Don Gorske: 25,000 Big Macs

UPDATE: 25,000 and counting; FdL's Big Mac man hits next milestone


A crowd of media representatives, friends, family and onlookers gathers around Fond du Lac's Don Gorske as he eats his 25,000th Big Mac at McDonald's in Fond du Lac./(The Reporter photo by Justin Connaher)

A McFlurry of media arrived in Fond du Lac Tuesday afternoon to capture a Big Mac moment.

At about 3:30 p.m., Don Gorske consumed his 25,000th Big Mac to cheers from the crowd that packed McDonald’s at 699 S. Military Road.

About eight television cameras jostled for position to film the world record while a band beneath the golden arches played Dixieland music to celebrate the Fond du Lac man’s accomplishment.

...[Owner Dave] Rause said he woke up Tuesday morning and thought, “Don did it.”

Gorske, he said, is the perfect customer.

“As a business, we’re exceptionally lucky to have a customer like Don,” Rause said. “He’s just an exceptional guy and a sweet, sweet man. He’s also a Big Mac enthusiast. When you have a customer who’s enthusiastic about your product, it’s a great thing.

“You hear a lot of bad news. Then you have a guy like Don who does something interesting from a human standpoint.”

Prior to eating his 25,000th burger, Gorske made a lap around Fond du Lac’s first McDonald’s and the 100th built in the company’s history to pass out free meal cards and shake the hands of his friends and admirers.

A group of students from Winnebago Lutheran Academy rushed out of school to witness the feat.

This really has to be Michelle Obama's worst nightmare.

I kind of want to eat a Big Mac.

Video, from the Associated Press:


__________________

It seems like just yesterday Don Gorske was downing his 23,000th Big Mac.

Actually, it was in September 2008.

Don Gorske bites into his 18,000th Big Mac in this November, 2001, file photo. (AP)

I don't now which is more astounding -- the fact that Don Gorske has consumed 23,000 Big Macs or the fact that he has lived to tell about it.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

A 54-year-old man says his obsessive-compulsive disorder drove him to eat 23,000 Big Macs in 36 years.

Fifty-four-year-old Don Gorske says he hit the milestone last month, continuing a pleasurable obsession that began May 17, 1972.

...Gorske has kept every burger receipt in a box. He says he was always fascinated with numbers, and watching McDonald's track its number of customers motivated him to track his own consumption.

The only day he skipped a Big Mac was the day his mother died, to respect her request.

Today, Gorske will pass another milestone in the journey that he began on May 17, 1972.

He will consume Big Mac 25,000.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Don Gorske plans to eat his 25,000th Big Mac on the 39th anniversary of eating his first.

A special ceremony is planned at McDonald's in Fond du Lac Tuesday afternoon.

The 57-year-old Fond du Lac man said he ate nine on May 17, 1972 and has only missed nine days since then, for various reasons. He usually eats two a day.

He has kept most of the boxes or receipts or has made specific notes in calendars that he's kept.

Gorske said he probably has an obsessive-compulsive disorder but he doesn't consider it a problem.

He jokes that 25,000 is a milestone because people didn't think he'd live this long. But he said he recently saw a doctor who said he was in good health and his cholesterol was low.

Some people really can eat whatever they want and not suffer ill effects.

Take note, Michelle Obama.
________________

View the Fon du Lac Reporter's photo gallery of Gorske's Big Mac moments.

The guy really loves Big Macs.

Common and Obama: Poetry Night

Tonight at the White House, the Obamas will be celebrating American poetry.

From the Washington Examiner:

[The Obamas will celebrate] American poetry and prose by hosting a gathering of poets, musicians and artists.

Those slated to attend include Elizabeth Alexander, Billy Collins, Common, Rita Dove, Kenneth Goldsmith, Alison Knowles, Aimee Mann and Jill Scott. The performers, using music and verse, will highlight poetry's influence on American culture, according to the Associated Press.

As per usual, Michelle Obama will use the event to teach young ones. The first lady will host an afternoon workshop connecting students from all across the country to the evening's performers.

"An Evening of Poetry" is part of White House's music series, which began in 2009 with a jazz studio. Since then, Michelle Obama has hosted a celebration of country music, classical music, Motown music, Latin music, a salute to Broadway, music of the civil rights movement and a dance tribute to Judith Jamison.

"An Evening of Poetry" doesn't sound very controversial, but it is.

The source of the controversy is the White House invitation for Common, aka Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr., a poet and rapper from Chicago, to participate in the event.

Common and the Obamas go way back.

They were all members of the very controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ.

Watch Common freestyle the sermon, and campaign for Obama, at the Church's 2008 New Year celebration.



Common defended his pastor when Wright came under fire back in 2008. Obama, of course, eventually threw Wright under the bus.

Here's another performance by Common, "Can a Black Man be a President."



Clearly, Common is politically active and a longtime Obama supporter. He's done plenty of campaigning for Obama. Watch "Vote Hope: Common for Barack Obama."



Given their history, it's no surprise that the Obamas would want Common to attend their celebration of American poetry.

The issue is some of Common's "poetry."

One of his "poems" speaks of killing police and burning President George W. Bush.

That violent imagery is a problem, especially since Michelle intends to use the event as a teaching moment for kids.

As per usual, Michelle Obama will use the event to teach young ones. The first lady will host an afternoon workshop connecting students from all across the country to the evening's performers.

I don't know that it's a good thing to connect American students with Common.

Common writes some rough, hateful stuff. I don't think that's a good message to send to kids.

Video of Common reciting "A Letter to the Law."



Transcript, from The Daily Caller.

A Letter to the Law

Dem boy wanna talk… [indistinguishable]

Whatcha gon do if ya got one gun?

