Priceless series of pictures on President Obama's Selfie at Mandel's funeral

Michelle Obama steps in to separate Barack Obama and Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt. And there is a question about why Obama has been "restricting access to the sort of events formerly covered by press photographers"?

Click on photos to make them larger (complete set available here).

Michelle Obama advised people to "be persistent" and "start the conversation early" about bringing up political talking points during Thanksgiving conversations

As if it wasn't bad enough that Michael Bloomberg was advising people to talk about gun control during their Thanksgiving dinners, Michelle Obama has made a similar request about 14 different issues.  From the Washington Times:

“As you spend time with loved ones this holiday season, be sure to talk with them about what health care reform can mean to them,” she said, in the email that contained 14 talking points that could be raised. Among [Michelle Obama] touted topics, The Post reported: Talk about the need to sign up for Obamacare. And, ask guests to bring W2 tax forms, or pay stubs, in order to verify income levels. 

Mrs. Obama’s tips are posted on an Internet site operated by Organizingfor Action, called “Health Care for the Holidays.” The goal of the tips, the site says, is to “get the ball rolling” on widespread Obamacare enrollment — a much-needed scenario, given the floundering and failings the government HealthCare.gov site has suffered since it’s October kick-off. 

Some other words of wisdom on the website, The Post reported: “Don’t wait until the last minute — be sure to start the conversation early!” And “Integrate the talk into family time — take advantage of downtime after meals or between holiday activities to start your talk.” And one more: “Find a quiet place to shop” for a new health care policy. And don’t leave out the blunt approach; the site suggests asking family and guests: “When do you plan on signing up?” 

Moreover, the Obamacare push shouldn’t end just because the holiday wraps, the site advises. 

“Don’t forget to follow up,” is one final tip, The Post reported. . . .

The Washington Examiner has the 14 talking points, including "be persistent."

-- PICK A TIME
-- Start early: Don’t wait until the last minute—be sure to start the conversation early!
-- Integrate the talk into family time: Take advantage of downtime after meals or between holiday activities to start your talk.
-- THINK ABOUT HOW YOU’LL BRING IT UP
-- Make it personal: Be honest about your feelings and why this is important to you.
-- Be persistent, but keep it positive: Tell them you care about their health, and focus on the benefits that come from knowing that you have health insurance.
-- CHOOSE A PLACE
-- Get creative: Think about what matters to your family member. Make it memorable!
-- Find a Quiet Place to Shop: You can start your conversation anywhere, but to shop for health coverage, you will want a more quiet, private place to make a phone call or use the internet.
-- CONVERSATION TIPS
-- Start by asking: “Have you thought about signing up for health insurance on the new marketplace?”
-- Offer to walk them through it: “Would you like to take some time with me to sign up right now?”
-- Ask them to make a plan, and commit to it: “When do you plan on signing up?”
-- Don’t forget to follow up: “Have you signed up yet?”
-- WHAT’S IMPORTANT TO COMMUNICATE:
-- Being covered helps you stay healthy and protects you in an emergency.
-- You can find a plan that fits your budget—financial assistance is available for those who qualify.
-- You get to choose the plan that’s right for you.
-- All the health insurance plans on the new marketplace provide free preventive care—including routine checkups, vaccinations and screenings. 

Michelle Obama wanted race-based faculty hiring

Here is what she wrote for the Harvard’s Black Law Students Association (BLSA) back in 1988.  Her maiden name was Michelle Robinson.  What is surprised is how she views even the most benign questions as filed with racial implications: "One should not be surprised when one hears the rude statements and questions posed by students to professors Wilkins and Ogletree like 'Are you sure you've interpreted this correctly?' or 'I don't think you understand what this statute says.'"

She objects to the notion that only those who have done well in school, the traditional method of picking faculty, can serve the students well.  She writes about the misleading notion that Harvard faculty should be "'Only people on Law Review can become good teachers', 'Only people who have clerked on the Supreme Court can become good teachers' . . . "

Click on pictures to make them larger.

Voters view reporters as trying to help candidates that they support

From Rasmussen Reports:

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 67% of Likely U.S. Voters believe that most reporters, when covering a politician campaign, try to help the candidate they want to win. Only 21% think most reporters put the emphasis instead on trying to offer unbiased coverage. Twelve percent (12%) are not sure.
Forty-eight percent (48%) also believe that most reporters would hide any damaging information they learned to help the candidate they wanted to win. Twenty-nine percent (29%) disagree and 23% are not sure. . . .

