White House beard meets razor's edge (BLOG)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzEwDnZrw8DmIqww80v6a_ryx3EODcpzFUfIXfd2JEl18NL6YiiQfu5u3KvPIMdZM2Vf4KEiEc0Vzu6VRd2GaXR3rQKRo5RJVtN_zAfcIAZWpk8FDKwobggeJcNPMG5Z9jQCgX9d8qCWI/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzEwDnZrw8DmIqww80v6a_ryx3EODcpzFUfIXfd2JEl18NL6YiiQfu5u3KvPIMdZM2Vf4KEiEc0Vzu6VRd2GaXR3rQKRo5RJVtN_zAfcIAZWpk8FDKwobggeJcNPMG5Z9jQCgX9d8qCWI/s1600/1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390710932622_5809" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The most tweeted-about beard in the Obama White House left the way it came in - with wisecracks.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390710932622_5836" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Carney debuted the beard to an amused - and not entirely complimentary - press corps on January 6, after a two-week holiday break from television cameras."Here I am, the old me," a clean-shaven White House spokesman Jay Carney said at the start of his daily briefing with reporters on Friday. His announcement was greeted with laughter.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Carney said his wife liked it - but she appeared to be in a razor-thin majority.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">His boss, President Barack Obama, razzed him about it, as did any number of other White House officials. Even deputy press secretary Jamie Smith's mother registered her disapproval and was pleased at the new, improved Carney.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">There was applause and a couple of cheers in the press room when a fresh-faced Carney returned on Friday.</div><div class="body-related" style="background-color: white; clear: right; float: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; position: relative;"><a class="body-related-link body-related-image go-to-slideshow-lightbox rapid-noclick-resp portrait onesize get-lbdata-from-dom" data-rapid_p="8" data-uuid="85d546ef-bbf4-3a5c-9a34-20ac2a52f079" href="http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-press-secretary-jay-carney-speaks-press-photo-202813208.html" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 300px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;" title="White House Press Secretary Jay Carney speaks to the&nbsp;&hellip;"></a><br /><div class="img-wrap" style="position: relative;"><div class="cta-overlay" style="-webkit-transition: background-color 0.24s linear; font-size: 13px; height: 345px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: background-color 0.24s linear; width: 300px;"><a class="body-related-link body-related-image go-to-slideshow-lightbox rapid-noclick-resp portrait onesize get-lbdata-from-dom" data-rapid_p="8" data-uuid="85d546ef-bbf4-3a5c-9a34-20ac2a52f079" href="http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-press-secretary-jay-carney-speaks-press-photo-202813208.html" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 300px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;" title="White House Press Secretary Jay Carney speaks to the&nbsp;&hellip;"><span class="clearfix title cta-text medium" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; 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cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 300px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;" title="White House Press Secretary Jay Carney speaks to the&nbsp;&hellip;"><img alt="White House Press Secretary Jay Carney speaks to the&nbsp;&hellip;" class="body-related-thumb" data-src-2x="" height="345" src="http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/0nfHBfvBuo5raLXIi7FMKg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTM0NTtxPTc1O3c9MzAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2014-01-24T202813Z_1_CBREA0N1KV700_RTROPTP_2_USA.JPG" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; display: block; opacity: 1 !important; transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible !important;" width="300" /></a></div><a class="body-related-link body-related-image go-to-slideshow-lightbox rapid-noclick-resp portrait onesize get-lbdata-from-dom" data-rapid_p="8" data-uuid="85d546ef-bbf4-3a5c-9a34-20ac2a52f079" href="http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-press-secretary-jay-carney-speaks-press-photo-202813208.html" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 300px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;" title="White House Press Secretary Jay Carney speaks to the&nbsp;&hellip;"></a><br /><div class="body-related-title photo-caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: grey; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16.5px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 5px 5px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 300px;">White House Press Secretary Jay Carney speaks to the press in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the W …</div></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"Let's just say you're not the only ones," Carney remarked.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Carney said he was discouraged from his hirsute pursuits by Obama's speechwriter, Cody Keenan, whose much denser beard has been featured in photos on the White House website in the lead-up to Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"If you've seen Cody Keenan's beard, you know that I have a daily reminder of the insufficiency of my efforts," Carney told reporters.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390710932622_5897" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"I decided that the time had come to shave."</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390710932622_5885" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">(Reporting by Roberta Rampton and Steve Holland; editing by Gunna Dickson)</div></div>

White House beard meets razor's edge (BLOG)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The most tweeted-about beard in the Obama White House left the way it came in - with wisecracks. Carney debuted the b...

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