James asks:

“With the way the world has changed, do you think that Republicans will ever regain the White House given the way they act?”

Rev’s response:

“It’s not how they act, it’s how the opposition acts. It’s how those of us who don’t want to see the right-wing back in charge — if we don’t vote, if we don’t mobilize, they will regain, not because they beat us, but because we didn’t fight.”

Steve writes:

“I don’t have a question but I have a prediction. By Independence Day the scandals will fizzle out like a sparkler on the Fourth of July.”

Rev’s response:

“I think these scandals may fizzle out but they’re going to keep coming with more. You must give them credit, they are tenacious. They’ll find something, they’ll keep trying to come. We have got to keep trying to fight the fight too. Don’t expect them to give out. Let us keep the fight going.”

Bam asks:

“To what do you attribute your weight loss and the fact that you get better looking every year.”

Rev’s response:

“That’s so nice of you, Bam. I started exercising, I watch what I eat. I don’t eat any red meats or chicken. I eat fish twice a week, other than that it’s salads and fruit. But most important – discipline. You must have discipline. Watch what you put in your body.”

Madonna asks:

“I really admire your fighting spirit. How do you keep from getting discouraged and giving up the fight for what is right for all the people?”

Rev’s response:

“I keep from getting discouraged by remembering that America reelected this president. He won. We won the fight. With all they did with voter suppression, we won. I remember he’s rescued the economy, creating nearly 6 million private sector jobs. Protecting 17 million children with pre-existing health conditions. The president saved over one million auto industry jobs with the auto bailout without support from the Republicans. He’s expanded Pell Grants and offered tax credits to make college more affordable. He’s kept his promise to bring our troops home. So Madonna, we shouldn’t be discouraged. They’ll keep coming with smears and scandals and we’ll keep coming with the two F’s — the fight and the facts. Don’t be discouraged. We’re winning. Just because they’re swinging doesn’t mean they’re scoring. I’ve seen too many victories. I was in Johannesburg the night Mandela won. I was on the stage the night Barack Obama was sworn in again. I’ve seen too many victories to ever think that defeat is anything but a temporary bump in the road. Because on the big ones, on the broad ones, on the ones that matter – right always wins, and it always will if we have the courage to stand up and fight.”

To submit your own question, email AskRev@msnbc.com, Tweet #AskRev, or go to our Facebook page to leave a comment on one of our Ask Rev threads.

But the president’s power is limited if Congress isn’t willing to fund federal relief for Oklahomans–and for the fiscal hawks of the Republican party, that’s creating a tense debate over how disaster relief funding should be structured.

Oklahoma’s own Senator Tom Coburn sparked the conversation on Tuesday morning by insisting that any aid for his home state tornado victims should come with comparable spending offsets (not necessarily cuts that would affect Oklahoma). “He’ll ask his colleagues to help Oklahoma by setting priorities and sacrificing less vital areas of the budget,” his spokesman said in a statement.

But in an odd twist, Coburn appears to be in the minority in his insistence on offsets.

Most other Republicans have said they don’t need offsets. A number of Republican senators, from Missouri’s Roy Blunt to Arizona’s John McCain, told reporters they won’t require offsets to vote for aid to help tornado victims in Moore.

But few of these senators were singing the same tune when New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut residents asked for financial assistance to help rebuild from the impact of superstorm Sandy.  Two of the 36 votes against the major Sandy relief bill came from Oklahoma’s Senators Coburn and Inhofe.

That has some prominent Northeast Republicans fired up. Congressman Peter King of New York, who fought passionately for aid for his home state after the storm, lashed out at Inhofe and Coburn, calling them hypocrites on Wednesday.

“We know the type of suffering that people go through during these types of crises and we’re not going to hold–I’m certainly not going to hold the good people of Oklahoma hostage because they may have some hypocrites in their delegation,” King told WCBS 880′s Steve Scott on Wednesday.

He also opposes offsets, saying “political games” should come later.

New Jersey Chris Christie, who also chastised his fellow Republicans for opposing Sandy recovery aid,  supports sending aid to Oklahoma, insisting now is “not a time for political retribution” against Oklahomans. Christie urged his colleagues in Washington to provide” swift and immediate” aid to Moore on Wednesday.

Moore’s congressman, Rep. Tom Cole, was one of the relatively small group of House Republicans who supported the Sandy aid package. He told Today’s Matt Lauer that while he applauded his colleagues for being “prudent” and supporting offsets for Sandy aid, he did not see that offsets should be a deal breaker. ”Once that didn’t make it, you want to continue and go ahead and help the people that need the help.”

