Barack Obama on Michelle Obama

Smile and Wave Boys for "Operation: Got Your Six"

In the run up to their first major cinematic film "The Penguins of Madagascar" (2014), the team took an assignment from FLOTUS Michelle Obama -- a P.S.A. for Operation Got Your Six.

Kind of strange to have a Skipper report to a General who is really a Private instead of an Admiral.

None the less, it would be good if everyone in the Pentagon, Foggy Bottom and in the Oval to remember the Penguin credo, from Benghazi to Tijuana.

As this high profile mission may have already blown the Penguin Team's cover,  so just smile and wave boys.  

Michelle Obama on First Dates and Election Day

Really?



          

 As sacred as exercising one's franchise is a sacred duty of a citizen in this democratic Republic, it seems like an unlikely first date. 

 It seems that FLOTUS does not get out of the bubble much.

Michelle Obama on Trick or Treating

Michelle Obama on Changes

h/t: Steve Breen

Fundamentally Transformed Illustrated?

On the campaign trail in 2008, Michelle Obama made headlines when she uttered that she had not previously been proud of America.  But when she was campaigning in Puerto Rico, the future First Lady revealed her vision of how America had to fundamentally change "for the children" of course.

After five and a half years of the Obama Administration, certain policies illustrate how our President is seeking to fundamentally transform America.

A quote attributed to Mahatma Gandhi popular with the "Si, se puede" crowd is:  "Be the change that you wish to see in the world."  But considering illustrated Obama actions, one wonders.  Gutting of our space program to be Muslim outreach; transforming the IRS into a political weapon against domestic "enemies"; Obamacare rules which entice businesses to convert employees into part time workers to dump them into public health exchanges; and overwhelming the U.S. Border Patrol with a flood of OTM illegal immigrants along with hamstringed rules which basically turns them into babysitters.

 It would seem that a Pogo-ism is more apropos: "We have met the enemy and it is US."

We are not destined to such flummoxing funny paper fortunes if enough of us can be drawn away from digital bread and circuses and act upon what is truly important and consistent to our time tested values. 

h/t: A.F. Branco

Mark Steyn on POTUS Potential

Columnist to the World Mark Steyn has been scathing to the lack of personal involvement which Barack Obama has contributed to his successes, including victories during his Presidency.  Steyn recently critiqued the White House involvement in the Twitter campaign against the Boko Haram jihadist terrorists who abducted 276 Nigerian schoolgirls to sell them into sexual slavery. 

Steyn likens social media promotion of #BringBackOurGirls  to political impotency and suggests #BringBackOurBalls.  

Of course will all of the cuts to military readiness applied by sequestration, green energy initiatives et cetera, Twitter campaigns may be the best the Obama Administration can do. But surely there is a way to blame it on Bush.  Or maybe now the bete noir are the Koch Brothers.

Michelle Obama on Knuckleheads

New Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon obsequiously interviewed First Lady Michelle Obama, to talk up her pet project "Let's Move" as well as to nudge Americans on Obamacare.

Michelle Obama endeared herself to the youths of America by calling them "knuckleheads".

This is a different marketing strategy than the Obama Administration employed over Christmastide with Pajama-Boy hectoring his family to talk about health care while drinking cocoa around the Christmas Tree. 

Even said in jest, calling 26 year old "kids" knuckleheads is not a way to get them to spend their dwindling pay checks for income redistribution for older Americans. 

SCOTUS Sartorial Stylings at Inauguration

While there has been a buzz in the Lamestream Media as to the sartorial stylings of First Lady Michelle Obama at the 57th Presidential Inauguration, some astute observers had admired unusual haberdashery on the dais.

[Front L. Justice Sotomayor, R.  Justice Scalia; Back L. Justice Thomas, R. Justice Kagan] 

Associate Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wore some distinctive head-wear to the public swearing in ceremony.  Scalia donned a hat which was a gift from the St. Thomas More Society from November 2010 that is a custom made replica based on the 1527 portrait of St. Thomas More by Hans Holbein.

What is more interesting than the fashionista question: "What are you wearing?" would be "Why are you wearing that hat?"  Was this just an opportune occasion to wear a stylish cap?  Or might the sartorial choice be subtle statement which echoes the inspiration for the Fortnight for Freedom?

