It was the winter of 1959, six months before he would take the sport of boxing by storm at the Rome Olympics, and Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. was on the move. Rising at 4 in the morning, before the first glimmer of daylight broke the horizon, Clay would put on his sweats, lace up a pair of old steel-toed Army work boots, and run out into the biting cold. He would crisscross his beloved Louisville, often racing the school bus for 20 blocks down Chestnut Street. “Why doesn’t he ride to school like everybody else?” one student asked. “He’s crazy,” replied one of Clay’s classmates. “He’s as nutty as can be.”

As the world would come to know, that young man would always chart his own course. I was too young to remember Clay before he became Muhammad Ali, when he was not only the heavyweight champion of the world but also at times the object of controversy and even scorn. And I was still in grade school when Ali made his extraordinary comeback after nearly four years of exile and later shocked the world by winning his title back.

It was this quality of Ali’s that I have always admired the most: his unique ability to summon extraordinary strength and courage in the face of adversity, to navigate the storm and never lose his way.

This is the quality I’m reminded of when I look at the iconic photo I’ve had hanging on my wall of the young fighter standing over Sonny Liston. And in the end, it was this quality that would come to define not just Ali the boxer but Ali the man — the Ali I know who made his most lasting contribution as his physical powers ebbed, becoming a force for reconciliation and peace around the world.

We admire the man with a soft spot for children, who, while visiting a hospital in Philadelphia many years ago, picked up a boy with no legs. Gazing into the child’s eyes, Ali said, “Don’t give up. They’re sending men into space. You will walk someday and do this,” and proceeded to do the famous Ali Shuffle with the giggling boy in his arms.

We admire the man who has never stopped using his celebrity for good — the man who helped secure the release of 14 American hostages from Iraq in 1990; who journeyed to South Africa upon Nelson Mandela’s release from prison; who has traveled to Afghanistan to help struggling schools as a United Nations Messenger of Peace; and who routinely visits sick children and children with disabilities around the world, giving them the pleasure of his presence and the inspiration of his example.

And we admire the man who, while his speech has grown softer and his movement more restricted by the advance of Parkinson’s disease, has never lost the ability to forge a deep and meaningful connection with people of all ages.


Asked why he is so universally beloved, he holds up a shaking hand, fingers spread wide, and says, “It’s because of this. I’m more human now. It’s the God in people that connects them to me.”

This is the Muhammad Ali who inspires us today — the man who believes real success comes when we rise after we fall; who has shown us that through undying faith and steadfast love, each of us can make this world a better place. He is, and always will be, the champ.


http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/boxing/2016/06/04/obama-what-muhammad-ali-meant-me/85346588/
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Who they trying to fool?

Obama didn't write that shit.

In my private study, just off the Oval Office, I keep a pair of his gloves on display, just under that iconic photograph of him — the young champ, just 22 years old, roaring like a lion over a fallen Sonny Liston. I was too young when it was taken to understand who he was — still Cassius Clay, already an Olympic Gold Medal winner, yet to set out on a spiritual journey that would lead him to his Muslim faith, exile him at the peak of his power, and set the stage for his return to greatness with a name as familiar to the downtrodden in the slums of Southeast Asia and the villages of Africa as it was to cheering crowds in Madison Square Garden.
“I am America,” he once declared. “I am the part you won’t recognize. But get used to me — black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own. Get used to me.”
That’s the Ali I came to know as I came of age — not just as skilled a poet on the mic as he was a fighter in the ring, but a man who fought for what was right. A man who fought for us. He stood with King and Mandela; stood up when it was hard; spoke out when others wouldn’t. His fight outside the ring would cost him his title and his public standing. It would earn him enemies on the left and the right, make him reviled, and nearly send him to jail. But Ali stood his ground. And his victory helped us get used to the America we recognize today.
He wasn’t perfect, of course. For all his magic in the ring, he could be careless with his words, and full of contradictions as his faith evolved. But his wonderful, infectious, even innocent spirit ultimately won him more fans than foes — maybe because in him, we hoped to see something of ourselves. Later, as his physical powers ebbed, he became an even more powerful force for peace and reconciliation around the world. We saw a man who said he was so mean he’d make medicine sick reveal a soft spot, visiting children with illness and disability around the world, telling them they, too, could become the greatest. We watched a hero light a torch, and fight his greatest fight of all on the world stage once again; a battle against the disease that ravaged his body, but couldn’t take the spark from his eyes.

Stupid and OP is a flaming fag.

Seems reasonable Obama can identify with a draft dodging Muslim.

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We live and (some of us) work in the D.C. area and you think we don't know how this works?

This particular "essay" was penned by Cody Keenan, who also writes Obama's speeches. He has an office in the White House and is paid $172,000 plus bonuses as a Government employee at the top of the allowable pay scale.

The reason why it's written and not a speech is that the President is in Palm City, Florida, playing golf today and the press was given the day off.

Gerry Truly Is a Faggot Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> We live and (some of us) work in the D.C. area and
> you think we don't know how this works?
>
> This particular "essay" was penned by Cody Keenan,
> who also writes Obama's speeches. He has an
> office in the White House and is paid $172,000
> plus bonuses as a Government employee at the top
> of the allowable pay scale.
>
> The reason why it's written and not a speech is
> that the President is in Palm City, Florida,
> playing golf today and the press was given the day
> off.


