On
West Coast swing, Obama gets job offer, raises money at Gwyneth
Paltrow's
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[October 10, 2014]
By Steve Holland
SANTA MONICA Calif (Reuters) - U.S.
President Barack Obama got an unexpected job offer from a tech executive
and a compliment from actress Gwyneth Paltrow to start a two-day West
Coast swing aimed at raising money to blunt Republicans' drive to win
the Senate in Nov. 4 elections.
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Obama was the headliner at a Democratic fundraising event at the
expansive Brentwood, California, home of Paltrow, who introduced
Obama to a crowd of about 200 people on her back lawn by telling the
president, "You're so handsome that I can't speak properly."
"I'd like to thank Gwyneth and Apple and Moses for letting us crash
your house," Obama told Paltrow and her two children before
launching into his standard fund-raising speech.
Speaking to tech startup executives at a town hall event earlier at
Cross Campus, an organization devoted to helping entrepreneurs
create jobs for young Americans, Obama said Republicans are
committing political suicide by rejecting immigration reform.
During this event, Obama also got a job offer when Ariel Jalali of
the Sensay startup app company stood up to ask a question but
instead told the president he wanted to get a "jump on the
competition in offering you your next gig."
"You're offering me a job?" Obama chuckled.
"You can help anyone from anywhere using your — nothing more than
your brain and a smartphone, and you can do it anonymously. So, what
do you think?" Jalali replied.
Obama, who has two years left in his second four-year term, offered
that eight years was probably enough time to serve as president and
that thinking about issues of the day while wearing sweatpants and a
baseball cap "sounds pretty attractive."
"But I think I'd have to check out your perks," Obama said. "Do you
have, like, a sushi bar?"
On immigration, Obama said he would proceed with plans after the
elections to do what he can within his constitutional power to help
undocumented workers in the United States.
He said he would specifically make the H1B visa system more
efficient “to encourage more folks to stay here."
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Obama held back from issuing executive actions on immigration at the
end of the summer because of public discontent with how he was
handling a surge of child migrants who swept across the U.S.
southern border. Obama suggested this problem was largely under
control.
He said a failure to act on comprehensive legislation by Republicans
will damage them with an important voting bloc.
"If they were thinking long-term politically, it is suicide for them
not to do this, because the demographics of the country are such
where you are going to lose an entire generation of immigrants" who
feel that the Republican Party "does not care about me or my life,"
Obama said.
Obama said Tea Party conservatives are pressuring the Republican
rank and file not to take action in the short run, but that he
believes reform legislation will eventually pass while he is still
president.
(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason in Washington; Editing by
Beranrd Orr)
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