Meghan McCain: My dad's campaign killed my love life

By GottaLaff

John McCain killed his daughter's love life? Good lord, he's romantically homicidal? Then again, consider McCain's own "love life". What am I saying? Does anyone seriously believe that he still---? That anyone would---? That Cindy is attracted to---? That there is one ounce of warmth between the two of---?

I'll stop now. But I do have one question: Why are the Obamas still so smoldery and steamy if politics kills libidos?

Meghan McCain says that "nothing kills my libido quite like discussing politics" — and that the presidential election "killed my personal life."

"OK, maybe killed is a bit of an exaggeration," she wrote in a blog post for The Daily Beast published Monday. "But it does seem to be on life support. Of all the things people warned would happen post-election, no one ever said anything about how complicated dating would become. Especially if your dad loses the election."

I can see it now... Meghan: "You only date me for my dad."

Date: "Only if he pulls this election off, Megs. Say his name again. God, are you as turned as I am?"

"There are things that have been difficult, but nothing quite as tough as dating. I fear the election has destroyed my ability and desire to date. Now, I cannot say at any point in my life that I have been very good at dating. But I have become something I used to despise: people who let politics dictate his or her attraction to someone."

That doesn't sound very inclusive.

She said one fan of her mother, Cindy McCain, recently told her she could be "his Cindy," and asked if she ever wore pearls like her mother did. "Any guy that has a fetish for older women in pantsuits and large pearls obviously only finds my last name attractive about me," she wrote.

Okay, ew. E. W. Ew.

McCain said she did not care who her friends supported during the campaign, and that she believed political views were personal —

Good for her. Seriously. That's how it should be. Go, Meghan!

[...] "I promise, no one is more surprised by this revelation than I am. … If I am adult enough to understand that voting is one of the most personal things a person can do, why am I letting it affect how attracted to someone I am? I know that no one can really explain sexual attraction and why you are drawn to someone or not — but at this point in time, nothing kills my libido quite like discussing politics."

You might also try removing the McCain/Palin pin before getting intimate. Getting jabbed by one of those things can be a real mood killer.

She said she was "turned off" both by supporters of President Obama — and her father's backers. "Recently, over dinner, a guy started explaining his reasons for supporting President Obama during the election (I didn’t ask, I think the poor guy felt guilty) and I immediately found any attraction I had previously had dissipate," she wrote. [...] Let’s just say I’m spending a lot of time writing and even more time with my girlfriends."

All kidding aside, I'm actually very sympathetic to Meghan and her plight. It's a jungle out there.

"At this point, my biggest aphrodisiac is an apathetic attitude toward politics. ..."

Really? That's all it takes? She can single-handedly drive Big Pharma into the ground with that advice. Viagra-takers, take note.

And Meghan, we sympathize. Being the child of a big-name politician can't be easy. Hang in there.

Scenes from the Obamas' love story

By GottaLaff

Cue: A Time for Us...

In keeping with a time-honored tradition, Barack and Michelle Obama cast their presidential ballots together on Election Day. They stood in side-by-side booths looking every bit the poised, professional power couple.

Then Michelle Obama went off script.

Flanked by their two daughters, she reached over and gently touched her husband's arm. For the briefest of moments, she abandoned her role as would-be first lady, with all its practiced gestures, and marked the occasion as a wife.

Over the last two years the future first couple has made a practice of sharing such small, intimate moments on the grandest of stages, whether trading fist bumps, whispering "I love you" or stealing quick kisses on the campaign trail.

The Obamas' unabashed affection for each other suggests they could become the one of the most engaging sets of lovebirds in White House history. Though the home has known many deeply committed couples (as well as some infamously uncommitted), few were as young, attractive or willing to put their passion on public display. [...]

When they embraced on the Grant Park stage on Election Night, Michelle Obama whispered "I love you" into the president-elect's ear as the jubilant crowd roared its approval. A few days later they stood with their arms around each other on a White House visit.

And then there's the most controversial display of public affection in campaign history: After clinching the Democratic nomination, the Obamas kissed and embraced on stage before trading a fist bump. Pundits considered the gesture so politically irreverent that most failed to note that Obama also appeared to pat his wife's backside.

