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On Tuesday night, at her final state dinner as first lady, Michelle Obama solidified her legacy as perhaps the most adept and successful practitioner of the art of political dressing that any administration has seen. Her choice of an Atelier Versace gown for the Italy state dinner was not only a nice bit of sartorial diplomacy — Versace being an Italian success story, a company often touted as a candidate for a public offering — but, coming less than a week after her magnetic speech in New Hampshire on women and respect, it went far beyond being simply an ambassadorial...

[O]ur media is not guided by the lofty principle of what it is supposed to be about; because history shows that when it comes to these kinds of allegations some powerful men like Bill Cosby are taunted and hunted, while other powerful men with the first name Bill, who have faced similar allegations, are protected. I am of course talking about former-President Bill Clinton, who like Bill Cosby has been accused of rape and has settled a sexual harassment lawsuit. There is also another woman who has accused Clinton of groping her in the White House. All of this is...

Aretha Franklin has much R-E-S-P-E-C-T for President Barack Obama — regardless of his spelling skills. At a White House tribute to the "Women of Soul" last Thursday, Obama dropped the initial "E'' when trying to spell out "respect" as the queen of soul does in her famous song. He was spelling out the word as part of Franklin's introduction. "I'm sure the President had much on his agenda and was just a little tired," the 71-year-old singer said in a statement Monday.

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)There was a not-so-super-secret dance party going on at the most recognizable mansion in the nation’s capital Saturday night. A birthday party to celebrate Michelle Obama's 50th birthday took place at the White House, and it was studded with celebrities, including Bill and Hillary Clinton, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Smokey Robinson, James Taylor, Gladys Knight and Herbie Hancock. Guests were treated to performances by Beyoncé and John Legend. Among the 500 guests were TODAY's own Al Roker and his wife, ABC correspondent Deborah Roberts. Speaking to the TODAY team by phone Monday morning, Roker described the event as "literally a...

During an interview with Michelle Obama, the host of Entertainment Tonight asked her how she felt having a husband who was a “sex symbol” similar to former Presidents JFK and Bill Clinton. “He’s got a little swag,” Obama admitted with a smile. “That’s OK, I’m proud of him.” Obama further flattered her husband, noting that he was “a stylish man who is healthy and he’s smart and he’s passionate and he’s inspiring” “Who wouldn’t fall in love with that?” she asked. “You know? It’s OK.”

Yesterday was a historic day. Sure we had presidential inauguration but it was also perhaps the first and only day when loudmouth MSNBC host Chris Matthews actually shut his mouth for a few seconds. The cat that got Matthews’s tongue was being reminded by fellow MSNBC host Martin Bashir of his inane 2008 remark that he gets a “thrill going up my leg” when hearing Barack Obama speak. Watch below for the video. The joke at the former Democratic operative’s expense happened during a post-inaugural panel on MSNBC which was predictably stacked with all liberal participants. Matthews was joined by...

On Thursday, while looking wistfully back at Obama's first four years, NBC News accidentally did some actual reporting. In a First Read article that opened with the question, "Is the nation better off than it was four years ago," senior political director, Mark Murray, did something that neither he, nor NBC News, nor the mainstream media was willing to do during this last presidential campaign: report on Obama's record. But there it finally was: The Truth -- and from NBC News, no less. Poverty's up (from 43.6 million to 46.2 million), middle class incomes are down ($50k compared to $52k),...

After CNN correspondent Jim Acosta felt like pinching himself at Monday's inauguration parade, host Wolf Blitzer couldn't contain himself as he tried to get the attention of both President Obama and Vice President Biden. Blitzer gushed that "Look, this is history over here," as the President and First Lady made their way down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the White House. He waved to Obama saying "Mr. President," but was drowned out by crowd noise. Blitzer did the same with Vice President Biden.

Jay Leno continued pressuring Barack Obama Thursday night. During his opening monologue on NBC's Tonight Show, the host said, "This is very dangerous to the White House if journalists should suddenly start asking real questions” (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary): “This week, CBS News became the first news organization besides Fox to ask President Obama ‘Who changed the Benghazi talking points?’” Leno teased. “See, this is very dangerous to the White House if journalists should suddenly start asking real questions.” Indeed it is, Jay. Indeed it is. Just imagine how dangerous it would have been to Obama if...

MSNBC's Chris Matthews got another thrill up his leg for Barack Obama Tuesday. Without any regard for how pathetic it's become for him to regularly gush and fawn over the current White House resident like a school girl around a rock star, the Hardball host said of his beloved, "He’s the perfect father, the perfect husband, the perfect American" CHRIS MATTHEWS: Based upon the rhetoric, you’d think the president was a radical lefty and not the center-left politician he actually is based on the record, but then do people care on the right about reality? Keith Ellison’s a Democratic Congressman...

