Thanksgiving 2010: How Obama, Bachmann, Palin & More Will Celebrate

Capitol Hill is effectively closed for business, meaning that representatives and senators can head home to celebrate Thanksgiving with their families, or whomever else they choose.

It's perhaps a final moment of solace for legislators, who will return to a brief and perhaps quite contentious lame duck session of congress after the holiday.

Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has promised a vote on the hotly debated DREAM Act, a measure that would create a path to citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants who enlist in the military or enroll in college.

There has also been significant buzz that the Senate may vote on the fate of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gay soldiers before the year's end. Extending unemployment benefits, a compromise on the Bush tax cuts and the nuclear arms control "START" treaty are all part of a myriad of legislative considerations that may well take place in the upcoming weeks.

Until then, however, elected officials can enjoy the holiday.

Take a look at a few politicians' plans for Thanksgiving dinner and vote for the best:

After pardoning two California turkeys on Wednesday, the Obamas are expected to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner at the White House on Thursday.

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Steve Clemons: Thinking on George Washington & Barack Obama at Thankgiving

I know it sounds really corny, but this Thanksgiving, I'm grateful that George Washington was our first President -- and that Barack Obama who like GW can be austere and seemingly distant from common folks but yet is smart and chameleon-like in his ability to forge compromises can still get a great deal right in his presidency.

Reading Ron Chernow's excellent Washington: A Life, I realize how different our world would have been had someone like Tom DeLay or Aaron Burr been America's first president. We might have ended up with someone who never wanted to leave the position as Washington did.

Or among the early founding fathers, if John Adams had come first, or Jefferson - the consolidation of a single political faction's control over the machinery of government at such a fragile stage might have meant civil war far earlier than the one America eventually got.

Chernow brings the austere Washington to life in what must be the seminal work on the first President - highlighting Washington's desperate need for social affirmation, his insecurity about education and intellectual matters, his vanity and concern for appearances, his tormented relations with a stand-offish mother, his focus on material and financial advancement, the role of fortune and luck in elevating Washington socially, economically, and politically.

Some of this tracks with Obama and much of it not. But what becomes clear in reading about Washington and knowing a lot about Obama is that their lives and presidencies were constant struggles to achieve outcomes that moved the common good forward -- even though they had to engage in deal-making and take actions that seemed contradictory to what they believed. In the case of Washington, hanging deserters (when he was a commanding colonel at 23) or in Obama's case, not yet shuttering GITMO come to mind.

Chernow explains that whatever George Washington did became co-mingled with who Washington was and what his personal interests were. He owned the outcomes he got and personalized the results good and bad -- whether at 21 years of age it was convincing the royal governor of Virginia he should lead the state militia against the French or whether it was taking over the sprawling operation of Mt. Vernon that he originally rented from his half-brother's widow. Whatever Washington did became a personal enterprise. He couldn't separate the task at hand from his own interests. Obama can't comingle his real estate and personal finance interests with those of a nation in which he has been trusted to be the chief steward -- but he can do more to feel political ownership of the process and results of his policy efforts.

To some degree, Washington made America his own enterprise, but one that he could walk away from politically. Obama needs to find a way to do the same -- to do a better job owning the outcomes of his administration and learning that he has the power and capacity as President to create penalties and opportunities for Members of Congress (as well as Cabinet Secretaries and political advisers in his own administration) in delivering on the public policy that Obama pledged to during his campaign.

Power and policy were negotiated around Washington - and today, we still negotiate power and the national narrative between interest groups and political factions.

With both the rise two years ago of President Obama and now the rise of the Tea Party, we are seeing the country's future negotiated. Institutions that Washington's administration established and the essential balance of power in government that Washington forged under his calm, often austere leadership can act as a stabilizer against wild political swings.

But as so often happens when one reads the life story of someone who played a vital, irreplaceable role in securing America's greatness, one pines for that person to be around dealing with matters today. Despite George Washington's ubiquitous presence on the dollar bill and as the symbolic father of the nation, few Americans have a sense of him as a person, his internal torment, the tough calls he had to make as he forged a new nation.

