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Obama meets the high-tech kings (and a queen); but my favorite Obama meeting this week was the one with Manny Pacquiao

In the twitterverse came the comment that people were lining up last night in Woodside awaiting President Obama. Surely, they must have shipped in from Redwood City and such.

People in Woodside don’t line up for much.  In fact, the line comes to them.

So it was quite natural for the president to fly in for dinner with the nation’s high-tech giants on their home turf Thursday.

Whenever you accept an invite to Woodside, you never know how much it ultimately is going to mean to you.  A million? A billion?

I hope it worked out for the president sake, for the country’s sake, last night.

The U.S. could use a few trillion.

There’s something about Obama when he hits the road. You forget about all the process stuff in Washington that’s bogging him down and you see him in his natural mode of rock-star schmoozer.

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Earlier this week, I commented in the Philippine media on another Obama meeting, the one with Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao in DC. It was far more important a meeting than you think.

About two years ago, when he was just thinking about politics and a run for Congress, I called the boxer Manny Pacquiao the Philippines’ Obama.

At the time, Obama was in campaign mode, attracting large  crowds world-wide. He was like a rock-star representing hope and change. But I’ve seen them both in action, and Pacquiao was all that in boxing trunks.

I didn’t exactly call him the Great Brown Hope, but I sure wasn’t joking when I called him the Philippines’ Obama.
There’s just something about Pacquiao that suggests his ultimate reach will be far beyond the ring.

My assessment had less to do with Pacquiao as Obama’s intellectual equal (I don’t know how many rounds Pacquiao could last at Harvard Law School, for example), and everything to do with the sheer charismatic leadership prowess of the Pac-man.

Is there any doubt that Pacquiao could go toe to toe with anyone on that score?

So when the two men—Pacquiao and Obama—finally met this week in the White House’s Oval Office, I thought it was far more significant than any meeting Obama has had with a Philippine leader during his administration. (You don’t think that red-dress photo op with Arroyo a few years back was worth a darn, do you?)

That makes it both funny and sad, that in these times, the current president of the Philippines would barely make a headline were he to drop in on Obama. But the pound-for-for-pound champ? He caused a traffic accident just crossing Pennsylvania Ave.

Obama even had a few gifts and a promise for the Pac-Man this week, reportedly giving Pacquiao  three grocery bags full of light blue M&M’s with the presidential seal (breakfast of champions?), a watch with the same august logo,  and a promise of visiting the Philippines in the future.

Why not? When Obama goes to Oahu, he’s just a relative short hop to Manila.

Would he do that for PNoy just to say hello?

Doubt it.

But the Philippine president shouldn’t feel bad. I doubt Obama would make a trip to Manila for anyone but Pacquiao.

That’s why this shouldn’t be dismissed as a mere cute meet just to promote an upcoming fight. This is how relationships are forged. And in politics, relationships are everything. Those who focus on wonky policy matters and dismiss Pacquiao as a mere bobbing-head-jock-figure are missing the potential of Pacquiao’s real political potential. You can always surround yourself with the right policy folks, which will be a critical thing for Pacquiao.

Far more important is leadership, and that has nothing to do with policy nor ideology. It’s  all about charisma and the people.

If Egypt had a Pacquiao, that uprising would have been over in a week. But when all the opposition could do was trot out an ElBaradei?  Come on.

Leadership and charisma count for a lot more than you think.

You might have noticed it last year when PNoy trounced a relatively lackluster field, and even Joseph Estrada got votes. When you have the people abdicating to the political class, the oligarchs start recycling themselves and wearing yellow T-shirts.

That leaves the future wide open for new politico to excite the public.  And who among them has as legitimate claim to being man of the people besides the people’s champ himself?

Pacquiao still has sometime before a run for the presidency. He’s doing his time in the woodshed but it shouldn’t be for long. In the meantime, he’s going to have to stop fighting, period, no matter how good the money. He’s got a whole country riding on his shoulders.

Just keep in mind, if all you see is a guy in boxing trunks, you don’t understand the real power of  Manny Pacquiao.

So you missed Fred T. Korematsu Day in California on Sunday? And you had the day off too. Here’s why all Americans should care: Have you been korematsued?

Who’s Fred T.Korematsu? If you know who Rosa Parks is, you should know Fred.

I’m coining a phrase to rival the Greek King Pyrrhus, who when prevailing after the Romans in 279 BC is said to have uttered, “Another such victory and we are surely undone.” Or something like that, my tape recorder wasn’t working that well in 279 BC.

