**********Official 60 Minutes Thread**********

[mollymongold]

[givemebackmycountry]

1. Good job Molly, I'll kick it...

Cool, calm, professional, articulate, thoughtful, humorous, relaxed and just plain honest.

And they are poised to TEAR him apart.

We must have his back people, he's going to have ours.

[shireen]

2. which president was Obama referring to? I missed it.

[mollymongold]

4. FDR?

[Jackeens]

3. LOL "I'm not comparing my mother-in-law to a dog"

[votetastic]

5. What's up with the "Angry Black Man" drawing of Obama before each commercial break?

[Clio the Leo]

10. LOL, I think he's supposed to be looking .... um .....

... resolute and defiant in the face of great challenge.

Of course there is a "Free Huey" button on his lapel. I dont know what that's about. :)

[Thrill]

6. Its been a while since we had a President smart like this

[Cha]

7. Commercial and It's

Fantastic!

[Clio the Leo]

8. Anyone else feeling better about our future yet? NT

[qwlauren35]

68. ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's sad how few Americans watch 60 minutes, but hopefully, those last 5 seconds of the Steelers-Chargers game were a good lead-in.

Especially since Obama actually talked about football at the end of the interview!

[Terri S]

9. I'm sitting here still pinching myself

that this man is going to be our President.

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

11. k&r.

[TZ]

12. I'm having a disconnect...a soon to be president...

who is smart and thoughtful.!

[spanone]

14. interesting concept, eh?

[Clio the Leo]

48. ... and enjoyable to watch. NT

[firedupdem]

13. Communication! Not a lot of speeches...said he will tell you what

he's doing and the reason why...thank you, thank you!

[tabbycat31]

15. complete sentences

It is SOOOO nice to listen to a President who can speak in complete sentences.

[liberalpragmatist]

16. Michelle looks stunning - nt

[Cha]

27. Michelle is beautiful and

so Barack.

[sammytko]

29. Her dress is really nice - great color...

[ecstatic]

57. She's bringing purple back!

That used to be my favorite color.

[ecstatic]

17. he is hypnotizing me

I guess it's the HD

[Doityourself]

22. ha ha...i know what cha mean...its the inflection in his voice...so soothing n/t

[firedupdem]

18. crying again....this is too much n/t

[Doityourself]

19. Goodness...I love that man...I love their family!!! it's fantastic..n/t

[ecstatic]

20. lol @ "soothing" to wash the dishes nt

[malik flavors]

30. Haha, "I made it a soothing thing."

That was great.

[tilsammans]

21. The Obamas are so real!

What a wonderful family.

:grouphug:

[ecstatic]

23. Michelle keeps calling him out. LOL nt

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

28. Michelle comes across as one tough cookie.

Damn, she is Good.

[Ozma]

41. Moms and women are great when they are

one tough cookie. I'd like to see her do something for vets, something for schools, something for making Washington more of a shining city in America.

[Doityourself]

24. Poor baby can't take a walk! n/t

[Clio the Leo]

40. Yep, major aggravation in his voice when he said it....

.... no doubt he has not heard about the Blackberry situation yet. They're probably waiting as long as they can to tell him about it. Hope he wont walk. lol

[Waiting For Everyman]

45. He will like Camp David a LOT... great for walks!

I live a few miles from there. I'm wondering if I'll be lucky enough to ever see them by chance, out somewhere in the area sometime. At least it's nice to know that soon Dumbya won't be coming here anymore... bad vibes!

[EastTennesseeDem]

25. Barack & Michelle vs. John & Cindy

Who has more chemistry?

That's a tough one.

[TZ]

26. I like hearing them talk about contributing to the DC community!

As a DC area resident, I thinks thats great as the Bush and Co never gave a damn about the city and left it whenever possible....

[Cha]

31. The whole journey has been

so amazing and just keeps getting better. This is what we all worked so hard for.

[Clio the Leo]

32. That part about them once again being all under the same roof had me squalling.....

.... as I long ago realized that must have been a big motivator for her to endure all that she's endured. Going from him being in DC three to four nights a week to being there almost EVERY night in a warm cozy house with a fireplace, a dog and a picket fence.

