Michelle Obama Eye Roll: First Lady Not Amused By President's Banter With John Boehner

Washington (CNN) -- If President Barack Obama's relationship with House Speaker John Boehner was contentious in the past, he certainly wasn't showing it while the two sat at the head table of a congressional lunch following Monday's inauguration.

The two appeared to have a lighthearted exchange that prompted an apparent eye roll from first lady Michelle Obama, who was seated between them.

Was it something Boehner said that prompted the reaction? He tapped her shoulder while she ate her lunch.

Or was it something the clearly amused president said?

Or maybe it was something both of them said.

Maybe it was her lunch.

But because there's no audio from the exchange, it's hard to tell what prompted the reaction that caught fire on the Internet.

We thought we'd leave it up to you. What do you think the first lady was thinking?

Let us know in the comment section below.

Lessons in style from Michelle Obama

U.S. Stops Olympic Star

He’s not a terrorist—he’s an Olympic champion! Britain’s Mo Farah, who won two gold medals in distance running in London, says he was detained and questioned by U.S. customs in Portland on suspicions that he was a terrorist. Farah, who captured the world’s attention with his story of coming to the U.K. and training in the U.S., blamed his “Somali origins” for the mishap. Farah whipped out his medals to prove who he was.

'Fiscal Cliff' countdown: 2 days to go, Congress still negotiating

As the fiscal cliff looms, what's your New Year's message to Washington? 

Washington (CNN) -- If a broader deal on the "fiscal cliff" cannot be reached soon, the Senate should vote on legislation to make sure middle-class taxes are not raised and that 2 million people don't lose unemployment benefits, President Barack Obama told NBC's "Meet the Press" in an interview broadcast Sunday.

"Over the next 48 hours, my hope is that people recognize, regardless of partisan differences, our top priority has to be to make sure that taxes on middle-class families do not go up that would hurt our economy badly," Obama said. "We can get that done."

The president's appearance on a political talk show is his first in three years, and clearly appears timed to put pressure on lawmakers to get a deal done or take a vote. The interview was recorded on Saturday.

With tax rates set to increase across the board on Tuesday, the Senate's top Democrat and Republican were working Sunday to forge a last-minute compromise to stop the U.S. economy from going over a fiscal cliff that would not only trigger higher taxes but sweeping spending cuts.

Aides for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said no details on the negotiations were expected until at least early afternoon, when the Senate convenes a session at 1 p.m. ET.

At stake in the negotiations, according to a number of economists, is the fate of a still fragile U.S. economy that could be pushed back into a recession by the broad tax hikes and automatic $110 billion cuts to domestic and military spending spelled out by the fiscal cliff legislation.

Obama again placed blame on Republicans for the failure to reach a compromise, saying they "have had trouble saying yes to a number of repeated offers."

He said if they could agree to a deal that keeps middle-class tax rates as they are, "that takes a big bite out of the fiscal cliff, it avoids the worst outcomes."

Then there can be some more tough negotiations on the other aspects of debt reduction, he said.

On Capitol Hill, "We've been trading paper all day, and the talks continue into the evening," McConnell told reporters Saturday night. "We've been in discussions all day. We'll let you know as soon as we have some news to make."

Négociations de dernière minute pour éviter le "mur budgétaire"

Barack Obama fait peser sur les républicains la responsabilité de la crise du "mur budgétaire", affirmant dans un entretien diffusé dimanche 30 décembre que le refus de ses adversaires de voir les impôts des plus aisés augmenter expliquait le blocage actuel. Depuis sa réélection début novembre, le président négocie avec ses adversaires un accord qui éviterait l'entrée en vigueur automatique de hausses d'impôts généralisées et de coupes claires dans les dépenses de l'Etat.

