Enough about Sarah Palin already.    The soccer Mom just got a passport in 2007 and thinks the dinosaurs roamed the earth 5000 years ago.    Please.     Now Michelle Obama.   There's confidence, intelligence and grace.     Any woman in politics that can wear an edgy brand like Tom Binns is fabulous.
  Michelle speaks to the everyday woman and is the first potential first lady to wear mass market brands like Gap and H&M in a public forum, and look amazing in them.     Michelle is a Harvard educated lawyer, well travelled and accomplished in her own right. You can believe her daughters will never be having a teen pregnancy.  image source: People magazine

Aside from their other problems, the McCain family suffers from a case of really bad taste and horrible design sense.   Hideous really.   Oh, and did I mention, maybe a backround check on Sarah Palin and her family situation.    Well it's only the republican ticket right?   McCain piece


Architectural Digest publishes this story of the McCain home, it's big, it's opulent and yes, it's tacky.  How many family photos fit on a baby grand.?   Kachina dolls, Native American figures mixed with shabby chic furniture.   Just goes to prove, money can't buy taste.  Photographs by: Robert Reck

US President George W. Bush is currently in Germany on his good-bye tour of Europe. And I think most Germans would like to bid him good riddance! Not only the German people, but also politicians across all parties have been quite critical of Bush. Most say the era under Bush made the world more unstable. And, if you read between the lines, most are happy that his days in the White House are numbered.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3400054,00.html

German chancellor Angela Merkel considers her relationship to Bush "friendly". She seems to have forgiven him for his slip in diplomatic etiquette back at the G8 summit in 2006, when he gave her a shoulder massage (the above sequence was one of the most popular videos on you tube at the time).

The government's coordinator for German-American cooperation Karsten Voigt told German media that he felt both presidential candidates Obama and McCain will make more of an effort to take multilateral institutions, such as the United Nations, more seriously. Voigt said either as president would approach European partners to resolve international problems -- behavior President Bush did not adhere to.

As if George W. Bush wasn't bad enough. For the past seven years, I have had to face a storm of questions from Germans as to why this man is president of the United States. As an American living in Germany, and a journalist on top of it, I am regularly being asked to explain not only the phenomenon of the US electoral system, but also the country's relation to religion, why so many people are so fat or why your average pupil couldn't find Europe on a map even if you offered him a free meal at McD's for it.

And now? This could top it all.

Europe's press is having a field day with German chancellor Angela Merkel's attire at the opening of the Oslo opera in Norway last Saturday.

The big question is: can you be chancellor of Europe's most powerful country and at the same time, show some cleavage?

Of course, Angie is not know for her glamourous sense of style. Dark pantsuits are more her trademark (although her hairdo has improved dramatically since her early days in politics) -- although she has gotten compliments from fashion icons.

Gwen Stefani said last year that pantsuits suited the chancellor well and that she made the best of herself. And Paris Hilton told the German edition of Vanity Fair when she was in Berlin in December: "I find that Angela Merkel is an especially attractive woman. But in my opinion her hair could use a few blond highlights."

Even German designer Wolfgang Joop designed a collection inspired by Merkel. He calls her style "strong and fearless."

On Saturday evening in Oslo, the 53-year-old chose a black evening gown with a plunging neckline complemented by a deep blue stole and string of pearls. Papers from all over Europe reported on her attire.

The chancellor herself is taking the shocked reactions in stride. Her spokesman told the press on Monday that Merkel will continue to choose her own attire freely.

Over 570,000 parents in Germany are taking advantage of the country's new childcare benefit program. So how does it work? Any mother or father whose child was born after January 1, 2007 can apply. It doesn't matter whether they're regular employees, self-employed or even unemployed, students, trainees and even adoptive parents. If one parent (usually the mother) decides to stay at home for 12 months, she will get 67 percent of her previous net salary for this period. If both parents want to take advantage of these benefits, they can be extended to 14 months -- so if the mother stays home for 12 months and the father for two months.


It is also possible to work part-time during this time, up to 30 hours a week. The maximum amount you can receive, though, is 1,800 euros per month (approx. $2,700); the minimum is 300 euros. So for a top manager, it wouldn't be much compared to their regular monthly salary. But for middle-class moms and dads, it isn't bad. And it's tax-free! Interestingly enough, the share of fathers choosing to stay home has jumped from 3.5 percent to 12.4 percent in the first year. And the government, which is footing the bill for this program, expects the number of at-home daddies to increase even more.

The German government's attempts to boost the country's waning birthrate are yielding fruit. Last year, it introduced so-called Elterngeld or parent money. This childcare benefit program offers mothers and fathers up to 1,800 euros per month (approx. $2,700 - tax-free!) for up to 14 months if one or both of them stay home to take care of their baby.

With a birthrate of just 1.3 children per woman, Europe's biggest economy was facing a real population problem. But according to preliminary figures for last year, birthrates are up for the first time in a decade and could reach 1.4 children per woman for 2007.

The program is particularly interesting for professional women. Many feel they face the choice: children OR career; or they would have been financially strapped if their salaries were lacking in the family household budget. Elterngeld appears to have played a positive role in couples deciding to have a child or further children.

By the way: Germany's family minister Ursula von der Leyen (here to the left) has seven children of her own.