Obama, Romney celebrate tough, compassionate mothers
In two Mother’s Day videos posted to their respective websites, the campaigns working to re-elect President Barack Obama and his likely Republican adversary Mitt Romney packaged the top women in their ranks as strong-willed but compassionate moms who played outsized roles in raising the children of the men vying for the job as leader of the free world come November.
The Romney campaign reprised family videos to highlight the household challenges faced by Ann Romney, who as a tough, doting mother grappled with five rambunctious boys — as well as multiple sclerosis and breast cancer. Ann compassionately disciplined the perceptually quarreling Tagg and Matt, the video notes, and served pancakes to Ben, who needed to be fattened up.
“She is an authentic person,” Tagg says in the video. “You know who she is when you meet her. She doesn’t put on airs. She doesn’t try to be something she’s not. She doesn’t try to measure what she is going to say to gauge how you are going to react. She just says what she thinks.”
Ann Romney, who has taken a more active role helping her husband court women voters on the campaign trail, made her debut on the social networking site Twitter in mid-April by reproaching a Democratic strategist who said Ann had “never worked a day in her life.”
“I made a choice to stay home and raise five boys,” Ann Romney, 62, said in her tweet. “Believe me, it was hard work.”
Mitt is shown only in inter-video montage photos and the nearly four-minute video does not mention the former Massachusetts Governor’s record involving women or mothers, nor does it clarify his position on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the equal pay law Obama signed in 2009 as his first official bill. Romney won’t repeal the law, his campaign said, but it stopped short of saying whether Romney would have signed it if he were in Obama’s shoes.
The Romney campaign’s tribute focuses on the private moments of a large family interacting close to home and regales viewers with private, if innocuous, childhood memories.
Obama camp’s latest fund-raising draw? Clooney
First it was dinner with Barack. Then it was the chance to have dinner with President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama. The campaign has also added the chance to dine with the president and Vice President Joe Biden to the mix in its perennial “Dinner with Barack” fundraising scheme.
But now it’s offering the chance to meet someone who might make some earlier supporters sorry they didn’t wait to enter the campaign’s fund-raising lottery — Hollywood star George Clooney.
The Obama campaign sent out an email today telling supporters that if they donate $3 “or whatever you can,” they will enter a drawing to win one of two chances to attend a fundraiser Clooney is holding at his home in Los Angeles in May.
“If you donate $3 or whatever you can today, you’ll be doing your part to support the campaign, and be automatically entered to join them in Los Angeles,” the email from Julianna Smoot, deputy campaign manager for Obama for America, said.
“If you ask me, this is far too good to pass up.”
Most people at the event will have paid $35,800 — funds going to the Obama re-election campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
Why exactly is the dinner a “scheme?” Every president in my lifetime has done this same thing to raise campaign money so why is a scheme because the President is doing it?
Republicans ride “Mommy Wars” to bank, if not ballot box
The flap over Ann Romney’s stay-at-home mom status may or may not help overcome the yawning gender gap between her husband and President Barack Obama. But Mitt Romney’s campaign, and his Republican party, are looking to at least make a few bucks off the latest edition of the “Mommy Wars” — and perhaps keep them going with some well-priced goods.
Democratic pundit Hilary Rosen started the fracas on Wednesday night when she tried to make the point on CNN that Ann Romney, who has been deployed by her husband’s campaign to appeal to women voters, may not understand the economic challenges faced by most American women. Probable Republican nominee Mitt Romney is a former private equity executive with a personal fortune of up to $250 million. But she slipped by saying that Mrs. Romney, a 62-year-old mother of five sons, had “never worked a day in her life.”
Mitt Romney’s campaign, which saw his ratings among women take a dive as Republican presidential candidates sparred over abortion, contraception and other divisive social issues, seized the moment. Ann Romney took to Twitter for the first time to say she had worked hard raising her sons. And party notables, including former first lady Barbara Bush, took to the Twitterverse and airwaves to dispute Rosen, who eventually apologized, as Democrats, including President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, said they disagreed with her statement.
The Republican National Committee’s GOP.com site is offering a $15 travel mug reading “Moms do work! Vote GOP” – sold on a page showing an image of a woman wearing an apron and holding a baby. “Don’t Let Barack Obama & Democrats Insult Women,” reads a banner on top of the order page, above the line “Moms Do Work,” written in pink.
The page goes straight for the jugular, reading: “I believe that Moms do work and can’t stand liberals who think that Moms don’t. To show my support for the hard work done by Moms everywhere and to help defeat elitist liberals like Barack Obama, I would like to purchase a ‘Moms Do Work’ travel mug.”
Romney’s campaign is also in on the action, offering red bumper stickers for $6 each that read, “Moms Drive the Economy.” The stickers, which say “Romney” on the bottom and “mittromney.com” in blue on the right side, feature a silhouette of a figure in a dress holding hands with child-sized silhouettes.
