Time: Pete Souza – “This was one of the most poignant moments of the President’s first term. He was visiting wounded warriors in the intensive care unit ICU at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, May 1, 2012. He had just presented a Purple Heart to Sgt. Chase Haag, who had been injured by an IED just hours before. Sgt. Haag was covered with a blanket and it was difficult to see how badly he was injured. He was also seemingly unconscious so the President whispered in his ear so not to wake him. Just then, there was a rustling under the blanket and Sgt. Haag, eyes still closed, reached his hand out to shake hands with the President.”
An oldie ….. but hey, we’re all feeling like this today:
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President Obama shakes hands with former Florida Republican Governor Charlie Crist prior to speaking during a campaign event at St. Petersburg Seminole Campus
President Barack Obama throws a football on the field at Soldier Field following the NATO working dinner in Chicago, Illinois, May 20, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
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10:00: PBO participates in an International Security Assistance Force meeting on Afghanistan
12:45: Michelle Obama delivers remarks at campaign event in Cleveland, Ohio
12:55: PBO takes part in an International Security Assistance Force family photo
2:20: PBO and NATO Secretary General host a Partners Meeting
4:30: PBO holds a press conference
6:05: Departs departs Chicago en route Joplin, MO
7:30: Arrives in Joplin
9:15: Delivers remarks at the Joplin High School Commencement Ceremony
10:20: Departs Joplin, MO en route Washington, DC
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President Obama and Secretary General of NATO Anders Fogh Rasmussen walk ahead of the other leaders as they arrive for a family photo at the NATO Summit meeting in Chicago, May 20
11:30 AM: PBO delivers remarks at the United Auto Workers conference at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park.
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AP: It’s looking like President Barack Obama may be back in the good graces of women. His support dropped among this critical constituency just before the new year began and the presidential campaign got under way in earnest. But his standing with female voters is strengthening, polls show, as the economy improves and social issues, including birth control, become a bigger part of the nation’s political discourse.
âŚ. Among women, his approval ratings on handling the economy and unemployment have jumped by 10 percentage points since DecemberâŚ. An AP-GfK poll conducted Feb. 16-20 showed that on overall approval Obama has gained 10 percentage points among women since December, from 43 percent to 53 percentâŚ
Women also are the reason behind Obama’s lead over Republican hopefuls Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum: In one-on-one matchups, Obama beats Romney 54 percent to 41 percent and tops Santorum 56 percent to 40 percent among women, but virtually ties each Republican among menâŚ.
Richard Cohen (Washington Post): Mullah Rick has spoken.
He wants religion returned to âthe public square,â is opposed to contraception, premarital sex and abortion under any circumstances, wants children educated in what amounts to little red schoolhouses and called President Obama a âsnobâ for extolling college or some other kind of post-high school education. This is not a political platform. Itâs a fatwa.
Mediaite: Monday night, Stephen Colbert turned his gaze upon the impending Michigan primary, bringing up a some recent statements by Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum and digging a little deeper into their meanings.
Colbert began with Romney, who spoke last week at Ford Field in front of tens of thousands of empty seats. âYeah, there were a lot of empty seats,â Colbert said, âbut the important thing is Mitt really connected with those empty seats by also being plastic and uncomfortable.â
USA Today: President Obama is creating a new agency to challenge what officials see as unfair trade practices, including those by China.
“The President believes that we can’t wait to crack down on unfair trade violations and ensure a level playing field for American workers,” says a White House statement.
Later this morning, the president will sign an executive order creating an Interagency Trade Enforcement Center.
First lady Michelle Obama listens to President Barack Obama speak in the State Dining Room of the White House, February 26. President Obama hosted the 2012 Governors Dinner which coincides with the yearly meeting of the National Governors Association meeting in DC.
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Michelle Obama and Jill Biden also deliver remarks.
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The week ahead:
Tuesday: PBO will deliver remarks at the United Auto Workers conference in Washington, DC.
Wednesday: PBO and the First Lady will host a dinner at the White House to honor Armed Forces, who served in Iraq, and their families.
