Photograph by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

First lady Michelle Obama delivers the commencement speech during the Bowie State University graduation ceremony at the Comcast Center on the campus of the University of Maryland on May 17, 2013 in College Park, Maryland. Obama received and Honorary Doctor of Laws degree before addressing the 600 graduates of Maryland’s oldest historically black university and one of the ten oldest in the country.

That midlife crisis is over, it appears:

Credit The Hill for noticing the first lady’s appearance at Bowie State University for a commencement address sans bangs.

The forehead covering first appeared on her 49th birthday in January, just in time for President Barack Obama‘s second inauguration.

“This is my midlife crisis, the bangs. I couldn’t get a sports car,” she later told talk show host Rachael Ray. “They won’t let me bungee jump. So instead, I cut my bangs.”

Michelle Obama ditches her bangsj.mp/15TG2N7 by @emilylgoodin

— The Hill (@thehill) May 17, 2013

The president had said how much he liked those bangs, back during the inaugural ceremonies.

At the National Building Museum, one of Washington’s great public spaces, a freshly inaugurated Obama greeted supporters at the start of his second term, and opened with a comment on his wife’s new hair-do.

“I love her bangs,” the president said of his wife’s cut.

Maybe it was the IRS that got her to reconsider — a subject-changer at 1600 Pennsylvania.

Original post is Michelle Obama: The Bangs Are Gone by Political Capital.

Photograph by Susan Walsh/AP Photo

First lady Michelle Obama signs copies of her book “American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Garden Across America” at the Politics & Prose bookstore in Washington, on May 7, 2013.

While the first lady was out in the rain today talking about healthy eating at a book-signing, the White House chief of staff was inside and dry sharing some doughnuts with the press.

Michelle Obama is using her book about the White House garden she developed, “American Grown,” “as a way to talk about one of the issues that is important to me and has been something that I’ve talked about a lot as first lady… ending the epidemic of childhood obesity,” she said at the book-signing at Washington’s Politics and Prose Bookstore.

“Because the garden was really a way to begin this conversation about how do we educate our children about the food they eat and how it impacts their body and how all of that affects their health, and encourage our children to eat healthy and eat more vegetables and to get more exercise,” she said.

Back at the West Wing, chief of staff Denis McDonough was risking a humorous take-off on his name with his hand-off of some good-will dunkers on this drizzly day.

With thanks to Mark Knoller, chronicler of all events White House related, at CBS News:

WH Chief of Staff Denis McDonough just came through the press room dispensing donuts. Said he just wanted to thank the press for all we do.

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) May 7, 2013

Don’t tell Mrs Obama the Chief of Staff was dispensing donuts. Could be short-lived in the job.

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) May 7, 2013

Original post is White House: Gardening and Doughnuts by Political Capital.

Photograph by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images

Jason Collins, left, #34 of the Atlanta Hawks, warms up before the game against the Golden State Warriors.

Perhaps notably, it was the Obama White House — and then President Barack Obama personally — who spoke of their pride in Jason Collins, the NBA center who announced that he is gay.

And perhaps predictably, now it is Collins co-headlining a party fundraiser.

With first lady Michelle Obama, one of the first to tweet her pride in the ballplayer.

The two are the featured stars at the Democratic National Committee’s 2013 LGBT gala in New York on May 29.

Collins already had contributed $5,000 to Rep. Joseph Kennedy III’s 2012 campaign — half as an employee of the Atlanta Hawks in February, half as a member of the Boston Celtics in August.

(Collins cited Kennedy as an inspiration in his Sports Illustrated coming-out essay.)

As for his ready deployment on the fundraising circuit, it was the Obama White House, after all, that was quick to celebrate Collins’ announcement. That wasn’t Mitt Romney tweeting the news.

So proud of you, Jason Collins! This is a huge step forward for our country. We’ve got your back! -mo

— FLOTUS (@FLOTUS) April 29, 2013

Bloomberg’s Derek Wallbank contributed to this report. 

Original post is Jason Collins, Michelle Obama: Fundraisers for Party’s LGBT Gala by Political Capital.

Photograph by Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

First Lady Michelle Obama signs her book, “American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America,” at a Barnes & Noble bookstore in Washington, DC.

The Obamas have had some success with books.

The president’s autobiography and campaign tome made him a millionaire.

The first lady’s book is another story — marketed as a benefit for the National Park Foundation.

Her ``American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden” – on bookshelves for much of the past year — showcases the first vegetable garden at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue since Eleanor Roosevelt’s Victory Garden.

