49% Americans Support Tax Cut Deal

Tax cut deal negotiated by President Obama and Congressional Replubicans begin get votes from Americans. Through USA TODAY/gallup poll finds 49% support the deal. But this result hasn't boosted the optimism about the prospect way out of the problem.

Obama Get 12 Stitches For Lip

WASHINGTON — President Obama had to get 12 stitches in his lip after getting a blow from an opponent’s elbow during a basketball game Friday morning, White House officials said.

“After being inadvertently hit with an opposing player’s elbow in the lip while playing basketball with friends and family, the president received 12 stitches today administered by the White House medical unit,” the press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said in a statement.

“They were done in the doctor’s office located on the ground floor of the White House.”

A second White House statement, a couple of hours later, said that Mr. Obama was injured when another player turned into the president, “who was playing defense, to take a shot when the elbow hit the president in the mouth.”

That statement did not name the player responsible for the elbow, but it listed several players who were not: Mr. Obama’s nephew Avery Robinson; Reggie Love, an Obama aide who played basketball for Duke University; and Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

Shortly after 5 p.m., the identity of the elbower emerged: Rey Decerega, the director of programs for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.

Mr. Decerega said in a statement that the game was all in good fun — and did not apologize.

“I learned today the president is both a tough competitor and a good sport,” he said.

“I enjoyed playing basketball with him this morning. I’m sure he’ll be back out on the court again soon.”

The White House said Mr. Obama was given a local anesthetic while receiving the stitches.

The stitches were made with a smaller filament than is typically used, which increases the number of stitches but makes a tighter stitch and results in a smaller scar
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Auto industry success a hard sell for White House

The auto industry is provided that President Barack Obama a good intelligence story — automakers are making money, plants are hiring and the taxpayers' stake in General Motors is diminishing. Things are look up for the president in assembly line country — just not the voting.

Obama, fresh from claiming justification after last week's GM public stock gift, is joining Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday at a Chrysler auto plant in Kokomo, Ind. This month in Indiana, Democrats lost a Senate seat and two House seating and were ambitious into the minority in the state government.

While Obama is embarking on a mission to change the public's mood, the story is much the same somewhere else in auto developed states: The commerce might be on the mend, but neither Obama nor the Democrats are reaping the payback.