Thursday: PBO will travel to Nashua, New Hampshire, and deliver remarks on the economy. In the evening, the President will attend campaign events in New York City.
Friday: PBO will travel to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, to visit with wounded service members.
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Ooops – this is one poll Politico will have troubling ignoring âŚ. because it’s their own:
A new POLITICO/George Washington University Battleground Poll reveals the prolonged nominating battle is taking a toll on the GOP candidates and finds the presidentâs standing significantly improved from late last year.
President Barack Obamaâs approval rating is 53 percent, up 9 percentage points in four months. Matched up against his Republican opponents, he leads Mitt Romney by 10 points (53-43) and Rick Santorum by 11 (53-42). Even against a generic, unnamed Republican untarnished by attacks, Obama is up 5 percentage points. In November, he was tied.
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Thanks Loriah
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USA Today: âŚ.. Today …. President Obama meets with state executives from across the country and with political donors in Washington.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will both speak today to the National Governors Association during a meeting in the State Dining Room. Their wives, Michelle Obama and Jill Biden will also deliver remarks.
âŚ. This afternoon, Obama and Biden will meet with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner âŚ. Obama ends his day with a closed-door campaign fundraiser in Washington.
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CBS: Mitt Romney went to the Daytona 500 NASCAR race Sunday for what should have been a chance to show he’s one of the guys. Instead, in casual conversation with an Associated Press reporter at the Florida track, he reminded people once again that he is not exactly a regular Joe.
Asked by the AP reporter if he follows NASCAR, Romney responded, “Not as closely as some of the most ardent fans. But I have some great friends who are NASCAR team owners.”
Democrats and liberals quickly ridiculed the remark on Twitter. “I don’t know people who fish but I know people who own yachts,” tweeted Brad Woodhouse, communications director of the Democratic National CommitteeâŚ.
Donna Dem: Iâm raising money on my grassroots fundraising page to help President Obama win in 2012. The President is counting on people like you and me giving what we can afford to build this campaign. Will you donate $5 today to help me try and reach my goal?
President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt of Denmark talk at the end of their bilateral meeting in the Oval Office, Feb. 24, 2012. Pictured, from left, are: Christian Kettel Thomsen, Permanent Secretary of State; Peter Taksoe-Jensen, Ambassador of Denmark to the United States; Liz Sherwood-Randall, Senior Director for European Affairs; and Bill Moeller, Director for Central European Affairs. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
The Guardian: Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney’s much-heralded economic speech flopped Friday, overshadowed by a gaffe over luxury Cadillacs and his choice of an over-ambitious venueâŚ.
Romney opened himself up to derision for choosing a 70,000-seat stadium which attracted just over 1,000 people, many of them school children bussed in to help fill out the crowd, tucked into a corner of the astro-turf pitchâŚ.
The speech too turned out to be a flop âŚ. It will be the picture of the near-empty stadium, contrasting with a much fuller one when Barack Obama was campaigning in February 2008, that will be remembered.
âŚ. his words echoed round the empty stadium seats. He was not helped by the near-silence, winning only an occasional round of applause. At one point, having made a joke about the reluctance of children to leave home, only a handful of people in the audience laughed, an embarrassing response that the empty stadium amplified.
⌠In an attempt to ingratiate himself in the motor capital of America and undo some of the damage caused by a call in 2008 to let the car industry go bankrupt rather than be bailed out by the federal government, he listed cars owned by himself and his wife Ann.
He would be a president who loves cars, he said. “I like the fact that most of the cars I see are Detroit-made automobiles. I drive a Mustang and a Chevy pick-up truck. Ann drives a couple of Cadillacs, actually. And I used to have a Dodge truck, so I used to have all three covered.” âŚ. It is a mistake on par with his $10,000 bet in a televised debate with Texas governor Rick Perry.
Steve Benen: Paul Krugman argued today that Mitt Romney “is running a campaign of almost pathological dishonesty.” That need not be considered hyperbole.
Indeed, Greg Sargent added this morning that Romney’s “falsehoods and all around dissembling” may be designed to “simply wear reporters and commentators down by trafficking in them so heavily that they throw up their hands and give up on trying to track or debunk them.”