Senator Jim Inhofe insisted his no vote against the Sandy aid was because of how the aid was distributed. He has promised that any Oklahoma relief bill would be “totally different” from Sandy aid, which he says was a “slush fund.”

With most Republicans opposing offsets, and Coburn supporting them (and Inhofe refusing to say how he feels on the issue), the Senate could end up with an awkward vote in which Coburn would have to either flip flop on the issue or vote against his state’s own relief bill.

The good news for residents of Moore is that it’s possible they won’t be at the mercy of Congress. The FEMA disaster relief fund currently has a balance of more than $11 billion dollars. At this point, the Moore tornado will not likely exceed that amount or even come close to it. The Joplin, Mo., tornado–which essentially wiped out that town two years ago–cost the federal government less than a billion in recovery funding.

In the two-minute video Weiner talks about his middle class upbringing in New York City and promotes an economic fairness agenda that is reminiscent of the messages President Obama touted on the campaign trail during much of the 2012 election.

Weiner makes only one short reference to the scandal that erupted after he was caught sending lewd images to a college student over Twitter, saying: “I made some big mistakes and I know I let a lot of people down, but I also learned some tough lessons. I’m running for mayor because I’ve been fighting for the middle class and those struggling to make it my entire life, and I hope I get a second chance to work for you.”

Weiner’s wife, longtime Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin, appears briefly and speaks only once in the video, saying, “We love this city, and no one will work harder to make it better than Anthony.”

Parts of the video may have been shot as recently as last week, when NBC New York caught Weiner and Abedin sitting on the front steps of a Brooklyn home with a camera crew.

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There has been much speculation surrounding a possible mayoral run for the Democrat since he emerged from relative seculson following the scandal. Weiner emerged from from political hibernation six weeks ago with a profile in the New York Times Magazine in which Abedin revealed she had forgiven Weiner for the mistake.

Weiner will join a crowded field in the Democratic primary set for this September, but he comes with some key advantages, including a nearly $5-million war chest and name-recognition. A poll released mere hours after the video announcement showed Weiner running in second place against the other Democratic candidates he would face in September’s primary. He garnered 15% of the vote and trailed frontrunner City Council Speaker Christine Quinn who won 25%. Those numbers are little changed from April.

If successful, Weiner would become the second high profile politician to successfully return to politics in 2013. Two weeks ago, former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford successfully regained his old congressional seat in Washington after having been disgraced and run out of office when he was caught lying and out of the country in an extramarital affair.

The building was pulverized by the 200 mph winds, sending patients and staffers scrambling to safety zones located in the center of the hospital. Miraculously, all the staff, patients and families survived the storm.

That includes nurse Cheryl Stoepker, who used her own body to protect a newborn she’d delivered barely an hour earlier. When she heard news of the approaching twister, she wheeled the newborn and his mother down to the cafeteria, a windowless room on the first floor of the hospital.

“It was dark, that was the first thing that told us something was happening,” she told PoliticsNation on Tuesday. “We could hear the hail hitting the building even though we were on the first floor and it’s a two-story [building],” she explained.

“So we at that point got down on the floor, patient and myself, took her baby, put him in laps, and we hugged, and we started praying,” she said. “The baby was a little over an hour old, didn’t even have a diaper yet at that point, but mom and I held the baby and prayed and made it through.”

When the storm passed, Stoepker and her patient were forced to climb out in the darkness, navigating around debris as she tried to push the new mother and her child out in a wheelchair. They made their way out alongside one of her colleagues, herself 33-weeks pregnant, and pushing yet another infant and mother who’d just given birth. Eventually the wreckage was impossible to wheel through, and her patient, with only a few minutes of recovery from labor, walked–barefoot–out of the building.

Only 24 hours later, she’s still coming to terms with her experience. “It’s hard to describe and I’m still trying to deal with it and figure out what happened,” she said. As Rev. Sharpton said, this hero who saves lives and cares for people everyday in ordinary circumstances was able to keep a precious patient alive in extraordinary circumstances too.

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For President Obama, April was a month full of highs and lows, from the aftermath of the Boston bombings and West, Texas, fertilizer plant explosion to meeting Jackie Robinson’s widow Rachel Robinson and reuniting with his fellow presidents at the opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Library in Dallas.

White House Photographer Pete Souza released a series of photos from April full of his favorites from the month to flickr on Monday.

Check them out and let us know which ones you enjoy most.

Transcript provided by the White House.

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, Morehouse!  (Applause.)  Thank you, everybody.  Please be seated.

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  I love you!

THE PRESIDENT:  I love you back.  (Laughter.)  That is why I am here.