I sing a song for the hero unsung

with faces on the mural of the revolution

No looking back cos’ in back is what’s done

Tell the preacher, God got more than one son

Tell the law, my Uzi weighs a ton

I walk like a warrior,

from them I won’t run

On the streets, they try to beat us like a drum

In Cincinnati, another brother hung

A guinea won’t see the sun

with his family stung

They want us to hold justice

but you handed me none

The same they did to Kobe and Michael Jackson

make them the main attraction

Turn around and attack them

Black gem in the rough

You’re rugged enough

Use your mind and nine-power, get the government touch

Them boys chat-chat on how him pop gun

I got the black strap to make the cops run

They watching me, I’m watching them

Them dick boys got a lock of cock in them

My people on the block got a lot of Pac in them

and when we roll together

we be rocking them to sleep

No time for that, because there’s things to be done

Stay true to what I do so the youth dream come

from project building

Seeing a fiend being hung

With that happening, why they messing with Saddam?

Burn a Bush cos’ for peace he no push no button

Killing over oil and grease

no weapons of destruction

How can we follow a leader when this a corrupt one

The government’s a g-unit and they might buck young black people

Black people In the urban area one

I hold up a peace sign, but I carry a gun.

Peace, ya’ll.

I have no problem whatsoever with Common expressing himself through his art.

However, because some of his work contains very violent imagery and inflammatory rhetoric like calling to "Burn a Bush," I don't think it's appropriate for the Obamas to highlight him at their poetry soiree.

Where's that new tone of civility?

Common's "A Letter to the Law" isn't vague. It's very specific about President Bush and police being the enemy, and dealing with them violently.

Would the Leftists mind if a Republican president invited a performer to the White House who called for Obama to be burned?

I think they'd completely flip out.

Michelle Obama: Tamale

Michelle Obama is wild about tamales.

Obama shared that information at a Cinco de Mayo celebration at the White House.

From ABC News:

The crowd learned a little tidbit about the first lady, courtesy of her husband.

Said Obama: "I asked Michelle the other day, I said, ‘What’s your favorite food’ -- because we were sitting around with the girls. She said, ‘Ah, Mexican food.’"

The crowd loved the news.

"You do not want to be between Michelle and a tamale," joked the president. "It’s true. It’s true. But she’s moving, though, so she can afford to have as many tamales as she wants," said Obama in a nod to his wife’s "Let’s Move" healthy campaign.

Obama was joking. It was all in good-natured fun, but let's be realistic.

Michelle is moving, but she can't afford to have as many tamales as she wants.

Anti-Corporate Michelle Obama

Byron York writes:

I have a new story today about Michelle Obama's visit to Zanesville, Ohio, where she met with a group of women at a local day care center. According to the U.S. Census, Muskingum County, where Zanesville is located, had a median household income of $37,192 in 2004, below both the Ohio and national averages. Just 12.2 percent of adults in the county have a bachelor's degree or higher, also well below the state and national averages. About 20 percent don't have a high school degree. Nevertheless, Mrs. Obama urged them to foreswear lucrative professions like corporate law or hedge fund management and go into the helping industry, even if the sacrifice is great:

As she has many times in the past, Mrs. Obama complains about the lasting burden of student loans dating from her days at Princeton and Harvard Law School. She talks about people who end up taking years and years, until middle age, to pay off their debts. “The salaries don’t keep up with the cost of paying off the debt, so you’re in your 40s, still paying off your debt at a time when you have to save for your kids,” she says.

“Barack and I were in that position,” she continues. “The only reason we’re not in that position is that Barack wrote two best-selling books… It was like Jack and his magic beans. But up until a few years ago, we were struggling to figure out how we would save for our kids.” A former attorney with the white-shoe Chicago firm of Sidley & Austin, Obama explains that she and her husband made the choice to give up lucrative jobs in favor of community service. “We left corporate America, which is a lot of what we’re asking young people to do,” she tells the women. “Don’t go into corporate America. You know, become teachers. Work for the community. Be social workers. Be a nurse. Those are the careers that we need, and we’re encouraging our young people to do that. But if you make that choice, as we did, to move out of the money-making industry into the helping industry, then your salaries respond.” Faced with that reality, she adds, “many of our bright stars are going into corporate law or hedge-fund management.”

What she doesn’t mention is that the helping industry has treated her pretty well. In 2006, the Chicago Tribune reported that Mrs. Obama’s compensation at the University of Chicago Hospital, where she is a vice president for community affairs, jumped from $121,910 in 2004, just before her husband was elected to the Senate, to $316,962 in 2005, just after he took office. And that does not count the money Mrs. Obama receives from serving on corporate boards. She would have been O.K. even without Jack’s magic beans.

Michelle has a problem with Americans working in "money-making industry"?

She has to be kidding.

It's fascinating learning more about the real Michelle.

Michelle Obama and the F-Bomb

Once again, Michelle Obama is getting tough.

This is becoming a pattern. Michelle is dispatched to do her husband's dirty work while he is perched regally above the fray.

Can't Barack fight his own battles?

Michelle seems to be stronger than he is.

Michelle Obama: name Hussein is 'the fear bomb'

Mark Silva writes:

Michelle Obama, who often has decried "the fear bomb'' that opponents have used against her husband for his middle name -- Barack Hussein Obama -- said in Canton, Ohio, today that it is happening again and shows why it's so important that he wins election as president.

"They threw in the obvious, ultimate fear bomb," Obama said today of her husband's 2004 Senate race. "We're even hearing [that] now. … 'When all else fails, be afraid of his name, and what that could stand for, because it's different.'"

The senator's wife said that rivals use innuendo to play on fears. "Just as they're saying it now," she said.