Presidents often compare themselves with each other and become taken with legacy. The first thing a new U.S. president often does is to stock up on histories of their predecessors -- and this new book on George Washington is one that Obama should delve into.

There is no George Washington on the scene today - at least none that I can see at the moment. And American institutions need someone as balanced, as driven by both a desire for power and a desire to not seem to want power, to make the American enterprise his or her own - long enough to re-secure the anchors of democracy in the US. Barack Obama could become the George Washington of a next era for the country -- but he's going to have to learn how to be less acquiescent to the political weather created by others and become the one, like George Washington, whose presence and preferences set the terms of debate for others. Obama is not there yet but could be.

So, for my Thanksgiving, I'm glad we had George Washington - and I hope that Barack Obama takes time to study what a great leader who can make decisions and have the courage of his convictions looks like.

-- Steve Clemons publishes the popular political blog, The Washington Note. Clemons can be followed on Twitter @SCClemons

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Millionaires To Obama: Tax Us

The Ticket:

More than 40 of the nation's millionaires have joined Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength to ask President Obama to discontinue the tax breaks established for them during the Bush administration, as Salon reports.

Read the whole story: The Ticket

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Spencer Green: Obama Fiscal Commission Proposes Cutting "Comedy Rule of Three" to Two

In a potentially devastating blow to performers and writers everywhere, President Obama's special fiscal commission will recommend cutting the long-standing Comedy Rule of Three to two. Senator Michael Judison applauded the proposal, noting, "We have to make serious choices, even in humorous matters." On the other side of the issue, Humor Czar Morty Woodger spit water out of his mouth and yelled, "Oy! With the deficit and tax reforms, Mr. Discretionary Spending-Type Person! Where's the respect for tradition with the love and the laughter and the stuff that fills you with the warm fuzzy thing? Flayvin!!"

The heretofore inviolable Comedy Rule of Three holds that three sequentially ordered items or phrases set up a joke and then pay it off in an unexpected way to get across the humorous point. For example, from Carnac the Magnificent: "Big Ben, Dan Marino, and the candidates' campaign promises. Name a clock, a jock, and a crock." From The Dick Van Dyke Show: "Can I get you anything? Coffee? Doughnut? Toupee?"

"It is unconscionable to be proposing cuts to the critical comedic lifelines for hard-working Americans," says Republican Congressman Leonard "Chuckles" Pendlebright, who was also incensed over the commission's recommendation to reduce the number of words with the "k" sound. Pendlebright notes that, in some special cases, even exceeding the Comedy Rule of Three has been allowed if a joke builds correctly, i.e., Woody Allen in Annie Hall: "Everything our parents said was good is bad: sun, milk, red meat, college."

Fiscal commission member Alan Teasdale argues that this is the kind of waste the modified Comedy Rule of Three will eliminate. Teasdale cites Jay Leno's discussion of realistic premises supporting made-up premises on the TV series Star Trek, with Captain Kirk saying, "I realize this crew is familiar with the writings of Plato, Socrates...and, of course, Cremus of Rigel 7." By eliminating Plato or Socrates from the joke build-up, Teasdale says Americans will get to a punchline more quickly and have hours of extra time to create jobs, spend money, or adjust to the cancellation of NBC's Undercovers.

The proposed cut in the Comedy Rule of Three may also inevitably impact rules of three that go beyond comedy: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; the order in which people die; and an endless number of trios involving Godfathers, Kings, and Musketeers. But, the most immediate concern may be best expressed by Democratic Senator Marshall Jaspers: "Do you seriously expect people to say, 'A priest and a rabbi walk into a bar' without the minister? You need the minister. Damn it, man, America needs the minister!"

