President and Mrs. Obama in Europe

[Equipoise]

I’m very interested in President Obama’s first trip overseas as president, visiting England, France, Germany, and the Czech Republic. I believe he’s visiting Turkey also, but for some bizarre reason I can’t find a detailed itinerary anywhere. I’d love a link if someone has one. I’m also interested in what Michelle does and how they’re both presented and perceived. I would be very grateful if people could provide links to articles, interviews, editorials, opinion pieces, photos and videos of both during the trip, just to try to keep it all in one place, so I can refer to this thread in the future. Anything and everything, serious or trivial, would be very appreciated. Especially since I’m going to be very busy at work the next few days and won’t have much time to look around and gather information myself. I know I’ll miss a lot without your help. THANKS in advance!

Here’s an article from the Guardian to start things off. It starts out fluffy but gets more serious.

Prospect of Barack Obama show causes UK to clear its decks

With an entourage of 500 staff, an armour-plated limousine and a fleet of decoy helicopters, America’s new president will arrive for his first visit to Britain amid huge razzmatazz on Tuesday for the G20 summit. But it will be his closed-door meetings with world leaders that are likely to prove the most significant of the trip.

[long, interesting article follows]

…

It is a striking presence and shows that, for the next few days, London, not Washington, will be the beating heart of American foreign policy. At the end of the week Obama and his massive retinue will head off for meetings in France, Germany and the Czech Republic, although not before he has indulged in an unprecedented whirlwind of diplomatic activity - he and his advisers will not just be involved in complex summit negotiations, but will also be camped out in London conducting a series of individual high-level mini-summits with the most powerful leaders in the world.

Indeed, despite all the heat and fury over this week’s G20, the most important work might actually emerge from the meetings that Obama and his team have scheduled on the side, far away from the debate over the economic crisis. In effect, if the G20 were a party with a guest list, then Obama’s series of mini-summits would be a VIP room; open only to a select few powerful players and conducted firmly behind closed doors.

The schedule is hectic and the subjects are weighty. On Wednesday, Obama will hold his first bilateral talks with President Hu Jintao of China. The meeting of America’s first black president at a time of almost unprecedented economic crisis with the leader of the world’s foremost rising power is historic. It comes at a time when China has been asserting its international role and taking on the US by talking of replacing the dollar as the main international currency and having a recent naval showdown with a US spy ship in the South China Sea. On the same day, Obama will also meet Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev, again in the first face-to-face talks between the two. Subjects up for discussion will include ways to co-operate to limit Iran’s nuclear ambitions and debate over plans for a US missile shield that Russia views as a hostile act.

But that will be just the beginning. On Thursday, Obama will hold his first personal meeting with India’s prime minister, Manmohan Singh. Their discussions will be crucial, given the fact that the explosive situation in India’s neighbour, Pakistan, is the most pressing foreign policy concern of Obama’s administration. Then, just to add another massively complex problem to an already exhaustive list, Obama will hold bilateral talks with the South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak. That chat comes against the backdrop of an increasingly erratic North Korea, which is threatening to attack the South and is moving to launch a long-range missile which Japan has said it might try to shoot down. “He does have a huge amount of challenges to try to tackle,” said Larry Haas, a political commentator and former aide in the Clinton White House.

…

[Equipoise]

Hmm, I’m the only one interested in the Obamas’ (Obama’s?) visit to the UK and Europe?

