The Break Up

The same day President Obama spoke at a rally at the University of Wisconsin hoping to re-energize the youth vote that was so crucial to his election victory, blogs picked up on an ad by the College Republican National Committee urging those same young people to break up with Obama. The satirical spot called "The Break Up" is running near college campuses in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida and has gotten more than 50,000 views on YouTube. Mediaite thinks the ad’s pretty good. Politics Daily says, “the group spent $9,700 on the commercial, the first television ad buy in the group's history, apparently sensing an opportunity to attract young voters to the GOP in the weeks leading up to the midterm elections.” More at Politics Daily.com.

Rahm Can't Go Home...Yet

Who says you can’t go home? How about the tenants currently renting your Chicago residence? Speculation’s been growing that White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel could leave the White House as early as this week to run for Mayor of Chicago, but there’s one little snag in his plan—the people living in his Chicago home are refusing to move out early for his return. The Chicago Sun Times’ Michael Sneed’s writing, "the tenant, Robert Halpin, who holds the lease with his wife, Lori, until June 2011, refused to budge....I'm told Rahm and a close lawyer friend made several polite phone calls to Halpin last week, but he bumped up against the wrong guy," said a top Sneed source. "Halpin reportedly conducts his business from the house and his two kids are in school. He doesn't want to move."

Yikes...perhaps they'll let him rent a spare bedroom?

"Hipping" the President's iPod

Rolling Stone came out Tuesday with an interview with President Obama and according to the piece, his taste in music hasn’t changed much over the years. In the interview, the President says that his iPod has about 2,000 songs—including the usual suspects like Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, and the Rolling Stones. But thanks to his aide Reggie Love, the President’s adding some more rap into the mix—introducing him to artists like Nas and Lil Wayne. (Really Mr. President? Lil Wayne?)

The President also said that his daughters are getting old enough to start sharing some of their music favs with their dad. Which can mean only one thing—Justin Bieber’s made it onto the Presidential iPod. He told the magazine, "Malia and Sasha are now getting old enough to where they start hipping me to things."

Sarah Palin Booed During "Dancing with the Stars?"

During Monday night’s episode of Dancing with the Stars, Sarah Palin made a surprise appearance as “special guest commentator,” and of course to support her daughter Bristol. Mediaite says, “Sitting with her second youngest, Piper, cheerfully explained how much she was enjoying seeing the competition. However, it seems that some in the audience may not have been enjoying seeing as there was a loud series of boos right before her appearance."

The boos actually came right before she appeared on camera, presumably while she was taking her place. Jennifer Grey and her partner Derek Hough were discussing their dance as the boos began from the other side of the hall. The contestants looked around anxiously, clearly worried that the vocal displeasure was being made in their direction. It was hushed, however, right before the cameras switched and we saw the former governor.

ABC made a statement on Tuesday denying that the booes were directed at Palin. Conrad Green, executive prodcuer for the show said, " I don't know why everyone booed." He speculated the booing was was because the gallery thought Jennifer Grey deserved 9s for her dance.

“They were just expressing their feelings about a really, really good dance,” a network spokeswoman said. “It’s not at all unusual.”

Who was the audience really booing?

Sarah PAC's "Tea Party" Video

Sarah Palin’s PAC has released its second ad, calling the tea party movement the “future of politics.” Politico writes, “In a note sent to supporters announcing the video, Palin wrote, "Enjoy the video! And please support commonsense conservative candidates who will work with you, and for you, to provide solutions to America's challenges. Constitutionalists who are running for the right reasons will put our country back on course — for opportunity and freedom for all." Chris Cilizza’s writng, “The confluence of Palin’s speech to the Iowa GOP last week and the Web video send a very clear signal: If Palin runs for president it will be a bid rooted not in the Republican Party but in the tea party movement.”

OFA Sends Vid to Supporters with 6 Weeks Unil Nov. 2nd

Organizing for America—the campaign arm of the Democratic National Committtee—sent out a video message from President Obama last night, asking his supporters to ‘step up their game.’ In the video message, Obama sells his record urges them to put the same energy into the midterms that they gave him. The email from OFA reads, “Thousands of you have already answered the President’s call to donate, volunteer, and commit to vote-but it’s going to take all of us to stay aggressive over the next six weeks. As the President said, the stakes this year are incredibly high.”

Gaga Continues Call for DADT Repeal

Lady Gaga directed the attention of her some 6.3 million followers at Senator John McCain Thursday night with a tweet asking her "little monsters" to call their Senators and ask them to vote for a repeal of the military's "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy. Earlier this week, she encouraged Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to schedule a vote on a repeal of DADT. Daily Intel says, “Now Gaga has lashed out in a flurry of tweets in response to McCain’s attempts to lead a filibuster of the Tuesday vote. In one tweet she wrote, “All hands on deck Lil Monsters: Key senate vote this Tues. on #DADT repeal. We need 60 senators. Call your senator now."

Last night, she also posted this video showing her followers how to reach their Congressmen/women.

Michelle Obama Hates Being FLOTUS (or Does She?)

The White House is denying the story in a new biography of French First Lady Carla Bruni Sarkozy that claims First Lady Michelle Obama said that life in the White House is “hell.”

“Don’t ask! It’s hell. I can’t stand it!” the biography has Michelle Obama telling Bruni after being asked about life as the wife of the president during a Sarkozy family visit to the White House in March. A spokeswoman for First Lady Obama, Catherine McCormick-Lelyveld, told ABC News “the First Lady never said that.”A spokesman for the French Embassy to the US, said, “Mrs. Bruni Sarkozy distances herself completely from the content of the book ‘Carla and the Ambitious’, which was not authorized and the authors alone are responsible for its contents. The words attributed to the First Lady of the United States were never said.”

The UK Daily Mail had the story yesterday.

Stewart and Colbert Announce Dueling Rallies

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are coming to Wasington, DC on October 30 for their very own dueling rallies—seriously. On Thursday night's "Daily Show with Jon Stewart," the comedian announced plans for a "Rally to Restore Sanity." Not to be outdone, Stepehn Colbert fired back with plans for his march on the same day—the "March to Keep Fear Alive." CNN writes, “given both hosts' penchant for satire, it was unclear whether the rallies would actually take place. But Stewart was adamant on his Thursday show that he had reserved a spot on the National Mall, saying, "the forms have been filled out, the checks have been written."

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Rally to Restore Sanity
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
March to Keep Fear Alive
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes 2010 Election Fox News

Happy Friday!

"Of Thee I Sing" Becomes Instant Bestseller

On Tuesday we learned President Obama has a children’s book coming out later this fall. “Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters” is a tribute to 13 groundbreaking Americans which will hit bookshelves Novermber 16th. But the President’s book has quickly shot up the pre-sale charts, jumping more than 22,000 spots in less than 24 hours on Amazon.com. At 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, “Of Thee I Sing” was ranked number 22,187 by noon it had hit number 921 and by early afternoon, the book was 111. At of 5:30am this morning, it’s officially an Amazon bestseller—ranking number 25 on the online retailers website. The book currently stands at number 24 at 10:45am ET.

More on the "Restoring Truthiness" Rally

The rally might not ever happen here in Washington, but on Monday, Colbert followers poured money into a number of different charities.

As of 10 a.m. this morning (Tuesday), according to information provided by DonorsChoose.org, Colbert’s followers had already provided classroom supplies to over 25,000 students, funded 353 classroom projects posted by teachers, and become one of the site's top five self-organized campaigns of all time, giving the likes of Adam Lambert, Tim Ferriss (author of The 4-Hour Workweek), and three other campaigns by Stephen Colbert himself a run for their money.

The current impact at press time stands at $112,953 from 2,787 total donors—an average of $40 per donor.

Madeline Albright Turned Down DWTS

Via Reliable Source:
Madeleine Albright revealed Tuesday that she turned down the chance to be a contestant on "Dancing With the Stars." The former secretary of state told a Smithsonian Associates lecture audience at the Museum of Natural History that after the show's producers read about her cutting a rug at Chelsea Clinton's wedding, they called and invited her to join the cast. Not a chance -- Albright said her children were "appalled" by the prospect.

Can Justin Bieber Save the Dems?

Considering he's not legally allowed to vote since he's 16 and Canadian...Campus Progress has an interesting theory...

"We're trying to leverage Bieber fever," Campus Progress's Sara Haile-Mariam told POLITICO. "Most of his fans are 12 years old – we acknowledge that." Still, they hope that Bieber fans will “tell their parents. ... The hope is to create something that goes viral and gets young people to be aware of the election." Of course, Haile-Mariam admits that part of the motivation was less purely political. "We consider ourselves big Bieber fans," she confessed, adding that they hope Bieber will give some link love to their project via his Twitter page (and his over 5 million followers).

Dancing Trouble for Bristol Already?

From TMZ:

Our sources tell us Mark canceled Monday's rehearsal because of a party for his mother. But Bristol canceled Tuesday because she had committed to giving a speech. And Bristol canceled Wednesday because her son, Tripp, was ill. And she was only able to practice a half day on Thursday.

Some members of the cast tell us ... Mark is worried the newbie just won't cut it when the show premieres a week from Monday.

But there's another side to this story ... sources connected with the show tell us Mark was really happy with Bristol's progress on Friday and they will be practicing the entire weekend and every day next week until the first live TV show.

On the bright side, if Bristol falls flat, she could get appointed to some position in Wasilla.

Obama Swag on the Decline

There has been no shortage of stories about the recent downturn in enthusiasm for the president. And Daily Intel is blogging about another way in which support for the president has dwindled: merch sales. The Washington Post says "Souvenir vendors in Washington say once-thriving sales of the garish merchandise fawning over the president are nowhere near what they were. Sales peaked at the height of Obamamania, between the election and the inauguration, but vendors said that Obama paraphernalia still moved from their shelves through much of 2009." And it appears that not only are items supporting Obama not as popular, shirts expressing anti-Obama sentiments are picking up in sales.

What'll happen to all of those Barack-o-Tacos!?!

The Prez Goes Ringless at Presser

During the President’s press conference last week, there were no real missteps, no YouTube moments, but there was one non-news related piece of gossip that had the White House reporters talking. President Obama showed up to his first presser in months without his wedding band. "Big to-do over potus not wearing his wedding ring today," tweeted The Hill's Sam Youngman. Politico notes, Michelle was probably okay with it. After all she’s been photographed out without her ring on—most notably at the Inauguration Ball. But it’s much ado about nothing, “A White House spokesman told POLITICO that Obama's ring is being repaired, though it's unclear what needed to be fixed.”

Reax to President Obama's Oval Address

The blogosphere and Twitter were reacting last night to Preisdent Obama’s Oval office address..

This morning, “Obama speech august 31,” “presidential address,” and “Obama Iraq” are still hot searches on Google. But Twitter users didn’t tweet enough about the Prez to keep him a trending topic after last night. Combat mission was trending worldwide for a time. But that doesn’t mean no one was talking about the address.

Senator John McCain tweeted:” I believe the President's artificial date 4 withdrawal from Afghanistan will doom us to failure-our withdrawal must be conditions based only”

Speaker Pelosi said, “As our combat mission ends, I join in thanking those who have served in Iraq-and honor those we've lost”

Sarah Palin said his speech, “may make u dig out ur old Orwell books so rewritten history can be deciphered, depending on who gets credit 4 Iraq surge”

On the blogs, Hot Air’s Allahpundit was less than impressed, saying the President spent too much time talking about the economy last night. He writes, “If he wanted to do the Dems a favor by talking about jobs, why not just give a primetime speech about jobs?” Christine Pelosi, blogging at the Huffington Post suggested President Obama “ditch Mission Accomplished for Shared Sacrifice.” And former Bush speechwriter David Frum was blogging, “Too many messages, too many audiences. Too many hostages to fortune. The president promises both the end of the combat mission – and a commitment to securing Iraq’s future. What happens if those commitments conflict?”