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State Department is considering a rewrite of social media rules for employees (Washington Post || Emily Heil)

Obama Presidential Inaugural Committee is poised to take corporate money, reversing 2008 position (Chicago Sun Times || Lynn Sweet)

Appeals court considers challenge to Obama recess appointments (Associated Press)

John Sununu says Obama base gets handouts, echoes Mitt Romney "gifts" comments (POLITICO || Katie Glueck)

Robert Gates warns Syria's president: Don't underestimate Obama (The Hill || Meghashyam Mali)

Forbes ranks Barack Obama most powerful person in the world (Reuters || Chris Michaud)

Michelle Obama for senate? A poll has her leading Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) by double-digits (Political Wire)

And White House homebrew beer video gets record number of views (Obama Foodorama || Eddie Gehman Kohan)

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Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said Wednesday that the Obama administration was prepared to dive off the fiscal cliff if Republicans do not agree to raise tax rates on upper income brackets.

Geithner was asked on CNBC: "When it comes to raising taxes on the wealthy, those making more than $250,000 — if Republicans do not agree to that, is the administration prepared to go over the fiscal cliff?"

"Oh, absolutely," Geithner replied. "There's no prospect in an agreement that doesn't involve the rates going up on the top 2 percent of the wealthiest."

"The size of the problem in some sense is so large it can't be solved without rates going up," Geithner said about the country's fiscal challenges. "I think there's a broad recognition of that reality now."

As protests continued in Egypt on Wednesday, the White House declined to take sides in the conflict, noting that the United States has an important relationship with Egypt, but called for all sides to refrain from violence.

When asked at a White House briefing if President Obama supports Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, press secretary Jay Carney said, "The president has an important relationship, well, the United States has a very important relationship with Egypt. The president has worked effectively with President Morsi on key issues, including recently the negotiated ceasefire in Gaza. We are monitoring the situation."

Carney did not say whether Obama has spoken with Morsi or taken any other action. A White House official later confirmed to POLITICO that the president did stop by a meeting between national security adviser Tom Donilon and Morsi adviser Issam Al-Haddad. The official did not say what they spoke about.

Protests in Cairo turned violent for a second day Wednesday, with protestors supporting and opposing Morsi throwing fire bombs and rocks at each other outside the presidential palace, CBS reported. The opposition demonstrators want Morsi to rescind declarations he made exempting himself from judicial oversight and to throw away a draft constitution quickly passed by his allies last week.

Carney said the administration thinks dialogue between all Egyptians is "urgently necessary."

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White House press secretary Jay Carney on Wednesday would not specifically address reports that President Obama is considering Vogue editor Anna Wintour for an ambassaorship to the UK or France, but he left the door open to such an unorthodox pick.

Let's go to the briefing transcript:

Q: What qualities does the president look for when he’s going to pick an ambassador, especially to an important ally like France or the UK?

Carney: You know, I anticipated your question you’re asking, and I can tell you in advance, I will answer the question, but that I have no personnel announcements. I’m not going to engage in speculation about possible personnel announcements. You know, I think that the president in all of his personnel appointments looks for talent, and wisdom and character in his appointees, and he would do that, regardless of the position.

Q: Is it important for a diplomat to be diplomatic?

Carney: One of the, and I mean another way of addressing that is to answer the question, there have been enormously effective diplomats in this country’s history who have not necessarily risen through the diplomatic corps. Now we’ve had enormously talented…

Q: even in a personal (inaud.), or pop culture?

Carney: I understand that’s a rhetorical question and diplomacy is effectively performed by diplomats. But we had one of the greatest diplomats of his generation pass away not long ago: Richard Holbrooke. I think everyone who knew him or sat across the table from hi would agree that he was not by anyone’s traditional definition particularly diplomatic.

Q But he was also a brilliant negotiator...

Carney: So they come in all types and sizes and approaches

Q: Has the president seen “The Devil Wears Prada?”

President Obama hosted his top donors at a Democratic National Committee event at the White House on Friday, an aide confirms.

“As is commonplace with past administration of both parties, the President hosted a holiday party with supporters Friday evening in the residence. The event was paid for by the Democratic National Committee. There are DNC-hosted holiday parties every year,” a White House aide said.

The Chicago Sun Times' Lynn Sweet reports that the donor party included about 200 National Finance Committee members, including Cubs co-owner Laura Ricketts; business executives James Crown and Penny Pritzker; and investor Michael Sacks.

Sweet also reports that former Obama campaign manager Jim Messina, strategist David Axelrod and campaign officials Stephanie Cutter and Julianna Smoot.

It was one of the many holiday receptions the White House throws annually.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said he and President Obama will discuss his future in the Cabinet once Obama is finished with the fiscal cliff negotiations.

“He and I are going to continue our discussions,” LaHood told POLITICO Wednesday. “We had a meeting a week or so after the election and we agreed to continue talking. … I think the president will get back to some of these discussions after some kind of a deal is reached on the fiscal matters.”

LaHood, the lone Republican in Obama’s Cabinet, declined to reveal details of his conversation with Obama. He had been expected to leave the Transportation Department when the president’s first term ends, though on Wednesday left the door open to returning.

“They’re dealing 24-7 now with how to get a deal with Congress,” LaHood said. “So I’m waiting” until a deal is finished to make a final determination of his status.