So Pyrrhus had his victory. And so did Fred. I call it being “korematsued.”

As you may know, Fred is the man who stood up to the U.S. government’s internment order of Japanese Americans during WWII. He fought the order and had his conviction was overturned.  A victory? Not 100 percent. 

He was korematsued. And that’s why we all need to care about him and his story to this day.

Find out more by reading my Amok column at  www.aaldef.org/blog

Video: Rush Limbaugh’s ching-chong antics lead to death threats to Calif. State Senator Leland Yee

Blacks would be outraged if someone resorted so publicly to  a pickaninny-sambo slur in the 21st Century.  Pass the fried chicken and the watermelon while you’re at it.

But for Asian Americans, 18th Century racism still applies.

Rush Limbaugh seems to think that it’s still okay to mock Chinese speech, especially if it’s Chinese President Hu at a press conference with President Obama. But ching-chong jokes are so old school. And besides where’s the satire?  Was Limbaugh mocking policy, like  free trade and open corporate agreements with China?  Or was he just making an ad hominem attack disguised as humor going after not just Hu but all Asian people?

State Senator Leland Yee was not out of line to call for an apology.

But look at the nasty death threats that were faxed and voice-messaged to Yee.

They are a disgusting reminder that when icons like Limbaugh give the greenlight, his followers are ready to swing into action.

After Tucson, I thought we were trying to bury the poisonous rhetoric?  

So what’s Limbaugh doing trying to revive the Cold War? “The Chinese will bury us” ?

Check out the evolution of the story on this link through Media Matters:

Leland Yee on MSNBC\’S \”The Ed Show\”

POTUS’ SOTUS: I wish he’d said….

For more my other observations on the speech, check out www.aaldef.org/blog

Obama’s speech wasn’t bad. It just wasn’t great.  A 7  out of 10. A gentleman’s C.

Great would have been better. But what do you expect for a man going for the great middle?

When you’re going for the center to begin with, then the “vision” thing isn’t quite relevant. You’re limited from the start. So I’m not too disappointed there was nothing really bold.

But this is our Sputnik moment?  Yes, we’re coming out of a recession and the markets are up. Bbut we’ve gone into tremendous debt and we’re  printing dollars to keep up with all the raises the CEOs are getting. 

 We can’t expect anything too bold.  We can afford Bold Lite.

Considering Sputnik, I’d settle for the second coming of Tang.

I also would have liked to have heard more for the people who are really in trouble in this country.  Nice story about the 55-year old biotechnology person reinventing herself. But I didn’t think that was enough rah-rah fro the people who are unemployed and desperately trying to stay above water.  He mentioned jobs in deals with S.Korea, China, India, but somehow I don’t think that was enough to keep people inspired about the American dream.

For example,I wish there was more for people who have been trying hard to get loan modifications but have been shut out and denied by bureaucratic hurdles. 

I wish there were more for people who really did need a lift.

For all those folks, the jobless and the overmortgaged,  there wasn’t enough meat on the bone. 

They know the real state of the union. And it’s not as happy or as bright as it seems to politicos.

The real people are hurting. The speech seemed to sidestep the pain. 

To that end, credit the president for standing some ground versus the budget hawks.

“I’m willing to eliminate whatever we can honestly afford to do without,” Obama said. “But let’s make sure that we’re not doing it on the backs of our most vulnerable citizens.”

That’s the closest  he got to saying  variations of the terms “working class,”  “middle class,
” working poor.”

But it was a wink that this president still gets it.

Even when he has to play it so close to the middle.

I suppose SOTUS  isn’t really for the people.The speech is a political speech that has to be given.

He’s got to say the “state of our union is strong.”  He’s not going to say the ugly truth.  He’s there to give hope to try to say convincingly,  and repeatedly “We do big things.”

Sort of felt like he was trying to make the speech fly at the end there. But to me it just fell flat.

My truth bell rang when I heard him say  these words: “We should have no illusions about the work ahead of us. Reforming our schools, changing the way we use energy, reducing our deficits—none of this will be easy. All of it will take time. And it will be harder because WE WILL ARGUE ABOUT EVERYTHING. THE COSTS. THE DETAILS. THE LETTER OF EVERY LAW.”

But as the president continued: “As contentious and frustrating and messy as our democrcy can sometimes be, I know there isn’t a person here who would trade places with any other nation on Earth.”

No argument there.

So here we are stuck in America trying to get to the great middle.

That’s the real state of the union.

Check out more observations on the speech my blog at www.aaldef.org/blog