Arizona Republican J.D. Hayworth blames the economic downturn on Jews (Schumer and Soros). Plain and simple, “This is why Barack Obama won.”

My guess is that President Obama found relief today outside of his stuffy Oval Office and back on the campaign trail that he became intimately familiar with these last two years. After watching and reading President Obama again in front of a crowd taking live questions from folks in Indiana today, I was assured even more how starkly different he is from President Bush.  This guy actually ENJOYS talking to “the people”.

The questions (and answer) of the night:

Q Thank you. My question is, you have — my name is Tara. You have come to our county and asked us to trust you, but those that you have appointed to your Cabinet are not trustworthy and can’t handle their own budget and taxes.

THE PRESIDENT: No, no, no, this is a legitimate — this is a legitimate question.

Q So I’m one of those that thinks you need to have a beer with Sean Hannity. So tell me why, from my side, we can understand –

AUDIENCE: Boo!

THE PRESIDENT: No, that’s okay. That’s okay. No, no, look, I think it was a perfectly legitimate question.

First of all, I appoint — I’ve appointed hundreds of people, all of whom are outstanding Americans who are doing a great job. There are a couple who had problems before they came into my administration in terms of — in terms of their taxes. Look — and I think this is a legitimate criticism that people have made, because you can’t expect one set of folks to not pay their taxes when everybody else is paying theirs. So I think that’s a legitimate concern. (Applause.)

I will tell you that the individuals at issue here, I know them personally, and I think these were honest mistakes. And I made sure they were honest mistakes beforehand. And one of the things I discovered is if you’re not going to appoint anybody whose ever made a mistake in your [sic] life, then you’re not going to have anybody taking your job. So — (applause) –

But having said that, what I did acknowledge — and I said it publicly on just about every TV station — is something that you probably sometimes don’t hear from politicians, which is: I made a mistake. (Applause.) And that, because I don’t want to send the signal that they’re two sets of rules.

Now, understand, though, I think something that should also be mentioned is that we’ve set up an unprecedented set of ethics rules in my White House where we are not — we are not — everybody will acknowledge that we have set up the highest standard ever for lobbyists not working in the administration; people who work in my administration aren’t going to be able to go out the revolving door and start working for some lobbying firm and lobbying the White House. Republicans and Democrats have acknowledged that there’s a very high bar that we’ve set for ourselves. We have not been perfect, but we are changing the culture in Washington and it’s going to take some time.

Now, with respect to Sean Hannity, I didn’t know that he had invited me for a beer. (Laughter.) But I will take that under advisement. (Laughter.) Generally, his opinion of me does not seem to be very high — (laughter) — but I’m always good for a beer, so — (laughter and applause.)

Full Transcript: Whitehouse.gov

President Obama wrote a book, it sold a bunch of copies, you might’ve heard of it- “Dreams From My Father”, anyway… in it there’s a bit about someone he knew growing up who had a bit of a colorful manner of speaking.  Well Obama himself did the audiobook version, and so there’s tracks out there of the Prez spouting some interesting phrases.  It was only a matter of time before someone made a remix of them.  So now for your listening pleasure- our President cussing, the dance mix.

Now, I post this here because I find the whole thing rather comical, but there are some out there who are actually trying to use this audio in criticism of him.  Some people will grab on to anything, no matter how ridiculous.  Ah well.

Any last words, Mr. Blagojevich?

“I’m here to appeal to you, to your sense of fairness, your sense of responsibility and to the truth,” he said in a closing address that lasted less than an hour. It was the first time he had appeared at the impeachment trial, which began Monday.

“I’m asking you to acquit me and give me a chance to show my innocence,” he said. “And if you’re not comfortable with an acquittal, then extend this process and get more evidence, if you can get it, to show that I did something wrong or give me a chance to bring my evidence in.”

Dilusional to the very end but at least officially out of office. Have they started to tear his name off the Illinois iPass highway signs yet?

Email forwards against Barack Obama during the campaign were dirty, to say the least, but kind of expected. After he won the election I wondered what else could the conservative right gripe about?

The argument against Obama in this latest installment in email forward craptasticness is that he’s simply too confident in himself. Some brilliant analyst made the observation that several other historical leaders were also confident in themselves like, say, Hitler, Stalin, and Charles Manson?

