The Dems' Terrible, Awful, Very Bad Night!

 

Biden Said 'Put Trump In A Bullseye'

In a Politico article shared Monday, Biden reportedly told donors: “I have one job, and that’s to beat Donald Trump. I’m absolutely certain I’m the best person to be able to do that. So, we’re done talking about the debate, it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye.” 

And then, there's this:

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) last week: "Trump is such an authoritarian and autocrat, we have to win this election. This is not a normal election ... This is something that is undermining our democracy. He must be stopped. He cannot be president!

Biden's Poll Numbers? Dismal Right Now!

The following is excepted from a long piece at Politico about Biden's dismal poll numbers:

According to FiveThirtyEight, Biden’s average approval rating stands at 43 percent, about 9 points lower than his 52 percent disapproval rating. That’s only 1 point higher than Trump’s FiveThirtyEight approval rating on April 15, 2019, at the same point in his one-term presidency. . . .

Among independents, a group Biden won by double digits in 2020, the president is now underwater by a roughly 2-to-1margin, according to two polls released in late March from Fox News and Quinnipiac University.

In the Fox News poll, only 35 percent of voters approved of the job Biden is doing, while 65 percent disapproved. In the Quinnipiac poll, Biden’s numbers with independents are even worse: just 26 percent approve, and 67 percent disapprove.

Biden is 17 points underwater among suburban voters in the Fox News poll and 23 points in arrears in a Pew Research Center survey from late March and early April.

The Political Rage Of Middle-Aged Liberal Women

It must be hard to be a menopausal liberal. How else to explain the collective meltdown being experienced by women of a certain age and political stripe in the waning days of this midterm election? The examples of hormonal angst are too numerous to list, so I'll just focus on a few of the more amusing ones.
JOY BEHAR VS. SHARRON ANGLE: A lot of people, not just women, hate the GOP Senate candidate from Nevada.

She's been ridiculed as an "Annie Get Your 'Second Amendment Remedies,' " a racist who can't tell chalupas from chow mein and a woman who thinks rape victims should be drinking lemonade.

Click here to read the rest of Christine Flowers' fine column from the Philadelphia Daily News.

Polls, Pundits, Predictions: Brutal News For Dems

Politico's James Houseman is out with a story of the Democrats' brutal weekend, just ended: Dreadful poll results, ominous predictions and very bad reviews from the pundits.
The number of possible Republican gains keeps growing.
The predictions of even more Election Day losses keep coming in.
And the pundits? Well, they just keep piling on the Dems.
Here's part of what Houseman says:
More bad polls. More bad fundraising numbers. More dreary talk on the Sunday shows.
It added up to a brutal weekend for Democrats, as the consensus among election analysts, already bearish on the party’s prospects, took a turn for the worse over the past 48 hours. 
It seems the Democrats simply cannot come up with a message or a strategy to turn things around. And with two weeks to go, the hour is getting late.
The Democrats tried the blame game. They tried changing their talking point. They tried switching themes. As Halloween approaches, they're even trying trickery. But none of it is making a difference.

And it's not just the House that gives the Democrats indigestion. The gubernatorial races look bad as well. And the Senate is still in play.
Here's what Houseman has to say about the Senate:

The Senate may stay in Democratic hands — but only by the narrowest of margins, so slim that it will make a handful of moderates from both parties the only people who will decide whether anything gets done. 

In contrast to 2008, the year couldn't look worse for the Democrats.
And, to most Dem candidates Obama seems more of a hindrance than a help.
Click here to read Houseman's entire story at Politico.

Is A Democrat Wipe Out Ahead?

Among key states, Republicans lead in Senate races in Alaska, Florida, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Ohio, Arkansas and Wisconsin.
And a bunch of other states (Connecticut, California, Washington and even New York, Illinois and Delaware) are suddenly competitive.
On top of this, Nevada is neck-n-neck and crusty 'ole Harry Reid hasn't broken 45% in the polls in seven weeks.
Plus, it's worth noting that in California for the first time ever the ultra-liberal San Francisco Chronicle is refusing to endorse Barbara Boxer for re-election.
On the House side, the GOP leads in 54 races across the country and 19 more seats are considered close or competitive. That makes a total of 73 seats.
These are BIG figures, folks. B-I-G.
But remember -- it's barely October.
Lots of time remains.
And word is the Democrats will go for the jugular.
Since they don't have the issues to win (they can't talk about jobs or health care or taxes or the debt or even the mood of the country) they're busy trying to dig up dirt (any dirt they can get) on their GOP opponents. The Dems are even searching divorce records, personal finance records, traffic violations -- anything -- to get dirt on Republican candidates.
So, this is gonna get mean and nasty and dirty.
Hang in there, everybody. We're facing a 35 days of hand-to-hand combat. Grrrrrrr!