[Sensitivity]

Missed most of it. WAS ANYTHING SAID ABOUT CABINET, SOS???

[TZ]

36. He's not saying...

Very tight lipped. talking about policy was more important IMHO.

[RamboLiberal]

38. Soon

Kroft: Next Week

Obama: Soon

[malik flavors]

42. Guaranteed a republican will be in it.

[Ozma]

44. Must mean he has lined up at least one Republican already.

To be there... maybe more.

[scarletwoman]

47. Chuck Hagel is no doubt a shoo-in. (nt)

[BrklynLiberal]

53. Is this the same Hagel who owned stock in the ESS machines that counted the votes when he was

elected?

Republican Senator Chuck Hagel has ties to the largest voting machine company, Election Systems & Software (ES&S). She reported that he was an owner, Chairman and CEO of Election Systems & Software (called American Information Systems until name change filed in 1997). ES&S was the ONLY company whose machines counted Hagel's votes when he ran for election in 1996 and 2002. The Hill, a Washington D.C. newspaper that covers the U.S. national political scene, confirmed her findings today and uncovered more details.

Hagel's campaign finance director, Michael McCarthy, now admits that Senator Hagel still owns a beneficial interest in the ES&S parent company, the McCarthy Group. ES&S counts approximately 60 percent of all votes cast in the United States. According to the Omaha World-Herald which is also a beneficial owner of ES&S, Hagel was CEO of American Information Systems, now called ES&S, from November 1993 through June 2, 1994. He was Chairman from July 1992 until March 15 1995. He was required to disclose these positions on his FEC Personal Disclosure statements, but he did not.

[scarletwoman]

64. Yup. And I already know all that stuff. All I'm saying is that he's likely to be the Republican

member of Obama's cabinet.

[yourguide]

51. He must mean Lieberman haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa n/t

[Sensitivity]

33. Missed most of it. WAS ANYTHING SAID ABOUT CABINET, SOS???

[Clio the Leo]

46. He said he talked to Hillary for advice.....

.... because her respected her opinion and when Steve pressed him for info, he said "that's all your getting." Then, when asked about Lincoln filling the cabinet with his rivals said, "I have always admired Lincoln for his wisdom."

Also said he had a pretty good idea of who he'd LIKE to have in the cabinet.

[supernova]

34. "I don't tell my mother-in-law what to do"

:rofl:

[Doityourself]

35. Obama is soooooooo cool!!!!! n/t

[ecstatic]

37. that was sexist!11

[TTUBatfan2008]

39. LOL college football playoff...

I agree with him completely, especially since my team will likely get screwed over if we lose to Oklahoma next weekend.

[Drunken Irishman]

50. YOURS?

Mine could win out and won't even sniff the championship. At least your team has a chance. Mine is 11-0, yet ranked 7th in the BCS!

[TTUBatfan2008]

56. You talking about Utah?

I went to high school with Utah's QB, Brian Johnson.

I'd rather be in your position than Tech's. Do you know if we lose to OU, we might not even make the BCS? We could very well end up in the Cotton Bowl because we lost on the road in one of the most hostile stadiums in the country. Tech would run the table in the Mountain West and I would be damn happy to get to a BCS bowl, which is what Utah is headed for. No offense, but I don't think Utah could make it through the Big 12 South unscathed. In fact, I don't think any team in the country could.

[Drunken Irishman]

60. Yes, Utah.

I don't think Utah could make it through the Big 12 unscathed with their current roster, however, give them a few years to recruit BCS talent and I bet they could, or at least do what Texas Tech is doing.

[TTUBatfan2008]

63. It's not about talent...

It's about having to play 3 really kickass teams. It's a gauntlet. UT and OU are two of the most talented teams in the country and both of them have already lost to a Big 12 South opponent. OU still has to go on the road to play OSU. Tech has beaten both OSU and UT but now we have a HUGE challenge against OU in their stadium. Our offense will need to play its best because OU's offense is just as good as ours. We can't afford to let their crowd get involved.

[Drunken Irishman]

67. Of course it's about talent.

You're not going to beat those teams if you don't have the talent to do so. The advantage Texas Tech has is it's located in the BCS and Utah isn't. The Utes, when they recruit, have the disadvantage of not being able to tell players they can play for the national championship here. You don't have that problem in the Big 12. Give Utah a few years to recruit at the BCS level and they become one of those 3 really kickass teams.

[TTUBatfan2008]

69. Ummmm....

We're not exactly getting our pick of the litter here. West Texas is a difficult place to convince recruits to come to and it is very difficult to go against the likes of OU, UT, A&M, and LSU for recruits. Leach is an excellent coach and possibly the best talent evaluator in the country. Perfect example of this is the fact that Wes Welker wasn't even offered a scholarship by anyone except Leach and Leach helped turn him into one of the best WR's in the NFL.

Talent is relative though. While you're claiming that Tech is somehow much more talented than Utah, I noticed that Utah has not had a class ranked below 3rd in its conference in quite a while. Tech hasn't been able to get into the top 3 in recruiting in our conference even one time during the Leach era. Most of the time we are in the 5th through 10th spot in our conference in recruiting. Utah has had the #1 recruiting class in your conference in 2006 and 2008. You mean to tell me that's not an advantage over the other teams in your conference? I think it'll be the end of the world before Texas Tech is ever able to get a recruiting class that's better than OU or UT. We can't even out-recruit A&M despite the fact that we have OWNED their asses on the field for the last 15 years. As I said before, if Leach was your coach, you would run the table every year in your conference. You've got enough talent to run his offense. It doesn't take much. I can guarantee you Brian Johnson can run our offense. I watched him do it in high school. Unfortunately for him he was on the bench until his senior year because the head coach's stepson, Drew Tate, started all 4 years of his high school career. Brian finally got to play when we were seniors. He had a hell of a season with a ton of TD's and very few INT's. He was an incredibly smart, accurate QB with great mobility. Had he played in our high school's spread offense for more than just our senior season, he would have been a far higher rated player coming out of high school. In this sense he was a "diamond in the rough" because of the fact that he had to wait behind the coach's son to get a chance to play.

At Tech, it's more about coaching than anything. Two of our QB's during Leach's time here were walk-on's and they turned out to be EXCELLENT QB's despite only getting to play one season at starter each (Sonny Cumbie and Cody Hodges in back to back seasons actually). One of our best WR's right now is a walk-on by the name of Eric Morris. He's only around 5 foot 8, kind of like Wes Welker. Like Welker, he was not offered a scholarship coming out of high school. He would drive to Lubbock every weekend and give them his highlight tape (he played as an option quarterback in high school). Eventually, after nagging them enough, they offered him a scholarship and sure enough he turned out to be a great player due to his determination and the excellent coaching here. If it was all about talent, then A&M would be kicking our ass every year. Instead, they have turned into one of the worst teams in the conference due to bad coaching. And you will hear their fans whining about the fact that they "don't have enough talent," but when you look at their recruiting over the last decade it has been just fine. It's been a hell of a lot better than Tech's, but for some reason our program is getting better and theirs is going down the tubes. Coaching is the reason Tech is so good, not talent. If it was only about talent, Tech wouldn't even be in the Top 25 on a routine basis, never mind the Top 2 like we are right now.

[Drunken Irishman]

70. Look, you're mixing things up here.

Utah's talent is relative to its position. That is why they are 11-0 with their schedule. If they weren't recruiting at the level they were to succeed in the Mountain West, they would not be 11-0. However, they still get scraps left over from BAD BCS teams. Utah has lost recruits from Washington, Washington State, Stanford, Colorado and other programs that haven't done a lick in college football for a few years and only because they are located in the BCS.

I'm not saying Utah would ever get the talent Oklahoma or Texas get, but they have the foundation to step it up a level if their talent rises a level. And right now, their talent is good, especially at the starting positions, but overall, the team as a whole, can't compare to BCS programs. That is because they don't have the luxury of recruiting with the backdrop of the BCS.

This is Rivals' 2008 recruiting rankings by state.

http://rivals100.rivals.com/teamrank.asp?SID=880

Texas Tech is 22nd.

Utah is 46th.

That is a big drop off. If you put Utah in the Big 12, their recruiting automatically shoots up into the 20s, like Tech and that gives them the ability to win those games in the Big 12 South. Maybe they wouldn't go undefeated, but they would be in position to do so. Right now, with the talent they have, they probably wouldn't go undefeated, since their depth isn't anywhere near similar to BCS programs (even bad BCS programs). That's the problem with being a non-BCS team. Utah is spurned by kids who will take playing behind a 1st stringer just for a chance to play in the Big 12.

Play a road game at Oklahoma in front of a huge crowd and a large TV audience or play a road game against Wyoming at Laramie, in front of maybe 12,000 fans and no TV audience...it's not much of a competition.

[TTUBatfan2008]

71. Texas Tech is having its best year ever...

This is the first time we have EVER been on the national stage like this. Why don't you check our recruiting classes from the last several years? 22 is the friggin' peak for us. LOL. Compare that with A&M, where down years in recruiting STILL blow Tech's out of the water. The following are the recruiting classes that make up our current roster:

2008 for Tech: 45th in the country.
2007 for Tech: 52nd in the country.
2006 for Tech: 25th in the country (woohoo!!!!).
2005 for Tech: 37th in the country.
2004 for Tech: 33rd in the country.

Does that look like a talented enough bunch to be #2 in the country based on talent alone? Not a chance in hell. It's not even close to being a top 25 squad based on talent alone. Tech is one of the least talented teams in the Big 12 on paper. Especially on the defensive side of the ball. And by the way, we have recruits ditch us too for so-called "big time" programs. Just because we're in a BCS conference doesn't protect us from that kind of stuff. We had a DL de-commit to go to Tennessee this year. Tennessee, the program that is in total disarray right now but he ditches us for them. Jordan Shipley, UT's talented wideout, ditched us at the last second as well.

I don't think any team in the country can go undefeated through the Big 12 South regardless of talent, including Florida (the team that is playing the best right now). I don't expect Tech to make it through. If we do, it'll be a damn miracle.

[EastTennesseeDem]

54. Sorry to go way off topic, but

if Texas Tech loses next weekend, and Texas, Oklahoma, and Texas Tech all go 11-1 (7-1), who from the South goes to the Big 12 Championship Game?

[TTUBatfan2008]

55. Highest ranked in the BCS...

and since Tech lost last, we would get the shaft on that. OU would likely jump UT.

[NEDem]

62. I'd be willing to guess Texas would go

[Doremus]

43. I need to give you some tips in the mother in law dept.

LOL!

It's such a pleasure watching and listening to him.
A wonderful couple.

[genna]

49. My favorite piece was the rusted car watching the ground slide by

I look forward to hearing him tell her...Come on Michelle, you know I'm doing alright. I miss the back and forth of a real relationship in politics. She could be sitting there looking like a Stepford wife but she is being straight forward instead.


He is mild mannered but Michelle is live and direct. If I had a choice of phrase to describe her, it would be: all the way live.

[MamaDem]

52. It wasn't until it was over that I realized what a big smile I had on my face!!

I can't remember the last time I felt that way while my president was speaking!

What a delight!

[bwguy5]

58. It still feels like an unexpected gift...

I've grown so accustomed to cringing and being embarrassed for our country when the president speaks that whenever President-Elect Obama is being interviewed it's Christmas morning for me. What a treat!

[goclark]

61. I can't wait for PST ~ what color is her dress?

[NEDem]

59. It's been a long time since I can say "I'm proud of our President"

[blaze]

65. I know!!!

Doesn't that feel great?

And I'm not a mass of nerves and tense muscles after listening to him talk!

I just took a big, deep breath and smiled. :)

[Born_A_Truman]

66. I could have watched another hour of them...

Imagine four years (hopefully EIGHT) of our wonderful first family. Yayyyyyyy America!