Last night, Obama was in New York at the Roosevelt Hotel fundraising for Democrat candidates.
During his remarks, he was interrupted repeatedly by gay rights and AIDS activists.
Obama was heckled and booed by a crowd that should have been friendly. After all, it was a Dem fundraiser, safe territory. Barbra Streisand and Mr. Streisand, James Brolin, were in the house.
The cheapest tickets were $100 for the general reception.
Here's an account of the incident from the Associated Press:
President Barack Obama got heckled at a fundraiser Wednesday night by protesters pushing for more funding for AIDS programs and quicker action to allow gays to serve openly in the military.
Activists yelled slogans and held signs aloft reading "Obama broken promises KILL." Supporters of the president tried to drown them out with shouts of "O-bam-a! O-bam-a!"
The hecklers were so raucous Obama went off-script several times to address them, insisting he's increased AIDS funding and is working to overturn the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. He told them to go shout at Republicans, noting that a vote on repealing "don't ask, don't tell" failed this week in the Senate, with Republicans united in opposition.
"Some of those signs should be going up at the other folks' events, and folks should be hollering at the other folks' event. Because the choice in November could not be clearer," the president said.
Addressing an activist pushing for more funding for global AIDS initiatives, the president said, "We heard your point. And as I said before, we increased AIDS funding. ... The people who will take over if we don't focus on the election, I promise you, will cut AIDS funding."
The protest took place in the ballroom of the Roosevelt Hotel as Obama raised $1.4 million at receptions and a dinner for the House and Senate Democratic campaign committees.
...Obama had just finished saying it's "nice just to stop by and see some friends" when the shouting began.
Bystanders briefly tried to snatch the signs, and ultimately the heckling subsided. The signs stayed aloft throughout Obama's remarks, and even as he shook hands afterward with well-wishers a few feet away.
One of the activists, Jennifer Flynn, told reporters she and the others bought tickets to the reception.
..."The last election was about the changing of the guard," he said. "This election is about guarding the change."
Tickets for the event ranged from $100 for a general reception to $15,200 for a dinner and photo with the president.
At the dinner, singer Barbara Streisand and her actor husband, James Brolin, were among those who heard Obama say Democrats have accomplished "a lot to be proud about." But he also acknowledged widespread voter frustration.
Here's video of Obama reacting to protesters:
The booing and heckling overwhelmed Obama. The disruption was really quite intense.
The dissatisfaction with Obama among gay rights and AIDS activists is boiling over.
Read Jim Wallis, "My Take: George W. Bush led on AIDS. Will Obama?"
The world needs President Barack Obama to be a global leader on HIV/AIDS.
It was not that long ago faith leaders and millions of activists organized across the globe to press President George W. Bush to respond to the AIDS pandemic and fund solutions to end extreme global poverty.
The result of bold American leadership led to nothing short of a historic wave of success. Today, nearly four million Africans are on life saving HIV/AIDS medicines, up from 50,000 in 2002. President Bush’s legacy in the fight against global AIDS is strong, but much more needs to be done.
Barack Obama campaigned on a promise to continue that leadership. But today, his promise has yet to be kept.
...But when it comes to turning back the AIDS pandemic and ending extreme poverty, we have a very clear path forward. There are 192 nations that committed to the Millennium Development Goals in 2001. They are a series of eight targeted goals that would produce dramatic results in turning back the tide of global pandemics and reducing extreme poverty, and they gave us a roadmap as to how this all could happen by 2015.
U.S. leadership on these goals and the work to back them up have received broad bipartisan support within Congress. Countries across the world are now in tough economic straits, so if the United States falters in its leadership the huge successes these goals have already accomplished could stall.
Unfortunately, one major source of funding to fight AIDS, The Presidents Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR) has been neglected.
During his campaign, President Obama made a promise to increase PEPFAR funding by $1 billion a year if elected. Last year, the White House recommended a small increase of funding from $6.6 billion to $6.7 billion. It looks like PEPFAR will receive only a small increase this year. That's a broken promise.
