An Atlanta judge Friday ruled that President Obama meets the Constitutional requirement that the president be a “natural born citizen” and that he is therefore qualified to appear on the Georgia Democratic primary ballot.

Judge Michael Malihi issued his ruling even though Obama and his lawyers ignored a subpoena to appear before him in a hearing on the matter last week.

Malihi suggests that he would have issued a default ruling against Obama, but that he decided, at the request of the plaintiffs, to rule on the merits of the case instead. He adds, though, that he “in no way condones the conduct” of Obama’s lawyer, Michael Jablonski.

The matter now goes to Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who will make the final determination on whether Obama can appear on the ballot.

Malahi curtly dismissed arguments that Obama’s Social Security number and birth certificate were fraudulent, as well as several similar claims, saying the testimony of witnesses on these issues possessed “little, if any value.”

But he took more seriously the argument that Obama was not a natural born citizen.

Because the Framers used the term instead of simply “citizen,” there has been some doubt as to its meaning. Some argue that the understanding at the time the Constitution was written was that “natural born citizen” meant both parents had to be citizens. Obama’s father was from Kenya and was not a U.S. citizen.

Malihi said he concurred with a 2009 decision by an Indiana court, which he says found that the “natural born citizen” applies to those born in the United States, whether their parents were citizens or not. He does not appear to have done his own research into the term, instead finding the investigation done by the Indiana court persuasive.

Mitt Romney has put together a secret list of reasons why, if he is the Republican nominee, he can defeat Obama in the general election. Romney plans to refer to this list constantly, using it to perk him up when the going gets tough.

A Romney campaign official shared this list with White House Dossier. He insisted his name be withheld in order to discuss internal campaign matters and so Romney doesn’t kick him so hard in the ass that he would be unable to sit down at his desk for a week.

Here then, are the top ten reasons Romney thinks he can win this fall:

**********

1. He has Utah completely locked up.

2. Obama is weakened by vegetable diet forced on him by Michelle.

3. Trump endorsement will add at least 15-20 votes during the general election.

4. Mormonism allows him to promise the country two and even three first ladies.

5. Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, and Biden is from Saturn.

6. He won’t make McCain’s mistake of being a genuine person.

7. His campaign is preparing new challenge to Obama’s legitimacy to be president based on where he was conceived.

8. Plans not to select Dan Quayle as running mate.

9. Feels certain he can out-Tweet Obama any day of the week.

10. Is in possession of Obama’s college records, including term paper titled, “How I plan to establish a Communist paradise in the United States during my second term as president.”

First Lady Michelle Obama next week will embark on a three-day, eight-stop, taxpayer-funded tour of the nation to celebrate the second anniversary of her “Let’s Move” kids weight reduction initiative.

The trip will take her mostly, though not exclusively, to presidential swing states, including stops in Iowa, Arkansas, Texas and four appearances in the crucial battleground state of Florida.

It’s unclear whether she will do any fundraising on the trip, but Michelle has been very active raising money for the Obama campaign, and it wouldn’t be surprising if some money events were thrown in.

At her initial stop on Thursday, Feb. 9 in Des Moines, Iowa, she will be joined by a roster of sports stars, including NASCAR racing champion and member of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition Carl Edwards, Olympic figure skating champion and Council member Michelle Kwan, Olympic champion gymnast Shawn Johnson, 2011 WNBA MVP Tamika Catchings, and Iowa State University Basketball coach and former NBA player Fred Hoiberg.

During an appearance Friday in Dallas she will join contestants from past seasons of the Bravo series “Top Chef” who will “compete in a healthy cooking competition,” according to the White House.

She will hold two events in Orlando Florida, including her final stop Saturday when she visits ESPN’s Wide World of Sports at the Walt Disney World Resort.

The unemployment rate dropped to 8.3 percent last month as the economy added 243,000 jobs, a sign that the economic recovery is sustaining itself.

The report is probably good news for President Obama. The rate dropped not because people are exiting the workforce, but because companies are hiring.

But there is some risk for Obama here too. Most forecasts project slow growth the rest of the year. If hiring does not continue at a strong pace, and people who have left the workforce return and start looking for jobs, the unemployment rate will start to inch back up.

If this is the start of more robust growth than expected, then Obama has a lot to be happy about. But if not, it could be that the unemployment rate has come down too soon for him, and that it would have been better to see these kind of decreases closer to Election Day.

The White House is already seeking to use the report to its advantage. Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Alan B. Krueger released a statement this morning using the report to tout Obama’s policies and launch the upcoming brawl with Republicans over the payroll tax cut extension.