I just got home from work and a quick look brings up these articles:

From the BBC, an itinerary:

OBAMA’S EUROPEAN TRIP

Tuesday: Arrives in London

Wednesday: Mr and Mrs Obama breakfast with the Browns at 10 Downing Street; Mr Obama holds talks with Gordon Brown; meets Russian and Chinese presidents, David Cameron, and the Queen

Thursday: G20 summit; Mr Obama will also meet the Indian PM, the South Korean president and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia during the day

Friday: Departs for Strasbourg; meets French president; holds town-hall meeting; visits German Chancellor in Baden-Baden, returns to Strasbourg

Saturday: Attends Nato summit in Strasbourg; departs for Prague

Sunday: Attends EU-US summit, departs for Ankara

Monday: Departs Ankara for US

Obamas Arrive In London, First Leg Of Europe Trip (VIDEO, SLIDESHOW)

President Barack Obama flies in to fortress London for G20

In a blaze of dazzling light from above, disciples witness the First Coming of Obama
Fluffystuff:

Michelle Obama Travels In Style, Channels Jackie Kennedy (PHOTOS)

Transatlantic Transformation! Michelle Obama Steps Off Plane In London Wearing Different Outfit (PHOTOS)

There are various things here, though I don’t know if it will stay the way it is. Probably not.
Here’s a bunch of photos.

[Equipoise]

PHOTOS British Newspaper Front Pages (April 1)

[Elendil_s_Heir]

Yes, I’m interested, too. Hope the trip goes well for him, and for the U.S. generally.

[glee]

I’ll happily wave if he comes near me.

But the mood here (and elsewhere no doubt) is that Bush fckd up so badly that there’s going to be a long period of suffering.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

I’m afraid you’re right. In any event, here’s the Times’s slideshow: The Times & The Sunday Times: breaking news & today's latest headlines

[Spit]

I just want to know what the parting gifts will be.

[SaharaTea]

I just love this photo of the Obamas meeting the Queen at Buckingham Palace. Talk about a contrast!

[Zsofia]

The queen is so teeny teeny tiny! She only comes up to Michelle’s shoulder or so. I think it’s adorable.

[Sampiro]

Has anybody else kept hearingRainbow Tourever since the tour was announced? (As an Obama supporter who sees no parallel twixt Michelle and Evita I don’t know why I keep hearing it but I do nonetheless.)

[eleanorigby]

@Zsofia

The queen is so teeny teeny tiny! She only comes up to Michelle’s shoulder or so. I think it’s adorable.

I didn’t realize that Prince Philip was so short!

I hope they have a good (and safe) trip.

[Sampiro]

@Spit

I just want to know what the parting gifts will be.

I was irked at both sides on the Gordon Brown DVD gaffe: whoever handles etiquette for the White House dropped the ball (the gift exchange really isn’t something an incumbent president [with less a full plate than a smorgasbord] would know) and Brown for letting it be known they were for the wrong region (that’s like letting your aunt who lives on the opposite coast know the sweater she gave you shrank after one wash). Hopefully it’ll be better with the queen, but there really is a “what the hell do you give her?” Nude pics of Bradgelina? The name of the guy who ran down Diana (though she probably knows that from his secret OBE ceremony)? Give her back North Carolina for one month?

I think I’d give her, on permanent loan, some commemorative from the state visit of the Prince of Wales’ Albert [who’d have been her great-grandfather, Edward VII] visit to the U.S. (1859 IIRC- first visit of English royalty to the US), or some not of particularly great historical interest letter from the archives from Churchill and FDR perhaps as a “UK, you’re our boo” gesture. Or some personal belonging of Obama’s mother or grandparents (doesn’t have to be heirloom- a knick-knack or trinket that could be displayed in a museum at some point- or pick up something at Big Lots and tell her it was your grandmother’s favorite candy dish).
Commission a slightly edgy (but on the most conservative possible side of edgy) portrait juxtaposing the queen in her youth with (a particularly flattering rendering of her as she is) today by an American artist of some renown as old people tend to like things that allude to when they were not old people.
Or perhaps a gift card to Cracker Barrel as old people also love to eat dinner at 4 p.m. without spending money.

The queen’s ultimate gift to the Obamas of course would be a Corgi.

[Maus_Magill]

@eleanorigby

I didn’t realize that Prince Philip was so short!

I hope they have a good (and safe) trip.

