Dog Days

Between all the 'phony' scandals dogging obama, the recovery that isn't, and the muddled-up mess that is obama's failed Mid-East policy, things haven't been going to well for our beloved prez. That could be what led to the recent acquisition by the obamas of Sunny, the new puppy that now makes the White House his home.

This week, the Obamas welcomed a new member to the first family -- a 14-month-old female Portuguese Water dog called Sunny.

"Bo was getting lonely," the president said when asked why they got Sunny. "[He] was getting a little down in the dumps inside the house." With Sunny around, though, 4-year-old Bo has a playmate.

Sunny and Bo take a break from their carefree frolicking.

First Lady Michelle Obama, meanwhile, is in "full parenting mode," the president said -- especially because little Sunny has already had a few accidents in the White House.

Sunny isn't the only one making messes in the White House.

The president didn't seemed too concerned though.

"We live in rental housing. We didn't have to put down a deposit," he said.

That pretty much confirms what we already know about that worthless freeloader (barry, not Sunny).

It turns out that there may be a more underhanded reason for the obamas' new dog.

In a 2012 paper entitled “Unleashing Presidential Power: The Politics of Pets in the White House,” and published in the journal PS: Political Science & Politics, three professors at George Washington University tracked press mentions of First Pets in order to examine the hypothesis that Administrations showcase furry friends to burnish a President’s image during times of war or scandal but keep them out of sight during economic downturns—the theory being that pets, sometimes a “reassuring public presence” during times of upheaval or war, are likely to trigger resentment if they are perceived to be “frolicking on the White House lawn in hard times.”

The authors ultimately found that higher inflation and unemployment figures related to fewer pet mentions in the press, and that incidents of military action or Presidential scandal were correlated with greater pet coverage.

The way things are going lately, we'll probably see a steady stream of new pets parading across the White House lawn...