Book Review: 'Double Down -- Game Change 2012' (Part 2 of 2)

by Sunnyjane

I refuse to apologize for cheating to get on the NYT Bestseller list!

In 2007, Mitt Romney was told that he had to appeal to the far-right if he wanted to win the 2008 GOP nomination race against such luminaries as John McCain, Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee, Fred Thompson, Alan Keys, Duncan Hunter (whoever heard of this guy?), and Rudy Giuliani.  So he did -- but not very well.  After putting forty-five million dollars of his own money into a primary run that cost a total of one-hundred and ten million, he withdrew in February 2008 after losing Iowa to Huckabee and New Hampshire to McCain.

Two weeks after the 2008 election of Barack Obama, Romney was told by one adviser that he lost because he didn't tell his story of being a successful businessman and governor of Massachusetts, blah, blah, blah.   This adviser told him to spend the next couple of years writing a book, lecturing, figuring out who would back him, writing editorials, etc.   The advice was good; the results were not what Romney needed to project himself as what could easily be called Mr. Fix-It of the Economy and Everything Else That is Wrong with Obama and America.  Taking a page from Sarah Palin, he pulled some not-too-ethical shenanigans to get his book on the New York Times bestseller list; most of the books were purchased in bulk.  It was so obvious that the online Paper of Record -- which always awards a dagger to books purchased in bulk -- awarded No Apology two daggers. 

Few Favorable Winds for USS Romney

Though it had been a foregone conclusion by the first of April, Mitt Romney safely secured the requisite number of 1,144 delegate votes to assure him of the GOP presidential nomination on May 29, 2012.  It had been a long, tiring, and very expensive primary, but Mitt and his staff were geared up and ready to make sure that Barack Obama would be a one-term president.  The campaign would make the election all about the economy, hammering Obama for his fecklessness and failures. They had every opportunity; the progressive left was unhappy that the President hadn't made more progress on his agenda, his most loyal 2008 supporters appeared to be having doubts, and the big money wasn't rolling in.  But in typical GOP style, they managed to screw it up royally because they had a bad candidate, a dysfunctional campaign, and lousy, out-of-touch messages for the broad spectrum demographics that makes up 21st Century America. 

A few of the, um, challenges that faced the Romney Campaign:

Maybe we shouldn't have outsourced our campaign literature to China.

The Ricketts Plan:   Things got off to a rather inauspicious start for the Romenyites -- or Boston -- as the campaign was sometimes referred to.   A little backstory: In February of 2012, Romney had said in a radio interview with Sean Hannity:  ...I'm not sure which is worse, [the President] listening to Reverend Wright or him saying that we must be a less Christian nation.  (Bold emphasis added.)  

This statement emboldened Joe Ricketts -- a wealthy and influential Republican supporter -- to authorize a highly secret ten million dollar, forty-page plan entitled The Defeat of Barack Hussein Obama, which would play up the President's relationship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright.  On the same day it was printed up, a copy was handed to the Obama campaign by a mysterious brunette, which got it into the hands of the New York Times through a third party.  The message to the Romney campaign from the Obamans was simple:  that if [the Romney campaign] crossed the line when it came to race,  there would be a price to pay. 

When questioned by a reporter several days later if he stood by his February statement on Rev. Wright to Hannity, Romney uttered those immortal words:  I'm not familiar, precisely, with exactly what I said, but I stand by what I said, whatever it was.
  
That Detroit Bailout Thingy: One of the things Mitt's 2008 adviser urged him to do was write editorials (op-eds) to start getting his

message out to the American public.  He took this to heart and in mid-November -- right after the election -- he wrote his opinion of the Bush-proposed bailout of the Detroit auto industry.  (President-elect Obama also supported the bailout.)

The New York Times was eager to print it and Mitt Romney was thrilled beyond words.  Unfortunately, the Times has a policy that only their editorial staff writes the title, and this one came out as Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.  Naturally, the Obamans took that line as one of their major campaign themes against Romney, and by October 2012, that archived op-ed had become the Number One most-read, most-emailed Times editorial, and the Romney campaign was never able to put a halt to what they felt was a dramatic misrepresentation of what Romney had proposed back in 2008.

