Barack Obama Christmas at the White House 2009 Video

The Obamas on Oprah's Christmas at the White House. See the entire show here.

Bo!

Obama gives himself a B+. That's what I would've given him as well:

Obama On Republican Pep Rally to Stop Reform

In Obama's weekly address he talks about jobs and the need for financial reform. Republicans pulled together financial lobbyists for a "pep rally" to stop reform:

Just last week, Republican leaders in the House summoned more than 100 key lobbyists for the financial industry to a “pep rally,” and urged them to redouble their efforts to block meaningful financial reform. Not that they needed the encouragement. These industry lobbyists have already spent more than $300 million on lobbying the debate this year.

The special interests and their agents in Congress claim that reforms like the Consumer Financial Protection Agency will stifle consumer choice and that updated rules and oversight will frustrate innovation in the financial markets. But Americans don’t choose to be victimized by mysterious fees, changing terms, and pages and pages of fine print. And while innovation should be encouraged, risky schemes that threaten our entire economy should not.

Transcript
A preview of the Obama Christmas on Oprah tomorrow night:

The President and First Lady remember their favorite gifts as children:

OW: Do you remember what your favorite Christmas gift was as a child?

First Lady: Oh it was a doll house and it was a metal doll house with plastic furniture but it was and I remember I really didn't know how to set up a house so I had all the furniture lined up along the walls as opposed to nestled around the fireplace, but I loved that little doll house

OW: Well now you get some practice here - goodness gracious. Doll house...I asked this question to some of my friends and they all said Easy Bake Oven. Did you have an Easy Bake Oven?

First Lady: Oh I did have an Easy Bake Oven but you know once you run out of the mix it's like you're done with it
OW: (LAUGHS) Yeah you're done with that -

President Obama: You couldn't get more mix?

OW: It doesn't come with more mix, the Easy Bake Oven

President Obama: But can you order more mix?

First Lady: Nowadays it's easy -

OW: Probably now you can go online and get more mix -

First Lady: When we were little - what you got - that's what you got

OW: That's what you got

First Lady: When it's over, it's over.

Bo's Stocking:

OW: So who all has a stocking in this family?

First Lady: Everyone. The President, the First Lady, Malia, Sasha and Bo.

OW: Bo has a stocking?

First Lady: Bo has a stocking. Of course he does.

OW: How lovely.

First Lady: Santa loves Bo too.

OW: Santa really loves Bo. First Lady: He loves Bo.

OW: Bo got a good home. I must say.

First Lady: Bo's got - right. (THEY LAUGH)

OW: Bo got a good home. Bo did okay.

What Santa Eats clip (Exclusive to Yahoo.com):

OW: Will Santa be coming to the White House?

First Lady: Absolutely

President Obama: Probably through the yellow room - there's a chimney there - we'll set up - some cookies and milk -

First Lady: where the tree is -

OW: Oh - not apples and vegetables from the organic garden?

First Lady: Santa likes cookies - we'll put some apple slices but Santa generally likes cookies

President Obama: Yeah I mean Santa eats what he wants (ALL LAUGH) Politico

Obamas Attend National Tree Lighting Ceremony Dec. 3

White House gingerbread and Bo in the front

Update Dec. 3: Event over. Watch the Obama family light up the Christmas tree here.

Tonight at 5 pm eastern is the National Tree Lighting Ceremony, which is put on by the National Park Foundation. The Obamas will attend and so will the Bidens.
The ceremony will be live streamed here and at WhiteHouse.gov. I'm sure it will also be live streamed at cnn.com. Some of the performers: Sheryl Crow, Common, Ray LaMontagne, American Idol Jordin Sparks, jazz artist and saxophonist Joshua Redman, Jazz pianist Brad Mehldau and Celtic Woman.

In other Christmas festivities: Watch Michelle Obama discuss all the decorating going on at the White House here. Watch Michelle, Malia and Sasha welcome the Blue Room Christmas tree here. The Obamas are also taping today for Oprah's White House Christmas special.

Obama on Oprah's Christmas at the White House Dec. 13

Obama visits troops last Christmas

Update Dec. 14: Watch video here.

Oprah Winfrey will interview President Obama for a holiday special on ABC called "Christmas at the White House: An Oprah Primetime Special," the Live Feed reports.

The talk show host, who recently announced that she would end her show in two years, is fresh off a high-profile sit down with former GOP Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. The special with the president will reportedly include the interview with Mr. Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama as well as a White House tour.

The special is scheduled to air on Sunday, December 13th. CBS

Sarah Palin on Oprah Preview Video

Sarah Palin will appear on Oprah Monday, Nov. 16 to promote her book, in which she lashes out at the McCain-Palin campaign. I'm not expecting too much from the show. I'm sure Oprah won't ride her too hard given a conflict of interest--Oprah's a big supporter of Obama. Palin will likely do fine in this talk show format:

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Sarah Palin on Oprah Nov. 16

Spoof books for sale (guess which one)

I'm sure this will be one of Oprah's highest rated shows. The interview is during sweeps week:

Sarah Palin is going to sit down with Oprah Winfrey.

Harpo Productions announced Tuesday that the former governor of Alaska and Republican vice presidential candidate will appear on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” on Monday, Nov. 16.

According to Harpo, the interview will be Palin’s first about her new book, “Going Rogue: An American Life,” and it will be the first time Palin and Winfrey will meet. MSNBC

Michelle Obama Shares Cover of O With Oprah

The April cover is the first time Oprah has appeared on the cover with another human (she's been on there with her dogs). I don't like the photo much. It looks way too airbrushed. Michelle Obama doesn't need that much help. Here's part of the interview:

Oprah: So after the inauguration, what was your first weekend in the White House like?