[L.] . Justice Scalia at Inauguration [R] Detail of St. Thomas More portrait by Hans Holbein (1527)

Last summer, when the US Council of Catholic Bishops sought to educate the public about the encroachment of Obamacare into our foundational freedom of religion by the HHS Qualified Health Plan   (contraception) mandate.  The kick off mass celebrated St. Thomas More, a faithful Catholic who sacrificed his high position as Lord Chancellor (Prime Minister) as well as his own life when the secular sovereign demanded him to abandon his faith.

You be the judge.

h/t: First Things

Political Views from Bleacher Bums?

Since politics is my favorite contact sport and this is the time for the championship match, I was interested in the chart that tried to quantify political persuasions based on sports affinity.

It was no surprise to have WNBA fans and European Soccer fans skew to the left.  After First Lady Michelle Obama was booed at a NASCAR event promoting assistance to military families, it is not shocking that automotive racing fans are driven to the right.






But the way other sports fans political affinities fell were somewhat unexpected. I would not have naturally associated Ultimate Fighting or Extreme Sports as have such Democrat fans.  It took me off guard that LPGA followers and Olympic aficionados would be reliable Republicans.

Considering the popularity of football, it seems natural for politicians to make appeals to gridiron fans. Both President Obama and Governor Mitt Romney want to make appearances on the NFL Monday Night Football game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the New Orleans Saints the night before the general election.

Mr. Obama has made several appearances on MNF, but his hallmark was in late 2006 as the then newly elected first term Senator from Illinois was toying with running for the Oval Office.






Here's hoping that the sentiments of the Bleacher Bums from Wrigley Field, Chicago, Illinois is to mix a sports metaphor (yet apt for Mr. Obama) par for the course.

h/t: Eric Callie

Obama's Puerile Politics Epitomized

Of late, the Obama 2012 campaign has been seizing on puerile political memes.  The killing Big Bird soundbite from the first debate.  When threats of a Million Muppet March proved to have no political legs, the Obama Ad Hominem Express shifted to the “Binders of Women” meme from the townhall debate.  Little good that did, as Republican Presidential nominee Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA) erased the previous 16% gap with women.

How could the wunderkind braintrust from the Chicago office top this? They did not want to wait for the “horse and bayonets” trope from the third debate to play out.  So they released: “The First Time” with performance artist Lena Dunham waxing poetically about her first time...voting for Barack Obama.




The sad part of this “First Time” campaign is that it isn’t even original.  Barack’s boys copied ads for Russian President Vladimir Putin.  So once again, Obama copies European lefties.




Aside from the unabashedly adolescently vulgar appeal for the youth vote, it is astounding how Obama’s campaign seeks the female vote by consistently degrading women.  The Binders of Women memo probably produced Beavis and Butthead chortles, as if it was President Bill Jefferson Clinton’s little black book.  In reality, the “Binders of Women” referred to outreach that Romney had to qualified female candidates to be part of his gubernatorial administration in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Then there was the Tumblr posting “Vote like your Lady Parts depend on it (because they do)".  It was quickly withdrawn after public hue and cry.  Consider the objectification involved in the “Lady Parts” appeal.   To use the parlance to make a point, I believe that wise women vote with their lady smarts rather than just their lady parts.

Now in its final days, the Obama Campaign comes up with an innuendo ad prompting women to make their first time a good one.

No wonder why the Obamas have been urging everyone to vote early, including your knucklehead friends, per First Lady Michelle Obama.

 The puerile politics displayed in their outreach, as well as the Dear Leader labeling his opponent a bullsh**ter in Rolling Stone are signs of serious presidential campaign imploding.

Obama's Marching Shoes?

Last year, President Barack Obama scolded his friends at the Congressional Black Caucus for not putting on their "Marching Shoes"




However contrary to his promises on the stump to unions that he would put on comfortable shoes to march with them, Mr. Obama has disappointed his friends and not lived up to his word.

Perhaps this is because Obama  can not seem to fill his shoes.  His wife Michelle bragged during her moments of Glory at the 2012 DNC Convention in Charlotte that when they were starting out, Barack's decent pair of shoes  were a half size too small.

Maybe it's time to get resoled or just downsize his footwear.  Flip flops would be pretty comfortable on Waikiki Beach.

h/t: Walt Handelsman, Newsday