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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsObama Visits Chipotle Ahead of Working Family Summit
Last edited Mon Jun 23, 2014, 07:50 PM - Edit history (2)
Larry Downing/Reuters
President Barack Obama celebrated the White House's Working Families summit Monday by treating himself to some Mexican food at Chipotle.
According to a pool report, Obama dined with several working-class Americans in the center of the restaurant, surrounded by a "surprised lunchtime crowd."
AFP PHOTO/Mandel NGAN
Obama's lunchtime companions included Roger Trombley, a 37-year-old safety engineer at Ford Motor Co. in Michigan; Shelby Ramirez, a 50-year-old single mom from Colorado; and Shirley Young, who emigrated from Trinidad to the Bronx in 1969.
Obama Diary/Twitter
Lisa Rumain of Johnson & Johnson, who will introduce Obama at the Working Families event, also joined him for lunch.
Over the years, Chipotle has earned a good reputation for allowing entry-level employees to move into the ranks of management and earn relatively high salaries. The restaurant provides health insurance and paid vacations to employees.
The pool reporter was only briefly allowed to view Obama's Chipotle lunch and did not report on what he ate. However, the report did note Obama was overheard saying that when companies treat employees right "businesses benefit and the economy benefits."
Zeke Miller @ZekeJMiller · 2h
Obama: "Its been a while since I had a burrito bowland it was good . . . I just walked over to Chipotles for lunch. I caused a lot of havoc" https://twitter.com/ZekeJMiller/status/481132747524935680
tannercurtis @tannercurtis · 1h
Taking a move from @VP playbook MT @dougmillsnyt: Shades on...Obama departs Chipotle following lunch away from 1600.
tod
watch:
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)bigtree
(86,013 posts)Open Carry Texas Group Postpones March Through Predominantly Black Neighborhood @TPM http://t.co/v2mbY7kGUF
Cha
(297,886 posts)Iliyah
(25,111 posts)I guess they wanted to start a race riot, ya'know how much they loooovvvvvees Amerika!
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Chipotle is not Mexican food. It's Tex- or Cali-Mex at best.
Response to KamaAina (Reply #2)
Warren DeMontague This message was self-deleted by its author.
riqster
(13,986 posts)Then of course, we can argue regional differences...cuisine are in the mouth of the beholder, anyway.
ChazInAz
(2,575 posts)Here in Tucson, we can get REAL Mexican food from all of the regions of that country. It's a little corner of heaven!
Chipotles does very well, too...because we're not purists. We just like good food.
JI7
(89,281 posts)President ordered a chicken burrito bowl, with white rice, tomatoes, salsa verde, lettuce, cheese, and, guacamole.
monmouth3
(3,871 posts)love that he can cause havoc, it keeps people on their toes and drives the right nutz...I love it..
bigtree
(86,013 posts). . . the 'bear on the loose' poses challenging situations for them.
Cha
(297,886 posts)President Barack Obama sits down to have lunch with Shelby Ramirez at a Chipotle Mexican Grill in Washington, Monday, June 23, 2014, before they attending the White House Summit on Working Families. Obama is encouraging more employers to adopt family-friendly policies, part of a broader effort to convince employers that providing more flexibility is good for business as well as workers. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
bigtree
(86,013 posts)President Obama walks to lunch at Chipotle restaurant with, from left, Shirley Young, Lisa Rumain, Shelby Ramirez and Roger Trombley before he attends the White House Summit on Working Families in Washington. (Larry Downing/Reuters)
Cha
(297,886 posts)Zeke Miller @ZekeJMiller · 2h
Obama: "Its been a while since I had a burrito bowland it was good . . . I just walked over to Chipotles for lunch. I caused a lot of havoc"
A snippet of a sequel from the Obama diary..
President Obama & The First Lady Champion Working Families
Robin Roberts and First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House Summit on Working Families
[font color=blue]Marlei Martinez: Obama Seeks Good, Strong, Healthy Families[/font]
"President Barack Obama is encouraging Congress and the country to focus on issues here at home namely how to improve the livelihoods of working families.Here are the five things we learned from our sitdown with the President: 1. The goal of the summit is
to lift up the conversation that everybody is already having individually and let people know youre not alone out here, Obama said. Priority one: Paid family leave According to a survey from the United Nations labor agency, of the 185 countries and territories with readily available information, only three do not provide paid maternity leave. And, you guessed it, the United States made that list. The other two countries are Oman and Papua New Guinea. Paid family leave, were the only advanced country on Earth that doesnt have it, the President said. It doesnt make any sense. There are a lot of countries that are a lot poorer than we are that also have it.
Much MOre..
TOD
bigtree
(86,013 posts)petesouza ?@petesouza 18m
Pres Obama orders his burrito bowl at a Chipotle today before lunch w participants in the working families summit.
Cha
(297,886 posts)louis-t
(23,309 posts)"OMGS!!!!1!!1 HE REACHED OVER THE SNEEZE GUARD HE IS A EVIL MUSLIN COMMIE!1!!"
Cha
(297,886 posts)rest of us give a shite what they have to say about ANYTHING.
louis t
Michigander_Life
(549 posts)Big balls!!
