A response to your petition on Real Time:

From our inboxes!

Thanks to every one of you who signed the We the People petition asking the President to appear on Real Time with Bill Maher. With more than 320,000 signatures, Bill has once again demonstrated he knows how to inspire and motivate his viewers!

Plenty of us around here watch Real Time because we admire Bill's passion for spreading the science on climate change, asking tough questions about money in politics, and trying to burst "the bubble" where some of our politicians -- and too many of our nation’s critical political debates -- exist.

The President's communications team thinks strategically about scheduling presidential interviews, and we have made a concerted effort over the last couple of years to broaden the array of venues where the President appears -- from talking to young people about health care on "Between Two Ferns" and a post-State of the Union conversation with YouTube stars, to a CNN Town Hall on gun violence and an interview with Mic.com on the Iran deal. Consistent with this approach, we'll keep in mind Bill’s open invitation for a presidential appearance and give it the respectful consideration that Bill and his large audience deserve.

Thanks again for raising your voices (we know Bill always raises his). We hope you'll continue to use the platform to call on the Administration to address the policies and priorities you care about.

-- The We the People Team

P.S. Before we forget, happy belated 60th birthday, Bill! You haven't lost a step, and the gray hair makes you look, dare we say it, presidential. We hope our card didn't get lost in the mail.

I dread what will happen when America finally elects a woman president

Source: Washington Post opinion, by Alyssa Rosenberg

*****
When Obama was running for president in 2008, his political opponents spread all sorts of racist memes to prevent him from gaining the presidency, from suggesting that his birth certificate had been falsified, to trying to tie him to former radical underground figures like Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dorhn, to insisting that he was an intellectual clone of his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. Those attacks failed to keep Obama out of the highest office in the land. But if his inauguration was a moment of national self-congratulation, seeming proof that we had overcome the biases that have defined the United States since its inception, the subsequent reaction to Obama’s presidency proved that optimism wrong.

The first woman to be elected president of the United States seems likely to face a similar experience. Her victory at the polls and her inauguration would undeniably be symbolically significant. But that triumph and her tenure in office would also provoke a nasty wave of sexist response. As much as I will be proud to see a woman serve as president, I’ve also come to dread that time and the ugliness that will inevitably accompany it. I can’t wait to for those four or eight years to have come and gone.

For all the debates about Clinton’s qualifications for the presidency, which are considerable, there is a part of her résumé that is particularly relevant to this dilemma. More than any other woman in the United States, Clinton has experience absorbing tides of sexist trash and getting along with her work, whether she’s representing New York in the U.S. Senate, serving as secretary of state, or stumping on the campaign trail.

It’s true that being attacked doesn’t, in and of itself, make Clinton a virtuous person. And the decades of scurrilous attacks on the Clintons have left them less able to admit error than I might like. But even so, Clinton has had decades to learn how to withstand the attacks that will be aimed at the first female president, and to build relationships with other lawmakers, bureaucrats and foreign heads of state who now know her for herself.

Perhaps asking her to weather another four or eight years of viciousness is unfair. But Clinton appears to want the role. And if she wins it, she could spare another woman the very specific politics of personal destruction aimed at the first women and people of color to hold major roles in American public life.

ICYMI

Tonight - "Walking/Talking Dead" are back!

Also - tonight! - on HBO, "Vinyl" premiers, and John Oliver returns!

Why Sanders’ Win Is Good for Clinton

Silver linings! (Hillary Group)

Digging into the exit polling from New Hampshire, key elements of what we have been arguing in support of Hillary remain true!

Registered Democrats voted 49-49% for Hillary.

For "the right experience" Hillary preferred 85-15%.

Nominee who "can win in November" Hillary preferred 79-19%.

To "continue Obama legacy" Hillary preferred 62-37%

Alabama: Team Clinton or Team Sanders?

There's a method to the madness!

Tonight it's MSNBC's turn.

Let's see if Senator Sander's (I-VT) gets more softballs - we know what Hillary will get!

CNN’S TOWN HALL RANKS #1 IN CABLE NEWS LAST NIGHT

Clinton Press Secretary Brian Fallon Warns Sanders Team Over ‘Bernie Bros’ Attacks

Today on "With All Due Respect" posted at Bloomberg.com/politics.

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/videos/2016-02-04/brian-fallon-warns-sanders-team-over-bernie-bros-attacks

When 'the pundits' say only 'some' women like Hillary: