Meanwhile, back at the White House ...

President Obama has finished his trip to Moscow and has arrived in Rome for three days of talks at the G-8 summit. During bilateral discussions at the Kremlin, Obama met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and agreed on preliminary steps to reduce the two nations' nuclear stockpiles.

From there it was off to Rome on Wednesday for a meeting of the world's economic leaders and an audience with the Pope. Following his trip to Rome, the President heads to Accra, Ghana this week for his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa since becoming president.

The president is traveling with his family on his trip, including his wife Michelle and their daughters Sasha and Malia, and he reportedly skipped out on a dinner invitation from Russian officials on Tuesday so he could enjoy a private dinner with his family at their Moscow hotel.

But unlike Obama's previous trips abroad, his visit to Russia has not drawn huge crowds of well-wishers and onlookers. The Russians are described as more cynical because of their long history of suspicion toward the United States, according to Western media observers. News of Obama's visit was also downplayed in the Russian local media, according to U.S. news reports.

Back at home, the first leg of the president's international trip hardly registered in the news cycle as the Michael Jackson memorial service sucked out all the air in the nation's TV news rooms. It was a reminder that there are other world famous African American superstars in addition to Barack Obama.

Of course, there was some mention of Obama this week, even in the wall-to-wall MJ coverage. "Michael Jackson made culture accept a person of color way before Tiger Woods, way before Oprah Winfrey, way before Barack Obama," the Rev. Al Sharpton said repeatedly this week. Sharpton reiterated his statement at Jackson's memorial service on Tuesday, receiving a standing ovation for his observations. 

Now that the star-studded memorial has ended, President Obama may have the world stage to himself again. And Obama's domestic adversaries, like New York Congressman Peter King (R-NY), can stop complaining about Michael Jackson and get back to fighting the president on health care, energy and the president's other initiatives.