Michelle Obama will sign copies of the book at Washington’s premier political bookshop, Politics & Prose, next week.

She already made the rounds of morning talk shows with her book last spring.

The White House says today that she accepted no advance fee for the book, and all proceeds from its sales will go to the National Park Foundation, to support programs promoting gardening and healthy eating.

Random House, too, is donating “a portion” of its profits to the foundation, the White House says.

Original post is Michelle Obama’s Green Thumb Warms up for Book-Signing by Political Capital.

Photograph by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images

Jason Collins #98 of the Boston Celtics in a game against the Golden State Warriors on December 29, 2012 at Oracle Arena in Oakland, California.

Among the flood of best wishes for Jason Collins, the NBA center who revealed in a Sports Illustrated essay this week that he is gay, came tweets from the White House — from first lady Michelle Obama, from Valerie Jarrett.

So proud of you, Jason Collins! This is a huge step forward for our country. We’ve got your back! -mo

— FLOTUS (@FLOTUS) April 29, 2013

Just called @nba center @jasoncollins34. Proud of him for courageously coming out in @sinow.He’s a role model for countless #LGBT youth.

— Valerie Jarrett (@vj44) April 29, 2013

Today, after a brief news conference in which he had fielded all the questions he intended to take, President Barack Obama was asked about Collins. The president had spoken to him yesterday.

“I’ll say something about Jason Collins,” he said. “I had the chance to — to talk to him yesterday. He — he seems like a terrific young man. And, you know, I told him I couldn’t be prouder.”

“You know, one of the extraordinary measures of progress that we’ve seen in this country has been the recognition that the LGBT community deserves full equality, not just partial equality, not just tolerance, but a recognition that they’re fully a part of the American family,” he said. “And, you know, given the importance of sports in our society for an individual who — who’s excelled at the highest levels in one of the major sports go ahead and say, “This is who I am. I’m proud of it. I’m still a great competitor. I’m still seven-foot tall and can bang with Shaq… and, you know, deliver a hard foul.”’

“And, you know, for — for I think a lot of young people out there who, you know, are — are — are, you know, gay or lesbian who are struggling with these issues to see a role model like that, who’s unafraid, I think it’s a great thing,,” Obama said. “And I think America should be proud that this is just one  more step in this ongoing recognition that we treat everybody fairly. And everybody’s part of a — part of a family. And we judge people on the basis of their character and their performance, and not their sexual orientation. So I’m very proud of him.”

Original post is Obama Proud of Jason Collins by Political Capital.

Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama host a Passover Seder Dinner for family, staff and friends, in the Old Family Dining Room of the White House, March 25, 2013.

It’s a holy week, on the front end, and on the back.

And tonight, President Barack Obama celebrated Passover at the White House at the start of a week that will end with Easter. Pete Souza, the White House photographer, is working overtime:

Photo of POTUS at Passover Seder Dinner: bit.ly/YB2rJn

— petesouza (@petesouza) March 26, 2013

and the first lady:

Photo of FLOTUS lighting candle at Passover Seder Dinner at WH tonight: bit.ly/ZnXSxU

— petesouza (@petesouza) March 26, 2013

Original post is First Seder: Obama’s Passover by Political Capital.

Photograph by Annie Leibovitz/Vogue via AP Images

First lady Michelle Obama on the cover of the April 2013 issue of Vogue.

We already knew of the first lady’s new hair-do.

We already knew of her affinity for late-night comedy TV.

She even awarded the Oscar for best picture this year.

But who knew she’d make the cover of Vogue twice?

That adds a new dimension to re-election.

Never mind that Vogue editor Anna Wintour, a big league Clinton supporter and fundraiser for the Obama election campaign, has been mentioned as a potential ambassador to Europe. It’s more pertinent that she’s also become the organization’s art director.

So the cover story of the new Vogue?

  “Leading by Example: First Lady Michelle Obama.”

Complete with a photo spread by Annie Leibowitz.

And a video of the first lady’s “best looks” through the years.

“While the First Lady may not be a Tiger Mom, and the Obamas may not be helicopter parents (despite their access to Marine One), they are, in fact, exemplars of a new paradigm — the super-involved parenting team for whom being equally engaged in the minutiae of their children’s lives is paramount,” Vogue advises its readers. “Perhaps this is what has been misconstrued by old-school Washington. After all, it is so unlike the way that the White House has traditionally functioned, as a paragon of American family life, complete with a staff that all but invented the idea of standing on ceremony.”

Original post is Michelle Obama: Vogue Cover Up by Political Capital.

