You've got to hand it to Al Franken. It's pretty hard to become the most popular kid in school on the first day, but Minnesota's newest senator had no problem making friends on day one in his official capacity. Since arriving on Capitol Hill yesterday, Franken has been surrounded by reporters -- dozens of notepads and sound booms at every corner. He's been noticeably disciplined not to answer questions and has managed to keep impressively composed--tough for a former SNL cast member and career comedian. Senate camaraderie usually plays out most visibly, and with maximum showiness, on the senate floor. Minnesota's other senator Amy Klobuchar introduced Franken. "I always told Al his third year of campaigning would be his best," she quipped to huge laughs from the gallery. (Minnesota, we never knew this side of you!). Franken, on arrival, gave a few awkward-looking hellos before the cool kids -- Patrick Leahy, Dick Durbin, Chuck Schumer and a few others -- surrounded him for several large belly laughs.

It's customary when your colleagues show up to honor you to go around and shake hands, but oddly, he didn't shake many at all. "He's a hugger, we've established he's a hugger," joked a reporter sitting next to your Gaggler. Indeed, Franken's a fan of the two-arm embrace, going in for the body-to-body touch with virtually all of the 20 members who showed up for his swearing-in. Except when it came to Arlen Specter, the often thorny member of the senate who switched teams back in April, making friends on both side of the aisle eye him with some suspicion. Specter clearly had warm words for Franken (the press gallery is close, but not that close) but definitely didn't want to be hugged. The Pennsylvania senator kept his left hand firmly on Franken's shoulder, as if to hold him back. But that didn't matter. Franken finished the conversation, turned around, and kept spreading the love.

Did President Obama make a flub today when talking about when he met his wife, Michelle? Just before his speech to a university here in Moscow this afternoon, Obama mentioned his first meeting with the future First Lady in an offhand remark. “I don’t know if anybody else will meet their future wife or husband in class like I did, but I’m sure you’ll all going to have wonderful careers,” the president said. The thing is: Obama didn’t technically meet his wife at school. Although both are Harvard Law School grads, Michelle Obama got her degree in the spring of 1988 while her future husband didn’t actually start school there until later that fall. (He graduated in 1991). The Obamas officially met in Chicago in 1989, when the future president was a summer associate at the Sidley Austin law firm and Michelle was assigned as his mentor. Was what Obama said wrong? Technically no, considering Obama was still going to school when he met his wife. But for those keeping close watch on Obama trivia—ie, the White House press corps—the statement did seem a wee bit off.

Your Gaggler is in the press pool today, and I can now report first hand: the Russians really aren’t that excited about President Obama. Almost every trip, foreign and domestic, Obama has been the subject of curious, often cheering crowds. On domestic trips, some people even show up to boo. Not here. On the ride to and from Vladamir Putin’s house in Western Moscow, most Russians on the street this morning regarded Obama’s motorcade with total indifference. No cheering. No booing. It’s been a whole lot of, well, nothing. The motorcade route is usually sprinkled with dozens and dozens of people taking photos of Obama and his entourage as his limo passes. This morning, your Gaggler counted a grand total of four.

This may not be purely about Obama. As we blogged yesterday, the U.S. isn’t exactly popular with the Russians right now. That’s in part why Obama has dedicated a huge part of his day to working PR. He delivered what White House officials described as a major speech on U.S./Russian relations at a university here in Moscow. The message: the U.S. and Russia don’t need to be antagonistic to each other in order for both to succeed. "The pursuit of power is no longer a zero-sum game—progress must be shared," Obama declared. “No one nation can meet the challenges of the 21st century on its own, nor dictate its terms to the world.” As the White House previewed last week, the speech was reassurances of how the U.S. respects Russia, its heritage and its sovereignty. The problem for Obama: Most Russian TV stations apparently didn’t carry the speech, which means the impact of his words will be more limited than the White House had hoped.

Putin: What's That On the Floor?

On Tuesday morning, President Obama drove about 25 minutes outside of central Moscow to have breakfast with Vladimir Putin, Russia’s former president turned prime minister. The meeting was highly anticipated to say the least. As your Gaggler noted yesterday, pretty much everybody seems to think Putin is still running the show here in Moscow, although Obama and the White House, when asked, won’t even go there. Here’s one telling sign: Obama visited Putin in the compound where he lived as president, Novo Ogaryovo. According to the locals, Putin liked it so much that when his term ended as president, he just decided to stay on, leaving current Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to find alternate housing.
 
Today’s meeting was the first time Obama and Putin had ever met. Upon arrival, Putin met Obama outside for a quick handshake, before they headed upstairs to an ornate living room, where they briefly spoke to reporters. The initial meeting was cordial, but in your Gaggler’s view, it seemed a little awkward. Speaking through an interpreter, Putin talked first, welcoming Obama to his compound. He spoke of days when ties between the U.S. and Russia “flourished” but acknowledged periods of “grayish moods” between the two. “With you, we link all our hopes for furtherance of relations between our two countries,” Putin told Obama. It was incredibly upbeat language for Putin, but his body language was another story. Although Obama sat looking at him intently, Putin, from your Gaggler’s viewpoint, rarely made eye contact with POTUS. The Russian PM sat slumped in his chair, eyes to the ground virtually the whole time. So much for warm relations.