passages of Trump's speech with phrases from musicians John Legend and Kid Rock. "I mean if we want to take a bunch of phrases and run them through a Google and say, 'Hey, who else has said them,' I can do that in five minutes," Spicer said. "And that's what this is." The Trump campaign announced it doesn't plan to fire anybody over the allegations. Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort also addressed the controversy on CNN Tuesday morning. "There's no cribbing of Michelle Obama's speech. These were common words and values. She cares about her family," Manafort said. "To think that she'd be cribbing Michelle Obama's words is crazy.Ó (Source: CNN)Êhttp://www.cnn.com/2016/07/19/politics/sean-spicer-melania-trump-my-little-pony/index.html USA, politics, United States, republican, GOP, Donald Trump, Melania Trump, RNC, convention, Cleveland, Michelle Obama

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday July 20, 2016

RNC official cites ‘My Little Pony’ to defend Melania Trump

Who said it: Melania Trump or Twilight Sparkle from “My Little Pony”?

After Trump’s controversial speech from the first night of the Republican National Convention that has some accusing the Trump campaign of plagiarizing passages from a speech by first lady Michelle Obama in 2008, Republican National Convention chief strategist Sean Spicer said the lines being discussed are common phrases.

“We’re talking about 70 words, three passages,” Spicer told Wolf Blitzer on CNN Tuesday.

Donald Trump. Colour illustration by Graeme MacKay (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada). caricature, Donald Trump, apprentice, USA, politics, GOP, republican, boxer, billionaire, The Donald, celebrity

Available for purchase

“Melania Trump said, ‘the strength of your dreams and willingness to work for them.’ Twilight Sparkle from ‘My Little Pony’ said, ‘This is your dream. Anything you can do in your dreams, you can do now,’ ” Spicer said.

He also compared passages of Trump’s speech with phrases from musicians John Legend and Kid Rock.

Wed. night live sketch of 2016 RNC

Wed. night live sketch of 2016 RNC

“I mean if we want to take a bunch of phrases and run them through a Google and say, ‘Hey, who else has said them,’ I can do that in five minutes,” Spicer said. “And that’s what this is.”

The Trump campaign announced it doesn’t plan to fire anybody over the allegations.

Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort also addressed the controversy on CNN Tuesday morning.

“There’s no cribbing of Michelle Obama’s speech. These were common words and values. She cares about her family,” Manafort said. “To think that she’d be cribbing Michelle Obama’s words is crazy.” (Source: CNN)

 

Wednesday March 9, 2016

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Wednesday March 9, 2016 Trudeau and Obama forging special relationship, White House says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is winning praise from the White House for his leadership on climate change ahead of this week's visit to Washington where that issue will be high on the agenda. In a call with reporters Tuesday morning, officials from President Barack Obama's administration also noted the personal relationship that is developing between the two leaders. Obama extended the invitation for a state visit and dinner, the first in 19 years for a Canadian prime minister, when he met Trudeau at the APEC summit late last year. The officials said Canada and the U.S. always have a close relationship, regardless of who occupies 24 Sussex Drive or 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but they acknowledged Trudeau and Obama have a lot in common. Trudeau arrives in the U.S. capital Wednesday along with his wife Sophie GrŽgoire-Trudeau and a delegation that includes five cabinet members: Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna, Foreign Affairs Minister StŽphane Dion, International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and Fisheries Minister Hunter Tootoo. They will attend a lavish state dinner at the White House on Thursday night after a day of meetings in the Oval Office and at the State Department. The White House officials discussed the close bilateral relationship between the two countries in terms of trade and defence but they paid particular attention to how Canada and the U.S. are co-operating on the environment file and suggested there is a change in tone since Trudeau defeated former prime minister Stephen Harper in October. "Since Prime Minister Trudeau assumed office we have also had tremendous co-operation with Canada on climate and clean energy issues," said Roberta Jacobson, assistant secretary of state, bureau of Western Hemisphere affairs. (Source: CBC News) http

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday March 9, 2016

Trudeau and Obama forging special relationship, White House says

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is winning praise from the White House for his leadership on climate change ahead of this week’s visit to Washington where that issue will be high on the agenda.

Justin Trudeau

Justin Trudeau

In a call with reporters Tuesday morning, officials from President Barack Obama’s administration also noted the personal relationship that is developing between the two leaders.