I have to say that it is one of the great honors of my life to be able to address this gathering here today.  I want to thank Dr. Wilson for his outstanding leadership, and the Board of Trustees.  We have Congressman Cedric Richmond and Sanford Bishop — both proud alumni of this school, as well as Congressman Hank Johnson.  And one of my dear friends and a great inspiration to us all — the great John Lewis is here.  (Applause.)  We have your outstanding Mayor, Mr. Kasim Reed, in the house.  (Applause.)

To all the members of the Morehouse family.  And most of all, congratulations to this distinguished group of Morehouse Men — the Class of 2013.  (Applause.)

I have to say that it’s a little hard to follow — not Dr. Wilson, but a skinny guy with a funny name.  (Laughter.)  Betsegaw Tadele — he’s going to be doing something.

I also have to say that you all are going to get wet.  (Laughter.)  And I’d be out there with you if I could.  (Laughter.)  But Secret Service gets nervous.  (Laughter.)  So I’m going to have to stay here, dry.  (Laughter.)  But know that I’m there with you in spirit.  (Laughter.)

Some of you are graduating summa cum laude.  (Applause.)  Some of you are graduating magna cum laude.  (Applause.)  I know some of you are just graduating, “thank you, Lordy.”  (Laughter and applause.)  That’s appropriate because it’s a Sunday.  (Laughter.)

I see some moms and grandmas here, aunts, in their Sunday best — although they are upset about their hair getting messed up.  (Laughter.)  Michelle would not be sitting in the rain.  (Laughter.)  She has taught me about hair.  (Laughter.)

I want to congratulate all of you — the parents, the   grandparents, the brothers and sisters, the family and friends who supported these young men in so many ways.  This is your day, as well.  Just think about it — your sons, your brothers, your nephews — they spent the last four years far from home and close to Spelman, and yet they are still here today.  (Applause.)  So you’ve done something right.  Graduates, give a big round of applause to your family for everything that they’ve done for you. (Applause.)

I know that some of you had to wait in long lines to get into today’s ceremony.  And I would apologize, but it did not have anything to do with security.  Those graduates just wanted you to know what it’s like to register for classes here.  (Laughter and applause.)  And this time of year brings a different kind of stress — every senior stopping by Gloster Hall over the past week making sure your name was actually on the list of students who met all the graduation requirements.  (Applause.) If it wasn’t on the list, you had to figure out why.  Was it that library book you lent to that trifling roommate who didn’t return it?  (Laughter.)  Was it Dr. Johnson’s policy class?  (Applause.) Did you get enough Crown Forum credits?  (Applause.)

On that last point, I’m going to exercise my power as President to declare this speech sufficient Crown Forum credits for any otherwise eligible student to graduate.  That is my graduation gift to you.  (Applause.)  You have a special dispensation.

Now, graduates, I am humbled to stand here with all of you as an honorary Morehouse Man.  (Applause.)  I finally made it. (Laughter.)  And as I do, I’m mindful of an old saying: “You can always tell a Morehouse Man — (applause) — but you can’t tell him much.”  (Applause.)  And that makes my task a little more difficult, I suppose.  But I think it also reflects the sense of pride that’s always been part of this school’s tradition.

Benjamin Mays, who served as the president of Morehouse for almost 30 years, understood that tradition better than anybody.  He said — and I quote — “It will not be sufficient for Morehouse College, for any college, for that matter, to produce clever graduates… but rather honest men, men who can be trusted in public and private life — men who are sensitive to the wrongs, the sufferings, and the injustices of society and who are willing to accept responsibility for correcting [those] ills.”

It was that mission — not just to educate men, but to cultivate good men, strong men, upright men — that brought community leaders together just two years after the end of the Civil War.  They assembled a list of 37 men, free blacks and freed slaves, who would make up the first prospective class of what later became Morehouse College.  Most of those first students had a desire to become teachers and preachers — to better themselves so they could help others do the same.

A century and a half later, times have changed.  But the “Morehouse Mystique” still endures.  Some of you probably came here from communities where everybody looked like you.  Others may have come here in search of a community.  And I suspect that some of you probably felt a little bit of culture shock the first time you came together as a class in King’s Chapel.  All of a sudden, you weren’t the only high school sports captain, you weren’t the only student council president.  You were suddenly in a group of high achievers, and that meant you were expected to do something more.

That’s the unique sense of purpose that this place has always infused — the conviction that this is a training ground not only for individual success, but for leadership that can change the world.

