@petesouza: Surprise! Kids and the First Lady react to seeing President Obama, when he stopped by the WH Talent Show today
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Here’s how @TurnaroundArts is helping to improve low-performing schools and narrow the achievement gap: http://t.co/V6a8pfGs0B #ReachHigher
— The First Lady (@FLOTUS) May 20, 2025
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First Lady Michelle Obama and President Barack Obama at a talent show in the East Room of the White House, May 20. President Obama’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities held the first-ever White House Talent Show featuring performances by major artists and showcasing the talents of students from schools participating in the Turnaround Arts program which helps to turn around low-performing schools and increase student achievement through arts education
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“The @TurnaroundArts program has exceeded not just our expectations, but our wildest hopes & dreams” —The First Lady: http://t.co/V6a8pfGs0B — The First Lady (@FLOTUS) May 20, 2025
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The First Lady, @SJP & @BillyBush discuss the importance of arts education at the 1st-ever @WhiteHouse Talent Show. pic.twitter.com/VVaEjm6zVK
— The First Lady (@FLOTUS) May 20, 2025
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.@BillyBush chats exclusively with @FLOTUS & @SJP about @TurnaroundArts -Tonight on @AccessHollywood & Wed on @LiveAccess & @AccessHollywood
— Access Hollywood (@accesshollywood) May 20, 2025
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Actress Sarah Jessica Parker and students from the Martin Luther King, Jr., School in Portland, Ore., point to First Lady Michelle Obama in the front row as they perform during the White House Talent Show
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White House.gov
I love these photos
Congrats on 1st Proud!!!!!!
Excellent selection of pictures and videos from this super event, Chips. Thank you
Thanks
You are right Bobfr it was a supper event. I watched it live and the kids were fantastic, all of them. It is a great program.
And it is time to put arts back in all schools. Everyone isn’t meant to be a athlete. The arts is very valuable for these kids.
Evening folks
Looks like so much fun.
Nice photos Chips. I really enjoyed the event.
A pleasure COS, and thanks to the Jewel that is JER for the videos!
Congrats to Mrs. Grimes. I hope she kick McTurtle’s a$$.
She’s blowing out her Dem competition 72%. Turtle only managing 62% against wingnut
Actually even higher 77%
oh good for her! I have checked in with her every now and then and she is always working hard. Hope she wins.
Grimes had twice the number of people who voted for MCCONNEL . She has a good chance to win in November.
Let’s see Chuckles spin it as “enthusiasm gap.”
Oh yes my Sista. She’s got this!!
they were so happy to see POTUS.
loved it.
And as I have been saying in previous posts where children that age are shown with PBO, the kids who were jumping were probably just toddlers/preschoolers when PBO got elected…they should be taking him for granted because he’s pretty much all they’ve known, yet that’s not what we see, time and time again.
I will call it Obamacare until my last breath ….
thisssssssssssssssssssss
ABSOLUTELY.
He’s making it into a *joke* but he’s well aware of this very disturbing trend of certain folks (not just the GOP) not wanting to give him any credit for his Presidential accomplishments.
As Bob said, I will call it Obamacare until my last.
The Prince gets it ….
yes! I agree with Prince Charles! It’s flipping creepy watching Putin doing what he’s doing. It’s like history being repeated.
Well what do you know, the right wing conservatives is supporting a modern day Hitler. Putin Hitler, is their any wonder they all think he is such a great leader.
Isn’t this MAJOR that Prince Charles is saying this?
(I hate to be a miserable auld bag - hush - but nothing Charles says means anything, he’s an obnoxious dick. Okay, I’ll go now).
(I feel the same way about him! Asking as a general “royal” thingie. Ignore!)
Not cool Rouhani!
This video truly needs to ‘go viral’ …..
I loved the vid—-it was so joyful and innocent and………..Happy! What a shame they were made to “repent”. How wrongheaded and silly is that!
agreed Dotster. They were just young folks having a great time.
And it was so well done! They obviously had a marvelous time, and enjoyed every minute. It made me smile and feel very happy indeed. I hope things go well for them all, and this turns around to be a positive for Iran.
How sad some of the adults must be………
So a DOJ lawyer’s son, Carney’s daughter, a spiritual adviser for President Obama is coach, David Plouffe’s kid, and David Gregory’s kids all play in the same Little League…..only in D.C.
Jim Wallis, a member of President Obama’s faith council, has a rule when he coaches the Tigers in the Northwest Washington Little League’s 10- to 12-year-old division: No talking politics with the influential Washington parents whose kids dot the rosters. But he made an exception Monday evening when the leader of the free world showed up unexpectedly at Friendship Park in Northwest as the team was warming up. “Obama smiled and said, ‘Wallis! What are you doing here?’ ” Wallis recalled Tuesday…….
David Gregory’s kids also attend Sidwell Friends.