"I don't know of any political couple that looks as comfortable around each other," said Gay Hendricks, a best-selling author and marriage counselor. "They're obviously in touch with each other even though there are a million people there." [...]

Though quick to share their happiest memories, the Obamas also have acknowledged the strain his political career has placed on their marriage at times. In "The Audacity of Hope," he describes how conversation and romance became casualties of his aspirations.

"Leaning down to kiss Michelle good-bye in the morning, all I would get was a peck on the cheek," he wrote of a time shortly after his older daughter, Malia, was born. ". . . my wife's anger toward me seemed barely contained. 'You only think about yourself,' she would tell me. 'Never thought I'd have to raise a family alone.' "

Talk and trade-offs appear to have mended that rift. Barack, for example, gave up golf because it took up time away from his family.

Just a few years later, Michelle endorsed her husband's White House bid, becoming an active, aggressive campaigner.

"And in the end, after all that's happened these past 19 months," Michelle Obama said at the Democratic convention in August, "the Barack Obama I know today is the same man I fell in love with 19 years ago."

VIDEO: Obama Hustle

By GottaLaff

LOVE!

PERFORMED AT THE GRENDADIER CLUB DETROIT,MICHIGAN (Erma Watts,instructor)choreographer,
Detroit finest (Crystal Smith)
narrator (DARLENE STEWARD)

Robert F. Kennedy the Prophet

By GottaLaff

From Voice of America, 1968... 40 years ago, RFK:

Things are moving so fast in race relations a Negro could be president in 40 years. There’s no question about it, in the next 40 years a Negro can achieve the same position that my brother has. Prejudice exists and probably will continue to, but we have tried to make progress and we are making progress. We are not going to accept the status quo.

More from the same post, via the author's (Ronald Goldfarb, former RFK employee) daughter:

“Rosa sat down so Martin could march. Martin marched so Obama could run. Obama is running so our children can fly.”

There is something in the air — about this incredible campaign, this unlikely candidate, our country’s apparent willingness to write a new chapter in our history.

Tears.

A feel-good story before the feel-good Obamapalooza

By GottaLaff

Barely time for a copy and paste on this before the Big Half Hour:

Sean's story:

On the Road: Raleigh, North Carolina

Now I have a confession. Even Brett doesn't know this. I hope it doesn't lessen the professional work we're trying to accomplish in chronicling this historic election on the ground, but if it does, I'll live with it. There is something stirring in America.

Back at the rally, after the march had left MLK Gardens, I'd gone back for the car while Brett took photos, and I spotted a very old black man in a sharp Sunday suit walking slowly at the very back of the huge march. He hadn't yet arrived at the voting center, and I decided to find him when I got back.

I wanted to go talk to him, to ask him what this moment meant to him. He was a guy who you take one glance at, and know, that guy's seen it all. I wanted a quote. I had my journalist hat on. I thought, this will be great.

So when I got back to the voting location with the car, I went to find him in the line. Eventually I spotted him, and was ready to walk up the few feet between us and introduce myself when I stopped in my tracks.

A young black boy, no more than eight years old, walked up to this man, who was at least eighty. The boy offered the man a sticker, probably an "I Voted" sticker, but I couldn't see. The man took the sticker and paused. Silently, he looked down at the boy, who was looking back up at the man. The man put his hand gently on the boy's head, and I saw his eyes glisten.

I didn't ask the man for a quote. I didn't need to. I walked over by myself, behind the community center, and I sat down on a bench next to the track, and wept.

H/t: Eve

Obama love: The photos

By GottaLaff

These are so-o-o sweet:

H/t: Ellen

Saying good-bye to Grandma

By GottaLaff

How do we, as a country, let Barack Obama know that we wish this wasn't happening:

For the last 21 months, she has followed the odyssey of his presidential campaign like a spectator in a faraway balcony.

She underwent a corneal transplant to see him on television. She reluctantly agreed to film a political ad when he needed to urgently reassure the voters about his distinctive American roots. She told him during one of their frequent telephone conversations that it might not hurt if he smiled a bit more.

