Fear of Lefty Obama Gets Bill Behind Mac

Xi Jinping, China's next president, to meet with Obama

(NEWSER) - The man slated to be China's next president began his US tour today, meeting with President Obama in the Oval Office before having lunch with Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. Biden will serve as Xi Jinping's host in Washington, the New York Times reports. Other stops on the agenda: a meeting with the Chamber of Commerce, and a high-level trip to the Pentagon, where he'll get an honor guard salute and meet with Leon Panetta and the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey. More»

And Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin is still pretty scary: reactions

(NEWSER) - If you thought Julianne Moore's Sarah Palin was terrifying in the first Game Change teaser , wait until you see her in the full trailer, where she utters lines such as, "We have to win this thing. I so don’t want to go back to Alaska." Watch below, then read on for some reactions:

• This will clearly be "a Frankenstein-esque story about McCain’s staffers coming to regret the choice they made in bringing a little-known governor into the limelight," writes Jon Bershad at Mediaite . "The full trailer ... gives us even more famous actors getting their turn to stare in horror at the 'monster' they’ve created."

The Comeback Kid would trump Newt in debates: David Maraniss

(NEWSER) - If the GOP can revive Newt Gingrich from his political grave, Democrats are allowed to play retro too—and bring back Bill Clinton, David Maraniss writes in the Washington Post . True, "the law prohibits the Comeback Kid from coming back to serve a third term, and Obama might not go for it, but only old-school twits would let any of that get in the way," chuckles Maraniss. Plus it's a perfect matchup: Bill and Newt's foibles would brilliantly balance each other out, banishing "pious baloney about sex" from our national debate. More»

HBO debuts first teaser

(NEWSER) - For all of you who have spent the past nine months wondering how Julianne Moore’s Sarah Palin impersonation will stack up against Tina Fey’s , you finally have your answer. HBO debuted its first teaser trailer for Game Change, the film due in March that's based on the Mark Halperin-John Heilemann book about the 2008 presidential election. Neither Ed Harris as John McCain nor Woody Harrelson as top adviser Steve Schmidt sound much like their real-life counterparts, notes David Jackson in USA Today , but Moore’s Palin is spot-on: Numerous publications including People , New York , the Huffington Post , and Jezebel are fairly impressed. More»

And he's not the only one who thinks so

(NEWSER) - The saga continues: Donald Trump thinks Jon Huntsman is a "joke candidate." Huntsman thinks Trump's debate "is a joke." More from the candidate's comments, made today, plus other reactions to the controversial Dec. 27 debate:

• Huntsman: "This is not about ratings for Donald Trump, this is about jobs for the American people. This is a serious debate that we ought to be having here in the United States," he said on NBC's Today . "I believe that the presidency of the United States of America is beyond reality shows. This is a joke."
• Robert Gibbs: “Cancel Christmas. Just get ready for the Donald Trump debate," said the former White House spokesperson on Morning Joe, according to Politico . "Pay-per-view. Pay-per-view. We ought to have this, the new rule, I think you’ve heard, you have to have your birth certificate to participate in the debate. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel."