Obama Family Photos Sent Out By The White House (SLIDESHOW)

Photos from the White House marking Obama's first 100 days... Wow, a prez that seems so ....normal....

For more slides, visit HuffPo's Obama Family SLIDESHOW.

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And a gentleman too...

Looks like it was a little chilly in the freight elevator on the way to the inaugural balls.

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Literally, a leader who is the face of diversity

The picture of America, for real.

President Obama hugged his half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, at her December 2003 wedding to Konrad Ng, third from right, in Hawaii. From left, his daughters, Sasha and Malia; his grandmother Madelyne Dunham, seated; Konrad’s parents, Joan and Howard Ng, and brother Perry Ng; and Michelle Obama.

For well over two centuries, the United States has been vastly more diverse than its ruling families. Now the Obama family has flipped that around, with a Technicolor cast that looks almost nothing like their overwhelmingly white, overwhelmingly Protestant predecessors in the role. The family that produced Barack and Michelle Obama is black and white and Asian, Christian, Muslim and Jewish. They speak English; Indonesian; French; Cantonese; German; Hebrew; African languages including Swahili, Luo and Igbo; and even a few phrases of Gullah, the Creole dialect of the South Carolina Lowcountry. Very few are wealthy, and some — like Sarah Obama, the stepgrandmother who only recently got electricity and running water in her metal-roofed shack — are quite poor.

Read the rest at NYTimes.com

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The Obamas, circa 1996

On May 26, 1996, Mariana Cook visited Barack and Michelle Obama in Hyde Park as part of a photography project on couples in America. What they had to say twelve years ago is revealing in that the couple they were in 1996 is remarkably consistent with who they were during the campaign and how they come across today.

The New Yorker has a photo essay, but if you're interested and want to brush up on your French, Le Monde has more of the interview, transcribed from the 1996 tapes, but translated into French. (Political Punch has it translated from English into French and then back again, so maybe not as accurate as one might like, but you can get the gist.)

Michelle Obama said she initially hesitated to date Barack when they met at the Sidley and Austin law firm in Chicago. He was a student intern, she a first-year associate, and she'd been assigned to show him the ropes. "It was funny, because when there was all this scuttlebutt about him, this sharp, handsome, smart, young first year, you know everybody was oh, Barack, Barack, Barack. And I'm kind of sceptical. I thought yeah, well he's probably kind of a nerd. I always think when lawyers pump someone up they are probably lacking on the social side."

The couple were attracted to each other "because we didn't take the whole scene as seriously as a lot of people do", Michelle said. "He liked my dry sense of humour and my sarcasm."

"It's not often that a girl from the south side of Chicago meets somebody who can speak Indonesian and has travelled and seen a lot of interesting things. That added a dimension to his character that I didn't see in the upper middle-class professional work environment."

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Who's the Bigger Man...?

"President-elect Barack Obama has informed party officials that he wants Joe Lieberman to continue caucusing with the Democrats in the 111th Congress, Senate aides tell the Huffington Post.
Obama's decision could tie the hands of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who has been negotiating to remove Lieberman as chair of the Homeland Security and Government Reform committee while keeping him within the caucus. Lieberman has insisted that he will split from the Democrats if his homeland security position is stripped."

Dammit he's a nice guy. And savvy.

Plus, we now know the Obama family's Secret Service Codenames...after the jump:

As reported on HuffPo:

Renegade = Barack
Renaissance = Michelle
Radiance = Malia
Rosebud = Sasha

Celtic = Joe Biden
Capri = Jill Biden

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Time Passes

Obama got to visit his new House today!!! And may I say, sir, how well you look in it?