But, she told about 200 supporters this morning at a restored theater in Canton, Obama won despite that "climate of negativity and doubt" in 2004. "We learned, number one, that when power is threatened by real change they will say anything to stop it," she said. "But we also learned that the American people can handle the truth."

I know I've said this a lot lately, but I don't think Obama's middle name should be an issue.

Are opponents really creating a "climate of negativity and doubt" by referring to Hussein?

I don't think Michelle Obama is giving Americans enough credit. We aren't idiots. We know that Barack Hussein Obama isn't related to Saddam Hussein. We know he's not a terrorist.

Good grief.

Even though President Bush has been called Hitler, we all know that he isn't Hitler. (Well, most of us do. Some especially deranged Americans don't.)

Michelle says that during Barack's 2004 Senate campaign the voters didn't reject him out of fear. She says "the American people can handle the truth."

Yeah. So what's the point?

She says that the "fear bomb" is a dud.

Alrighty then.

The Obama campaign seems to be going out of its way to paint Obama as a victim.

I think that's a mistake.

Michelle Obama Gets Weird

Michelle Obama has said some truly creepy stuff on the campaign trail.

A few weeks ago at UCLA, she had this to say:

Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed.

She makes Barack sound more like a dictator than a public servant.

Making demands about what I have to do and what I have to shed doesn't sit very well with me.

"Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed."

Wasn't there a Twilight Zone episode like this?

You have to stay at the seat at the table of democracy with a man like Barack Obama not just on Tuesday but in a year from now, in four years from now, in eights years from now, you will have to be engaged.

Has the woman gone mad?

What kind of language is that?

Having a "seat at the table" and giving one's life to follow the messiah, in this case Obama, is imagery right out of the Bible.

Coming from Michelle, it's not inspiring language. It doesn't move me spiritually or encourage me to submit to Barack Obama's demands. It creeps me out.

Misunderstood Michelle Obama

Barack Obama tried to clean up after his wife Michelle made a mess on Monday.

In spite of her troubling statement that "for the first time in [her] adult life, [she is] really proud of [her] country," it didn't keep voters from supporting her husband in Tuesday's primary elections.

The voters gave Obama a decisive victory. It was a smackdown. Hillary lost big, really big, embarrassingly big.

BROOKFIELD, Wis. -- Democratic Sen. Barack Obama sought Tuesday to clarify his wife's statement that she is proud of the U.S. "for the first time in my adult life." He said her newfound pride is about the political system and was not meant to disparage her country.

...Barack Obama, interviewed on WOAI radio in San Antonio, Texas, expressed frustration that his wife's comments became political fodder.

"Statements like this are made and people try to take it out of context and make a great big deal out of it, and that isn't at all what she meant," Obama said.

"What she meant was, this is the first time that she's been proud of the politics of America," he said. "Because she's pretty cynical about the political process, and with good reason, and she's not alone. But she has seen large numbers of people get involved in the process, and she's encouraged."

In Milwaukee on Monday, Michelle Obama said: "Let me tell you, for the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country. Not just because Barack is doing well, but I think people are hungry for change."

Michelle Obama graduated from Princeton. She has a law degree from Harvard.

The woman knows what she's saying. She knows that words have meaning. As a lawyer, surely she understands the importance of words and the need to avoid saying anything that could be misinterpreted. She isn't an inexperienced speaker.

She blew it.

I think her statement is very clear.

Of course Obama would try to spin her remarks and make excuses. What other choice does he have? He has to tell Americans that his wife didn't say what we heard her say.

That doesn't matter. We did hear her, and we learned a lot about her.

Be Proud of America, Michelle Obama

In order for Barack Obama to get voters to buy his themes of change and hope, he has to sell them on the notion that the country is currently an utter mess.

Obama says that he wants Americans to have a brighter "Yes we can" sort of future, but in the process he's not accentuating the positives of the present. According to him, everything sucks. Americans are hungry for change and he promises to deliver. Blah, blah, blah.

Michelle Obama has done her part to depict America as a hellhole and Americans as lost and broken.

Yesterday, in both Madison and Milwaukee, Michelle Obama told crowds that they're miserable.

In spite of her incredible success, Michelle says that it took until now for her to be proud of her country. This is the first time in her adult life that she feels that way.

Amazing.

From Jonathan V. Last, of The Weekly Standard:

Roughly 600 people gathered at the Capitol Theater in Madison's downtown Overture Center yesterday to listen to Michelle Obama make a pitch for her husband's presidential bid. They were treated to a revealing glimpse into the mind of the candidate's wife.

By now one passage from her speech has received much attention. She said:

For the first time in my adult lifetime, I'm proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction. And just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment I've seen people who are hungry to be unified around some basic, common issues and it's made me proud.
It was an extraordinary declaration for a 44-year-old woman. She expanded on it a bit later, claiming that "Life for regular folks has gotten worse over the course of my lifetime, through Republican and Democratic administrations. It hasn't gotten much better."

..In many ways, Michelle Obama's stump speech is reminiscent of her husband's. She dwells at length on the issue of change and frequently talks in the idiom of political self-help. She worried that "We spend more time thinking about what can't be done, what can't change, what won't work. And the problem with that is that it cuts us off from one another in our own communities. It's cut us off from the rest of the world. And the sad part about it is we're passing on all these fears, this cynicism--we're passing it on to the next generation." "Everything," she explained, "begins and ends with a little bit of hope and a whole lot of dreaming."

Mrs. Obama's remarks were also light on policy--which is understandable. After all, she's not the one standing for office. But she showed something like contempt for even the idea of actual policy talk. "I know voters like a plan," she said. "What's the details, tell me about your policies. Plans are important, I agree. . . . But a lot of this stuff isn't rocket science."

Instead, she voiced deeper concerns: "Barack knows that at some level there's a hole in our souls," she said. This was a variation on her normal line that "Barack Obama is the only person in this race who understands that, that before we can work on the problems we have to fix our souls. Our souls are broken in this nation."

