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........But his greatest presidential stumbling block may be right under his nose. At home, Newt's second wife, Marianne Ginther Gingrich, tells me she doesn't see herself in the First Lady's job. "Watching Hillary has just been a horrible experience," commiserates Marianne. "Hillary sticking her neck out is not working." What happens if Newt runs?, I ask. "He can't do it without me," she replies. "I told him if I'm not in agreement, fine, it's easy" --she giggles at her naughtiness. "I just go on the air the next day, and I undermine everything...I don't want him to be president and...

But the Obamas didn't have burgers--they reportedly had steak in the private dining room. In response to a query from CNSNews.com, the BLT restaurant chain would not provide any details of the Obamas' visit, except to say they were "quite honored to have them as our guests." But according to one food blog--in a town famous for leaks--the President and Mrs. Obama ordered a 10-ounce American Wagyu steak, which at $81 is the second most expensive item on the menu, just behind the 12-ounce American Wagyu for $92. Dessert reportedly was a special-order red velvet cake. The a la carte...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — They called it “random dancing” but First Lady Michelle Obama broke out some moves that resembled subdued variations of “the Monkey” or “the Jerk” Friday during an appearance at a northern Virginia high school. A screaming, raucous auditorium filled with elementary and middle school students greeted Obama and the cast of the Nickelodeon TV show “iCarly” at Hayfield Secondary School in Fairfax County. The appearance promoted an upcoming episode featuring Obama in which she thanks military families for their sacrifices. On the show, star Miranda Cosgrove plays the daughter of an Air Force colonel deployed overseas....

New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor, in a book to be published Tuesday, portrays a White House where tensions developed between Mrs. Obama and former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and former press secretary and presidential adviser Robert Gibbs. Among the book's most provocative anecdotes, Kantor recounts a scene in which Gibbs, frustrated after tamping down a potential public relations crisis involving the first lady, exploded when presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett told him the first lady had concerns about the White House response to the flap. The initial commotion had been over an alleged remark by Michelle Obama...

Michelle Obama was privately fuming, not only at the president’s team, but also at her husband. In the days after the Democrats lost Edward Kennedy’s Senate seat in January 2010, Barack Obama was even-keeled as usual in meetings, refusing to dwell on the failure or lash out at his staff. The first lady, however, could not fathom how the White House had allowed the crucial seat, needed to help pass the president’s health care legislation and the rest of his agenda, to slip away, several current and former aides said.

VideoBoos for first lady Michelle Obama were heard amid the roar of engines before the start of the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The boos could be heard as Obama and Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, were saying, "Gentlemen, start your engines" to begin the race Sunday, the South Florida Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale reported. Obama and Biden, grand marshals for the race, were invited to NASCAR's final event of the season to bring awareness to their Joining Forces initiative, which supports military families. The women had addressed the drivers at a meeting before presiding over...

<p>Dorothy Rodham, mother of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton's mother-in-law, died Tuesday at age 92 after an illness.</p>

With the United States facing a national debt of more than $14 trillion, the largest since World War Two, wouldn’t it make sense for the White House itself to start trimming its own spending? A good place to begin cutting would be Michelle Obama’s rather generous vacation programme. Keith Coffler, who edits the influential White House Dossier, notes that Michelle Obama spent no less than 42 days on vacation over the past year – that’s one in every nine days.

…….”She tries to help the governor not get too carried away with his own role. "I try to keep him grounded. Sometimes I wonder," she said. When he gets a little too puffed up, "I'm always saying: 'Who told you that you were cute today?' " Still, she intends to get out on the campaign trail and play a more visible part. "Not that I'm a vote-changer or a vote-getter or anything like that," she said. "But I'll do whatever I need to do because I think it's important that he get re-elected." You have to grow thick skin, enjoy...

While local authorities kept mum, a spokeswoman for Michelle Obama confirmed Monday that the first lady is in the Willamette Valley this week to visit her brother, Oregon State University basketball coach Craig Robinson. An airplane carrying Michelle Obama — who is Robinson’s younger sister — touched down Monday morning at the Eugene Airport. Semonti Stephens, the first lady’s deputy communications director, said Obama is being accompanied on the trip by one of her two daughters. Stephens said she could not say which of the girls came to Oregon with her mother, or disclose the length of their planned stay....

Betty Fordhas died at the age of 93.

If this doesn’t scare you then you’re not paying attention. Michael Medved, a conservative talker, explores the idea that even if Barack Obama loses in 2012, why he could all ways run again in four years. And if he wins his wife could always run in years. If the left is trying to scare the crap out of us, it worked. Can’t say we weren’t warned. I just didn’t think it would become SOP for the lefties. Bill Clinton warned us in 1992 when you elect him you get a co-presidency. Hillary comes along with the package. Now it appears...

    The First Lady is not content with corrupting American children at the White House. In a Q&A with British high school girls at Oxford University Michelle continued to promote the rapper Common. Bizarre. And then we had a poetry night and Common was there. He's very cute. But everybody from poet laureates to hip-hop folks, being able to mix up the world in that very interesting way, the White House allows you to do that. A bitter Michelle can't help getting a dig in about "the White House" allowing her to "mix up the world." (Did she really go...

Three years after she married Nicolas Sarkozy following a whirlwind romance, Carla Bruni is pregnant with their first child together, it was claimed yesterday. The 43-year-old wife of the French president is said to be in the early weeks of pregnancy, meaning the child would be born before the election next spring when Mr Sarkozy is hoping to win a second term.

<p>Michelle Obama feasted on ribs while on her skiing holiday, it has emerged.</p> <p>The First Lady, who has spearheaded a campaign to change American eating habits, ate ancho-chile short ribs from a restaurant next to her luxury ski hotel in Vail, Colorado.</p>

The Strange Secret World of Michelle Obama's Fashion DepartmentEveryone knows that when Michelle Obama wears something in public, it's either going to sell out or cause a controversy. What everyone doesn't know is that there is plenty of behind-the-scenes drama among the women who dress her. While the First Lady has long been linked to boutique owner and stylist Ikram Goldman, it's now becoming clear that their relationship isn't as close as it used to be. Obama has a White House employee, 29-year-old personal assistant Meredith Koop, looking after her style, procuring her garments, and setting up arrangements with designers...

Wonder if the First Lady monitored portions at the Super Bowl Sunday Bratwurst Fest, because the woman who put double-stuffed potatoes on the menu is about to dictate what is sanctioned on restaurant menus across America. After filling school vending machines with substances no self-respecting kid would ever eat and after bossing around food makers, rewriting nutrition labels, and attempting to worm her way into cupboards, refrigerators and grocery carts, Michelle is one forkful away from dictating the foods restaurants are allowed to put on your plate. According to White House and industry officials: "A team of advisers to the...

The decision by First Lady Michelle Obama to leave on schedule for her two-week Hawaii vacation and not wait a few days for her delayed husband will probably cost taxpayers more than $63,000 in additional expenses, according to a White House Dossier analysis. President Obama was supposed to depart for Hawaii Saturday, but decided to stay in Washington until Congress finishes its work for the year. He’s now expected to depart today or tomorrow. But Mrs. Obama chose to leave without him Saturday, taking their two children and the dog along with her.

f First Lady Michelle Obama has her way, every public school cafeteria across this great nation will have a salad bar full of lettuce, carrots, and communism. The First Lady's Let's Move Salad Bars To Schools program aims to put 6,000 kid-sized salad bars in schools. Each salad bar costs $2,500, and the whole program costs $15 million. So on top of promoting a vegetable-y socialist agenda, they're also expensive! (Schools are being encouraged to raise part of the money themselves.) Big government run amock! The goal of course is to hoodwink children into eating their vegetables. >>> The goal...

US First Lady Michelle Obama on Saturday danced barefoot to Bollywood tunes, as she visited a charity helping orphans and runaways in India's entertainment capital, Mumbai

Original title of story running on wide-circulation daily Mainichi Shimbun today here in Tokyo is: "米中間�挙：大統領支�率低迷�民主苦戦　ミシェル夫人「好感度�頼�" My summary translation follows (of the main points):

Gallery: The World's 100 Most Powerful WomenThey are heads of state and first ladies, bankers and cultural icons, CEOsand entrepreneurial athletes. A fresh look at power and creative influence.

First lady Michelle Obama shares a very dangerous belief with her husband when it comes to transforming things: that it is most important to be seen as the driving force behind over-reaching changes no matter who they hurt. Toward that end, Mrs. Obama has pushed hard for what has euphemistically been called a child nutrition bill but is in fact a $4.5 billion attempt to implement a high-end solution to unhealthy school lunch programs by stealing future funding for food stamp programs.

Wow, you can tell the Democrats are in BIGTIME TROUBLE, because even now, First Lady Michelle Obama has decided to do nine appearances for Democrats running for political office. My question is this, will this help or hurt these candidates?

Michelle Obama told French first lady Carla Bruni that her life as the first lady of the United States is "hell," according to an account in a new book. The White House declined to comment on the account, first noted by London’s Daily Mail. In an authorized biography written by French journalists Michael Darmon and Yves Derai, Bruni recalls that during her March visit to the White House with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, she asked the first lady about her post. “Don’t ask,” Obama said, according to Bruni. “It’s hell. I can’t stand it.” The book, "Carla and the Ambitious,"...

