Obama Behind the Scene Pictures

I threw up a few, but here is the Time Magazine Link, for all of the pictures.







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Out with the Bushes, In with the Obamas

The day has come.

This is the last move for the Obamas, at least for four years, the move to the White House.

The Bushs had already started to move their personal things out this summer, due to Laura Bush, and have moved most of their things out by this morning. So, the next step for the Bushs is to welcome the incoming next president and his wife for coffee in the Blue Room with the incoming vice president and his wife and the outgoing vice president and his wife. Also in the room are the members of the JCCIC.

After the Swearing-In Ceremony of President Barack Obama is the farewell to President Bush and Laura Bush then the luncheon at Statuary Hall, lastly the parade. During this time the movers are working to move the Obamas in and the Bushs out.

The move is performed by the White House residence staff. Everything has been painted, wallpaper chosen and hung, all furniture in the appropriate spaces, all personal items unpacked and placed, with not a single box in site, as if the Obamas have always lived there. When Barack Obama enters the White House as President Obama, the Chief Usher will say, "Welcome Mr. President to your new home."

President Bush and his wife, Laura, will wake up at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on Tuesday morning, just as they have the last eight years. But by the time the new president, Barack Obama, returns from the inaugural parade with his family in late afternoon, there will be nary a box of theirs left to unpack. Clothes will be neatly folded in drawers, pictures will rest on dresser tops and walls, stuffed animals will lie on beds, as if the Obamas had always lived there.

The highly orchestrated quick-change operation, conducted by the 93-member White House residence staff, has no parallel in the outside world. The entire affair is over and done within a matter of hours, without a single moving man setting foot inside the Executive Mansion.

“It’s controlled chaos,” said Ann Stock, who was social secretary in the Clinton White House. “They have about four to five hours to completely unpack, put everything away in the closets, put the family pictures up and to really make the house the Obamas’ home by the time they come in from the parade. It’s really quite an extraordinary switchover.” continue

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President Bush and Laura Bush on CNN's Larry King (Video & Transcript)

Transcript

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China Time, as in White House China

I LOVE china. That is another secret about me.

I also love Waterford Crystal and have most of the pieces for the Carina pattern and inherited many pieces of the Lismore pattern. And I have my bottle of Dom Perignon ready for January 20, 2009 to click my Carina champaign flutes with my husband for Barack Obama's Inauguration. See, we having our own party!!!

Ok, my everyday dinnerware is Pfaltzgraff's "Midnight Black". It was a pattern my husband picked out. I was not crazy about an "all black pattern", but it is suttle, looks aztec and has grown on me. My main china is Lenox's "Citation Gold". Service for 8. I have over the years collected all the bells and whistles, but have used the service only twice.

So, before the Bushs leave the White House, Laura Bush uncovered the George W. Bush State China.





Here is the Magnolia Residence China. Not crazy about this pattern. Don't like flowers or bugs in the middle of my plate, but hey, my mother loves this pattern.





Since I am a china, crystal buff I remember the part of the movie from, "The American President" when Michael Douglas was trying to mack Annette Bening in the "Dish Room", and she corrected him and said it is the "China Room". Yes, this is one of my favorite movies.

Tidbits:

The room was created by Ellen Wilson, President Woodrow Wilson's wife in 1917.

Seems like two-term presidents have time to order this china, because Presidents Carter, Nixon and George H.W. Bush did not, since they were one term presidents, while Nixon resigned during his second term.

The Bush China was paid not by the tax payers but the White House Historical Association, a private foundation.

ABC
White House Press Avail
The China Room
Pictures of the Presidential China from Washington on, here

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Laura Bush, "He's not a failure"

George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have been making the rounds on television to focus on the "good things" that happened from this administration.

Now Bush has pimped his wife, Laura Bush, to state that his presidency is not a failure.

From all the presidents that left office, that I can remember, I don't remember the former First Ladies going on television to push and talk about their husband's legacy, let alone to say that their husband is not a failure.

Sure, George W. Bush can now hope he is resurrected and looked more favorably in 25 years on from now, but the failures of this administration is just too much.

We can talk about Bush's failures all day long, but Iraq, the collapse of the mortgage industry, Katrina, his cronies holding high levels jobs and not qualified, the spitting on the constitution, job loss under his leadership, is just the tip of the iceberg for George W. Bush.