Toomey Continues To Lead Sestak In PA.

Rasmussen is reporting that GOP Senate aspirant Pat Toomey continues to pick up support over Joe Seatak in the race to succeed Arlen Specter.
Following is a portion of the findings from Rasmussen Reports. You can read the full report at Rasmussen.

The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Voters in Pennsylvania shows Republican Pat Toomey picking up 46% support, while his Democratic opponent Joe Sestak earns the vote from 37%. Five percent (5%) prefer a different candidate, and 12% are undecided.

In every survey conducted this year, Toomey's support has stayed in the range of 42% to 47% of the vote.

Aside from a brief surge in support following his mid-May primary victory over incumbent Senator Arlen Specter, Sestak's support has fallen in a narrow 36% to 40% range since tracking began in February.

Last month, Toomey led Sestak 45% to 39%.

Obama "Failing" On Issues

From Jeremy Lott, editor of Capital Research Center’s Labor Watch newsletter and author of “The Warm Bucket Brigade: The Story of the American Vice Presidency, ” at Politico:

Right now, even after Obama’s address to the joint session of Congress last week, it’s possible Democrats don’t even have the votes in the House — where they currently enjoy a 77-seat majority.

It’s entirely possible — nay, likely — that Obama will lose on all three big issues [cap and trade card check, health care].
He’ll probably take that personally. As he has pushed for the passage of his reforms, his public approval ratings have taken a beating, and voters have started to trust the Republicans more than his party on a host of issues.
The question that most political handicappers are considering right now is not “Will Republicans make gains at the midterm elections?” but “How large will those gains be?”
What all this means is, barring some unforeseeable world event, Obama’s will probably not be a historic presidency. He will have some successes and a lot of failures. His opposition won’t roll over, and his party will refuse to go along with his more costly, and thus risky, schemes. He won’t coast to reelection.
So Obama now has the chance to be the sort of president Bush would have been if the World Trade Center towers had not come down. Here’s hoping he makes the best of it.

Obama, The Secret Smoker

From Ben Smith at Politico:

The cap of an entertaining, wide-ranging press conference that included a spirited defense of the public health care option: A carefully-framed, detailed question from Obama on his smoking habit."You just think it's neat to ask me about my smoking," he told the reporter, before conceding that he has "fallen off the wagon sometimes."
"Am I a daily, a constant smoker? No," he said. "I don't do it in front of my kids. I don't do it in front of my family."
Obama said he was "95% cured" and compared himself to a recovering alcoholic.
"Once you've gone down this path, it's something you continually struggle with," he said.
It's a rare admission of personal weakness in a politician whose personal discipline has always been notable.

What an interesting defense: "I don't do it in front of my kids. I don't do it in front of my family."

It sort of reminds me of an old friend I had who never smoked in front of her parents.

And then there's the famous Bette Davis line. When asked "Do you smoke after sex?" Davis answered: "I don't know. I've never looked."

Dems Fumble Sotomayor Defense

From Kenneth P Vogel and Josh Gerstein at Politico:
As Republicans continue to hammer Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor for a 2001 assertion that’s become known as the “wise Latina” remark, her backers are struggling to come up with a single coherent line of defense.
In the past few days, supporters confronted with the remark have offered a range of divergent tactics and tones, offering explanations that span from apologetic to defiant to suggesting Sotomayor may have been joking.
President Obama himself addressed the bubbling controversy, which is emerging as among the leading GOP lines of attack against Sotomayor, asserting on Friday Sotomayor “would have restated” the comment if given another chance.
But that message – which reaffirmed the official White House spin articulated earlier the same day by press secretary Robert Gibbs – did little to build consensus among Sotomayor supporters, who took to the Sunday show circuit with a cacophony of explanations for the comment, which Sotomayor made during a 2001 speech at the law school of the University of California, Berkeley.
In the speech, which was later published as a law review article, Sotomayor, a federal appellate judge who is of Puerto Rican descent, said: "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." . . .
Questions about judges’ experiences coloring their decisions will continue to dog Sotomayor supporters. That’s because Republicans have focused their opposition on allegations that she injects her personal feelings into court decisions driven by her policy objectives, citing three pieces of evidence: the “wise Latina” quote, a 1996 law review article in which she asserted the law is fluid and subject to differing interpretations, and a case in which she sided with a Connecticut city that had thrown out the results of a promotion exam for city firefighters because almost no minorities scored high enough to qualify for promotions.
“If the legislative law doesn’t sit with her, she finds a way as a judge to get around it, in my opinion,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on Fox News Sunday. He declared her “wise Latina” comment “troubling,” said it shows she thinks she’s superior and that it calls into question whether “she really understand what America is about.”
“It’s inappropriate and I hope she’ll apologize,” Graham told Wallace. “If I had said something like that – or someone with my background and profile [had] – we wouldn’t be talking about this nomination going forward.”