Obama extended the invitation for a state visit and dinner, the first in 19 years for a Canadian prime minister, when he met Trudeau at the APEC summit late last year.

The officials said Canada and the U.S. always have a close relationship, regardless of who occupies 24 Sussex Drive or 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but they acknowledged Trudeau and Obama have a lot in common.

Trudeau arrives in the U.S. capital Wednesday along with his wife Sophie Grégoire-Trudeau and a delegation that includes five cabinet members: Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna, Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion, International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and Fisheries Minister Hunter Tootoo.

They will attend a lavish state dinner at the White House on Thursday night after a day of meetings in the Oval Office and at the State Department.

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Saturday, February 20, 2016 Obama to visit Cuba: Two views As the Toronto Star has argued before, efforts by 10 successive U.S. presidents to unseat the regime in Havana have demeaned a superpower, discredited Cuban reformers and impoverished the island. By Cuban reckoning, the embargo has inflicted more than $120 billion in economic losses since Fidel Castro came to power in 1959. The U.S. severed diplomatic ties in 1961 and imposed the embargo in 1962. With every passing year the embargo became more pointlessly vindictive, as the U.S. traded briskly with Communist China, with communist regimes in Vietnam and Laos, even to a limited extent with North Korea. ItÕs a point of pride for Canadians that we played a small positive role by hosting the secret talks that led to the U.S. and Cuba breaking the ice in 2014, restoring diplomatic ties and embassies, upgrading trade and air links, and easing aspects of the boycott. Canada never endorsed or joined the boycott, taking the view that Cubans must be free to shape their own political course. Only Congress can fully lift the embargo. ThatÕs beyond this presidentÕs power. But Obama is right to make good on his promise before he leaves office. CubaÕs democrats and reformers will be cheered by this visit as they press for credible elections, independent courts and a more open economy. And the government will no longer be able to cite U.S. hostility as a pretext for Òdefending the revolutionÓ by intimidating critics and suppressing human rights. (Source: Toronto Star) http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2016/02/18/obama-visit-to-cuba-buoys-reformers-hopes-editorial.html Meanwhile, another take on the coming visit, though less earnest: Canadians who want to visit Cuba before an influx of Americans ÒruinsÓ it better move fast: President Obama is planning a visit in the next few weeks, and you can bet a lot of others will follow soon. On Tuesday Washington

February 20, 2016

The White House officials discussed the close bilateral relationship between the two countries in terms of trade and defence but they paid particular attention to how Canada and the U.S. are co-operating on the environment file and suggested there is a change in tone since Trudeau defeated former prime minister Stephen Harper in October.

“Since Prime Minister Trudeau assumed office we have also had tremendous co-operation with Canada on climate and clean energy issues,” said Roberta Jacobson, assistant secretary of state, bureau of Western Hemisphere affairs. (Source: CBC News)

Published in the Hamilton Spectator, March 16, 2016

Published in the Hamilton Spectator, March 16, 2016

 

Friday May 11, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Friday May 11, 2012

Joe Biden apologizes to Obama over gay marriage

After nearly single-handedly pushing gay marriage to the forefront of the U.S. presidential campaign and inadvertently pressuring President Barack Obama to declare his support for same-sex unions, there was only one thing left for Vice-President Joe Biden to do: apologize.

Biden’s apology came Wednesday in the Oval Office, shortly before the president sat for a hastily arranged interview in which he told the American people that he now supported gay marriage.

The vice-president expressed remorse and regret for declaring his support for same-sex unions ahead of Obama, said a person familiar with the exchange, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversation. Obama accepted the apology, saying he knew Biden had only been speaking from the heart.

Biden’s apology followed days of frustration in the West Wing after the vice-president went off script, something he had done plenty of times. Without White House approval, Biden declared on a Sunday talk show that he was “absolutely comfortable” with same-sex married couples having the same rights as heterosexual married couples.

Usually Obama can swat away Biden’s free-wheeling ways. But not this time.

Biden’s remarks focused a fresh spotlight on what Obama had vaguely referred to as “evolving” views on gay marriage.

What few people outside of Obama’s inner circle of six or seven close aides knew at the time was that the president had, in fact, finished that evolution months earlier and was waiting for a suitable opportunity to inform the public of his views. (Source: Ottawa Citizen)