Worried about Barack Obama's reelection chances in the face of flagging support from his base, experienced Democratic political strategists, former White House administration officials and professional political pundits have called for the president to "go bold." Last week, former Clinton labor secretary Robert Reich even predicted that Obama dump Biden in 2012 and make Hillary Clinton his new vice president: "Because Obama needs to stir the passions and enthusiasms of a Democratic base." READ MORE

After John McCain closed out the Sharron Angle rally on Friday, her campaign coordinators played a bit of amateur propaganda. Pictures of foreclosed houses, stock photos of agonized couples looking at stacks of unpaid bills, a chart of unemployment rates, all flashing by quickly to a soaring soundtrack. At the crescendo of all this pictorial despair appeared the image of First Lady Michelle Obama. In it she is reclining on a beige chaise lounge in a sleeveless violet dress, one hand cupped along the side of her neck, revealing her diamond wedding ring that matches her teardrop diamond earrings, and above her is the big word Vogue, the issue that claims: “The First Lady the world’s been waiting for.” No other item inspired such audible, ferocious ire. READ MORE

An hour into today's rally for Democratic candidates, and two-thirds of the gymnasium at Canyon Springs High School is full. Representatives Dina Titus and Shelley Berkley have each gotten up and announced that we are in attendance at not just a Michelle Obama appearance but also we are at the "largest phonebank in the history of the world!!!" They also suggested we take out our "cellulars to call someone so we can be the largest phonebank ever!!!" READ MORE

Well if she is not, then why does she know so much about fashion, hmm? Simon Doonan (window dresser; homosexual; short) meets the First Lady for White House holiday decorating: "Her long-standing interest in style makes the process easy: She likes the 'softer, more Romeo Gigli colors.' She agrees with my suggestion that we should use 'a Lanvin-ish antique-looking glitter' instead of anything too sparkly. While Mrs. Obama loves the idea of 'the Wish Tree,' an interactive piece created by a Hoboken-based company named Cardboard Design, her most enthusiastic response is reserved for the 800 recycled silver balls that are proposed for the monumental Blue Room Tree. Together we decide that decoupage, rather than painting, is the way to go." Then Doonan lays into that nice man, Andrew Breitbart, who runs that nice website for conservatives. Related: enjoy all this further fodder, teabaggers!

Silvio Berlusconi, addressing supporters this weekend at a rally in Milan, told a very funny joke! READ MORE

Britain's Telegraph, which yesterday described Barack Obama's alleged snub of Prime Minister Gordon Brown as unforgivably churlish, today castigates Michelle Obama for "bad form" in failing to accede to hooker-banging sleazeball (alleged) Silvio Berlusconi's lip-smacking, "Come to Papi" advances. It's almost like the paper is saying that, I don't know, black people don't understand how to behave in proper society. But maybe I'm just reading into things.

Words fail me, but this is definitely one of those cases where a picture is worth a thousand of them. [Via]

New York's Daily News totally owns the "Should Black Ladies Be Allowed To Have Nice Things?" beat.

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