Indulgent Obamas Do Broadway

All hail Dear Leader - The less fortunate wait behind police barricades to hail Dear Leader as he and Mrs. Obama head to Broadway in their limo for a "date night." New York Times Photo.

From Politico:
President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama landed in New York Saturday afternoon, and after taking a helicopter from JFK into Manhattan, drove up the West Side Highway, where the northbound lanes were shut down by police for their visit, past Ground Zero, into the Village for dinner at the Village's Blue Hill restaurant. From there, they went north to Times Square, where they went to to see a production of "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" at the Belasco Theater on West 44 Street. Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest read a statement from Obama: "I am taking my wife to New York City because I promised her during the campaign that I would take her to a Broadway show after it was all finished." Asked about the cost of the trip, which Republicans have criticized as indulgent, coming just ahead of the expected announcement of GM's bankruptcy filing on Monday, Josh Earnest told pool reporter Dave Michaels of the Dallas Morning News, that he "didn't anticipate being able to provide a cost estimate tonight." After the play let out at about 11:30 p.m., the presidential motorcade went down Sixth Avenue, shut down by the NYPD, and onlookers packed onto the East side of the street cheered as the presidential motorcade passed as the Obamas headed back to JFK for a return flight to Washington.
The Republican National Committee slammed the outing in an "RNC Research Piece": "As President Obama prepares to wing into Manhattan’s theater district on Air Force One to take in a Broadway show, GM is preparing to file bankruptcy and families across America continue to struggle to pay their bills. ... Have a great Saturday evening – even if you’re not jetting off somewhere at taxpayer expense. ... PUTTING ON A SHOW: Obamas Wing Into The City For An Evening Out While Another Iconic American Company Prepares For Bankruptcy." The RNC's Gail Gitcho added: "If President Obama wants to go to the theater, isn’t the Presidential box at the Kennedy Center good enough?”

And, from Asher Embry at The American Spectator:
Kim Jong Il’s deployed plutonium, and missles, threats, and lies. Iran is daily plotting still for Israel’s demise. In Pakistan there’s turmoil and the country could implode. Near Georgia, Russia readies troops and trouble they forebode. At home, our spending’s soaring, and our deficits balloon. Tax revenues are sinking fast, down drastically through June. GM’s declaring bankruptcy, and no one knows who else. So all of us are cutting back and tightening our belts. While “everyday Americans” are struggling every day, So glad Barack could find the time for dinner and Broadway.

Burger Intelligence Discoveries

From Ben Smith at Politico:

On his trip to get a burger with Brian Williams at Five Guys [Friday] afternoon, the President appears to have learned of the existence of a Defense Department intelligence arm, the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, from an agency employee also at the burger restaurant.

"So explain to me exactly what this National Geospatial..." Obama said, after the worker mentioned his employer, according to a video of the event.

"We work with, uh, satellite imagery," the worker, Walter replied.

A Politico reader caught the exchange, which starts around 5:45 on this C-SPAN video.

The transcript:

Obama: What do you do Walter?
Walter: I work at, uh, NGA, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
Obama: Outstanding, how long you been doing that?
Walter: About six years
Obama: Yea?
Walter: Yes.
Obama: You like it?
Walter: I do, keeps me...
Obama: So explain to me exactly what this National Geospatial...uh...
Walter: Uh, we work with, uh, satellite imagery..
Obama: Right
Walter: [unintelligible] ...support systems, so...
Obama: Sounds like good work.
Walter: Enjoy the weekend.
Obama: Appreciate it.