Michelle Obama: Well, we still had family here, so it was almost like a wedding. A huge, very complicated wedding. The last visitors didn't leave until Sunday. And then the first Monday was kind of weird. You know: Now we live here, and Barack is getting up and going to work, and it's just us. This is our home now.

Oprah: I had heart palpitations coming through the White House gate, recognizing that this really is now your home. It's the White House, and it's your home.

Michelle Obama: And it's a beautiful home. When you go out and come back, especially at night, with all the white lights on—it's just beautiful. We feel privileged, and we feel a responsibility to make it feel like the people's house. We have the good fortune of being able to sleep here, but this house belongs to America.

The Obama's After Ball Party Includes Oprah

Inauguration moment
After the balls, the Obamas had a small gathering of mostly Chicagoans that included:
Oprah Winfrey
Valerie Jarrett
David Axelrod
Mayor Daley
Craig Robinson
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.)
Rep. Melissa Bean (D-Ill.)
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.)
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.)
Rep. Artur Davis (D-Alabama)
Read it here.

Oprah Show Headed to DC For Inauguration

The talk show host told Access Hollywood Tuesday night that she will tape her inauguration week shows in the nation’s capital, and has rented the Kennedy Center’s lush Opera House – which seats roughly 2,300 — to serve as her studio for the week.

"I'm going to break that right here; that's where I'm going to be," she said. "See you there . . . that's the place to be."

Starbucks Will Buy Your Coffee Tomorrow

Whatever you have to do, find a way to vote. On a conference call this morning--thanks to a Twitter friend for that-- Oprah says make voting a celebration. Take your friends and family. Obama thanked us for keeping him in our prayers-- that was the only part I caught.
Starbucks has a nice message:

Black American History in Pictures

Oprah's Mentor Supports Clinton

poet maya angelou, of all people, is a clinton supporter. oprah winfrey, who calls angelou her mentor, is very much an obama supporter. i wonder how that's been going over.

of course, angelou has loyalties to the clintons. she was invited to read her poem at bill's inauguration. and loyalties with the clintons, as we've learned, run deep. i wonder if angelou realizes that the clintons conveniently circulated pastor wright memos and everything else that has made this campaign ugly to exploit those who don't know any better.

meanwhile, rev. jeremiah wright recently went to hear angelou speak. wright apparently loves angelou, who was celebrating her 82nd birthday. (does this mean wright likes clinton? it would if you use the logic that's been going on in this nomination process).

newsweek: As the race between Clinton and Obama has sharpened in recent months, other Clinton campaign operatives have sent around negative material about Obama's relations with Israel, according to e-mails obtained by NEWSWEEK. In addition to Brzezinski, the e-mails attack Obama advisers such as Rob Malley, a former Clinton negotiator at the 2000 Camp David talks who has since written articles sympathetic to the Palestinian point of view, and they raise questions about Obama's relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the former pastor at Obama's Trinity Church in Chicago.

maya in the sun times

"I promised myself that 20 years after seeing her passion and courage (as first lady of Arkansas) that if she ever runs for anything, I'm going to support her," the author, who spent part of her childhood in Arkansas, told The Associated Press during a recent interview.

here's more:

Angelou, who turns 80 on April 4, played a brief, but memorable role in Bill Clinton's first presidential run. The poem she read at his 1993 inauguration, "On the Pulse of the Morning," was an instant sensation that became a million seller when published in book form. She was already widely known as the author of "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," a coming-of-age memoir that is standard reading at schools.

Although committed to Hillary Clinton, Angelou says she would be happy to see Obama become president, 'the country's first black president,' especially after the March 18 speech prompted by his former pastor's racial statements. Obama, a Democrat from Illinois, called upon "the nation to break "a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years.'"

Where Was Wright Wrong?

update: cnn finds text to another sermon, which gives us more insight. it is a must read.
perhaps wright is right. it's the way he said it that scared the wits out of some white folks. and come on, we have to see that the media played a big role in pushing this for more than what it is. see the truth about trinity.
from the houston chronicle:

And there it is. ... The 800-pound gorilla that is racial strife finally slings its poo against the political wall. Let me just say this: To me, the comments made by Sen. Barack Obama's spiritual adviser, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, are pretty innocuous. I say that knowing that they are offensive to white people, but the question has to be raised — why?

Wright said that Sen. Hillary Clinton does not know what it is like to be a black man in an America run by rich white people. She doesn't. If the bone of contention is that America is not run by rich white people, I will have to humbly but unequivocally disagree and ask you to see the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans. Omit the entertainers and athletes. Just how many people of color are left?

According to Forbes, all you have is Oprah Winfrey at No. 165 and, based on the earlier caveat, she is disqualified because she is an entertainer. So of the 399 richest people in America, 98 percent are white. So where was Rev. Wright wrong?

Wright also offered some conspiracy theories about how the U.S. government has wronged people of color in the past. I do not believe that the government engineered AIDS, but it did engineer the Tuskegee experiments in which young African-American men infected with syphilis were denied treatment for study. This was conducted from 1932 to 1972, well-documented and acknowledged by the U.S. government. I am sure Wright remembers this and many other racial injustices in his lifetime.

In fact, let's go over the past 100 years of the United States' "stellar" race/citizen relations: Japanese interment camps, American Indian reservations, Jim Crow laws, lynchings, late women's suffrage, the immigration debate, the proposed anti-gay marriage amendment, voter irregularities of the 2000 election, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans ...

I hate to break it to Americans, but women and people of color can be a bit paranoid when it comes to actions of the U.S. government. As are, at times, white Americans. White conservatives, especially, get angry. Commentators Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter have jobs — and huge audiences — for a reason.

Let's face facts. Put the proverbial cards on the table. read more