Voters believe that reporters are trying to help Obama.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 61% of Likely U.S. Voters are at least somewhat angry at the media, with 26% who are Very Angry. Thirty-six percent (36%) don’t share that anger, including 13% who are Not At All Angry at the media. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
This is only slightly less anger than voters expressed in June of last year as the midterm election season was heating up. It’s down a bit, too, from the 69% who express anger at the current policies of the federal government.
Thirty-eight percent (38%) of voters believe that when most reporters write or talk about Obama, they are trying to help him pass his agenda. That’s down from 48% a year ago. Just 20% think most reporters are trying to block the president from passing his agenda, while 26% say they are merely interested in reporting the news in an unbiased manner. These last two findings are basically unchanged from last June, but now 15% are undecided. . . .

Finally, Michelle Obama also thinks that the media supports her husband.

CNN reporter: "How's the family ready for this [the election]? It's going to be quite vicious, isn't it? How do you prepare for that?"

First Lady Michelle Obama: "You know, it's … we're ready, you know. Our children, you know, could care less about what we're doing. We work hard to do that. Fortunately, we have help from the media. I have to say this: I'm very grateful for the support and kindness that we've gotten. People have respected their privacy and in that way, I think, you know, no matter what people may feel about my husband's policies or what have you, they care about children and that's been good to see."

Putting the higher turnover rate for first lady Michelle Obama's staff in its most positive light

If Laura or Barbara Bush or Nancy Reagan had these high staff turnover rates, do you think that the explanation would be it was because it was "an operation known for its polish and discipline." Does that mean that the other first ladies didn't have well polished operations? It would be nice to have some objective evidence on that score.

Less than three years into the job, first lady Michelle Obama is on her third chief of staff and third social secretary. She is on her second communications director, the White House chief usher recently departed, and her press secretary’s last day is Friday.

On Friday afternoon, the first lady’s office announced that the executive director of Obama’s signature campaign to fight childhood obesity also is leaving.

The turnover, greater than under recent first ladies, underscores the pressure and high expectations of working in an operation known for its polish and discipline. A crucial political asset to her husband and his administration, Obama has enjoyed consistently high job approval ratings because of charm, activism — and by avoiding mistakes and controversy.

Sources familiar with the East Wing, who asked not to be named discussing internal dynamics, described the first lady’s office as a challenging workplace, where grueling hours and the expectations of a formidable boss intensify the demands of managing a popular first lady’s schedule, image and agenda. . . .

At the end of the article, there is a quote from someone who worked for Laura Bush in the White House indicating that they also found the job difficult, but I suppose the argument is that the product is so much more polished under Obama.

“It’s the hardest, most demanding schedule that I ever had in 30 years in Washington,” McBride, who worked in three presidential administrations, said of the East Wing. “One of the things you recognize right off the bat is the short amount of time you have to get things done. So you’re driven to do all you can.” . . .

Did Michelle Obama Break Law by Campaigning in Polling Place?

I assume that virtually everyone knows that it is agains the law to campaign in a polling place. Anyone who has voted knows that those pushing for candidates are not allowed to get very to where voting is taking place. One would especially think that a Harvard educated lawyer and, even more importantly, someone intimately involved in politics would know the rules. But apparently it doesn't matter for Michelle Obama. From the Drudge Report:

First lady Michelle Obama appears to have violated Illinois law -- when she engaged in political discussion at a polling place!

The drama began after Mrs. Obama stopped off at the Martin Luther King Center on the south side of Chicago to cast an early vote.

After finishing at the machine, Obama went back to the desk and handed in her voting key.

She let voters including electrician Dennis Campbell, 56, take some photos.

"She was telling me how important it was to vote to keep her husband's agenda going," Campbell said.

According to a pool reporter from the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES at the scene, the conversation took place INSIDE the voting center, not far from the booths.

Illinois state law -- Sec. 17-29 (a) -- states: "No judge of election, pollwatcher, or other person shall, at any primary or election, do any electioneering or soliciting of votes or engage in any political discussion within any polling place [or] within 100 feet of any polling place."

A top Ilinois State Board of Elections official tells the DRUDGE REPORT that Mrs. Obama -- a Harvard-educated lawyer -- may have simply been ignorant of the law and thus violated it unintentionally.

"You kind of have to drop the standard for the first lady, right?" the official explained late Thursday. "I mean, she's pretty well liked and probably doesn't know what she's doing."

WHITE HOUSE DEFENDS ELECTIONEERING

When questioned about the brazen nature of Mrs. Obama's campaigning, press secretary Robert Gibbs defended the action.

"I don't think it would be much to imagine, the First Lady might support her husband's agenda," Gibbs smiled.

