Illinois Makes "Barack Obama Day" State Holiday

Former President Barack Obama got a special present for his birthday this year: his very own holiday. According to NBC Chicago, on Friday Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner signed into law a measure to designate Aug. 4 as "Barack Obama Day" across the state. The holiday will be celebrated each year on Obama’s birthday beginning in 2018.

The holiday will be "observed throughout the State as a day set apart to honor the 44th President of the United States of America who began his career serving the People of Illinois in both the Illinois State Senate and the United States Senate, and dedicated his life to protecting the rights of Americans and building bridges across communities," Senate Bill 55 reads. 

Gov. Rauner praised the idea behind the bill earlier this year after a previous version, which would have made the day a legal state holiday, failed. The new holiday is commemorative.

"It"s incredibly proud for Illinois that the president came from Illinois. I think it"s awesome, and I think we should celebrate it," Rauner told reporters in February. "I don"t think it should be a formal holiday with paid, forced time off, but I think it should be a day of acknowledgment and celebration."

SB 55 was introduced by Sen. Emil Jones III, the son of former Senate President Emil Jones, Jr., who played a major role in launching then-state Senator Obama to the U.S. Senate in 2004 and considers himself to be the former president’s political "godfather." While several lawmakers abstained from voting on the measure, it passed both houses without a single vote against.

"Barack Obama Day" joins other commemorative holidays like Adlai Stevenson Day, Ronald Reagan Day and Jane Addams Day, for which workplaces do not close.

Local legislators also voted in July to rename part of a Chicago-area highway after their former colleague, designating the stretch of Interstate 55 from the Tri-State Tollway south to mile marker 202 near Pontiac as the "Barack Obama Presidential Expressway."

On Friday, Obama celebrated his 56th birthday, his first since leaving the White House, with Michelle Obama at Rasika West End in Washington, D.C.

Also on Friday morning, Joe Biden wished Obama happy birthday on Twitter Friday morning. "Your service has been a great gift to the country, and your friendship and brotherhood are a great gift to me. Happy birthday, Barack."

Obama Reveals True Thoughts On Trump: "He's Nothing But A Bullshitter"

People Magazine decided to dedicate their cover story this month to their beloved "cool, even-keeled, no-drama Barack Obama."  And even though it will come as surprise to precisely no one, the story apparently includes the "bombshell" revelation that....wait for it...Obama can"t stand Trump...shocking, we know.

According to two anonymous sources friendly with the Obamas, People Magazine revealed that Obama frequently describes Trump as "nothing but a bullshitter"...

“He’s nothing but a bullsh–ter,” Obama told two friends early last November, describing an election night phone call with Trump, in which the businessman suddenly professed his “respect” and “admiration” for Obama—after years of hectoring.

Speaking to PEOPLE for its new cover story on Obama and his wife Michelle adjusting to life outside the White House, the two friends quoted Obama’s blunt assessment of President-elect Trump. And how has Obama’s opinion changed since Trump been in office? “Well,” said one of the sources, “it hasn’t gotten any better.”

...all of which is odd because they seemed so friendly and comfortable in this pic of their first Oval Office meeting.

Meanwhile, after hinting that he would lead the opposition movement against Trump, Obama"s friends now say he plans to be "very respectful of the appropriate role of a former president."  Which we assume can be loosely translated to mean that he"s not interested in playing petty political games when he can focus on making millions of dollars selling 1-hour speeches to Wall Street for $400k a pop.

A third source close to Obama tells PEOPLE: “He’s deeply concerned with what he’s seen. But he’s also optimistic and heartened that citizens aren’t just watching it happen but engaging with neighbors and elected representatives at town halls.”

“He’s very respectful of the appropriate role of a former president and that ex-presidents should not be looking over the shoulder of their successors and commenting on every decision,” says Obama’s long-time friend and political strategist David Axelrod, now director of the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics.

“President Obama’s predecessor didn’t do that. Obviously, this now is a unique set of circumstances, but my sense is that he’s going to try and respect that tradition while reserving the right to speak out in given moments when things rise to that level.”