As will.i.am says, "It's a New Day":

In other news, "Turd of the Nation" Bob Novak got a few kicks in in his interview with barbanra Matusco of The Washingtonian. Here's Bob, nostalgically remembering the days of true "partisanship:" "I don’t agree that partisanship is more bitter now. In the 19th century, the overriding issue was slavery, and there was no more partisan issue than slavery. Preston Brooks, a proslavery Democratic congressman from South Carolina, walked onto the Senate floor and beat Charles Sumner, the antislavery leader of the radical Republicans, almost to death with the metal end of his cane. Now, that was partisan." But wait, there's...more.

Bob also had this to say about the Valerie Plame affair: "If you read my book, you find a certain ambivalence there. Journalistically, I thought it was an important story because it explained why the CIA would send Joe Wilson—a former Clinton White House aide with no track record in intelligence and no experience in Niger—on a fact-finding mission to Africa. From a personal point of view, I said in the book I probably should have ignored what I’d been told about Mrs. Wilson. Now I’m much less ambivalent. I’d go full speed ahead because of the hateful and beastly way in which my left-wing critics in the press and Congress tried to make a political affair out of it and tried to ruin me. My response now is this: The hell with you. They didn’t ruin me. I have my faith, my family, and a good life. A lot of people love me—or like me. So they failed. I would do the same thing over again because I don’t think I hurt Valerie Plame whatsoever."

Yah, you only hurt the concept of honor.

Moving on.

In the "adorable" category, HuffPo also has a slideshow of "Obama Smoochies for the Kids" which is too cute.

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Obama's Closing Argument

Why Obama is ahead: "Dressed in blue jeans and a black jacket, Barack Obama braved the cold rain falling in Pennsylvania, and held his scheduled rally - outdoors. 'A little bit of rain never hurt anybody,' he quipped to the 9,000 who showed up in ponchos and futilely holding umbrellas. Just an hour away in Quakertown, the rival ticket cancelled their own outdoor rally due to the same poor weather conditions that the Democrat embraced. 'I just want all of you to know if we see this kind of dedication on election day – there is no way that we're not going to bring change to America,' he said as the soggy crowd cheered." Don't catch a cold, man!!

In Ohio yesterday, Obama started to pull the threads of this campaign together. "We are one week away from changing America," Mr. Obama declared to about 5,000 people at the Canton Civic Center here. "In one week, you can put an end to the politics that would divide a nation just to win an election, that tries to pit region against region, city against town, Republican against Democrat, that asks us to fear at a time when we need hope. In one week, at this defining moment in history, you can give this country the change we need." Watch here.

Oh, and shake out all those crazies please -- get 'em out into the open. Reuters reports that "Law enforcement arrested two men in Tennessee who had plans to rob a gun dealer to shoot Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and 'as many non-Caucasians' as possible, an official said on Monday."

And let the post-mortems begin

ABC: you are seeing people within the McCain campaign starting to look to the future. Not only Palin, but many of the McCain staffers, as well, are circulating their resumes and pointing the finger. Whenever people in the campaign are starting to worry more about their own reputations rather than whether they're going to win in seven days, there is a significant problem.

WaPo: "Probably, John McCain and Sarah Palin will lose this election. Certainly, they deserve to. With a campaign designed more to play on insecurities than promote ideas, McCain and Palin have practically framed Barack Obama's "closing argument" for him. "The question in this election is not 'Are you better off than you were four years ago?'" Obama told an audience Monday in Canton, Ohio. "We know the answer to that. The real question is 'Will this country be better off four years from now?"'The Republicans don't even try to formulate an answer, and with Obama's lead growing by the day, it's hard to imagine what might turn things around."

HuffPo: Fading in the polls, John McCain fought Barack Obama for support in economically hard-hit Ohio on Monday, each man pledging to right the economy and turn the page on the Bush era in a state with an impressive record for picking presidents. Eight days from the election, however, Republicans looked and sounded increasingly like a party anticipating defeat, and possibly a substantial one.

