President Obama lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arlington National Cemetery, May 30
..with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen
First lady Michelle Obama greets Bob and Elizabeth Dole
President Obama place a challenge coin on the grave of a fallen soldier at Arlington National Cemetery
***
This made me laugh – there’s not a single mention of the President of the United States’ address at Arlington on Halperin’s page, instead the lead story is about…… the Flip-Flopper releasing a statement on Memorial Day 🙄
Steve Benen: ….a Memorial Day message sent out by Kevin DeWine, the chairman of the Ohio Republican Party. It starts off with a sentiment that’s easy to agree with … but DeWine couldn’t leave well enough alone.
“Here in Ohio, we must continue to defend liberty in a very different kind of struggle. Ohioans have the opportunity to preserve their rights when it comes to choosing their own health care. Democracy affords us the choice of accepting or fighting back to prevent against a $1 trillion government takeover of our nation’s health care system.
“You can download the Health Care Freedom Amendment petition by clicking here. As you go to events this weekend in honor of our Armed Forces and the sacrifices made by generations of courageous Americans, I hope you will consider taking the petition with you and circulating it to your friends and family.”
Seriously? Are we really to believe that American veterans who paid with their lives did so to protect insurance companies’ ability to screw over consumers?
DeWine’s message is obviously dishonest … but what’s tasteless about the message is the timing. It’s ostensibly a Memorial Day message, honoring the fallen during a time of war, but the subject line reads, “Help Stop Obamacare.” ….Even by GOP standards, this is cheap….
Politico: Six months ago, in the wake of the wipe-out midterm elections, moderate Florida Sen. Bill Nelson privately vented that President Barack Obama, weighed down by his health reform effort and muddled messaging, was “toxic” for Democrats back home.
Yet Obama’s approval rating has surged from 42 percent to 51 percent in the last month, and Nelson is now openly embracing the president, pronouncing himself dutifully “fired up” at an Obama-hosted Miami fundraiser this spring.
What’s changed? …Obama’s biggest asset in a critical swing state he won by a mere 2.8-percentage-point margin in 2008 might be Rick Scott, the wildly unpopular Republican governor Democrats are casting as Lex Luthor to Obama’s Clark Kent.
…A Quinnipiac University poll last week showed Scott’s approval rating at 29 percent and his disapproval rating at 57 percent – by far the lowest approval rating of any governor in the country.
“The double whammy for any Republican running in Florida is Rick Scott and Medicare,” said Debbie Wasserman…“Rick Scott is at 29 percent – 29 percent!” she added.
Broward County political blogger Brandon Thorp summed it up this way: “If presidential and gubernatorial elections were held in Florida today, no declared Republican presidential candidate could unseat Obama, while Rick Scott would have a hard time beating Raul Castro.”
President Obama addresses U.S. troops during his visit to Baghdad, April 7, 2009
Boston Globe: From a wooden perch 20 feet above the sun-bleached sand of central Iraq, Lieutenant Colonel Brian Formy-Duval is helping direct the most complex spring cleaning in American military history.
A snaking, exhaust-spewing caravan of flatbeds and tractor-trailers, coiling around 34 acres of dirt and dust, sputters and brakes and starts again in a slow-moving dance toward cargo that has been collected from US bases across Iraq … Formy-Duval is funneling the accumulation of eight years of war toward Kuwait and beyond.
…All remaining US troops are scheduled to leave Iraq by Dec. 31 … they are nearly all restricted to their bases as the end of the mission approaches, but those facilities are constantly shrinking. Joint Base Balad, which once held 50,000 troops and civilian workers, is now about one-third the size. From a high of 500 US bases in Iraq in 2007, only 66 remain.
…Christopher Sullivan, a civilian from Carlisle who works for the Defense Department, gazes around the base he has called home and looked ahead to the end. “I’m not going to be sentimental about Iraq or anything,’’ Sullivan says. “When the end comes here, it will be me and a suitcase.’’
9:10 AM President Obama and First Lady Michelle host a breakfast for Gold Star Families at the White House
10:10 AM The President makes Department of Defense personnel announcements
10:55 AM The President participates in a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns
11:15 AM The President participates in the Memorial Day Service at Arlington National Cemetery
President Obama introduces Army Chief of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey as his choice to lead the Joint Chiefs of Staff in a White House Rose Garden announcement
The Obama Diary 
You must be logged in to post a comment.