As for Caroline Kennedy, she’s officially withdrawn her name from consideration for Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat, citing “personal reasons.” Whatever they are, I hope the media doesn’t turn her withdrawl into a critique of candidates who are mothers.

Michelle Obama’s not wasting anytime on focusing on her issue of work/life balance.

She’s now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But here’s my question (consider this an open thread) — if everyone seems to think Hillary is SO well qualified to be Secretary of State, why did many of those same people think that she would have been a bad president?

Katie Couric shows us the way on learning how to seize our moments and make our own buzz. So, as seizing the moments go, I need a contact at MSNBC!

And Barack Obama comes up with perfect phrase to describe Bush administration and Hurricane Katrina — “unconscionable ineptitude.” Though I think Obama needs to cut Joe Biden a little slack and learn to embrace the humor that is Joe!

He’s had his final news conference, where it became clear that maybe he really was out of touch for his two terms in the White House. And I have to agree with Campbell Brown on this one — we both thought his comments about his presidency during that news conference were out of touch with reality and revisionist big time (to borrow a phrase from Dick Cheney).

Thursday night, George Bush got around to his final (really, really) talk to the nation in his official capacity. It wasn’t much, barely 15 minutes to take another pass at instilling his version of his presidency on our collective memories. I hate to break it to him, but my even in my ‘old age,’ my memory is better than that.

As Arianna Huffington told Rachel Maddow following the speech, George Bush is still “delusional” about his accomplishments, or lack thereof, after all these years:

The speech was spin at its most dangerous. It’s easy to feel a pang of pity for a guy who was on top so long and is now heading out the door. But the more sympathy he evokes, the more susceptible we are to the lies he is telling. Before we know it, his revisionism becomes accepted as the truth.

So if there was any value in the speech it was this: it should remind us of the importance of refusing to allow this delusional revisionism to stand.

I was genuinely shocked by what he said in those few minutes, but I’m not sure why I continue to be. What would make me think that all of a sudden he would realize that maybe he ought to apologize to the nation? Maybe ‘fess up that he made some mistakes? I suppose when you’re a president whose world view is so narrow and simplistic, it’s easy to think you’ve done a great job and nearly impossible to acknowledge that your actions were anything other than pure.

He told America that he made the hard decisions and always had our best interests at heart. He showed us the face of man who seems untroubled by the fact that on his watch we have become entangled in two foreign wars, have fallen into an economic pit so deep that many think it will be years, not months, before we find our way out, have seen our Constitutional protections diluted and have watched as his administration cavalierly trampled on women’s rights, including equal pay and reproductive rights.

And those are only a handful of the things he’s done to the nation that the Barack Obama administration is going to have to undo. If you believe that’s how our nation should be, then I suppose a laurel and hearty handshake are in order.

Not surprisingly, Bush still claims we are safer than we were eight years ago, thanks to the efforts of his administration to keep terror at bay. Really? Mr. PunditMom reminded me of the story of a man standing on the corner, waving his arms and hands about his head. When asked what he was doing, he replied, “I’m keeping the elephants away.” The questioner shockingly replied, “But there are no elephants.” The hand-waving man responded, “See. It’s working.”

I hear the Bush’s personal belongings are pretty much packed and ready to go at precisely 12:01 p.m. on January 20. President Bush, don’t let the screen door hit you on the way out. And please don’t spend any more time patting yourself on the back for the job you’ve done. I had hoped you would just be a place-holder president and not do much damage when you were (sort of) elected in 2000.

Maybe I’ll wake up and it will all have been a bad dream. And, Mr. President, watch out for those elephants on the way out.

Cross-posted from BlogHer, where PunditMom is a Contributing Editor for News & Politics.

The lies of the Bush White House will continue to be insidious, even after he’s gone. Stay vigilant.

Things don’t look good for Mayor Sheila Dixon of Baltimore.

How do you think Hillary Clinton did at her confirmation hearing? Wasn’t it about time we heard someone on Capitol Hill talking about the horrible treatment of some women around the globe?

Poor Dick Cheney. Who’s going to listen to his whining next week?

Are you wearing pants to work today? Some employers say it’s better for us gals to go back to wearing skirts “for our own good!” Do they really want to go there?

But this morning as I was listening in my car to his farewell news conference, I just about drove off the road as it became clear that this man could not have cared less about what his actions and policies did to us as a nation or as individuals.

With an incredibly upbeat tone in his voice, Bush described his time as president as “joyous” and he recounted how he was able to have “lighthearted” exchanges, even during the “darkest moments” of the Iraq war when he was learning of the skyrocketing American casualties. Bush thinks he’s done a dandy job helping to rebuild New Orleans. He scoffed at the notion that the Presidency of the United States carried with it any real burden.

Number 43 was proud of the fact that he never wavered on “his” principles (never mind those of the Constitution and any collective American ones). He proudly recounted that he was able to keep his focus on the issues at hand because he always had, as a reminder about the gravity of situations around the world, his daily intelligence briefings.

And, of course, he was glad he had his regular exercise and mountain bike rides as a way to forget momentarily about the troubles of the world.

He needed daily reminders? He was glad he could forget? I don’t know about you, but I don’t want the person in the Oval Office to ever let his or her mind wander about what’s going on, even when they’re getting in a little cardio work-out.

I had hoped that Bush wasn’t really someone who blithely went about his day with such apparent indifference. But if someone can genuinely and sincerely make those kinds of remarks that paint them as so out of touch with reality, then that’s scarier than just about anything else I can think of.

