GQ’s Men of the Year issue is hitting stands in December, and while I usually think these sort of lists are pointless and open to much debate, I’m thinking they did a pretty good job this year, starting with the smokin’ Chris Pine. Damn. I’d like to Star his Trek, if you know what I’m saying. (I’m saying I’d like to “do it” with him.) Also given special edition covers are the Hangover boys, and anyone who’s loved Zach Galifianakis forever and a day like I have is also probably psyched to see him blow up and finally get major recognition for being the genius that he is. Also, Clint Eastwood, who I would not “do”, but with whom I would like to share a very nice dinner and conversation is mentioned, along with my man himself, Barry O. If they’d gotten Balloon Boy on a cover, I think the whole thing would be just PERFECT.

I’ve never been more proud of a U.S. President than I am today! Even if the only reason he got elected is because of Oprah, I sure am glad I voted for him. During a CNBC interview today, President Obama, off the record, called Kanye West a “jackass” due to his asswipe, obnoxious remarks at the VMAs last night. Unfortunately, in a world with Twitter, nothing is off the record. ABC News reporter Terry Moran wrote the following on his Twitter: “Pres. Obama just called Kanye West a “jackass” for his outburst at VMAs when Taylor Swift won. Now THAT’S presidential.” He deleted it soon after, but he has over a million followers, so the damage had been done.

ABC News issued the following statement:

In the process of reporting on remarks by President Obama that were made during a CNBC interview, ABC News employees prematurely tweeted a portion of those remarks that turned out to be from an off-the-record portion of the interview. This was done before our editorial process had been completed. That was wrong. We apologize to the White House and CNBC and are taking steps to ensure that it will not happen again.

The White House had no immediate comment.

I can’t wait to see what sort of totally sober, all-caps blog response Kanye has to this shit.

(By the way, if you want to follow the EB writers on Twitter, you can catch me here, Wendie here, Molly here and Kelly here. I promise at some point one of us will call Kanye West a jackass on there too.)

I dare you not to have a gigantic grin on your face as you watch this breaking footage of the First Dog, Bo, arriving at the White House and meeting the First Family, as well as a wall of reporters.

At least he didn’t poop. My dog definitely would have pooped.

White House photo by Pete Souza

How’s that for a pedigree?

Rumors abounded earlier this weekend, but now it’s official. President Obama has fulfilled at least one of his campaign promises and given daughters Sasha and Malia a puppy.

The first family has settled on a first pet, a 6-month-old Portuguese water dog that the Obama girls are naming Bo.

The selection was one of the White House’s most tightly kept secrets.

President Barack Obama’s daughters, 10-year-old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha, picked a black and white pup, a White House official speaking on the condition of anonymity told The Associated Press Saturday night.

The dog is a gift from Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., who owns several Portuguese water dogs himself.

Actually, I need to point out that the AP story above is slightly wrong. The dog wasn’t a gift from Senator Kennedy. That would be illegal. Bo, who shares the same lineage as Ted Kennedy’s two Portuguese water dogs, is actually being “re-homed” from the Texas kennel where he was living, something the Obamas have to do to avoid ethics violations.

Bo will have his first official press conference this Tuesday, when he will be presented to the Obamas by Senator Kennedy.

The girls chose the name Bo because their grandfather–Michelle Obama’s father– was nicknamed “Bo” (after Bo Diddley) and because their cousin has a cat named Bo. And, presumably because they wanted to give all the pun-happy headline writers in the mainstream media an excuse to dust off all those old “Bo knows” jokes. I’ll also bet you a whole dollar that I won’t be able to make it through the day tomorrow without hearing some cheesey news anchor utter the words “Who let the dogs in?” I refuse to participate.

Although not from a shelter, the dog was technically homeless, having been returned to the kennel by a previous owner who decided he could not care for the dog. Even so, some animal rights activists are upset that the First Family didn’t opt to adopt a dog from a D.C. area shelter.

As I predicted (it wasn’t that hard to predict), President Obama has apologized for his joke about the Special Olympics on Leno last night.

Obama’s comments to Jay Leno about his low bowling score – in particular, an off-the-cuff remark that it was “like Special Olympics or something” – had the chief executive calling Special Olympics chairman Tim Shriver from Air Force One on Thursday before the program even aired.

“He expressed his disappointment and apologized,” Shriver told Friday’s edition of ABC’s Good Morning America. “He was very sincere.”

In a statement issued Friday, White House spokesman Bill Burton said, “The President made an offhand remark making fun of his own bowling that was in no way intended to disparage the Special Olympics. He thinks that the Special Olympics are a wonderful program that gives an opportunity to shine to people with disabilities from around the world.”

Shriver also noted that “words hurt and words do matter, and these words that in some respect can be seen as humiliating … do cause pain.” He further said that he hopes the president’s slip of the tongue “a teachable moment for our country.”

Wow, he called the dude before the program even aired. And called it a “teachable moment.” Very impressive, Mr. President.