The bottom line, George W. Bush has left too much on the street, too much destruction on his watch, inflated government like no other president before, leaving his failure for the Obama Administration to fix and walking away the most unpopular president in American history.

That is the reality of George W. Bush.


More video of Laura Bush interview by Chris Wallace of Fox News

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This Week With President-Elect Barack Obama, November 16, 2008

Downtown Chicago

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If you did not read this, then do so. A definite, must read, all seven chapters.

How He Did It

Barack Obama had a gift, and he knew it. He had a way of making very smart, very accomplished people feel virtuous just by wanting to help Barack Obama. It had happened at Harvard Law School in the mid-1980s, at a time when the school was embroiled in fights over political correctness. He had won one of the truly plum prizes of overachievement at Harvard: he had been voted president of the law review, the first African-American ever so honored. Though his politics were conventionally (if not stridently) liberal, even the conservatives voted for him. Obama was a good listener, attentive and empathetic, and his powerful mind could turn disjointed screeds into reasoned consensus, but his appeal lay in something deeper. He was a black man who had moved beyond racial politics and narrowly defined interest groups. He seemed indifferent to, if not scornful of, the politics of identity and grievance. He showed no sense of entitlement or resentment. Obama had a way of transcending ambition, though he himself was ambitious as hell. In the grasping race for status and achievement—a competition that can seem like blood lust at a place like Harvard—Obama could make hypersuccessful meritocrats pause and remember a time (part mythical perhaps, but still beckoning) when service to others was more important than serving oneself.

Gregory Craig, a lawyer in Washington, D.C., was one of those Americans who wanted to believe again. Craig was not exactly an ordinary citizen—he had served and worked with the powerful all his life, as an aide to Sen. Edward Kennedy in the 1980s, as chief of policy planning at the State Department in the Clinton administration and as a lawyer hired to represent President Clinton at his impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate in 1999. He had seen the imperfections of the mighty, up close and personal, and by and large accepted human frailty. But, like a lot of Americans, he was tired of partisan bickering and yearned for someone who could rise above politics as usual. A 63-year-old baby boomer, Craig wanted to recapture the youthful idealism that he had experienced as a student at Harvard in the 1960s and later at Yale Law School, where his friends included Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham. In the late fall of 2003, he was invited to hear a young state senator from Illinois who was running for the U.S. Senate. Craig was immediately taken with Barack Obama. "He spoke 20 to 30 minutes, and I found him to be funny, smart and very knowledgeable for a state senator," Craig recalled. Craig was so visibly impressed that his host that evening, the longtime Washington mover and shaker Vernon Jordan, teased him, saying, "Greg has just fallen in love." continue

Dems get new crop of military voters
Michelle Obama expected to carve own niche as nation's first lady, daughters to keep her busy
Democrats set sights on Texas
Obama Reviews Bush’s Executive Orders
The West Wing Teaches Real Civics
Sorry, GOP: This Is Bigger Than 1992


President-Elect Obama's Radio Address (Audio/Video/Transcript)

Photo Blogs

President-Elect and First Lady To Be Welcomed at the White House by icebergslim; President-Elect Barack Obama and Vice-President Elect Joe Biden, Pictures, November 4, 2008 by icebergslim; Celebrities on Election Night; From the Obama Blog: Michelle and Barack on Ohio; --- A PERFECT STORM --- --(w/ GOTV Eye Candy)-- (UPDATE) – Morning Lines by Al Rodgers; The Whole World is Watching !!! (w/ World Wide Eye Candy) by Al Rodgers; Chicago Tribune: Grant Park; Behind the Scenes Photos of Obama on Election Night by Magnifico; Chicago Treasures: Grant Park, Election Night w/Photos and Video by sheddhead; Mega-diary for today's gay marriage rallies by jamesia

No Blackberry for the President, but is it possible?
Obama’s Letter to Illinois Newspapers
Obama Names Valerie Jarrett Senior White House Advisor
What is Michelle gonna wear?
For friends who see Michelle Obama often, things are going to change
Michelle visits D.C. Schools
Designers: First lady's ball gown should be bold


Barack and Illinois Veterans Affairs Director, Tammy Duckworth on Veteran's Day

Audio/Video

Where Does The Republican Party Go From Here?; Hillary Clinton As Secretary Of State?; Obamas' Place In History, Fashion Sense Hot Topics; Job Seekers In Administration Face Tough Questions; Meet the Press, November 16, 2008; Obama's Inner Circle; I hear America singing! by noweasels; McCain Campaigned Hard But Failed In Pa., Ohio; Top 60 Memorable Campaign Ads; President-Elect Barack Obama's Election Night Acceptance Speech, November 4, 2008

Michelle Obama speaks from her heart -- and broad experience
A labor-union problem looms for Obama
Former Senator Obama Adds 3 to Staff
Durbin has private lunch with Obama
Barack Obama Watch
Obama's grandmother 'Toot' eulogized
Obama gives Ebony first dibs


London's Evening Standard

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icebergslim's last word: yes we did and i am exhausted

Ok, I am back on line, somewhat.

