I so enjoyed moderating this conversation with former First Lady @MichelleObama about her new book #TheLightWeCarry Thank you for reminding us all that we have a light and we should use it to make each other better. pic.twitter.com/Kgf9z6l7ca
I know I can count on @DNice to always bring great vibes, get people dancing, and show everyone a good time.
I'm grateful that he's helped power the music for each #TheLightWeCarry book tour stop and that he took some time to join us in person yesterday in Atlanta. pic.twitter.com/3LCx1fPA4q
Chicago! Thanks for a terrific show—and a special thanks to @hmcghee for leading such a meaningful conversation.
It always means so much to be back in my hometown and to see so many of my family, friends, and readers. Thank you for sharing your light with me. #TheLightWeCarrypic.twitter.com/d6rJ5tuBCb
So much love for @TylerPerry, who just opened the first major film studio lot fully owned by an African American. Barack and I couldn’t be more proud of you—thanks for showing that no matter what, progress keeps marching forward. What an inspiration. 💪🏾 https://t.co/WwtyPqj0Do
Tyler Perry hugs President Barack Obama during a campaign event at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, Georgia
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First Lady Michelle Obama walks across the tarmac with Megan Soukup, 9, and Joseph Hudella, 10, participants in the Defending the Blue Line program, as she prepares to greet military families at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in Minneapolis, Minn., March 16, 2012. The First Lady traveled to Minnesota to meet with National Guard families and local community leaders dedicated to supporting military families. (Official White House Photo by Sonya N. Hebert)
First lady Michelle Obama hugs Tracy Clark before the start of a roundtable discussion at the Minnesota Air National Guard base…. Tracy lost her son, Army Pfc. Ryane G. Clark, while he was serving in Afghanistan in 2010
WSJ: The private sector added 170,000 jobs in January, in line with expectations, as small-business hiring fueled the increase …. The latest ADP report showed large businesses with 500 employees or more added just 3,000 employees in January, while medium-size businesses added 72,000 workers and small businesses, those that employ fewer than 50 workers, hired 95,000 new employees. Service-sector jobs increased by 152,000 last month, and factory jobs rose by 10,000.
USA Today: The closer we get to the fall campaign, the more President Obama sharpens his stump speech. At a fundraiser last night in Washington ….Obama argued that the Republicans will take the economy back to where it was before the 2008 crisis, and have “the wrong vision for America.”
“Their basic argument is that if we strip out regulations, if we disregard environmental concerns, if we take away protections for consumers, if we lower taxes even further for the kind of folks who are in this room, that somehow growth and the American Dream will be restored,” Obama said.
That said, Obama warned supporters that this will be a tough election, and they can’t take anything for granted.
“We’re all going to have to be focused on making sure that every single day the American people understand not only where we want to take the country but also that we’re willing to fight for them,” Obama said.
Charles Pierce (Esquire): …. I’m not going to sit there and listen to (Willard Romney) …. the cosseted plutocrat son of a millionnaire auto dealer – one who is running on a platform that will make himself and everyone like him richer while warning the rest of us, as he did in his victory speech in Tampa, that “If you’re looking for cradle-to-grave help from the government, I’m not your candidate” – go and dragoon into that effort Tom Paine, who would have spat in Willard Romney’s face if he’d ever met him.
Mitt Romney is someone whose children have a trust fund totaling $100 million. His great-great-grandchildren are not ever going to have to worry about money from their cradles to their graves. Thomas Paine? I’m sorry, but there are levels of bullshit to which I will not agree to descend.
Romney won because he had the most money. And because he had the most money, enough of the Tea Party “base,” which was supposed to hate him like gum disease, decided thusly: What the hell? The important thing is to get the Muslim Kenyan Usurper Negro out of the White House, so this is the horse we have to ride…..
…. it was how Romney delivered the speech that was so revelatory. This is a rich kid who likes flogging The Help. There were just enough shit-eating, country-club grins as he delivered his rancid material to show you what the guy must have been like in those golden moments when he realized that there was more dough in wrecking a company than in investing in it.
David Firestone (NYT): ….. nearly half the nation now holds an unfavorable view of Mr. Romney, much higher than last year. The number is even higher among independents. If Mr. Gingrich can raise enough money to stay in the race, Mr. Romney will have to spend valuable time, resources and good will to keep countering him.
All of that subtracts from his ability to pivot to Mr. Obama, and makes his criticism of the president seem like more of the same endless negativity. Mr. Romney’s victory speech tonight was less than uplifting, suggesting the United States had sunk to “the worst of what Europe has become.” If he means the Euro crisis, it’s not even close, and he will not get very far persuading voters that Washington is turning into Athens.
He even made a crack about Mr. Obama and his “faculty lounge” colleagues who think they know better than everyone else. That sounds hollow, coming from one of the country’s best-educated elitists, and it’s precisely the wrong message for a country that knows it must improve education at all levels.
It was left to Rick Santorum, who barely competed in Florida, to express the real lesson of Florida’s knife fight, and the dangers of letting it continue. “What we’ve seen the last few weeks in Florida,” he said tonight, “is not something that is going to help us win this election.”
Washington Post: Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign imploded Thursday afternoon with his entire senior staff resigning en masse… “When the campaign and the candidate disagree on the path, they’ve got to part ways,” said Rick Tyler, a longtime Gingrich spokesman who was among those who left the campaign.
Tyler as well as Rob Johnson, Gingrich’s campaign manager, Dave Carney and Katon Dawson, senior strategists to the effort, media consultant Sam Dawson, Iowa strategist Craig Schoenfeld, South Carolina operative Walter Whetsell and Georgia-based adviser Scott Rials have all stepped aside. Much of Gingrich’s early state operation was also headed for the exits…
…Gingrich released a statement via Facebook pledging to continue in the race: “I am committed to running the substantive, solutions-oriented campaign I set out to run earlier this spring,” Gingrich wrote. “The campaign begins anew Sunday in Los Angeles.”
Among the issues leading to the resignations … was the two-week vacation that Gingrich and his wife, Callista, insisted upon taking against the advice of his top political staff. Coming as it did after one of the most disastrous campaign launches in recent memory….
…Carney and Johnson are longtime aides to Texas Gov. Rick Perry who has said in recent days that he is contemplating a run for president himself in 2012. The Carney and Johnson resignations will fuel speculation that Perry is moving toward the race.
The Obama Diary 
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