The XX Factor: What women really think.

Barack's Bar Mitzvah

Anyone have reactions to Obama's speech last night? John Dickerson does a great job analyzing it here, and Politico's Jim Vandehei and Mike Allen have an interesting translation of what Obama really meant in his key passages. And then, of course, there's the chatter about Michelle's "super-sculpted arms."

I don't have much substantive to add to the analysis already going on, but I do have two incredibly superficial additions! One was the apt comparison some of my friends made of the setup last night to a bar mitzvah, both in terms of the relentless standing and sitting ("not another Amidah!" one groaned, as the 2,000th standing ovation erupted) and also the beaming parents sitting in large wooden chairs behind the bar mitzvah boy, inadvertently (or possibly deliberately) stealing his spotlight. Hard as I tried, I just couldn't take my eyes off Nancy "Oh please please can I stand up and clap again this instant" Pelosi and Joe "I'll just scribble some quick notes for my rebuttal" Biden.

My other superficial realization of the night was finally pinpointing why Timothy Geithner has always creeped me out and why I keep picturing him all sweaty and frantic and secretly evil. He looks just like Carl, the Patrick Swayze killer! I Googled it this morning, and I'm not the first to draw the comparison. But man did it put me at ease to pinpoint the source of my discomfort.