#1. Much like fictional president Frank Underwood on House of Cards,Obama knows people prefer to see his wife.
“I know you’d rather see Michelle than me,” President Obama told the cheering crowd at the beginning of his speech, to laughter. “I’ll try to fill her shoes.”
#2:Let’s face it, Obama is a rock star.
He showed up two hours late and the crowd was still ecstatic to see him. That’s pull.
Obama also greeted the crowd with a series of jaunty comments such as, “Sit down. I’ve got some things to say,” to cheers and laughter.
As he left at the end of his speech, he embraced people sitting in the first row while “Keep on Pushing” by Curtis Mayfield played.
#3: No president has ever visited a federal prison before.
President Obama announced that he will visit a federal prison on Thursday, making him the first sitting president to ever do so.
Obama vowed to work to improve the human rights of inmates — including ordering a review of the use of solitary confinement — during his speech. He also noted that the number of inmates in the U.S. has quadrupled since 1980. The speech comes a day after Obama ordered the release of 46 inmates, “nearly all of whom would have already served their time and returned to society if they were convicted of the exact same crime today,” according to the White House, and in his speech he said federal drug sentencing guidelines should be reformed.
Three things we learned from Barack Obama’s NAACP speech
Getty Images
