Obama Gets Prayers Via BlackBerry

Joshua DuBois, head of White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, delivers prayers to Obama's BlackBerry:

The address queue for President Barack Obama's BlackBerry is one of the White House's better-kept secrets.

But the president now has allowed that at least one of his most faithful aides has his number: Joshua DuBois, a former associate pastor and an advisor to Obama in his Senate office and campaign who runs the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

And each morning, Obama says, DuBois delivers a prayer to the president's BlackBerry.

Obama, who still has not found a permanent house of worship for the first family since moving into the White House, spoke with reporters from the religious press this week. Swamp

No More President Obama on Plates?

Manick Sorcar's Obama in seeds

White House lawyers are looking for ways to control Obama's image, which is on everything from plates to toilet paper. To me, it seems like a dumb move. It's like the music industry suing over music downloads.
I guess the concern is that people could conclude that Obama endorses certain products. Well, Research in Motion may as well come out with an Obama BlackBerry because Obama's over the moon for his BlackBerry.
But Ty's Malia and Sasha dolls crossed the line because they're reaping profits on Obama's daughter's image. They should be at least be compelled to donate some of the sales to charity.
I won't drink Pepsi with their new logo that coincidentally looks like the Obama sunrise.
Ben & Jerry's on the other hand, was a big supporter of Obama, so if I liked pecans, I might eat some Yes Pecan.
Love all the Obama art and I don't see White House lawyers going after that sort of thing. If they did, they'd have serious backlash.

Bloomberg: White House lawyers are examining ways to control the use of the president’s image, while recognizing the worldwide fascination about Obama’s election, First Amendment free-speech rights and easy access to videos and photos on the Web.
“Our lawyers are working on developing a policy that will protect the presidential image while being careful not to squelch the overwhelming enthusiasm that the public has for the president,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
Obama’s calls for change and his “Yes We Can” campaign mantra are being evoked to sell assembly-required furniture in Ikea’s “Embrace Change” marketing campaign, bargain airfares during Southwest Airlines Inc.’s “Yes You Can” sale and “Yes Pecan” ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc. shops. Read the rest

Obama's Press Secretary Robert Gibbs Gives First Conference

Gibbs announced that Obama will now be getting daily economic briefings. He also said Obama will keep his BlackBerry (such a non issue) Read more about the press conference here.

Here's another update, Obama surprises the press, pops in to say hi and thanks them for not ripping Gibbs apart during his first press conference, to which one of the reporters then proceeded to try and get answers from Obama about one of his nominees. Read all about that here. 

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.

Sneak Peek Obama on Barbara Walters

Update: See the video here.

Barbara Walters, the overrated interviewer, has Obama tomorrow. I still like her anyway. Here is some of what Obama said:

Weeks away from his inauguration, Obama stressed to Walters the importance of personal, corporate and civic accountability in light of the cratering economy and said his presidency would be a return to "the ethic of responsibility."

Obama said "captains of industry" on Wall Street and in Detroit who took advantage of corporate perks while their companies benefited from government loans paid for with taxpayers' money, don't have "any perspective on what's happening to ordinary Americans."

He says bank execs should forgo their bonuses. Of course they should and so much more.

Asked by Walters if bank executives should forgo their bonuses , Obama said, "I think they should."

"That's an example of taking responsibility. I think that if you are already worth tens of millions of dollars, and you are having to lay off workers, the least you can do is say, 'I'm willing to make some sacrifice as well, because I recognize that there are people who are a lot less well off, who are going through some pretty tough times,'" the president-elect added.

Obama's trying to find a way to communicate outside the bubble, so he doesn't end up like George Bush:

For national security purposes, a president is limited in his electronic correspondences for fear of hacking. Additionally, presidential communications are strictly monitored and archived for historical purposes.

"One of the things that I'm going to have to work through is how to break through the isolation -- the bubble that exists around the president. I'm in the process of negotiating with the Secret Service, with lawyers, with White House staff ... to figure out how can I get information from outside of the 10 or 12 people who surround my office in the White House," he said.