Wreath Laying Ceremony in Honor of President John F. Kennedy
http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/2013/11/20/wreath-laying-ceremony-honor-president-john-f-kennedy
President Obama and the First Lady, joined by Former
President Clinton, former Secretary Clinton and members of the Kennedy family,
visit Arlington National Cemetery to participate in a wreath laying ceremony in
honor of the life and legacy of the late President John F. Kennedy.
President Obama Honors 2013 Medal of Freedom Recipients
http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/2013/11/20/president-obama-honors-2013-medal-freedom-recipients
President Obama awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to
16 individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the
security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or
to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.
Established 50 years ago by President John F. Kennedy, the
Presidential Medal of Freedom is our Nation's highest civilian honor.
President Obama Speaks at a Dinner in Honor of Presidential
Medal of Freedom Recipients
http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/2013/11/20/president-obama-speaks-dinner-honor-presidential-medal-freedom-rec
President Obama delivers remarks at a dinner in honor of
Presidential Medal of Freedom awardees at the Smithsonian National Museum of
American History.
Obama, Clinton
Families Pay Tribute To JFK
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/20/obama-clinton-jfk_n_4311171.html
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama paid tribute
Wednesday to former President John F. Kennedy's legacy, joining former
President Bill Clinton to lay a wreath at Kennedy's grave and presenting a
freedom medal that Kennedy conceived before his assassination 50 years ago this
week.
One on each side, Obama and Clinton held the hands of Ethel
Kennedy, widow of Robert F. Kennedy, as they made their way up the stairs at Arlington National Cemetery.
First lady Michelle Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
joined the two presidents to place a wreath near the eternal flame that marks
Kennedy's gravesite.
Obama and Clinton placed their hands over their hearts as a
bugler played taps near an American flag at half-staff. Obama made no public
comments, but greeted Kennedy relatives gathered to honor his legacy ahead of
the 50th anniversary of his assassination on Friday.
The daylong tribute began earlier at the White House, where
Obama bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom on prominent Americans
including Bill Clinton and Oprah Winfrey. Kennedy established the modern
version of the medal, but was assassinated two weeks before he planned to honor
the first group of recipients.
"Today, we salute fierce competitors who became true
champions," Obama said, pausing to speak in personal terms about each of
the recipients and their contributions to society.
The leaders honored ran the gamut from sports and
entertainment to science and public service. Mrs. Clinton, Chelsea Clinton and
film director Steven Spielberg were among those gathered in the East Room of
the White House to watch the ceremony.
Turning to the former White House inhabitant, Obama said
that Bill Clinton's presidency had been only the start of his work to improve
the world, crediting his post-presidency humanitarian works as helping to save
or improve the lives of hundreds of millions around the world.
"I'm grateful, Bill, as well, for the advice and
counsel that you've offered me, on and off the golf course," Obama said to
chuckles. "And most importantly, for your lifesaving work around the
world, which represents what's the very best in America."
As a teenager, Bill Clinton shook hands with Kennedy the
summer before the assassination when he and other high school students in the
Boys Nation program went to Washington.
Obama said the late Sally Ride, the first American woman in
space, didn't just break the stratospheric glass ceiling, "she blasted
right through it."
"Young girls need to see role models, she said. You
can't be what you can't see," Obama said. "Today our daughters,
including Malia and Sasha, can set their sights a little bit higher because
Sally Ride showed them the way."
Receiving the award for Ride, who died last year, was Tam
O'Shaughnessy, who was introduced as Ride's life partner.
The president made a point of highlighting those who had
overcome additional obstacles and stigmatization because they were gay, black,
female or Asian. He noted that early in her career, Oprah's bosses suggested
she change her name to something more relatable.
"I got the same advice," Obama said.
Kennedy established the modern version of the medal, but was
assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas
on Nov. 22, 1963, two weeks before he planned to honor the inaugural group of
recipients. Hundreds of noteworthy figures have since received the medal.
In the evening, Obama plans a speech on Kennedy's legacy of
service at a dinner at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History
attended by current and past medal recipients, including baseball's Hank Aaron,
astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, singer Aretha Franklin, former Federal
Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, activist Jesse Jackson and former Secretary of
State Henry Kissinger.
Kennedy's grandson, Jack Schlossberg, is to introduce Obama
at the dinner. Other Kennedy relatives are expected to attend, including Robert
Kennedy's daughter Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and former diplomat Jean Kennedy
Smith, a former medal recipient and John F. Kennedy's only surviving sibling.
Friday marks 50 years to the day since Kennedy was slain
while riding in an open car in a motorcade during a visit to Dallas. Obama plans to meet privately at the
White House on Friday with leaders and volunteers from the Peace Corps program,
also established by Kennedy.
The Clintons'
presence at the eternal flame where Kennedy is buried was sure to spark
speculation about whether Obama has a favorite in the 2016 race to succeed him.
Every move by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is
being scrutinized for signs of whether she'll run. Vice President Joe Biden,
another potential candidate, attended only the White House medal ceremony.
Associated Press writers Josh Lederman and Nedra Pickler
contributed to this report.