...For those of us in this country, it's a matter of Obama fulfilling a campaign promise. For the world’s poorest, it's a matter of life and death.
On the video, Obama wants credit for increasing AIDS relief funding. Clearly, he's misrepresenting what his administration has done in terms of keeping his campaign promise.
Moreover, it's disturbing that Obama, rather than taking responsibility for his broken promises, misleads and tries to turn the criticism he deserves on the Republicans, warning, "promising," that they will cut AIDS funding.
Transcript
OBAMA: What I want to do is talk about what's coming up. I want us to talk about what's at stake in this election, because the people that potentially will take over, if we don't focus on this election, I promise you will cut AIDS funding and they'll cut every priority that we care about. So don't... this is not the time or the place to do what you're talking about.
Oh really?
Obama "promises" that Republicans will cut AIDS funding?
I think Obama needs to be educated on recent history and what President Bush accomplished regarding AIDS relief.
Bob Geldof, February 2008, TIME:
I gave the President my book. He raised an eyebrow. "Who wrote this for ya, Geldof?" he said without looking up from the cover. Very dry. "Who will you get to read it for you, Mr. President?" I replied. No response.
The Most Powerful Man in the World studied the front cover. Geldof in Africa — " 'The international best seller.' You write that bit yourself?"
"That's right. It's called marketing. Something you obviously have no clue about or else I wouldn't have to be here telling people your Africa story."
It is some story. And I have always wondered why it was never told properly to the American people, who were paying for it. It was, for example, Bush who initiated the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) with cross-party support led by Senators John Kerry and Bill Frist. In 2003, only 50,000 Africans were on HIV antiretroviral drugs — and they had to pay for their own medicine. Today, 1.3 million are receiving medicines free of charge. The U.S. also contributes one-third of the money for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria — which treats another 1.5 million. It contributes 50% of all food aid (though some critics find the mechanism of contribution controversial). On a seven-day trip through Africa, Bush announced a fantastic new $350 million fund for other neglected tropical diseases that can be easily eradicated; a program to distribute 5.2 million mosquito nets to Tanzanian kids; and contracts worth around $1.2 billion in Tanzania and Ghana from the Millennium Challenge Account, another initiative of the Bush Administration.
Steve Bloomfield, February 2009, The Indepedent:
When President Bush came to power in 2001, the US spent $1.4bn a year on humanitarian and development aid in Africa. By 2006, the figure had quadrupled to $5.6bn a year. And it is likely to get bigger. The centrepiece of Mr Bush's aid to Africa is the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (Pepfar), a five-year, $15bn Aids prevention and treatment programme launched in 2003. His most recent budget proposes doubling the funding to $30bn over the next five years.
Despite rows over the programme's emphasis on abstinence and faithfulness to one partner rather than condoms to control Aids, it has helped to fund anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs for 1.3 million people across the continent. Before, the US funded ARV treatment for just 50,000 people.
Taken alongside US funding for malaria prevention, plus the Millennium Challenge Accounts, which provide funding for countries with strong governance records, Mr Bush has done more for Africa than any other US president, according to Joel Barkan, a senior associate at the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies. "I am a very severe critic of the Bush administration," he said, "but you cannot take away from the president the fact that the commitment of the US, in terms of aid and debt relief, is certainly greater under Bush than Clinton."
Mark Silva, July 2008, The Swamp:
For all the tumult that has marked the presidency of George W. Bush, one pursuit of this administration has yeided continuing results: The fight against AIDS in Africa.
Bush has challenged the U.S. to redouble its funding for the fight against AIDS and malaria in Africa and other reaches of the world over the next five years, and Congress this week met the call for funding that keeps that American commitment on track.
With legislation that the president will sign next week, the U.S. will commit to $40 billion in aid over the next five years -- including an unprecedented new turn in foreign health aid: The long-term provision of life-sustaining drugs for AIDS sufferers.
It ticks me off that Obama said Republicans will cut AIDS funding.
That certainly isn't the legacy of President Bush.
FACT: Obama is neglecting PEPFAR, what President Bush initiated and championed.
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