Winter's Picks

  Washington, D.C. is used to holding pretty extravagant festivals, but the inauguration of Barack Obama may test the capital.

  Experts say as many as four million people might show up - that's three to four times the next biggest even ever held there.

  Quote: Only a fraction of those people will be close enough to get a good look at the action. But officials are planning extra JumboTrons at the Mall and along the inaugural parade route so that spectators can feel a part of the historic day.

"The Mall actually may be the best seat in the house. . . . It'll kind of be like the world's biggest stage and auditorium on January 20th," said Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D), adding that the crowd projections have emerged in briefings conducted by federal and local officials.

  The numbers being thrown about, according to this article, could hit $7 million.

  Quote: She’s poised to make a ton of money,” said Howard Rubenstein, New York’s best-known public relations adviser.

“Every publisher and a lot of literary agents have been going after her,” added Jeff Klein of Folio Literary management.

  The article points out an interesting fact in how Sarah Palin mirrors Barack Obama.

  Obama, like Palin, came out of nowhere.

  Quote: She now finds herself in a position similar to Obama’s in 2004, when the then mostly unknown Chicago politician delivered a mesmerising speech to the Democratic convention, was elected to the Senate and swiftly wrote a bestselling book – The Audacity of Hope. This proved to be the springboard for his presidential launch.

  It's well known Barack Obama has a love affair - or addiction - to his blackberry.

  But as president, he's probably going to have to go through withdrawals and give it up.

  There are two primary reasons: security and the law.

  Quote: But before he arrives at the White House, he will probably be forced to sign off. In addition to concerns about e-mail security, he faces the Presidential Records Act, which puts his correspondence in the official record and ultimately up for public review, and the threat of subpoenas. A decision has not been made on whether he could become the first e-mailing president, but aides said that seemed doubtful.

  Twelve of the last 14 U.S. Supreme Court justices were named by Republicans.

  With three of the more liberal justices getting up in years, Democrat Barack Obama may well have the opportunity to name a couple to the nation's highest court.

  The question is who and the Los Angeles Times throws some names out, almost all women for that matter.

  Interestingly, the article points out Obama probably will rely on his own judgement as much as anyones - in contrast to the advice he'll seek with other big appointments.

  Quote: "The lawyer who will have the most influence on court appointments in the Obama administration will be Barack Obama," said Walter Dellinger, a Washington lawyer who represented the Clinton administration before the high court. "He was a highly regarded professor of constitutional law at Chicago, which has one of the most intellectually intense law faculties in this country."

A Harvard Law School graduate, Obama taught for 12 years at the University of Chicago and led classes on voting rights and equal protection of the law. In the Detroit interview, he praised Justices Breyer and David H. Souter, a Republican appointee, as "very sensible judges. They take a look at the facts and they try to figure out: How does the Constitution apply to these facts? They believe in fidelity to the text of the Constitution

  I haven't seen it yet, but Time Magazine's review says former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee pretty much rips into everyone.

  Quote: In terms of payback, it will not disappoint. At once a memoir of his campaign, a treatise on the ills of the Republican Party and a blueprint for his own political future, Do The Right Thing: Inside the Movement That's Bringing Common Sense Back to America is filled with sharp words for his fellow Republicans who frustrated his bid for the party's nomination.

  And it's just not political types Huckabee goes after, he's pretty tough on evangelicals and takes on the media in spades.

  Interestingly, the article points out Huckabee mentions John McCain only in passing, and is rather complimentary on him.

  The book hits stores tomorrow.