Obama Prays for Egypt, Giffords, Malia's First Dance

Spring break article disappears

(NEWSER) - An article about Malia Obama's spring break is causing ripples across the World Wide Web: The story, which noted Malia's visit to Mexico with 12 classmates and 25 Secret Service agents, first appeared yesterday and then quickly disappeared, BuzzFeed explains. Links to most versions of the story were broken or redirected, with error messages taking the place of the article. The Blaze grabbed screenshots from several sites before the story was scrubbed. Predictably, eyebrows were raised, especially considering the State Department recently warned Americans against visiting Mexico—a detail that some felt made it legit to report on the teen's activity. Reactions: More»

Would you want your daughters watching that stuff?

(NEWSER) - In a recent iVillage interview, Michelle Obama let this little tidbit slip: Unlike, apparently, most of America , the president is not a huge fan of the Kardashians. Asked if any TV shows are off limits for the first daughters, Michelle replied, "Barack really thinks some of the Kardashians—when they watch that stuff—he doesn't like that as much. But I sort of feel like if we're talking about it, and I'm more concerned with how they take it in—what did you learn when you watched that? And if they're learning the right lessons, like, that was crazy, then I'm like, OK." More»

But says he's still got work left to do

(NEWSER) - President Obama says the first family would be just fine if they were just a regular family. “If I said, ‘You guys, I want to do something different,’ they’d be fine,” Obama told the TODAY show this morning. “They’re not invested in daddy being president or my husband being president.” He added that if Michelle “didn’t think that what we were doing was worthwhile … she’d be the first to say, ‘Why don’t you do something else that’s a little less stressful?’” More»

Most agree his memorial speech was brilliant

(NEWSER) - President Obama’s speech yesterday was, by most accounts, a smash success. A few takes:

• “We’ve been complaining for two years about the lack of music and passion in his big speeches. But if he’d moved the country when he was talking about health care or bailing out the auto industry, perhaps his words wouldn’t have been as powerful as they were” yesterday, writes Gail Collins in the New York Times . This speech was full of the old “magic,” and the best moment was his plea that we not turn on each other.
• This was “arguably the best written [speech] of his presidency so far,” writes Nile Gardiner in the Telegraph , calling it “a powerful rebuke” and rejection of the “cynical attempts to politicize a national tragedy that claimed six lives … This was a statesmanlike address by a president who has frequently failed in the past to show real leadership at important moments.”

Injury doesn't keep prez from playing with his daughters

(NEWSER) - President Obama was back on the basketball court yesterday despite his injured lip , but his opponents this time around were a bit less likely to elbow him. Obama played an early morning game at an Interior Department gym with daughters Malia, 12, and Sasha, 9, the New York Daily News reports. He got more than his fill of basketball this weekend, having also attended the Oregon State-Howard University game Saturday. Click here to see whose elbow Obama took to the face. More»