Obama is going to fix our broken souls?

So, he's our savior, the ticket to our salvation.

Obama is quite a guy! He's a spiritual healer.

Last concludes:

Instead of seeing America as a place which afforded her the opportunity to create a blessed life, Mrs. Obama seems to view it as a place where some "people" are always trying to hold her back. Whoever these "people" are, we should be glad they haven't been successful. Michelle Obama's progress is--despite her telling of it--an inspirational story that should make us proud of America, not frustrated by, and scornful of, it. It says something about her view of this nation, and of her husband and herself, that she seems to find it so difficult--their own experience notwithstanding--to feel gratitude for and pride in her country.

That's very well said.

Victor Davis Hanson arrives at a similar conclusion about 44-year-old Michelle Obama finally feeling proud of America for the first time in her adult life:

I wrote not long ago that Michelle Obama is a loose cannon, and I fear that her latest is not her last. I would have thought that two Ivy-League degrees, a joint income of about a million dollars, exclusive private schools for the kids, and a nice home in the suburbs were not so bad and might suggest that hope had made a comeback well before Barack's presidential run.

It's such a stunning statement by Michelle Obama. It took her 44 years to be proud of her country. Never before as an adult has she experienced that.

When Michelle Obama was speaking in Milwaukee yesterday, she didn't touch on how her husband will bring hope to the hopeless but she did say that he will.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

At Milwaukee's Pabst Theater, Michelle Obama said her husband is prepared to address the challenges facing low-income and middle-class Americans.

"There is more that unites us than divides us," she told the crowd of several hundred. "But when you're struggling every day, it's easy to be cynical. It's easy to believe that nothing can change."

Audience members nodded and shouted their approval as she described families struggling to cover the costs of child care, health insurance and college tuition.

"Barack understands that what we're lacking in this nation are will and hope," she said. "Our souls are broken."

I agree that there's more that unites us than divides us.

I completely disgree that what "we're lacking in this nation are will and hope."

That doesn't speak to me at all.

Generations of my family have had the will and hope to achieve and make the most of the opportunities being an American brings.

We weren't a family of privilege. Each succeeding generation worked to make a better life.

My husband and I have both relied on strong will and hope to achieve what we have. If there's a lack of will and hope in the nation, some of it can be traced to the entitlement mentality and a failure to work hard to realize one's dreams.

Our souls aren't broken. Generally speaking, I don't see Americans as broken and miserable.

Many, many Americans are people of faith. While we may suffer and have crosses to bear, our souls are NOT broken.

From here, it looks like Michelle and Barack Obama have so much to be proud of in their lives, thanks to a great country that has offered them tremendous opportunities. With hard work, they've achieved great things.

No, I don't see things the way Michelle Obama does.

Didn't she feel pride in how bravefully firefighters, police officers, and citizen heroes responded on 9/11 and during those agonizingly painful weeks after?

I know I did.

Doesn't she feel pride in the achievements of the U.S. military?

I know I do.

There must have been some moment in her adult life that made her swell up with pride in her country, before her husband hit the campaign trail.

The fall of the Berlin Wall and winning the Cold War were pride-inducing.

People in the nation do have will and hope. Those things aren't lacking, like she says. Barack Obama didn't introduce will and hope to the country. As Americans, even in our darkest moments, we've never completely lost our will nor have we been without hope.

If you're looking for will and hope, you have to look inside yourself. You don't need a candidate or the government to give them to you.

Michelle Obama's Rising Star

Step One was for the liberal media to swoon over Barack Obama, and anoint him as the Chosen One. Mission accomplished.

Step Two is for the media to embrace his wife Michelle. The stories on Mrs. Obama are glowing accounts that are helping to elevate her to co-star status. Mission nears completion.

From the New York Times:

Outspoken, strong-willed, funny, gutsy and sometimes sarcastic, Michelle Obama is playing a pivotal role in her husband’s campaign as it builds on a series of successes, including a sweep on Tuesday of contests in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.

Her personal style — forthright, comfortable in the trenches, and often more blunt than Mr. Obama — plays well with a broad swath of the electorate and has given the campaign a steelier edge while allowing Mr. Obama to stay largely above it all.

“I am trying to be as authentically me as I can be,” Mrs. Obama said in an interview. “My statements are coming from my experiences and my observations and my frustrations.”

Mrs. Obama says she dislikes politics — she insists there will be no second run for the presidency if her husband falls short this time — but relishes a good fight, the competition of it all.

In the beginning, she had significant questions about an Obama candidacy. She pressed advisers for a blueprint of how the campaign would raise money and compete with Mrs. Clinton and other candidates. She gave her approval after seeing a concrete plan presented in strategy meetings in late 2006, all of which she attended.

Now she is involved in most major facets of campaign strategy, always a fierce protector of her husband’s image. While the Obamas seldom travel together — fanning out much as the Clintons do — Mrs. Obama is often in touch with key advisers and her message is shaped by the same strategists who advise her husband.

This sounds like another "two for the price of one" thing.

It's 1992 and Bill and Hillary all over again, minus the serial philandering of course.

...At almost six feet tall in heels, Mrs. Obama, 44, cuts an athletic and authoritative figure in her tailored pantsuits and skirts. A Harvard-educated lawyer who had been earning $212,000 a year as a hospital executive before she took leave on Jan. 1, she delivers rousing 40-minute speeches — surveying topics as far-ranging as the specific failings of the federal No Child Left Behind education act and problems with the military strategy in Iraq — without the aid of even a notecard.

A doting mother of two, Mrs. Obama has kept crowds waiting with telephone calls to her “little people” — daughters Sasha, 6, and Malia, 9.

