Steve Jobs’ widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, is Obama’s guest at State of Union

“Laurene Powell Jobs, Steve Jobs’ widow, will attend Tuesday’s State of the Union speech as a guest of First Lady Michelle Obama,” Cromwell Schubarth reports for Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal

“She has been active in education reform and non-profits, heading the Emerson Collective, which helps to fund such activities,” Schubarth reports. “Powell Jobs is on the boards of Teach for America, KQED, New America Foundation, Stanford Schools Corp. and is also on the advisory board of the Stanford Graduate School of Business.”

Schubarth reports, “She is also a member of the White House Council for Community Solutions, which works with the White House on education and job creation.”

Read more in the full article here.

Related articles:
Steve Jobs: America’s schools are dying – October 24, 2011
Steve Jobs met Obama to talk education, energy, job creation – October 22, 2010
A clearer picture of Steve Jobs’ thoughts on public education and teacher unions – February 21, 2007
Steve Jobs & Rush Limbaugh agree: U.S. public schools are ‘unionized in the worst possible way’ – February 20, 2007
Apple CEO blasts teacher unions, says US schools are ‘unionized in the worst possible way’ – February 16, 2007

77 Comments

        1. I’m a Democrat and I think Obama is a lying sack of sh*t. However I’m glad Mrs Jobs is actively involved in projects to make life better for people, no matter what I or anyone else thinks of the president.

      1. Which is why His Steveness offered to do marketing for his re-election in 2012 just last year. But if you’re living with your head in the clouds, as fictional superior beings are wont to do, you needn’t concern yourself with reality.

        1. Actually, Jobs was very critical of Obama. Told him he would be a one-termer. Obama refused to allow repatriotriation of foreign moneys. And Jobs was upset with Obama’s anti-business stance. This is just like many other liberal business people who once supported Obama. They have lost their willingness to support him.

        1. Let’s see..
          • He’s killed Osama Bin Laden
          • Eliminated several other Al-Qaeda leaders
          • Ended the War in Iraq
          • Begun the drawdown of forces from Afghanistan
          • End-run Republican obstructionism by recess-appointing Richard Cordray to run the Consumer Financial Protection
          Board. Have a look at the DOW now as opposed to at the be inning of his tenure then carefully proceed to pull your head out of your a*s.

        2. She is doing a great job with education. But anybody that does not believe she is a political prop in an election year, on Apple’s record earnings day, is not paying attention.

    1. You Yanks are hilarious 😉
      Can’t you just let it be an heartfelt gesture towards the recently deceased widow of perhaps the most successful businessman ever, at an event which goes back to the very roots of the Union’s foundations, which traditionally honours America’s best?
      I can think of no more fitting a person than Laurene Powell Jobs or a more appropriate occasion to honour the man. It’s the sort of tradition thing Americans do so well…usually.
      What am I missing?

  1. Laurene’s last chance to see Obama read a State of the Union (really, a taxpayer-funded, nationally-televised campaign) speech off the teleprompter.

    It’d be interesting to be in the room if she decided to pass on her late husband’s words of wisdom to the union-made and union-owned Obamas: “U.S. public schools are unionized in the worst possible way.”

    1. @First 2010, Then 2012

      It’s always a pleasure to try to educate one of you Tea
      Party dimwits. The State of the Union speech is dictated
      by our Constitution. Nearly everything the government
      does is “taxpayer-funded”.

      1. Uh, actually, the Constitution says absolutely not one thing about a state of the union speech. And, in fact, most state of the union reports throughout our history have been given in letter form – NOT as a speech. Also, there is nothing saying that it must be given once a year, or in January.

        Like Jefferson, I am opposed to the entire spectacle of the established practice of a SOTU speech. Especially one being televised, and especially with the grand kingly announcement introducing the POTUS, followed by an appalling 15 minute procession of handshaking and backslapping in a room full of people with less appeal than those in the Star Wars cantina.

        Now then, daugav, you would do well in the future to avoid any further presumptuousness. You are, quite obviously, in no way equipped to be educating any at all, since you, yourself, are ignorant of the plain facts.

        This is the entirety of the Constitutional mandate for the occasional report to Congress. Compare this to what is actually done in practice, and then go humble yourself:

        Article II, Sec. 3, of the U.S. Constitution requires that, “The President shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.”

        1. You wouldn’t expect a Teabagger to actually KNOW what is in the Constitution- would you? In Tennessee, the Teabaggers/NeoCon Knuckle -Draggers are trying to ban the inclusion of slavery in textbooks. No joke- just want to push it right down the memory hole.