From the Daily Mail: Michelle Obama thinks being America’s First Lady is ‘hell’, Carla Bruni, [France's First Lady], reveals today in a wildly indiscreet new book. Miss Bruni reveals 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!’ From the Chicago Sun Times: April 23, 2009 - [excerpt]: Michelle Obama celebrated "take your child to work day" at the White House by taking questions from kids of White House staffers: Q If you had to choose a job in the White House for a day, what would...

While President Barack Obama was “forcefully” endorsing the Ground Zero Mosque, Michelle Obama was paying homage with her presence to the Great Mosque at Granada, which overlooks what was once Islam’s most important outpost in Europe, the Alhambra palace in Granada.

With Democratic candidates refusing campaign visits from President Barack Obama and often refusing to even be seen with him at ceremonial airport greetings, it's obvious they believe that highlighting any connection with the unpopular president will hurt their chances in November. Second stringer Vice President Joe Biden who has spent the last 18 months acting as a gaffe-prone cheerleader for the Obama agenda can't help either and former President Bill Clinton's loyalties may be with someone other than Mr. Obama in 2012. So why not do what many presidents have done and send the First Lady out to charm the...

The Looking Spoon is a conservative humor/satire/art/commentary blog, visit www.thelookingspoon.com to see more posts and art

The Democrats now have hopes that trotting out Michelle Obama before the November 2010 elections will cause her adoring underlings to overlook the mess that has been created by her husband and Congress. They may find that instead the little people may begin to look at her "Let them eat cake" attitude with jaundiced eyes. What a contrast with Eleanor Roosevelt who was also a First Lady during a time of economic depression.

"The pain in Spain falls mainly on the vain". After Obama declared in a July 27, 2010 interview with ABC's Elizabeth Leamy, “We’re not that far removed from what most Americans are going through," we find out that Michelle Obama has booked a very expensive vacation to Spain accompanied by "long-time family friends". The liberal media that did decide to cover it calls it a "private" vacation, but since when have the Obama's used their own money? The trip will not include Obama and Malia. And strangely, the trip will coincide with Obama's birthday because he will be visiting his...

ronic, that First Lady Michelle Obama, visits a Gulf Coast beach in Panama Beach, FL, yet, she, with President Barak Obama and family are going up to Maine, to Arcadia National Park, which BTW, I had the opportunity two years ago to go up and do about a week of camping. Beautiful national park area. Had fun myself. Getting back to the First Lady, this is truly an act of hypocrisy when people around the country had to cut back because of the economy and on the Gulf Coast, because of the massive oil slick. First Lady Obama, people are...

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) - First lady Michelle Obama has arrived in the Florida Panhandle to meet with business and tourism leaders to discuss how the Gulf oil spill has harmed them. Obama's plane landed Monday at the new Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport in Panama City.

Former first lady Laura Bush has broken with her husband on the premier social issues of his administration and said she backs gay marriage and abortion. After more than eight years of silence on the controversial issues, Mrs. Bush said in an interview with CNN's Larry KingTuesday, that gay marriage and abortion were points of contention with her husband, former President George W. Bush. Mrs. Bush in recent weeks has been promoting her memoir "Spoken from the Heart," in which she writes about her life both before and after becoming first lady. In response to a question about gay marriage,...

HOUSTON—Former first lady Barbara Bush was released from a Houston hospital, where she underwent tests after being admitted last weekend. Methodist Hospital said in a statement announcing the Wednesday release that Mrs. Bush might have had a mild relapse of Graves disease, a thyroid condition for which she was treated in 1989. Her doctors have adjusted her medication. The 84-year-old wife of former President George H.W. Bush was hospitalized Saturday after not feeling well for about a week. She was described as not being in any pain or danger. Mrs. Bush had heart surgery in March 2009 for a severe...

Breaking on Fox.....

HOUSTON – Former first lady Barbara Bush was hospitalized Saturday in Houston to undergo routine tests but doctors don't suspect anything serious, a family spokeswoman said. Bush, 84, was being treated at Methodist Hospital and should be released in a day or two, spokeswoman Jean Becker said late Saturday. "She hasn't been feeling well for about a week, and the doctors thought she should come in and undergo a battery of tests," Becker said. "It's not serious. She just hasn't been feeling herself and they're just trying to figure out why." Becker declined to provide details, but said former President...

Arms crossed defensively and her face fixed in a frown, Carla Bruni cut a sombre figure in Paris yesterday. France's first lady had plenty to think about amid growing talk that both she and her husband Nicolas Sarkozy are having affairs. The 43-year-old had been left behind in the capital while the French president made an official visit to London. He appeared delighted to be away from the rumour mill and seemed almost ecstatic on meeting Gordon Brown in Downing Street. The 55-year-old is said to be romancing his ecology minister Chantal Jouanno, a karate champion who is his junior...

