Obama

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, perhaps the only Minnesota politician with the word “peace” in his job title, says the Nobel Peace Prize for President Obama is “deeply problematic. It rewards rhetoric over substance.”

Gov. Pawlenty has made a big enough name for himself — in part with relentless Obama-bashing in his own pursuit of the presidency — that his ever-so-qualified words of congratulations to President Obama for winning the Nobel Peace Prize drew notice in the national media blogosphere.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty got it wrong last week when he talked about Minnesota’s U.S. Senate recount, but the winner of that recount got it right when talking yesterday on another topic: cyborg bugs.

Politico reports there was a long, thoughtful pause after Walter Mondale was asked Wednesday if he agreed with Jimmy Carter that some criticism of President Obama is race-based. “Yeah” was his answer, when it finally came.

Democrats in Congress are readying a formal rebuke, but U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann tells Newsmax TV that “Joe Wilson spoke truth on the floor of the U.S. House.”

President Obama will be shown on two of downtown Minneapolis’ digital billboards while he speaks about health care to a crowd inside Target Center, according to David Brauer of MinnPost. It won’t be the president’s first time to get lit on the electronic signs.

Besides U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson bellowing “You lie!” Wednesday, two leading House Republicans were paying President Obama no mind — or respect — during his Wednesday address to a joint session of Congress. Minority Whip Eric Cantor, who had promised Republicans would be “very attentive,” instead was seen fingering his Blackberry. And a veteran journalist [...]

Several explanations have surfaced for U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson’s outburst during the presidential address to Congress Wednesday, including policy-induced ejaculation and an anger-compensation scheme you might call pay-for-bray. Here’s another, spookier theory: Wilson was caught in a Barack Obama-Bob Dylan heckling continuum.

President Obama is still lacing up his gloves in preparation for a speech on health care tonight during which reformers hope he comes out swinging. But he’s taking jabs from the right even before he gets into the ring.

Gov. Pawlenty will be speaking to citizens all day long today as he travels around the state … of Virginia. He didn’t cancel his trip to campaign there for Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell despite the howling of critics ever since excerpts surfaced from McDonnell’s 1989 academic thesis (pdf) revealing his preference for retrograde social policies [...]