For the first time ever, Jay Leno interviewed a sitting U.S. President on The Tonight Show. And it’ll probably be the last time, after Obama made his first major PR gaffe as President. Obama said he recently bowled a 129. Leno responded, sarcastically, “Oh, that’s very good, Mr. President.” Obama quipped back with, “It’s like Special Olympics or something,” and then laughed.

At this point, Leno basically freezes. You can tell he realizes that this is an enormous mistake on the part of Obama, and isn’t sure how to handle it. He decides to play along and disregard the comment. If this had been a less beloved President — say, oh, George W. Bush — you better believe Leno would have stopped right there and made a fool of him. But he tried to cover for President Obama as best he could.

Sheesh, even I know better than to make Special Olympics jokes. It’s just one of those things that my brain is hard-wired to stop. Like, I’ll feel one coming out, and my brain is just reflexively like, “No, Beet. No Special Olympics jokes. Those hurt feelings and get us into trouble.” Plus, I find that whenever I want to make a joke about the mentally disabled, I can substitute Lindsay Lohan and the joke still works. It’s a neat trick.

Expect an apology from President Obama’s camp tomorrow.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Turns out something on this planet can compete with American Idol!

Barack Obama’s first speech to Congress was a ratings win, bringing in 52.4 million viewers across cable and broadcast networks. VERY impressive, Mr. President!

Whatever. I’m still bitter than they moved Idol for this speech. It just messes up my whole week to have Idol airing Wednesday/Thursday. Don’t you think the country should have to vote on things like this? Why couldn’t Obama have given this speech on Monday? How do I watch Top Chef and Idol tonight? And do my recap?? It’s like nobody thinks about my needs anymore.

You can watch President’s full address in the video above.

The New York Post ran a cartoon in today’s issue that has some people really upset.  The comic depicts President Obama as a dead chimpanzee.  The picture is meant to draw a parallel between the chimp attack from earlier this week and the economic stimulus bill.

Reverend Al Sharpton, president of National Action Network, had this to say:

The cartoon in today’s New York Post is troubling at best, given the racist attacks throughout history that have made African-Americans synonymous with monkeys. One has to question whether the cartoonist is making a less than casual inference to this form of racism when, in the cartoon, the police say after shooting a chimpanzee, “now they will have to find someone else to write the stimulus bill.”

Being that the stimulus bill has been the first legislative victory of President Barack Obama (the first African American president) and has become synonymous with him it is not a reach to wonder whether the Post cartoonist was inferring that a monkey wrote it? Given that the New York Post cartoonist has come under heavy fire in the past for racially tinged cartoons including the infamous cartoons depicting 2001 mayoral candidate Freddy Ferrer and me in very unflattering ways (that ultimately was used as a campaign tactic to inflame racial prejudices), one cannot ignore that history when looking at this morning’s cartoon.

The Post should at least clarify what point they were trying to make in this cartoon, and reprimand their cartoonist for making inferences that are offensive and divisive at a time the nation struggles to come together to stabilize the economy if, in fact, this was yet another racially charged cartoon.

In general, a comparison between our African-American president and an assassinated primate?  Probably not a good idea.

“I wish her nothing but the best and I hope she’s happy — whatever size that comes in.”

ZING!

Nick Lachey weighs in — ha ha no pun intended — on the media frenzy surrounding his ex-wife Jessica Simpson’s weight gain.

Just to highlight exactly how big a deal this has become, our very own President made a comment on it during his Matt Lauer interview for the Super Bowl pre-game broadcast. The clip is below. Watch it now — it’ll be pulled soon.

The President and First Lady are at Oprah status right now.  You do not want to piss them off.

Ty Inc., in the age-honored tradition of increasing sales via controversy, has introduced two homely little dolls named Sweet Sasha and Marvelous Malia.  They have dark coloring and share the names of the first daughters, but according to Ty’s PR flack, they aren’t modeled after the Obama girls.  Sigh.

Needless to say, the First Family is not amused.  Press secretary Katie McCormick Lelyveld released a statement:  “We feel it is inappropriate to use young, private citizens for marketing purposes.”

Sweet Sasha and Marvelous Malia join the family of TyGirlz that includes Lucky Lindsay, Happy Hillary, Precious Paris and Bubbly Britney.  And no, that is not an attempt at humor.  These abominations actually exist.

Most days I’m all like, “Yeah, beyotch. I’m 26 years old and I make a living as a writer” and I think that is pretty badass of me.

Then I go and read that the dude who wrote Obama’s inauguration speech is 27 years old. He’s supposedly the youngest White House speechwriter on record (I don’t think this is true — Ben Stein was younger when he worked for Nixon, right?), and he’s just written arguably the most important Presidential speech of our generation. Oh, and his name’s Jon Favreau (but not the one from Swingers).

I feel so un-accomplished.

At the very least, my parents could have named me Vince Vaughn.

Isn’t that what it looks like?

But this is actually a satellite image of Washington DC a little past 11 am today. There were supposedly TWO MILLION PEOPLE on the mall.

All those clumps of people in between the Washington Monument and the Capitol are clustered around Jumbotron screens. The image was taken from 423 miles in space.

Craziness!

This is SUCH a different mood from when Dubya was inaugurated. What a nice change!

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