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| Norah O'Donnell |
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| Jessica Yellin |
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| Photo Credit: European Pressphoto Agency |
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| Photo Credit: Kevin O'Brien |
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| Photo Credit: Melina Mara/The Washington Post |
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| Botswana Embassy |
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| AP |
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| Tom Williams |
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| Nelson Mandela Foundation |
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| AP |
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| Tom Williams |
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| P.K. Weis, SouthwestPhotoBank.com |
The photos were taken May 17 outside the Houston rehabilitation facility where Giffords has been undergoing treatment since she was wounded five months ago at a meet-and-greet event with constituents. Six people died and a dozen others were hurt in the Jan. 8 attack in Tucson, Ariz. Since then, access to the Arizona congresswoman has been tightly controlled. Until Sunday, no clear images had been released. The only recent sign of Giffords came in late April, when grainy television footage showed her slowly ascending a flight of steps to a NASA plane that took her to Florida to watch her astronaut husband rocket into space. The image was so blurry that it was impossible to confirm it was Giffords until doctors did so at a news conference in mid-May.
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| AP |
We need you, because even today, with all the advances that we've made, too many women face barriers and roadblocks for reaching their full potential. Too many girls are held back by narrow expectations and limited options. So it is our job to just keep working not just for us, but for them. We’ve got to make sure that we do everything we can so that our daughters and granddaughters can pick up wherever we leave off, which leads to the other part of what I want to talk to you about, and that is the people we need to get this job done. - Michelle Obama
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| AP |
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| State Department |
As we celebrate our sport’s exchanges, we’ll encourage even more people to get behind women and girls in sports and to give young women a chance to compete on the playing field, to discharge that incredible energy that they want to put in to being the best they can be, and that we see more and more women around the world being given the opportunities to live up to their own God-given potential. - Secretary Clinton
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| Kwaku Alston / Corbis Outline Your favorite first lady was featured in Newsweek this week. The profile previewed her upcoming involvement in the 2012 presidential campaign and her two signatures - Lets Move and Joining Forces. |
The most recognizable woman in the world routinely ducks reporters to have what she calls a “normal” life. Hiding beneath a baseball cap, the first lady of the United States has picked through sale racks in the frenetic Tysons Corner, Va., mall with girlfriends, bought supplies for her dog at Petco using her own credit card, and dined at some of D.C.’s hippest eateries largely unrecognized. So secretive are her outings that when Washington Capitals hockey superstar Alex Ovechkin tweeted a photo in April with his arm around her at a busy Washington restaurant, media organizations were convinced it was a fake. Michelle Obama laid down her markers quickly and in a way that has set Washington back on its heels. The White House was not going to imprison her, the media were not going to own her, and she would not be driven by external expectations. She was supposed to be a different kind of first lady—an Ivy League–educated, fashion-trendsetting professional who blew up the conventions of the job. No one could have imagined back in the heady days following the election that she’d declare that she would work only two or three days a week, choose a couple of politically comfortable issues, and stay out of the glare of the political spotlight. The result has been a low-key tenure that some have found to be disappointingly conventional.
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| Arnaldo da Silva What a poignant photo! The First Lady stopping by Walter Reed Medical Center on Memorial Day to talk with wounded soldiers and their families. During the unannounced trip, Mrs. Obama visited Joao Silva, a New York Times photojournalist who was injured on assignment in Afghanistan. From the New York Times:
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