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If President Obama has one of those wall maps where he sticks a flag pin in every state he's visited, he planted the 50th yesterday.

"I have to tell you I'm also really excited because I had up until today visited 49 states. So this is officially my 50th state," he told military personnel at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska, a refueling stop on his way to Japan.

His self-proclaimed tally is clearly the result of a lifetime geographic accomplishment that includes his two years of extensive travel as a presidential candidate. But as president, he still has a ways to go before he can put a flag pin in every state.

Our CBS News scorecard shows that since taking office, Mr. Obama has been to 28 states (see list below). That reflects the 39 domestic trips he's taken since his Inauguration. It's a lot, but it's not a record.

During George W. Bush's first year as president, he visited 39 states. It took him the remaining seven years to bring his count to 49. But he never planted a flag pin in Vermont, perhaps understandably. It was a state in which 40 towns and the State Senate voted to impeach him and Vice President Cheney.

Pres. Bill Clinton was impeached, though not convicted, and he managed to visit all 50 states during his eight years in office. But he only hit #50 a month and a couple weeks before the end of his two terms by visiting Nebraska in December 2000.

George H. W. Bush hit all 50 statements in his one term as president.

List of 28 States Visited By President Obama
(in chronological order):

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Vice President Joe Biden has landed in Iraq for an unannounced, two-day visit with U.S. troops and the Iraqi leadership.

According to a pool report, Biden plans to "try to reestablish contact with Iraqi leaders and try to help foster efforts at political reconciliation" during the trip.

Biden will meet with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Speaker of the Council of Representatives Ayad al-Samarrai.

In a release, the White House said Biden "will reiterate the United States' commitment to fully implement the Security Agreement and the Strategic Framework Agreement and to carry out President Obama’s plan to draw down U.S. forces."

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At their meeting today ahead of the G20 summit in London, Chinese President Hu Jintao invited President Obama to visit China "in the second half of this year," according to the White House. The president accepted the invitation.

Mr. Obama has also agreed to visit Moscow during the summer, the White House said in a separate statement.

The U.S. and Chinese leaders also agreed at the meeting to establish a “U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue.” The dialogue, which will be held in Washington DC over the summer, will be chaired, on the U.S. side, by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

Clinton will chair the "Strategic Track," while Geithner will chair the “Economic Track." Both countries will seek "to advance mutually beneficial cooperation in economics and trade through the mechanism of the high-level Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade," the White House said.



The interaction between the U.S. and China on the economic front will be particularly interesting to watch. Spooked by the US recession and spending that could lead to inflation and the devaluation of bonds, China has recently begun pushing for a global reserve currency to replace the dollar as a stable source of investment, something President Obama and administration officials have said they oppose.

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Following his meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper today, President Obama made a surprise visit to a market in downtown Ottowa.

His visit left fellow customers “stunned,” the Associated Press reports.

The president’s motorcade stopped at the market after leaving the Canadian Parliament. Mr. Obama was greeted with cheers “as he walked through aisles of vendors selling crafts, Chinese noodles and Indian food,” according to the AP.

Using Canadian dollars, the president purchased a silk scarf and – as you can see in the photo above – maple-leaf shaped cookies, which he planned to give to his daughters.

President Obama made an unannounced visit to the White House press room Thursday, engaging in some friendly banter that centered more on basketball and Blackberrys than Guantanamo and the global economic collapse.

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This afternoon, prompted by an invitation from Chief Justice John Roberts, Barack Obama and Joe Biden will visit the Supreme Court.

Below is the text of Roberts' invitation to Mr. Obama and Biden, dated December 5, 2008.

Roberts' reference to occasional pre-inauguration meetings is to two pervious such visits, one involving Bill Clinton and Al Gore on December 8, 1992 and the other involving Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush on November 19, 1980.

Dear Mr. President-elect:

Through the years, our respective predecessors have occasionally arranged a pre-inaugural meeting between the President-elect and Members of the Supreme Court, so that colleagues in public service might become better acquainted.

The Associate Justices and I would be pleased to see that sporadic practice becomes a congenial tradition. We cordially invite you and Vice-President-elect Biden to visit us at the Supreme Court.

If your schedule permits such a visit, you will receive a warm welcome from the Members of the Court as you prepare to undertake your important responsibilities on behalf of the American people.

With best wishes, I am

Sincerely yours,

(ROBERTS' SIGNATURE)