because, mr. president, that s why the country elected you twice and why you ll be considered one of the most consequential presidents in our history along with one of the most consequential first ladies. michelle, he knows and i know he couldn t have done it without you. i know i couldn t. in fact, we had lunch once a week every week come hell or high water. and everybody wondered about all the important things we talked about. probably 40% of the time we talked about family. we most talked about our girls and my grandchildren and my children. you embody dignity beyond measure and generated hope for millions of people left behind for so long. you both did it with such grace and such class. you know, you dream big and secured lasting wins for the american people helping lift their burden with the blessing of hope. it is so underestimated of just having hope. this is a gift of the obama presidency to the country and to history. it s gift i felt personally. as we used to say in
Mr. Dewar. [speaking french] the guest of honor has arrived, french president Francois Hollande greeted by the president and the first lady. This is the seventh state dinner were official visit for the Obama Administration. We will take you to the south lawn pavilion, a tent that is turned into a springlike display. First, we will take a look inside a state dinner as part of our coverage here on cspan2. We will tell you what it is like to be invited to these expose of affairs and will get the role of first ladies over the years. We will have a conversation with Julianna Smoot who serve in the Obama Administration. We want to begin with the perspective of james fallows. As a national correspondent, you have attended three state dinners. What are they like . They are interesting and fun. Ach dinner, there was sprinkling of journalists, usually people who of some connection to the country are being invited. Ive been to the ones for korea. For china recently and then for canada, because i
First i thought that was interesting was the internet feed idea. We put a camera on rising waters on the river and everyone in the community tunes in to see what is happening so they can see it or we use this all the time for weather. People are constantly checking today, right, when the storm is coming in tonight and the simple idea that people could with Simple Technology check to see what is happening with voting lines in their precincts. Would you be turning a camera on the people or just giving reports . I think what we had envisioned is that the administrators would be continuously assessing wait times and posting reports that citizens could consult if they sort of plan out, when it would be most relevant for them and efficient for them to vote. And as you pointed out, this is fairly straightforward. It is one of the ways in which we believe we have to be continuously thinking about the introduction of technology to support the voting process. Put election administrator saying no
[speaking french] [speaking french] i wish to demonstrate the fact france will never forget the spirit of sacrifice shown by the nameless heroes to left their home to liberate by cou country and theirs. We will pay tribute to them to remember the normandy landing. I hope you will join me on the 6th of june 2014, 70 years after the landing. [speaking french] our two countries hold universal values. Values that we write together the universal declaration of rights. [speaking french] we stand together to fight terror. France and the United States stand side by side to make the values prevail. We stand with the United States to address the threats of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and chemical weapons. Together to solve the crisis faced by the middle east. Together to support africas development. And another to fight Global Warming and climate change. [ applause ] [speaking french] today, we stand united and we have built a modal of friendship. A friendship that is the be
President. I was a speechwriter and i never got to attend the state dinners as a guess guest. I was under a lot of stress trying to make the toast but the ambience for the guests i think as far as i can tell its just fun. People are almost universally excited to be there. Im not trying to make this sound silly but it would be deal dishonest to say people dont enjoy this because there are a lot of usually wellknown people there. They have common interest generally for the visit and it is always interesting just to see the five and the body language of the american president and his spouse and the foreign leader, what they are like and how they carry themselves. The vibe is a positive one. How important are these dinners for american diplomacy and how to heads of state view their visit at these events . I think they can be very important. For example when the chinese leader at the time i believe it may have been hu jintao in his early stage came during the george w. Bush demonstration th