The problems that faced Mitt Romney were far-ranging and politically damaging on practically every issue: his taxes (stored away in more than two dozen bank boxes), women, college students, Latinos, African Americans, the LGBT community, his gaffes, Ann's gaffes and petulance, the 47% debacle, the Etch-a-Sketch moment, his staffer telling reporters to kiss my ass, etc.  After his jaw-dropping  An-Idiot-Abroad trip to the UK, Israel and Poland, a former Bush staffer said, It almost feels like Sarah Palin is his foreign policy adviser.  Haley Barbour said that Mitt was an inept candidate ... incapable of connecting with voters, inspiring conservatives, or restraining himself from planting his penny loafer in his mouth.  That about sums up how most GOP party leaders -- and the GOP electorate in general -- viewed their 2012 candidate.

The Search for a Not-Sarah-Palin Vice President

Code-named Project Goldfish, Mitt's hunt for a suitable vice-presidential candidate began in April, headed solely by Beth Myers.  With a screw-you to political correctness, the final short-listers were given code names based on their weight, ethnicity, or location:   Chris Christie was Pufferfish, Tim Pawlewnty was Lakefish, Rob Portman was Filet-O-Fish, Marco Rubio was Pescado, and Paul Ryan was Fishconsin.  (No, I don't understand Portman's codename, either, but I have my suspicions.)

I'll do it MY way, or it won't get done.  And piss on you all if you don't like it!

In the interest of brevity, I will concentrate only on Pufferfish -- or Big Boy, as George W. Bush called him behind his back.  Chris Christie turned the vetting process into a nightmare for Beth Myers, who sent him the vetting package in early April, and wanted to have the complete process wrapped up by May 31.  There had already been issues between Boston and Trenton: Christie had told the campaign that he would not endorse Romney early, and that until he did, he didn't want them raising money in New Jersey.  He went for months telling his adorers and those big money guys that he probably wouldn't run, but they continued to try to persuade him.  This galled Romney, who was certain that he'd be the nominee -- whether the party wanted him or not.  Christie finally said he wasn't going to run, and became a Romney surrogate -- with mixed results.

To the Romney campaign HQ, Christie and his staff were overbearing and hard to work with, demanding in ways that would have been unthinkable from any other surrogate.  Trenton insisted on private jets, lavish spreads of food, and space for a massive entourage.  Christie was chronically behind schedule and made a habit of showing up late for  Romney fund-raising events.  

Because red-flag information had turned up on Christie during Myers' research into his background -- and some of his staff -- she asked very pointed vetting questions.  Trenton refused to answer many of them, whining Why do you need to know that? leading the Romneyites to assume that If they're not answering, it's because the answer is bad.  (Wouldn't the 2016 Democratic aspirants love to see that file?)

Racing Toward the  Finish Line

Yo, Chair!  You do realize that the GOP is full of rich, white, crazy old farts, don't you?

Conventions:  The two party conventions have been well covered: The Republicans' was good, the Democrats' was great.  Where the GOP's stars seemed to have been Clint Eastwood and Chris Christie (now that is a story worth reading!), the Democrats relied on Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton to light up the stars in North Carolina.  No contest!

Please proceed, Governor.

Debates: It's old news that Mitt Romney overwhelmingly won the first debate.  What is news -- but has been recently reported -- is that President Obama's performance was so bad that the campaign had to stage an intervention before the second debate.  You can't have a second debate like the first one, they told him.  It was that bad? asked the President.  Yes, they said, it was that bad. 

It's gonna be OK, Chris.  I'm here and I can help you.  Romney can't.

The Big Blow:  Superstorm Sandy, which ravished ravaged the state of New Jersey, left Romney off the political radar for nearly a week -- a period of time that just happened to be seven days before the election.  Instead, Americans read and watched non-stop coverage of the Republican Governor of New Jersey and the Democratic President of the United States working together as an empathetic non-partisan team to do everything they could to help the citizens and businesses of that devastated state.

Stuck in the mid-west, Romney wanted desperately to be a part of the hurricane recovery action:  Just get me to New Jersey, he told to campaign staff.  Find me a shelter where I can show I care.   They told him that it was impossible, but came up with another idea:  The campaign was making a last swing through Pennsylvania and there was a planned event only ten miles from Trenton, and surely Christie could take a little time to dash right over and appear with Romney on the stage.  The Governor kept telling them No, and finally screamed into the phone, Leave me the fuck alone!

