Political conservatives who should’ve been paying attention to the game instead of the ads got themselves all fired up over an imagined conspiracy theory about the Chrysler/Clint Eastwood ad that ran during the Super Bowl.

Karl Rove said he was “offended” by the ad, with others on his side of the political spectrum backing up his claims that the clip is an endorsement of President Obama and the auto bailouts.

Read more

If you write a book about the inner workings of the U.S. presidency, publicity will come to you. Such is the case for Jodi Kantor, author of The Obamas, an inside look at the President and First Lady during their early days in the White House.

The Daily Beast has a list of what it calls eight of the “best parts” from the book, among them: Michelle didn’t really want to live in D.C., some White House staffers didn’t want her on the cover of Vogue, she butt heads with members of Obama’s staff, and she had a lot of influence on health care reform. Business Insider also has a roundup of “juicy bits” that also focuses a whole lot on the First Lady.

Michelle addressed the book during a sit-down with Gayle King and CBS This Morning, and takes issue with her frequent characterization as “an angry black woman.” That interview above. This new book aside (we haven’t read it), there have been a lot of ugly things said about Michelle Obama that a lot of people should be ashamed of.

Read more

Mitt Romney after his Iowa caucus win last night. Photo: AP

With the big GOP’s Iowa caucus behind us (results here in case you’re just climbing out from under that rock), New Hampshire directly ahead, and lots of lingering confusion over who’s really winning this thing, everyone is looking for a way to read the tea leaves with help from the media, digital or otherwise.

Going the traditional route, Mediaite found a correlation between the amount of television and radio coverage a candidate received throughout January 3 and where they placed in the caucus. However, the results don’t determine whether the media is following the voters’ lead or vice versa.

Going into the voting, it was Ron Paul who was riding a social media wave. The Washington Post‘s new @MentionMachine, a new app that tracks the election across Twitter and other media, has Ron Paul on top with more than 363,000 Twitter mentions and more than 5,300 media mentions for the week.

Read more

Obama signing the American Invents Act in Virginia today. Photo: Jason Reed, Reuters

President Obama has been doing the legwork to promote the American Jobs Act, hoping to get it past a very divided Congress. He’s also been talking it up like a man on a mission.

Next week he’ll be in Ohio, home state to House Speaker John Boehner, making a visit to the Brent Spence Bridge, which Press Secretary Jay Carney calls “functionally obsolete,” making the case for the infrastructure work included in the act. Perhaps chosen for symbolic effect, the bridge leads to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s home state of Kentucky. And the President started his travels in House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s state, Virginia.

Where there isn’t enough symbolism to go around, the President has been saying outright and repeatedly “pass this bill.” Last week, Yahoo reported on the dozens of emails that went out detailing the support for the bill. And he even used today’s signing of a patent reform bill to push the American Jobs Act and all the jobs it can create (which some dispute). The President’s PR lesson: Stick to the message and bring a sense of urgency every time you have the chance.

[image via]

Photo: AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

President Obama is making stops in Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa, bus riding from state to state over the next few days to talk with local people about the economy. The White House is framing it as a chance to speak with constituents directly and “restore confidence” in the future. Of course, the RNC thinks this is wrong.

“Amid 9.1% unemployment and the fallout of the nation’s first credit downgrade, a taxpayer-funded PR junket is the last thing Americans need out of this president,” party chairman Reince Priebus said. Mitt Romney goes clever and calls it the “Magical Misery” bus tour. You can watch his video of miserable Minnesotans talking after the jump.

The Wall Street Journal points out that both Iowa and Minnesota have unemployment rates below that national average, but Press Secretary Jay Carney says Obama wants to see what’s working. Presidential business people! I’ll bet the President is so busy, he forgot there even was an election next year.

Read more

Photo: Saul Loeb, AFP, Getty Images

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney used today’s press briefing to denounce the GOP for its latest budget plan, which he said “becomes less and less bipartisan, more and more partisan.” On the other hand, the President’s comments today express confidence in the ability for this issue to resolve itself, a tone of optimism that The Hill says wasn’t there a week ago.

At this point, the White House and Congressional leaders are appealing to anyone and everyone (including each other) in thus-far futile attempts at ending the debt-ceiling stalemate.

Read more

President Obama will address the nation about the ongoing and very frustrating debt ceiling talks between Democrats and Republicans tonight at 9 p.m. The two sides have presented two different budgets with no compromise in sight despite a fast-approaching August 2 deadline. Investor worries are also having an impact on the value of the dollar, the price of gold, and the stock markets.

Press Secretary Jay Carney announced the President’s address, and took to Twitter with this comment:

Read more

While both Democrats and Republicans are called for Rep. Anthony Weiner to vacate his Congressional seat, the White House is saying little about Weinergate.

USA Today reports that a House ethics committee has already begun deliberating the issue with Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) saying he’d like to dump Weiner from his committee assignments.

However, White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters on Air Force One, “The president is focused on his job,” without commenting at all on whether Weiner should stay or go, simply calling the pictures “a distraction” and “inappropriate.”  Although Time.com reports that the President did tell Today’s Ann Curry, “I would resign.” In a tweet from The Washington Post‘s Chris Cillizza (who has written a post here), he says that the single line “seems to me to seal the deal.”

Separately, we reported last week that Spirit Air was leveraging the scandal for its marketing purposes. These days, the airline isn’t the only brand using Anthony Weiner’s Twitter escapades for their own advantage.

Read more

While some have questioned White House Press Secretary Jay Carney‘s job performance in the last few weeks, he was certainly very clear when communicating with one of the nations’ most well-known reporters on the Bin Laden news.

Politco’s Playbook provides us with this nugget from an upcoming story by Howard Kurtz in Newsweek.

“[NBC 'Nightly News' anchor] Brian Williams … was in his Connecticut kitchen … when White House spokesman Jay Carney called to say he should get to the chair: ‘Close hold: we got bin Laden. Tell no one.’ Williams threw on a suit, wiring up his earpiece to save time. He raced his Chevy SUV to Manhattan, shaving with an electric razor on the way…

Here’s an interesting follow up: how many other journalists got the direct call from Carney, versus a mass message, or a call from another member of the White House communications team?

The Telegraph‘s Toby Young hears, all the way across the ocean in the U.K., that Jay Carney sucks at his job. According to Young, sources tell him that Carney is “really struggling.” And moreover, he’s nervous, stuttering, and a little stumped by both basic and complicated questions alike. Finally, his lack of skill is throwing a monkey wrench in what should be a positive post-Osama bin Laden time for the President. In a story posted on TheWrap.com, CNN political analyst Bill Schneider says, “I don’t see any evidence of a deliberate plan to mislead, but they should have maintained tighter controls of the message.”

It seems as though we don’t hear from him quite as much as we heard from Robert Gibbs. And there were always concerns that Carney didn’t have the tight relationship with the President like Gibbs. Finally, there were whispers that Carney wasn’t the first choice for many. What do you think? Is Carney doing a bad job? Your comments are welcome.