Holly Bailey

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Mitt Romney campaigning with his mom, Lenore, during her Senate campaign in 1970 (via Time LightBox)

While the Reagan family is surely relieved, this development must come as a great disappointment for the auction’s high bidder, who had offered a whopping $30,086 for the presidential blood. Sources tell Daily Intel that he was a mad scientist who intended to extract DNA from the blood and grow an entire colony of Reagans on a remote tropical island. Visitors would have the opportunity to see the Reagans up close from behind an electrified wall, which the mad scientist claimed would be “un-tear-downable,” because, you know.

The graphics folks at Daily Intel really are the best. (“Mad Scientist Prevented From Building ‘Reagan Park’” via NYMag)

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President Obama steps off Air Force One in rainy Albany, NY. (Photo by Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

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Spotted in Virginia: Orange juice, donuts and Romney bumper stickers (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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In sparkling detail, Caro shows the new president’s genius for getting to people — friends, foes and everyone in between — and how he used it to achieve his goals. We’ve all seen the iconic photos of L.B.J. leaning into a conversation, poking his thick finger into a confidant’s chest or wrapping his long arm around a shoulder. At 6 foot 4, he towered over most men, but even seated Johnson commanded from on high. Caro relates how during a conversation about civil rights, he placed Roy Wilkins and his N.A.A.C.P. entourage on one of the couches in the Oval Office, yet still towered over them as he sat up close in his rocking chair. And he didn’t need to be in the same room — he was great at manipulating, cajoling and even bullying over the phone.

He knew just how to get to you, and he was relentless in doing it.

If you were a partisan, he’d call on your patriotism; if a traditionalist, he’d make his proposal seem to be the Establishment choice. His flattery was minutely detailed, finely tuned and perfectly modulated. So was his bombast — whatever worked. L.B.J. didn’t kiss Sam Rayburn’s ring, but his lips did press against his bald head. Harry Byrd received deference and attention. When L.B.J. became president, he finally had the power to match his political skills.

Bill Clinton’s amazing review of Robert Caro’s new LBJ book in the Times makes me nostalgic for a Washington that wasn’t wrecked by political gridlock and partisanship. I wonder how LBJ’s political skills would work these days.

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A pug just showed up at anti Romney rally. One dog represents millions!” organizer declares (Taken with instagram)

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Mitt Romney on his campaign plane en route to Vegas (Taken with instagram)

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Mitt Romney in Las Vegas NV (Taken with instagram)

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Mitt Romney in Pensacola FL (Taken with instagram)

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President Obama and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer got into a little tiff today after Air Force One landed in Phoenix. Here’s an except of the White House pool report by Politico’s Carrie Budoff Brown:

He stepped off Air Force One at 3:28 pm and was greeted by Gov. Jan Brewer. She handed him a handwritten letter in an envelope and they spoke intensely for a few minutes. At one point, she pointed her finger at him.

Afterwards, your pooler spoke with the governor.

“He was a little disturbed about my book, Scorpions for Breakfast. I said to him that I have all the respect in the world for the office of the president. The book is what the book is. I asked him if he read the book. He said he read the excerpt. So.”

Asked what aspect of the book disturbed him, Brewer said: “That he didn’t feel that I had treated him cordially. I said I was sorry he felt that way but I didn’t get my sentence finished. Anyway, we’re glad he’s here. I’ll regroup.”

On the letter, she said it was personal letter asking him to sit down with her to discuss the “Arizona comeback.”

She said she “reiterated an invitation that I’ve extended to him before with regards to coming to arizona and going to the border with me.” She said she would take him to lunch.

“We’ve had a remarkable comeback here and I want to share that with him.”

She said the president brought up the book.

“I thought we probably would’ve talked about the things that were important to him and important to me, helping one another. Our country is upside down. Arizona was upside down. But we have turned it around. I know again that he loves this country and I love this country.”

(Photo by Haraz N. Ghanbari/Associated Press)