It appears (to me) that Romney believed one roaring debate win and a couple of very well-attended rallies in the three weeks before November 6 could erase all the self-inflicted negative coverage he had received throughout the campaign.

Read 'em and Weep

No, Mitt, I don't mind at all that you've kept me up until after 2:00 AM

The networks (including Fox News) called the election for President Obama shortly after 11:00 PM, after determining that he had won all the battleground states except North Carolina.  Perhaps because Bush's Brain Karl Rove was having a major meltdown on Fox, declaring that it was much too early to project Obama as having won, it took almost three hours for Mitt to make his concession call to the President.  Or, perhaps Ann was hyperventilating so badly they couldn't get her to pull herself together -- I dunno.

Whatever, here's the end of the story:

The Inauguration of President Barack Obama, January 21, 2013

End Note

In a recent interview with Ann and Mitt Romney on CBS, the interviewer asked Mitt if he was mulling another run for the presidency. 

This was Ann's response:

Election night, 2012:  That's all, folks; we're done here.  Never again!

Michelle Obama's National Fitness Initiative - Jimmy Fallon Show

By Kathleen

In honour of Michelle Obama's initiative, Let's Move, which encourages people, especially kids, to get moving (and because it is snowing here and I cannot make my planned journey to the gym today) I'm posting the video of Michelle dancing with Jimmy Fallon. The video is very entertaining - just wonderful. So enjoy it and why not dance along? I know I will be.

Have a lovely weekend everyone. 

Hat-tip to JCos

The New Era of Michelle Obama, First Lady of the United States

by Sunnyjane

Renaissance

The role of First Lady is undefined, unpaid, and -- too frequently -- unappreciated.  It has, in some instances, been exploited or neglected by First Ladies who obviously had neither the courage, the conviction, nor the imagination to mold the position into one that fits their passions and makes a significant impact on the lives of Americans.  Some, like Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosalynn Carter, and Hillary Clinton, chose to be what could be called Power First Ladies.  Mrs. Roosevelt took on the role of eyes, ears, and legs for her crippled husband, while Mrs. Carter regularly sat in on President Carter's staff meetings, and Mrs. Clinton fought hard for health care during President Clinton's first term in office.

There is a certain irony that Jackie Kennedy, the first First Lady born in the Twentieth Century, followed Mamie Eisenhower, the last First Lady born in the Nineteenth Century.  It is significant because their contrasts in styles differed dramatically.  Jackie Kennedy  exemplified the Twentieth Century by being better educated, more worldly, and more fashionable than any of the First Ladies before her.   

Mamie Doud married Dwight David Eisenhower when she was nineteen and he was twenty-five.  She lived her entire adult life as a military wife, living in twenty-eight different homes and many foreign countries.

While Mamie Eisenhower's cause was her husband -- and herself --  Jackie Kennedy took on the refurbishment of the White House furnishings.  She is solely responsible for bringing many of the mansion's former pieces back to their origins through her connections to famous old families and, she freely admitted, by badgering people to donate furniture to her project.   Mrs. Kennedy was also adamant that her children would be protected from the press and have normal childhoods to the degree possible.   

The White House years were not kind to Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy.   Less than three months after the premature birth of her second son, and his death two days later from infant respiratory distress syndrome,  her husband was assassinated.



A New Age of First Ladies

While Laura Bush was the First Lady of the new millennium, the important causes she sponsored -- education and women's heart health awareness, among others -- failed to engender a national response for which she will be remembered.

The wife of the forty-third president left the White House with a popularity rating twice that of her husband.  Quite frankly, given the disastrous presidency of George Bush, that would not have been a difficult, um, mission to accomplish.

While President Bush received much well-deserved criticism during his administration, Mrs. Bush escaped that fate.  Her successor, unfortunately, has not been afforded the same respect.

One hundred and forty-three years after the official end of slavery in the United States, an African American descendent of that blight on the nation's history stepped across the threshold of the White House as First Lady.  The significance of that fact could not have escaped the wife of the new President, but she did not dwell on it.  Michelle Obama had a more urgent issue to address.

Her priority, as she stated many times between the election of Barack Obama on November 4 and Inauguration Day, was the transition of the couple's two daughters to their new home, school, city, and positions as First Daughters.  To aid in this endeavor, she brought the First Granny, Mrs. Marian Robinson, with the family to Washington.

