Dinner with Barack: Two Teachers, an Army Veteran, a Small Business Owner, and The President

[Music] my name is Juanita Martinez and I'm from Brighton Colorado and I'm a retired school teacher I am here in Washington DC today cuz I'm gonna have dinner with President Barack Obama to Errol night this is crazy it's insane I can't hardly believe it I don't know if I believe it still I just hope I remember the questions that I've been wanting to ask him it would be kind of cool just say hey mr. president pass the salt please my name is Ken Knight and I'm the United States Army veteran thank you it's still not real to be honest until I see him and tomorrow if I get to shake his hand it's gonna be the most special moment I've ever had in my life I just didn't think something like this would ever happen and now here I am twelve hours away from being the president of the United States and that's pretty cool my name is Casey howling I'm from Minneapolis and I got a small business it's a software development company it's for real well I think it's gonna be a pretty frank conversation I think it's gonna be just a couple of guys having dinner and talking about whatever comes to mind I think some of things I think are really interesting is just what is it Presidents Day look like what time does it start with time does it end those are really interesting things that I don't think dude like me don't you know we don't ever get to hear about I mean dinner with a brother when they called I pretty much dropped my teeth it was just what what and I said you're kidding my name's Wendy Smith I'm from a little town in Indiana corydon Indiana and I am retired college teacher it didn't feel real and now I'm here you know we drove into the city and I was like this is real this is one of the biggest events I'm really looking forward to meeting the other winners four people out of this entire United States and Here I am [Music] a lot of us were calmer first and once we sat down and saw the proximity and how close he was going to be to us and next to us all of us I think started getting a little fidgety and maybe taking a deeper breath says hello everybody good to see you hey Casey so nice to meet you did you sat down I mean it's like he knew you it's like he was your neighbor or your cousin that came over the girls I just left they had dinner ahead of time but i sat while they were eating they're getting ready to do all their homework so they can have a good Halloween are you you know the no it is you don't you don't want to you don't want to go up I did Halloween with him in 2007 right before the primary and I wore this big mask so nobody knew it was me and the Secret Service at that time only had like two so they were kind of in the back and and we pulled it off but now the Secret Service has a different approach they're pretty intense yeah tell me sort of what you're seeing in your life and the community what you know what's on your mind it doesn't have to be some highfalutin policy issue just give me a sense of what's going on out there my concern is of course public education I sucked last year for a class there were like 33 students and three didn't even have desks so it's it's gotten really rough the point is we want to bring everybody up and that means that we've got to make sure that we're you know the kids in the school where when ADA thought you know that they've got the kinds of education you know that's that's the question are we making investments so everybody has a shot you know which since I did come from a wealthy family here a powerful family it's the only reason I'm here is because somebody invested in me or my mom or my grandparents I was expecting him to be like just bigger than life figure the president but we were just having a conversation we were just everyday people having a conversation over like a dinner table and it was really cool like your date come here I mean my usual schedule is I'm not a morning guy I'm more like a late-night guy so I'll wake up about 7:00 I'll go up to the gym get down to the office about 9:00 and then basically from 9 to 6:30 it is just packed you know so non-stop at 6:30 even if I'm really busy I stop go upstairs I'll have dinner with the girls you know I'll just spend time with them probably till about 8:00 and then basically I use from 8:00 to midnight or one o'clock that's when I'm doing a lot of writing though so what about if there's like an something big international going on you get they come in the middle the night do they wake you up like oh yeah I call you up and you you get those calls I mean the last one of those that I got was Fukushima when the tsunami hit so yeah I think it was probably about three in the morning I think you could tell he's a very sincere man but he was very open with us and very forthcoming with his answer what negative effects do you think you've had in your life by not having your father in your life you know as I look back you know I only knew remember my father for one month my whole life when I was 10 and it wasn't until much later in life that I realized like he gave him my first basketball and it was shortly thereafter that I became this basketball fanatic and he took me to my first jazz concert and it was sort of shortly thereafter that I became really interested in jazz music so so what it makes you realize is how much of an impact even if it's only even if it's only a month that they have on you but I I think probably the most important thing was he his absence I think contributed to me really wanted to be a good dad because I think not having him there made me say to myself you know what I want to make sure that my girls feel like they've got somebody who they can rely on yeah my surprise was he was really candid about where we're at there's a lot of work that needs to be done you know what happens on the ground with people organizing and talking to their neighbors you know that's the stuff that just matters so much and it it happens below the radar screen so a lot of times all that activity just like in 2008 it may not register and pulls right away but over time that's what builds you know the kind of momentum and energy that really makes a difference yes this elections more important in some ways than 2008 because we will not be able to finish what we started and the stuff that we've done will get rolled back if we don't win this next time out so it's a it's a it's a lot of statement I'll do whatever I can I'll do the phone banking I'll make calls I'll have the conversations with my friends you know what nobody said this stuff would be easy and I do believe that we can get through these really difficult times and come out stronger but it takes time and one of the things I've learned about myself in this job is I'm pretty persistent and when you look at history you know I try to remind people Brown versus Board Education this was 1954 you didn't get the Voting Rights Act till 1965 and the same is going to be true on anything worthwhile you know it just doesn't happen overnight and all you want to be doing is making sure that you know you keep your eye on you know that North Star of the kind of country you want to be in and keep on making steady progress yeah so Alyssa you guys are terrific and it gives me a lot of energy to have a chance to meet all of you cuz as good as it gets up I appreciate you guys thank you so much for me it's just the most wonderful experience I think all of us that were here kind of got tears in our eyes when it was all over with it was really amazing he is such a real person he's such a genuine Kashan we had a great time no he's just as very sincere man I was very impressed it was really surreal it was really amazing I hope he does more of these I think it's just a great way to connect [Music] you

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Keywords: obama, michelle, barack, dinner with barack, dinner, donate, barack obama, 2012, video, ad, 2012 obama, 2012 campaign, president obama, obama2012, 2012 video, obama for america 2012, election, re-election, news, pictures, reelection, obama pictures, president barack obama, barack obama for president, barack obama president, obama speech, obama approval rating, obamaforamerica, change, 2012 election, organizingforamerica, change2012, re-election video, re-election campaign, michelle obama

Id: Tb5D71aQAoo

Length: 8min 52sec (532 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 22 2011