************ BARACK LIVE ***************

[helderheid]

http://www.cnn.com/video/live/live.html?stream=stream4

[rainy]

1. Thanks, watching it now.

[rainy]

2. Couldn't CNN get a camera at the front?

[Heidi]

3. Obama on the Iraq War:

"When it comes to Iraq, I opposed this war from the start . . . six years later, I have to say that most of my fears have come to pass. I also said once we were in, we had to be as careful getting in as we were careless getting out. I've called for a phased withdrawal . . . getting our combat troops out at about 1-2 brigades per month. Assuming I take office in January, that means that we would still have our troops there for about two more years from now. There's nothing rushed about that . . . we've been there for seven years ... We can't be there forever. We can't be there for 50 years . . . I will bring the Iraq war to a close when I'm President of the United States of America."

[kentuck]

41. Misspoken??

"we had to be as careful getting in as we were careless getting out."

[Heidi]

45. Mistyped. Should say, "We have to be as careful getting out as we were

careless getting in."

Sorry about that. I was typing at lightening speed. Thanks for the heads-up.

:yourock:

[rainy]

4. He is doing a fantastic job!!!!!

[Catherina]

5. If this is the talk in Georgia where he discussed extending benefits

under bankruptcy for seniors and military, I liked what I heard.

[vaberella]

6. Thanks so much!!! I love question Q &A.

Most of you brother's are not "Really really really good basketball players."

"You are overrated in your own minds."
"You are not that good of a rapper."

One of my issues, is that he's directing this to Black kids, although I won't deny Black males have the largest drop out rate within the US.

I do love the fact that he gets to solidifies his situation. I like his points.

[rainy]

7. He seems to be stumbling a bit on this question of education and drop-outs

[elkston]

44. He seemed to be saying its a states rights issue.

That the Federal government shouldn't set the mandates in this case.

[jefferson_dem]

8. woot! in the house w/ barack now

Fifth row center. Anybody see me? He's broght his jokes today and the folks are luvin it!

[vaberella]

9. Merci Beaucoup...my Haitian upbringing cringed at that sound... As for stumbling...

I don't agree. That's the whole thing with Q&A's you have to get your thoughts together in order to answer the question.

[Heidi]

10. Obama on teaching foreign languages in the schools:

"It's embarrassing when Europeans come over here. They speak English, they speak French, they speak German. We go over to Europe and all we can can is "Merci beaucoups." If you have a foreign language, that is a powerful tool to get a job . . . we should be emphasizing foreign language in our schools. Children will learn a language easier when they're five, six or seven than when they're 46 like me."

[helderheid]

13. I so agree. My husband is Dutch and speaks fluent English and French, and is fine in German. I speak

Dutch after living there a time with him and now am determined to learn French and Spanish.

[Hope And Change]

11. Thank you helderheid!

[uponit7771]

12. Good plan on bringing spending under control, good pragmatic view of national debt

[uponit7771]

14. *****eliminate programs that aren't working****** GOOD!!

[Heidi]

15. Obama on the national debt:

Notes:

When you look at the national debt, that money had to come from somewhere. We're getting it from China. We're getting in from Saudi Arabia, we're getting it from Mexico. The reason is that we don't have discipoline in ur budget. We expect individual families to have some discipline . . . we need money management in the school so that kids know how to manage their money. . . There's nothing wrong with accumulating some debt . . . so, if we're accumulating debt for high-speed rail, investing in science in technology, that makes sense. But we're accumulating our debt by the War in Iraq which will cost us more than $1 trillion before it's over. We cut taxes for the wealthy during war time. That's never happened before.

We've got to bring this war to a close. We can't afford it. Roll back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. Wealthy people will get upset when I say this, but it applies to me as well . . . back in the Bill Clinton years, the rich people were still rich back then. If you were rich then, you didn't need that extra tax cut from George Bush. I've got this friend, Warren Buffet . . . worth $56 billion. He pays a lower tax rate than his secretary. That's just not fair.

We do need to eliminate government programs that aren't working. They say, "Oh, he's tracking to the center again." The only way to pay for early childhood education, the only way to pay for our veterans to receive the best stress disorder treatment . . . is to look at . . . are we building a bridge to nowhere? There's a principle called "Pay as you go."

The biggest long-term problem we have is Medicare and Medicaid. The population is getting older . . . that means we've got to fix the health care system now. (Talks about diabetes and obesity.)

[uponit7771]

18. you type fast!!! thx for this part, it very pragmatic and I can give him the benefit of the doubt

[vaberella]

22. Obeisity: When he mentioned it, I started clapping.

[helderheid]

16. this woman is going to make me cry. Oh sht, too late.

[uponit7771]

19. ...yeah, I started out ok...then....

[vaberella]

17. That woman who was crying...Oh God...what has this administration not done?! Jesus!

[uponit7771]

20. Bush makes me sick, he doesn't give a damn and doesn't care if we know.

[Heidi]

21. Obama on mental health services

Notes: Question is about people who can't afford mental health medications and how to help them. We need to find money for those veterans who are coming home and for people with mental illness. I hope you can help us with that as president.

This issue of mental health is something we don't talk enough about, and part of what we need to understand is that mental illness is like any other illness. If you have depression, you're just as debilitated as if you have a brokenb leg or a broken arm. We need to provide mental health parity, so that mental illnesses are covered in the same way as other illnesses.

You mentioned veterans. We have hundreds of thousands of veterans who are coming bakc with PTSD. If we treat them early, they can get their lives back on track. If we don't treat them early, the problem gets worse and they self-medicate through drugs and alcohol. That is why the homelessness rate is so much higher for veterans than for non-veterans.

