Programming note: Our Socialist President will be chatting it up with Letterman tonight. (Don’t worry, you’re safe — Colbert has the night off.) As long as he goes easy on those wayward self-deprecating anecdotes, he should glide through it. Special points if Dave asks Barry whether the Public Option will float.

Well, that was fun, wasn’t it? A whole month of wingnut hijinx, abetted by a near vacuum of response from what passes for our national leadership. Just ignore them, maybe they’ll go away.

And if they don’t, you can always schedule a grownup indoctrination session primetime speech to have the last word. Try not to say anything this time about police profiling in tony Boston suburbs. It’s very distracting.

Which brings us to another Open Thread/Día de los Muertos Festival to mark the historic occasion of the Fall of Hope. 9/9/9: Never forget.

It may be Obama’s Waterloo, but we haven’t been able to muster excitement for health-care policy — mainly because any effective proposal is automatically forbidden from consideration. But since Barry’s driving it into a Prime Time press conference, we feel obligated to raise our groggy head ever so slightly to take notice.

So welcome to our Open Thread/Slumber Party, in which we tell each other horror stories and compare underoos. Alas, we personally are unable to attend because of getting soused an important meeting, but you’re welcome to follow the action here. Or just dream up future home materials for Maru to conquer.

As quietly inserted into today’s White House schedule, set for a time after Journalist Working Hours:

President Obama will sign a presidential memorandum on Wednesday to extend benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees, administration officials said Tuesday evening, but he will stop short of pledging full health insurance coverage.

Mr. Obama, in an Oval Office announcement, is expected to offer details about which benefits will be provided. It is the most significant statement he has made on gay issues, and it comes as he faces intense criticism from several gay rights leaders over what they suggest has been a failure to live up to campaign promises in the first months of his presidency.

Now stop saying he never cared about you.

U.S. to Extend Its Job Benefits to Gay Partners [NYT]

Notorious elitist President Barack Obama has gone out and shocked America again, by going for another hamburger.  Last time this happened, the media firestorm regarding Obama’s dijon mustard choice brought the country to a standstill, inciting inner city riots, a congressional invesitgation, and new frontiers in mustard marketing.    

This time, the New York Times reportage neglects to even mention what kind of mustard Obama put on his burger, because they are still in the tank for him.  However, there were cameras present to record the event, so, as with Abu Ghraib, we will eventually find out the truth.  
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The more we think about this line from Obama’s speech Thursday, the creepier we feel:

In the midst of all these challenges, however, my single most important responsibility as President is to keep the American people safe. That is the first thing that I think about when I wake up in the morning. It is the last thing that I think about when I go to sleep at night.

On the other hand, this may be the first President in our lifetime where we’d even give it a second thought.

It would be so easier to come up with a caption if this was Dubya’s crew.

First 100 Days – Delivering on Change [Flickr/White House]