The First Puppy Bo

WaPo: The little guy is a 6-month-old Portuguese water dog given to the Obama girls as a gift by that Portuguese water dog-lovin' senator himself, Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts. The girls named it Bo -- and let it be noted that you learned that here first. Malia and Sasha chose the name, because their cousins have a cat named Bo and because first lady Michelle Obama's father was nicknamed Diddley, a source said. (Get it? Bo . . . Diddley?)

Bo's a handsome little guy. Well suited for formal occasions at the White House, he's got tuxedo-black fur, with a white chest, white paws and a rakish white goatee.

Bo didn't come from the shelter but the Obamas will make a donation to the Humane Society:

The choice of a Portie raised one complication. The Obamas have long said they wanted a rescue dog. But the carefully bred PWDs almost never end up in shelters. Bo had been living with another family, but it wasn't a good fit, so the Kennedys acquired him for the Obamas.

As for the rescue pledge, the Obamas came up with a solution intended to lend a serious symbolic note: They're going to make a donation to the D.C. Humane Society.

Read more about Bo and the story of the fierce competition to get the Bo scoop first here. 
Update: talk about the new pup on Meet the Press:

You have earned your new puppy:

Obama Dog: Labradoodle or Portuguese Water Dog

Labradoodle
The Obamas have settled on a Labradoodle or a Portuguese Water Dog (below). Now, they're checking out the various shelters. 

This was the last question Obama answered on This Week today. I'll post video when it's up. (It's a Water Dog not a Water Hound. Obama calls it a hound and every newspaper called it a hound).

People seem to be most interested in the dog but Obama also had some interesting things to say on This Week, such as he missed church, his daughters are doing surprisingly well adjusting to the move and a new school, and his speech has to capture the moment. He also said the U.S. will be torture free -- waterboarding is torture-- and he said despite a past mistake made by Eric Holder (his pick for attorney general) he will be confirmed. He talked in length about the economy. Former mob attorney Mayor Oscar Goodman of Las Vegas wants to build a Mob Museum with the stimulus money. That seems to me to be a pet project of the highest order. Obama said he'd rather spend the money on more infrastructure-related projects. He wasn't clear on whether he would support the museum itself.
Here's a link to ABC's story on Obama's appearance on This Week. 

Here Obama talks about terrorism and Cheney:

Politico: STILL CLOSING GUANTANAMO BAY, BUT NOT IN FIRST 100 DAYS: 'It is more difficult than I think a lot of people realize and we are going to get it done but part of the challenge that you have is that you have a bunch of folks that have been detained, many of whom who may be very dangerous who have not been put on trial or have not gone through some adjudication. And some of the evidence against them may be tainted even though it's true. And so how to balance creating a process that adheres to rule of law, habeas corpus, basic principles of Anglo-American legal system, by doing it in a way that doesn't result in releasing people who are intent on blowing us up. That's a challenge. I think it's going to take some time and our legal teams are working in consultation with our national security apparatus as we speak to help design exactly what we need to do. But I don't want to be ambiguous about this. We are going to close Guantanamo and we are going to make sure that the procedures we set up are ones that abide by our Constitution.'