Pete Souza Picture Time!

President Barack Obama feels the hair of a youngster as he greets staff and their family members at the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, July 2, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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First Lady Michelle Obama greets children during a visit to Sterling Farms Grocery Store in Marrero, Louisiana, July 23, 2013. The store was opened last year by actor Wendell Pierce as part of the “Alliance For A Healthier Generation.” (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

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Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden lay a wreath with Tara Gandhi Bhattacharjee, granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi, and Amb. Nancy Powell, left, at the Martyr’s Column at the Gandhi Smriti Museum in New Delhi, India, July 22, 2013. (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)

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President Barack Obama talks with departing staff member Ruchi Bhowmik and her family in the Oval Office, July 12, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

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President Barack Obama listens to Vice President Joe Biden following a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang and State Councilor Yang Jiechi on the margins of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, in the Oval Office, July 11, 2013. Standing with them from left are: U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke; Caroline Atkinson, Special Assistant to the President for International Economic Affairs; National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling; Deputy Secretary Bill Burns; National Security Advisor Susan Rice; Treasury Secretary Jack Lew; Danny Russel, Senior Director for Asian Affairs; and Evan Medeiros, Director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia Affairs. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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President Barack Obama visits with Make-A-Wish child Suhail Zaveri, 14, from Anaheim, Calif., in the Oval Office, July 16, 2013. Accompanying Suhail are his parents, Sandeep and Asmi Zaveri, and younger brother Arsh Zaveri. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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President Barack Obama greets line workers at the Amazon fulfillment center in Chattanooga, Tennessee, July 30, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

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President Barack Obama presents Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., with a birthday cupcake aboard Air Force One, July 24, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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President Barack Obama greets young reporters at the Kids’ State Dinner in the East Room of the White House, July 9, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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evening all

March 9: A volunteer signs up for shifts at the opening of the new field office in East Las Vegas, Nevada

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March 9: A supporter left a message for President Obama on the wall of a Florida field office.

Flickr

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Brad Plumer (Washington Post): There’s quite a bit of good news – and very little bad – in February’s jobs report …. The U.S. economy added 227,000 jobs last month …. And there were even more encouraging signs in the data revisions for previous months…..

Some of the broader indicators are encouraging, too …. There are also some reasons to think this recovery can sustain itself through 2012. Ever since the recession ended in mid-2009, the U.S. private sector has been consistently hiring workers. It’s just that the public sector has been hemorrhaging employees – around 500,000 government layoffs since Obama took office. But that trend finally appears to be winding down…..

The U.S. economy is still in a large hole. Right now, we’re adding around 250,000 jobs per month. If that trend keeps up, it’s enough to get us to 8 percent unemployment by election day. That would bode well for President Obama’s reelection chances. But 8 percent unemployment is still unnervingly high ….  but, for now, the economy looks to be in decent shape. As Justin Wolfers sums it up, “Let’s call it a recovery.”

Full article here

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WSJ: New York City employers in January added the highest number of jobs in a single month in 23 years, according to new figures released Thursday.

Some 31,200 jobs were added in the month, according to a seasonally adjusted analysis of new state Labor Department figures.

“It is an understatement to say that these gains exceeded all expectations,” said Barbara Byrne Denham, chief economist with the real-estate services firm Eastern Consolidated, who conducted the analysis.

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Paul Krugman never fails to amuse. Here he is today, trying – through gritted teeth – to sound pleased about the jobs’ news:

“OK, definitely a better jobs report than we have become used to. And terrific news for Obama; another six months of news like this and he’ll be in very good shape for reelection.

But still, this was just equivalent to an average month during the Clinton years. And we’re still a long way from full employment.”

(1) Full employment is, usually, defined as 3% unemployment …. so, you have to go back to Eisenhower in 1956 for ‘full employment’ in America. That, then, is the shiny new standard Krugman is holding PBO to. Seriously, you couldn’t make this stuff up.

(2) Does Krugman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, truly forget the state of the economy when PBO came to power? Or is he just, eh, forgetful about the facts?

(3) Will Krugman ever find it in his heart to forgive PBO for beating Hillary Clinton to the nomination?

Hillary has. Maybe it’s time for Krugman to move on?

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President Barack Obama talks on the phone with President-elect Vladimir Putin of Russia while aboard Air Force One en route to Richmond, Va., March 9, 2012. Alice Wells, Senior Director for Russian Affairs, is seated at right. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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Washington Monthly

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March 9: Supporters in Alabama gathered with civil rights leaders past and present to mark the 47th anniversary of the march from Selma to Montgomery.

Flickr

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President Obama speaks at a campaign event at Minute Maid Park, Houston, March 9:

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First lady Michelle Obama gets hugs from a pre-schooler at the Penacook Community Center, March 9, in Concord, N.H.

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NYT: The fragile gains Republicans had been making among female voters have been erased, a shift that has coincided with what has become a national shouting match over reproductive issues, potentially handing President Obama and the Democrats an enormous advantage this fall.

In the 2010 congressional midterm elections, Republican candidates ran evenly with Democrats among women, a break with long-established trends. That was a major reason the GOP regained control of the House.

Now, female voters appear to be swinging back to Democrats …. When the Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey asked last summer which party should control Congress, a slim 46-42 percent plurality of women said it should be the Democrats.

But in a survey released Monday, compiling polling since the beginning of the year, that figure had widened considerably to a 15-point advantage for the Democrats

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Cagle

night everyone

Peace and love!

**** Thank you for the photo hhannahh ****

The photographer: I attended the final Colorado campaign stop that Barack Obama made on 01 Nov 2008, a few days prior to the election …. I actually cried taking this photograph.

I’ve been to thousands of political rallies. I’ve been a delegate, a campaign worker, a political activist. I’ve shaken hands with lots of players in this game. Politics doesn’t usually get to me anymore. I have laughed, screamed, spoken out, marched, or swore… but never cried until that day in Pueblo. When Michelle Obama finished her pep talk and introduced her husband, I looked through my camera’s viewfinder and cried.

This photograph is special because it captures a personal moment between husband and wife, in front of a great public, and conveys an emotion we don’t normally see.

I cried over the personal sacrifice of this couple in making this run for the highest office of our nation. But I also cried because their hope and courage revived in me what led me into politics all those years, rallies, and campaigns ago: belief in the audacity of hope to change our circumstances. I actually believe in this man and in his campaign, in his drive to bring a populist movement to life.

….I do believe this photo has historical merit because it shows a personal yet public moment from the last days of a long and arduous campaign. It exhibits love, which may seem an odd thing to convey in a political campaign, but actually may be the driving force behind why any politician, activist, or photographer does what they do.

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Thanks JER