Today’s employment report provides further evidence that the economy is continuing to heal from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. It is critical that we continue the economic policies that are helping us to dig our way out of the deep hole that was caused by the recession that began at the end of 2007. Most importantly, we need to extend the payroll tax cut and continue to provide emergency unemployment benefits through the end of this year, and take the additional steps that President Obama proposed in his State of the Union address to create an economy built to last.

I’m sure Republicans will go right out and pass all his proposals.

Also remember, unemployment was at 7.8 percent when Obama took office. If he doesn’t have it below 8 percent on Election Day, Republicans will always have a case that things are worse.

We were on the receiving end Thursday of a fusillade of frothy Biblical rhetoric from President Obama, who dusted off all the old warhorses during the National Prayer Breakfast: “for unto whom much is given, much shall be required” and  “love thy neighbor as thyself” and “I am my brother’s keeper” and don’t forget “the biblical call to care for the least of these.” The president lectured us about the urgency of making these the foundation of public policy.

Obama milked this for all he was worth, relating how he gets up and prays every morning, how these principles guide his life, and blah blah blah.

So I suppose it was just AN OVERSIGHT that THE OBAMAS DONATED ONLY ONE PERCENT OF THE INCOME TO CHARITY from 2000-2004.

Sure I love my neighbor, but within reason.
Photo by Keith Koffler

Because that’s not quite enough to keep my brother. If “much shall be required,” well, ONE PERCENT IS NOT MUCH.

These weren’t exactly lean years. According to previous reports you may remember, the Obamas earned $1.2 million from 200-2004, parting with a mere $10,772 for the least of these.

If this is loving thy neighbor, then I’m glad I wasn’t the poor guy living next to the Obamas.

It appears, though, that the Obamas got religion on charity, shall we say, once it occurred to him to run for president. For the 2005 tax year – which he would have filed in early 2006, when he was surely thinking hard about making a run – the Obamas suddenly decided that “much more shall be required.” They began donating about five percent of their income, which was vastly increased by his book sales, to charity.

I’ve been a reporter for 17 years. In that time, I’ve learned something about politicians.

I beg you. BEG YOU BEG YOU BEG YOU. When a politician gets really high on their high horse about something, turn the volume down to zero.

They’re just politicians.

“It has come to my attention that the Catholic church is discriminating against certain of its employees by requiring that they be unmarried as a condition of employment. We have launched a full investigation and expect to file a lawsuit soon.”

- Attorney General Eric Holder

A note from our attorneys: This is not a real quote

10:00 am || Receives the Presidential Daily Briefing
10:30 am || Meets with senior advisers
11:25 am || Delivers remarks on the economy; Fire Station #5, Arlington, Va.
2:45 pm || Attends a fundraiser; Jefferson Hotel, Washington

All times Eastern

I wanted to flag for you a piece running in POLITICO today that questions the rationale for the recent perky optimism being emitted by the Obama operation.

The campaign and the White House have put out word recently that they and the boss are buoyed by recent positive numbers on the economy, a rise in Obama’s polls, and signs of deeply ingrained ineptitude plaguing their Republican opposition.

But while Mitt Romney certainly needs to go back to the laboratory where he was created for some fine tuning, the economy and the polls are not quite what many Democrats seem to think. Or say they think.

In the piece, POLITICO Executive Editor Jim VandeHei points to a widely overlooked nugget of data to be found in Wednesday’s Congressional Budget Office economic forecast, noting that the CBO is predicting an 8.8 percent unemployment rate around Election Day.

That, as VandeHei suggests, would be catastrophic for the Obama campaign.

Part of the New Optimism message is predicated on the unemployment rate having dropped from above 9 percent to its current level of 8.5 percent. If it starts going up again, the recent decrease will actually work against the president, because Republicans will be able to claim that after almost four years of Obama, joblessness is rising.

What’s more, CBO says we’re looking at about 2.2 percent growth in the third quarter. That, to put it in the technical jargon of economists, sucks.

Meanwhile, the polls, VandeHei notes, are not particularly encouraging in the states that matter.

The president had a 50 percent or better approval rating last year in only 10 states and the District of Columbia. In five states that could decide the election — Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia — Obama’s slide has been steep and uniform. In each state, approval in 2011 had fallen 12 or 13 percentage points from 2009 levels.

And the Obama campaign strategy of trying to crush their eventual GOP opposition with dollar bills doesn’t seem to be working.