According to the Defense Department:

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is a Department of Defense combat support agency and a member of the national Intelligence Community (IC). NGA develops imagery and map-based intelligence solutions for U.S. national defense, homeland security and safety of navigation.

NGA provides timely, relevant and accurate geospatial intelligence in support of national security objectives. The term "geospatial intelligence" means the exploitation and analysis of imagery and geospatial information to describe, assess and visually depict physical features and geographically referenced activities on the Earth. Geospatial intelligence consists of imagery, imagery intelligence and geospatial (e.g., mapping, charting and geodesy) information.

Guess they're not getting much airtime in the President's Daily Brief.

Specter Stripped Of Seniority

Arlen Specter has succeeded in making a complete fool of himself - again.
And now he stands alone.
His fellow Democrats have summarily stripped him of his seniority.
Yes, he's lost nearly 30 years of precious Senate seniority.
The Democrats quickly discovered that Specter is of little value to them.
So now Specter is of little or no value to Pennsylvania as well.
Today, he's just a lowly back-bencher.
Here's the story from Glenn Thrush and Manu Raju at Politico:
Arlen Specter infuriated Senate Republicans when he bolted from their party last week. Now he’s alienated just about everybody in the Senate Democratic caucus, too. Since declaring himself a Democrat last Tuesday, Specter has defied Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the White House on virtually everything that’s come down the pike: the budget, mortgage reform, the Al Franken-Norm Coleman race, even President Barack Obama’s appointment of Dawn Johnsen to head the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. All while quibbling over whether he said he’d be a “loyal Democrat” — and insisting that he had an “entitlement” to transfer his Senate seniority from one side of the aisle to the other. The blowback came Tuesday night: On a voice vote, the Senate voted to strip Specter of his 29 years of seniority, effectively transforming him in a blink-and-you-missed-it-moment from one of the most senior senators in the body to a lowly freshman on most committees. "There were concerns about his actions," said Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), chairwoman of the Senate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee, which sets committee assignments. In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, Specter said that Reid had promised him that he could transfer his seniority to the Democratic Party. “Sen. Reid assured me that I would keep my committee assignments and that I would have the same seniority as if I had been elected as a Democrat in 1980,” Specter said. “It was understood that the issue of subcommittee chairmanships would not be decided until after the 2010 election. Some members of the caucus have raised concerns about my seniority, so the caucus will vote on my seniority at the same time subcommittee chairmanships are confirmed after the 2010 election. I am confident my seniority will be maintained under the arrangement I worked out with Sen. Reid.” Specter said in the statement that he would “continue to be a staunch and effective advocate for Pennsylvania¹s and the nation's priorities.” But as early as Tuesday afternoon, the Pennsylvania Republican-turned-Democrat seemed to know that he’d be doing that from something akin to freshman status. Sen. Jeff Sessions, just selected to take Specter's former spot as the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, asked Specter on Tuesday where he would be sitting during committee proceedings. "At the end of the other side of the aisle," a dejected Specter responded, according to a first-hand account of the conversation. Democratic staffers say Reid may have tolerated Specter’s early splits with the party if he hadn’t simultaneously been so vocal in claiming he was entitled to keep his seniority and leapfrog over veteran Democrats on some of the Senate’s most powerful committees.
Specter’s claim that he’d been promised as much sparked an in-house rebellion among longtime Democratic foot soldiers, including Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairwoman of an Appropriations subcommittee who would have been passed over by the more senior Specter, said it would have been an unfair move.
"When you get to be a chairman, you really have some control of that area, and that's what makes it interesting for me," Feinstein told Politico.
"Somebody comes in on top — then everybody gets bumped. Then somebody gets bumped from the committee. That's a very hard thing if you've got 14 years having been on that committee. Obviously you'd like to stay where you are. I understand how people feel about it." Feinstein said she's heard other members complain about Specter keeping his seniority, too. "It's a concern, and I think Sen. Specter will understand that." By Tuesday night, Reid had no option but to strip Specter of his seniority, staffers with knowledge of the situation say.
Note that Politico rightly tags Specter's situation a "meltdown."
And indeed it is.
For the people of Pennsylvania will pay the price for Specter's foolish actions - and all because Specter only cared about himself.