If Kim Kardashian and Britney Spears get flak for airbrushing their photos, why not the speaker of the House? If you haven't managed to score a copy of the May/June 2010 edition of Capitol File magazine (typically flanked on every table or bathroom at any D.C. social function) you'll notice the cover girl Nancy Pelosi looking particularly young. Celebrity plastic surgeon Dr. Ayman Hakki of Luxxery Medical Boutique in Waldorf, Md., said although he believes Pelosi has had work done (specifically Botox of the frown lines, fat injections, a mini face-lift), the image is not the product of additional plastic...

For Democrats to persuade swing Blue Dogs to vote for one of the largest expansions of government in American history, it was crucial that the media focus on the Congressional Budget Office’s bottom line — and ignore how it got there. Blue Dogs need to be able to tell their conservative constituents that they had voted for a bill that reduces the deficit, and it would help if that bill’s cost came in at under $1 trillion. Fortunately for Speaker Pelosi, the media played along. Take the case of Rep. Betsy Markey (D., Colo.), who defeated three-term Republican incumbent Marilyn...

Whether she's turning heads with her latest fashions, being mom in chief to her two young daughters, or even training a very playful puppy, by all measures, first lady Michelle Obama has had a busy first year in the White House"We've gotten a lot done," she told a group of print reporters last week, listing moments like her work with military families and her youth mentoring program, as being part of the year's accomplishments.But the issue she has become the most passionate about is ending childhood obesity. "The statistics never fail to take my breath away," the first lady said...

January 22, 2010 Obama-drooling media create their very own lame duck By Joan Swirsky That's right, and it wasn't only Katie Couric. For the past two years, when Obama was in campaign mode and after his Acorn- and foreign-money-fueled election, the entire leftwing media debased what once passed for legitimate journalism. With absolute consistency, they: Failed utterly to vet an inexperienced, document-concealing candidate (we still haven't seen Obama's Illinois law license or an authentic birth certificate). Failed to investigate the veracity of aggrandizing information spewed by Obama's spin doctors and then repeated their spin (they still say, for instance, that...

George Orwell’s Animal Farm taught us that while all animals are equal, some animals are more equal than others. Now, we have E.J. Dionne (whose…unique…brand of logic and argumentation Tim has noticed and argued with since his days at the Ball State Daily News op-ed page) to tell us that all broken campaign promises are equal, but some are more equal than others. Specifically, any broken promise that helps further a leftist cause–why, that can hardly be called a broken promise at all, and definitely not a lie. Take Obama’s latest backtrack on campaign openness, vis-a-vis his promise to let...

The failures that allowed the unsuccessful Christmas Day terrorist attack have marred President Barack Obama’s relaxation schedule in Hawaii, CBS’s Jeff Glor and Chip Reid regretted Thursday night as Reid fretted Obama had “hoped to spend this vacation recharging his batteries, but now he appears to be spending most of it working” and assured viewers Obama is moving fast to protect Americans: “The President has immersed himself in the details of the review and that individuals will be held accountable, but the top priority now is to make sure it doesn't happen again.”

Fawning over First Lady Michelle Obama has been over-the-top, but considering her a "deity" a "goddess," and "a woman not to be contended with so much as worshiped from afar," is a bit much.

The current strategy from the White House is especially odd considering the issues the president did make an effort to address. Remember the Cambridge Cop Mr. Obama excoriated for "acting stupidly" on national TV this summer? The Chicago Sun Times columnist Lynn Sweet points out (H/T TWT's Amanda Carpenter) that the White House blog has made no mention of the terror attack. Apparently hanging out in Hawaii is more important to reporters who hated Crawford, Texas trips with former President Bush than reporting the importance of a presidential response on a terror matter, so Mr. Obama's avoiding them is not...

As the lone journalist on Sunday's Meet the Press roundtable (with Newt Gingrich, Michael Bloomberg and Deval Patrick), NBC's Andrea Mitchell insisted the “Obama Doctrine” has “borne fruit,” but “it is not perceived yet” -- though the President has already “united the world behind the United States.” Citing all those who “camped out” for the Sarah Palin book signings, Mitchell denigrated her appeal as evidence of how “they are so hungry for a symbol for anyone who can give them answers” it shows “there's an anger out there” she hasn't seen since George Wallace in 1968. And that, she maintained,...

Believe it or not, he’s not just spinning here. He’s sincerely criticizing Obama for some of his dopier decisions lately; he just can’t help letting his admiration for The One get in the way and filter it as a matter of excess virtue. None of the problems he cites are necessarily — or actually — the product of too much deep thinkin’. Obama’s bow to Akihito was, in fact, stupid since it had the opposite intended effect. His deliberations on Afghanistan are fine, but should have been conducted six months ago given McChrystal’s warning that the war would be lost...