The gym had scenes from the photo op on CNBC this afternoon. As I was watching Prince Phillip just running his mouth, I couldn’t help but play Fill In The Gaff.

[Equipoise]

Yay! Thanks for the slideshow Elendil’s Heir and the photos of the Queen with the Obamas SaharaTea. I am interested in all the wonky political stuff President Obama is up to, but as a perfectly shallow person too, I’m besotted with Michelle, her intellect, her strength, her compassion and yes, her wardrobe.

Bigger versions that I just found of the visit with the Queen and Prince Philip (I think the slip showing was intentional)

Sleeveless in London (same outfit, with the sweater off)

I Pod for the Queen

Barack Obama met the Queen at Buckingham Palace today and gave her a gift of an iPod loaded with video footage and photographs of her 2007 United States visit to the Richmond, Jamestown and Williamsburg in Virginia. In return, the Queen gave the President a silver framed signed photograph of herself and the Duke of Edinburgh - apparently a standard present for visiting dignitaries.

The Queen already has an iPod, a 6GB silver Mini version she bought in 2005 at the suggestion of Prince Andrew.

UPDATE: Pool reporter Richard Wolf of USA Today says that an Obama aide told him the President also gave the Queen a “rare songbook signed by Richard Rogers”.

Michelle visiting Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centre in London.

Hillary’s in London too. She looks like one happy, healthy and in-her-element Secretary of State!

[SaharaTea]

I like Michelle’s sparkly J Crew cardigan. Already sold out too.

[Sampiro]

A high-tech gadget popular with teenagers: the perfect gift for an 83 year old woman.

Of course an 83 year old multibillionaire whose 40 homes aren’t much behind the Smithsonian is difficult to shop for, something akin to a more ladylike version of Dom Deluise and the treasure bath in HISTORY OF THE WORLD PART 1.

[Rayne_Man]

It looks as though Prince Philip had another foot-in-mouth moment:-

http://blogs.news.sky.com/boultonandco/Post:005f9ab3-4a64-4e0f-93fa-b71d88325944

*Then the President told the Royals: "I had breakfast with the Prime Minister, I had meetings with the Chinese, the Russians, David Cameron…

“And I’m proud to say I did not nod off in one of the meetings.”

A guffawing Prince Philip then blurted out: “Can you tell the difference between them?”
*

[rocking_chair]

the queen wore just the right colour. the pink really looks great against the charcoal and black worn by hubby and the obamas.

charles marrying diana really threw some height into the family.

[Maus_Magill]

@Rayne_Man

It looks as though Prince Philip had another foot-in-mouth moment:-

http://blogs.news.sky.com/boultonandco/Post:005f9ab3-4a64-4e0f-93fa-b71d88325944

*Then the President told the Royals: "I had breakfast with the Prime Minister, I had meetings with the Chinese, the Russians, David Cameron…

“And I’m proud to say I did not nod off in one of the meetings.”

A guffawing Prince Philip then blurted out: “Can you tell the difference between them?”
*

Ah, who needs Joe Biden when you’ve got Prince Phillip? On the CNBC feed yesterday, I saw Philip laughing and the Obamas looking vaguely uncomfortable.

[Gyrate]

BBC journo Nick Robinson dropped a bombshell of a question at yesterday’s Brown-Blair press conference, stating the Gordon Brown had essentially blamed the economic crisis on America and asking whether this was correct. (The look on Brown’s face at that moment was priceless, BTW).

Left to decide whether to let America accept the blame or embarrass his host (who was standing right there), Obama trod the middle ground:

@Obama

If you look at the sources of this crisis, the US certainly has some accounting to do with respect of a regulatory system that was inadequate to the massive changes that had taken place in the global financial system.

What is also true is that here in Great Britain, and continental Europe, around the world, we are seeing the same mismatch between the regulatory regimes that were in place and the highly integrated global capital markets that had emerged.

Nice save.