And on Friday, Senator Barack Obama spent the day saying goodbye.

All we can do is take comfort in knowing he has the opportunity to be with her.

Mr. Obama has reached the closing days of his run for the White House without ever holding a formal biographical tour. (In a candidacy built on biography, and criticized for its celebrity, his advisers believed that sticking to substance, as well as an overseas trip in July, was a wiser course.)

But suddenly a biographical tour unfolded around him, as he made the brief visit here to see the woman who was a guiding force in his life and played a supporting role in his candidacy, from the Iowa caucuses to his marquee speech on race in Philadelphia and to his general election effort to win over voters in red states.

All we can do is send him our love and sympathy (Mrs. Madelyn Dunham, In Care of: Obama for America, Honolulu Headquarters, 1050 Alamoana Blvd., Ste. D2690, Honolulu, HI 96814).

His return to Hawaii was covered live on the local news, but his arrival was subdued. He did not wave to the cameras. There was no welcoming party on the breezy airport tarmac.

All we can do is think good thoughts.

“She can’t travel,” Mr. Obama said of his grandmother during the flight to Kansas in late January. “She has a bad back. She has pretty severe osteoporosis, but she’s glued to CNN.” A smile washed over his face as he spoke about the woman he calls “Toot,” his own shorthand for grandparent, which in Hawaii is Tutu.

Back then, when Mr. Obama was in the opening stages of his Democratic primary fight, he spoke wistfully about his grandparents, whose all-American biography had become urgently critical to establishing his own American story. He told of how his grandfather, Stanley Dunham, fought in World War II while his grandmother worked on B-29s at a Boeing plant in Wichita.

“My grandparents held on to a simple dream, that they would raise my mother in a land of boundless dreams,” Mr. Obama said. “I am standing here today because that dream was realized.”

All we can do is remember how lucky he was to have her in his life.

In only one commercial can Mrs. Dunham be heard speaking. It was taped before the Iowa caucuses, but also replayed during the Pennsylvania primary, as Mr. Obama sought validation for his appeal to older women voters. Her osteoporosis was advanced, and she hunched over so severely that it was difficult for filmmakers to capture her spirit and words of support for her grandson. Only a few seconds of tape was used in the ad.

In August, as Mr. Obama prepared to accept the Democratic nomination, he delivered a long-distance message to his grandmother in a televised speech.

“Thank you to my grandmother, who helped raise me and is sitting in Hawaii somewhere right now because she can’t travel, but who poured everything she had into me and who helped to make me the man I am today,” Mr. Obama said. “Tonight is for her.”

And November 4th will be for her, too.

Obama: Trip to Hawaii to visit gravely ill grandmother "not negotiable"

By GottaLaff

This is so, so heartbreaking:

On a whirlwind trip back to Hawaii, Senator Barack Obama spent more than an hour visiting his ailing grandmother late Thursday and is set to return to her bedside on Friday morning after arriving here on a nine-hour flight from the Midwestern battleground of the presidential campaign.

As soon as he arrived on the island of Oahu, Mr. Obama went to the Punahou Circle Apartments, where his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, lies gravely ill. She is to turn 86 on Sunday, but aides to Mr. Obama said doctors advised him not to delay his visit.

It was an unusual departure from the tug-of-war of the presidential campaign, with 11 days remaining in the race. But it was a trip that advisers said he told them was not negotiable. He missed his mother’s death here in 1995, a mistake he said he did not intend to repeat with his grandmother, who has been a stalwart in his life.

The moment Mr. Obama stepped off the plane here at 7:25 p.m. Hawaii Standard Time, his motorcade drove directly to the 12-story apartment building on South Beretania Street. It was a subdued arrival, with no waving to the cameras or welcoming party on the breezy airport tarmac.

Her 10th-floor apartment is located in a residential neighborhood about a mile from Waikiki Beach where Mr. Obama lived as a teenager. When the Democratic presidential nominee arrived, a group gathered outside, including several women who held a small, hand-made sign, “Best Wishes Obamas!”

