The First Lady's Big London Day

MS,
That you were moved by your experience this afternoon shines through clearly in your writing. Thank you for a very nice set of reports.

Michael,

I don't want to ruin the party, but there's no genocide in Somalia. Widespread violence, fighting, and chaos, yes; genocide, no. It's important to get the distinction right in order to determine an appropriate response.

Otherwise, it was a good article. Appreciate the reporting.

I was just reading the Andrew Sullivan post on the First Lady's visits today to my friends here.
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Then I checked out this post. What a terrific article. You really caught the spirit of the day-- Michelle Obama's role, and the contrast in the inspirational image of the Obama family versus the difficulties the country and the president are confronting. What a great article, and what a contrast to your other article posted today on the underappreciated moment in the president's press conference. You wrote some truly excellent and varied articles on this trip. Thanks for the link.

You do very well when jet lagged and on the other side of the pond. Nicely written.

Michael, this is a lie: "In the President's world, everything is collapsing — markets, housing prices, confidence. "
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As of today the Dow is up 29 points since Bush's last day in office. The Right Track/Wrong Track survey is up dramatically (http://www.pollster.com/polls/us/issue-rdwt.php) since Obama was elected.
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If the job of a reporter is to provide facts, then you have simply failed. There is this thing called the Internet. It has applications that allow you to search for facts. You might want to try using "the Google." It took me all of 2 minutes on a slow connection to discover these two nuggets of information.
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The only question that remains is why you are lying to your readers. Are you ignorant of the facts, are you promoting right-wing propaganda, or are you just a bad writer reaching for a weak hook? Seriously, you need to be better at your job. When your reporting is as factually challenged as a George Will or David Broder column then you are doing something wrong.
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PS: no one reading the political blog of a flagship media property like Time cares what Michelle Obama is wearing. Those who do care are over at People or TMZ.

"I don't want to ruin the party, but there's no genocide in Somalia."
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I think Michael meant meeting with China over "Sudan" and the genocide in Darfur.

MS: Thank you for the article. I enjoyed it very much. I think a lack of sleep agrees with you. Once a month I make it a point to stay up for at least 36 straight hours (yesterday was my day). Sometimes it brings a focus of clarity. I look forward to more articles like this one on your trip. There is a second story going on during this trip and you covered it beautifully.

Watching the news conference-Sarkozy looks sour as he listens to BHO

I wonder if Sarkozy was thinking Obama was just a socialist wannabe? Snark.

sacredh--Le Piker?

LOL. Yeah, something like like. Maybe..."He wants socialism, I'll show him socialism."

As of today the Dow is up 29 points since Bush's last day in office.
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The Dow is not a scorecard. It was ridiculous when the R's were blaming Obama for its day to day drops. It's silly to take credit for daily rises. But I did just notice and interesting fact.
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/phd9/3409444758/
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If you take the growth rate exhibited from '85 to '94 and extend it out to today, it would appear that we're reasonably on target. Certainly avoiding boom/bust cycles and trying to restore fundementals would seem to be a sound strategy.