Michelle Obama: So Much For Healthy Eating . . . .

First Lady Michelle Obama may preach healthy eating but watch what she eats, not what she says.
Michelle recently checked into the Shake Shack in DC where she had the burger, shake and fries special and logged in excess of 1,700 calories. Now, the Shack (always popular to begin with) has seen an uptick in visitors.
In fact, the Washington Post reports as follows:

Apparently, you can now order “The Michelle Obama Special” at Shake Shack, and you’ll get a burger, french fries, a shake and a Diet Coke, just like Mrs. O.

Do as she does, not as she says!

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Michelle Obama's 1,556 Calorie Lunch

Yeah, First Lady Michelle Obama really likes Shake Shack.
So do we -- and we can't wait till the Shack opens its Philadelphia outlet next year.
Michelle likes it. We like it.
Only difference is, Michelle preaches healthy, low-calorie eating. We don't. She's expected to set an example. We're not.
Anyway, here's an excerpt from a report at Fox TV, New York:

First Lady Michelle Obama may have temporarily forgotten the lessons of her own anti-obesity campaign when she indulged in a sinfully caloric lunch Monday at a popular new hamburger restaurant.
A Washington Post reporter said the first lady ordered a cheeseburger, french fries, chocolate shake and Diet Coke at Shake Shack -- a trendy hamburger spot that recently opened an outpost in Washington's Dupont Circle.

Click here to read more.

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Michelle's Trip Costs Us $700,000 to $800,000

Here's an excerpt from a very informative column by Keith Koffler at his White House Dossier:

First Lady Michelle Obama’s trip to South Africa and Botswana last week cost taxpayers well over half a million dollars, possibly in the range of $700,000 or $800,000, according to an analysis by White House Dossier.
Many of the trip’s expenses cannot be obtained with specificity, including the cost of local transportation for the first lady, Secret Service protection, the care and feeding of staffers, and pre-trip advance work done by administration officials in South Africa.

Click here for more.

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Michelle: 'Surreal' Mandela Meeting 'Like Thanksgiving'

Upon meeting Nelson Mandela in Africa, First Lady Michelle Obama was beyond awestruck.
In fact, she describes meeting Mandela as "surreal."
It has occurred to me that "surreal" is a word that's thrown around a lot these days. In fact, it's used almost as frequently as "awesome" and often seems to be used interchangeably with that word.
But what does "surreal" really mean?
The dictionary describes "surreal' as marked by the intense irrational reality of a dream. The emphasis are mine. The word comes from the art form known as surrealism: "the principles, ideals, or practice of producing fantastic or incongruous imagery or effects in art, literature, film, or theater by means of unnatural or irrational juxtapositions and combinations."
But why would this meeting be in any way irrational or incongruous? Michelle Obama is First Lady. It's perfectly rational and normal for her to be meeting people of this caliber from all over the world. 
And why would it be dreamlike? It might understandably be a dream come true. But that doesn't necessarily make it dreamlike.
Furthermore, how is it that anything that's "surreal" would be like the most commonly-celebrated American holiday, Thanksgiving? How many surreal Thanksgivings have you had?
Anyway, here's an excerpt on Michelle's comments from Politico::

First lady Michelle Obama flies back into D.C. early Monday from her weeklong goodwill tour of Africa, and Sunday she told ABC’s “This Week” of a “surreal” meeting with statesman Nelson Mandela and the trip’s effect on her two daughters.
Obama met Mandela without her husband, President Barack Obama, who did not travel to Africa, but was surrounded by the 92-year-old former South African president’s family, an environment she described as “surreal,” “powerful” and “sort of like Thanksgiving Dinner.”

Asked by ABC’s David Muir what she said to Mandela, who led South Africa from the yoke of racial apartheid to become its first black president, the first lady said: “I told him you cannot imagine how important your legacy is to who I am, to who my husband is, I just said thank you, thank you, thank you."

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/57797.html#ixzz1QR6HX8pM

My recommendation: Let's chuck the word "surreal" for awhile. Let's give it a rest. 

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Michelle Obama As Int'l. Youth Coordinator

Michelle Obama is about to head out for what is being billed as an official trip to Southern Africa with her daughters, their cousins, and her mom.
This family excursion will take them to South Africa and Botswana. The White House says it's a continuation of Mrs. Obama's work to engage young people at home and abroad.
First, Did you elect Michelle Obama as an international youth coordinator?
And is this really vital to America at a time of such great economic peril?