Yep…… I think the therapist that MTP brought in has his/her hands all over this one…. Category: “Show your softer side….the ratings can’t stay this bad forever”
Shouldn’t he be holdin’ Green Eggs and Ham?
Unfortunately you look goofy all the time……
Okay so that explains his hostility toward PBO. The President and FLOTUS have taught their daughters to be very very particular about who they keep company. Oh how I love my PBO and FLOTUS.
Indeed, his golden parachute is full now, he should just go. Besides not doing anything good for this country….
There was a rather quaint earnestness to Per On jobless benefits, ‘I’m worried’
05/20/14 12:42 PM
By Steve Benen
A couple of weeks ago, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez sent a fairly detailed letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), suggesting a dialog on extended federal unemployment benefits. “You have indicated that [Emergency Unemployment Compensation] should only be extended in combination with job-creation measures, but EUC is itself an effective job creation tool,” Perez explained.
There was a rather quaint earnestness to Perez’s appeal – the Labor Secretary seems to believe there’s a policy dispute that can be resolved by information and an exchange of ideas.
Alas, there’s ample evidence to the contrary. The Speaker’s office quickly dismissed Perez’s letter, saying it didn’t include a new plan for creating jobs. What about the fact that an extension would itself create jobs? Boehner’s aides brushed that aside.
The issue seems to have largely faded from front pages, but it’s been nearly six months since congressional Republicans cut off unemployment benefits for roughly 1.3 million Americans – a number that climbs by about 72,000 people every week. It’s also been nearly two months since the Senate approved a bipartisan compromise to extend the jobless aid.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/jobless-benefits-im-worried
I love this post and I just love our First Couple. What a powerful, positive force they are for children and people everywhere. I had a smile on my face looking at the pictures and watching the videos. How lucky I am to be an American and VOTER when the Obama’s are in the White House!! Thanks for this, Chips.
Now to go back and catch up on the other great news today you have for us.
A pleeeeeeasure TME, thank you!!
I love how easy it is for the Obama’s to express their affection and love for each other in front of others in a positive natural way. When my late husband and I served our church as marriage preparers we taught the best thing you can do for your children is love each other. It is a role model for what a marriage can be.
The next big fight over the safety net
By Greg Sargent
May 20 at 2:58 pm
Word has it that Democrats are set to take a shellacking in the 2014 elections, in part because midterm electorates tend to be older and whiter. So what if Dems campaigned on expanding Social Security, rather than allowing themselves to get drawn into another debate over how much to cut the program?
There’s a hook for this looming: The coming battle over disability insurance, which is a part of Social Security.
Dem Senator Sherrod Brown, a member of the Finance Committee, tells me that GOP Senators have requested hearings into Social Security Disability Insurance this summer. Dems expect Republicans to attack the program as wasteful and fraudulent, in part because conservative media have already done so, and in part because at least one GOP proposal in recent days took aim at the program.
Brown says Dems should seize this occasion to get behind a proposal that would lift or change the payroll tax cap, meaning higher earners would pay more, while adopting a new measure for inflation that would increase benefits for all seniors. Instead of getting drawn into debates about “Chained CPI” and other entitlement cuts, Brown says, Dems should make the case that stagnating wages and declining pensions and savings demand an expansion of social insurance.
“We should stop playing defense on Social Security, and instead talk about why Social Security is a public pension that we should be proud of, that has lifted tens of millions of people out of poverty,” Brown tells me. “The three-legged stool — Social Security, pensions, private savings — has seen two of the legs sawed off for a large number of people. It’s time to look at expanding Social Security as an issue of retirement security.”
Brown said he expects Republicans to renew attacks on disability insurance (as opposed to the retirement security portion) to divide supporters of Social Security and renew the push for structural changes to the program, and said Dems could use that to draw an effective contrast. SSDI’s trust fund is set to be depleted soon, but that could be solved by a reallocation fix that’s been done before, rather than a deep benefits cut, which Republicans may press for.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/05/20/the-next-big-fight-over-the-safety-net/
THIS
Yes, meta, TURNOUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I REALLY HOPE these percentages hold!!!!!!
Wonderful event among many, many wonderful events for children in the arts, STEM and health. The Obamas walk the walk.
….BoooooooooooooooM!!!!!! Warriorrrrrrrrrrr Woman
That is just BEAUTIFUL!!!!!
The shorter girl in the blue dress never really stops crying.
Indeed meta. And as I keep saying, these kids were relatively young when PBO got elected. Five yrs is a LONG time for most of them…you would expect them to be taking this for granted but they aren’t…
What a great event with FLOTUS. PBO’s appearance once again shows that children love him, not because he is president but because he is a decent honest man.
I just love how the POTUS looks at the FLOTUS! Sometimes it seems he is just simply amazed that she is in his life….and that she is his wife!