Inauguration Day, January 20, 2009

The physical changeover (called "flipping") of the Residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue from outgoing First Family to incoming First Family must take place within a six-hour time frame.  As well coordinated as an oft-rehearsed  military exercise, a trained and handpicked team at the Mansion are at their battle stations, and as soon as the doors close on the soon-to-be-former First Family, they go into action.  As the departing moving van starts down the circular driveway, the arriving family's moving van takes its place.  Not a minute is wasted.  By the time the new First Family arrives after the official swearing-in ceremony, luncheon, and parade, their personal possessions, including any furniture they have brought, have been installed in the designated rooms, their clothing unpacked and hung in their respective closets, beds have been made, books, pictures, and photographs have been appropriately placed, and staff is on hand to assist where needed.  A new family now occupies the Second Floor of the most recognized landmark in America, and perhaps the world: The White House.

Renegade, Rosebud, Renaissance, and Radiance
(Secret Service Code Names)

There She Goes!

Once assured that seven-year-old Sasha, ten-year-old Malia, and Granny were happy and comfortable in their new situation, the Princeton-educated First Lady was ready to carve out an active role for herself in her husband's administration.

In so doing, she has become not an extension of Barack Obama, but a willing and able partner in his determination to be a president who works in the best interest of all Americans.  And, whether planned or not, she became an unofficial and charming ambassador for his endeavors to restore the country's tarnished reputation around the world.  

Acutely aware of the nation's childhood obesity crisis, Michelle Obama championed, as one of her major projects, healthy nutrition and exercise programs to encourage better eating habits and getting-fit/staying fit activities for young Americans.  She did not intend to be a First Lady who gave a well-attended speech for her projects, then disappear and let others do the heavy lifting.  Less than two months after the inauguration, she started planting a garden on the South Lawn of the White House and invited children in the city to help; then she invited them back at harvest time so they could experience the fruits of their labors, so to speak.  She also got the wholehearted support of the White House kitchen staff, who were excited about the idea of fresh vegetables -- especially the herbs!

     

 

 

 





 



In 2011, Mrs. Obama's first book, American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America, was published.

 
The First Lady did not accept an advance on her book, and all proceeds are being given to charity.

Far-Right Windbags and Total Idiots Must Speak

That sound you heard after the First Lady was so successful with her good-nutrition campaign was Big Government once again interfering in your life by trying to dictate your diet!  As sad as it may be that this post has to be sullied with, for just a sampling, the likes of Darrell Issa, Rush Limbaugh, and Sarah Palin, calling out their hypocrisy is necessary in the interest of journalistic integrity. 

After the Obamas took over the White House, Darrell Issa (R-Racistville) decided he was going to protect Mrs. Obama and future First Ladies from  -- hell, something or other -- by limiting and/or curtailing their involvement in policy making.  Strange that Issa had been there throughout the entire two-term Bush administration, and never thought of protecting Mrs. Laura Bush.

As the Poster Boy for an imminent heart attack, fat cigar-smoking leader of Dittohead Denizens Rush Limbaugh called Michelle Obama a hypocrite ... saying that, while the First Lady advocates healthy eating, she "doesn't look like [she] follows her own...dietary advice" and would never be put on the cover of Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue.  This bloviating heap of pretension called the First Lady to task for --gasp! -- eating a few barbequed spareribs while on vacation.

Sarah Palin, who is the same age as the First Lady.  
Sometimes, it does not pay to advertise!

Sarah Palin, who continues to make herself a getting-real-old joke by displaying her jealousy and bitterness against the Obamas, decided to rake over the First Lady by telling an actual lie -- I realize it's news to everyone that Sarah Palin lies -- when she said on her failed reality show that Michelle Obama doesn't want us to eat dessert and went looking for the S'mores ingredients while, ahem, camping with the family.  Yes, dear readers, Sarah Palin, whose intellectual acuity equals that of belly button lint, whose voice would put a rusty chainsaw to shame, and whose deteriorating physical appearance would scare the stink out of a skunk.

