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NYT: President Obama skipped dessert at a long summit meeting dinner in Cambodia on Monday to rush back to his hotel suite. It was after 11:30 p.m., and his mind was on rockets in Gaza rather than Asian diplomacy. He picked up the telephone to call the Egyptian leader who is the new wild card in his Middle East calculations.
Over the course of the next 25 minutes, he and President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt hashed through ways to end the latest eruption of violence, a conversation that would lead Mr. Obama to send Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the region. As he and Mr. Morsi talked, Mr. Obama felt they were making a connection. Three hours later, at 2:30 in the morning, they talked again.
…. The White House phone log tells part of the tale. Mr. Obama talked with Mr. Morsi three times within 24 hours and six times over the course of several days, an unusual amount of one-on-one time for a president. Mr. Obama told aides he was impressed with the Egyptian leader’s pragmatic confidence. He sensed an engineer’s precision with surprisingly little ideology. Most important, Mr. Obama told aides that he considered Mr. Morsi a straight shooter who delivered on what he promised and did not promise what he could not deliver.
Full article here
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President Obama talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel during a phone call from his hotel suite in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Nov. 19 (Pete Souza)
President Barack Obama talks on the phone with Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, aboard Air Force One during the flight from Phnom Penh, Cambodia to Washington, D.C., Nov. 20. National Security Advisor Tom Donilon listens at right. (Pete Souza)
President Barack Obama talks on the phone with Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi in the Oval Office, Nov. 21. Chief of Staff Jack Lew, National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, and Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough listen in the foreground. (Pete Souza)
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Happy Thanksgiving everyone
say hello to mark & denise
Tags: autograph, Barack, bo, book, children, children's, college, comment, daughter, denise, dog, eastfield, funny, kids, laboratory, Mark, mesquite, message, Obama, President, Rodriguez, school, signed, texas
Can you pass on a great, big heartfelt “Thank you” to Pres Obama from me and my wife please? You see, it’s our daughters’ book he’s signing in that picture! She actually spoke up and asked if he could sign it, and he was nice enough to oblige :0)
We bought the book a year or two ago to inspire two young daughters of our own, and we quickly took it to her class when told he’d be visiting the school. Yes, we entertained the idea of him signing it, and thought “wouldn’t it be nice!”, but knew it was a long-shot. We especially never thought our little one would take the initiative like she did and ask him in front of everyone haha! So, anyway, we were thrilled and over the moon when everyone told us the news and especially how it came about with a little voice asking at the right time, in a big way.
Everyone was so thrilled as they talked about how gracious President Obama was, and we are still on cloud 9 ourselves after seeing pictures of him interacting with our daughter and her classmates/teachers! It’s an experience our family will never forget, and we plan to have those pictures in that signed book for a long time to come!
Thank you for such a wonderful experience President Obama! We know our daughter will cherish the memory of it the rest of her life.
~ Mark and Denise Rodriguez
President Obama tours the Children’s Laboratory School at Eastfield College, Mesquite, Texas, October 4