BlueEye
(449 posts)A good friend of mine work at Chipotle. She said they HATE IT when people do that!
Oh well, POTUS gets a special exception!
Cha
(297,886 posts)Response to bigtree (Original post)
Warren DeMontague This message was self-deleted by its author.
Cha
(297,886 posts)SnowCritter
(810 posts)Similar cuisine and mighty tasty.
My wife prefers them to Chipotle (I'm not all that fussy - when I'm truly hungry I'll eat just about anything)
Response to SnowCritter (Reply #22)
Warren DeMontague This message was self-deleted by its author.
Cha
(297,886 posts)Cha
(297,886 posts)Nerdy Wonka @NerdyWonka
Follow
Reporter to POTUS: "Well, it's well known that women are more likely to vote for Democrats"
Pres. Obama: "I said, well, women are smarter"
8:20 AM - 23 Jun 2014
101 Retweets 55 favorites
Nerdy Wonka @NerdyWonka
Follow
President Obama on crowd booing Congress: "No, don't boo. Vote!" Crowd cheers and applauds. #FamiliesSucceed
8:11 AM - 23 Jun 2014
47 Retweets 30 favorites
Nerdy Wonka @NerdyWonka
Follow
POTUS on his daughters: "Just getting to know them and making sure they knew me. It was an important bond. I want every father to have that"
8:16 AM - 23 Jun 2014
25 Retweets 10 favorites
MOre..
TOD
betsuni
(25,729 posts)Oh no .... it's happening .... I have drunk the Kool Aid with my chicken burrito bowl. I am an OBAMABOT!!!!! I am a CHEERLEADER FOR OUR DEAR LEADER!!!!!! I should've known something was wrong when I put Dijon mustard on my hamburger yesterday.
Cha
(297,886 posts)your red flag, betsuni!
Grey Poupon Wants Obama to Pardon Dijon Lovers
"Real mustard growers may be fairly indifferent to the semi-controversy surrounding President Obama's preference for Dijon mustard, but Grey Poupon is trying to take advantage of this rare marketing opportunity, when an infinitesimal slither of America's attention is marginally focused on the topic of mustard. Over the weekend the company's public-relations team sent over a statement calling on President Obama to "pardon" lovers of Dijon mustard a riff off the classic "pardon me" commercials that made their product seem so snooty in the first place. "The right to choose condiments freely is quintessentially American and embodies the spirit of our democracy," reads the release's tongue-in-cheek interpretation of our national ideals. Heh. Isn't this so much more fun than not making an issue of how Obama eats his burger?"
ROFL..
May 8, 2009
The Honorable Barack H. Obama
President of the United States
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20006
Dear Mr. President:
We applaud you, Mr. President, for exercising your freedom of taste when recently ordering
a burger with Dijon mustard. Were always happy to see people use Dijon mustard to add
flair and flavor to their favorite foods. The right to choose condiments freely is
quintessentially American and embodies the spirit of our democracy.
So we urge you to respond to Dijon-gate by issuing a pardon to any American who has
ever been criticized for putting a liberal spread of Dijon mustard on a burger or a
conservative dollop on a ham & cheese sandwich. These Pardon Me for Loving Dijon
proclamations will empower the millions of Dijon mustard-loving Americans to ask for their
favorite condiment with pride.
Respectfully yours,
The GREY POUPON Team
www.greypoupon.com
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2009/05/grey_poupon_wants_obama_to_par.html
You're Pardoned..
Iliyah
(25,111 posts)Thanks!
sheshe2
(83,984 posts)Thanks for all the wonderful pics.
Dopers_Greed
(2,640 posts)Typical Obama
Blue Owl
(50,536 posts)Botany
(70,627 posts)Because he is Daddy Cool.
amandabeech
(9,893 posts)I loved their food, but my complaint was that despite the huge Black community in DC, I never saw a single Black person working there. The staff was exclusively hispanic, and many knew almost no English, leading me to think that they were probably fairly recent immigrants.
I like the idea that the chain pays well, offers decent benefits, and promotes from within. What I didn't like was that they didn't hire from all local ethnic/racial groups at the store where I picked up my food.
The last time I was there was four years ago, so perhaps they've changed, or perhaps the store that I patronized was unusual.
zentrum
(9,865 posts)Should have been meeting for big photo symbolism like this in 2008 when he had so much force behind him. Should have said then "jobs, jobs, jobs". Should have had working people and labor representatives like Robert Reich at the table instead of Wall Street and the guys whose deregulation ideas helped bring us the economic meltdown. It should never have come to pass that income disparity only got wider over the last six years.
Obama always has us at his back and he should have reached around the scabby Republicans and DC to connect with us, way back then. We were his real power base and the vacuum he created by not doing this allowed the Baggers and their analysis of what was wrong, to fill the silence.
2008 was a huge populist moment and instead of trying to shake hands with the sharks across the isle who bit and bit and bit him, he should have shaken hands with us.
If he'd fought hard for it in 2008 I think he could even have gotten single payer because the country was so pumped and desperate for change. The Republicans were savage anyway---he should have gone big.
PowerToThePeople
(9,610 posts)TLTL
rpannier
(24,345 posts)Maybe both
Issa will be on it by middle of next week