Michelle Obama on Leno

As the NY Times observed, Michelle Obama has really taken to her role in the public eye, and in my opinion, comes across as a very funny, down-to-earth woman. In an appearance on Leno last night she was gracious on the subject of Palin's $150 K wardrobe, saying she wanted to be "empathetic. A V.P. pick, it's like being shot out of a cannon. All of a sudden you're at the center of attention, and you want to look good...You're living in your home, minding your business, and all of a sudden you're on the national stage and everyone's watching."

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By contrast...

In all fairness, news organizations scoured the DNC records and, what do you know, they couldn't turn up any reimburements even remotely similar to Palin's clothing spree for the Obama-Biden tickets. Seems like Barack and Joe and Michelle and Jill, they um... BUY THEIR OWN CLOTHES! The best response the Republicans could come up with is that it's a scandal, a scandal, I tell you, that Barack Obama is using a campaign plane to fly back to Hawaii to see his seriously ill grandmother. Why isn't he swimming to see her -- THAT wouldn't cost any campaign dollars and it's not a lot to ask if he really loves her.

HuffPo reminds us that, "In early July the Obama family sat down for an interview with Maria Menounos of Access Hollywood. One of the topics discussed was Barack's status as a style icon, which amused his wife and daughters because, as Michelle points out in the interview, his belt and shoes need replacing, and his pants are 10 years old ('I hate to shop,' he explains). Michelle also reveals that the sundress she's wearing is from the Gap: 'Fortunately now they make really pretty stuff at all price ranges... [Barack] will be happy to know that this is, like, a $30 dress.' Her husband then high-fives her, and daughter Sasha announces 'Mommy buys everything from Gap!'"

Obama's suit, appropriate for a wide variety of situations, is a navy blue, worsted-wool, two-button suit tailored by Chicago's Hartmarx and costing about $1,500. Obama jokes that he had them just make him three in dark blue and three in grey, because he hates to spend time shopping.

Obama and his campaign have proven time and again that they are a responsible bunch, I have to say. In Chicago plans are afoot for a giant rally in Grant Park on election night, but that city is hobbled by a multi million dollar deficit and massive budget problems. Knowing how much such a rally is likely to cost the city, the Obama campaign has offered to pay for everything, from extra police, city workers and setup to the cleanup costs afterwards."'They have assured us that they're willing to pay,' said Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications spokeswoman Jennifer Martinez, adding that the city had yet to hit the total button. 'We're still outlining what some of these things will entail.' The U.S. Secret Service--and ultimately federal taxpayers--pays for nearly all the security around Obama. The city and state are likely to bill the campaign for things like street closures, crowd control outside a secure area in Grant Park, help with motorcades and overtime for public safety workers."

Joe Klein, who now can't get a seat on the McCain plane, figures he might as well go for the gusto, and comes out with a big piece in Time Magazine, "Why Barack is Winning":

I asked Obama about gut decisions, in an interview on his plane 17 days before the election. It was late on a Saturday night, and he looked pretty tired, riddled with gray hair and not nearly as young as when I'd first met him four years earlier. He had drawn 175,000 people to two events in Missouri that day, larger crowds than I'd ever seen at a campaign event, and he would be endorsed by Colin Powell the next morning. He seemed as relaxed as ever, though, unfazed by the hoopla or the imminence of the election. Our conversation was informal but intense. He seemed to be thinking in my presence, rather than just reciting talking points, and it took him some time to think through my question about gut decisions. He said the first really big one was how to react when incendiary videos of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's black-nationalist sermons surfaced last spring. "The decision to make it big as opposed to make it small," Obama said of the landmark speech on race relations he delivered in Philadelphia. "My gut was telling me that this was a teachable moment and that if I tried to do the usual political damage control instead of talking to the American people like ... they were adults and could understand the complexities of race, I would be not only doing damage to the campaign but missing an important opportunity for leadership."

Like adults... imagine. A candidate who want to talk to us like we have more than a sixth grade education.