United Auto Workers union member Pat Peralta holds a sign during a protest rally against Mitt Romney, who is making a campaign stop at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan, February 24
You can watch Willard’s speech in the PACKED stadium here (12:0 ET)
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Watch how those 65,000 people can barely control their excitement in anticipation of Willard’s arrival:
And watch how they erupt when he appears – Mitt Mania!
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Freep.com: It won’t be hard to fit 1,200 members of the Detroit Economic Club into 65,000-seat Ford Field for today’s speech by GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney.
What will be hard is making it look like Romney isn’t speaking to a nearly empty stadium.
The Romney campaign and the Economic Club think they’ve solved the problem. The guests will be seated at one end of the playing surface, roughly between the end zone and the 30-yard line, while Romney will speak from a stage in front of them.
âŚ. with St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Lance Berkman after welcoming the team to the White House to honor their 2011 World Series victory, Jan. 17
âŚ.. greeting neighbors outside the home of William and Endia Eason in Cleveland, Ohio, Jan. 4
âŚ. during the flight on Marine One to Soldier Field in Chicago, Ill., Jan. 11
âŚ.. greeting Tuskeegee Airmen in the East Garden Room of the White House prior to a screening of the film âRed Tailsâ in the Family Theater, Jan. 13
….. watching a performance backstage with iCarly cast members prior to an iCarly screening at Hayfield Secondary School in Alexandria, Va., Jan. 13
Jan. 27
⌠boarding Marine One for departure from Cambridge-Dorchester Airport in Cambridge, Md., Jan. 27
First Lady Michelle Obama participates in a potato sack race with Jimmy Fallon in the East Room of the White House, Jan. 25
âŚ. signing items for Make-A-Wish child Rafael Mullet during a visit in the Oval Office, Jan. 25
….. with students at Parklawn Elementary School in Alexandria, Va., Jan. 25
âŚ. hugging Rep. Gabrielle Giffords before delivering the State of the Union address, Jan. 24
How did I miss these, they were posted on Flickr a week ago đ
President Obama talks with Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire after arriving at Paine Field Airport in Everett, Wash
President Barack Obama looks at the overhead compartment of a Boeing Dreamliner with Boeing employee Rick Goade while visiting a production facility a Boeing plant in Everett, Wash.
A segment of the line of people waiting for tickets to see President Barack Obama speak on Friday starts near the Michigan Union, winds around the Fleming Administration Building, back toward the Literature, Science, and the Arts Building, and north down Maynard St. Angela J. Cesere
People sleep on the floor outside of the Michigan Union Ticket Office
AnnArbor.com: Roughly 3,000 people Thursday morning received tickets to President Barack Obama’s upcoming speech â many camping outside overnight to secure their place in line â and still hundreds of hopefuls were turned away.
It’s clear: Obama mania has seeped into the University of Michigan campus as the school prepares for his speech on college affordability Friday at 9:35 a.m. at the Al Glick Field House…..
AnnArbor.com: They brought blankets and sleeping bags, sent friends on doughnut runs, did homework and broke out into an impromptu dance party next to the Cube as at least 1,000 people converged into a line at the University of Michigan overnight to get tickets to see President Barack Obama.
The crowd snaked from the Michigan Union ticket office through Regents Plaza, building from about 80 at 10 p.m. Wednesday to much larger early Thursday, prompting one person to say “people in the back of the line have no idea how many people are here because it’s so long.”âŚ.
Between 2,000 and 3,000 people were in line by 9 a.m. At that time, the line reached the intersection of South University and South State and stretched toward the Law Quad.
âŚ.Update: As of about 1 p.m. all tickets to Obama’s speech had been distributed, according to the Michigan Union Ticket Office.
A group of ten students rest their backs against each other to stay warm and get some sleep while waiting in line by the Michigan Union. They arrived around 11:30 pm Wednesday night.
U-M Taubman College of Architecture faculty member Teman Evans holds up his ticket to see President Barack Obama speak while people in line behind him cheer. Evans was the first person in line at 7:30 pm Thursday night.
The Obama Diary 
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