Jack & Jill Politics

ABC News' Kate Snow to ask a reasonable question.

[W]hen I asked Palin if she ever decided to pursue national office again, as she did less than a year ago when she joined Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in the race for the White House, wouldn't she encounter the same political blood sport? Can such ugliness ever be avoided?

Palin said there is a difference between the White House and what she has experienced in Alaska. If she were in the White House the "department of law" would protect her from baseless ethical allegations.

"I think on a national level your department of law there in the White House would look at some of the things that we've been charged with and automatically throw them out," she said.

There is no "Department of Law" at the White House.

Like many first ladies, Michelle Obama spends a lot of her time in public with children. Her visit Moscow was no different. Mrs. Obama visited the St. Dmitriy Orphanage, meeting with about two dozen children.

The children range in age from four to 16, some are true orphans, some disabled, others come from so called “vulnerable families” – those with more than four to five children, who simply need help.


Several of the children performed for Mrs. Obama – some sang, others played piano. They presented her with handmade gifts, including a large geometrical ball made from paper, and a large framed hand embroidered flower. The young girl who presented the flower said it had taken her two days to complete.


The children asked Mrs. Obama how many children she has. She responded, two girls, including one named Sasha. Mrs. Obama explained that Natasha is Sasha’s full name, and that it is the President’s favorite name.


“How many Sasha’s do you have here?” she asked the group. There were three in all. Mrs. Obama told the children that her daughters are spending the day with their grandmother making dolls.

St. Dmitriy’s founder, Father Shatov Arkady, led the Mrs. Obama on her visit and said he wished she could stay forever. The First Lady choose to visit St. Dmitriy’s in part because it receives funding through USAID and the United Nations Development Program. After meeting with the children, Father Arkady took Mrs. Obama to meet with nursing students, who study in the same building.


The 20 faith-based nurses (not nuns) help St. Dmitriy’s with the orphans, and do larger outreach to help the sick in the community. Mrs. Obama spoke to the students about her own work at the University of Chicago’s Hospital before becoming first lady and the importance of volunteerism. She explained that in her new role, national service is one of her “signature projects.”


The nurses also presented Mrs. Obama with a gift – three hand-painted sets of matryoshka or “nesting” dolls. Upon request, Mrs. Obama signed a poster hanging on the wall.

Later this afternoon, some of the orphans, along with several hundred school children, will join Mrs. Obama and her Russian counterpart, Svetlana Medvedev, to watch the Moiseyev Dance Company perform.

POTUS gaffes about meeting wife

By JOSH GERSTEIN | 07/07/09 8:19 AM

Obama, who has seemed to set an impossibly high bar for many men when it comes to dealing with their wives, finally stumbled.
Read full story.

Barack Obama proves to be mortal husband

Husbands of the world rejoice!

President Barack Obama, who has seemed to set an impossibly high bar for many men when it comes to dealing with their wives, has finally stumbled — and in a very public way.

“I don’t know if anybody else will meet their future wife or husband in class like I did, but I’m sure that you’re all going to have wonderful careers,” he said as he warmed up the audience before delivering a commencement speech at an economics school in Moscow Tuesday.

Obama seemed to be playing off an introduction that referred to him meeting his future wife, Michelle Robinson, while he was a student. But the truth is that the couple met not “in class” but at a law firm in Chicago, Sidley Austin, in 1989. Obama was a summer associate (essentially a legal intern) there and Robinson was an attorney completing her first year at the firm. Both attended Harvard Law School, but Michelle graduated in the spring of 1988, while Barack Obama did not arrive at the Cambridge, Mass., campus until that fall.

It was unclear what prompted Obama’s confusion or lapse of memory, though he does have the excuse of jet lag. It was about 4 a.m. in Washington as he spoke.

The episode is sure to generate some schadenfreude, since Obama’s “date nights” taking Michelle to a Broadway show and to a fancy Paris restaurant led to feelings of inadequacy on the part of many husbands.

Unfortunately for the big guy, Michelle Obama is along for the trip and was on hand for the speech, so the president is almost certain to get an earful.

May I suggest flowers, Mr. President?

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24625...

Writer (...and Editor) of this article may want to choose to do a little more online research.

1. 1986 - 1993 Sidley Austin summer program included an classroom orientation for each "summer legal".

2. Each "intern" is required to attend the weekly orientation(s) for Q & A, Feedback and Assessment(s).

3. Michelle Robinson was assigned as Barack's proctor and "in-house mentor".

4. Barack Obama met Ms Robinson (the future First lady) on the first day of that orientation requirement.

The PotUS was correct in his original statement(s). This article fails Politico's journalism standards.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24625...

WALKING BACK RAHM? A day after his chief of staff suggested the White House could live with a public option-free health care reform bill, President Obama released a statement (from Russia!) reaffirming his support for a government-run health care plan:
"I am pleased by the progress we're making on health care reform and still believe, as I've said before, that one of the best ways to bring down costs, provide more choices, and assure quality is a public option that will force the insurance companies to compete and keep them honest. I look forward to a final product that achieves these very important goals." (10:15 a.m.)