The Renaissance Woman Moves Forward

As Americans got to know the new First Lady, they became enchanted with her warmth, sincerity, intelligence, grace, strength, and -- let's face it! -- glamour!  Mrs. Obama's cheerful and welcoming Hi, I'm Michelle touched all but the rabidly jealous haters on the right, a fact which never diminished her popularity.  

But pictures are worth far more than words can convey.  Some photos of the first four years, in no particular order:

Detail of gown

Olympics, 2012, in London

 

Ladies of the First Family meet Nelson Mandela, June 2011

END NOTE

The President and First Lady of the United States

Resources

Here are several links for interesting information on First Ladies of the U.S.

Top 10 Most Influential First Ladies 

The First Ladies at the Smithsonian -- Michelle Obama: Great Expectations

List of First Ladies of the United States 

Backstairs at the White House -- The story of two African American women (Maggie Rogers and her daughter, Lillian Rogers Parks) who served as White House maids over a period spanning five decades and eight administrations—from Taft to Eisenhower. This was originally a mini-series, first airing in 1979.  It's a terrific look at those Presidents and their First Ladies.  It available from Amazon and Netflix.  

Update 

Just for fun, because we rarely see the First Daughters.  This is Malia playing tennis at Sidwell Friends, the school she and Sasha both attend.  She's "moving it!"

Update Two

Video of Michelle and Barack:  The winds of change are blowing wild and free.....

 

Countdown to Election 2012: Week Nine in Review

by Sunnyjane

Moving FORWARD Together!

Last week, the true heart and soul of America gathered in Charlotte, North Carolina.   Delegates representing their respective states and territories at the 2012 National Democratic Convention exemplified what the progressive party represents: inclusion.  When Democrats are assembled in one room with a unified goal, not one of them gives a flying fig about your color, national origin, religion, gender, salary, or sexual orientation.  

No peanuts were thrown, not a single delegate walked out in a rant, and no one talked to an empty chair.  T'was a thing of beauty. 

We're Picking Up Good Vibrations...

 We love the colorful clothes she wears, and the way the sunlight plays upon her hair.

Michelle Obama has not only raised the bar for the role of First Lady, she has set a new standard for how a spouse presents a candidate to the American people: with honesty,  grace, and humor.  And in so doing, she peeled the thin veneer off Mitt Romney and his running mate, Ann Romney Paul Ryan, without ever mentioning their names. 

In a spellbinding twenty-five minute speech that garnered more online views than the entire Republican National Convention, Michelle Obama shared with convention attendees, the country, and the world exactly who her husband is and what he stands for: the opportunity for everyone in this country to achieve their dreams.  

Barack knows the American Dream because he's lived it, and he wants everyone in this country to have that same opportunity, no matter who we are, or where we're from, or what we look like, or who we love.  And he believes that when you've worked hard, and done well, and walked through that doorway of opportunity, you do not slam it shut behind you.  You reach back, and you give other folks the same chances that helped you succeed.

The media reaction to her speech was swift and overwhelmingly positive.  Never before known to gush over anything a Democrat utters, even Fox News was impressed. Chris Wallace called her speech masterful and Brit Hume stated that Michelle Obama was an extremely impressive and attractive woman, but hastened to add (naturally) that while the delivery was better than the speech, she effectively vouched for her husband.   Rachel Maddow at MSNBC had three words to say:  Oh my God!  Steve Schmidt, who knows a little something about this sort of thing, said the speech was brilliantly written and brilliantly delivered.  And from the truer-words-were-never-spoken category came this from Chuck Todd:  Michelle Obama owned this convention in a way that no speaker owned the floor of the convention in Tampa.  Perhaps the best reaction was from Wonkette's live blog: Some might say Michelle Obama ran over [her time], I say she made time stop.

In a rib-tickling display of sour-grapes hypocrisy, Ari Fleischer pouted that some speeches are much more effective in a hall of zealots.  You should know, Ari, you should know!

A Former President Nominates the Next One

Sir, it was my great honor to rip them a new one!

Because Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan don't intend to let pesky fact-checkers dictate how they run their campaign, Bill Clinton rectified that situation in his nomination speech.  He did it clearly, concisely and in front of millions of Americans on prime-time television.  While the Republican convention was terrified of having its last party president speak, the Democrats embraced not only former president Jimmy Carter, but gave Bill Clinton an extremely important role. 