Dr. King was just 15 years old when he enrolled here at Morehouse.  He was an unknown, undersized, unassuming young freshman who lived at home with his parents.  And I think it’s fair to say he wasn’t the coolest kid on campus — for the suits he wore, his classmates called him “Tweed.”  But his education at Morehouse helped to forge the intellect, the discipline, the compassion, the soul force that would transform America.  It was here that he was introduced to the writings of Gandhi and Thoreau, and the theory of civil disobedience.  It was here that professors encouraged him to look past the world as it was and fight for the world as it should be.  And it was here, at Morehouse, as Dr. King later wrote, where “I realized that nobody…was afraid.”

Not even of some bad weather.  I added on that part.  (Laughter.)  I know it’s wet out there.  But Dr. Wilson told me you all had a choice and decided to do it out here anyway.  (Applause.)  That’s a Morehouse Man talking.

Now, think about it.  For black men in the ‘40s and the ‘50s, the threat of violence, the constant humiliations, large and small, the uncertainty that you could support a family, the gnawing doubts born of the Jim Crow culture that told you every day that somehow you were inferior, the temptation to shrink from the world, to accept your place, to avoid risks, to be afraid — that temptation was necessarily strong.

And yet, here, under the tutelage of men like Dr. Mays, young Martin learned to be unafraid.  And he, in turn, taught others to be unafraid.  And over time, he taught a nation to be unafraid.  And over the last 50 years, thanks to the moral force of Dr. King and a Moses generation that overcame their fear and their cynicism and their despair, barriers have come tumbling down, and new doors of opportunity have swung open, and laws and hearts and minds have been changed to the point where someone who looks just like you can somehow come to serve as President of these United States of America.  (Applause.)

So the history we share should give you hope.  The future we share should give you hope.  You’re graduating into an improving job market.  You’re living in a time when advances in technology and communication put the world at your fingertips.  Your generation is uniquely poised for success unlike any generation of African Americans that came before it.

But that doesn’t mean we don’t have work — because if we’re honest with ourselves, we know that too few of our brothers have the opportunities that you’ve had here at Morehouse.  In troubled neighborhoods all across this country — many of them heavily African American — too few of our citizens have role models to guide them.  Communities just a couple miles from my house in Chicago, communities just a couple miles from here — they’re places where jobs are still too scarce and wages are still too low; where schools are underfunded and violence is pervasive; where too many of our men spend their youth not behind a desk in a classroom, but hanging out on the streets or brooding behind a jail cell.

My job, as President, is to advocate for policies that generate more opportunity for everybody — policies that strengthen the middle class and give more people the chance to climb their way into the middle class.  Policies that create more good jobs and reduce poverty, and educate more children, and give more families the security of health care, and protect more of our children from the horrors of gun violence.  That’s my job.  Those are matters of public policy, and it is important for all of us — black, white and brown — to advocate for an America where everybody has got a fair shot in life.  Not just some.  Not just a few.  (Applause.)

But along with collective responsibilities, we have individual responsibilities.  There are some things, as black men, we can only do for ourselves.  There are some things, as Morehouse Men, that you are obliged to do for those still left behind.  As Morehouse Men, you now wield something even more powerful than the diploma you’re about to collect — and that’s the power of your example.

So what I ask of you today is the same thing I ask of every graduating class I address:  Use that power for something larger than yourself.  Live up to President Mays’s challenge.  Be “sensitive to the wrongs, the sufferings, and the injustices of society.”  And be “willing to accept responsibility for correcting [those] ills.”

I know that some of you came to Morehouse from communities where life was about keeping your head down and looking out for yourself.  Maybe you feel like you escaped, and now you can take your degree and get that fancy job and the nice house and the nice car — and never look back.  And don’t get me wrong — with all those student loans you’ve had to take out, I know you’ve got to earn some money.   With doors open to you that your parents and grandparents could not even imagine, no one expects you to take a vow of poverty.  But I will say it betrays a poverty of ambition if all you think about is what goods you can buy instead of what good you can do.  (Applause.)

So, yes, go get that law degree.  But if you do, ask yourself if the only option is to defend the rich and the powerful, or if you can also find some time to defend the powerless.  Sure, go get your MBA, or start that business.  We need black businesses out there.  But ask yourselves what broader purpose your business might serve, in putting people to work, or transforming a neighborhood.  The most successful CEOs I know didn’t start out intent just on making money — rather, they had a vision of how their product or service would change things, and the money followed.  (Applause.)

Some of you may be headed to medical school to become doctors.  But make sure you heal folks in underserved communities who really need it, too.  For generations, certain groups in this country — especially African Americans — have been desperate in need of access to quality, affordable health care.  And as a society, we’re finally beginning to change that.  Those of you who are under the age of 26 already have the option to stay on your parent’s health care plan.  But all of you are heading into an economy where many young people expect not only to have multiple jobs, but multiple careers.

