Wednesday, November 26, 2008

The Obama Thanksgiving

Tonight the Obamas will be on a Barbara Walters special but first they give out birds at a food drive in Chicago. video.
WALTERS, later on the 'Good Morning America' set: By the way, he's losing – so far – that negotiation about the BlackBerry. ... We sit down for the interview and Mrs. Obama's talking, and he bends over and say, 'Just a minute, dear.' And he takes, on camera, the lipstick off her teeth. ... I don't want to gush – they're very cute and very funny in this interview together. ... She says that they're going to have 60 people, at least [for Thanksgiving]. And he says, 'Yeah, mostly her relatives.' She says, 'I'm not cooking.' She said, and I quote, 'My husband ran for president. I should have an 'out' of cooking something for dinner.' More excerpts below.

The Bush girls showed the Obama girls around:
MRS. BUSH, on moving into the White House: 'The very first rooms I did were the two rooms that were for our girls, who were freshmen in college. I wanted them to be able to have these rooms to move home and come home for holidays and have their own space. So those are the rooms that Barbara and Jenna showed little Malia and Sasha when they came over to visit. And that was really fun. It was fun for the girls to get to show them not only that room, but the way the big cross hall can be an obstacle course for little kids to run up and down, and the solarium ramp that you can slide down on your bottom. So they showed them all the special tricks.'
ROBIN ROBERTS: 'Now, is it true that Sasha and Malia, they were jumping up and down on the bed in the Lincoln Bedroom?'

MRS. BUSH: 'We did a little bed-jumping, the girls sort of showed them -- it wasn't the Lincoln Bedroom, it was another bedroom with a very tall bed that we usually put a step out for people to step into when they stay in that room. But instead the little girls did the running jump, and Barbara and Jenna of course aided and abetted that jumping.' Read more at Politico's playbook.
More Obama kid talk:
OBAMA, ON RAISING TWO GIRLS IN THE WHITE HOUSE: I think a lot of it just has to do with making sure that they understand that, they're special to us because we're their parents. But they're not special, you know in terms of having to do their homework or having to do chores or having...

WALTERS: They have to do chores in the White House?

MICHELLE OBAMA: Yeah. That was the first thing I said to some of the staff when I did my visit. Because of course, the girls, they're so good. I said, 'You know, we're gonna have to set up some boundaries. Because they're gonna need to be able to make their beds and ...

WALTERS: Really?

MICHELLE OBAMA: They do that now.

WALTERS: In the White House they're gonna have to make the beds and clean up their rooms?

OBAMA: Doing that since they were four years old.

MICHELLE OBAMA: Uh, that's gonna be one of my goals. Don't make their beds. Make mine. (Laughs) But skip the kids; let 'em make their own beds. They have to learn these things.

BARACK OBAMA:: And they have. That's the one thing that I'm most proud about my kids is that they're kind, thoughtful kids. And they show everybody respect. Everybody they meet. ... They're ... they're ... they're kind and sweet too, and they're thoughtful. And really, if they retain that, the other stuff will take care of itself.