Obama gives himself a B+ for his first year in office. Here’s the video.

Tags: Barack Obama, First Year, Oprah Win, Oprah Winfrey, White House

Tags: Barack Obama, Nobel Peace Prize, Speech, Video

Here’s the video of President Obama on David Letterman last night.

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I’ll be on MSNBC today at 3:45pm ET discussing Sean Hannity’s interview last night with Rush Limbaugh. Here’s the video…

PART 1:

PART 2:

Tags: Barack Obama, Fail, GOP, MSNBC, Peter Slutsky, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity

“I was incredibly honored a couple of months ago to get the opportunity to go work in the White House. I got to know the President and some of the staff during the campaign and had expressed interest in working there, so I’m going to be the associate director in the White House office of public liaison. They do outreach with the American public and with different organizations. They’re basically the front door of the White House. They take out all of the red tape that falls between the general public and the White House. It’s similar to what I was doing on the campaign.”

Actor Kal Penn, of ‘Harold and Kumar’ and ‘House’ Tags: Kal Penn, Ort

“My administration,” the president added, “is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.”

via Inside Obama’s bank CEOs meeting Tags: Ort, QOTD

The White House is Open For Questions.

I just got done watching President Obama’s first Online Town Hall Meeting and I have to say…I’m impressed!

The format worked well, the technology held up and the forum was a huge success. I cannot say enough about how impressed I am with the White House new media team. They are changing the way the American people communicate with the POTUS and I can’t wait to see what’s next in terms of the new media and communication that will come out of the White House.

UPDATE (video):

Tags: Barack Obama, Communications, Internet, New Media, Online Town Hall, Virtual, White House

Joe and Mika from MSNBC’s Morning Joe did a behind the scenes White House tour with Robert Gibbs earlier this week. Check it out:

Tags: Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, MSNBC, Robert Gibbs, Tour, White House

Last night, Pres. Obama gave his (non) State of the Union addresses before a joint session of Congress. Below is video and text.

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TRANSCRIPT (after the jump):

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Tags: Barack Obama, Congress, Speech, State of the Union

Last night, Gov. Bobby Jindal gave one of the most tepid and embarrassing N(non)SOTU responses these eyes have seen. Not only did he offer no new solutions from a party struggling to find itself after two crushing cycles of defeats that have left them without the House, Senate or White House…he also stumbled on his first big introduction to the American people.

Clearly, the GOP wants a new messenger to deliver an old message and that was evident last night. For example, take this passage from Jindal’s speech:

To solve our current problems, Washington must lead. But the way to lead is not to raise taxes and put more money and power in hands of Washington politicians. The way to lead is by empowering you – the American people. Because we believe that Americans can do anything.

Huh? Empowering you? Who is you? Are ‘you’ one of the 600,000 people who lost their job last month? Are ‘you’ one of the 7.6% of Americans who are out of work? Are ‘you’ able to suck it up and just deal? No, ‘you’ are probably one of the 95% of Americans who will receive a tax cut from the stimulus legislation and ‘you’ are looking to the President and his party to help lift this country out of the ruins of this crushing economic meltdown. These smears on Democrats and false statements from GOP leaders don’t help the GOP move their agenda or their message down the road. They lose credibility because they are tone-deaf. They don’t need a smiley new messenger, they need to re-tool their agenda and present solutions.

I’m not sure how this plays in middle-America, but from where I sit, the speech fell flat. Considering Jindal has already visited Iowa and is expected to seek the GOP nomination in 2012 – this was a failure to launch.

Jason Linkins from the Huffington Post made a perfect comparison and one that I made to my fellow speech watchers during Jindal’s performance. Jason writes:

If it wasn’t such a dead-on comparison it would be catty to say out loud…but there’s no denying it: Bobby Jindal was totally channeling Kenneth The Page from NBC’s 30 Rock tonight. (With maybe a touch of “Moviefone guy.”)

Seriously, it’s uncanny. Close your eyes and see if you can detect any specific difference between Jindal’s opening paragraphs…

…and this special web-extra from 30 Rock, featuring Kenneth.

Tags: Barack Obama, Bobby Jindal, Democrat, Democratic Party, Republican, Response, State of the Union