But he Twittered me!

You mean that wasn't really him?

More evidence Trump isn't a racist. See, he has black friends.

Gerry Truly Is a Faggot Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> We live and (some of us) work in the D.C. area and
> you think we don't know how this works?
>
> This particular "essay" was penned by Cody Keenan,
> who also writes Obama's speeches. He has an
> office in the White House and is paid $172,000
> plus bonuses as a Government employee at the top
> of the allowable pay scale.
>
> The reason why it's written and not a speech is
> that the President is in Palm City, Florida,
> playing golf today and the press was given the day
> off.


Gerry the fairy is on a mission to make the world a more stupid, less tolerant place, one day at a time. Perhaps he was kicked in the head by a mule back in Dirkastan and sustained a TBI. at any rate, he is a world-class homosexual, and a faggot.

lol, we're talking about President Obama you idiots. The most charismatic president since JFK, author of many books.

We're not talking about a Republican fraud like Trump or an idiot like George W. Bush. The man writes things like this himself.

Gerrymanderer2 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> lol, we're talking about President Obama you
> idiots. The most charismatic president since JFK,
> author of many books.
>
> We're not talking about a Republican fraud like
> Trump or an idiot like George W. Bush. The man
> writes things like this himself.

Is it true you fuck goats?

>lol, we're talking about President Obama you idiots. The most charismatic president since JFK, author of many books.

Oh, I am not convinced there. I would have to give Bill Clinton the title of most charismatic. By a huge (yuge) margin as well.

Gerrymanderer2 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> lol, we're talking about President Obama you
> idiots. The most charismatic president since JFK,
> author of many books.
>
> We're not talking about a Republican fraud like
> Trump or an idiot like George W. Bush. The man
> writes things like this himself.


Most charismatic about who? Not white people. He really has zero respect for the hard work put in by true Americans that came before, and only cares about his own agenda. Fuck him, and fuck you.

Fuck you bitch. And your fat ugly wife.

Bill Ayers wrote Obama's books. He admitted to it (later recanted). Obama has never been shown to write anything coherent. He had nothing of note written under his name when he was on the Harvard Law Review, including as the president of the publication.

Obama, like Fairymanderer2, is a fraud. Only morons believe Obama, the fact-based 'liar of the year'.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2008/10/who_wrote_dreams_from_my_fathe_1.html

http://www.salon.com/2009/10/07/ayers_2/

Fairymanderer2 = beta male cuck and pajama boy of the first order.

Gerry has tiny hands Wrote:
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> Bill Ayers wrote Obama's books. He admitted to it
> (later recanted). Obama has never been shown to
> write anything coherent. He had nothing of note
> written under his name when he was on the Harvard
> Law Review, including as the president of the
> publication.
>
> Obama, like Fairymanderer2, is a fraud. Only
> morons believe Obama, the fact-based 'liar of the
> year'.
>
> http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2008/10/wh
> o_wrote_dreams_from_my_fathe_1.html
>
> http://www.salon.com/2009/10/07/ayers_2/
>
> Fairymanderer2 = beta male cuck and pajama boy of
> the first order.

Alex Jones tell you that? You Trumptards get weirder by the day.

we're supposed to believe he wrote this essay but can't form a coherent sentence without teleprompters telling him what to say? haha ya, I guess the obamabots will believe whatever they are told.

Gerry, do you like to get fucked by black mens?

Gerrymanderer2 Wrote:
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> Fuck you bitch. And your fat ugly wife.

Not even close, prag.

Gerrymanderer2 Wrote:
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> Fuck you bitch. And your fat ugly wife.


Y U say DAT 2 OBAMA and MANCHELLE?

WAT WRONG WIT U?

I just don't understand it. Boxing is a brutal vicious "sport." And Ali was bully - known for his taunting. Why are we celebrating such testosterone laden excess? It's really quite shameful and we should all know better.

That worthless muzzie is worm food now. Fuck him, who cares.

Gerrymanderer2 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Gerry has tiny hands Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Bill Ayers wrote Obama's books. He admitted to
> it
> > (later recanted). Obama has never been shown
> to
> > write anything coherent. He had nothing of
> note
> > written under his name when he was on the
> Harvard
> > Law Review, including as the president of the
> > publication.
> >
> > Obama, like Fairymanderer2, is a fraud. Only
> > morons believe Obama, the fact-based 'liar of
> the
> > year'.
> >
> >
> http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2008/10/wh
>
> > o_wrote_dreams_from_my_fathe_1.html
> >
> > http://www.salon.com/2009/10/07/ayers_2/
> >
> > Fairymanderer2 = beta male cuck and pajama boy
> of
> > the first order.
>
> Alex Jones tell you that? You Trumptards get
> weirder by the day.


No. Can you read English dumbshit?

http://www.salon.com/2009/10/07/ayers_2/

Gerrymanderer2 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Fuck you bitch. And your fat ugly wife.


Gerry got pwned on this thread he started even more than he usually does.

He's sort of a liberal Dan Quayle.