And to those who so insensitively accuse Obama of exploiting her illness:

On the trip to Hawaii, Mr. Obama stayed in the secluded front cabin of his campaign plane, reading and rarely talking with a handful of aides who came along. The knot in his red tie was loosened as he walked down the aisle of his plane to stretch his legs, but he stayed a safe distance from a small group of reporters who accompanied him. [...]

Mr. Obama has not scheduled any public appearances in Hawaii, but aides said he would still be in touch with his advisers in Chicago. During a refueling stop in Sacramento late Thursday afternoon, he walked around on the airport tarmac, making telephone calls and sending BlackBerry messages.

Our hearts go out to them. Group hug from TPC and our wonderful Commenters.

H/t: Ellen

Photos via.

Obama Says Ailing Grandmother 'Inundated' With Well-Wishes

By GottaLaff

My heart is breaking:

Barack Obama said his ailing grandmother has been "inundated" with get-well wishes from strangers since he announced that he is leaving the campaign trail for a day to spend time with her.

Obama is flying to Honolulu, Hawaii today to visit his grandmother Madelyn Dunham, 85, who is gravely ill.

"She has been inundated with phone calls and e-mails and flowers from total strangers who have read about her in my first book," Obama said in an interview airing Friday on "Good Morning America."

"And so maybe she is getting a sense of, of long-deserved recognition at -- towards the end of her life," Obama told "GMA" in his last interview before leaving his campaign for over 36 hours.

The interview airs tomorrow.

Big, loving hugs to Madelyn Dunham and the entire Obama family.

Today Obama Quietly Bought Food for a Widow and a Disabled Roofer in Need

By GottaLaff

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., makes a call to a voter during a stop at the Obama Kansas City campaign office in Kansas City, Mo. Saturday, Oct. 18, 2008. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

How many ways can I say "I love Obama"? Bestest, sweetest, most caring candidate ever! TPC and family must marry him. Now.

BrotherJonah was a roofer who became disabled, with injured feet. He was out scrounging for scrap metal today (against his doctor's orders), to get enough food money to last him and his landlady through the weekend.

BrotherJonah shares a house in Colorado Springs, Colorado with a widow who he calls Miss Johnnie. He came home and found the woman was crying and showing him a table full of Chinese food. He thought one of our friends or my relatives had come over and bought for them. But the real story was much more interesting.

Obama volunteers were canvasing in the area and knocked on the door of Miss Johnnie. She is a registered Republican, but told them she was supporting Obama. She then started to tell them her troubles, including how her husband was a Vietnam Vet who died of Agent Orange. One of the volunteers was a Marine and a Vietnam Vet. The volunteer then started making calls on his cell phone. Soon, he handed the phone to Miss Johnnie. It was Barack Obama.

The woman told Barack about her daughter Michelle, a Marine who had been deployed to Iraq twice, and whose scheduled discharge may be delayed because of the Stop Loss rules. She talked about her continous troubles with the VA concerning her husband's medical bills. She talked about the difficulty of getting the VA to cover medical expenses that she had paid out of pocket, and the nitpicky paperwork errors by the VA. She told him about her difficulty affording food.

About 20 minutes later a very large order of Chinese food came to the door.

The delivery man was a recent immigrant and didn't speak English, so he called his boss, who told them that Obama had called and put the order on his personal credit card.

Brotherjonah came home and had only been able to buy a half gallon of milk, enough food for one meal and some cat food. Instead, they had enough food to last until Monday.

Brotherjonah wrote:

"He was there in a way that really counts. McCain has a fake falsified made-up "Joe the Plumber" who turns out to be a white-collar person named Sam and not even a plumber...

Obama now has Miss Johnnie the Viet-Nam Widow and a Real Joe the Ex-Roofer with Busted Feet. That's why Obama wins. He's Real, his concern for the people is Real, and the people who supporting him, WE'RE real too."

I know BrotherJonah as a person who regularly posts on the www.alfrankenweb.com website. This account did not come from the campaign office or a reporter - it came directly from the disabled ex-roofer.

I hope it was okay to copy this entire post and put it up here. I didn't want to change a word of it. Besides, everyone should be aware of this story. Everyone.

Tears.

Happy almost anniversary, Barack and Michelle!

