President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama greet military personnel eating Christmas dinner at Anderson Hall at Marine Corps Base Hawaii on December 25. Photos: Kent Nishimura/UPI
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MoooOOOoooOOOoorning everyone
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PS Tonight:
The Kennedy Center Honors will air tonight on CBS at 9PM ET / 8PM CT.
Barbara Walters’s interview with The Obamas will air tonight on ABC’s ‘Nightline’ at 11:35PM ET / 10:35PM CT.
First Lady Michelle Obama reacts while talking on the phone to children across the country as part of the annual NORAD Tracks Santa program. Mrs. Obama answered the phone calls from Kailua, Hawaii, Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Funniest exchange ever on the NORAD call (read it all at BuzzFeed):
MRS. OBAMA: Hi, Anthony, it’s Michelle Obama, the First Lady. How are you?
ANTHONY: Good.
MRS. OBAMA: How old are you, Anthony?
ANTHONY: Eleven…..
ANTHONY: Can you come visit me in Texas?
MRS. OBAMA: Yeah, he’s (Santa) heading your way….
ANTHONY: Yeah, I was talking about you trying to visit me.
MRS. OBAMA: Oh, me come to visit you. (Laughter.) Well, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to come and visit before Christmas tomorrow, but if ever I find myself in Texas next year — and I know I’m going to be coming to Texas one time next year — hopefully we can see each other then. How does that sound?
ANTHONY: Will you come to my house?
MRS. OBAMA: Yeah, I don’t know if I can come to your house. I might not be able to do that. But I’ll be keeping an eye on you, though.
ANTHONY: How about my school?
MRS. OBAMA: Your school — maybe your school. What school do you go to?
ANTHONY: (Inaudible).
MRS. OBAMA: All right, well, I’m going to tell my assistant right now…..
ANTHONY: Can I talk to your husband?
MRS. OBAMA: He’s not here right now. (Laughter.) But you know what, I will tell him that you asked about him. Okay?
ANTHONY: Okay.
MRS. OBAMA: All right. You keep being a good kid. Work hard in school, okay?
ANTHONY: Okay. Tell your daughters I said Merry Christmas.
MRS. OBAMA: I sure will. Thank you so much. You give your family my best, okay? You give them all a Merry Christmas from all of the Obamas, okay?
ANTHONY: Okay. Thank you.
MRS. OBAMA: All right, bye-bye.
ANTHONY: Bye-bye.
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And President Obama makes a brand new friend in Hawaii….
First Lady Michelle Obama at the Marine Corps’ Toys for Tots campaign, which collects toys for needy children, at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, December 11
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Greg Sargent: Until today, it was not certain whether Republicans would stage another showdown over the debt ceiling. They were said to be thinking about it, but reports carefully noted no decision had been made. However, Mitch McConnell today publicly confirmed that it’s on.
….. this is not an explicit declaration that Republicans will refuse to raise the debt ceiling unless they get the spending cuts they want. But it is certainly a threat to do this.
Pay close attention to how this is covered …. raising the debt ceiling is not merely giving Democrats something they want. It is averting a threat to the economy and to the whole country. Top Republicans have admitted this….
Quote of the day – Stephen Colbert: “My network contract prohibits me from taking on another full-time job. So the Senate would be perfect.”
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Steve Benen: When it comes to voter-suppression techniques, Republicans generally maintain a certain pretense, at least in public. They argue that measures such as voter-ID laws aren’t about blocking Americans’ access to their own elections, but rather, about preventing imaginary fraud. The defense isn’t compelling, but GOP officials generally repeat it with a straight face.
Once in a great while, however, a Republican will slip and tell the truth…..