So starting October 1st, because of the Affordable Care Act — otherwise known as Obamacare — (applause) — you’ll be able to shop for a quality, affordable plan that’s yours and travels with you — a plan that will insure not only your health, but your dreams if you are sick or get in an accident.  But we’re going to need some doctors to make sure it works, too.  We’ve got to make sure everybody has good health in this country.  It’s not just good for you, it’s good for this country.  So you’re going to have to spread the word to your fellow young people.

Which brings me to a second point:  Just as Morehouse has taught you to expect more of yourselves, inspire those who look up to you to expect more of themselves.  We know that too many young men in our community continue to make bad choices.  And I have to say, growing up, I made quite a few myself.  Sometimes I wrote off my own failings as just another example of the world trying to keep a black man down.  I had a tendency sometimes to make excuses for me not doing the right thing.  But one of the things that all of you have learned over the last four years is there’s no longer any room for excuses.  (Applause.)

I understand there’s a common fraternity creed here at Morehouse: “Excuses are tools of the incompetent used to build bridges to nowhere and monuments of nothingness.”  Well, we’ve got no time for excuses.  Not because the bitter legacy of slavery and segregation have vanished entirely; they have not.  Not because racism and discrimination no longer exist; we know those are still out there.  It’s just that in today’s hyperconnected, hypercompetitive world, with millions of young people from China and India and Brazil — many of whom started with a whole lot less than all of you did — all of them entering the global workforce alongside you, nobody is going to give you anything that you have not earned.  (Applause.)

Nobody cares how tough your upbringing was.  Nobody cares if you suffered some discrimination.  And moreover, you have to remember that whatever you’ve gone through, it pales in comparison to the hardships previous generations endured — and they overcame them.  And if they overcame them, you can overcome them, too.  (Applause.)

You now hail from a lineage and legacy of immeasurably strong men — men who bore tremendous burdens and still laid the stones for the path on which we now walk.  You wear the mantle of Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington, and Ralph Bunche and Langston Hughes, and George Washington Carver and Ralph Abernathy and Thurgood Marshall, and, yes, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  These men were many things to many people.  And they knew full well the role that racism played in their lives.  But when it came to their own accomplishments and sense of purpose, they had no time for excuses.

Every one of you have a grandma or an uncle or a parent who’s told you that at some point in life, as an African American, you have to work twice as hard as anyone else if you want to get by.  I think President Mays put it even better:  He said, “Whatever you do, strive to do it so well that no man living and no man dead, and no man yet to be born can do it any better.”  (Applause.)

And I promise you, what was needed in Dr. Mays’s time, that spirit of excellence, and hard work, and dedication, and no excuses is needed now more than ever.  If you think you can just get over in this economy just because you have a Morehouse degree, you’re in for a rude awakening.  But if you stay hungry, if you keep hustling, if you keep on your grind and get other folks to do the same — nobody can stop you.  (Applause.)

And when I talk about pursuing excellence and setting an example, I’m not just talking about in your professional life.  One of today’s graduates, Frederick Anderson — where’s Frederick?  Frederick, right here.  (Applause.)  I know it’s raining, but I’m going to tell about Frederick.  Frederick  started his college career in Ohio, only to find out that his high school sweetheart back in Georgia was pregnant.  So he came back and enrolled in Morehouse to be closer to her.  Pretty soon, helping raise a newborn and working night shifts became too much, so he started taking business classes at a technical college instead — doing everything from delivering newspapers to buffing hospital floors to support his family.

And then he enrolled at Morehouse a second time.  But even with a job, he couldn’t keep up with the cost of tuition.  So after getting his degree from that technical school, this father of three decided to come back to Morehouse for a third time.  (Applause.)  As Frederick says, “God has a plan for my life, and He’s not done with me yet.”

And today, Frederick is a family man, and a working man, and a Morehouse Man.  (Applause.)  And that’s what I’m asking all of you to do:  Keep setting an example for what it means to be a man.  (Applause.)  Be the best husband to your wife, or you’re your boyfriend, or your partner.  Be the best father you can be to your children.  Because nothing is more important.

I was raised by a heroic single mom, wonderful grandparents — made incredible sacrifices for me.  And I know there are moms and grandparents here today who did the same thing for all of you.  But I sure wish I had had a father who was not only present, but involved.  Didn’t know my dad.  And so my whole life, I’ve tried to be for Michelle and my girls what my father was not for my mother and me.  I want to break that cycle where a father is not at home — (applause) — where a father is not helping to raise that son or daughter.  I want to be a better father, a better husband, a better man.