From his opening sentence, We’re here to nominate a President, and I've got one in mind, Clinton grabbed his audience's attention and kept them captivated throughout what may be one of the most important speeches he has ever given.  The former president did an outstanding job of exposing the 2012 Republican ticket by raking through the ashes of their incompetence and revealing the two candidates as foul and hollow imitations representing the once proud Grand Old Party.  He told the country how he had worked with Republicans as president, and had liked them, but that the current Republicans are different -- they are hateful, angry, and partisan all the way down.

Using the Republican's tired old Are you better off than you were four years ago? meme, Clinton forcefully responded YES!  He spoke about the Recovery Act, the Affordable Care Act, and the auto-industry bailout. He carefully linked President Obama’s policies for education and job retraining to people's anxieties about how they could get a job in an economy where the remaining jobs required different skills.  

Clinton's It's Arithmetic assertion that Democratic administrations have created more jobs than Republicans sent the fact-checkers scurrying for proof.  Not a problem; they found it!

  

To gauge the effectiveness of Mr. Clinton's speech, we need only hear the comments made by Mitt Romney's former aide, Alex Castellanos, on CNN: ...tonight when everybody leaves, lock the doors. You don't have to come back tomorrow. This convention is done. This will be the moment that probably re-elected Barack Obama.

Biden Accepts the Vice Presidential Nomination

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a big fucking deal! 

OK, Vice President Joe Biden didn't exactly say that in  his speech on the last night of the convention. What he did say, however, effectively demonstrated the differences between Mitt Romney's and President Obama's views of America.  Speaking about the bailout of the auto industry, Biden said Romney did not understand what saving the automobile worker and saving the industry meant to all of America.  [Romney] saw it the Bain way...he saw it in terms of balance sheets and write-offs.

Biden also took on the despicable and racist meme that Democrats are constantly on the lookout for government handouts -- or free stuff, in Romney's words:  People who need government help for a college loan or job training aren't trying to become dependent, they are seeking their own path out of dependency.

The Democratic Party, Biden told his audience, sees a future where everyone, regardless of their financial or social status, has a part to play in the country's future, A future where we depend more on clean energy from home and less on oil from abroad. A future where we’re #1 in the world again in college graduation. A future where we promote the private sector, not the privileged sector. And a future where women control their own choices, health, and destiny. 

And on Romney's promised Jobs Tour after he's elected, -- presumably after he takes care of all those Day One issues -- Biden remarked, Well with all his support for outsourcing — it’s going to have to be a foreign trip.

Let All the Dreamers Wake the Nation

If you reject the notion that this nation’s promise is reserved for the few...If you reject the notion that our government is forever beholden to the highest bidder, you need to stand up in this election.

Awash in enthusiastic chants of Four More Years, the President began his speech by saying that everyone was reminded on Tuesday night what a lucky man he is.  He also told his daughters that, yes, they had to be in school the next morning, and he thanked Joe Biden for being the very best vice president I could have ever hoped for -- and for being a strong and loyal friend.  [Did ya get that message, GOP?]

Talking about the GOP candidates' total ignorance of foreign policy, President Obama reminded us that George W. Bush was a Republican pro-business president who pushed the nation into two wars.   My opponent and his running mate are new to foreign policy, but from all that we've seen and heard, they want to take us back to an era of blustering and blundering that cost America so dearly, and then he went on to say, You might not be ready for diplomacy with Beijing if you can’t visit the Olympics without insulting our closest ally.  [Snort.]

The President promised he would never turn Medicare into a voucher system.  Yes, we will reform and strengthen Medicare for the long haul, he told his audience, but we’ll do it by reducing the cost of health care – not by asking seniors to pay thousands of dollars more ...  And not by turning it over to Wall Street.

He took on the Republicans' obstinate and obstructionist fixation with tax cuts.   They want your vote, but they don’t want you to know their plan. And that’s because all they have to offer is the same prescription they've had for the last thirty years: “Have a surplus? Try a tax cut.” “Deficit too high? Try another.” “Feel a cold coming on? Take two tax cuts, roll back some regulations, and call us in the morning!” 

It was a strong and inspiring speech that solidified the President's statement, I’m no longer just a candidate. I’m the president.

[I hope Ann Romney hasn't started calling her favorite designer about an Inaugural Ball gown.]

    

The First Family

2008

2012

End Note