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Jarrett's Growing Influence: Cause For Concern

The Chicago Tribune is out with a major story on Valerie Jarrett and her growing influence at the White House. As other Obama cronies have come and gone, Jarrett remains a Chicago standby at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Jarett is a longtime Obama confidante but she lacks any significant Washington or governmental experience. Any gravitas that she claims to have at the vortex of the nation's power seems to be strictly of her own making. She just doesn't seem to have the chops to do the job.
But that doesn't seem to matter because she's managed to ingratiate herself to both the President and First Lady. And new she's such fast friends with the First Family that she even vacations with them. Many say she's a surrogate mother to the President. The Obamas are her life.
And excerpt from the Tribune story:

It was all in a recent day's work for Valerie Jarrett.
She reassured Jewish leaders about White House strategy on Egypt, helped the First Lady sync her spring agenda with her husband's, ushered a former Fed chairman into the Oval Office, soothed Rev. Al Sharpton's concerns about education policy and took a stroll with President Obama across Lafayette Park to patch things up with some irritated CEOs.
The schedule illustrates why no one else in the White House now has a range of responsibilities equal to Jarrett's. When Obama took office she was the least seen of his four senior advisors. Now chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and chief political strategist David Axelrod have returned to Chicago, and Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has also departed. Jarrett, 54, remains, picking up new duties from each of them. Long the closest personal confidante of Barack and Michelle Obama, she is steadily becoming more visible at Obama's side.

Jarrett is said to be "very political" and she strikes such fear in the hearts White House insiders and outsiders alike that no one is willing to speak ill of her on the record. It's been said that if you work in the West Wing and she appears at your door, it probably means you've been fired.
Click here to read more from the Chicago Tribune.

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Michelle Hits Slopes In Tres Chic Vail

White House reporter Keith Koffler has an update on Michelle Obama's whereabouts. The First Lady is once again traveling sans El Presidente:

First Lady Michelle Obama is on “a private family trip” in Colorado where she is skiing with daughters Sasha and Malia, according to an administration official.
“The First Lady and several close friends are  chaperoning their children on a ski trip,” the official told the press pool reporter who is following President Obama today.
Reports coming out of Colorado say she arrived Friday night and is staying at the Sebastian Hotel on Vail Mountain. Rooms start at $605 per night for a room with two queen beds and head north of $2,000 for multi-bedroom suites.

Click here to read more at Koffler's White House Dossier.

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Obama/Walters Falter In TV Ratings

Barack Obama is no longer a big TV draw.
And Barbara Walters is a TV has-been.
Those are the results of  the ABC broadcast last Friday that featured a Walters interview with the President and First Lady.
There was a time when an "exclusive" interview with the President -- any President -- was a Big Deal. Not any more.
In ratings, the Obamas actually came in behind a rerun of Tom Selleck's cop series, Blue Bloods. The Walters interview was third during the 10 PM time slot among the critical 18 to 49 age group.
The Blue Bloods rerun pulled in two million more viewers than the Obamas.
In the voting booth and on TV, Obama & Co. are taking a shellacking.
Chalk it up to overexposure. As I've said before, the American people are feeling Obama fatigue.
As for Walters, she should pack it in already.

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Shocking White House Botch: Michele!

"Michele and I are deeply saddened by the loss of life, injuries, and damage that have occurred as a result of the recent earthquake and tsunami in West Sumatra," reads a news release yesterday from the White House.
There's just one problem with this, one VERY BIG problem: The First Lady's name is misspelled.
It's M-i-c-h-e-L-L-e: with TWO L's. Michelle. Michelle Obama. Get it?
Yes, everyone makes mistakes now and then.
But the White House? With the First Lady's name?
Unbelievable!

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Did Michelle Obama Violate Election Law?

Did Michelle Obama violate the election law during her recent visit to a polling place?
Well, maybe in most of the rest of the country she did.
But no, not in Chicgao.
In fact, the Chicago Board of  Election said it will file no complaints against Michelle Obama even though she reportedly urged individual voters to support candidates aligned with her husband while she was in a polling place. The First Lady was there to cast her own vote as part of early voting.
Here's what the law states:

“No judge of election, pollwatcher, or other person shall, at any primary or election, do any electioneering or soliciting of votes or engage in any political discussion within any polling place, within 100 feet of any polling place …”

But the Board of Election says it has not received a single complaint about Mrs. Obama's activities.

Click here to read more on this from Jessica Puenta at The Daily Caller.

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