It’s hard work that demands your constant attention and frequent sacrifice.  And I promise you, Michelle will tell you I’m not perfect.  She’s got a long list of my imperfections.  (Laughter.)  Even now, I’m still practicing, I’m still learning, still getting corrected in terms of how to be a fine husband and a good father.  But I will tell you this:  Everything else is unfulfilled if we fail at family, if we fail at that responsibility.  (Applause.)

I know that when I am on my deathbed someday, I will not be thinking about any particular legislation I passed; I will not be thinking about a policy I promoted; I will not be thinking about the speech I gave, I will not be thinking the Nobel Prize I received.  I will be thinking about that walk I took with my daughters.  I’ll be thinking about a lazy afternoon with my wife. I’ll be thinking about sitting around the dinner table and seeing them happy and healthy and knowing that they were loved.  And I’ll be thinking about whether I did right by all of them.

So be a good role model, set a good example for that young brother coming up.  If you know somebody who’s not on point, go back and bring that brother along — those who’ve been left behind, who haven’t had the same opportunities we have — they need to hear from you.  You’ve got to be engaged on the barbershops, on the basketball court, at church, spend time and energy and presence to give people opportunities and a chance.  Pull them up, expose them, support their dreams.  Don’t put them down.

We’ve got to teach them just like what we have to learn, what it means to be a man — to serve your city like Maynard Jackson; to shape the culture like Spike Lee; to be like Chester Davenport, one of the first people to integrate the University of Georgia Law School.  When he got there, nobody would sit next to him in class.  But Chester didn’t mind.  Later on, he said, “It was the thing for me to do.  Someone needed to be the first.”  And today, Chester is here celebrating his 50th reunion.  Where is Chester Davenport?  He’s here.  (Applause.)

So if you’ve had role models, fathers, brothers like that — thank them today.  And if you haven’t, commit yourself to being that man to somebody else.

And finally, as you do these things, do them not just for yourself, but don’t even do them just for the African American community.  I want you to set your sights higher.  At the turn of the last century, W.E.B. DuBois spoke about the “talented tenth” — a class of highly educated, socially conscious leaders in the black community.  But it’s not just the African American community that needs you.  The country needs you.  The world needs you.

As Morehouse Men, many of you know what it’s like to be an outsider; know what it’s like to be marginalized; know what it’s like to feel the sting of discrimination.  And that’s an experience that a lot of Americans share.  Hispanic Americans know that feeling when somebody asks them where they come from or tell them to go back.  Gay and lesbian Americans feel it when a stranger passes judgment on their parenting skills or the love that they share.  Muslim Americans feel it when they’re stared at with suspicion because of their faith.  Any woman who knows the injustice of earning less pay for doing the same work — she knows what it’s like to be on the outside looking in.

So your experiences give you special insight that today’s leaders need.  If you tap into that experience, it should endow you with empathy — the understanding of what it’s like to walk in somebody else’s shoes, to see through their eyes, to know what it’s like when you’re not born on 3rd base, thinking you hit a triple.  It should give you the ability to connect.  It should give you a sense of compassion and what it means to overcome barriers.

And I will tell you, Class of 2013, whatever success I have achieved, whatever positions of leadership I have held have depended less on Ivy League degrees or SAT scores or GPAs, and have instead been due to that sense of connection and empathy — the special obligation I felt, as a black man like you, to help those who need it most, people who didn’t have the opportunities that I had — because there but for the grace of God, go I — I might have been in their shoes.  I might have been in prison.  I might have been unemployed.  I might not have been able to support a family.  And that motivates me.  (Applause.)

So it’s up to you to widen your circle of concern — to care about justice for everybody, white, black and brown. Everybody.  Not just in your own community, but also across this country and around the world.  To make sure everyone has a voice, and everybody gets a seat at the table; that everybody, no matter what you look like or where you come from, what your last name is — it doesn’t matter, everybody gets a chance to walk through those doors of opportunity if they are willing to work hard enough.

When Leland Shelton was four years old — where’s Leland?  (Applause.)  Stand up, Leland.  When Leland Shelton was four years old, social services took him away from his mama, put him in the care of his grandparents.  By age 14, he was in the foster care system.  Three years after that, Leland enrolled in Morehouse.  And today he is graduating Phi Beta Kappa on his way to Harvard Law School.  (Applause.)  But he’s not stopping there. As a member of the National Foster Care Youth and Alumni Policy Council, he plans to use his law degree to make sure kids like him don’t fall through the cracks.  And it won’t matter whether they’re black kids or brown kids or white kids or Native American kids, because he’ll understand what they’re going through.  And he’ll be fighting for them.  He’ll be in their corner.  That’s leadership.  That’s a Morehouse Man right there.  (Applause.)

