Working toward a deal in Sudan

The Enough Project's question about Sudan, above, topped the list of questions for President Obama, but his response is unlikely to thrill advocates.

Obama spoke of genocide there in the past tense -- though his administration's official stand is that there is "ongoing genocide" in the region, and though his envoy, Scott Gration, was forced to walk back his pronouncement that the genocide was over.

"Because of the genocide that took place earlier, a lot of these villages are now destroyed," Obama said of the difficulty in resettling Darfurian regugees.

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 Should President Barack Obama declare a Michael Jackson nationalholiday? Absolutely, says Joel Madden, of the band Good Charlotte. Madden was in town to attend the national convention of Campus Progress at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, and he joined John Prendergrast, co-founder of the Enough project, for a panel discussion on the trouble in Congo. Madden is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and traveled to the Central African Republic last year. Prendergrast served as director of African Affairs at the National Security Council during the Clinton administration.

During POLITICO's interview with Madden and Prendergrast, we talked not only about a Michael Jackson holidaydeclaration, but also how Obama's election would affect U.S. policy in Africa, as well as, what politicians are big fans of Good Charlotte and how Madden stacks up to the countless other celebrities Prendergrast gets to pal around with. Click the video for the full interview.

When George Clooney appeared on the White House lawn for a press conference following his meeting with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden last month, two things stood out. 

The press corps gathered there didn’t question his credentials to talk about the Darfur region of Sudan, and Clooney actually broke news.  

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