By GottaLaff

From anger and hostility to sweet, sweet love:

Barack Obama would like one simple thing for his 16th wedding anniversary _ a quiet date with his wife.

[...]He's putting his campaign on hold Friday night to fly back to Chicago and take his wife, Michelle, out to an Italian restaurant.

"I've got this whole romantic dinner planned," Obama told a rally in Grand Rapids. "I think it should go pretty well. That's my hope any ways. I've got a gift all picked out."

I'm kvelling.

Obama told reporters aboard his campaign plane that he never forgets their anniversary, after it slipped his wife's mind their first year. Asked for his thoughts on how to maintain a marriage for 16 years, he suggested a sense of humor, listening and "never get so mad that you forget why you love them."

Oy. I'm all verklempt. (Only Yiddish words suffice at times like this.)

"You know what you guys could give us for our anniversary?" he said, turning to the television reporters. "Not have a camera pool outside of the restaurant, so that everybody knows that we're there."

My gift to the Obamas: A tremendously successful debate for Joe Biden tonight, and a win on November 4th. Anyone want to chip in?

Video: Obama falls in love

By GottaLaff



Sigh. I love a good love story. I also like a good like story, but, like, that's another story.

Barack + Michelle = True love

By GottaLaff

Once upon a time, boys and girls, there was a prince and a princess. They fell in love, they got married, and they lived happily ever after. The end beginning:

[T]hose closest to the Obamas say the only contrived part of the marriage is the hard, sometimes frustrating, work that has led to almost 16 years of enduring love.

In a way, family and close friends say, the Obamas' relationship is anything but a typical American love story.

"It's unusual to have so strong a bond and so strong a marriage as the two of them have," says Michelle Obama's close friend Valerie Jarrett, a top campaign adviser. "They work very hard at it. It's not easy."

And when -- in an arena filled with 20,000 screaming supporters -- Barack Obama looks into his wife's eyes, it's as though they are newlyweds once again and they see no one but each other, Jarrett says.

I'm swooning. My heart's all a-twitter. Okay, starting again. Once upon a time, there was a lovely young woman and this tall skinny guy:

"I thought, OK, he's probably not all that terrific, and he's probably kind of a clown, and then I found out that his name was Barack Obama," Michelle Obama recalled in a 2004 interview with the Chicago Sun-Times. "And like everybody else, I thought, 'Well, what kind of name is that?'"

And then Michelle learned she'd been assigned to mentor the new guy. In the flesh, though, Barack was less geeky than he appeared in his photo, and he wasn't the cocky Harvard student she'd been expecting. He had both a worldly charm and a genuine desire to help the less-fortunate. [...] "I was charmed, and we became instant friends after [the] first conversation," Michelle Obama said.

Tell us about the kiss! The first kiss! Tell! Tell!

Sitting on a curb, they shared their first kiss over Baskin-Robbins ice cream.

O ...M ...G. I'm kvelling. ... Serious. More, more! Michelle Obama's brother, Craig Robinson, remembers meeting Barack while he and Michelle were still dating:

"I loved the way he talked about his family because it was the way we talked about our family. I was thinking, 'Nice guy. Too bad he won't last.'"

Not real prescient. I'm guessing Michelle doesn't ask ol' Craig for a lot of campaign advice.

Friends and family say Obama, even with the unique pressures and demands of a presidential campaign, never forgets his family. When he's on the road, he does his best to call home every night, friends say. [...] And Michelle Obama said in a recent TV interview that her husband remains "very romantic." The couple have date nights -- that often include the kids. [...] Even after nearly 16 years of marriage, he frequently gives her flowers. Sen. Obama has been known to surprise his wife with a downtown spa package.

This is all a lit-tle too good, you're thinking. It's just a p.r. story, you're riposting. Too fairy-talish, you're countering. Well, you're wrong, I'm retorting.

Yvonne Davila, a close friend of Michelle Obama's, says the couple's relationship may sound kind of Pollyanna-like, but at its core, it's a "great marriage."

"These are two people who love each other," Davila said. "For me, more importantly, there's a huge respect on both ends."

And they're still living happily ever after. Take that, John Sidney McPhilanderer.