Kensington Palace Pajama Party

Barack and I are thrilled to congratulate The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on their newest arrival! We hope to meet him soon for a Kensington Palace pajama party. I’ll wear my robe! pic.twitter.com/9zR7M049HR

— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) April 23, 2018

The President’s Day

Arriving in Roseburg, Oregon

President Obama is greeted by Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy

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President Obama signs some remembrances after greeting families of the victims in the mass school shooting in Roseburg, Oregon (Photo by Pete Souza)
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Roseburg Mayor Larry Rich and Oregon Governor Kate Brown listen while President Barack Obama makes a statement to the press after meeting with the families of the Umpqua College shooting victims in Roseburg, Oregon

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President Barack Obama and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee embrace

President Barack Obama carries a child as he greets people on the tarmac upon his arrival at King County International Airport in Seattle. President Obama is scheduled to attend a democratic fundraiser event with Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. He’s is also attending fundraisers in San Francisco and Los Angeles as part of a four-day West Coast tour

President Obama meets baby Stella Hakam during his arrival at King County International Airport/Boeing Field in Seattle

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President Obama with Sen. Patty Murray during a Democratic fundraiser in Seattle

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Leaving Seattle for San Francisco

‘the case of the mystery study’

Earlier this week McKinsey & Company released the results of their study that claimed 30 per cent of employers are planning to stop giving health insurance to their workers as a result of the Affordable Care Act.

 Almost all of the mainstream media unquestioningly reported McKinsey & Company’s findings and framed them as a major blow to President Obama’s healthcare reform.

 A few – and only a few – voices in the media, though, were curious about the study, not least because it completely contradicted the findings of surveys by three independent organizations – The Rand Corporation, The Urban Institute and Mercer (see here)

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Steve Benen: …How was the study conducted? What were the questions? How were the employers chosen? What were the statistical breakdowns among businesses of different sizes? Who funded the study? We don’t know and McKinsey hasn’t said.

Kate Pickert (Time) noticed a small tidbit in the report: McKinsey acknowledged having “educated” those participating in the survey. And what, pray tell, did the company say to respondents that might have affected the results? You guessed it: we don’t know and McKinsey hasn’t said.

Politico added that it “asked really nicely” to at least see the questionnaire McKinsey used to conduct the employers survey, but the company refused. Raise your hand if you think the McKinsey & Company report has some credibility problems.

Full post here

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Greg Sargent: …as a number of critics were quick to point out, McKinsey’s finding is at odds with many other studies – and the company did not release key portions of the study’s methodology, making it impossible to evaluate the study’s validity.

 There’s now been a new twist in this story.

 I’m told that the White House, as well as top Democrats on key House and Senate committees, have privately contacted McKinsey to ask for details on the study’s methodology. According to an Obama administration official and a source on the House Ways and Means Committee, the company refused.

 Now the White House and top Congressional Democrats are asking the company to release the baseline information we need to evaluate the study’s credibility and integrity. So this story could now get a good deal more interesting.

Full post here

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Paul Krugman: One has to assume that there was something terribly wrong with the study. At any rate, nobody should be citing it until or unless McKinsey comes clean.

Full post here

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TPM: …multiple sources both within and outside McKinsey tell TPM the survey was not conducted using McKinsey’s typical, meticulous methodology.

“This particular survey wasn’t designed in a way that would allow it to be peer review published or cited academically,” said one source familiar with the controversy …. All sources were granted anonymity, in order to be able to speak candidly about the controversy.

Reached for comment today, a McKinsey spokesperson once again declined to release the survey materials, or to comment beyond saying that, for the moment, McKinsey will let the study speak for itself….

Another keyed-in source says McKinsey is unlikely to release the survey materials because “it would be damaging to them”.

Both sources disagree with the results of the survey, which was devised by consultants without particular expertise in this area, not by the firm’s health experts.

…Republicans, and reform opponents, seized on the report’s conclusions to sow further suspicion of the law…..

Full post here

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You can read about McKinsey & Company’s record here

morning in london

There’s a live BBC feed here – and occasional live streaming at CNN

President Barack Obama walks out to make a statement to reporters about tornado damage in the United States at Winfield House in London, May 24 – the President will visit Missouri on Sunday

President Obama speaks with Prince Charles as they leave Winfield House, the official residence of the United States ambassador, in Regent’s Park, London

First lady Michelle Obama with Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall

President Obama shakes hands with Queen Elizabeth II as first lady Michelle Obama and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, look on, at Buckingham Palace

….meeting Britain’s Prince William and his wife Kate at Buckingham Palace

President Obama reviews troops with Prince Phillip during an official arrival ceremony at Buckingham Palace

The President and Mrs. Obama gave Queen Elizabeth II a collection of rare memorabilia and photographs in a handmade leather bound album that chronologically highlights her parents’ (King George VI and Queen Elizabeth) visit to the United States in 1939. As the 1939 visit was the first such trip to the United States by a reigning British monarch, this gift contains both historic and personal value.

For Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the President and Mrs. Obama gave a custom-made set of Fell Pony bits and shanks, as well as original horseshoes worn by recently retired champion carriage horse Jamaica. The Duke of Edinburgh has a keen interest in equestrian sports and specifically in carriage driving. Designed in Colorado and made in Ohio, the set includes several interchangeable bits and each shank is engraved with the Presidential Seal. A slaughterhouse rescue horse, Jamaica rose to the top of carriage horse competition and was named the 2008 United States Equestrian Federation Horse of the Year.

For The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, the President and Mrs. Obama gave a special selection of plants, seedlings and seeds from the gardens of Mount Vernon, Monticello and the South Lawn of The White House, as well as jars of honey from The White House beehive. This one-of-a-kind collection is presented in a specially handcrafted wooden box made from a Magnolia tree that fell on the grounds of The White House during the snowstorm of February 2009. Magnolia trees have been a fixture on the South Lawn of The White House since the mid-nineteenth century.

President Obama talks with the Queen during a tour of the Portrait Gallery at Buckingham Palace

‘…..an increasingly surprising arab world’

Kate Seelye (Daily Beast): …It’s one of those twists of irony that the U.S.-backed no-fly zone over Libya has more support in the Arab world than in the U.S. Congress. I’m not sure if Obama’s eloquent defense of the American military mission in Libya during his address to the nation Monday night convinced a skeptical Congress of its value, but his speech certainly articulated an American role that many Arabs embrace.

Obama made a strong moral argument on behalf of saving Libyan lives in defense of democracy, and committed to doing so without putting boots on the ground. That’s proving to be a popular position in the Arab world.

…while some Arabs griped about the motives behind the U.S. intervention, far more applauded our support. A Syrian dissident told me the no-fly zone had inspired Syrians to shed their fear and rise up against their own oppressive regime. A Saudi friend told me it was one of the rare occasions he’d seen a U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East align with America’s backing for human rights and democracy.

…Today, as critics ask valid questions about the cost and length and rationale of the U.S. military role in Libya, they should ponder what it’s worth to earn Arab respect and appreciation. At a time when America’s alliances and interests in the region have been upended by multiple pro-democracy revolutions, perhaps it’s worth the cost of a limited war over Libya to win a little love in an increasingly surprising Arab world.

More here

Kate Seelye is vice president of the Middle East Institute. She was a journalist for NPR and PBS based in Beirut from 2000 to 2009.

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