Happy Birthdays Beat Partisan Ire on Obama's FB Page

In the online civility's not dead just dormant department, the two posts acknowledging President Obama's 50th birthday on his official Facebook page received more than 20,000 comments in their first two hours online.

That's more comments than the president received on any of several posts in recent weeks urging a resolution to the federal debt ceiling debate.

Comments on debt ceiling posts topped off at about 9,000 July 26. That post quoted a line from the president's live address to the nation stating "the American people may have voted for divided government, but they didn't vote for a dysfunctional government."

Comments on debt ceiling posts weighed heavily in favor of diatribes by the president's conservative opponents and outrage by liberal supporters.

A quick Nextgov review of a few dozen comments on Thursday's birthday posts found only simple well wishes, though there were undoubtedly some attacks lower down.

The first birthday post is styled as an online birthday card. The second is a quote of the day, a standard feature on the president's Facebook page.

"You know, I feel real good about 5-0," the president said. "Obviously, I've gotten a little grayer since I took this job, but otherwise I feel pretty good. And Michelle, you know, says that she still thinks I'm cute -- and I guess that's all that matters, isn't it?"