This argument has been swishing around for 100 years. When are politicians going to learn to stick to real issues affecting all Americans. Good parents are the ones who pay attention to what is happening in the lives of their children everyday, whether they work outside the home or not. We have all seen attentive parents and lazy parents, with and without jobs. Once again, politicians make our personal lives their business and neglect the business of the people.
Michelle Obama likes just being “Meesh”
ORLANDO – First lady Michelle Obama craves normalcy sometimes. The woman who has seemingly endless options living at the White House loves it most when she can hang out and just be “Meesh” to her family and friends.
Obama, who realizes her life will get even busier leading up to the Nov. 6 election, said she tries to get away from the “bubble” created by security and media at the White House and be as much of a regular person as she can.
“I go shopping. I go to my friends’ houses for dinner,” she said in an interview with a few reporters.
“Barack and I try as much as possible to get the girls out of the White House,” she said about her daughters Malia and Sasha. “That is important to us. There’s a freedom of getting them into some normalcy. When they’re outside of the bubble -– even if it’s going for a walk or going skiing or going for a bike ride — it just reminds them that their life is normal.”
A fond memory is taking the girls and traveling to Oregon not too long ago to see her brother Craig Robinson and his family.
“We stayed in his house, we sat on the back porch and we had barbeque. It was important for me to go there. We still are members of a family. We still have cousins and nieces and nephews who don’t see us in any other way other than ‘Meesh’ –- which is what my family calls me –- and ‘Barack.’ Those are the kind of other things that tend to be important.”
One telling sign, IMO, in the difference between the vitriol lobbed at Obama by the righties compared to the vitriol lobbed at Bush from the lefties is this; the left almost never attacked Mrs. Bush, while the right regularly goes after Mrs. Obama. I also think this is more evidence of the rights attitude toward the president and our country, if it is not ‘our’ guy/girl, they have no respect for the office and the person.
Obama kids are happy campaigners, first lady says
The Obamas return home after their vacation in Hawaii, January 3, 2012. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
DALLAS – Michelle Obama, who entered the 2008 presidential electoral season reluctant to go out in public and urge voters to support her husband, shared a surprising nugget of personal information: their kids love to campaign.
The first lady, who has been fiercely protective of her daughters Malia and Sasha and their privacy since Barack Obama became president, said that to the kids, the campaign trail was fun.
“They actually like campaigning,” Mrs Obama told a small group of reporters traveling with her on a three-day tour to promote her healthy eating and exercise “Let’s Move” program.
“Because when they were younger, when we were first running, what was campaigning? Campaigning was when you fly into a city with a bunch of young campaign workers who love kids and they took them for ice cream, everywhere.”
With a laugh, the first lady recalled how, after a day of campaigning for the 2008 election, she took stock of what her daughters had done while she was meeting voters and revving them up to elect her husband.
“One day, I counted it — this was before ‘Let’s Move’ — we were back on the plane and I found out exactly what they were doing when I was on the stage — they had had ice cream four times that day,” she said. “So Sasha’s like ‘I love campaigning.’ They have kind of a skewed (view).”
THE FIRST LADY has such a beautiful soul. thank you for being such a inspiration to our children. you are making such a positive influence on their lives. it is refreshing. thank you
Michelle Obama rocks out with kids in Des Moines
“Let’s Moooooove!” Michelle Obama yelled, standing on stage with Iowa celebrities, Olympic athletes and college students to lead 14,000 kids in dancing to celebrate the second anniversary of her healthy eating and fitness initiative.
Dressed in a red and white sweater with a heart on it, the first lady smiled broadly as she jumped and clapped, making the Ninja moves and fist pumps of the Northern Iowa University dance “The Interlude.”
After the dance, a breathless Bob Harper — one of the trainers on the Biggest Loser TV show — presented Obama with a massive cake to celebrate the program’s second birthday.
In keeping with the healthy eating mantra of the “Let’s Move” program, the multi-story cake was made of layers of bananas, apples, grapes, oranges, pineapples and grapefruit.
Photo credits: Michelle Obama at an event to promote her “Let’s Move” initiative at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, February 9, 2012. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
First lady likes Obama’s voice; rates Romney singing ‘beautiful’
Michelle Obama might have been one of the few people in the United States who knew President Barack Obama could actually carry a tune before he surprised an Apollo Theater audience this month.
In her debut appearance on NBC “The Tonight Show” as first lady, Mrs. Obama told host Jay Leno that her husband sings to her all the time. She said she even knew what song it would be when she heard about his singing a line from Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together.” Mrs. Obama gave a very tiny demonstration before conceding that the president was the better singer. Obama said her husband has a beautiful voice.
Asked about the performance turned in by Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney singing “America the Beautiful” on the campaign trail in Florida, Mrs. Obama said “its beautiful.”