On Day of Symbolism, Honoring Kennedy, and Successor He
Inspired
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/21/us/
obama-presents-top-honor-to-bill-clinton.html?_r=0
WASHINGTON — Standing
wordlessly before a flickering flame, their faces etched in the sunlight
slanting through a canopy of thinning trees, two Democratic presidents came
together Wednesday at Arlington
National Cemetery
to honor the memory of a third.
President Obama and former President Bill Clinton walked up
a hillside to the grave of John F. Kennedy, where, joined by Michelle Obama and
Hillary Rodham Clinton, they laid a wreath to commemorate the 50th anniversary
of Kennedy’s death by an assassin’s bullet.
A military bugler
called out taps, the mournful notes resounding on a crisp, clear autumn day
that seemed a softer echo of the stark grandeur of the state funeral on Nov.
25, 1963.
It was the emotional
highlight of a day laden with symbolism, uniting Democratic presidents past,
present and possibly future, to pay tribute to a beloved predecessor, a leader
whose legacy and family played a formative role in the lives of Mr. Obama and
Mr. Clinton.
The president and the
former president escorted Ethel Kennedy to the grave site. Later, they mingled
with members of the Kennedy family. In timing that scarcely seemed accidental,
Caroline Kennedy, who recently took up her post as Mr. Obama’s ambassador to Japan, had left for Tokyo only days before this week’s milestone.
Earlier Wednesday at
the White House, Mr. Obama bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom —
conceived by Kennedy a half-century ago as the nation’s highest civilian honor
— on Mr. Clinton and 15 other luminaries from the worlds of sports, politics,
journalism and academia.
Under the twinkling
chandeliers of the East Room, Mr. Obama paid tribute to Mr. Clinton for his
achievements as governor of Arkansas,
as the 42nd president, and as the founder of the Clinton Foundation, which Mr.
Obama said had saved millions of lives.
“Lifting up families
like his own became the story of Bill Clinton’s life,” the president said, as
Mrs. Clinton sat in the front row of the audience. “He wanted to make sure he
made life better and easier for so many people across the country.”
Mr. Obama’s remarks
were a graceful acknowledgment of Mr. Clinton’s record, but they came with a
sly wink at the complexities of a relationship between the president and his
opinionated predecessor.
“I’m grateful, Bill,
as well, for the advice you’ve offered me, on and off the golf course,” Mr.
Obama said, alluding, perhaps, to a recent report that the president chafed at
his chatty golf companion and told his aides he liked Mr. Clinton only “in
doses.”
As Mr. Obama
struggles through one of the bleaker stretches of his presidency, Mr. Clinton
has again taken on the role of critic, urging the president to fix the health
care law to honor his pledge that if people like their health insurance, they
should be allowed to keep it.
He has also
criticized Mr. Obama’s Syria
policy, saying that any president would be a “total fool” to avoid taking
action to stem a brutal civil war because of public resistance to foreign
engagement.
The White House
insists that it welcomes Mr. Clinton’s advice on health care, though some
political analysts have speculated that he is distancing himself and his wife
from an increasingly unpopular health care law before Mrs. Clinton runs for
president in 2016.
Mr. Obama alluded to
Mrs. Clinton only indirectly, thanking Mr. Clinton for having patience “during
the endless travels of my secretary of state.”
In the East Room, the
president also saluted two members of the Kennedy clan: Ethel Kennedy, the
widow of Robert F. Kennedy, and Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of John F.
Kennedy and son of Caroline Kennedy.
Among those on an
unusually star-studded list of 16 recipients for the Presidential Medal of
Freedom were Oprah Winfrey, the television entrepreneur; Dean Smith, the Hall
of Fame college basketball coach; the late Bayard Rustin, the civil rights
campaigner; the late Sally Ride, an astronaut who was the first American woman
in space; Benjamin C. Bradlee, the Watergate-era editor of The Washington Post;
the late Daniel K. Inouye, the senator from Hawaii; Loretta Lynn, the country
music singer; and Gloria Steinem, the feminist writer.
After praising Mr.
Bradlee for his transformation of The Post into a leading newspaper and his
role in nurturing a generation of investigative journalists after the Watergate
scandal, the president could not resist a reference to the editor’s bespoke
bold-striped shirts.
“He can pull off
those shirts, and I can’t,” Mr. Obama said to chuckles. “He always looks so
cool in them.”
In his tribute to Ms.
Winfrey, Mr. Obama recounted that when she was a young girl, she was advised to
change her name to Susie. It was advice that the president said he too had
gotten as a young man — though not, he hastened to add, to change Barack to
Susie.
“People can relate to
Susie,” Mr. Obama said of the rationale given to Ms. Winfrey. “It turns out
people can relate to Oprah, too.”
This article has been revised to reflect the following
correction:
Correction: November 20, 2013
An earlier version of this article incorrectly described the
astronaut Sally Ride. She was the first American woman in space, not one of the
astronauts who died in the crash of the shuttle Challenger in 1986.
A version of this article appears in print on November 21,
2013, on page A18 of the New York
edition with the headline: On Day of Symbolism, Honoring Fallen President, and
Successor He Inspired.
Caroline Kennedy's daughter Tatiana pays her respects to her
grandfather at the JFK memorial in England
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2511967/Caroline-Kennedys-daughter-Tatiana-pays-respects-grandfather-JFK-memorial-England.html