Obama to His Daughters: No New Dog

During his victory speech, the president put the kibosh on a new dog, ending months of speculation.

One of the more compelling issues of the presidential campaign concerned President Barack Obama's official stance toward matters canine. Would he get another dog? Would that dog be a Chow or a Pug? Would that Pug be named Henry Adams and get fed Beef Wellington late at night by the White House staff on banquet nights? Actually, these questions were not so much a part of the president's campaign as my head. 

Anyhow, during his victory speech, Obama put those questions to rest. "I'm so proud of you guys," he said to daughters Sasha and Malia. "But I will say that for now one dog's probably enough."

Damn. 

Bo, the Portuguese Water Dog who Obama gave his daughters after the first election, did not comment. Bo has one heck of a lawn to deal with, so maybe he was all tuckered out from running around with the Secret Service all day and re-enacting scenes from Air Bud.

Still, if Sasha and Malia and have learned anything from living in a political think tank for four years, it's that words have meaning. One dog is "probably" enough? Please. If they exploit that "probably," they can ram their new-dog legislation through the dinner-table congress before the weekend is out. Once this is all over, they'll probably have five dogs. 

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Bo Obama Made From Pipe Cleaners

White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson

Reflect for a moment on the last 500 working hours of your life. You may have done some inspiring things like helping a room full of children to read, or maybe you you did something less inspiring like making 20 thousand calls to sell subscriptions of USA Today. In any event, White House florist Laura Dowling organized about 80 volunteers to spend a total of that much time twisting pipe cleaners for her decorative likeness of Bo the White House dog. (a Portuguese water dog)

The impressive final product made its debut at the White House last week along with other Christmas decorations including elaborately decorated fir trees and dried oak leaf rosettes.

Maybe this is what President Obama meant when he said, “we’re still a people capable of doing big things.”

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Bo Obama on Summer Vacation

The First Dog, Bo, joined the Obama family on their summer vacation in Bar Harbor Maine last week. Bo visited several local attractions with the Obamas including Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse, before returning to the White House on Sunday.

Credit: Yuri Gripas/Getty

Credit: Cliff Owen/AP

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