We should have no tolerance for homeless veterans. I've got a specific plan to screen them and provide them with mental health services immediately.

The third thing is that we're gonna have to work more effectively with providers . . . there's a debate going on right now. Medicare and Medicaid providers generally don't get adequately reimbursed. When Congress and states have a budget problem, they just stop paying providers for a while. We the Democrats are trying to give a 10 percent increase to providers, doctors and rural and inner city hospitals who aren't reimbursed adequately, and we aren't getting it done because Republicans would rather have it go to the big insurance companies. Somebody should call John McCain and ask: Do you really think insurance companies should continue to get billions of dollars than giving us a little bit more of a break?

This also impacts our schools . . . there are children who, if they just got a little help, wouldn't end up in jail . . .

[Heidi]

23. Obama on the rising cost of higher education:

Notes:
Obama: I want to give a $4,000 college tuition credit for community service. Join the peace corps, work in a hospital . . . there are all kinds of ways of serving and young people are eager to serve, and I think that's a great investment.

[uponit7771]

38. Yeap, FDR and JFK type ideas along with the smarts to carry them out. GoBAMA!!!

[ecstatic]

24. I really wanted to be there but the tickets were all gone

They kept the event really hush hush. GOBAMA!

[vaberella]

25. Housing foreclosure...another person who made me cry!!! Citizen's are always fucked!!

What do they want from us?! Take our money and do nothing for us. I'm so glad she's back to voting and voting for Obama.

[uponit7771]

27. People are really hurting, it's good they feel they can epxress this to Obama. I beleive he can do..

...more to fix these issues than "work another job" McSame can

[nc4bo]

34. The woman in green had me tearing up........we've been there and done that....

years ago with a adjustable rate mortgage that never went down. Buyer beware and hindsight = 20/20 vision and all that.

It is truly a pitiful situation to be in. I felt her pain.

[uponit7771]

26. Good for you Gina!!!!!

[Heidi]

28. Woman named Gina to Obama: "You were worth $5 and I haven't voted in 32 years!"

Notes:

Woman named Gina: I'm one of your small investors. My husband and I saved for five years to get a credit score where we could buy our first home. We got a 9.25 interest rate with the promise that we could get a refinance, but when that year was up and we got a letter from our mortgage company, they called back and asked whether my trailer was on concrete foundation when it was financed as a tie-down. Furthermore, we went back to the broker, Lending Tree, everybody we could, because we knew when we took that high payment, we weren't supposed to keep it.

Three years later, we were in foreclosure. I worry for these people who are going through a foreclosure.

You were worth $5 and I haven't voted in 32 years.

Obama: Gina makes a powerful point. Gina's an example of America: working, paying and doing all the right things, and then gets put into a financial blind because people were taking advantage of her and her husband's situation. We've got to put an end to that. You shouldn't have had a 9 percent mortgage. You should have had a 6 percent.

When you go buy a car, they have a sticker showing your fuel effiency, what kind of mileage you'll get. The same should be true of a mortgage: a sticker that says this is what your fees are gonna be, this is what your fees will be. If the mortgage brokers are not explaining these practices properly, people should be protected form the consequences of those mortgages. Companies put people in a headlock and they squeeze 'em and they squeeze 'em.

We have to rig a financial system that is fair and transparent and repsonsible. I don't take special interest money. That's why I'm glad I got that $5 from you, Gina.

[uponit7771]

29. Are you typing this or do you have some speech to text app? Thank you!!

[Heidi]

32. I'm almost embarrassed to tell you that yes, I do type this fast.

I was a journalist for 20+ years. :hi:

[uponit7771]

35. WOW!! You go!! thank you

[1776Forever]

46. Thank you Heidi for typing this - I missed the meeting. This is very close to my heart right now.

Cheers!

:hi:

[Frances]

30. I liked the woman from West Virginia

who said she was voting for Obama and she hadn't voted in 32 years!

[DangerousRhythm]

40. West By God Virginia

:rofl:

I like that lady. Some of those stories really were very upsetting. :cry:

[vaberella]

31. Thanks again HELDERHEID!!! I wouldn't have seen it, if you didn't post the link. GOBAMA!!

[helderheid]

43. You bet! He'll be back on at 4:30 Eastern time in DC!

[Diamonique]

33. Computer problem! Aargh!

Don't know why, but I can't get CNN live videos to run on my PC anymore. It used to work just fine. Now I just get an empty black box. Gonna cry.

[Heidi]

36. Don't cry. Check my posts in this thread. I took notes.

:hi:

[uponit7771]

37. reinstal flash player if you're on windows

[nc4bo]

39. Do you use spam blockers or other anti-nasty software?

I use firefox but it's supplemented with alot of adblockers, etc. and CNN was one I could never get to play without alot of hassles.

So now I use the firefox IE extension and haven't had a problem since.

Check what your browser is blocking.

[Diamonique]

47. Very strange.

Yes I have anti-virus and anti-spyware.

Flash player works fine on C-SPAN.org, but not on CNN...not even with the IE extension. I guess I'll figure this out someday. Maybe I'll ask about it the next time I take the PC to the shop for cleaning.

[Pavlovs DiOgie]

42. Thanks for posting

I haven't seen him in a town hall setting in awhile. He did great, as always.

[Heidi]

48. Kick and a thank you to helderheid for this thread!

:kick:

[Heidi]

49. Kick and a thank you to helderheid for this thread!

:kick: