President Obama: Baby whisperer?

(Image credit: Screen shot, White House)

last updated 8 January 2015

The video: President Obama took the politician-holding-a-baby meme to a new level at his annual congressional picnic on the White House lawn last week. First Lady Michelle Obama was holding a determinedly crying baby and, unable to soothe her, handed the screaming bundle to her husband. To Michelle's evident shock, the infant immediately stopped fussing once in the president's arms, suggesting that the commander-in-chief may also be a stealth baby whisperer. (Watch the video below.)

The reaction: We already knew Obama is "one of those magical, dulcet-voiced beings capable of calming fussy babies," says Maureen O'Connor at Gawker. But I'd never seen his unlikely technique: Shouting "No! No! Come on, baby. You won't cry" in the girl's face before enveloping her in his arms. The best part of the video, says Amy Graff in the San Francisco Chronicle, is when "Michelle's shocked look is met by Obama's gloating glare." Obama's "smug look cracked me up," says Jeanne Sager in The Stir, but he just used "the simplest of baby soothing secrets": Bouncing. I'm sure poor Michelle would have eventually "gotten around to that one." See for yourself: