Rise and Shine

“He leans back, tea at his side, legs crossed, to explain what he thinks just happened. ‘It was easy to think that maybe 2008 was the anomaly,’ he says. ‘And I think 2012 was an indication that, no, this is not an anomaly. We’ve gone through a very difficult time. The American people have rightly been frustrated at the pace of change, and the economy is still struggling, and this President we elected is imperfect. And yet despite all that, this is who we want to be.’

“He smiles. ‘That’s a good thing.'”

Full Time article here

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Pete Souza: “The President works on his Newtown speech. Two days earlier, I photographed him when John Brennan first briefed him on the shootings. Throughout that day, he reacted as we all did, which people witnessed when he delivered his statement a few hours later. Before we headed to Newtown for the Sunday night vigil, he went to watch his daughter Sasha, 11, rehearse for her ballet performance in the Nutcracker. He was going to miss her performance that night because of the trip to Newtown. During breaks in the rehearsal, he worked on the speech. His expression in this photograph may be subtle to the viewer, but not to me. There is emotion and resolve etched on his face, and I know this was perhaps the toughest day of his Presidency.”

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NYT: President Obama has ordered Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to lead an interagency group to develop a multifaceted response to last week’s mass shooting at a Connecticut school, a White House official said.

Mr. Obama will appear in the White House briefing room alongside Mr. Biden at 11:45 a.m. on Wednesday to announce the assignment but an aide said they will not announce any major policy decisions. Instead, the aide said the president will lay out a process for developing new policies.

More here

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Greg Sargent: I continue to be cautiously — or perhaps foolishly — optimistic that we may really see Democrats attempt gun law reform in the wake of the Newtown carnage, and today brings fresh reasons for that optimism.

At the White House briefing, press secretary Jay Carney confirmed that President Obama supports Senator Dianne Feinstein’s proposal to renew the assault weapons ban, which she intends to introduce on the first day of the new Congress.

Here’s more: A top member of the Senate Democratic leadership tells me Dems are very likely to introduce a whole package of reforms — not just the assault weapons ban; that plus a host of other initiatives — during the first half of 2013.

Full post here

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President Obama and Vice President Biden share a laugh before an event at Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, N.H., Sept. 7, 2012 (Pete Souza)

President Barack Obama pretends to be caught in Spider-Man’s web as he greets the son of a White House staffer in the Outer Oval Office, Oct. 26, 2012 (Pete Souza)

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama embrace after watching CNN project the outcome of the election, at the Fairmont Chicago Millennium Park, Nov. 6, 2012 (Pete Souza)

More photos at Time

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Photos by Callie Shell for Time – more here

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President Barack Obama listens to Cecilia Muñoz, Assistant to the President and Director of the Domestic Policy Council, during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Dec. 18, 2012. At right is Roberto Rodriquez, Special Assistant to the President for Education Policy. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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Time: A social media director for the Obama campaign tells the story of how a well-timed photo of Barack and Michelle Obama broke records for Twitter and Facebook.

See video here

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MoooOOOoooOOOoooorning everyone.

This and That

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Monday: President Obama attends meetings at the White House

Tuesday: Hosts President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico at the White House

Wednesday: Holds a Cabinet Meeting at the White House

Thursday: Meets with the 2012 Nobel Prize winners in the Oval Office

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In case you missed these articles/posts:

Washington Post: When Barack Obama published his autobiography, “Dreams From My Father,” about racial identity in 1995, he talked with his neighborhood newspaper in Illinois, the Hyde Park Citizen, about the economic disparities he had seen while exploring the world as a child and young adult.

…. That sensitivity to inequality has stuck with Obama throughout his rise in politics, from Chicago’s South Side all the way to the White House. He remains largely a pragmatist in his approach to governing. But beneath his tactical maneuvering lies a consistent and unifying principle: to use the powers of his office to shrink the growing gap between the wealthiest Americans and everyone else…..

Full article here

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Washington Post: Late on election night, a small melee erupted at the University of Mississippi when a group of white students frustrated by the reelection of President Obama marched outside and began shouting racial slurs at African American students. Several hundred people gathered to watch as two white students were arrested.

…. Yet even as that incident evoked ugly memories of an earlier era, Election Day in the South told a newer and more surprising story: The nation’s first black president finished more strongly in the region than any other Democratic nominee in three decades, underscoring a fresh challenge for Republicans who rely on Southern whites as their base of national support.

Obama won Virginia and Florida and narrowly missed victory in North Carolina. But he also polled as well in Georgia as any Democrat since Jimmy Carter, grabbed 44 percent of the vote in deep-red South Carolina and just under that in Mississippi — despite doing no substantive campaigning in any of those states.

Full article here

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Michael Tomasky: A new report appears to exonerate Susan Rice for public statements following the Benghazi attack. Will John McCain apologize for his reckless crusade against her? Don’t bet on it.

We don’t yet really know as a society what a person has to do to completely and utterly cancel out a record of war heroism, but we may be about to find out. If this CBS News report is even close to accurate, John McCain’s arguments of the last few weeks about Susan Rice are thrashingly demolished. He has, or should have, zero credibility now on this issue.

…. Will he stand down now from this embarrassing crusade? …. Once you’ve hopped on the Crooked Talk Express, detraining isn’t easy.

Full post here

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Campaign photos by Callie Shell:

flashback …. callie shell, photographer

Time: Photographer Callie Shell had extraordinary access to the Obama White House. In this video documentary, she describes how she captured her behind-the-scenes images of the first 100 days (May 2009)

Callie Shell’s book: President Obama – The Path to the White House

a good sport

NASCAR:

Gymnastics:

Cycling:

Quarterbacking:

Prize Fighting:

Pretend-golf:

Mind-reading:

Cow-taming:

Fencing:

Juggling:

Dancercise:

Aerobics:

International Ping Pong:

Trans-Atlantic paddling:

Sailing:

Orienteering:

Rodeo:

Stone-flinging:

Karate Chopping:

Long Distance Running:

Chess:

Ice-skating:

Hurdling:

Wave-riding:

High-Jumping:

Backwards Tennis:

Cricket:

Really Big Fish Catching:

Saber-swinging:

Soccer ball juggling:

Tiny ball-whacking:

Pocket Battleships:

Batting:

Ball-potting:

Weight-lifting:

Left-leaning (a popular sport in Communist Europe):

Snow-ploughing:

Hurling:

That ‘don’t-blink’ game:

Thumb-Wrestling (thank you gobrooklyn for the reminder about this great sport):

General Wrestling:

Fly-swatting:

callie shell, photographer

Time: Photographer Callie Shell had extraordinary access to the Obama White House. In this video documentary, she describes how she captured her behind-the-scenes images of the first 100 days (May 2009)

Callie Shell’s book: President Obama – The Path to the White House

snapper-in-chief

….the resulting photograph (of Callie Shell):

Time: Photographer Callie Shell had extraordinary access to the Obama White House. In this video documentary, she describes how she captured her behind-the-scenes images of the first 100 days (May 2009)

Callie Shell’s book: President Obama – The Path to the White House

picture perfect: no 26

by Callie Shell: “During the campaign, Barack and Michelle would often not see each other for a week. And then they would meet in a back hallway somewhere and would just look at each other and embrace and talk and say, ‘How you doing?’ It was obvious that they had talked about doing this, they had come together to do it, that she is his best friend and vice versa. They’re madly in love with one another. He has this great appreciation for his wife, he knows that she’s the best part of him.” (October 2008, backstage at a Bruce Springsteen/Billy Joel concert)

See all the ‘Picture Perfect’ photos here

picture perfect: no 25

by Callie Shell: “This picture went – what’s the word? – viral. It was everywhere. And of course when the cost of Sarah Palin’s wardrobe came out, a lot was made of it. The funny thing was that I was in the holding room and one of his advisers left. I was thinking, ‘What on earth am I going to take a picture of? Another photo of him in a holding room?’ And then he put his feet up and I thought, ‘Ah!’. Afterwards, when we were about to go on stage, he said to me, ‘You liked my shoes, didn’t you?’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ And he said, ‘You know, they’ve already been resoled once since I started campaigning but I’m not giving them up. Reggie [his PA] is dying to get hold of them but I’m not giving them up. I like them.'” Providence, R.I., 3/1/2008.

See all the ‘Picture Perfect’ photos here

picture perfect: no 9

By Callie Shell: “Two staffers had just passed this site and done two pull-ups. Not to be outdone, Obama did three with ease, dropped and walked out to make a speech.” Missoula, Mont., 4/5/2008

See all the Picture Perfect photos here

picture perfect: no 4

By Callie Shell: “It was primary morning in New Hampshire. Barack and Michelle Obama had been campaigning separately all week. In the first few months of 2008 their private time seemed to consist of a few crossover moments in back hallways before rallies. This moment was rare and you could tell they just loved being able to sit together. Jan. 8, 2008.”

See all the Picture Perfect photos here