Here’s a clip from NBC
(Video clip courtesy: NBC/ Photo credit: NBC “The Tonight Show”/Stacie McChesney)
She was being cordial which the other side has no clue what that word means.
Mitt Romney says Obama breaks vows, just like Kim Kardashian
President Barack Obama and reality television celebrity Kim Kardashian have something in common, according to Mitt Romney – they don’t know how to keep a promise.
“I’ve been looking at some video clips on YouTube of President Obama, then-candidate Obama, going through Iowa, making promises,” Romney said during a campaign stop in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on Sunday.
“I think the gap between his promises and his performance is the largest I’ve seen, well, since the Kardashian wedding and the promise of until death do we part,” said the Republican presidential candidate.
Kardashian filed for divorce on Oct. 31, just 72 days after marrying basketball player Kris Humphries in a lavish televised wedding that was billed as a “fairytale.” She is one of the highest-paid reality stars on U.S. television, with 2010 earnings estimated at $6 million from her TV show, clothing line, perfume, jewelry and tanning cream and other product endorsements and appearances.
In October, First Lady Michelle Obama told a group of reporters that her husband didn’t like their daughters, Malia and Sasha, watching the Kardashian reality television shows.
Romney is hoping to become the Republican presidential nominee to challenge Obama at the Nov. 6 election. Polls show Romney in a three way fight with Texas congressman Ron Paul and Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum ahead of Tuesday’s caucuses in Iowa, but recent polls in New Hampshire predict a landslide victory at the state’s Jan. 10 primary for the former governor of neighboring Massachusetts.
Just awful. I can only assume he is going for an ‘Oh No He Did-ent’ moment with the Facebook generation
from Environment Forum:
Is Michelle Obama strumming along with Gibson Guitar?
It's not often that a U.S. first lady's gift makes news -- years after the fact -- but Michelle Obama's 2009 present to Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has sparked some comment among free trade boosters and guitar pickers. The gift in question: a Gibson Hummingbird guitar.
Gibson Guitar Corp. has been making some news of its own this week, which is why those in Washington with long memories recalled the gift to the music-loving French first lady. Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz was in town to raise awareness about a problem he has with a long-standing U.S. law aimed at curbing illegal trafficking in tropical hardwoods, among other materials. Federal agents raided two of his Tennessee factories and confiscated more than $1 million worth of rosewood, ebony and finished guitars. No charges have been filed but Gibson's chief says he is being investigated for possible violation of the Lacey Act of 1900. Read more about that here.
At a lunch with reporters and others, Juszkiewicz said he favors using sustainably harvested wood for Gibson instruments, and because guitars need such a small amount of tropical hardwoods for their fingerboards -- the wooden top of the guitar's neck -- that's well within the realm of possibility. But he says a 2008 amendment to the act is more protectionist than environmentally friendly. And he says the seizure of the materials his company needs to make the instruments makes it harder for Gibson's hundreds of U.S. employees. The Justice Department has refused to comment on the ongoing litigation.
The 2008 amendment to the Lacey Act passed during the Bush administration with bipartisan support, but still hackles were raised soon after the latest raids at the end of August.
About Michelle Obama's gift to Carla Bruni-Sarkozy: the Hummingbird model features a rosewood fingerboard "with rolled edges for an extremely comfortable in-the-hand feel," according to the company's website. And as the site says, "It all starts with the wood."
But it may not end there. Juszkiewicz hopes to gather some momentum to modify the Lacey Act, and has been talking with members of Congress, whom he says have been largely supportive.
Photo credits: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid (Carla Bruni-Sarkozy performs at The Mandela Day concert at Radio City Music Hall in New York July 18, 2009)
The right is always banging their pots and pans about something. Every week a new “scandal” appears on the website of the Drudge Report and slides down the right wing news ladder. It’s just how they roll.
Safari time in Africa for first lady, family
After nearly a week of public diplomacy and outreach in Africa, U.S. first lady Michelle Obama and her family went on safari on Saturday and had an encounter with an elephant.
Obama, who is traveling on her second official solo trip abroad, went to see wildlife at Madikwe Game Reserve in South Africa, roughly an hour away from Gaborone, Botswana, where she spent the previous night.
Together with her daughters, niece, nephew and mother, the first lady roamed the game park in an open-air vehicle, spending her final full day on the African continent engaging in a little touristic fun.
The elephant encounter happened toward the beginning of their tour, while reporters were waiting nearby for the one photo opportunity with the first lady in the park.
As her vehicle approached the spot where the press waited, it stopped and the family — with mouths gaping — turned their heads to see an elephant.
Journalists, not realizing what was happening nearby, walked toward the vehicle to get a picture, before a guide said it was not safe for them to be walking around.
Elephants, apparently, are the most dangerous animals in the park. Reporters scrambled back to their vehicle and got the picture of the first lady — without wildlife — a little later.
