DAY’S END ROUNDUP

President-elect Barack Obama’s first post-election press conference is praised by liberals, while conservatives take offense at Obama’s joke about Nancy Reagan.

Obama seemed disciplined and in control at his first press conference, Swampland’s Joe Klein declares. Obama spoke before reporters and TV cameras after meeting with economic advisers, and Klein says the Democrat did not stray from one policy position he had taken during the campaign. Obama navigated reporters’ questions easily, Firedoglake’s Swopa asserts, while Political Animal’s Steve Benen says Obama had an endearing moment when, after telling reporters he hopes his family’s new dog will come from a shelter, Obama said shelter dogs tend to be “mutts like me”–an apparent reference to the Democrat’s biraciality.

The Corner’s David Freddoso accuses Obama of insulting Nancy Reagan after he was asked about consulting former presidents. After saying he has talked with all living former presidents, Obama joked, “I didn’t want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about, you know, doing any seances,” and Freddoso says the joke was classless. Obama was apparently referencing Reagan’s reported consultation with an astrologer, though The Weekly Standard’s Mary Katharine Ham notes that Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) reportedly tried to summon Eleanor Roosevelt during her time as First Lady.

And Sen. Robert Byrd’s (D-W.Va.) decision to step down from his Appropriations Committee chairmanship gets mixed reactions in the blogosphere. Byrd showed class in stepping down voluntarily, writes AMERICAblog’s Joe Sudbay, comparing the 20-year chairman to Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), who is Sudbay says is “begging” Democratic leaders to keep his post as chairman of the Homeland Security Committee. Townhall.com’s Matt Lewis, meanwhile, suggests that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) “nudged” the 90-year-old senator toward stepping down.

FROM THE BLOGS:
At the Table – David Sirota, Open Left
Can You Feel the Love? – M.K. Ham, The Weekly Standard
Get Engaged for Saxby Chambliss – RedState
Boenher Makes His Case – Steve Benen, Political Animal
Rumor Patrol: Plouffe for Senate? – Marc Ambinder
One for the Mutts – Adam Serwer, TAPPED
Lieberman with a Gavel: Unacceptable – Kagro X, Daily Kos
The First Big Gaffe?? – A. Carpenter, Townhall.com
What’s Happening in Minnesota? – Power Line
It’s Not a Negotiation – Josh Marshall, TalkingPointsMemo

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:
Obama Says Economic Stimulus Is First Task – The Hill
Jobless Rate at 14-Year High after October Losses – NY Times
Byrd Steps Down from Chairmanship – Washington Post