There are many of us out there who have been on the O-Train since 2007, and many more since 2006.

I have been posting "This Week With Barack Obama" since July, 2007. Hey, that is a LONG TIME!!! So, I think it is JUST DUE that I took some time off to savior a very sweet win.

Many of us have been hopping around from different states since the Iowa Caucuses, working the peeps, and getting our peeps out to the polls, caucuses, performing the campaign's what knots.

Many of us have been orchestrating, participating in voter's registration drives since 2007. And it was these drives that made the difference in the primaries and November 4th.

So, if I am a bit lazy, lackadaisical, sipping my 'tini's while pouring through my Obama memory lane, be patient with me.

It is not every day that a masterful, sincere, real politician is elected through the most adversarial odds and comes out the winner.

All of us need to follow the lead of the Obamas and just chill, savor and be jubilant.

In the end, this moment is temporary because Barack's got a lot of shit on his plate and the rubes are lining up to jockey their position, to get a piece of the pie, just want a meet.

And us? We are watching because we expect big, bold things from the Obama Administration, this country needs just that right now.

Barack, 'ya heard????

Hope so.

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Slide show.....



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Cross-posted @ Daily Kos

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President-Elect and First Lady To Be Welcomed at the White House

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The meeting has commenced and is over.

What was said between the President and President-Elect, we probably will not know. One thing I can guarantee is that Mr. Bush is not sanitizing his hands after shaking Mr. Obama's hand. Yes, when Obama first met Mr. Bush, he did just that!!!

President Bush and the First Lady moved swiftly and seem to be serious about a smooth transition, but more importantly understand this historic moment.

Barack Obama's ascension to the presidency will be remembered for generations to come, while George W. Bush will be forgotten and chastised as one of the worst presidency's ever.

Meanwhile, do not expect Sasha and Malia to attend public school, not after the dreadful McCain Campaign and the high negative rhetoric that ended with that campaign. Secret Service informed the Obamas about the intense rhetoric before the campaign ended and Michelle Obama was upset by it. So, I would not expect the Obama Girls in any public school, would you put your kids in one after the crap the McCain Campaign allowed to pass by?

Barack and Michelle have a lot of work to do. Michelle will focus on decorating the girls’ room and ordering new furniture. Yes, a catalog is given to the First Lady To Be, used to order furnishings for the White House private residence or they have the option to bring their own. Michelle will work diligently to make the private residence a real home, while freaking out on the First Lady duties. Yes.She.Will.

Already, Michelle has a Chief Usher hired by the ultra efficient Secret Service. She will receive a Giant book that allows her and the girls to choose suites of antique to more modern furniture for Sasha & Malia's rooms as well as the private spaces in the residences. The antiques in the state rooms are priceless. After her tour a sense of history and about 100,000 more square feet of space than she is accustomed to plus the enormity of the details and a lack of time will have her focused on this move. Will the girls bedrooms be on the same floor as her and Barack's or will they be upstairs near the Solarium where they can let loose? Michelle's Mom's choice of where to live in DC will weigh heavily in that decision. The dog will get loose at some point too - See Barney and his latest snippy interaction with the nosy petting press. A new tradition comes to the White House, but first they have to see how to run the place before its all official next year.

As hundreds of spectators hoped to get a glimpse of the President-Elect and his First Lady To Be, outside of the White House today, (believe me the folks are not there to cheer Bush on), everything that the Obama Family does will be written down as part of history.

Secret Service is with the Obamas from here on out. And thank god for that. Oh, and SS code names: Barack - Renegade; Michelle - Renaissance; Malia - Radiance; Sasha - Rosebud. And VP Biden - Celtic; Jill Biden - Capri. Now ain't that cool!!

Read more information about the White House transition at Mind Sorbet.







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