Filed under: Life
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Filed under: President Obama
After the awards ceremony on Monday, Obama had some downtime with the NCAA UConn Women’s Championship Team:
Moments after Monday’s event in front of the South Portico, President Barack Obama hustled the University of Connecticut’s women’s basketball team over to the outdoor half-court, away from reporters and cameras.
The president, a former high school player and avid fan who still plays pickup games, prevailed in a brief, impromptu game of P-I-G with a few of the players.
Filed under: President Obama
The 100 day mark is on Wednesday – and while your favorite student here has been out of the country for most of them, The Politico has quite the good round up:
When Obama took office, a raft of stories talked about how he had relied heavily on Clinton veterans to staff the administration and how he seemed likely to govern with a “centrist” ideology.
Three months later, this seems absurd. The reality is that the size and speed of Obama’s agenda is as stark a departure from the defensive-minded incrementalism of Bill Clinton as it is from the conservatism of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.
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Axelrod said that his boss isn’t “consumed by tactics or ideology” and that he cares deeply about reforming health care, lifting educational levels and being smarter about energy. “If in engaging in those, people want to call him a big-government liberal, he doesn’t care,” Axelrod said.
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Go back and read his 2007 speech announcing his candidacy for the White House, they say, and you’ll see that he vowed to do many of the things he has done during his first three months in office — or has promised to do before the close of this year.
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“It’s what he promised, and I think people are responding well to that,” Axelrod said. “Every single thing [we talk about] is completely consonant with what he talked about for two years” during the campaign. This message is echoed enough to suggest it’s the predicate for the 2012 reelection campaign.
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The truth is that Obama aides don’t really care if they win over Republicans, as long as the public sees the president as making a genuine attempt at it. In fact, some Obama officials think he’s better off with a standoff against an unpopular Republican Party. Either way, it’s clear Obama is putting less effort into winning over Republicans now than he did during his early days in office.
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Obama wasn’t just listening as the auto guys gave their spiel. He ran the meeting, as he does many National Security Council meetings, a responsibility that Bush often handed off to his national security adviser. One of the president’s tactics is to call on the one person in the room who seems to be holding back, to make sure any objections are on the table.
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“Don’t underestimate what happened here … don’t over-interpret what you’re allowed to do here,” he said. “Everybody’s got to conserve their political power, use their political power and know what you have and what you don’t have. … You’ve got to always monitor what you’ve got, how long that reach is before it snaps.”
Filed under: Democrats
60.
The big news today on the Hill for Democrats, Arlen Spector the Republican senator from PA is switching to the Democratic Party.
He cites the Republican party moving too far to the right and 200,000 Pennsylvanian voters switching to the Democratic Party the last election, although recent poll suggested that Spector, if he ran re-election as a Republican, probably would have lost – only having 39% support leading up to today’s announcement.
With Al Franken and Spector on the Democrats side in the Senate, that brings the Blue total up to 60 voters- a filibuster proof majority.
Oh the things that may be accomplished… to dream, to wish, to receive.
Today is a good day for the Democratic Party!
Filed under: London
Hey everyone. I’m back in Boston right now, but to update you on my last week in London, here we go…
When I last left off we were starting Sunday off. Sunday I studied in Starbucks and Hyde Park. That night, after Markey had finished her paper – we went off to Nandos to celebrate.
Monday it was back to paper editing and studying in the morning. In the afternoon we had our last class of the semester. And then we chilled the rest of the night. Tuesday and Wednesday all we did was study (and do laundry). Let’s just say that my hand really hurt when it came around for me to take my exam on Thursday. Markey was up all Wednesday night (she went to be at 6am) working on her paper for her Shakespeare class. Thursday was finals day and at 2pm, I was officially done with my second year of college.
After exams on Thursday, we all went off to Hyde Park to celebrate. Tulsi and I were charged with picking out the wine – who would have ever thought that the 19 year old would be teaching the 21 year old how to pick up wine. We got some lovely rose for ourselves (it’s a favorite) and then two bottles of white wine for Markey and Mal (and us). Mal and Markey went to Waitrose to get snacks. And we all sat down for our celebration by the circle fountain in Kensington Gardens. After polishing off three bottles of wine and all of our food (we were joined by Mike, Andrew, Mark, and Bekka), it was off to play frisbee, take pictures, and talk. Mike ended up hitting Mal in the face with the frisbee – and her nose got all swollen and black and blue. And of course, Mike being Mike, he didn’t apologize. So it was back to the Crofton to take an evening nap. Tulsi and I ended up getting Nandos take away for dinner as Mark came over for Mal’s dinner and Markey went out with Katherine from her work. The night ended by listening and singing along to The Lonely Island with Markey, Mal, and Mark, it was off to bed.
Friday was errands day. We took an adventure to the Toy Soldier museum, stopped by H&M to get Mal some clothes, and Harrods to pick up souveniers. Then it was off to High Street for some more shopping. Friday night, we all packed and then it was time to make our famous chicken parm for the whole floor. Mal, Markey, and I cooked chicken parm and everyone ate (and then didn’t help clean up). Mal, Markey, and I exchanged music- Mal’s DJ and London-type music certainly hit the spot in my iPod and took up another 800 spots on my iTunes. Then we spent a couple hours cleaning down the kitchen. And after, Mal, Markey, and I enjoyed fmylife.com, passiveagressivenotes.com, sorry-mom.com, and asleep on the subway before saying goodbye to Mal and heading off to bed at 3 am.
At 5am on Saturday, I woke up to get ready to go to the airport. I saw Markey off on the dot2dot at 6 and then Marnie and I left for Heathrow at 7. After checking bags and getting through security, Marnie and I had some breakfast at EAT (a place that I will certainly miss). Tulsi met us at the airport – she and Marnie are off to Milan, Florence, Venice, and Rome. I got on my flight at 11:25, aisle seat – LOVE – and sat on the plane for 7 hours heading back to Boston. We had three hours of turbulance throughout the flight – fun times! But I finally landed, got my bags, got through customs, and met Ciara at the airport.
Now I’m back in Boston through Thursday and then it’s back home for 4 months of summer vacation.
Filed under: President Obama
One thing that’s certain – coming back to the US – there’s certainly a loss of chivalry and manners among the male population (as opposed to the Brits). Sorry guys!
Take some tips from your President on this one.
Filed under: London
From Susan Boyle to Shaheen Jafargholi, your BU-London crew as seen it all – first.
Filed under: London
T-minus 6 days before I’m home in Boston. My next update may just be a wrap up from the lovely shores of Boston.
Monday night, it was off to work – schoolwork that is. I ended up finishing my research on my Multiculturalism paper and completing a final edit of my Tutorial paper.
Tuesday it was back to work. I mostly was wrapping up my loose ends – sending final emails, updating the church database, and prepping for our newsletter. Tuesday night I worked on my paper – getting about halfway done. Wednesday it was prepping for the mailing, all 400 letters and copies. Wednesday night I finished my paper- a very rough version though. Wednesday night I finally got a chance to talk for a while with my parents – very very good.
Thursday was the final day of the mailout and my final day of internship. I met up with Mal for lunch at Pret – in the rain. And then finally posted all of the letters. Thursdsay night, I came home, changed quick, and headed out to Islington to go to G’s for dinner. G made meatballs and pasta, along with salad and this cobbler-like dessert with custard. We had wine (red and rose) and champagne. It was a feast. I had the opportunity to meet Chris (and his friend Robbert) who were both really nice. It was interesting to view the middle class English family (this is the US-equivalent of upper class) in their home environment. Pete and G gave me gifts and kisses as I left. I got two books, a dishtowel of the Tube, and an Ethiopian cross necklace.
Friday I had off (because Pete was going on a trip). So I headed off to Oxford to hit up Primark and the souvenir stores. Then it was back home to get money out of the bank and stop at Tesco / Partridges to pick up food for what we thought was going to be a quesadilla dinner cooked by Mal. Instead it turned into just cheese quesadillas with Corona and Vodka Tonics. Then it was off to the Portobello Gold to initiate Tulsi and bring back some good memories of last quarter. Our favorite dog was there and the bartender with crazy hair was there too. Further – only the girl barmaid carded us – which is fine, we’re legal in England anyway – but still weird to be carded. After endulging in Freedom and Thatcher’s Gold it was back home – and off to bed.
Saturday Mal and I were up early to head to Hampton Court – Henry VIII’s favorite palace. We had lunch at Pizza Express – one food place that I will surely miss back in the US. Hampton Court was amazing and so beautiful. We saw William’s apartment, Mary II’s apartments, the King’s apartments, the Chapel, the kitchen, and the young Henry exhibit. We came on the day when Henry and Katharyn Parr were getting married – so we saw all of the people dressed up. We also came on the day of a real wedding – so we saw the bride and groom and their whole wedding party. The gardens at Hampton Court were extremely beautiful. My camera died taking all the pictures. We went though the old maze – getting lost of course – and nearly poking our eyes out because of the annoying music. When we got back, after unsuccessful attempts to go to High Street Ken and the laundromat, Mal made quesadilla. Then the whole flat engaged in a major beer pong tournament – while I just relaxed after a busy day in my room.
This morning, Markey and I were awoken by Mal, “knocking on your door at 10am?” (said Mark) – um, no, not quite. Today it’s off to Hyde Park to enjoy in the warm weather, then reading, and editing papers. Fun times.
Tomorrow’s our last class, Thursday papers are due and we have exams, and Saturday I leave London for Boston. See you soon!