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Michelle Obama Tours New Delhi In Turquoise (PHOTOS)

The Obamas arrived in New Delhi on Sunday and headed to Humayun's Tomb. Michelle donned a turquoise dress by Peter Som, a short-sleeved cardigan secured with an ornate brooch and metallic kitten heels.

Check out her latest ensemble.

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Michael Russnow: 2010 elections: Obama Marc Antoine needs to define this right

-Is this just me or does that Shakespeare was right when he rejected the masses so effectively in Julius Caesar? Are we rabble just, which twist and turn to the emotional rhetoric without the ability to think for ourselves?

Two years ago our country was in a crisis of so many ways, not the least was the economic turmoil that have caused the bankruptcy almost worldwide and the tragedy of so many lives lost in unnecessary wars persisted in the Middle East.

There are other problems of course, more important than others but all contributing factor to our misfortunes.If we changed of course with a landslide that elected our first bi-raciale President who won not only with a significant majority, but therefore unlikely supported Republican States such as Virginia and Indiana.

The majority of the Democratic Congress is almost irreversible, with 60 votes in the Senate and the voices of save in the House of représentants.Les people were eager to change, which was indeed a bit slow to be forthcoming.

Part of it is due to Barack Obama pledge and stubborn insistence that his presidency would be composed of things we do given avant.Son administration would not in politics and it could affect the Republicans, who had not had the the thanks to do the same for the Democrats in 2000, even though more than people voted for Al Gore than George W. Bush..

Obama attempts were arrested and he took a year or for him to go into account that the Republicans achieved right when they took her fonctions.Il had said, Hey, "we care not how we got here, but we're here and we will be running the show." So finally, after the Democrats have lost their majority as a result of the death of Senator Ted Kennedy and the election of Republican Scott Brown has been acting difficult when they pushed by landmark, health care package which had already passed the Senate and the House in persuading still formidable democratic majority in the House to accept the Bill in the Senate.

Republicans am, but they work, a feat that had escaped the nation since Harry Truman attempted to ball rolling sixty years ago. A fiscal stimulus package was also transmitted, as well as reforms in the credit card industry.Folks, much progress has been made, and the administration has been in Office less than two years.

However, because there is still much unemployment, even if job losses have declined and there is still much to solve, there is a roll the buttocks of fate fervor sweeping the nation.Most experts predict definitive loss of the Chamber - a huge turnaround - and a Senate even with Democrats in control, what will be the majority as the name.

Of course, this is because while the Republicans are primarily a stripe, except for the two women, who represent the State of Maine, there are so many different types of democracy across the nation, it's a miracle when Trues reforms are made of tissue which reminds us a party when the FDR, Truman f. John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson was in charge.

The reality is that we are on target to improve things, and things are better that they were two years if we are forced to paraphrase request Ronald Reagan for us in 1980, "are you better off that you were four years ago."We are in excellent shape, the finished work, the answer is of course, aucun.Mais should stop and hand the reins of power to the spokespersons of the large enterprises and the so-called moral, folks who proclaim themselves as the only true American conspiracy because they promote discrimination against immigrants and denounce gay patriotic who want to serve in the army? to me, this is a self.

But it seems we are on the verge of doing so, and if it happens then the country deserves what he fait.Il will be largely dependent on short-sighted and a high degree of racism by those who believe that a guy with a very dark Kenyan father has somewhat become our President self interest Act.

And media like controversy and promoting governmental disorders, undoubtedly increased ratings of Brian Williams at NBC, those of Katie Couric on CBS, Diane Sawyer on ABC and Anderson Cooper on CNN.

There is still time to stop the madness and give leaders that we elected the time to do what must be fait.Disons tweet on Twitter rant on Facebook or absurd position Tea Party candidate outlined on YouTube.Je must admit I'm not too optimiste.Comme I mentioned at the beginning, William Shakespeare included people and their weaknesses too much and he excelled in dramatic form which could well be enclosing our nation as transfigures in modern tragedy.

Site Web de Michael Russnow is ramproductionsinternational.com

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