Fox News defends Michelle Obama here.

Apparently those very expensive vacations are more trouble than they are worth?

This is embarrassing.

Michelle Obama thinks being America’s First Lady is ‘hell’, Carla Bruni reveals today in a wildly indiscreet book.
Miss Bruni divulges that Mrs Obama replied when asked about her position as the U.S. president’s wife: ‘Don’t ask! It’s hell. I can’t stand it!’
Details of the private conversation, which took place at the White House during an official visit by Nicolas Sarkozy last March, emerged in Carla And The Ambitious, a book written in collaboration with Miss Bruni. . . .

The Obamas are denying through ABC News that Michelle Obama said this.

Michelle Obama's $375,000 Spanish holiday

Not bad if you can get it. My question is what is Michelle doing taking 40 friends with her on vacation. If she wants to go on vacation, fine. If she wants her friends to go, can't they pay their own way? I am sure that this $375,000 cost doesn't include a lot of the costs of her trip including her staff's cost of going with her.

Michelle Obama today faced a fresh wave of attacks over her lavish break in Spain with 40 friends, which could easily cost U.S. taxpayers a staggering £50,000 a day.
The First Lady has been lambasted for her extravagance at a time when the economy is still struggling. One blogger went so far as to brand her a modern-day Marie Antoinette.
And her critics will be further annoyed when they learn that the president's wife had a Spanish beach closed off today so that she, her daughter and their entourage could go for a swim.
Spanish police cleared off a stretch of beach at the Villa Padierna Hotel in Marbella after the Obamas had finished a busy day of sightseeing. . . .

For a start, they will be paying for the 60 rooms booked at the 129-room Hotel Villa Padierna. With basic rooms starting around £380 each, the nightly bill will be no less than £22,800. . . .

The meal cost about £40 a head, according to El Mundo - which means a bill topping £1,600 would have hit the table if all 40 friends dined together.
Stretched over five nights that's £8,000 for dinner alone. . . .

The per diems for the secret service team runs at around £172 each, which amounts to nearly £60,000 for the length of the summer break.
Use of Air Force Two, the Air Force version of a 757, comes in at £91,900 for the round trip. This does not include time on the ground. . . .

Conservative estimates already put the total cost at £150,000. With Majorca to come, the bill will be more like £250,000. . . .

Back in the U.S., anger was mounting - especially as it has emerged the First Lady will have enjoyed eight holidays by the end of the summer. . . .

The cost to taxpayers comes to about $75,000 per day.

The lunch is Mrs Obama's last engagement in Spain before flying home to Washington DC, where she has come under fire for her lavish break on the Costa del Sol with 40 friends, which has been estimated at costing U.S. taxpayers £50,000 a day. . . .

Some more material is available here.

Michelle Obama attacks "racist" elements in Tea Party

Here are some of Michelle Obama's remarks to the NAACP.

First Lady Michelle Obama brought renewed energy to the NAACP today, delivering the keynote speech at the annual convention one day before the nation's largest civil rights group is expected to condemn what it calls racist elements in the Tea Party movement. . . .

Tea Party members have used "racial epithets," have verbally abused black members of Congress and threatened them, and protestors have engaged in "explicitly racist behavior" and "displayed signs and posters intended to degrade people of color generally and President Barack Obama specifically," according to the proposed resolution.

"We're deeply concerned about elements that are trying to move the country back, trying to reverse progress that we've made," NAACP spokeswoman Leila McDowell told ABC News. "We are asking that the law-abiding members of the Tea Party repudiate those racist elements, that they recognize the historic and present racist elements that are within the Tea Party movement." . . .

Michelle Obama goes shopping for "certified organic Tuscan kale"

The Washington Post has this:

Let's say you're preparing dinner and you realize with dismay that you don't have any certified organic Tuscan kale. What to do?

Here's how Michelle Obama handled this very predicament Thursday afternoon:

The Secret Service and the D.C. police brought in three dozen vehicles and shut down H Street, Vermont Avenue, two lanes of I Street and an entrance to the McPherson Square Metro station. They swept the area, in front of the Department of Veterans Affairs, with bomb-sniffing dogs and installed magnetometers in the middle of the street, put up barricades to keep pedestrians out, and took positions with binoculars atop trucks. Though the produce stand was only a block or so from the White House, the first lady hopped into her armored limousine and pulled into the market amid the wail of sirens.

Then, and only then, could Obama purchase her leafy greens. "Now it's time to buy some food," she told several hundred people who came to watch. "Let's shop!" . . . .