I wish you all were able to see the kids perform today. They were fill with such talent and they were all so enjoyable to watch.
I hope there’s a video archive somewhere. I will check the WH website, hopefully there is some footage of the talented kids performing.
I hope there is too hopefruit2, you will enjoy watching those kids.
You noticed that, too?! He just can’t keep is eyes of her! He’s such a romantic.
And I think FLOTUS said my honey about three times, maybe more.
PBO is like a benevolent pied piper toward children. It was so precious seeing the kids light up and run to hug and cling to him. They instinctively know his heart and that it is big enough to hold each of them. Seeing PBO and Michelle joyfully surrounded by little ones, hugging and holding them just brings tears to my eyes. It is sad that even though every First Couple in the modern era had children, some of which were young during their parents tenure, it seemed that they did not have the capacity to really see and love children beyond their own. In the Obamas we have a truly transformative couple, one whose influence will live on long after they leave the White House.
I love this focus on the Arts as a very necessary part of everyone’s life; it is something that I have long believed and promoted.
I’m so tired and couldn’t think of a better way to word this tweet, but this is a very important article about the absolutely horrific decision Reagan made when he sent Marines into Beirut. Democrats and some GOP fought it, but when the tragedy happened, the Democrats acted with grace.
….The GOP’s recent efforts to gin up presidential scandals in punitive hearings, media lynchings, and weekly calls for impeachment, evince a party-wide pathology that puts partisanship over patriotism. For Republicans who believe that patriotism ends with lapel pins and cowboy costumes, it might be useful to consider some historical examples of true patriotism by a political party…..
….As the meeting ended [with Reagan], O’Neill in a gesture of warmth and support, reached out and touched Reagan’s sleeve, “Good luck.” O’Neill had considered Reagan’s Lebanon enterprise a fool’s errand from the outset, and had predicted it would end tragically. But the following day, he made what Congressional Democrats called the most passionate appeal of his tenure as speaker. He told the closed Democratic caucus that “it was their duty, now, not to criticize but to support their President and to do nothing to undermine him no matter what the political advantage.” O’Neill told them that it was time for “patriotism over partisanship.”….
I don’t watch these shows but this was a very classy thing to do:
Awww….very classy indeed, and also - no coincidence that they share first & last name
Wonderful coincidence indeed- as we’ve noted here!
The good nurse is probably a West Indian immigrant.
Thanks for posting Meta. Lawrence is one of the shows I watch most of the time. He looks good with the beard. Lawrence is pretty fair.
So he is released from the Hospital?
He looks so thin. I wish LOD well.
Yes, I think he said he’s on his way to LA.
Powerful. Beautiful. And very touching.
Yes it is, MP. The spirit of the Ukrainians should be inspirational for all.
He is not getting any love for that idiocy ….
ha! bob😉
Bob, you are good. 🐻
Someone needs to tweet him “If you were a male minority or female you NBC would have fired you already……enjoy your white privilege”.
Riffing on your insight, jojo …
Now that’s a Tweet with raw meat.
I❤ it.
Take that DG and say Hi to your analyst.
Kind of like how hard it is for Gregory to shake the Tea GOP’s shadow.
Thought I’d pour more salt in.
“You are the one dragging down MTP’s ratings in the toilet and you want to talk about Obama’s shadow? #ManPlease”
hahahahahahahaha.
So DG ONLY saw problems for the Dem irrespective of the low approval of McConnell?
Thus far, more people voted for the Dems than in the GOP race.
Jer, we have 42 percent of the vote officially in and counted and Wolf has 247, 716, or 58 percent of the vote. The next highest is Allyson Schwartz who came in at just 17 percent of the vote. At this point, more than twice as many Democrats showed up as Republicans. Corbett, running unopposed on the Republican side has 164, 452 votes so far.
jackie, are you pleased with these results?
Yes, meta, everyone knew that Wolf would win, given his commanding lead in the polls. I did not get the Lt. Gov I wanted, but then I’m not sure that a Lt. Gov actually does. Our county numbers have not come in yet, so I don’t know how our efforts paid in for local races. The good news is that so many Dems came out to vote, relative to R’s.
Thanks so much for filling us in. It’s important for us to see how these trends are playing out nationally.
A former SF mayor became our Lt. Gov. and he does absolutely nothing. And I mean nothing. My close friend in the Capitol has verified that. It’s a ceremonial office with not that much in the way of ceremonial duties. At least that’s how it is in CA. They should abolish the position.