Look at the latest numbers: Romney, the RNC and the super PAC run by his allies have raised a total of $175.7 million during 2011; Obama, the DNC and the super PAC run by his allies have raised $209.3 million. As far as cash on hand, Obama enjoys an edge but not a decisive one: $96 million to $63.5 million.

This doesn’t factor in super PAC American Crossroads and sister nonprofit group Crossroads GPS, which plan on raising as much as $240 million for the election cycle, or the political spending of the Koch brothers, David and Charles, who together plan to funnel $200 million to various conservative groups this cycle. It is possible Republicans could actually outspend Obama.

So when you see cheerful Obamaites on TV and view the president with his newly chipper affect, remember that this is as likely a facade to energize the grassoots and open up donors’ wallets as it is a true sign of the current state of mind in the West Wing and at campaign HQ in Chicago.

The briefing has concluded.

President Obama today suggested his political agenda is blessed by the world’s great religions, linking a variety of specific policy proposals to the teachings of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

In a remarkable flouting of the traditional barrier between church and state, Obama used the annual National Prayer Breakfast to assert that his proposals are not just based on economic benefit, but on guidance he receives from the Bible.

George W. Bush was repeatedly knocked by liberals and members of the press who believed he thought his presidency was guided by the hand of God.

Obama today affirmed that his tax policy, which he frames as a call to “shared responsibility” that would increase the tax burden on the rich, is prescribed by Jesus Christ.

And when I talk about shared responsibility, it’s because I genuinely believe that in a time when many folks are struggling, at a time when we have enormous deficits, it’s hard for me to ask seniors on a fixed income, or young people with student loans, or middle-class families who can barely pay the bills to shoulder the burden alone. And I think to myself, if I’m willing to give something up as somebody who’s been extraordinarily blessed, and give up some of the tax breaks that I enjoy, I actually think that’s going to make economic sense.

But for me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus’s teaching that “for unto whom much is given, much shall be required.” It mirrors the Islamic belief that those who’ve been blessed have an obligation to use those blessings to help others, or the Jewish doctrine of moderation and consideration for others.

Obama said the financial reform law, as well as Obamacare provisions barring insurers from rejecting those with preexisting conditions, stem from the Divine call to “love thy neighbor as thyself.”

Spending programs that support increased college enrollment, retraining of unemployed workers, and medical research are examples of Obama fulfilling the admonition that “I am my brother’s keeper.”

Even foreign aid is justified by “the biblical call to care for the least of these,” Obama said.

The president’s linkage of his policies to the bible comes as he ramps up his own religious profile, an effort certain to appeal to voters stretching across a variety of demographics.

Obama in recent weeks has added specific Christian references to his remarks and upped his attendance at church.

Obama 2012 Campaign Manager Jim Messina derided at millions of Republican voters Wednesday, using the condescending phase “far-right Tea Party types” to describe those who back the mainstream conservative movement.

That the chief of Obama’s reelection effort, also a former close White House adviser to the president, holds contempt for millions of U.S. citizens is likely an indicator of how others in the Obama camp, and perhaps the president himself, view conservative voters.

The Tea Party is hardly some fringe group. According to a recent CNN poll, half of Republicans either back or consider themselves members of the Tea Party. That would mean tens of millions of voters are “Tea Party types.”

Messina’s nasty aside was included in an email to Obama backers in which he raised the specter of Tea Party donations to Mitt Romney and urged Obama’s minions to counter by sending their own money to the Obama campaign.

Here’s part of the email:

It’s also clear that there’s lots of money to be raised from far-right Tea Party types appealing to a very personal dislike of Barack Obama. When Romney tells a reporter that we need a president “who believes in American principles” or that President Obama will be just a “footnote in history,” that’s who he’s talking to.

While it is not rare for political campaigns to attack each other’s candidates, the example of a campaign chief, particularly one close to the president, insulting large swaths of the populace is something unusual.

In the email, Messina announced the launch of a fundraising drive called the “Two-Term Fund,” intended to counter a Romney effort labeled the “One-Term Fund.”

Both titles presumably refer to Obama, not Romney!

The event has concluded.

“Of course Mitt likes poor people. He created lots of them during his years with Bain Capital.”