Behold the latest addition to my spam box:

Click to view as PDF

Obama’s flub while taking the Presidential oath has been in my head all afternoon.  I shrugged it off when he (seemingly) forgot the words that were just read to him by the Chief Justice.  Initially it looked like Obama was simply lost in the words and excitement of taking the Presidential oath and needed to hear his line one more time.

But that’s so out of character with the man we’ve been watching for the last two years.  How could this happen at the one culminating moment of his career while proving himself to be so reliable and confident until this point?

And I was right in my instincts that there was more behind his Oath studder.

IT WAS THE CHIEF JUSTICE THAT MESSED UP!

Chief Justice John Roberts swore in President-elect Barack Obama as president of the United States on Tuesday with a slight stumble over the wording of the oath of office in the first of what could be many important interactions between two men who rose to their positions of power quickly and who have some background similarities, but whose politics differ.

Separated by a Bible used by Abraham Lincoln at his first inaugural, Roberts asked Obama: “Are you prepared to take the oath, Senator?”

The former Illinois senator indicated he was, and Roberts started reciting — and Obama repeating — the 35-word oath that is prescribed by the Constitution.

But at one point, Obama paused abruptly after Roberts reversed several words in the oath.

The oath includes the phrase “that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States” but Roberts didn’t say “faithfully” until after saying “president of the United States.”

Obama apparently realized that something was out of order.

With Obama not reciting, Roberts then repeated the phrase correctly, the brief awkward moment ended and Obama was back on track.

He was then the first to congratulate Obama on his new job.

So Obama was squared away but simply didn’t adapt to the Justices off-the-cuff wording:

[video]

And when you watch the video again, it now looks as if the President was helping out the Chief Justice and egging him for the correct words.  Bravo!

Giddy giddy giddy!

9:28 CST:   Great quote from Magic Johnson when asked if he’d go easy on President Obama in a pick-up game of basketball:

“I’ll only go easy on him if he goes easy on my taxes.”

Photo by Chrissy Bonelli

9:43 am:  Biden pulled a muscle in his back lifting boxes while moving into the Vice President mansion.  Bummer.  He may be in a wheel chair?  NOT a good start, Joe.

9:45 am:  CORRECTION!!  It was Dick Cheney who pulled a muscle and he is in a wheel chair.  What a fitting end.

9:47 am:  It will take 12 minutes for each group of people to travel from the White House to the Capital Building.

9:48 am:  President Bush and President elect Obama begin the journey to the Capital Building.

9:56 am:  The military precision of the inauguration and movements of the President makes my heart flutter.  Apparently, Obama’s Presidential limo was taken apart piece by piece and reassembled by the Secret Service to ensure it wasn’t bugged.

10:01 am:  They have arrived at the Capital Building.

10:02 am:  Yo-Yo Mah will play with a carbon fiber cello because his 200 year old cello can’t withstand the cold. Ha!

10:06 am:  Enter Obama’s cabinet.  I just heard a bystander yell to the CIA director, “You’re my hero!”.

10:12 am:  Enter the color guard. Go Army!

10:19 am:  Jimmy Carter is seated.  Doesn’t he have a mission with Hamas or something?

10:23 am:  The Obama moving trucks are LITERALLY moving his families stuff into the White House right now.  And no, they aren’t U-Haul trucks.  How dissapointing.  They’re plain white trucks.

10:29 am :  2 Million people are chanting “Obama!”.

10:31 am : Michelle Obama is carrying the Lincoln Bible in her hand for Barack to swear on.  Strange.

10:35 am:  Darth Vader himself is wheeled into the arena.

10:36 am:  Bush said to someone in the crowd, “It’s a great day for our country”.  In more than one way, Mr. President.

10:43 am:  Obama arrives.  Announced as “Barack H. Obama”.

10:48 am:  Rick Warren!  Right… so…  yeah.

10:49 am:  He sorta reminds me of Michael Moore.  Now he mentions MLK, Africa, God, power words “courage”, “compassion”, yadda yadda.

10:53 am:  Aretha Franklin takes the stage.  An amazing woman.  “My country tis of thee…”  Her voice is a little weak these days but it’s still a great moment.