But Mrs. Obama’s confident, commanding presence has its drawbacks. At an address last month for an African-American awards gala in Atlanta, some in attendance were left feeling that she had been condescending, preaching to a group of achievers about the need to achieve.

Michelle really does seem to share many of Hillary's qualities, especially in the attitude deparment. Could this be déjà vu all over again?

Can you picture a First Lady Michelle running for the Senate in 2016?

Maybe this change Barack Obama wants to bring to Washington would look very familiar.

Chris Matthews Tells Jay Leno about "Spiritual Experience"

Chris Matthews has embarrassed himself too many times to count, but his appearance on Wednesday's Tonight Show may top them all.

Talking about the elections, Matthews compared the Republicans to the Iraqis.

MATTHEWS: It used to be the Democrats were the disorganized political party. Now, the Republicans are like the Iraqis, have you noticed?

They got their Shia wing, the fanatics. They got Huckabee. This is where I get into trouble. This is just where I get into trouble. Huckabee and Thompson are the Shiites. And the Sunni, the more moderate guys, are McCain... and who else do they got over there? And Rudy Giuliani. Then, they got Romney the Kurd. I mean, they're all over the place. Who is going to unite them?

Yes, the Republicans are like the Iraqis, but Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are great to be in a room with, according to Matthews.

He said flattering things about Hillary, her great sense of humor and her likability; but he fell to pieces when he described Barack Obama.

When Leno expressed how moved he was by Obama when he gave his exceptance speech after winning in Iowa, Matthews replied, "We're white American guys and we want this fight over with," referring to racial strife.

MATTHEWS: If you're actually in a room when he gives one of those speeches and you don't cry, you're not an American.

...I know we're supposed to be dispassionate, but I can describe it.

...When you're in a room with the guy, you feel great about this country. You feel like we can make it better. We can transit to something bigger and better.

And the race thing, I know it's always going to be around us, at least it seems that way, but this guy seems like he can... 'cause he's come from a white family and a black family, and he's married to a black woman.

And they're cool people. They are really cool. They're Jack and Jackie Kennedy when you see them together. They are cool. And they're great looking and they're cool, and they're young and they're... Everything seems to be great. I know I'm selling him now. I'm not supposed to sell...

If you're in [a room] with Obama, you feel the spirit moving. Now, I'm selling too much.

The spirit moving?

That sounds like Oprah-speak.

Did you catch that Matthews thinks that Barack and Michelle are cool? He said it FOUR times!

The fact that Matthews kept saying that he was selling too much revealed that he was, in fact, selling Obama.

After some talk about Bill Richardson and Mike Huckabee as potential VP candidates, Matthews went back to his true love, Obama.

MATTHEWS: The fact is I wouldn't be an honest reporter if I didn't tell you what the spiritual experience is like of being at a Barack Obama rally. And, it's just an honest statement.

So Matthews has a SPIRITUAL experience when he hears Obama speak.

Matthews wasn't just selling. He was fishing for converts.

Catfights: Elizabeth Edwards, Michelle Obama, and Hillary Clinton

The lib media are fawning over Democrat presidential candidates' wives like Elizabeth Edwards and Michelle Obama as they "stand by their men."

Of course, women like Ann Romney, Judith Giuliani, and Jeri Thompson are routinely attacked by the Left and its media mouthpieces. They don't consider them to be assets on the campaign trail. These women are either labeled as liabilities or not worth mentioning at all.

That's very different from the treatment that Mrs. Edwards and Mrs. Obama receive.

From The New York Times:

RICHARD NIXON had definite views about how the wife of a presidential candidate should campaign. In 1992, he was watching a lawyer named Hillary Clinton aggressively defend her husband in New Hampshire.

“If the wife comes through as being too strong and too intelligent,” Mr. Nixon observed, “it makes the husband look like a wimp.”

Now, 15 years later, strong and intelligent women are out in force on the campaign trail, and the focus is not just on how they reflect on their husbands but how they reflect on themselves. These women are full partners in their husbands’ campaigns while running mini-campaigns of their own, with hectic travel schedules, strategic agendas and a media horde in tow.

Is it any surprise, then, that they can “make news” just as often as their husbands? Or that the “news” about them can be distorted?

Michelle Obama, the wife of Senator Barack Obama, discovered this last week, if not before, when news reports truncated a comment she made about keeping one’s house in order. Her comment was quickly interpreted as a swipe at Mrs. Clinton. Fox News’ “Fox & Friends,” for example, showed a picture of Mrs. Obama juxtaposed against Mrs. Clinton over the caption: “THE CLAWS COME OUT.”

It's funny that the Times highlights FOX's supposed distortion of remarks made by Mrs. Obama.

Lib outlets also reported Mrs. Obama's "if you can’t run your own house, you certainly can’t run the White House" comment. It wasn't just FOX.

The Times is engaged in its own distortions.

So what else is new?

...[T]he dynamic with the wives and a female frontrunner has complicated matters. Elizabeth Edwards has been the trailblazer, criticizing Mrs. Clinton regularly, to the point of saying that Mr. Edwards would be better than Mrs. Clinton on issues that matter to women.

With spouses less programmed than in the past, the line is blurrier between what women like Mrs. Edwards and Mrs. Obama want to say and what the campaigns need them to say.

“These are two women lawyers who have been in the professional world where they’re expected to speak up,” Mr. Anthony said. “But they still serve as windows into their husbands’ character.”

Someone should notify the Times and inform reporter Katharine Q. Seelye that a woman doesn't need a law degree to be strong, intelligent, and "expected to speak up."

The contrast between how the media refer to the Dems' wives and how the Republicans' spouses are portrayed is striking.