White House Flu Exposure

From Carol E. Lee and Josh Gerstein at Politico:

The White House has issued a health advisory outlining "protective measures" for anyone who traveled on President Barack Obama’s trip to Mexico after a member of the U.S. delegation came down with flu-like symptoms – and tests on his family showed they’re probably infected with the swine flu.
The individual – an advance security staffer for Energy Secretary Steven Chu –appears to have spread the flu to his wife, son and nephew. All three have tested probable for swine flu, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday.
Gibbs, who did not name the security aide, said he did not work closely with Obama, didn’t fly on Air Force One and is back at work at the Energy Department.
But the staffer was at a working dinner Obama attended with Mexican officials April 16. The aide “was asked specifically if he ever came within six feet of the president, and the answer to that was 'No,' " Gibbs said.
“The president has not experienced any symptoms,” Gibbs said. He said Obama and other aides are “highly, highly, highly unlikely” to develop such symptoms now because of the time that has passed since Obama’s visit on April 16 and 17 and the relatively short incubation period for the flu virus, known as H1N1.
The disclosure of the likely flu case in the president’s entourage was startling because Gibbs said earlier this week that White House physicians believed the flu had posed no risk at all to Obama when he visited Mexico. “The doctors have informed me… that the President's health was never in any danger,” Gibbs said Monday. Also on Monday, Gibbs had said no one traveling with the president “in either governmental or press capacity has shown any symptoms that would denote cause for any concern."

'O' Team Short In Crisis

From Carrie Budoff Brown at Politico:
The Obama administration declared a “public health emergency” Sunday to confront the swine flu — but is heading into its first medical outbreak without a secretary of Health and Human Services or appointees in any of the department’s 19 key posts.
President Barack Obama has not yet chosen a surgeon general or the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. His choice to run the Food and Drug Administration awaits confirmation.
In an unusual Sunday briefing at the White House, acting CDC Director Richard Besser appeared on camera with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Obama homeland security adviser John Brennan to announce the emergency declaration in response to the swine flu outbreak. Napolitano is the former Arizona governor, and Brennan is a longtime CIA counterterrorism specialist once thought to be in line to run the agency.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs insisted the vacancies won’t hinder Obama’s response.

GOP: Napolitano Must Go!

From Patrick O'Connor at Politico:
House Republicans are calling on Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to step down or be fired in the wake of a controversial department memo that has sparked indignant battle cries from conservatives and some veterans.
“Singling out political opponents for working against the ruling party is precisely the tactic of every tyrannical government from Red China to Venezuela," said Texas Rep. John Carter, a member of the party's elected leadership who has organized an hour of floor speeches Wednesday night to call for Napolitano's ouster. “The first step in the process is creating unfounded public suspicion of political opponents, followed by arresting and jailing any who continue speaking against the regime.”
In particular, conservative members of the Republican Study Committee raised repeated concerns about the report and Napolitano's subsequent defense of its findings on Wednesday, calling on party leaders to raise the issue with President Barack Obama during a White House meeting on Thursday.
The Department of Homeland Security issued a report earlier this month warning federal, state and local law enforcement officials that the slumping economy "could create a fertile recruiting environment for right-wing extremists and even result in confrontations between such groups and government authorities similar to those in the past."
Conservative bloggers and talk radio hosts immediately seized on the report as evidence that the Obama administration was trying to marginalize its critics on the right.
Veterans groups also complained that the report singled out "military veterans" returning from war who face "significant challenges reintergating into their communities," leading to the "potential emergence of terrorist groups or lone-wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks."

President's Message 'Murky'

Josh Gerstein and Mike Allen of Politico on how Obama has muddles his message on 'torture' and placed himself at serious political risk:
The president, who has said he wants to focus on the future rather than litigate the past, also opened himself to distraction and attack by retracting the earlier assurance by top officials that they had no plans to prosecute lawyers for former President George W. Bush who approved the “enhanced interrogation” program.
A Democratic strategist close to the White House said: “The president looked resolute, and like he had threaded the needle perfectly on the substance: The heat from the right was preposterous, and the heat from the left was manageable. But now they look like the scarecrow, pointing in both directions. They got the policy right, but they look confused and beaten down by critics."

The implications go beyond a typical Washington spat over “message control.” Obama’s moves virtually guarantee a sharp public focus on two uncomfortable questions that his team previously sought to leave vague:
--Should people be tried and even sent to prison—as many Democrats want—for what Obama regards as illegal practices under Bush?
--Even if wrong, did those practices have any positive results in stopping new attacks?
Obama’s own statements are murky on both questions.