Nicholas Kristof, in an editorial in today's Times, points out the weirdly uncomfortable and yet comforting truth about what an Obama presidency might mean, as a message to the world. "Steven Kull, director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes, which conducted the BBC poll, said that at a recent international conference he attended in Malaysia, many Muslims voiced astonishment at Mr. Obama's rise because it was so much at odds with their assumptions about the United States. Remember that the one thing countless millions of people around the world 'know' about the United States is that it is controlled by a cabal of white bankers and Jews who use police with fire hoses to repress blacks. To them, Mr. Obama's rise triggers severe cognitive dissonance. 'It's an anomaly, so contrary to their expectation that it makes them receptive to a new paradigm for the U.S.,' Mr. Kull said."

Oh, it triggers a severe cognitive dissonance in Americans too, but I think in a good way. I hope in a good way.

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Inter-Media-ate

The Daily Show, as usual, had a great segment, this time, on Sarah Palin's wardrobe. But even better was the Who the F@#k is that guy segment. How do they do it? Is some poor Daily Show intern tied to a tv set 24 hours a day?

For those of us who are Poll-Fretters (and you know who you are) the recent AP poll showing McCain only 1 point away from Obama nationally is cause for a little more than minor consternation. But fear not, our intrepid poll analysts have the answer: "The problem? In 2004, evangelicals/born-again Christians made up 23% of voters. But that same group makes up 44% of likely voters in AP's poll released today. That's almost double the number - it's totally implausible."

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12 days to the election! We are now only TWO WEEKS from the Election!

Set your Tivo, Meet the Press' guest this Sunday morning, will John McCain.

Undecideds, whoever the heck you are, in case you missed our earlier comparison of the candidates positions on a wide range of issues, the Congressional Quarterly has also compiled a side-by-side look at McCain and Obama's stances.

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Fiscal Conservative Edition

"I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it's hell."

--Harry Truman

So I had dinner the other night with some good friends, one of whom self-identifies as conservative (Yes Reagan, No Bush-shrub, No Hillary, Maybe Barack) and after listening to the usual ranting from California-based liberal types who love to go on about McCain, he asked a very good question. "But what exactly is it you think Obama is going to do?"

Well, honestly, I haven't read everything on Obama's plan for the future to know enough. Frankly, just getting though the recent NY Times article on Obamanomics took far too long for me to even get through. But I'm curious now. Am I putting my money where my mouth is?

I would so love it if we could get past the absurd and meaningless culture wars to the point where we are comparing the details of each candidate's platform in order to make our decisions. So, in honor of Mr. Fiscal Conservative (whom I suspect is actual far more Socially Liberal than he might even want to admit) I'd like to devote the next few editions to digging out some specific policy points that might help me intelligently answer Mr. FC's question. I'd like to compare the two candidates (both their records and proposals for the future) on what I consider key areas, including foreign policy, national security, economic policy, healthcare, energy policy, education, gun control and immigration.

Think of it as Presidential Debate preparation. Yeah, yeah, I know...well, you can always scroll down to the fun stuff at the bottom of the page....

This week's topic: It's the Economy, Stupid

As we begin, bear in mind that although I make a mean pizza, I'm no economist. Paul Krugman is, though, and here is his early assessment (around January '08) of Obama's proposals: "similar to those of the other Democratic candidates, but tilted to the right. For example, the Obama plan appears to contain none of the alternative energy initiatives that are in both the Edwards and Clinton proposals, and emphasizes across-the-board tax cuts over both aid to the hardest-hit families and help for state and local governments. I know that Mr. Obama's supporters hate to hear this, but he really is less progressive than his rivals on matters of domestic policy."

Yeah, but how does he compare to McCain? Krugman reminds us about "John McCain's admission that economics isn't his thing. 'The issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should,''he says. 'I've got Greenspan's book.' His self-deprecating humor is attractive, as always. But shouldn't we worry about a candidate who's so out of touch that he regards Mr. Bubble, the man who refused to regulate subprime lending and assured us that there was at most some 'froth' in the housing market, as a source of sage advice?"

