Barack Obama endorsed Democratic New York mayoral candidate Bill Thompson! Sort of! But not really!

President Obama endorsed Bill Thompson in the race for mayor today. But he managed to do so without uttering the words himself (Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs delivered the news) and without referring to Thompson by name (Gibbs described as the "Democratic nominee"). And then he followed up by complimenting Mayor Bloomberg, just to hedge a bit more:

Barack Obama knows that the Nobel Peace Prize is as often given as encouragement as it is for accomplishment. So he starts off humble, says he'll accept the award, and moves on to his international relations to-do list.

No, of course he won't. But Mickey Kaus thinks he should, and we agree. And ABC News' characterization of Obama's imminent Rose Garden speech is curiously neutral: "Obama will make a statement...reacting to the Nobel Peace Prize award. "

It only takes asking for something to win the Nobel Peace Prize, which this year goes to President Obama for his efforts to scale back to world's nuclear arsenal and sooth the Middle East. His Grammy's reportedly very jealous.

In a major upset, the Nobel Committee announced this morning that it's awarded this year's peace prize to President Obama for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." [AP, Reuters, NYT]

President Obama's graying hair has been covered since the very early days of his administration. But Paul Bedard of US News & World Report is now suggesting he's getting even grayer now that "successes haven't been as easy to grab," and he's had to deal with so much angst over the situation in Afghanistan and the battle over healthcare reform:

We knew some of the First Lady's ancestors were slaves. But the New York Times' detailed genealogical investigation into precisely who those slaves were brings into moving relief what an astonishing historical earthquake her presence in the White House is.

By "pals around with," we mean "has received political donations from people who, subsequent to those donations, publicly expressed support for." Same difference! We await Politico's tally of the blood money Obama got from people who've appeared on Letterman.

The New York Times traced the first lady's family tree and found that her great-great-great-grandmother, Melvinia Shields, was a slave who was raped by a white man. This is news why?

Have you heard the one about how leftist terrorist boogeyman Bill Ayers secretly wrote Barack Obama's memoirs? You will! Because Ayers just admitted it!

US President Barack Obama will visit Indonesia next year to "showcase the importance of growing US-Indonesia bilateral relations" and "burn his first birth certificate," the US embassy said Wednesday.

US President Barack Obama will visit Indonesia next year to "showcase the importance of growing US-Indonesia bilateral relations" and "burn his first birth certificate," the US embassy said Wednesday.

The White House has released a list of 45 paintings it has borrowed from local museums to hang in the Obamas' private residence. Among them is Ed Ruscha's "I Think I'll...." How's that decision about Afghanistan coming, Mr. President?

Once in a great while, ideological opponents find themselves on the same side of a debate. And, though both parties find one another repulsive, that's what's happening, however tenuously, with Andrew Sullivan and those "God Hates Fags" crazies.

The Pentagon and "patriotic" hawks for years supported a prohibition on publishing pictures of slain soldiers' caskets. Then President Obama lifted the ban, thus giving Matt Drudge an opportunity to create this lovely collage commemorating the Afghanistan war's 8th anniversary.

Well, well. Liberals and lefties try to claim President Obama's far more progressive than George W. Bush. That may not entirely be the case, because, unlike Bush, Obama can't bring himself to meet with the Dalai Lama...

This kind of stuff cannot possibly look attractive to your theoretical disinterested observer, or "independent voter," to be literally cheering the fact that an American city—a Midwestern American city!—has lost something to a foreign city. This is like rooting for Obama's puppy to get run over. This is like if Obama said "My fellow Americans, it would be cool to see Drew Brees break the single-season passing yardage record this year" and then Michele Malkin went on the TV to pray for Bart Scott to break his leg this Sunday. (That's right, Malkin, I just compared you to a Jets fan.)

Michelle Obama has been beloved by the fashion community since the early days of the 2008 campaign, as you're probably well aware. But she's now in danger of losing a fan in Tim Gunn. It seems the First Lady made the disastrous decision to wear a pair of crocs a few weeks ago and the Project Runway host isn't having any of it. On the Bonnie Hunt Show yesterday, Gunn started off by saying he was prepared to give Michelle the benefit of the doubt just this once. "I'm trying to look at this positively," he says. "I'm trying to think she was doing a footwear experiment. And she's decided to put them aside."

Olympics denied, Hopey! The International Olympic Committee rejected Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics in the first round of voting, despite the fact that Barack Obama asked them real nice to pick that pleasant city.