          Discussing almost anything of substance with most Reich-Wingers is an exercise in frustration and futility as they elevate their belief to the level of known history and facts.You know why? Gawd wants it that way.

    2. I agree with you. Let’s get back to the pre-union utopia — when children worked 7 days a week in sweat shops. And while we’re at it, let’s get rid of all those other commie-pinko-faggot niceties, like women having status as “persons”, non-whites having equality, and so on.

  2. Then-Apple CEO John Sculley famously sat next to Hillary during Bill Clinton’s first State of the Union address in 1993. Sculley was fired from Apple not long after that.

    Of course, the politicians are looking for huge donations to their campaigns and political parties. They just want her money, that’s all.

  3. I wonder if Apple could be started today? Two guys in a garage working with electronics?…

    Hell, a ten year old can’t even operate a simple Lemonade stand just feet from ‘that garage’ without being shut down by authorities if they haven’t complied with statutes and regulations!

        1. 1) Learn to spell
          2) Ever think she may have been invited perhaps because she is a friend and a hard worker for academic institutions?
          3) Why do people always assume the worst of others? It is due to projecting your own feelings/motives on others. Think about that.

  4. I’m sure Obama will be hailing Apple as a Great American Company, one which has excelled even in the current economic climate. However, none of his policies have helped. Nor Bush’s. In fact, the tax rules kept in place have prevented companies like Apple, GE, Microsoft, GM, etc. from bringing foreign profits back to the U.S. That’s money which could be used at home to create more jobs (no guarantees it would, but it certainly won’t create any jobs being kept overseas due to a huge tax hit if it is brought home).

    If Obama is serious about creating jobs, then approve the Keystone XL pipeline before Canada agrees to sell its oil to China. Stop the Dept. of Labor from running around threatening Boeing and other businesses which are trying to create jobs and expand. Stop letting environmental extremists control policy. And put some damn common sense into education and let the states handle it instead of handing down mandate after unfunded mandate like No Child Left Behind (that was Bush, but it is an abject disaster for schools).

    1. The pipeline has been vetted, and it will only create a few thousand temporary jobs at best. Keystone’s previous pipelines have been notorious for multiple (>10) spillages in their first years of operation. More oil is not the answer. The energy SECTOR has to innovate.

      1. Like Synova. Also wasting money on Tesla. Why Tesla needed its own factory financed in part by government grants when it could have licensed its technology to others who already had the manufacturing infrastructure is beyond me. Who needs a $70,000 plus gov’t subsidized car? Nobody, unless you raise gas to $10 a gallon.

  5. I hope this is because Obama is announcing that the next round of stimulus will be funded entirely by Laurence Powell Jobs.

    Yeesh, this comments section got ugly really fast.

  6. The State of the Union Jan. 2009 Jan 2012

    Unemployment: 6.8% 8.5%+
    Gasoline/gallon: $1.68 $3.39
    Annual Electric Bill: $1,120 $1,420
    On Food Stamps:32 million 46 million
    U.S. Debt: $10.62 Trillion $15.23 Trillion

  7. The State of the Union Jan. 2009 Jan 2012

    Unemployment: 6.8% 8.5%+
    Gasoline/gallon: $1.68 $3.39
    Annual Electric Bill: $1,120 $1,420
    On Food Stamps: 32 million 46 million
    U.S. Debt: $10.62 Trillion $15.23 Trillion

    Heck of a job there Barack

      1. Bush and Obama:
        http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/07/the-chart-that-should-accompany-all-discussions-of-the-debt-ceiling/242484/

        The tax revenue from the internet boom under Clinton made it look like he turned things around. Of course, the top marginal tax rate was a few percent higher under Clinton as well. This helps tax revenues in a major way without really hurting the .1% (they can still buy their yachts).

        What people don’t realize is that Presidents cannot FIX economies. They can only screw it up (by going to war). The fixing has to be done by Congress.

    1. $1.68 a gallon? I don’t remember gas being less than $2 since the 1990’s Clinton era.

      I did check, and you are technically right, there was one two month period in 2009 where gas did dip that low. But I think that’s deceptive because it was over $4 the months before that and over $3 months later, so it was very brief and unusual dip not at all representative of what gas prices were typically like in that time period.

  8. no wonder apple blew past all predictions. I can tell by this dialogue that apple’s products appeal to a very wide swath of US political thought. and good thing we’re online; else it looks like there could be a brawl.

    1. My thoughts exactly. An unfortunate side effect of the iDevice halo effect. Old school Mac users were an enlightened bunch, but the Apple product user profile has been dragged down somewhat.

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