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Woman who inspired Obama's 'Fired up' urges prayers for the president

By Christina Bellantoni on Sept. 17, 2009 into Bellantoni

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Readers of this blog know all about Edith Childs, the woman who inspired President Obama's "fired up" slogan. I was the first reporter to find her two years ago.

 

 

Obama just wrapped up a dramatic re-telling of the story, which he used to tell in Iowa in 2007, following his health care rally in College Park today.

 

The campaign looked at her story as a symbol for Obama at his best, engaging voters on how one voice can affect change.

 

Closing his rally, Obama boomed: "I need your voice! I want to know, are you fired up? Ready to go?"

 

As if on cue, the crowd thundered the call-and-response back and Obama concluded, just as he did on the campaign trail, "Let's go change the world."

The White House has returned to the spirit of the story, putting it on the home page earlier this week.

 

 

I tracked Childs down to ask if she minds being used again, and the major Obama fan she is, she said she's thrilled.

"It’s just an honor that he has not forgotten about Greenwood," Childs told me.

 

It surprised me, however, that she hasn't heard from Obama or anyone at the White House since the inauguration.

 

 

"I did not expect to, because he has a lot of things he needs to do and I’m on the bottom of the list," she said. "When there is time, he will find time at some point and I definitely don’t expect it to be this year."

 

 

Childs said she's confident the health care fight will work out and urged Americans to pray for the president.

 

 

"As my grandma used to say, 'It’s prayin' time now.' And when you get done praying, get up and do something constructive," Childs said.

 

 

She also said she found Rep. Joe Wilson to be "embarrassing" to South Carolina: "I've never seen anything like that in all my life," she said of his outburst last week. "We all have moments where we are saying 'Yes' and 'No' and 'You're crazy,' but we keep that in our head!"

 

 

— Christina Bellantoni, White House correspondent, The Washington Times

Please track my blog's RSS feed here.

Find my latest stories here, follow me on Twitter and visit my YouTube page.

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There are 8 Comments

billwcc

I do pray for the president. I pray that every idea of his fails. He is destroying this country.
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starrlady

Obama has not been in office long enough to destroy this country. He is simply trying to straighten out the mess that was done by the ones before him. So your words should be directed towards the past president.
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candle

You are not on the bottom of his list,but on the bottom of his shoe,to be kicked up when he needs some mud to sling. He spits on your prayers...have you not read his book? His god is not the real God. You are being used as well as all his soap opera followers. Peter Piper comes to mind. You will follow him into the water.
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from1391

Obama is trying to solve problems which were caused by the old one.
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rmowen

I am now reminded of two things - Beck's latest book title "Arguing with Idiots" and one of my favorite comic lines "you can't fix stupid". Obama is not fixing, he is dismantling, there is a difference. Please reemember history from Thomas Jeffereson "a government big enough to give you ever yting is also big enough to take everything"...his is setting the stage for anarchy.
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inowat302

Obama is a joke, a horrible joke foisted on the American people by folks who think that the world owes them something. I cannot wait until 2012 when this joker is kicked out of office and the good guys who love America take over again.
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kmooneyham

Easy to sum up this Edith Childs woman in one word: SYCOPHANT! If you need to, look it up...I wouldn't feel bad if you need to, the socialists have wrecked our public schools, my grasp of the English language and grammar certainly leaves something to be desired, as well.
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2Confused

Obama rallies sound more and more like the Nazi rallies with thousand of mindless, numb supporters blindly cheering for something they have no idea what it will do to them. Wait, if he gets his way, they will be the first to scream "what the heck is going on here, this is wrong." Then they'll present the race card.
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