That’s what we’ve come to expect from you, Morehouse — a legacy of leaders — not just in our black community, but for the entire American community.  To recognize the burdens you carry with you, but to resist the temptation to use them as excuses.  To transform the way we think about manhood, and set higher standards for ourselves and for others.  To be successful, but also to understand that each of us has responsibilities not just to ourselves, but to one another and to future generations.  Men who refuse to be afraid.  Men who refuse to be afraid.

Members of the Class of 2013, you are heirs to a great legacy.  You have within you that same courage and that same strength, the same resolve as the men who came before you.  That’s what being a Morehouse Man is all about.  That’s what being an American is all about.

Success may not come quickly or easily.  But if you strive to do what’s right, if you work harder and dream bigger, if you set an example in your own lives and do your part to help meet the challenges of our time, then I’m confident that, together, we will continue the never-ending task of perfecting our union.

Congratulations, Class of 2013.  God bless you.  God bless Morehouse.  And God bless the United States of America.  (Applause.)

Republicans and right-wing talkers, gleefully embracing every bit of scandalous news they might be able to peg to the president, picked yet another issue to badger President Obama on Thursday.

His umbrella.

Specifically, his decision to have a Marine hold an umbrella for him while he spoke at a press conference alongside Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan Thursday.

Pundits like Sean Hannity and Eric Bolling used the moment as a metaphor to bash the president on Obama again. “Wouldn’t it be nice if he had them covered the way they have him covered?” Bolling asked. Hannity said, “They were protecting him and maybe in this case he should have been protecting them and the people in Libya.

Sarah Palin used the moment to talk more about the IRS.

Scandalous Hat TrickMr. President, when it rains it pours, but most Americans hold their own umbrellas. Today in… fb.me/zAZryzjj

— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) May 17, 2013

Most Americans do hold their own umbrellas, but Palin seems to have forgotten she’s leaned on others for help staying dry too.

Umbrella-gate has even been the subject of some quasi-serious journalism. The Daily Caller disclosed that the president had breached “Marine umbrella protocol,” and CNN talked to a Marine Corps spokesman to find out that seeing a “uniformed Marines holding umbrellas is ‘extremely rare‘ and only happened because the president needed it.”

A quick Google image search for the phrase “Obama umbrella” quickly proves how the moment has lit up the right-wing corners of the Internet.

This particular scandal shouldn’t rise to the level of Congressional hearings–and the president’s critics keep glossing over one key point: he didn’t call for the umbrella for himself.

“I am going to go ahead and ask folks–why don’t we get a couple of Marines,” he said on Thursday. “Just because I’ve got a change of suits, but I don’t know about our [visiting Turkish] prime minister.  There we go. That’s good. You guys, I’m sorry about.”

Why paint the president as a gracious host when you can paint him as a lazy elitist instead?

Obama’s far from the only president to use an umbrella holder.

In a letter addressed to House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Heritage Action, the lobbying arm of the Heritage Foundation, wrote Thursday that it would be “imprudent” to allow any legislative matters to get in the way of the recent events that have “rightly focused the nation’s attention squarely on the actions of the Obama administration.”

The letter continued:

It is incumbent upon the House of Representatives to conduct oversight hearings on those actions, but it would be imprudent to do anything that shifts the focus from the Obama administration to the ideological differences within the House Republican Conference. To that end, we urge you to avoid bringing any legislation to the House Floor that could expose or highlight major schisms within the conference.”

Heritage says “controversial” legislation like the proposed Internet sales tax or FARRM Act because of its $800 billion in “food stamp spending” should be pushed aside because potential party infighting “would give the press a reason to shift their attention away from the failures of the Obama administration to write another ‘circular firing squad’ article.”

And yet, the legislation that divides the House GOP has a much better chance of getting signed into law than bills like the 37th repeal of Obamacare. Some of the only substantive legislation signed into law this year–the Violence Against Women Act and Superstorm Sandy aid package–required moderate Republicans to split from their extreme colleagues and join Democrats.

If House leadership continues to heed the warning, it could mean the 113th Congress is even less productive than the “Do Nothing” 112th was. With only 128 days left on the legislative calendar for 2013, and hints from Boehner that his 37th vote to repeal Obamacare was far from the end, it already almost appears inevitable.