So, Michelle Obama seems to be as delusional as her husband. Yesterday, she said that childhood obesity (a Crisis!) is a threat to national security. No, really. She actually said that: (CNSNews.com) – At a ceremony at the White House on Tuesday, First Lady Michelle Obama announced the launch of the ‘Let’s Move’ campaign to end childhood obesity in the United States, an epidemic she said is costly and a threat to national security. “A recent study put the health care cost of obesity-related diseases at $147 billion a year,” Mrs. Obama said. “This epidemic also impacts the nation’s security,...

Teaching children to love to read “is one of the best things you can do for our country," Mrs. Bush said. Ahh, remember when First Ladies were class acts?

The White House could not have imagined it was a step behind generous Daily News readers when it invited a wounded Marine to join the First Lady at tonight's opening game of the World Series. Lance Cpl. Michael Stilson had already gotten a pair of tickets as part of an outpouring by News readers offering to help wounded vets see the Yankees try for another world championship. Of course, the 22-year-old recovering at Bethesda Naval Medical Center was still more than honored by the offer from the White House. He did not want just to say thanks, but no thanks....

Michelle Obama decided to go all in. Ever since her husband took office in January, the first lady has been cautious about the causes she embraced. But with her hometown of Chicago vying to host the 2016 Olympics, Michelle boarded a plane to Copenhagen last month to make a personal appeal. She brought along Oprah Winfrey, worked her sleeveless charm on the assembled dignitaries, and even lunched with the Queen of Denmark. Her efforts culminated in a passionate televised speech to the International Olympic -Committee—-perhaps her most high-profile advocacy ever. Then it all fell flat. Rio won the Olympic bid;...

Forgive me in advance for fawning, but Michelle Obama is the coolest first lady ever. She clinched it for me this week by jumping double Dutch on the South Lawn as part of a “healthy kids fair.” The scene underscored my impression of the first lady as utterly unencumbered by convention. She seems to feel free — free enough to loosen up and laugh a little, free enough to let her inner child peek through the veil of parenthood, free enough to be herself. I couldn’t imagine recent first ladies jumping a puddle on the sidewalk, let alone two ropes...

Research into the family of US First Lady Michelle Obama has revealed that her great-great-great-grandmother was a slave given away at the age of six. According to genealogist Megan Smolenyak, the girl was described in papers only as "negro girl Melvinia". In her early teens, working as a slave on a farm in Georgia, she was made pregnant by an unknown white man. The son she gave birth to around the year 1859, Dolphus, was Michelle's great-great grandfather. Megan Smolenyak, whose discoveries have been detailed in the New York Times newspaper, said she was not surprised by what she discovered....

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...

Michelle Obama's longtime trainer is breaking his silence, spilling the workout secrets that keep the First Lady fit for her favorite sleeveless outfits. "She's truly committed herself to the importance of health and fitness," Cornell McClellan tells Women's Health magazine. McClellan, who began training Obama in 1997, said her sculpted arms are mostly the result of tricep pushdowns and hammer curls. The trainer, who owns the Naturally Fit fitness center in Chicago, reveals the First Lady usually does an intense calorie-burning cardio workout. Once she gets the blood flowing and the muscles pumping, she tops it off with "arm-shaping supersets"...

Recession, Depression, What, Michelle Worry? Mrs. Obama Demands Small Army of Attendants “In my own life, in my own small way, I have tried to give back to this country that has given me so much,” she said. “See, that’s why I left a job at a big law firm for a career in public service,”— Michelle Obama. We were wrong. Michelle Obama, as we reported on July 7, is not served by twenty-two attendants who stand by to cater to her every whim. She is served by twenty-six attendants, including a hair dresser and make-up artist. The annual cost...

Michelle Obama's performance as first lady is getting high marks from her predecessor, Laura Bush. Speaking to The Associated Press after a change of command ceremony for the USS Texas submarine in Connecticut, Bush says she's watched the current first lady from afar and is impressed.

NEW YORK (AFP) – Carla Bruni-Sarokzy will lead a glittering line-up of stars at a concert here to mark Nelson Mandela's birthday, in what will be her first public show since becoming France's first lady. Bruni-Sarkozy, a model-turned-musician, will perform for the first time in public since marrying French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the concert at Radio City Music Hall in Madison Square Garden. The event, which also stars Stevie Wonder and soul queen Aretha Franklin, ends a week of celebrations for the 91st birthday of the former South African president.