(4) President Obama waits with Sergeants at Arms and Members of Congress before entering the House Chamber to deliver the State of the Union address. Standing with the President are, from left: Paul Irving, House Sergeant at Arms; House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va.; Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.; and Terrance Gainer, Senate Sergeant at Arms (Photo by Pete Souza)
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Your February Winner:
(7) President Obama helps First Lady Michelle Obama off the stage after thanking the White House chefs during the State Dinner for President François Hollande (Photo by Pete Souza)
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March
(1) President Obama talks on the phone in the Oval Office with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the situation in Ukraine (Photo by Pete Souza)
(2) President Obama plays with 5 month-old Vann Carroll during a visit with wounded warriors and their families who were touring the White House, in the East Room (Photo by Pete Souza)
(3) President Obama lets a little boy listen to his heartbeat with a stethoscope during a classroom visit at Powell Elementary School in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Pete Souza)
(4) President Obama with Pope Francis at the Vatican
(5) President Obama with Pope Francis at the Vatican
(6) First Lady Michelle Obama rides a toboggan at the Great Wall of China in Mutianyu (Photo by Amanda Lucidon)
(7) First Lady Michelle Obama hugs daughters Sasha, left, and Malia as they visit the Great Wall of China in Mutianyu, China, March 23, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Amanda Lucidon)
(8) First Lady Michelle Obama, daughters Sasha and Malia, and Marian Robinson feed apples to giant pandas during their visit to the Giant Panda Research Base in Chengdu, China (Photo by Amanda Lucidon)
(9) President Obama tours the Colosseum with Barbara Nazzaro, Technical Director & Architect of the Colosseum, in Rome (Photo by Pete Souza)
(10) President Obama looks at Rembrandt’s “Self-portrait as the Apostle Paul” as he tours the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (Photo by Pete Souza)
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April
(1) President Obama walks with Lincoln Rose Pierce Smith, the daughter of former Deputy Press Secretary Jamie Smith, in the Oval Office (Photo by Pete Souza)
(2) Children help President Obama to his feet after he sat on the floor to have a group photo with them during a U.S. Embassy meet and greet at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila in the Philippines (Photo by Pete Souza)
(3) President Obama views the scene of the mudslide in Oso, Wash., from Marine One (Photo by Pete Souza)
(4) First Lady Michelle Obama hugs family pets Sunny and Bo, right, during a video taping in the Map Room of the White House (Photo by Amanda Lucidon)
(5) President Obama reaches down to 6-month-old Sabina Johnson, from Beaumont, Texas, who was visiting the Oval Office with her uncle, Elbek Elibaev, for his Make-A-Wish visit at the White House (Photo by Pete Souza)
(6) President Obama and the Easter Bunny listen as Cam Anthony sings the national anthem during the annual Easter Egg Roll (Photo by Pete Souza)
(7) President Obama visits with children following the Wounded Warrior Project’s Soldier Ride on the South Lawn of the White House (Photo by Pete Souza)
(8) President Obama stretches to shake the hand of a little girl during a U.S. Embassy meet and greet at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila in Manila, Philippines (Photo by Pete Souza)
(9) First Lady Michelle Obama visits with families working on crafts at Maryland Fisher House IV at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md (Photo by Chuck Kennedy)
(10) Carolina Garcia Delfin, 94, a Filipina nurse who fought in the resistance against Japanese forces during World War II, kisses President Obama after he mentioned her in his remarks to American and Philippine troops at Fort Bonifacio in Manila, Philippines (Photo by Pete Souza)
5:0 EST: President Obama departs West Palm Beach, Florida
7:30 EST: Arrives White House
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NYT: The Obama administration is planning a decade-long scientific effort to examine the workings of the human brain and build a comprehensive map of its activity, seeking to do for the brain what the Human Genome Project did for genetics.
The project, which the administration has been looking to unveil as early as March, will include federal agencies, private foundations and teams of neuroscientists and nanoscientists in a concerted effort to advance the knowledge of the brain’s billions of neurons and gain greater insights into perception, actions and, ultimately, consciousness.
Scientists with the highest hopes for the project also see it as a way to develop the technology essential to understanding diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, as well as to find new therapies for a variety of mental illnesses.
President Barack Obama greets people in the audience at the National Peace Officers Memorial Service, an annual ceremony honoring law enforcement who were killed in the line of duty, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., May 15. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
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NYT: President Obama and the Democrats raised $43.6 million in April, adding to the president’s edge over his rival, Mitt Romney, even as money continues to pour in to outside groups ahead of the fall campaign.
The $43.6 million is a slight dip from March, when Mr. Obama’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee raised a combined $53 million. But it does not count several large fund-raisers — including one in Hollywood that reportedly raised $15 million — that took place in early May.
USA Today: Vice President Biden will deliver a blistering attack on Mitt Romney’s business career in a speech to be delivered later today in Youngstown, Ohio.
…. “He thinks that because he spent his career as a ‘businessman,’ he has the experience to run the economy,” Biden plans to say. “In the 1990s, there was a steel mill in Kansas City, Missouri. It had been in business since 1888. Then Romney and his partners bought the company. Eight years later it went bankrupt.”
The vice president goes on to tell the story of GST Steel, one of the companies taken over by Bain Capital that didn’t fare as well as, say, Staples or Sports Authority.
It’s the same company the Obama campaign will feature tonight in a two-minute campaign ad airing briefly in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Colorado and Iowa.
TPM: A new Quinnipiac poll shows that President Barack Obama is a strong favorite to win New Jersey in November — even when he is matched up against the Garden State’s popular governor.
In the statewide poll of registered voters, Obama bests presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney, 49 percent to 39 percent. For a state that has voted Democratic in the past five presidential elections, that is not necessarily surprising. But the poll gets intriguing when New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie enters the equation. When Quinnipiac asked voters to decide between the incumbent ticket of Obama and Vice President Joe Biden and a Republican ticket of Romney and Christie, the president’s team still comes out on top — 50 percent to 42 percent.
ThinkProgress: The White House has issued a veto threat should the House version of the Violence Against Women Act reach the President’s desk.
In a statement, the administration said that the House version of the bill is unacceptable. Sponsored Rep. Sandy Adams (R-FL), the House version removes the protections for marginalized communities, stripping out provisions that were passed in the Senate version of the bill.
The Obama Diary 
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