Early Bird Chat

On This Day: Michelle Obama poses with Caroline Kennedy, Maria Shriver and Oprah Winfrey at a rally for Barack Obama, UCLA, Feb. 3, 2008

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MoooOOOooorning Early Birds – Happy Monday!

A Meeting Of Education And Business

President Barack Obama introduces Maria Contreras-Sweet as his choice to be the new administrator of the Small Business Administration during an announcement ceremony in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building of the White House.

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Jim Kuhnhenn: Obama to nominate Calif. businesswoman to lead SBA

Maria Contreras-Sweet, the founder of a Latino-owned community bank in Los Angeles who was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, has a history of working with small businesses and has been an advocate for Hispanics. As California’s secretary of the state’s Business, Transportation and Housing Agency from 1999 to 2003, she was the first Latina to serve as a cabinet secretary in the state and oversaw 40,000 state employees and a $12 billion budget.

In 2006, she founded ProAmérica Bank, a financial institution that aimed to assist small and mid-size businesses. Before that, she was president and co-founder of a private equity firm that provided capital to small California businesses. Contreras-Sweet would become the second Hispanic in Obama’s second term Cabinet. The other is Labor Secretary Thomas Perez. She would also become the eighth woman in Obama’s current Cabinet.

More here

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First Lady Michelle Obama gestures while speaking in the State Dining Room of the White House where she hosted a screening of “The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete,” a coming of age story about two inner-city youth who are left to fend for themselves in the Bronx.

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Lesley Clark: First Lady Joins With Alicia Keys To Talk Education

First Lady Michelle Obama has earned accolades — and few brickbats — for her campaigns to improve the American diet and get people off the couch. She’s also championed hiring opportunities for returning veterans. And now, the first lady says, she’s adding another initiative to her roster: helping achieve President Obama’s goal that the U.S. by 2020 will have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. (It once was No. 1 but has fallen to 12th, she said.) Still, Obama, who turns 50 on Friday, says she’s not giving up her “Let’s Move,” food and exercise program or her “Joining Forces” campaign to help military veterans and their families.

“Nothing is going away, we’re just adding more on,” Obama said Wednesday, talking to a room full of educators at the White House. “I’m going to be doing my very best to promote these efforts by talking directly with young people. That’s my focus. Everybody else is going to be talking about resources, but the one thing I can bring to this is the message that we can give directly to young people.” Obama’s remarks came after a White House screening of “The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete,” produced by the singer, Alicia Keys, who preceded Obama at the lectern in the State Dining Room.

More here

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In other news:

Smithsonian political history curator Lisa Kathleen Graddy, left, and museum specialist Bethanee Bemis, show off First Lady Michelle Obama’s second inaugural gown in a storage area at the Smithsonian Museum of American History. The White House is lending Obama’s ruby-colored chiffon gown made by designer Jason Wu to the National Museum of American History for a year to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Smithsonian’s first ladies exhibition. It will be paired with Obama’s shoes designed by Jimmy Choo.

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Smithsonian political history curator Lisa Kathleen Graddy shows off First Lady Michelle Obama’s second inaugural gown in a storage area at the Smithsonian Museum of American History

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full circle

CBS: “60 Minutes” producer Maria Gavrilovic takes us back to 2007 when she just was “the new girl” at CBS, and President Obama the longshot candidate. Those were very early days for Obama, and his campaign looked far from promising. Only a small handful of reporters were traveling with him at the time, and for Gavrilovic, it wasn’t exactly the plum assignment that a frontrunner candidate like Hillary Clinton was.

….Gavrilovic reminds us of a controversial campaign promise, made four years ago, when Obama gave a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations. On August 1, 2007, the candidate said, “If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won’t act, we will.”

His Democratic opponents – including Clinton – subsequently attacked him for being naïve and inexperienced in matters of foreign policy. The dust-up lasted for weeks, recalls Gavrilovic.

Gavrilovic, who helped produce this week’s Obama episode for “60 Minutes,” connects the dots between the killing of bin Laden and a four-year-old campaign pledge that got Candidate Obama in hot water.

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The original, better quality video can be seen here

an extraordinary life

President John F. Kennedy hands a pen to his brother-in-law, Sargent Shriver, after signing a bill giving the Peace Corps permanent status in this September 22, 1961 file photo. Shriver was appointed the Peace Corps’ first director

Maria Shriver, Arnold Schwarzenegger and other loved ones carry the casket of Sargent Shriver into Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church

Caroline Kennedy escorts first lady Michelle Obama into Our Lady of Mercy Catholic church

Former President Bill Clinton, Senator John Kerry, first lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden attend the funeral mass for Sargent Shriver at Our Lady of Mercy Parish in Potomac, January 22. Shriver died January 18 at the age of 95

Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul

Bono of U2 sings “Psalms 98”

Wyclef Jean sings “Psalms 98”

Anthony Shriver holds up a photograph of his father, R. Sargent Shriver

Bill Clinton comforts Anthony Shriver during the funeral Mass for his father

Andrea Mitchell

Former Democratic presidential nominee Senator George McGovern

Chris Matthews

Lynda Johnson Robb, right, daughter of former President Lyndon Johnson

William Kennedy Smith speaks with Ethel Kennedy, widow of the late Robert F. Kennedy

Cokie Roberts

Anthony Paul Kennedy Shriver (L), Bobby Shriver (2L), Timothy Perry Shriver (3R), Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and other mourners carry the casket of Sargent Shriver

Glen Hansard and Stevie Wonder

More on the funeral here – Read Joe Biden’s remarks here

ready to go

First Lady Michelle Obama waits backstage to speak before the Women’s Conference in Long Beach, Calif., Oct. 26, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

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First Lady Michelle Obama and California First Lady Maria Shriver take the stage as they participate in the morning session of The Women’s Conference 2010 in Long Beach, California