Photograph by Kristoffer Tripplaar-Pool/Getty Images

President Barack Obama, Hillary and Bill Clinton in Washington,

Sequestration isn’t all that President Barack Obama ordered on March 1.

He also ordered dinner for Bill Clinton.

And Hillary Clinton, and of course his own first lady.

The Obamas and Clintons dined at the White House the night the president’s order went out for the across-the-board spending cuts required under legislation that gave the president and Congress some time to avert those cuts, which they failed to do.

“A lot of interesting dinners this week, I guess,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest said today — alluding to the dinner that Obama hosted at the Jefferson Hotel on Wednesday for a dozen Senate Republicans.

Did the former president suggest some outreach to the other party?

“Well I can confirm the dinner for you,” Earnest said of the evening at the White House one week ago today. “It was a private dinner that the president and the first lady enjoyed with President Clinton and former Secretary of State Clinton… They enjoyed the meal and they enjoyed the conversation, but I don’t have any more details to read out to you.”

Original post is Obamas-Clintons: Sequestration Dinner by Political Capital.

Photograph by Warner Bros. Pictures/Everett Collection

Ben Affleck in “Argo.”

Divisive national and international issues have been known to shadow — and at times dominate — Hollywood’s annual celebration of itself. That wasn’t the case during last night’s 85th Academy Awards presentation. Host Seth MacFarlane may have raised hackles with jokes and songs that, for some, obliterated the good-taste boundary, but mining sequestration for material would be a reach even for him.

There has been some political blowback to the Oscars, though — from Iran.

Best-picture winner “Argo” has been banned from playing there — not too surprisingly, given the film’s depiction of the creative and successful CIA plot to snatch six Americans out of Tehran while 52 others were being held captive at the nearby U.S. embassy in Iran’s capital city. Iranian Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad Hosseini previously has called the movie “an offensive act” motivated by “evil intentions. “

The film’s Oscar victory — and the Academy’s surprise in having Michelle Obama make the big announcement from the White House —  sparked further criticism.

“In a rare occasion in Oscar history, the first lady announced the winner for Best Picture for the anti-Iran film Argo, which is produced by the Zionist company Warner Bros,” the Iranian Fars News Agency wrote.

It also offered its own type of fashion critique of the silver gown Obama wore for the occasion, designed by Naeem Khan. The photo run by the news agency added sleeves and extended its top to Obama’s neck.

Tehren-based Mehr News, meanwhile, took umbrage to comments by Ben Affleck — the director, star and one of Argo’s main producers who in his acceptance speech gave a nod to “our friends in Iran who live under terrible circumstances.”

The reaction from Mehr: “After distorting history, Ben Affleck continues to show a bleak picture of Iran: Iranians live in terrible circumstances.”

Original post is ‘Argo’ Win Sparks Poor Reviews in Iran by Political Capital.

Photograph by Pete Souza/White House

First Lady Michelle Obama

On a night of celebrities answering the question — “Who are you wearing?” — the announcement of the Academy Award for the best motion picture came from someone wearing a gown straight from a dinner of the nation’s governors in the White House.

Photo of First Lady Michelle Obama announcing #Oscar2013 best picture winner from @whitehouse to ARGO. twitter.com/petesouza/stat…

— petesouza (@petesouza) February 25, 2013

White House photographer Pete Souza was ready for first lady Michelle Obama’s surprise announcement of the Oscar for “Argo,” following a formal dinner that she and President Barack Obama hosted at the White House for the National Governors Association.

There is a White House nexus to this saga, after all — seeing as the 1979 taking of American hostages from the U.S. embassy in Tehran served as the backdrop for the Ben Affleck film about the freeing of a select group who had escaped during the raid on the embassy and found refuge in another’s residence, and seeing as the general plot surrounding those 444 days of captivity for 52 Americans and a failed rescue mission for them was instrumental in the retirement of another president, Jimmy Carter.

Michelle Obama’s communications director, Kristina Schake, issued a statement: “The Academy Awards approached the First Lady about being a part of the ceremony. As a movie lover, she was honored to present the award and celebrate the artists who inspire us all — especially our young people — with their passion, skill and imagination.”

And for the record: The first lady was wearing Naeem Khan in her announcement broadcast live from the Diplomatic Room.

It was a thrill to announce the #Oscars2013 best picture winner from the @whitehouse! Congratulations Argo! -mo

— FLOTUS (@FLOTUS) February 25, 2013

Original post is Michelle Obama: ‘The Oscar, Argo’ by Political Capital.