Protesters heckle Obama at fundraiser. What did they sing?
| Washington
President Obama loves having protesters disrupt a big-dollar fundraiser and interrupt his train of thought. Or at least he thought the stunt at a fundraiser in San Francisco Thursday morning was 鈥渇unny,鈥� according to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.
鈥淵ou don鈥檛 get that every day,鈥� Mr. Obama said after the event, per Mr. Carney, who spoke to reporters on Air Force One as they flew to their next gig in Reno, Nev.
Here鈥檚 what happened at the $35,800-a-ticket event at the St. Regis Hotel in San Francisco, according to pool reporter Carol Lee of The Wall Street Journal: Obama was in the middle of his remarks when a woman in a white suit stood up and said, 鈥淢r. President, we wrote you a song.鈥� He tried to get her to wait, but she persisted and the table of 10 broke into song 鈥� a protest over the treatment of accused WikiLeaker, Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, who was held for nine months at the Marine brig in Quantico, Va., where he was kept in isolation 23 hours a day.
The song went like this (with thanks to Carol for transcribing):
Dear Mr. President, we honor you today, sir
Each of us brought you $5,000
It takes a lot of Benjamins to run a campaign
I paid my dues, where's our change?We'll vote for you in 2012, yes that's true
Look at the Republicans 鈥� what else can we do?
Even though we don't know if we'll retain our liberties
In what you seem content to call a free societyYes it's true that Terry Jones is legally free
To burn a people's holy book in shameful effigy
But at another location in this country
Alone in a 6-by-12 cell sits Bradley
Twenty-three hours a day is night
The Fifth and Eighth Amendments say this kind of thing ain't rightWe paid our dues, where's our change?
The 10 singers then passed around 8-1/2 x 11 signs that said "Free Bradley Manning" or had a photo of him. The woman in the white suit then stripped off her jacket to reveal a black T-shirt saying 鈥淔ree Bradley Manning,鈥� plus his image. White-suit woman was then escorted out; two of the other protesters left on their own. The rest of the protesters stayed and applauded at the end of Obama鈥檚 speech, according to Ms. Lee.
鈥淭hat was a nice song,鈥� Obama told the crowd.
Though maybe he wasn鈥檛 so enamored of the stunt after all. Lee鈥檚 report indicated that Obama looked 鈥渄ispleased.鈥�
鈥淣ow where was I?鈥� Obama asked.
Then he appeared to agree (somewhat) with the protesters, at least on the subject of change. "Over the last 2-1/2 years,鈥� Obama said, 鈥渃hange turned out to be tougher than we expected."
Indeed, Obama has been taking grief from his liberal base for more than a year, starting with concessions on health-care reform, followed by allowing a continuation of Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy. Now, the treatment of Manning, who is accused of leaking classified documents to the WikiLeaks website, has proved a major flash point for liberal activists (and former State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley who resigned/was fired for publicly expressing outrage over Manning鈥檚 treatment).
After protests from human-rights groups, Manning was moved to a medium-security facility in Leavenworth, Kan., where he will have more mobility and contact with other prisoners.