...Modern campaigns almost demand that a wife speak up; they certainly give her plenty of chances. This is true even among Republican wives, who, like Nancy Reagan, often wield their power behind the scenes. Ann Romney, the wife of Mitt Romney, was asked what set her husband apart from the other candidates. “He’s had only one wife,” she replied.

How slanted!

"This is true EVEN among Republican wives."

How condescending!

Seelye discusses them as if they're a different species from the Dems' wives. As it is, she gives the Republican wives just one brief paragraph in her article and it's not a very flattering one.

The accomplishments and campaign roles of the Republican candidates' wives are dismissed. Seelye suggests that they may have power behind the scenes, but they aren't allowed to take center stage like Mrs. Edwards and Mrs. Obama.

I think it's a slam on Republicans, depicting the wives as less valuable to the campaigns and less capable in terms of their abilities.

Worse than that, the two Republican wives mentioned in the article aren't lauded for their contributions to their husbands' achievements. Instead, Nancy Reagan is mentioned as a behind the scenes puppet master. Ann Romney is mentioned only to use her quote that highlights her accomplishment of being Mitt Romney's one and only wife, a not too subtle jab at the marital histories of Giuliani and Thompson.

This article isn't about the presidential candidates' wives standing by their men. It's about the lib candidates' wives and Hillary. That's fitting I suppose, given that they're the only ones that really matter to the navel-gazers inside the bubble of liberal politics.

Every comment made by the Republican wives isn't being dissected. It's a rare thing to read or see any coverage of their appearances at all, let alone what they have to say. That's a function of the media more than a reflection on the women.

I don't get the fascination with the dynamics of the three Dem women lawyers and their verbal bouts.

It seems sort of tabloid to me, a little too heavy on the catfight angle.

Is it really necessary to focus on the fact that Hillary is a woman? Does it matter how her opponents' wives relate to her?

I think it's weird how the so-called sophisticated Left dwells on the gender issue. It's so '70s.

...Mrs. Clinton, of course, could have excellent advice for the wives about how to navigate this universe.

“Hillary is four laps ahead of them,” Mr. Thompson said. “She knows how complicated this is. She would be a great mentor for them. She was there, she knows their pain.”

Alas, she is probably the last person who wants to make it easier for them.

By "the wives," Seelye means Mrs. Edwards and Mrs. Obama.

It's a complicated universe to navigate for them. On the other hand, the Republican spouses -- ditzy Hollywood wives, third wives, and wives with a traditional homemaker and mother background -- don't face the same challenges.

Typical lib elitist crud.

All this talk about the dynamics of strong, highly educated women campaigning for their husbands as they face off against a female opponent raises the question, "What about Bill?"

He's the only male spouse among the field of candidates.

He's strong, right? He can hold his own alongside Mrs. Obama and Mrs. Edwards.

And he's a lawyer, although his law license was suspended for years and he was forced to resign from the Supreme Court Bar.

How does he navigate the universe of presidential politics and standing by his woman?

He tosses out some supportive statements here and there, but he hasn't gone on the attack against Hillary's Democrat opponents.

Bill doesn't seem to be too engaged. He's on the sidelines.

He came out on Saturday for a Hillary fundraiser at Martha's Vineyard, a family vacation spot where he liked to buy souvenirs for Monica Lewinsky.

Bill Clinton told the crowd his wife would make the strongest president among those seeking to succeed Bush in January 2009 because she has the best plans to deal with national security, climate change, health care and education.

"If we were not married and Hillary asked me to do this, to be here tonight, I would be here," the former president said.

Really?

Is this Bill standing by his woman or fantasizing about not being married to Hillary?

Michelle Obama Targets Elite Donors

The campaign trail brought Barack Obama's wife Michelle to Milwaukee last night for a fund-raiser.

It was a very exclusive affair.

No press allowed.

This wasn't for the little people. This was for a more elite crowd. When Barack was in Milwaukee to kick off his Wisconsin campaign, he gave a 25 minute speech at the 4,000 seat Milwaukee Theatre. Suggested donations to attend the event were $25.

That was a bargain compared to the fund-raiser that followed, hosted by Sen. Herb Kohl's nephew Dan. That private gathering at Kohl's River Hills home had a steep price -- $1,000 per person. Obama's not shy about asking people to pony up.

Now, it's wife Michelle's turn to rake in the dough. She is forgoing an appearance before the little people and using her time to shmooze with big donors, as well as big state politicians.

From The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

The fund-raiser, which is closed to the press, is being held at the Shorewood home of attorney Jay Urban, who said the event is expected to raise about $75,000. About 200 people were to attend.

Well, la-dee-da. La-dee-da.

That's a nice chunk of change to raise just for showing up for an evening of visiting with friendly people.

Urban said Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, who has endorsed Obama, was to attend, along with his wife, Kris, who was to introduce Michelle Obama. In addition, Urban said Gov. Jim Doyle, who has remained neutral in the Democratic presidential primary, was to attend, along with First Lady Jessica Doyle.

I was wondering where Barrett has been hiding out.

He seems to surface for gun control meetings held out of state and for Obama fund-raisers. And he'll call a high profile news conference to assure and calm city residents when there's a tornado watch. It's not often that he shows his face.

But since Barrett officially declared himself to be on the Obama bandwagon, it makes complete sense that he would attend.

Doyle even made an appearance. Big stuff. In the past, he's claimed to be serving as a goodwill ambassador, welcoming all campaigning Dems to the state, showing no favoritism.

Although Doyle's word is worthless, I believe him about that. I don't think his attendance has more significance beyond the state's top Dem showing up at these elite fund-raisers to greet potential nominees. I don't take it to mean that he's endorsing Obama at this point.

However, it is a little weird for Doyle to take time to be at an event with just the spouse of a candidate present, not including possible First Gentleman Bill Clinton.