- Newt Gingrich

A note from our attorneys: This is not a real quote

8:00 am || Delivers remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast
Noon || Meets with senior advisers
1:00 pm || Lunch with Biden
2:00 pm || Meets with Secretary of State Clinton
2:30 pm || Meets with Secretary of Treasury Geithner

All times Eastern
Live stream of Carney briefing at 1:30 pm

The scene is the first lady’s office in the East Wing of the White House. Two of President Obama’s top political advisers, David Axelrod and David Plouffe, have stopped by for a chat about Michelle’s spending habits.

************

Axelrod: Mrs. Obama, we want to talk to you about, you know, um . . .

Michelle: No, I don’t know.

Plouffe: Your spending. Your over-spending, to be precise.

Michelle: Excuse me?

Axelrod: Mrs. Obama, the campaign this year is going to be painting a contrast between President Obama as a man of the people and Mitt Romney as an out-of-touch elitist. But if you keep taking luxury vacations and wearing all this expensive stuff, it’s going to undermine our message.

Michelle: You’re not talking about the lingerie are you? You know that story is false.

Axelrod: I know, it’s just -

Michelle: I mean, what was I going to do with $50,000 worth of lingerie? You know, unless I was planning to go into business myself.

Axelrod: No, of course not. You -

Michelle: I only spent $40,000 in that store, and that’s a fact.

Plouffe: What??

Michelle: See, you guys are too easy. I’m just messing with you.

Plouffe: Oh, thank God.

Axelrod: For example, Mrs. Obama, very regrettably, we need you to cancel your upcoming ski vacation in Colorado.

Michelle: What? Cancel my trip to Colorado? Now where am I going to ski? You know full well there’s no snow on the East Coast. Of course I’m going to Colorado.

Plouffe: You see, you just had a vacation, and to average Americans, it looks bad that you jet out to Colorado, eat buffalo ribs at a fancy restaurant, and so forth. You can’t go to Colorado.

Michelle: Okay, I’ll go to Utah.

Plouffe: No, you see, that doesn’t really solve the problem. Can’t you ski somewhere in Virginia?

Michelle: You mean on snow made by snow machines? No chance in Hell.

Axelrod: And while we’re on the dining issue, we really need you to tone it down. Actually, we want to arrange for an AP photographer to just happen to photograph you at McDonald’s.

Michelle: Okay, I can do that. What do they serve there?

Plouffe: At McDonald’s?

Michelle: Yes.

Axelrod: Oh, well, you know, burgers, fries, that kind of thing.

Michelle: That’s right, I haven’t been there in a while. But I can get a perfectly good burger at Morton’s Steakhouse.

Axelrod: Again, that doesn’t exactly solve our problem.

Michelle: Okay, I’ll go to McDonald’s. I’ll have a Big and Tasty.

Plouffe: They don’t serve that anymore.

Axelrod: Also, we’d like to turn down the volume on your wardrobe a bit. For example, if you could avoid wearing any dress that costs more than $300, it would really help.

Michelle: Okay, no dress for more than $3,000

Plouffe: No, he said $300.

Michelle: Oh, I see. How about I just show up in a towel?

Plouffe: And how much do you need to spend on a handbag?

Michelle: Do you want buy some cheap piece of junk? Do you want my stuff falling out all over the place on the street?

Plouffe: Certainly, there’s some type of quality stitching you can get for less than a hundred bucks. I mean, it’s just something to put your things in, right?

Michelle: That’s exactly how men look at handbags. For women, it’s more important what’s on the outside of a handbag than the inside it.

Plouffe: Listen, once we’re reelected, you can do whatever you want. We just need to put the spending on standby until November.

Michelle: And then I can get my bling back on?

Axelrod: Yes, absolutely.

Michelle: Okay, I’ll do it. Now, you guys have to leave. My wellness coach and my acupuncturist are waiting for me.

Well, the Obama deficit reduction plan is going nearly as well as the Afganistan Retreat Strategy, with the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office predicting yet another deficit exceeding $1 trillion.

The White House blames Republicans for refusing to raise taxes. EXCEPT . . .  spending is at the highest level it’s been since World War II and Obama was supposed to be a post-partisan, God-like figure who could transcend politics and make Kumbaya the national anthem.

Besides, it’s no secret where the money is: entitlements. Obama has been unwilling for his entire term to do anything serious on this front.

Mr. Elmendorf warned that the primary driver of the deficit later this decade would be the cost of an aging U.S. population, particularly the rising costs of government health-care programs. For example, the CBO projected the government would spend $1.6 trillion on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid in 2012, 44% of the federal budget. In 2022, the government will spend $3.0 trillion on those programs, 54% of the federal budget.

