Obama Kicks Up White House Entertaining

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE | Associated Press

WASHINGTON – The White House is the place to be on Wednesdays.

Since the presidency changed hands less than six weeks ago, a burst of entertaining has taken hold of the iconic, white-columned home of America’s head of state. Much of it comes on Wednesdays.

The stately East Room, where portraits of George and Martha Washington adorn the walls, was transformed into a concert hall as President Barack Obama presented Stevie Wonder with the nation’s highest award for pop music on Wednesday.

A week before that, the foot-stomping sounds of Sweet Honey in the Rock, a female a cappella group, filled the East Room for a Black History Month program first lady Michelle Obama held for nearly 200 sixth- and seventh-graders from around the city.

Cocktails were sipped during at least three such receptions to date, all held on Wednesdays …

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Michelle Obama Crafts Policy Agenda

By NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON | Politico

As she prepares to step out beyond her role as the self-described “mom in chief,” Michelle Obama has been busy behind the scenes crafting a policy-driven agenda that will bring working-family issues into the White House — and she’s surrounded herself with a team of veteran political insiders and seasoned policy advocates to do it.

Aides are quick to say the first lady isn’t planning on having an independent policy power center in the East Wing. “Our job is to think through with the president and with the president’s team and assist in dialogue about policy. But the president is the policymaker,” said chief of staff Jackie Norris. In other words, it isn’t likely that Michelle Obama will be on the phone introducing herself to lawmakers on Capitol Hill, like Hillary Clinton did as first lady. At least not yet.

But as Obama made her first official trip outside the White House on Monday — to the Department of Education — the shape and direction of her office, with advisers who have worked for Bill Clinton, Al Gore and John Edwards, clearly bear a lot more resemblance to Clinton’s style than to that of Laura Bush.

The credentials of Michelle Obama’s new team “give us a glimpse of the future,” said Carl Anthony Sferrazza, a former speechwriter for Nancy Reagan who also wrote the introduction to Hillary Clinton’s “Invitation to the White House: At Home With History.”

“This is not going to be a first lady focused on sleeveless designer dresses and puppy names but on serious and complex issues,” he predicted …

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