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Tag: FLOTUS

  • Malia Obama Wears Affordable Topshop Dress in China

    Malia Obama posed for photos in Beijing, China on Friday wearing an affordable Topshop dress. The dress was a short-sleeve floral print mini. One source identified it as the “Crocus Crop Skater Dress” sold for around $138 by British fashion retailer Topshop.

    Malia paired the dress with black tights and flats. In the photo, she appears to be as tall as if not taller than her mother Michelle Obama who is wearing heels to match her bright red dress.

    Besides her mother, Malia was joined in the photo by sister Sasha, grandmother Marian Robinson and Chinese president Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan.

    This marks Michelle Obama’s first-ever trip to China. It is also the first time a First Lady of the United States has visited the country independently of her husband.

    She arrived on Thursday with plans to spend four days in Beijing before visiting tourist sites in the interior cities of Xi’an and Chengdu.

    “The relationships between the United States and China couldn’t be more important,” she said on Friday morning, “and having the opportunity to travel here, to listen, to learn, to hear more about the education initiatives here in this country and to share my travels with students throughout the United States is a very unique experience, and it’s one that I will never forget.”

    On Saturday, the First Lady made her first and only scheduled speech of the trip, at the Stanford Center at Peking University.

    In what is considered by many to be a thinly veiled criticism of China’s strict media censorship, she made the following remarks:

    “It is so important for information and ideas to flow freely over the Internet and through the media,” she said. “Because that’s how we discover the truth, that’s how we learn what’s really happening in our communities, in our country and our world.”

    In his introduction of the First Lady, Max Baucus, the newly appointed US ambassador to China, praised Twitter and Facebook in spite of the fact that both social media sites are blocked in China.

    The First Lady also cautioned against tamping down criticism of the government:

    “That’s how we decide which values and ideas we think are best — by questioning and debating them vigorously, by listening to all sides of the argument and by judging for ourselves. And believe me, I know how this can be a messy and frustrating process. My husband and I are on the receiving end of plenty of questioning and criticism from our media and our fellow citizens, and it’s not always easy, but we wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. Because time and again, we have seen that countries are stronger and more prosperous when the voices and opinions of all citizens can be heard.”

    The visiting party’s less politically-charged activities include learning to write Chinese characters, visiting the Great Wall, seeing the famous terra cotta warriors in Xi’an, and visiting a giant panda research base home.

    Their final scheduled activity is a lunch on March 26 at a Tibetan restaurant. Given the ongoing controversy over Chinese rule of the Tibetan population, this stop is considered by some to be an unspoken statement of support for the Tibetan cause.

    “We welcome the First Lady’s visit to a Tibetan restaurant, a demonstration of the long-standing American interest in the distinct Tibetan culture,” said Matteo Mecacci, President of the International Campaign for Tibet.

    Image via YouTube

  • White House Pastry Chef Leaves: Blame FLOTUS?

    A few days ago we brought you a story about Bill Yosses, the White House Executive Pastry Chef. Yosses has been in his position at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue since 2007, when he was hired by Laura Bush. In that capacity, he has been in charge of all desserts prepared for the First Family, as well as other Executive functions, such as State dinners and events.

    But now Bill Yosses is leaving his job, a job where he has become known as “The Crust Master”, a nickname given him by President Obama himself.

    According to the New York Post, Yosses says that, although he loves the work he has done, it was First Lady Michelle Obama’s attention to healthy eating and the growing problem of obesity in the United States that caused him to have a change of heart about how his work affects others.

    “She has done it with humor and good will, without preaching, just the way you would hope the ‘Mom in chief’ would do,” Yosses said.

    Yosses says that he is leaving to spend more time with his husband, but also to start “a group and foundation of like-minded creative people” that can show young folks in school that food choices can be delicious and healthy.

    “Food knowledge should be part of a complete curriculum,” he said. “We used to learn about food as a part of everyday growing up, but I think we’ve lost that. I think it has a place in schools.”

    However, the news that Yosses was leaving has taken a twist in some circles. The Daily Caller ran with the headline:

    White House Pastry Chef Resigns: “I don’t want to demonize cream, butter, sugar and eggs.”

    This bent on the news played to those who think the First Lady is a busybody, meddling in the diets of young children. But if you read the article, Yosses was not saying he was leaving *because* Michelle Obama somehow “demonizes” those things. Rather that he himself was looking into healthier alternatives, but does not think those ingredients are inherently evil.

    TMZ ran with something similar:

    White House Pastry Chef: I Didn’t Butter Up Obama

    And finally, this one:

    The White House is losing its pastry chef because of Michelle Obama

    Leave it to most people to read only a headline and start spreading the “news” from there, and you end up with these kinds of results:

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Michelle Obama To Do a Healthy Eating Google+ Hangout on March 4th

    First Lady Michelle Obama is bringing her healthy-eating and fitness message to Google+.

    Google has just announced that the FLOTUS will be the next member of the White House team to host a Google+ Hangout, cleverly dubbed as “Fireside Hangouts.”

    In the last few weeks, both President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have participated in their own Hangouts. The President’s occurred a few days after his State of the Union Address and Biden’s was all about guns.

    “Three years ago, the First Lady launched the Let’s Move! initiative to unite the country around our kids’ health and create real support for families to live healthier lives. Since then communities across the United States have worked together to share, collaborate on and create ways to improve the health of our nation’s children. This year, the First Lady is using Google+ to celebrate the anniversary of Let’s Move! and to connect with communities on Google+ who are passionate about healthy eating, fitness and parenting,” says Google.

    The Hangout will take place on March 4th at 11:10am ET. She’ll be joined in the Hangout by Kelly Ripa.

    If you want to be one of the one’s asking the FLOTUS questions during the Hangout, you can submit your ideas to the Let’s Move YouTube Channel by February 28th.

    For more info on her Let’s Move campaign, check here.

  • Michelle Obama’s Speech Nearly Doubles Mitt Romney’s in Terms of Twitter Buzz

    Ever since the kickoff of the Republican National Convention last week, Twitter’s @Gov team has been hard at work monitoring tweet buzz – mostly in the form of total tweets and spikes in tweets per minute.

    For instance, last week they told us that there were over 4 million RNC-related tweets over the course of the week – 2 million of them coming on the final night (Mitt Romney, Marco Rubio, and Clint Eastwood generated quite a bit of buzz). In fact, the 2012 RNC generated more tweets before the first keynote speaker stepped up to podium than the 2008 RNC did during the entire convention.

    Now, Twitter’s saying that the first night of the Democratic National Convention has already generated over 3 million tweets.

    And it’s not just the DNC in general that’s besting the RNC in terms of Twitter buzz. Last night, Michelle Obama saw a spike of 28,003 tweets per minute at the conclusion of her speech. Mitt Romney’s biggest TPM spike during his speech was 14,289 – just barely over half of the First Lady’s.

    Other speakers last night included Mayor Julian Castro and Governor Deval Patrick, who scored TPM spikes of 11,5093 and 6,909, respectively. Last week, Senator Marco Rubio saw 8,937 TPM and Ann Romney saw 6,195.

    Why so much more buzz for the Democrats than the Republicans? One reason could be that the Democrats tend to be more enthusiastic about social media – especially when it comes to politics. A recent Pew study showed that Democrats are much more likely to use sites like Facebook and Twitter for political purposes, and liberals are more likely to use social networks in general.

    [Lead image: President Obama and the first kids watching Michelle Obama’s speech]