OBAMA AT SEIU. Homecare worker Pauline Beck is introducing Barack Obama, who “walked in her shoes” in California on Aug. 8. The Senator made breakfast and did the laundry for her charge, 86-year old John Thornton, Beck said. Now we’re watching a video of Obama’s day with Beck. He met her at home before dawn and ate with her kids before heading to work.

Beck is a great reminder that female workers in the caring professions are increasingly the face of the 21st century labor movement.

Here comes Obama to the strains of Aretha Franklin‘s “Freedom.” The crowd jumps to its feet. He’s hugging everybody on stage. He leads a chant: “SEIU! SEIU!” And now he’s beginning his speech. He gives a shout out to “my homies” in SEIU.

—Dana Goldstein

Dana Goldstein, a former associate editor and writer at the Prospect, comes from a family of public-school educators. She received the Spencer Fellowship in Education Journalism, a Schwarz Fellowship at the New America Foundation, and a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellowship at the Nation Institute. Her journalism is regularly featured in Slate, The Atlantic, The Nation, The Daily Beast, and other publications, and she is a staff writer at the Marshall Project.