Meanwhile, the always classy Michelle Obama apparently takes humor in telling her pals that she"s "going all black for the next couple of years" to mourn the Trump presidency. 

The Real Reason Hillary Lost: Black People Just Don't Like Her

Back in September 2016 we noted that unprecedented black voter turnout was a huge component of Obama"s victories in both 2008 and 2012.  After running in the low-to-mid 50% range for decades, black voter participation surged to over 60% for Obama in 2008 and 2012, the highest levels ever recorded.

As we noted then, the key question for Hillary in 2016 was whether she should expect the same level of unprecedented black voter turnout that Obama was able to garner in his two elections?  Now, courtesy of new 2016 voter data published today by the U.S. Census Bureau, we now know definitively that the answer to that question is a resounding "NO".

After surging to 62% in 2012, an all-time record high, Black voter turnout once again dipped back to its historical range in 2016 with only 56% of Black voters turning up to support Hillary.  Just doing some simple math, there are roughly 245 million voting age people in the United States and just over 13% of them, or 32.5 million, are Black.  Therefore, a 6% decline in turnout equates to roughly 2 million votes, the overwhelming majority of which would have undoubtedly gone to Hillary.

Of course, despite the "Russian Hacking" blame game still being played by Clinton, as we noted back in September she and her team were acutely aware of their small "enthusiasm" issue among African American voters.

 And, at least according to the president of the Democratic African-American Women Caucus, this math has the Clinton campaign in "full panic mode."  Per Politico:

"Hillary Clinton"s campaign is in panic mode. Full panic mode," said Leslie Wimes, a South Florida-based president of the Democratic African-American Women Caucus.

"They have a big problem because they thought Obama and Michelle saying, "Hey, go vote for Hillary" would do it. But it"s not enough," Wimes said, explaining that too much of the black vote in Florida is anti-Trump, rather than pro-Clinton. "In the end, we don"t vote against somebody. We vote for somebody."

Meanwhile, the lack of excitement is "worrying" Henry Crespo, president of the Miami-based Florida Democratic Black Caucus, who said that “No one is writing songs for Hillary. Obama had will.i.am. Hillary has nobody.”

That said, it wasn"t just Black voters who decided not to show up for Hillary...Female voters stayed home too...

...as did Obama"s trusty millennials...

Yeah, but Russia.

"Activist" Obama Tells Americans "You Get The Politicians You Deserve"

Claiming that he is spending his time "empowering an effective network of global activists," former President Barack Obama told an audience in Milan, Italy today that "you get the politicians you deserve."

During a question-and-answer session after the speech on food innovation, Yahoo reports that Obama may have tossed in a dig at people who didn’t show up to the polls in November.

“You get the politicians you deserve,” Obama said without mentioning President Trump. “And if you don’t vote and you don’t participate and you don’t pay attention, then you’ll get policies that don’t reflect your interests.”

The comments came during a discussion about leadership.

“The mark of a good leader is somebody who is able to empower other people,” Obama said.

“So often we think of leadership as somebody at the top who is ordering other people around … but it turns out, for me at least, what made me understand leadership was when I could see somebody who thought they didn’t have a voice, thought they didn’t have influence or didn’t have power, and teach them how to speak up on the things that were affecting their lives.”

“Politicians can help guide policy,” he added. “But change is going to come from what people do every day.”

Full interview below (fwd to 27:00 for his comments on "getting what you deserve")...

Having signed a record book deal in March, said he is spending most of his time lately working on a memoir, “fighting Michelle for closet space” and carving out the “next phase” of his political career: empowering “an effective network of global activists.”

“When I was president, wherever I would go, I would meet with young people,” Obama said. “And it would always give me energy and inspiration to see how much talent and sophistication and optimism and idealism existed among young people.”

“The problem is so often young people’s voices aren’t heard, and when they want to get involved on issues, they don’t know how and they don’t have the tools,” Obama continued.

The goal of the forthcoming Obama Presidential Center, he said, is “to provide them the tools, the training, the networks, the relationships, the funding, so that they can be even more effective. That’s probably what I’m going to be spending most of the next 10 years on.”