Wondrous Wednesdays at the White House March 4, 2009

Today is Wednesday and The Obama’s have the prescription for success when it comes to social engagement. I am looking forward to an invitation to participate in one of the Wednesday events!

 

Obama welcomed the Democratic chairmen of congressional committees and the ranking Republicans on those committees, along with their spouses, to a packed East Room for dinner. About 200 people joined Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and their wives. Obama joked to his guests, that such events were among his only ways to lobby them, yeah I am sure to get that ‘ginormous’ budget passed! The new administration wants to increase agency spending by 8 percent, something fiscal conservatives including his own party caution is not prudent in the current times we are living in.

 

Obama’s approach adopts the Keynesian economic theory: Keynes argued that the solution to depression is to stimulate the economy (“inducement to invest”) through some combination of two approaches: a reduction in interest rates (We are near the bottom of the curve on interest rates), and government investment in infrastructure. Investment by government injects income, which results in more spending in the general economy, which in turn stimulates more production and investment involving still more income and spending and so forth. The initial stimulation starts a cascade of events, whose total increase in economic activity is a multiple of the original investment. I wonder what Obama’s father would advise if he were alive today, since he was an economist. I am still formulating my ideas around this proposed budget and will comment in future blog posts.
 

“It’s hard to move around out there sometimes so I’ve got to bring the world to me,” Obama said to laughter. They dined on mushroom crisps, steelhead salmon, and saffron couscous. What a great menu! As Obama took the soft-handed approach, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel laughingly warned nearby Republican Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, who has been a critic of Obama’s spending plan: “Don’t be a jerk.” Rahm Emanuel is true ‘gansta’ with his comment!

 

Let’s turn to First Lady Fashion. My favorite segment of writing my blog posts. I adore her look at the Arlington Cemetery on Tuesday for the military women. The sweater, belt, blazer combination coupled with the striped blouse is a definite copy for me as I assemble my pieces together for work and church in the upcoming weeks. Who needs to buy a magazine or go to a fashion show for the latest trends, just look to First Lady Michelle Obama to know what’s HOT!!!

 

 

 

The fancy palazzo pants today inspire thoughts of a genie in a bottle. Work your magic First Lady! You are what the Fashion industry has been wishing for!

 

 

Commentary: My crush on Michelle Obama March 3, 2009

By Jack Cafferty

Special to CNN

Editor’s note: Jack Cafferty is the author of a new book, “Now or Never: Getting Down to the Business of Saving Our American Dream,” to be published in March. He provides commentary on CNN’s “The Situation Room” daily from 4 to 7 p.m. ET. You can also visit Jack’s Cafferty File blog.

NEW YORK (CNN) — I think I am developing a crush on America’s first lady. Michelle Obama is more compelling than her husband. He’s good, but she’s utterly fascinating.

Mrs. Obama has blown away the stale air in a White House musty from eight years of the Bushes. It’s like the sun came out and a fresh spring breeze began wafting through the open windows.

It’s the people’s house, and Michelle Obama totally gets it. So much so that she has taken to inviting people in from the streets to see her home. Nice touch — one completely lacking in her recent predecessors.

Watch her when she visits a local school and you see the warmth and affection she instantly triggers in people. Kids are pretty much totally honest with very good BS-detectors. If they sense you’re a phony, forget it. But around the first lady, they want to hug her and laugh with her and tell her stories.

You can see the same qualities these kids recognize in her daughters. She is the consummate mother as evidenced by the poised, polite smiling children she and her husband are raising. I have four daughters, and trust me — they don’t turn out like the Obama children without devoted parents.

New to the Washington neighborhood, Michelle Obama has taken it upon herself to go around and introduce herself to the people in the various agencies of government. When’s the last time a first lady did that? I don’t ever remember it before. And during her visits she listens rather than lectures. And people respond to her.

She was raised on the south side of Chicago by blue-collar parents. She went to Princeton University, and Harvard Law School. But in many ways she’s still a kid from the south side of Chicago, and that’s what makes her special. She knows exactly who she is.

The Obamas bring a humanity and humility to their tasks which sets them far apart from the run-of-the mill phonies who populate Washington. It’s exactly what the doctor ordered for this wounded nation.

Michelle Obama’s unassuming, but dead-on, sense of style has the fashion press gushing all over itself.

Her arms are becoming the stuff of legend. Who appears sleeveless on the cover of Vogue, let alone in front of a joint session of Congress while her husband delivers one of the most important speeches of his life? And the reviews were rave.

Cindi Leive, the editor of Glamour magazine gushed, “Oh my god! The first lady has bare arms in Congress in February at night!” If she keeps it up, Seventh Avenue will soon stop making women’s clothes with sleeves.

Ok, I admit it. When it comes to the first lady, I’m smitten.

 Story Highlights

 Jack Cafferty: Michelle Obama is blazing a new path as first lady

 She understands that the White House is the “people’s house,” he says

 Cafferty: She is welcoming all kinds of people and government workers

 He says her sense of style is winning support from the fashion world

When’s the last time the media has fawned over a black woman

Colonix March 1, 2009

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