• New documents disclose $500,000 tab Michelle Obama left  for taxpayers
• Voters sour on Obamas’ lifestyle that critics call ‘tone-deaf’ and ‘hypocritical’
• New video reveals First Lady’s ‘fantasy’ to sneak way from Secret Service
• Mrs Obama mulls political future and possibility of Presidential run

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich called on President Obama to apologize for comments made by actor Robert De Niro at a fundraiser supporting the president.

“What De Niro said last night was inexcusable and the president should apologize for him. It was at an Obama fundraiser, it is exactly wrong,” Gingrich said, referring to a joke made by De Niro about the potential Republican first ladies.

De Niro told a crowd of about 90 people that it was “too soon” for a white first lady. The comment was made Monday night at a reception in New York City that was hosted by De Niro and his wife, and attended by First Lady Michelle Obama.

“Callista Gingrich. Karen Santorum. Ann Romney. Now do you really think our country is ready for a white First Lady?” De Niro asked, according to a pool report from the fundraiser.

The report said the crowd roared and someone yelled “No!” as De Niro asked, “Too soon, right?”

The White House today agreed with Gingrich. “We believe the joke was inappropriate,” said Olivia Alair, Michelle Obama’s press secretary.

CONTINUED at Yahoo News.

Like President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says she hasn’t been watching the Republican primary debates. But at least Clinton has an excuse for tuning out — she says she’s quitting government after the election no matter who wins.

“What could we do to persuade you to run for vice president?” a staffer asked at a State Department town hall meeting Thursday, referring to cyclical rumors and the wishful thinking of some supporters. “Oh, my goodness,” Clinton replied.

“I will certainly stay on until the president nominates someone and that transition can occur,” said Clinton, who has insisted repeatedly that she will be a one-term secretary. “But I think, after 20 years …of being on the high wire of American politics, and all of the challenges that come with that, it would probably be a good idea to just find out how tired I am.”

The famously workaholic secretary said she has “no idea” what she will do in the future, and doesn’t want to think about it because it might divert attention from today’s diplomatic tasks. The election, she said, is going to “suck up a lot of the attention from following areas that we think are so important,” including “trying to resolve frozen conflicts” and “trying to build up America’s reputation” in the world.

But that might be good thing, she said, because “maybe we can even get more done” if the rest of the country is fixated on the polls.

“It’s a little odd for me to be totally out of an election season,” Clinton said. “But, you know, I didn’t watch any of those debates.”

And what about that vice president question? Although friends and colleagues say neither she nor the White House is interested, Clinton took a pass.

“I am happy to work with Vice President Biden, who does an excellent job and is a huge advocate and support for this department,” she said.

Source: The Washington Post.

First lady Michelle Obama tells Barbara Walters in a 20/20 special that it is “practical” for her to put her self highest on her priority list.

Obama says she found her self slipping “pretty low” on her own priority list because she was “so busy caring for everyone else.”

Michelle Obama says she spends time with girlfriends and going out in her attempt to put herself higher on her priority list. Transcript below.

Barbara Walters, ABC News: “Mrs. Obama, you’ve recently said something that I thought was very interesting for other women to hear. You said ‘you put your own self highest on your priority list.’ That sounds selfish?”

Michelle Obama: “No, no, it’s practical. It’s something that I found I needed to do for quite some time, even before the presidency. And I found it other women, in similar situated balancing career family, trying to do it all and a lot of times we just slip pretty low on our own priority list because we’re so busy caring for everyone else. And one of the things that I want to model for my girls is investing in themselves as much as they invest in others.”

Walters: “So what do you do?”

Obama: “Make sure I get my exercise in so I work out as much as he works out.”

Walters: “I hear more.”

Obama: “I do now. He’s been busier. Spending time with girlfriends. Going out. You know, pulling in people in my life who give me strength and joy.”

Source: Real Clear Politics. Video at link.

*Taken from the NY Post.

NBC has ordered a pilot for a sitcom set in the White House and co-created by a former speechwriter for President Barack Obama, The Wrap reported Monday.

