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First Lady Says Kids Asked 'Hard' Questions at White House
April 23, 2009 5:42 PM
ABC News' Karen Travers reports:
First Lady Michelle Obama said she got a grilling at her “Take Your Child to Work Day” event with kids at the White House this morning and called it her first official press conference.
“They asked me a ton of questions. They were hard,” Mrs. Obama said about the questions from the children of employees from the Executive Office of the President, the White House military office and the Secret Service.
Continuing her outreach to federal employees, the first lady dropped by the Office of Personnel Management to attend the official swearing-in of new director John Berry.
Berry, who is openly gay, noted the presence of gay rights activist Frank Kameny in the audience. Kameny was fired from his federal job in 1957 because of his sexual orientation and the decision was overturned by the Civil Service Commission in 1975.
“In no small part, Dr. Kameny's work, and other leaders like him, made it possible for me to stand here today,” said Berry, who was joined at the event by his partner Curtis Yee.
The first lady said that OPM is where the federal government’s effort to lead the way in hiring practice begins.
“Our nation is best served when the principles of excellence and diversity guide the federal government's hiring practices,” she said. “This office is the place where we can break new ground and we can be on the front lines of important issues of finding new and creative ways of making work important but also making sure that people are thriving at home, as well.”
Mrs. Obama has said that one of the issues she will focus on in the White House is work/life balance for American families. Today she said that OPM employees, as the federal government’s HR team, must remember how important that balance is in order to maintain “a strong and committed workforce.”
“That's one of the reasons why I take on this cause, because we're all struggling to make sure that we're not just good workers but we're good parents and grandparents and neighbors,” she said.
This was the tenth stop on the first lady’s thank you/listening tour. She already has visited DHS, HUD, Transportation, Education, Agriculture, Energy, Interior, State and the EPA.
-- Karen Travers
April 23, 2009 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (10)
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Who is paying this reporter for goodness sake.
Posted by: dee | Apr 24, 2009 4:32:13 PM
dale irene | Apr 23, 2009 8:31:48 PM posted "where's the kids questions? all I see is hooray for gay."
I agree that the headline for this article is misleading. It's not about the questions asked by children of government employees.
The article is more about our First Lady's focus on work/life balance for American families, including her belief that the federal government should lead the way in hiring practice begins.
Don't ya think gay people should have jobs too? Apparently the Civil Service Commission does.
Posted by: LetUsLeaf | Apr 24, 2009 12:28:20 PM
Attacking everything, everything, said by Michelle or Barack Obama kinda makes you look silly. But I'm glad you have this outlet for your frustrations.
Posted by: Mickey | Apr 24, 2009 12:17:26 PM
I'm not much on this whole Obama deal.. but this Michelle.. I love her.
Posted by: DontGet818OnMeNow | Apr 24, 2009 8:50:29 AM
where's the kids questions? all i see is 'hooray for gay'
Posted by: dale irene | Apr 23, 2009 8:31:48 PM
It's apparent from these comments that some are so engrossed in their hatred for President Obama that their vitriol spills over to matters as innocent as the First Lady trying to respectfully engage children visiting the White House. Can we lighten up?
Posted by: Paul | Apr 23, 2009 8:23:35 PM
Were the questions really hard or is it just hard for her to tell the truth.
Posted by: GrandmaJones | Apr 23, 2009 7:53:07 PM
My mommy says the president isn't going to raise taxes so we will have lots of money to buy things.
But daddy says the president is fooling us because he is going to raise taxes on everything we need to live like heat, electricity, gas, food.
Would the president really do that to families?
Why isn't he telling us the truth?
Posted by: ricky | Apr 23, 2009 7:07:19 PM
The other thread listed a bunch of the questions the children asked of the First Lady. I didn't notice any of them being difficult.
Do you have an example of the questions the First Lady found to be "hard"?
Posted by: mad | Apr 23, 2009 6:14:01 PM
She's been hanging around Gibbsy too much at the press office...
Posted by: matt | Apr 23, 2009 6:03:11 PM
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