It’s the dreaded Obama State of the Union Curse. Any politician who gives the GOP response is suddenly tongue-tied and dry-mouthed, and their career dies.

Folks, the gloves are officially off in this presidential campaign: Team Obama to Romney: Stop Whining.

Mitt Romney isn’t going to get an apology from President Obama or any of his surrogates about suggestions that he may have committed a felony about his time at Bain Capital in Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

Instead, Rahm Emanuel and deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter—who first suggested last week that Romney may have broken the law—offered this advice today to Romney: “Stop whining.”

“Give it up about Stephanie. Don’t worry about that,” said Emanuel, Obama’s former chief of staff and current mayor of Chicago. “What are you going to do when the Chinese leader says something? Or Putin says (something critical) to you? You’re going to whine…You cannot do that. And as Mitt Romney said once to his own Republican colleagues: Stop whining. I’ll give him his own advice: Stop whining.”

It should also be mentioned that Mitt Romney really has no right to demand apologies for negative campaigning; in his own campaign he’s been questioning Barack Obama’s patriotism and his love for America, taking quotes way out of context and lying outright, and repeating every crazy wingnut meme, including the ridiculous “apology tour” and “bowing to the Saudis” nonsense. And the President hasn’t been demanding apologies for any of it, even though he’d be justified.

Romney’s outrage rings hollow.

The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President Bush has been sentenced to three years in jail, and people who think it’s cool to assault the President of the United States are seething and whining.

Chief defense attorney Dhia al-Saadi then demanded that the charge be dismissed, saying his client’s action “was an expression of freedom and does not constitute a crime.”

He echoed al-Zeidi’s testimony at the previous hearing, saying his client had been provoked by anger over Bush’s claims of success in a war that has devastated his country.

“It was an act of throwing a shoe and not a rocket. It was meant as an insult to the occupation,” the lawyer said.

The Associated Press helpfully informs us that the Iraqi journalist who threw shoes at President Bush was protesting the war.

BAGHDAD – The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at former President George W. Bush failed to apologize as his trial began Thursday, and instead appealed defiantly to the pride of his war-ravaged country.

In his first public appearance since he was taken into custody on Dec. 14, Muntadhar al-Zeidi said he did not intend to harm Bush or to embarrass Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

“What made me do it was the humiliation Iraq has been subjected to due to the U.S. occupation and the murder of innocent people,” al-Zeidi said. “I wanted to restore the pride of the Iraqis in any way possible, apart from using weapons.”

Because nothing restores pride like throwing a shoe at the leader of the country that gave you a chance at democracy.

Here’s an open thread to talk about President Bush’s speech to his welcome home rally in Midland, Texas…

UPDATE at 1/20/09 5:04:02 pm:

A clip from CNN:

Say thank you to President Bush for keeping the United States safe, at Mission 1 Accomplished.

The folks who built the site are planning to present the comments and logs to George W. Bush’s Presidential Library on September 11, 2011.

Just in: President Bush has commuted the sentences of border patrol agents Ramos and Compean…

George W. says farewell in his last address to the nation as President, beginning at 8 pm Eastern time. Here’s a thread to discuss it…

Now that President Bush is leaving office and Barack Obama is elected, it’s safe for the New York Times to publish articles pointing out that Bush might not really have been like Hitler after all: Bush Has Built Foundation for Improved Health Care.

NASHVILLE — Although the number of uninsured and the cost of coverage have ballooned under his watch, President Bush leaves office with a health care legacy in bricks and mortar: he has doubled federal financing for community health centers, enabling the creation or expansion of 1,297 clinics in medically underserved areas.

For those in poor urban neighborhoods and isolated rural areas, including Indian reservations, the clinics are often the only dependable providers of basic services like prenatal care, childhood immunizations, asthma treatments, cancer screenings and tests for sexually transmitted diseases.

As a crucial component of the health safety net, they are lauded as a cost-effective alternative to hospital emergency rooms, where the uninsured and underinsured often seek care.

(Hat tip: davesax.)

Q: How do you know when you’ve really made it in the Arab world? A: Father offers daughter to shoe-thrower.

CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian man said on Wednesday he was offering his 20-year-old daughter in marriage to Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi, who threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush in Baghdad on Sunday,

The daughter, Amal Saad Gumaa, said she agreed with the idea. “This is something that would honor me. I would like to live in Iraq, especially if I were attached to this hero,” she told Reuters by telephone.