293 lines
7.9 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
293 lines
7.9 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
news
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worldnews
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michelle-obama
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8536933
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-----
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# Obamas in London: Michelle Obama's warmth outshines the wow factor
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## Despite her star power and the huge security presence, First Lady opens up
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to schoolgirls and gives advice as a friend
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560
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315
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TelegraphPlayer-8536027
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By Bryony Gordon 10:27PM BST 25 May 2011
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Half an hour before Michelle Obama arrived at Oxford University, I started
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chatting to a very large man with a wire in his ear.
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Mr Not-So-Secret Service talked into his lapels and looked straight ahead when
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I asked him a question; his answers were perfunctory to say the least.
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But on the subject of Michelle Obama, he was positively exuberant.
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"She has this glamour that I haven't seen before. She isn't just a First Lady.
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She is Hollywood."
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Oxford has seen its fair share of names over the years -- the Dalai Lama,
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Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Kermit the Frog -- but nothing quite beats the
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glamour of an Obama, especially a Michelle Obama, the only First Lady since
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Jackie Kennedy to be quite as exciting as her husband.
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## Related Articles
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* [G8 summit 2011 in Deauville: day two as it happened][1]
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27 May 2011
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* [Allies seek G8 funds for Middle East democracies][2]
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26 May 2011
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* [Bryony Gordon: Michelle Obama opens up][3]
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25 May 2011
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* [Commentary: visit a triumph for barbecue diplomacy][4]
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25 May 2011
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* [Samantha Cameron gives glimpse of PM's new kitchen][5]
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26 May 2011
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A ring of steel was thrown up around Oxford, though this being the sleepy city
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of dreaming spires it was more of a ring of people in fluorescent bibs.
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The policemen lining the streets up to Christ Church had been drafted in to
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increase the security for the First Lady's visit, but were mostly helping lost
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tourists, searching for the Radcliffe Camera, the Ashmolean or the Bodleian
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Library.
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"We are not being much use," said one officer. "We don't know where anything
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is because we've come all the way from Wycombe."
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In the glorious May sunshine, Oxford looked even more like a scene out of
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Inspector Morse than it usually does -- the cliched image of Britain as a
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picture-perfect postcard will only have been strengthened by the Obamas'
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visit.
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The only things amiss were the helicopters circling overhead and the sniffer
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dogs surrounding Christ Church.
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The airport-style security gates hastily added to the entrance also amused
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students who worried they might accidentally be shot by one of the many armed
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policemen dotted around the grounds.
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The dining hall, which doubled up for Hogwarts in the Harry Potter films,
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would have felt more magical were it not for the portraits of alumni and
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fellows. John Locke, William Gladstone, WH Auden: all men, and exclusively
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white.
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But it was a clever move by the First Lady to bring the girls from the
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Elizabeth Garrett Anderson school to a university that has just 99 black
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undergraduates out of a population of more than 11,000.
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Before Mrs Obama appeared, a sprightly young woman from the White House
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stepped up.
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"Hi everybody!" she beamed cheerily. "I'm Nicole! Thanks for coming in!"
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She trilled her way through warnings about behaving. "We don't wanna have to
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eject anyone now! The next time I go to Secret Service, I wanna be able to
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tell them everything will run smoothly!"
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If Disney did threats, they would do them like this.
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The girls filed in, nervously playing with hairbands. They had been through an
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"immersion experience", touring the university for the day. They sat in
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silence. We stood in silence. It all started to get a little tense, until the
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quick click-clack of camera shutters heralded the arrival of Michelle Obama.
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And yes she was glamorous -- in a crisp white shirt, she certainly didn't look
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like a woman who had just come from doling out coleslaw at a barbecue -- but
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mostly she was just so disarming.
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The world and his wife were packed into that room, but Mrs Obama never once
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let the girls think they were in anything other than an intimate gathering.
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She dispensed really rather good advice: "Don't be afraid to fail, to take a
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risk, to ask stupid questions, to trip, fall and get back up again." Did she
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think that Mr Obama would be president when she met him? "Absolutely not," she
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said. "I just thought he was cute, he did his work, he was smart, low-key,
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funny, and that he loved his little sister."
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We all cooed.
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"I'm worried that I'm sharing secrets. Let's just pretend that all of these
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people aren't here."
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Later, I spoke to 20-year-old Clarissa Pabi, a former pupil at the school who
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is now studying at Oxford. "She was just ineffably wow. You just want her to
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be your surrogate mother." Glamorous, maternal -- we were all so impressed, we
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even forgot to ask what she was wearing.
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[X][6] Share & bookmark
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[What are these?][7]
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* Share: [Share][6] [ ][8] [ ][9]
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[Tweet][10]
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/michelle-obama/8536933/Obamas-in-
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London-Michelle-Obamas-warmth-outshines-the-wow-factor.html
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Telegraph
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## [Michelle Obama][11]
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* ### [News »][12]
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* ### [North America »][13]
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* ### [Politics »][14]
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* ### [UK News »][15]
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* ### [Barack Obama »][16]
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In news
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[![Michelle Obama with students from the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School at
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Oxford University ][17] ][3]
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### [Bryony Gordon: Michelle Obama opens up][3]
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[![US President Barack Obama's state visit to Britain: day two in
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pictures][18] ][19]
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### [Obamas visit Britain: day two][19]
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[![US President Barack Obama's state visit to Britain: security and
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protests][20] ][21]
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### [Obama: security and protests][21]
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[![Queen Elizabeth II and US President Barack Obama during a State Banquet in
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Buckingham Palace,][22] ][23]
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### [Obamas visit Britain: day one][23]
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[![US President Barack Obama enjoys a pint of Guinness beer in Hayes Bar in
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the town of Moneygall, the hometown of his great-great-great grandfather][24]
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][25]
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### [Barack Obama's Ireland visit][25]
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[X][6] Share & bookmark
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Delicious Facebook Google Messenger Reddit Twitter
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Digg Fark LinkedIn Google Buzz StumbleUpon Y! Buzz
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[What are these?][7]
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Share:
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* [ ][6]
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* [ ][8]
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* [ ][9]
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* [Tweet][10]
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* Advertisement
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![][26]
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Advertisement
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[Follow The Telegraph on Social Media »][27]
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