Incoming House Transportation Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) told POLITICO Tuesday that LaHood told him that he “may be staying for a while.”

President Obama's fiscal cliff road show continues Monday with a visit to the Detroit area, where he will host his second outside-Washington event to pressure Congress. 

The event, which a White House official described as "on the economy and middle class families," follows his Friday trip to a Pennsylvania toy factory. He also held an event last week with Washington-area middle class people to introduce #my2k, the official White House Twitter hashtag on fiscal cliff issues. 

Obama and House Speaker John Boehner have not met for a face-to-face meeting on the fiscal cliff since before Thanksgiving. Obama said Wednesday at the Business Roundtable that Boehner's refusal to consider tax rate increases for the wealthy is stalling any talks. 

"The hold up right now is that Speaker Boehner took a position that we're willing to bring in revenue but not raise rates," Obama said. 

President Obama launched a double-pronged appeal in his latest bid to court business leaders, asking a group of CEOs on Wednesday to back him on allowing a tax hike on wealthier Americans and also pushing back against Republican attempts to use the debt ceiling in budget negotiations.

He told members of the Business Roundtable that the only way to reach the amount of revenue needed for a balanced package to address the country's deficits and avert the so-called fiscal cliff was to extend Bush-era tax cuts for middle-class  Americans while letting them expire for the top 2 percent of income-earners.

"By doing that alone, we raise almost a trillion dollars," he said. "...The holdup right now is that Speaker Boehner took a position, I think, the day after the campaign that said, 'We're willing to bring in revenue but we're not going to increase rates.'"

Obama said the GOP proposal to close tax loopholes and cap or eliminate deductions only goes so far -- adding up to $300 or $400 billion -- without hitting deductions that could harm the less fortunate, such as the one for charitable giving.

"We're not insisting on [higher] rates just out of spite …but rather because we need to raise a certain amount of revenue," he said.

The president also told the group that he would not allow Republicans in Congress to try and barter a debt-ceiling increase in exchange for more spending cuts, noting that the horse-trading alone over an increase last year sent the economy reeling.

"We can't afford  to go there again," he said. "...The only thing the debt ceiling is good as a weapon for is destroying your credit rating... I will not play that game."

The White House is calling reports about their request for Hurricane Sandy aid 'premature.'

The New York Times reported Wednesday that the Obama administration was preparing to ask Congress for about $50 billion in spending to help speed recovery efforts in the aftermath of Sandy.

That amount is about $32 million less than what New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are asking for. But a White House official said that the aid package negotiations are not complete.

"The administration is working closely with our partners in the states and in Congress, and is in the process of developing a request for a supplemental, but that process has not been completed and it would be premature to speculate on a specific number," a White House official said.

The attempts to shepherd a disaster aid package through Congress are further complicated by the bitter standoff over taxes and revenues that make up the so-called fiscal cliff.

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Fiscal cliff standoff now a battle for public opinion (POLITICO || Sherman, Budoff Brown & Bresnahan)

Wall Street unfazed so far in face of cliff warnings (Washington Post || Neil Irwin)

Native American tribes to take cliff concerns to White House meeting (Associated Press || Suzanne Gamboa)

Dems want Obama to share digital campaign data (POLITICO || Lois Romano)

Syrian rebels advance, partly thanks to militants potentially linked to Al Qeada  (Washington Post || Warrick & Dehghanpisheh)

In Egypt, Morsi returns to palace after protests turned violent (Fox News)

And Obama's uncle gets a new immigration hearing (Associated Press || Rodrique Ngowi)

President Obama will lay out the stakes of going over the fiscal cliff at a Wednesday meeting with business leaders — and call on congressional leaders to ensure the debt ceiling is raised.

"The president will continue to make the case that our nation’s businesses need the certainty that middle class families won’t see their taxes go up at the end of the year," a White House official said.

Obama is set to meet Wednesday in Washington D.C. with the annual Business Roundtable conference — a group of influential business and industry leaders.

"The president will highlight why it would hurt our economy and our nation’s businesses if we do not find a solution to avoid another debt ceiling crisis, and will ask the business leaders for their help in supporting an approach that resolves the debt limit without drama or delay," the official said.

"He will also highlight that any plan must include balance and that is why he has put forward a detailed, comprehensive plan that specifies how he would raise revenue from the wealthiest, curb spending, and reform entitlements, and he will reiterate that he will not accept a deal that doesn’t include higher rates on the wealthiest individuals," the official said.

The White House and congressional Republicans are still at odds over unwinding the combination of automatic tax increases and spending cuts that make up the fiscal cliff.

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Department of Justice stays quiet as governors ask for guidance on marijuana legalization (Fox News)

Dick Durbin and Mark Kirk send bipartisan list of names to the president to replace Patrick Fitzgerald as the U.S. attorney in Chicago (Chicago Sun Times || Lynn Sweet)

Obama is expected to announce his nominees for secretaries of state and defense in the next two weeks (Reuters || Matt Spetalnick)

Elizabeth Fowler is leaving the White House to lead "global health policy" at Johnson & Johnson (POLITICO || Levinthal, Palmer)

Grover Norquist: Obama "thinks somebody made him king" (Huffington Post || Paige Lavender)

National Organization for Women President says 50 percent of Obama cabinet should be women (MSNBC || Kristin Donnelly)

And no traditional holiday photo for Obama and Boehner this year (ABC News || Jake Tapper)