The Heritage vision of Congress played out Friday as the House Ways and Means Committee grilled outgoing IRS commissioner Steven Miller on what he knew.

Despite all the recent talk in Washington about scandals, the vast majority of Americans continue to say that job creation is their number one priority, while just over half of the country is paying attention to the scandals with the Benghazi attacks or the IRS.

Perhaps that’s why the president is in Maryland Friday talking about jobs.

Arizona Senator John McCain accused her of “not being very bright.” New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte said Rice showed “incompetence” or was “blatantly misleading the American people.” South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham claimed she was “so disconnected to reality, I don’t trust her.”

As supportive as the president remained of her throughout the process, the attacks eventually led Rice to withdraw her name from consideration for Secretary of State. And Republicans, still not satisfied, continued to tarnish her name.

But this week, she’s been vindicated. The 94-pages of emails released by the White House show that Rice had nothing to do with crafting the talking points she read on September 16.

As the Washington Post’s analysis of the emails found:

“Susan E. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who did not directly participate in the e-mail exchanges, appeared on a series of Sunday shows two days after the Petraeus briefing. ….

White House officials have argued that Rice was using talking points that reflected the administration consensus at that time, and the e-mails appear to support that contention.

The talking points, which were edited a dozen times between Sept. 14 and 15, did not reach Rice, whose office made several pleas for them to be sent as quickly as possible, until after 3 p.m. the day before she appeared on the shows.”

So now that she’s been cleared, where’s the apology?

“The GOP smear campaign against Ambassador Rice was vicious, personal, and wrong,” said Rev. Al Sharpton on PoliticsNation on Thursday. “That’s why she deserves an apology, but I won’t hold my breath.”

She may still have the last laugh. New reports indicate that Rice is expected to be named to the role of National Security Adviser, a post that will bring her into the Obama cabinet–without sending her to the Senate for confirmation.

In the House, Republicans took up their 37th vote to repeal Obamacare on Thursday, and 20 states currently oppose the Medicaid expansion that could offer care to some of the neediest Americans who currently have no insurance and little means to afford health care, even when they’re sick.

But thanks to charity efforts, there are still some options, and this week Rev. Al Sharpton announced Urgent Care–an important initiative MSNBC is taking as it renews its commitment to provide health care to those who lack insurance by joining forces with the National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics (NAFC).

How can I help?

Beginning this summer, PoliticsNation will formally take up the cause that was launched by the network in 2009, which has provided health care to over 15,000 Americans who don’t have regular access to doctors. MSNBC and NAFC workers return to New Orleans on July 3rd, setting up a clinic at the convention center. The free clinic will be open to the public, providing each patient a diagnosis, prescriptions, and information on where they can continue to get health services and aftercare.

To make that happen, we need donations and volunteers.

Click here to make a donation.

Click here to sign up to volunteer.

Why should I help?

This upcoming clinic will be the eighth that MSNBC has sponsored, returning again to New Orleans, where the partnership first started in 2009. The New Orleans community continues to need care, as NAFC’s Executive Director Nicole Lamoureux explained on Thursday’s show. Despite the eight years that have passed since Hurricane Katrina, not all of the hospitals in the city have been rebuilt. “There are people who really want to go to a doctor, but there isn’t one to go to,” she said. “At the New Orleans clinic, we’re going to find people who haven’t seen a doctor since last time we were there.”

“Eighty percent of the patients who come to free clinics across the country, and our one-day clinics, have jobs,” she said on Thursday’s PoliticsNation. “They’re not just lazy people doing nothing. They’re working everyday. They’ve making that choice between putting food on the table or getting health care and no one should make that choice.”

“Health care should be a right, not a privilege.”

Those past clinics have provided invaluable care, with patients treated for everything from basic dental care to hypertension, even heart disease and cancer. Numerous patients have required immediate emergency care and have been transported directly to the ER where they were treated for severe medical conditions. The clinic staff has helped to save lives too — at least seven patients who came to past clinics sought psychological help because they were contemplating suicide.

“It’s our job to take care of our neighbors, that’s who we’re here for,” Lamoureux said.

Over the past 2 years, MSNBC viewers have donated almost 4-million dollars and over 15,000 volunteers, doctors, and nurses have come together to run them. We cannot continue to offer this support without the help of our viewers. Please consider clicking the button below to give what you can to help those in need.

As Lamoureux explained, ”When you hear people say to me, ‘I can’t afford it, I can’t afford four-dollar meds because I don’t know where my next meal’s coming from, because I’m too busy paying my bills,’ we’re here to help. That’s what we’re gonna do. That’s what you’re helping us do. That’s what MSNBC’s helping us do.”