Okay, for this edition, specifics about taxes:

The nation should have a tax system that looks like someone designed it on purpose.

--William Simon

What do they plan to do about taxes and tax reform?
Most of this comes from the non-partisan Tax Policy Center (in-depth analysis on their site)

• Obama:
  
• permanently extend certain provisions of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts primarily affecting taxpayers with incomes under $250,000
• would cut taxes by $80 billion a year for workers, retirees, homeowners, savers, students, and new farmers by enacting new and expanded targeted tax breaks.
• Give credits to working families;
  
• eliminate income taxes for elderly workers making $50,000 or less.
  
• Keep estate tax.
  
• increase the maximum rate on capital gains and qualified dividends;
• Reduce corporate tax loopholes by enacting basis reporting for capital gains, taxing carried interest as ordinary income, and enacting sanctions on international tax havens that don't cooperate with enforcement efforts, but he would also need additional as-yet-unspecified policies to achieve his revenue target for base broadening
• McCain:
  
• would make the Bush tax cuts (2001 and 2003) permanent.
  
• Eliminate alternative minimum tax.
  
• Raise the personal exemption for taxpayers supporting dependents from $3,500 to $7,000 per dependent.
  
• Cut estate tax rate to 15 percent and exempt estates under $10 million.
  
• Cut the federal corporate tax rate to 25 percent from 35 percent and allow corporations to immediately deduct the costs of new equipments and technology.
  
• Establish a permanent tax credit for companies that is equal to 10 percent of wages spent on research and development.
  
• Require three-fifths vote in Congress to increase taxes.
  
• Propose an alternative tax system, while keeping the current one in place for those who want to use it, with "two tax rates and a generous standard deduction."
  
• Pay for cuts by eliminating earmarks, implementing "a one-year pause in discretionary spending increases, with the necessary exemption of military spending and veterans benefits," and overhauling programs like Social Security and Medicare.
• Reduce corporate tax loopholes, targeting eight breaks for oil companies but, other than that, is short on details for his pledge to eliminate "corporate welfare."

What are the effects of reduced tax revenue?

• Both candidates have at times stressed fiscal responsibility, their specific non-health tax proposals would reduce tax revenues by $3.6 trillion (McCain) and $2.7 trillion (Obama) over the next 10 years, or approximately 10 and 7 percent of the revenues scheduled for collection under current law, respectively. Furthermore, as in the case of President Bush's tax cuts, the true cost of McCain's policies may be masked by phase-ins and sunsets (scheduled expiration dates) that reduce the estimated revenue costs. If his policies were fully phased in and permanent, the ten-year cost would rise to $4.0 trillion, or about 11 percent of total revenues.

I mean what are the effects for us normal people?

• The two candidates' plans would have sharply different distributional effects.
  
• Senator McCain's tax cuts would primarily benefit those with very high incomes, almost all of whom would receive large tax cuts that would, on average, raise their after-tax incomes by more than twice the average for all households. Many fewer households at the bottom of the income distribution would get tax cuts and those whose taxes fall would, on average, see their after-tax income rise much less. McCain would lift after-tax incomes an average of about 3 percent, or $1,400 annually, for middle-income taxpayers by 2012. But, in contrast to Obama, he would cut taxes for those in the top 1% by more than $125,000, raising their after-tax income an average 9.5 percent.
  
• In marked contrast, Senator Obama offers much larger tax breaks to low- and middle-income taxpayers and would increase taxes on high-income taxpayers. The largest tax cuts, as a share of income, would go to those at the bottom of the income distribution, while taxpayers with the highest income would see their taxes rise. The Obama plan would reduce taxes for low- and moderate-income families, but raise them significantly for high-bracket taxpayers (see Figure 2). By 2012, middle-income taxpayers would see their after-tax income rise by about 5 percent, or nearly $2,200 annually. Those in the top 1 percent would face a $19,000 average tax increase—a 1.5 percent reduction in after-tax income.

POINTLESS ASIDE: Is it an accident that when I went onto the McCain site and tried to click around to the various parts of his "On the Issues" that I got the following error message "You Are Not Authorized to View this Page"? Can other people see the issues pages? Or is it just that they don't want ME to know...?

Where am I getting my information?

• BarackObama.com (Economy positions)
  
• John McCain (Economy positions)
• Tax Policy Center (with an analysis from June 2008 of each candidate' proposals)
  
• New York Times resource on candidate positions
• On the Issues.org
  

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Okay, and now for something completely different....

Poll numbers are out, and according to the Gallup Daily poll, McCain's convention bounce (5 points) has kicked in. I was initially depressed by the news, since Obama's convention bounce (6 points) was pretty much deflated by the Palin nonsense and the fact that no one answers pollsters on Labor Day Weekend. But then I read this piece from the AP about the "Get out the vote" effort-- Dems are working hard to register new voters. "Since the last federal election in 2006, volunteers like Graham combined with the enthusiasm generated by the Obama-Clinton struggle to add more than 2 million Democrats to voter rolls in the 28 states that register voters according to party affiliation. The Republicans have lost nearly 344,000 thousand voters in the same states."

If you're like me, and you love to scan polls incessantly, check out this graph, which shows an aggregate of polls (if the poll shows Obama leading there's a point above the center line, if McCain leads, it's a point below the line.) Although there are blips far above and far below the line, I feel that the majority cluster at or above the line. What do you think? Political Arithmetik also points out that we should take into account if the poll shows LIKELY voters as opposed to REGISTERED voters.

You might also enjoy trolling fivethirtyeight.com, which breaks down the electoral vote possibilities in more ways than you ever imagined possible.

An outsider's view of the RNC, from the London Times (who've become pretty punchy under Rupert Murdoch' watchful eye!). "Someone comments that Palin should drop McCain from the ticket. He stands there, stiff and twitching, with his skull grin, a good man, a decent, humane and committed man, fated by bad luck. It is his destiny to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, to fall from a great height into the hands of bad people."

From the Heart update: Although 80s rockers Heart can't do anything about Sarah Palin using their song 'Barracuda," since the GOP paid the appropriate licensing fees, Heart guitarist Roger Fisher announced that his part of the royalties will be donated right to the Obama campaign, so go ahead Sarah, use it all you like.

And where, oh where, do you really stand, Johnny Mac?? Brave New Films has a new segment out in which McCain is hoisted with his own petard, or with his own words, as it were. And through the magic of file tape and assiduously working interns, the Daily Show's Jon Stewart has put together a similar segment. I'd laugh...if I weren't crying....

Speaking of speaking, Factcheck.org has another good assessment of the newest McCain ad comparing Obama and Palin (hey, who's running against whom here??)

And my ranting wouldn't be complete without a Sarah Palin gaffe-awe. I guess I shouldn't be embarassed by my lack of economic expertise. Palin was apparently unaware that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were privately run companies. "Speaking before voters in Colorado Springs, the Republican vice presidential nominee claimed that lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had 'gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers.'" Um, yeah, they did...today.

Well, forget mortgages, Palin's much better at handling her own finance perks. According to the Washington Post, Palin "has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a "per diem" allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business. The governor also has charged the state for travel expenses to take her children on official out-of-town missions. And her husband, Todd, has billed the state for expenses and a daily allowance for trips he makes on official business for his wife. Palin, who earns $125,000 a year, claimed and received $16,951 as her allowance, which officials say was permitted because her official "duty station" is Juneau, according to an analysis of her travel documents by The Washington Post."

And what would these troubled times be without a dollop of Michael Moore? His Slacker Uprising, will be available to download for free on September 23. Watch the trailer here.

And finally, Michelle Obama dancing on the Ellen DeGeneres show, because I am, after all, a dance critic..

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