Per Kentucky Official Election Site
With 79% of counties reporting
Total R votes 302,896
Total D votes 340,721
Grimes 263,126
McConnell 180,990
T-bagger 109,236 (most of those t-baggers ain’t gonna vote for Mitch)
http://results.enr.clarityelections.com/KY/50972/129544/en/summary.html
With 88% counties reporting
Total R votes 330,408
Total D votes 364,956
Grimes 280,982
McConnell 198,178
T-bagger 118,120 (most of those t-baggers ain’t gonna vote for Mitch)
http://results.enr.clarityelections.com/KY/50972/129544/en/summary.html
That speech sounds very Obama-esque to me…
I love my President & First Lady Obama! Currently, I’m on my phone. I can’t wait to see this on a larger screen. Squeeeeee!!!
Jer, please note that there were four candidates running against Wolf, including Schwartz. Rob McCord is a great guy and Katy McGinty has a strong future in the state. But Wolf did a fine job. Came on early and held his lead.
So Hillary’s big Lady whoever’s fundraiser didn’t help the recipient to victory?
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/house-races/206739-clinton-in-law-loses-comeback-bid
Former Rep. Marjorie Margolies (D-Pa.) has lost her comeback bid.
The Associated Press has called the Democratic primary for Pennsylvania state Rep. Brendan Boyle (D), who leads Margolies by 58 percent to 22 percent. Dr. Val Arkoosh (R) took 11 percent and Pennsylvania state Sen. Daylin Leach (D) netted 8 percent.
ADVERTISEMENT
Margolies, whose son is married to Chelsea Clinton, lost despite beginning the race with a huge lead in name recognition. She also benefitted from help from the Clintons: Both Bill and Hillary held fundraisers for her, and her final campaign ad featured a ringing endorsement from the former president.
The Clintons’ allegiance didn’t just stem from family ties. Margolies, as a freshman congresswoman, took a tough vote for Clinton’s 1993 budget that guaranteed its passage and all but doomed her to defeat.
…………………….//
Most excellent outcome, VC - and a message that Bill & Hillary would do themselves immeasurable self-preservation good to grok ….
Oooopsie. I guess inevitability ain’t what it used to be.
😉 You think this will give the Clintons pause? They seem so tone deaf, IMO.
Nah. They’re measuring the drapes.
smh - ONE of the things that turn me off about Hillary is that she seems so caught up in her own world/expectations that she gives the impression she really doesn’t SEE the people/needs around her.
I think she’s smart and dedicated to the idea of being in public office but I don’t personally find her particularly interesting or compelling as an individual. I don’t see innovation or risk-taking in her thinking and I don’t feel a sense of compassion outside of women’s issues. I’ve never heard her address Latino issues or what it means to be an American outside the bubble or her political orbit. She just doesn’t resonate with me.
Ditto Meta. In addition to all the very valid points you’ve raised about her as a politician, not only does Hillary not resonate with me, she comes across as calculating and therefore I am not usually at ease with her. In fact, I’m inclined to see her one strength (women’s issues) as more of a requirement; she had to have a focus, so that seemed a logical choice. I remain firm in my belief that she is not the leader for 2016 - nothing about her or her political approach suggests a 21st century leader for the US & the world! NOTHING!
I see we’re in agreement. BTW, I don’t particularly take pride in my opinion in some ways. I know she’s the Great White Female Hope for a lot of Americans but I just don’t get it. I really, really don’t get it.
You know what, Meta, it isn’t a question of pride in our opinions. I think we are simply being honest about how the woman makes us feel, and why should we feel apologetic about that?
I don’t hate her but I don’t really trust that she has a heart for the people either. I believe she is sincere in her desire to be ‘serving’, but I do not see her sincerity of purpose when or as she serves, at least not to others as much as to herself and her family. I suspect most of those in political or media circles who are gung-ho about her are so in anticipation of what they can get.
I really better go to bed so I’m won’t be heavy-lidded tomorrow. G’Night.
Good night. Rest well. Great to chat with you.
Same here, M.
The pathetic state of ‘journalism’ in Russia went from obvious to truly laughable and very sexist. RT was caught almost instantaneously of airing footage from one of Putin’s purges in North Caucasus in 2012 as if it were a recent result in Ukraine.
The response ….
“Russian state television has found a scapegoat for its silly mistake of airing old footage of a corpse slain in Russia’s North Caucasus, and suggesting it was a civilian killed by Kyiv’s forces in eastern Ukraine.
Chalk it up to an innocent bimbo eruption.
Commenting on a lengthy Rossia-1 newscast that recently featured the retread footage, deputy All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company head Dmitry Kiselyov has said that “young, nymphet video technicians” were responsible.”
http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-tv-ukraine-nymphets/25392035.html
Needless to say, folk are not being at all gentle about deriding them …
Read the article by Robert Kennedy, Jr. on Beirut and Reagan. Reagan was every bit as despicable as I thought he was. He certainly should have been impeached…….Republicans’ god!!!
Wow…this woman is stupid…
And:
I knew I could always come here and read the answer to any question. Thank you for posting the vote totals…Dem turnout was better than I expected.
Chat on!
https://theobamadiary.com/2014/05/20/chat-on-13/