10:57 am: Biden lookin’ sharp in his bright blue tie.  It’s official for the Vice President.

11:04 am:  “Appalachian Spring” rendition was moving.  Honestly, more moving than Aretha Franklin.

11:05 am: Obama lookin’ sharp in his bright red tie.  It’s official for the President.

11:27 am:  One thing that guy does is make everyone feel a lot more optimistic about our futures.  If that’s all he accomplishes during his Presidency, then he’s already won half the battle.

11:39 am:  STOP putting that cliche fake waving American flag on the screen.

11:40 am:  The ceremony ends.  President Obama has left the building. Is everything all better now?

What a fine president I’d be.

Make your own Obama poster here.

The new Daily Show book is out!   No wait….  this is an actual book??

The Legacy Book of President George W. Bush [pdf] :  This 52 page full color booklet proudly displays the accomplishments of our countries most… ahem…  most revered president?

I’m especially smirking at the ‘Did You Know?” sections spouting such fun facts as:

• The increase in defense funding is the largest increase since the Truman Administration.

or…

• The Bush Administration dramatically increased funding to send children in
  the developing world to school through programs such as the African Education
  Initiative.

…and then we see the President gleefully sitting in a classroom filled with impoverished children.  It’s a gas!   Are you sure Colbert didn’t have a hand in this?

Ok, so it wasn’t said in such direct words, but there’s been a bit of indirect verbal sparring between our current Veep Dick Cheney, and our Veep to be Joe Biden.  Biden recently cut an interview discussing his thoughts on the Vice Presidential role, and the man who will hand the job over to him and… well… let’s just say they were less than flattering-

I think the recommendations, the advice that he has given to President Bush — and maybe advice the president already had decided on before he got it — I’m not making that judgment — has been not healthy for our foreign policy, not healthy for our national security, and it has not been consistent with our Constitution, in my view.

His notion of a unitary executive, meaning that, in time of war, essentially all power, you know, goes to the executive, I think is dead wrong. I think it was mistaken. I think that it caused this administration in adopting that notion to overstep its constitutional bounds, but at a minimum to weaken our standing the world and weaken our security. I stand by that, that judgment.

And he also went on to say that he still thinks we should have gone into Iraq, knowing exactly what we knew and the way we did, as I — I heard the interview. He also stands by the fact that we still should keep Guantanamo Bay open and so on. So — so we have fundamentally different view.

Nothing thus far that would change my fundamental view that Guantanamo should close, number one, that, number two, the way in which we have conducted our policy, in terms of both surveillance as well as the detainees, has hurt our reputation around the world.

And to quote from a previous national security report put out by the — the intelligence community, we have — we have created, not dissuaded, more terrorists as a consequence of this policy.

Well, ol’ Dick was not happy with this criticism, and said in an interview of his own that Biden would wise up after spending some time in his shoes.  Other tidbits include-

“He also said that all the powers and responsibilities of the executive branch are laid out in Article I of the Constitution,” Cheney said in a interview that was conducted on Friday. “Well, they’re not. Article I of the Constitution is the one on the legislative branch.”

“Joe’s been chairman of the Judiciary Committee, a member of the Judiciary Committee in the Senate for 36 years, teaches constitutional law back in Delaware, and can’t keep straight which article of the Constitution provides for the legislature and which provides for the executive. So I think I’d write that off as campaign rhetoric. I don’t take it seriously.”

“If he wants to diminish the office of the vice president, that’s obviously his call,” Cheney shrugged. “President-elect Obama will decide what he wants in a vice president and apparently, from the way they’re talking about it, he does not expect him to have as consequential a role as I have had during my time.”

“The president of the United States now for 50 years is followed at all times, 24 hours a day, by a military aide carrying a football that contains the nuclear codes that he would use and be authorized to use in the event of a nuclear attack on the United States,” Cheney said. “He could launch the kind of devastating attack the world has never seen.

“He doesn’t have to check with anybody. He doesn’t have to call the Congress. He doesn’t have to check with the courts. He has that authority because of the nature of the world we live in.”

Aaaannnnnd… we’ll end on that note, because to me, that last bit encompases everything Cheney’s stay in the White House has been about to him, and I can’t wait until someone a little less… apocalyptic takes his place.