Obama Holds Court in Miguel Contreras High School Gym

I was fortunate enough to see President Obama speak for the second time in a week and I was struck by the historic nature of his appearance this afternoon at Miguel Contreras Learning Complex. Today we had an African-American President speaking at a high school named after a great Latino leader. Amazing. We truly have come a long way as a nation. And what a speaker the President is. He combines an everyman ease with a keen intellect and sharp sense of humor. Today, he talked about a number of issues and deflected criticism that his administration is focusing on too many problems at once by saying something to the effect of You don’t get to put off dealing with multiple problems at home (i.e. mortgage, job loss), why should I? He followed that up by saying: “I did not run for president to pass on problems for the next generation but to solve problems for the next generation and the next president.” He was very honest in his assessment of the challenges we’re facing regarding national debt, healthcare and education and how we’re going to have to make some real sacrifices if we’re going to come out of this on top.