White House: No Bow!

From Ben Smith at Politico:

The White House is denying that the president bowed to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia at a G-20 meeting in London, a scene that drew criticism on the right and praise from some Arab outlets. "It wasn't a bow. He grasped his hand with two hands, and he's taller than King Abdullah," said an Obama aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The Washington Times called the alleged bow a "shocking display of fealty to a foreign potentate" and said it violated centuries of American tradition of not deferring to royalty. The Weekly Standard, meanwhile, noted that American protocol apparently rules out bowing, or at least it reportedly did on the occasion of a Clinton "near-bow" to the emperor of Japan. Interestingly, a columnist in the Saudi-backed Arabic paper Asharq Alawsat also took the gesture as a bow and appreciated the move.
"Obama wished to demonstrate his respect and appreciation of the personality of King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz, who has made one of the most important calls in the modern era, namely the call for inter-faith and inter-cultural dialogue to defuse the hatred, conflict and wars," wrote the columnist, Muhammah Diyab.
The video shows Obama dipping toward the king as G-20 leaders greet one another at the ExCel Centre in London.

Let's face it: The Obama White House is in serious need of a first-rate Director of Protocal.
This Administration wouldn't know what's proper from what usually winds up in the hopper.

Sleveless? In February?

I thought I was the only one who noticed this but here's Nia-Malika Henderson at Politico:

Whether FLOTUS [Michelle Obama] is in the White House kitchen, dancing the night away at a ball or in the hallowed (and usually conservative) halls of Congress taking in her husband's speech, she seems to prefer going sleeveless, winter be damned.

Like her husband, she's a fitness fanatic, and at POTUS's address last night, she was probably the only woman in the hall showing off her arms.

Fashionistas, who say FLOTUS will renew an interest in high fashion as well as off the rack items, are surely watching and taking notes. The message last night? Ditch the jacket and skirt look and go a little glam.

And here's Jodi Kantor in the New York Times:

It is February and Washington is freezing, but in appearance after appearance, the first lady displays her long, muscular arms. She is sleeveless on the cover of the new Vogue, she was sleeveless when she discussed menus on Sunday in the White House kitchen, and last night she was sleeveless again, in the House chamber for her husband’s first address to Congress. (All of the other women in the room seemed to be wearing long sleeves; a few even wore turtlenecks). . . .

“Oh my god,” Cindi Leive, the editor of Glamour magazine, exclaimed while watching the address, she said via email. “The First Lady has bare arms in Congress, in February, at night!”
Mrs. Obama’s super-sculpted arms are the result of years of effort. When her children were young, she began working out with a personal trainer, splitting sessions with girlfriends to save money. In recent years, she has exercised several times a week, often rising hours before her daughters to do cardio and lift weights, or spending Saturday sessions with the same personal trainer who guided her husband. At the gym, she is focused and competitive, friends say, counting her reps and teasing when they do not finish theirs.
Now those arms have become Mrs. Obama’s most constant accessory, whether she is wearing a Gap sundress or a designer ballgown. On the Vogue cover, the first lady wears little makeup, subtle jewelry, a simple sheath. It’s her arms that pop out, rippled and gleaming.

"Rippled and gleaming?"

I dunno. I always think it's more intriguing when a gal leaves more (not less) to the imagination.

And, BYW: Aren't short sleeves (or sleeveless tops) totally out of place in northern regions in February?

Revolving Door

From Michael Calderone at Politico:
In three months since Election Day, at least a half-dozen prominent journalists have taken jobs working for the federal government. Journalists, including some of those who’ve jumped ship, say it’s better to have a solid job in government than a shaky job — or none at all — in an industry that’s fading fast.
But conservative critics answer with a question: Would journalists be making the same career choices if John McCain had beaten Barack Obama in November? “Obama bails out more media water-carriers,” conservative blogger Michelle Malkin wrote upon hearing that the Chicago Tribune’s Jill Zuckman is taking a job with the Obama administration.
Blogs at both the Weekly Standard and the National Review are pointing to a “revolving door” that spins between the media and the Obama administration.
And while Brent Bozell, president of the conservative Media Research Center, acknowledges that financial troubles may be forcing reporters out of newsrooms, he thinks it’s worth noting where they’re going.
“When some leave journalism because of a reduction in staff, what’s the natural landing spot?” The Obama administration,” Bozell charged.