Penguin & Adam: I don't smoke. Never have, never will, however, as a non-smoker I am most certainly affected when my tax dollars pay for the food & utilities smokers can no longer afford after buying their cigarettes since Carter & his congress made the wise decision to give change in return for food stamps instead of giving stamps back so welfare recipients could then spend money on cigarettes & beer. By the way, there's a proposal to increase tax on beer & wine. I don't drink either, but sooner or later, if you keep throwing arbitrary taxes at things, they'll eventually land on something you & I buy. Funny you focused on the smoking issue & not the cap & trade which affects everyone & you had nothing to say about tax cheat Geitner or the Air Force One photo debacle. Rather than list all the reasons I'm against the bailout & spending, if you enjoy an honest debate, read the article at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123629969453946717.html
I am a smaller taxes, smaller government conservative who was very disappointed in Bush's spending & complained about him as much as Obama. I was against both bail-outs, but based on your logic, you have to give as much credit to Bush for turning the economy around as Obama since he passed the first bail-out. Further, since Bush inherited Clinton's recession, the economic downturn started before he ever took office. & if you like higher taxes, then you must be a fan of Bush 41. There's plenty of blame to go around & I've told one of my own Republican senators who had earmarks attached to the bailout that I would not be voting for him next time around because of it, even though he ultimately voted against the bail-out. I've made plenty of complaints to presidents & senators on both sides about government spending over the years. Frankly, I'd be happy to vote out about 75% or more of today's politicians & start all over.
I'm glad Obama appears to have a happy marriage, & I'll even concede that it may have only cost a paltry $73,000, but my date night last weekend with my husband included an out-of town trip & cost about $250, including the hotel room, gas & food. I guess we'll never know what Obama's date night really cost though since the transparent administration refuses to release those figures. I don't begrudge any president a few perks for holding the highest office in the land, but don't preach to me about sacrifice & then keep spending money we don't have. Obama's $3.6 trillion budget blueprint more than doubles the national debt held by the public & adds more to the debt than all previous presidents -- from Washington to Bush -- combined. Surely you can concede there's something wrong with that. Just look at what's happened to California (and Schwarzenegger may be a Republican but he's no conservative).
So Obama "misspeaks" but Bush is a moron. Typical liberal hypocrisy.

Does anyone know the song they played in the background of Michelle Obama's stint last night?

Obama is just another dopey politician with a God complex.

It's hilarious watching the daily fawning over he gets from his fans. It will be even more fun watching the FAIL set in as time goes on and Obama's unicorns and rainbows for all never show up.

Loved the 2 programs. Thought they were fun and interesting and informative. I'm glad they did well in the ratings. Brian Williams is a class act and did a great job, too. It was all good.

Adam, are you kidding me? Obama has turned around the stock market and the economy? Really? What has Obama done in 5 months?

Obama told corporate execs: "You can't get corporate jets. You can't go take a trip to Las Vegas, or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers' dime." He spent $250,000 on the taxpayer's dime to take Michelle out on a date. He spent over $320,000 of taxpayer money to get a picture of Air Force One flying over the Statue of Liberty that could have been photoshopped for a lot less. Can you spell hypocrite? (Obviously not, judging by the number of misspelled words in your previous post which I mention only because you resorted to the lame liberal tactic of throwing out a personal attack when you disagree with someone.)

Obama says our constitution was written "20 centuries" ago!!! Guess the great orator was reading the teleprompter again. He visited 57 states (there's only 50). He called his own Secretary of Defense "William Gates." It's actually Robert Gates, not Bill Gates of Microsoft.

He gave a speech about his new proposals to close tax loopholes for multinational corporations, accusing them of tax evasion through manipulation of the tax code, while tax cheat Geitner was standing next to him.

He claimed that he has "already saved or created over 150,000 jobs," but the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that we lost more than 1.3 million jobs in the 2 months after he took office and at least another half-million in April. The day after Obama spoke, the Dept of Labor reported that another 631,000 workers had filed new claims for unemployment insurance the previous week. So where's the 150,000 jobs?

He pledged that under his tax plan "no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes." (September 12, 2008, Dover, NH) Jjust 16 days into his presidency, he signed into law a 156% increase in the federal excise tax on tobacco, a hike of 61¢ per pack, taxing the middle and low-income Americans Obama said he would not raise taxes on. 55% of smokers are "working poor" and 1 in 4 smokers live below the poverty line. Obama's 2010 budget imposes a range of tax hikes including a "cap and trade" tax of $646 billion. Every American family will pay this tax in the form of higher gasoline, heating and electric bills. Add the "cap and trade" tax increase with other energy tax hikes in the Obama budget and divide by the # of families and the average family will pay, directly or indirectly, approximately $10,000/year in new taxes.
One solution suggested by conservatives: For the cost of Obama's $1.2 trillion stimulus, the government could give employers a 2½ year payroll tax holiday which would encourage the hiring of new workers by reducing their actual costs. That's about 2.8 million NEW jobs, not to mention preserving existing jobs due to the fact it would now be cheaper to keep staff in place.

Examples of Obama worship:

1. The White House Press Corps standing to attention when Obama enters the room. Didn't do that for past presidents.

2. In the recently released Harris Poll, Obama was named the most popular personal hero. Following Obama were Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King, Reagan, George W. Bush, Abraham Lincoln, John McCain, Kennedy, Chesley Sullenberger, and Mother Teresa, respectively, to round out the top 10 people Americans say they admire and would call their hero. In the top 20 list, God held the No. 11 spot while Billy Graham tied with FDR for the 13th slot. A list was not provided for the respondents to choose from. Only 14 percent of Americans said they admire either their mother or father enough to call them their hero.

3. CNN's recent report on "The First 100 Days: Assessing the Swagga" in which they declared the Bush swagger deplorable and mortifying while the Obama "swagga" is charming and inspiring.

4. Chris Mathews tingle up his leg when he thinks of Obama.

Need any more?

Brian Williams represents the "typical viewer?" On second thought, maybe that's accurate because I'm certainly not the typical viewer in that I would like to see a "reporter" ask tough questions rather than the type of hero worship crap Williams was spewing. I kept thinking any minute that Brian was going to ask for a good-night kiss. NBC gives a whole new meaning to the term "in the tank. Any day now I expect to see the OTV logo replace the peacock. Again, on second thought the peacock preening its feathers fits the bill for OTV as well.

Adam, I dont listen to talk radio shows, so there goes your theory doesnt it?

Ok so, I have to add my two cents, of course! Not only were the Obama specials great TV but extremely interesting to watch! So much so, that my teenage daughter who spends 99% of her time obsessing over her social life, actually sat for 2 hours and watched them, cell phone free I might add!
Bravo for whomever came up with the idea of filming it and MORE please MORE!

Celebrity worship?
It was nothing like that at all...
It was a great look into the White House which I've never seen before - sure, the president and the first lady were the only ones with real sit down interviews, but the setup was much more a look at the people around him and life at the White House, interspersed with the interview clips.
I thought it was fascinating, for the look behind the scenes. Williams was certainly respectful of the two, but I didn't see any worship going on there.
I don't get the celebrity worship meme, sorry.