I think Doyle is probably doing some schmoozing of his own and courting donors to his cause. Perhaps some of Doyle's Indian gaming buddies were at the Obama event. Who knows?

It's too bad that the fund-raiser was closed to the press.

Barrett and Doyle don't come out of their lairs very often. It would have been an opportunity for reporters to ask them some questions -- crime, taxes, that sort of stuff.

I guess where there's money, there's politicians. They're attracted to it like moths to a flame.

Updated Update: Is Michelle Obama Smarter than a 5th Grader?

ABC News has flip flopped again!

It just can't get the story on Michelle Obama straight.

First, Mrs. Obama was quote as saying this:

"And I think that if Barack does what he's supposed to do and this campaign is ... run well, and he can be clear and articulate in his message, ... he'll be the next president of the United States and ... we will be swearing him in in '08."

Then, that clear mistake about the year that the next president will be sworn in was edited out.

The quote became, "we will be swearing him in."

No "in '08."

Read more.

Apparently, ABC News determined to go with the truth, being a news organization and all.

Here's today's Good Morning America installment:

With the landmark run of both Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Obama for the 2008 presidential bid, many wonder who has a better shot at making history as either the first female or first black president. Michelle believes that regardless of race, American voters are looking for connection to a candidate.

"I think that the American people… are ready to have somebody that they can believe in and that they can connect to," Obama said in a two-part interview that began Tuesday. "And I think that if Barack does what he's supposed to do and this campaign is… run well, and he can be clear and articulate in his message… he'll be the next president of the United States and… we will be swearing him in '08."

The "in '08" is baaack!



I think you DO need a weatherman to know which way ABC News blows.

Is Michelle Obama Smarter than a 5th Grader?

Barack Obama's wife Michelle sat down to talk with ABC's Robin Roberts. The interview will air in two parts on Good Morning America, beginning on Tuesday.

ABC is hyping the interview on its website:

Despite questions about the country's readiness for a black president, Barack Obama will win the race for the 2008 White House if he connects with Americans, his wife Michelle Obama told "Good Morning America" anchor Robin Roberts in her first major morning television interview.

"I think that the American people ... are ready to have somebody that they can believe in and that they can connect to," Obama said in an interview that begins Tuesday. "And I think that if Barack does what he's supposed to do and this campaign is ... run well, and he can be clear and articulate in his message, ... he'll be the next president of the United States and ... we will be swearing him in in '08."

That makes me wince.

I'm surprised that ABC chose to highlight that quote.

It makes Michelle Obama look, well, not too bright.

The next president of the United States will be sworn in on January 20, 2009.

I don't know what she means when she says "we will be swearing him in in '08."

Surely, she knows that the president-elect doesn't assume office until the January after the November election.

She's a Harvard Law School graduate. They're usually pretty smart people. She has to know when a president is sworn in.

I hope she simply misspoke.

I suppose it's possible that Barack will be testifying in a court case or giving a deposition in 2008; but I really think she was talking about him putting his hand on the Bible and taking the oath of office to become president.

So why would ABC promote the Michelle Obama interview with a quote that includes such an obvious gaffe?

It's probably because the people at ABC don't know when U.S. presidents are inaugurated. That must be it. It's really the only explanation that makes sense.
_____________________

Here's the screen cap:


_________________________

UPDATE:

I'm glad I saved the original page.

ABC has done some editing since I first read the article.

The "in 'o8" has disappeared from Michelle Obama's quote.

Check it out:



Assuming that Michelle Obama's remark was transcribed correctly originally, it will be interesting to see if ABC edits the interview as well, so viewers don't hear her screw up.

I wonder if the Obama campaign requested the Mulligan.

If so, it must be nice to have ABC willing to oblige.

Bias in the media? What liberal bias?

Dowd Taunts Michelle Obama

Maureen Dowd is like the junior high school girl with a crush on a boy who doesn't know she's alive.

Dowd desperately wants Barack Obama's attention. She desperately wants something.

How to get it?

Attack his wife.

In her column today, "She’s Not Buttering Him Up," Dowd expresses her discomfort with Michelle and Barack Obama's shtick on the campaign trail.

She writes:

Usually, I love the dynamics of a cheeky woman puncturing the ego of a cocky guy.

I liked it in ’40s movies, and I liked it with Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel, and Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis in “Moonlighting.”

So why don’t I like it with Michelle and Barack?

Tell us more, Maureen!

What are your insights on why you don't care???

I wince a bit when Michelle Obama chides her husband as a mere mortal — a comic routine that rests on the presumption that we see him as a god.

The tweaking takes place at fundraisers, where Michelle wants to lift the veil on their home life a bit and give the folks their money’s worth.

At the big Hollywood fund-raiser for Senator Obama in February, Michelle came on strong.

“I am always a little amazed at the response that people get when they hear from Barack,” she told the crowd at the Beverly Hilton, as her husband stood by looking like a puppy being scolded, reported Hud Morgan of Men’s Vogue. “A great man, a wonderful man. But still a man. ...

“I have some difficulty reconciling the two images I have of Barack Obama. There’s Barack Obama the phenomenon. He’s an amazing orator, Harvard Law Review, or whatever it was, law professor, best-selling author, Grammy winner. Pretty amazing, right?

“And then there’s the Barack Obama that lives with me in my house, and that guy’s a little less impressive. For some reason this guy still can’t manage to put the butter up when he makes toast, secure the bread so that it doesn’t get stale, and his 5-year-old is still better at making the bed than he is.”

She said that the TV version of Barack Obama sounded really interesting and that she’d like to meet him sometime.

Dowd goes on to cite a litany of other instances of Michelle Obama tweaking her husband -- the god-like, messiah candidate.

What's weird about the column is that Dowd never gets around to really explaining why she's uncomfortable with Michelle Obama's comments.