Jon Lovett, a former standup comedian and Obama speechwriter, announced in September he was leaving Washington to pursue a career in Hollywood.

Lovett created “1600 Penn” alongside “Modern Family” writer and director Jason Winer and Josh Gad, star of the musical “The Book of Mormon.”

It is described as the story of a “dysfunctional family that just happens to live at the most famous address in America.”

Lovett, Winer and Gad will also serve as executive producers, and Winer will direct the pilot.

NBC reportedly ordered a put pilot commitment, which means the network will have to pay penalties if it does not air the pilot, making it more likely that it will air.

My Two Cents: I think Michelle is projecting.. on ALL of us. End Two Cents.

*Taken from the Washington Examiner.

When Paula Deen met Michelle Obama, it wasn’t exactly the queen of butter versus the first lady of garden greens. Deen, known for her delicious not-so-good-for-you recipes like Gooey Butter Cake, said the two women had more in common than you might expect.

“Well, I did a show with Michelle and I just loved being with her,” Deen told Yeas & Nays. “She probably ate more than any other guest I’ve ever had on the show —she kept eating even during commercials.” Deen taught Obama how to fry shrimp during a TV segment in September before the 2008 presidential election. “You know what their favorite foods are — it’s hot wings, you know, those kinds of foods that are not necessarily top-of-the-list healthy foods, so she’s no different than the rest of us,” Deen said. “We love those kinds of foods, we just know that we can’t eat them everyday.”

The culinary superstar also said she supported the first lady’s initiative to get more Americans gardening. “So I love that,” she said. “I was really happy to see her encouraging children, you know, to plant their little gardens.”

CONTINUED..

*Taken from US News.

First lady Michelle Obama’s family trip to South Africa and Botswana in June cost taxpayers well over $424,000, according to new accounting based on Air Force manifests obtained by Judicial Watch, a taxpayer watchdog group.

The use of Air Force aircraft alone for the June 21-27 trip cost $424,142, said the group, and that doesn’t include the food, lodging, and ground transportation for the 21 family and staff members.

Judicial Watch said it based the jet costs on the Pentagon’s hourly rates for the C-32A aircraft used for the trip. The documents don’t give exact cost calculations, which is typical for presidential and first family trips.

CONTINUED..

*Taken from CBS News.

President John F. Kennedy openly scorned the notion of Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson succeeding him in office, according to a book of newly-released interviews with his widow, former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy.

In the interviews, she also called civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. “terrible,” “tricky” and “a phony.”

“This book shows Jackie Kennedy unplugged,” historian and CBS News analyst Douglas Brinkley told “Early Show” co-anchor Erica Hill Monday.

He said, “A lot of the rawness of her feelings, I think, as a young woman — she’s is only in her 30s when she is doing these tapes in 1964 — is very different from the more poised and discrete Jackie Kennedy we got to know in the 1980s and 1990s.”

CONTINUED..

My Two Cents: Now that’s “spreading the wealth”. End Two Cents.

*Taken from the Daily Mail.

The Obamas’ summer break in Martha’s Vineyard has already been branded a PR disaster after the couple arrived four hours apart on separate government jets.

But according to new reports, this is the least of their extravagances.

White House sources today claimed that the First Lady has spent $10million of U.S. taxpayers’ money on vacations alone in the past year.

Branding her ‘disgusting’ and ‘a vacation junkie’, they say the 47-year-old mother-of-two has been indulging in five-star hotels, where she splashes out on expensive massages and alcohol.

CONTINUED..

*Taken from CNS News. Video at link.

A group calling itself the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA) says that when First Lady Michelle Obama created her anti-obesity “Let’s Move!” initiative, she unfairly singled out fat kids, turning them into targets.

Speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Monday, NAAFA public relations director Peggy Howell said the First Lady “essentially gave permission to everyone to condemn the children with higher body weights.”

Howell called Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign “well-intentioned, but somewhat misdirected.”

CONTINUED..