Alors que les chefs de file républicain et démocrate du Sénat tentaient dimanche d'accoucher d'un compromis de dernière minute acceptable aussi bien par cette assemblée aux mains des démocrates que la Chambre où les républicains dominent, Barack Obama s'est gardé de tout pronostic. "J'étais modestement optimiste hier (vendredi) mais il n'y a apparemment pas encore d'accord", a-t-il noté.

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Rise Up, Mothers. It’s Time to End Gun Violence

Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee says it’s time to stand up and demand that we protect the children of the world from a culture of violence.

I read with dismay and immense pain in my heart and the pit of my stomach the horrific shooting and killing of 20 kids and 6 adults in Newtown, Conn.

Local residents attend a memorial service at the St. Rose Roman Catholic Church on December 14, 2012 in Newtown, Conn. (Robert Nickelsberg/Getty )

As a mother I can't begin to imagine the pain the parents of those children are going through. Young people who should have been future doctors, lawyers, peace builders, and even teachers are all gone too soon. Many questions will be asked, many fingers will be pointed at different sources.

Many questions come to my mind as I sit in my bedroom watching CNN and reading through every article on the subject at almost 3 a.m. in Africa. It's a place also where many mothers have lost their kids to larger scale gun violence, most recently in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where rebels took over Goma and Juba, and South Sudan, where protesters, predominantly students, protested land ownership.

Do we need all these guns to keep us safe?
Do we need to constantly stockpile weapons to show strength?
Haven't we learned that "no instrument of death can keep us safe?”
When will we learn that the proliferation of guns in any community is setting that community up for future disaster?

As America and the world mourn the death of these children and children in parts of the world that have died in gun-related violence I believe that now more than ever is the time for mothers to resist the culture of violence.

I believe it is upon the mothers of America now to raise their voices and oppose the gun culture. It is time for them to call on their leaders to pass stronger laws limiting access to guns. It is time for mothers of America to ensure that these kids death will began a new revolution opposing the "Crazy Gun” culture.

My sincere and heartfelt sympathy goes out to you all and my prayers are with you.

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Leymah Gbowee, a Liberian peace activist, is co-winner of The 2011 Nobel Peace Prize and author of Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War, published by Beast Books. As war ravaged Liberia, Leymah Gbowee realized it is women who bear the greatest burden in prolonged conflicts. She began organizing Christian and Muslim women to demonstrate together, founding Liberian Mass Action for Peace and launching protests and a sex strike. Gbowee’s work in helping to oust Charles Taylor was featured in the documentary Pray the Devil Back to Hell.

For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com.

Senator Daniel Inouye: September 7, 1924 - December 17, 2012

Daniel Ken "Dan" Inouye September 7, 1924-December 17, 2012) was the senior United States Senator from Hawaii, a member of the Democratic Party, and the President pro tempore of the United States Senate making him the highest-ranking Asian American politician in U.S. history.

Inouye was the chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations.

A senator since 1963, Inouye was the most senior senator. He is also the second longest serving U.S. Senator in history after Robert Byrd. Inouye continuously represented Hawaii in the U.S. Congress since it achieved statehood in 1959, serving as Hawaii's first U.S. Representative and later a senator. Inouye was the first Japanese-American to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives and later the first in the U.S. Senate. At age 88, Inouye was the second-oldest current U.S. senator, after 88 year-old Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey. He was also a World War II Medal of Honor recipient.

Gas Prices Plunge to New 2012 Low

Gas prices have slid to the lowest prices of the year as an estimated 84 million Americans prepare to take a road tip by car this holiday season.

The national average retail gasoline price on Monday is the cheapest it has been during 2012 — just shy of $3.25 a gallon, according to AAA and Oil Price Information Service.

The national average price has dropped every day this month and has fallen 16 percent since mid-September. It is now at the lowest average price since Dec. 28, 2011, and only 4 cents shy of the December 2011 low of $3.206 a gallon.

"I believe we will go lower than that," said OPIS analyst Tom Kloza. "It's typical to get weaker prices at the end of the year."