Here’s a little taste:

It was funny that Bush also felt the need to mention (again) that he gave up drinking. In the future, I don’t want a president who confesses to having had a substance abuse problem. I want someone who can deal with all things in moderation, including the occasional glass of wine. Because when someone who is supposed to be the leader of the free world lives in a land where he views all his choices, even down to whether he’s having a cocktail or a soft drink, as so clear cut, the nuances of the world are lost. And our world is nothing if not full of nuance, subtlety and shades of gray.

George Bush was a man with no real worries as he stood before the White House press corps this morning. I guess that’s nice for him, but for the rest of us, I’m glad we have someone taking over next week who at least will try to keep the country’s problems on the front burner, even if he’s headed for a few minutes in the weight room.

“Blago” is just hangin’ loose.

I thought it was the MRA contrast that was making me queasy. Now, I think it’s just George W. Bush’s “farewell” revisionist tour.

We say American don’t like political nobility, but maybe we can’t help ourselves.

At least Time Magazine didn’t pick Sarah Palin for Person of the Year!

But here’s my question — how long will it be before we see a movie about the Bush/Cheney years that comes close to this? It might now be all that long since VP Cheney apparently admitted this week that he was aware of and endorsed water-boarding (read: torture) of certain prisoners — a crime that I learned from Rachel Maddow tonight was punishable by death after World War II.

Ah, political trivia. It can come in so handy sometimes.

UPDATE: And if you’re a Nixon/Watergate aficionado like I am, have I got an offer for you! Thanks to the nice people at Universal (and their nice marketing people!), I have an official Frost/Nixon movie poster and hat to giveaway!! Leave me a comment about your favorite Nixon trivia and I’ll pick a winner at random to receive them! Come on, you know you want them!

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I’ve always been a good little voter. Ever since I turned 18 and had the chance, I’ve participated in most of the elections I was eligible to vote in. But the truth is, I wasn’t exactly a well-informed voter. Sure, I’d read the issues, learn a little about candidates, but generally I voted on what side of an issue sounded the best to me in the brief blurb, and for candidates I would either vote for the democrat, the woman, or if I knew nothing about a person (such as voting for a judge), I’d vote for the Irish last name. I cared about what was going on in my government, but I didn’t care enough to spend the time investigating my options.

However, I realized the other day that something has changed in me over the last eight years. I’m not the unconcerned voter I was before. Now I’m nearly rabid in my searching for information on candidates and issues. I want to know all sides to the stories, and I want to see how candidates stand on issues ranging from war to the environment to fiscal responsibility to hey, can you help with this expensive gas? problem. I read political opinion editorials – something I never would have done ten years ago. I fact check when I hear numbers and statistics thrown around in a debate. And perhaps most spectacularly, I will actually campaign for a candidate if they prove themselves worthy of my vote.

I’m not sure how I ended up as this person. Politics has always bored me to tears, because it’s not like the government ever gets much done, right? Big ship, small rudder. So what could have caused me to suddenly take an interest and help grab that wheel to turn the ship?

Part of it could be that I’m a mom now. Having a child brings the world view more clearly into focus. Now it’s not just me and my interests, but the interests and future of my daughters. And suddenly those crazy extremists around the world have new importance to me. People who threaten to build nuclear weapons matter to me. Those who misspend my government’s money and sink the country into debt matter more to me. And those who ignore the warnings and continue to pollute the earth, further hastening global warming and destroying the environment are not only mildly affecting me, but now they’re taking away some of the inheritance of my daughters and their generation.

But what I think is the biggest factor in my new-found political junkie nature is the current administration. George W. Bush and his political friends have given me a clear picture of what happens when the nation as a whole gives a big sigh of disinterest and votes on the guy who seems most like one of them (could you have a beer with this man?) instead of really looking at what he stands for. In the past few years, I’ve watched environmental protection policies be trashed, necessary programs like national paid maternity leave be dismissed as unnecessary, funding for further children’s health insurance go ignored, and women’s rights slowly chipped away. I’ve seen the needs of the people be put aside in favor of corporate gain, and I’ve watched our nation’s current and future wealth drained away on an expensive war that we shouldn’t have started in the first place.

You can count me as one of the 74% of the population who is unhappy with the direction the country is going, and it’s that unhappiness that has spurred me to action. When everything is going well in the world, you’re less likely to question authority. Seeing how my husband was recently laid off, we’ll soon be losing our employer sponsored health insurance, our home has lost value so we can’t even move to a cheaper home, and food and gas are rising so fast that we can barely afford them, you can be sure I’m doing a lot of questioning lately. In April, I told the presidential candidates exactly what was important to me, and those still hold true. I’m holding each candidate up to a hefty ideal, searching out their records on each topic, and going beyond myself to consider what is best for the nation as a whole, not just me.

I don’t think I’m the only one, either. Quite a few of those who disapprove of the current administration are finding themselves asking questions and educating themselves about politics. I’m seeing more of my friends – people who also never thought they’d put so much mental effort into politics – taking up the cause to determine who really is the best choice to lead this country. So in some strange way, I think I have to thank George W. Bush and his buddies – without their mishandling of this country over the last eight years, I might never have understood the true importance of my vote, as well as the need to look beyond myself to consider the impact policies made today will have on others and on future generations. Bush will never go down in history as a great president (probably only slightly better than Andrew Johnson), but he may just have a small historical footnote of being the president who screwed up enough to make the people of the United States take an active role in their government once again.

In addition to finding Christina at A Mommy Story, you can also find her at Being Savvy.
Thanks for joining me here are Mothers of Intention!

Next week, my guest Mother of Intention will be Veronica from Viva La Feminista!