Meanwhile, spending on TARP this year will cost $23 billion – compared to $37 billion in savings last year – because the stock prices of GM and AIG, in which the government still owns stakes, have declined.

Breaking News: The Obama campaign has just hired Republican presidential primary frontrunner Mitt Romney to write and produce TV commercials for the Obama 2012 advertising effort.

Romney, who was found standing this morning in deep doo-doo, commented. “It’s an honor. Wait a second – ”

In applying for the job, Romney submitted this clip, which he cut this morning on CNN.

A senior Obama campaign official said Romney was hired immediately after campaign aides reviewed the video.

“‘I’m not concerned about the very poor?’ This is priceless material,” the Obama official said. “We’re going to run this again and again and again and again.”

Another Obama spokesman confirmed the new hire.

“We really feel that Mitt Romney brings perspectives to the Obama organization that we could never develop on our own,” he said. “Mitt has shown he has the skills and commitment to perform here at a very high level, and we look forward to having him do great things for the Obama campaign.”

UPDATE: Sorry everyone about initially posting the wrong clip.

Wow, this is really working.

A new NATO report leaked to the BBC says that our allies in Pakistan are basically running the Taliban war against us in Afghanistan. Here are a few excerpts:

The leaked report, derived from thousands of interrogations, claims the Taliban remain defiant and have wide support among the Afghan people . . .

The report alleges that Pakistan knows the locations of senior Taliban leaders . . .

It quotes a senior al-Qaeda detainee as saying: “Pakistan knows everything. They control everything. I can’t [expletive] on a tree in Kunar without them watching.”

“The Taliban are not Islam. The Taliban are Islamabad.” . . .

In a damning conclusion, the document says that in the last year there has been unprecedented interest, even from members of the Afghan government, in joining the Taliban cause.

It adds: “Afghan civilians frequently prefer Taliban governance over the Afghan government, usually as a result of government corruption.”

The report has evidence that the Taliban are purposely hastening Nato’s withdrawal by deliberately reducing their attacks in some areas and then initiating a comprehensive hearts-and-minds campaign.

This is the result of President Obama’s Afghanistan strategy, which amounts to announcing our retreat and then following through by starting to remove troops.

Obama, the Taliban has correctly reasoned, cannot be counted on to fight. But he can be counted on to withdraw.

Obama said the intention of his decision to actually broadcast the limit to U.S. time in Afghanistan was to get the Afghanistan government to shape up. Instead, he’s done EXACTLY WHAT I PREDICTED almost two years ago, which is to embolden the Taliban. Instead of reforming and becoming a model warrior-government worthy of Sparta, the Afghani fiefs are trying to figure out how to end up on the side of the eventual winners.

Trust me. I know what I'm doing.
Photo by Keith Koffler

What’s more, Obama has utterly failed to leash Pakistan, which gets $1.5 billion in annual U.S. aid. That means every man woman and child – yes, including the infant you saw in the park the other day – is sending five dollars each year to Pakistan.

I’m, sorry, let me offer the correct pronunciation, like our president is always so careful to do.

Pahkeestan.

WE ARE ACTUALLY PAYING OUR ENEMY TO MAKE WAR ON US.

The parents of our boys and gals fighting in Afghanistan are paying taxes so that Islamic extremists can kill their children.

I understand that Pahkeestan plays us along and throws us some bones on the al Qaeda front. But at some point, certain basic principle have to come into play – like common sense, for example – and the Pahkeestanis have to get the message that we’re finished with their nonsense.

That is, cut them off.

If you want a good laugh in the morning, read what our Senate Democratic foreign policy maven – and possible second term Obama Secretary of State – Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said about Pahkeestan nine months ago, in May 2011.

All of that, I believe, can change. I’ve had some early conversations with high level officials of Pakistan. There’s an indication to me there is an enormous amount of introspection going on and some very deep evaluating within Pakistan. I know for a fact they are thinking of a government inquiry outside of the military. For the first time there is major criticism in Pakistani papers of the intelligence network and military in Pakistan.

So I see this as a time for us to be careful, to be thoughtful, to proceed deliberately but determinedly in order to lay on the table the things that we know have to change. The relationship with the ISI, the double dealing, the attitude and frankly wastefulness of resources towards India. The question of cooperation with respect to Afghanistan.

I see opportunity in all of this to sort of punch a reset button and frankly serve our interests and theirs much more effectively.

ANOTHER RESET BUTTON!!

When will people learn? There’s been a fire sale on reset buttons since September 1938, when Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler stood joyfully side to side and pressed away together.