Michelle Obama Fights Back

Although everyone realizes how vicious the media attacks on Barack Obama have been, few have recognized that the attacks on his wife have been even worse. But Michelle Obama is not going to take it anymore, and she has now responded to some of the most vile:

"The last thing we want to project," she said, is the image of a flawless relationship.

"It's unfair to the institution of marriage, and it's unfair for young people who are trying to build something, to project this perfection that doesn't exist," Mrs. Obama said.

So stop calling her perfect already, okay?

What Took So Long?

Free Ross

Although one of the few editorial positions of this blog is that we hate Conor Friedersdorf, we nonetheless are in agreement with him on the importance of getting Ross Douthat a blog. In fact, it is because we hate the aforementioned Conor Friedersdorf that we recognize the importance of a Ross Douthat Blog. Conor Friedersdorf, and in his own, uniquely annoying way, David Frum, demonstrate the need for someone who can actually do the thing that they pathetically attempt to do, (and that Reihan Salaam's too weird to do.)

QOTDSF

(quote of the day so far):

He is a man of perpetual promise. There used to be a cruel joke that said Brazil is the country of the future, and always will be; Obama is the Brazil of today's politicians.

Speaking Truth to Power

I know you're probably thinking, who can claim to speak truth to power after witnessing the Greatest Such Feat Ever, but this NPR reporter might just have outdone our Powerless Leader:

"Comparing the tactics of the Nixon administration -- which bugged and intimidated and harrassed journalists -- to that of the Obama administration was foolish, facile, ridiculous and, ultimately, embarrassing to me. I should have known better and, in fact, I do know better. I was around during the Nixon years. I am fully cognizant of what they did and attempted to do."

"I apologize for a dumb comparison."

Rudin's full-180 earned warm praise from NPR ombudsman Alicia Shepard. "While it was a dumb thing to say, I applaud Rudin for quickly apologizing," Shepard wrote. "Journalists are going to make mistakes -- not intentionally but they will happen. Acknowledging them goes a long way to maintaining credibility."

The Bravery of Obama

This is quite rich. Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett:

"The administration has said very clearly is that we're going to speak truth to power when we saw all of the distortions over the course of the summer, when people were coming down to townhall meetings and putting up signs that were scaring seniors to death, when we've seen commercials on television that were distorting the truth, so we're actually calling everyone out."

So the President of the United States is courageous enough to stand up to powerful townhall protesters and their scary signs? Oh, my!

Why Couldn't This Man Be President?

Obama's senate replacement, the Great Roland Burris:

So, Mr. President (sic), I really don’t have many questions, I just — I got more questions than I have answers, Mr. Chairman, in reference to this, because I — I just sit here and listen to the experts talk, and every time there was a statement made, there’s a — there’s a new question come to my mind, well, what about this? What ifs — What if? What if? And — and so, I find this so fascinating, and I’m — I’m certainly going read each and every one of you all’s testimony.

I don’t know how I’m going to get back to — to, you know, the hearing again to try to follow up on this but, Mr. Chairman, I would imagine that our grandchildren are going to be still wrestling with this same problem.

I don’t know whether or not — given us wanting to have a weak president who’s going to kowtow to Congress or us having this — a weak Congress who’s going to let a president run all over us, which you see in some of these cases.

I mean if, you know, if — if you say that we’re going to appropriate some money, then they don’t want to spend it, you know, they don’t spend it.

And you just heard what my distinguished senator from Utah says, that who the gatekeeper is to stop the information from getting to the president. So, you know, I’m more frustrated than I am — with questions.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, this is — this is — I mean this is. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m done.

Sanctimonious Stewart

wins runner up in Obama Magazine Cover Contest!

Entertainment Weekly, October 3, 2008 When you have America’s top political humorists Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart in your magazine dissecting the most all-consuming presidential election in decades, you’d better have a cover worthy of their incisive, biting wit. And Entertainment Weekly did, by having the comedians outrageously recreate The New Yorker’s controversial cartoon cover depicting Barack Obama as an al Qaeda terrorist and his wife Michelle as a militant Black Panther. The result: a pitch-perfect joke that satirized the satire and reaffirmed the Comedy Central hosts’ status as the ultimate (and funniest) voices of reason in a turbulent national debate .

Sanctimonious Stewart on Acorn

they didn't leave him too much work to do, but credit where it's due

Hitchens Takedown

of Sanctimonious Stewart here