bo1_blog1

-The Obama girls finally have their puppy. Senator Ted Kennedy offered the six-month-old Portuguese water dog to the First Family, and the president’s daughters, Malia and Sasha, named him Bo (partly because their cousins have a cat named Bo and their maternal grandfather’s nickname was Diddley).

-On Easter Sunday, the Obamas attended services at St. John’s Episcopal Church, the relatively small church that sits opposite Lafayette Park from the White House. Obama, like every president since FDR, has worshiped at the Episcopal church on Inauguration Day.

-Here’s something we didn’t hear too often during the Bush years: the United States must lead the way on a number of global issues, but it can’t do the job alone. That was the core message of President Obama’s Saturday radio and internet address. “With all that is at stake today, we cannot afford to talk past one another. We can’t afford to allow old differences to prevent us from making progress in areas of common concern. We can’t afford to let walls of mistrust stand,” Obama said. “Instead, we have to find — and build on — our mutual interests. For it is only when people come together, and seek common ground, that some of that mistrust can begin to fade. And that is where progress begins.”

-Arizona State University, one of the schools where Obama will give a commencement address, will name its top scholarship program after the president rather than give him an honorary degree.