Dowd does bash her for failing to rein in Obama's dealings with the sleazy Tony Rezko.

...Michelle conveys the appealing idea that she will tell her husband when he’s puffed up or out of line. She aims high — she ordered her husband to stop puffing on cigarettes as he started campaigning. But then, why didn’t she see the red flags on the Rezko deal?

In order to get a bigger yard for their new house on Chicago’s South Side in 2005, the Obamas got into what the senator now confesses was a “boneheaded” real estate arrangement with a sleazy political dealmaker named Tony Rezko, who has been indicted on influence-peddling charges.

On Monday, The Chicago Sun-Times reported more shady Rezko news: “Obama, who has worked as a lawyer and a legislator to improve living conditions for the poor, took campaign donations from Rezko even as Rezko’s low-income housing empire was collapsing, leaving many African-American families in buildings riddled with problems,” from a lack of heat to no lack of drug dealers and squatters.

Mr. Obama riposted that “it wasn’t brought to my attention.” But isn’t that where a dazzling, tough, smart and connected wife could help a guy out?

So what is the point of Dowd's rambling column?

Is it to expose wife Michelle as slimy?

Is it to draw attention to candidate Barack's dirty side?

Like so many of her columns, this one is a weird, personal, PSYCHOanalytic piece with just a bit of news tossed in to lend it an air of credibilty and purpose beyond her own navel-gazing.

Since Dowd can't seem to understand why she doesn't like Michelle Obama's comments about the "real" Barack, I'll offer some amateur analysis of my own.

Dowd doesn't like the fact that Michelle Obama has a successful career, and a husband and children.

Michelle Obama has it all and Dowd can't stand it.

Yes, that works.

Barack Obama: 60 Minutes

UPDATE, November 16, 2008: Barack and Michelle Obama on 60 Minutes
_________________


"My wife and I are on 60 Minutes. I'm running for president. And I'm not talking about an affair."

That guy... That senator from Illinois, what's his name?

Oh, yes. Barack Obama.

In case you didn't know, Obama has been struggling with a name recognition problem.

Yeah, right.

Obama must be the most well known unknown in the country.

His weekend long official coming out party was topped off with an interview on 60 Minutes.

Steve Kroft did the segment. He looked positively giddy. He couldn't contain his excitement. So many shots of him nodding in approval and smiling from ear to ear -- it was embarrassing.

Basically, the interview covered the same stuff that we've been hearing from Obama for months now.

Same old, same old.

This piece was a little different in that America met Mrs. Barack Obama and their two little girls. (The only foods Daddy can prepare are tuna fish and chili.)

Obama's wife was articulate and clean. (I mean that as a compliment of course, just like Joe Biden.)

Seriously, she looked attractive and is an accomplished woman. She seemed like a very pleasant person.

The kids were adorable.

The only thing that caught my attention during this interview as something new was what Obama and his wife had to say in regard to race.

There are African-Americans who don't think that you're black enough, who don't think that you have had the required experience," Kroft remarks.

"The truth of the matter is, you know, when I'm walking down the south side of Chicago and, visiting my barbershop, and playing basketball in some of these neighborhoods, those aren't those aren't questions I get asked," Obama says.

"They think you're black," Kroft asks.

"As far as they can tell, yeah. I also notice when I'm catching a cab, nobody's confused about that either," he says.

Are we to believe that Sen. Obama has trouble catching a cab because of his race?

First, how often does he hail a cab?

Never?

Second, I don't believe he has a problem. Do you?

Obama's statements about prejudice in America don't jibe with these next remarks:

Obama does think the U.S. is ready for a black president and he doesn't think his race is going to hold him back.

"I think if I don't win this race it will be because of other factors. It's gonna be because I have not shown to the American people a vision for where the country needs to go that they can embrace," he tells Kroft.

So which is it?

Will America judge Obama on his qualifications and vision for the country or will his racial makeup get in the way?

Will America leave him standing at the curb because his father was black?

I guess America is ready for a black president, but not black passengers in cabs.

When Obama's wife Michelle joined the interview, Kroft brought up how Colin Powell's wife didn't want him to run for president because it would be too dangerous. She feared that he would be shot.

Obama had to persuade his wife to let him run. Political campaigns make her feel like a single mother.

Asked if it has put strains on the marriage from time to time, Michelle Obama says, sarcastically, "Oh-nooooo."

"Absolutely it has," he husband adds.

"But, you'd let him go ahead and do this?" Kroft asks Michelle Obama.

"I think if I weren't married to him, I'd want him to be in there," she says. "So, I don't wanna stand in the way of that, because we have to work out a few things. So, we've kind of, you know, we figured out those, we've had those arguments, and…" she says.

"And, I've lost them all," the senator throws in.

"This is a tough question to ask, but a number of years ago Colin Powell was thinking about running for president, and his wife Alma, really did not want him to run. She was worried about some crazy person, with a gun…. Is that something that you think about?" Kroft asks.

"I don't lose sleep over it because the realities are that, you know, as a black man, you know, Barack can get shot going to the gas station, you know. So, you know, you can't make decisions based on fear and the possibility of what might happen. We just weren't raised that way," she says.

HUH?

"[A]s a black man, you know, Barack can get shot going to the gas station, you know."

What sort of comment is that?

She makes it sound like African-Americans are routinely being shot at gas stations and on American streets simply because of their race.

I think Mrs. Obama is not ready for prime time. That was an extremely poorly phrased remark.

It brings to mind Hillary's 60 Minutes gaffe, "I'm not sitting here as some little woman 'standing by my man' like Tammy Wynette."

It doesn't matter.

As Kroft said, Obama is a rock star.

An "unknown," "underdog" rock star.

Obama, the oxymoron.