The not-so-celebrity president (Politico)

When President Barack Obama raised a glass to South Korean President Lee Myung-bak at a state dinner last week, he did so in the opulently decorated East Room, packed with tables of business leaders, lawmakers and foreign dignitaries. But one of the president?s key constituencies was noticeably absent: Hollywood.

Gone were the Beyonces and Streisands of the world who have created buzz at other Obama state dinners. The closest thing to a celebrity was Billie Jean King, the onetime tennis champ, and John Cho, the not quite A-list actor from the movie ?Harold and Kumar.?

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With another state dinner not scheduled for the foreseeable future, it?s hard to know if glitz-free dinners are a trend. But it?s hard not to conclude that as Obama enters the 2012 campaign with a down economy at the forefront of the nation?s conversation, the White House is keeping Tinseltown at bay ? at least when the president?s fine china is being used.

?I believe it?s a conscious decision,? said one source who worked in the Clinton administration and is familiar with social events. ?I think you?re always conscious of what it looks like from the outside. I think we were very conscious. You have to be very careful.?

At the same time, Hollywood stars are hardly absent from the White House or Obama events. Just on Friday, reporters were startled to see Will Ferrell ? in town to receive the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on Sunday at the Kennedy Center? amble into the briefing room, where he posed for photos behind the podium with White House press secretary Jay Carney. And in Los Angeles Monday, Will and Jada Smith, Eva Longoria, Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas will be helping him bring in the bucks at two high-dollar fundraisers.

A review by POLITICO of events including movie screenings, concerts, the annual Easter egg roll, state dinners and private visits shows that more than 150 celebrities ? from Reese Witherspoon to Jon Bon Jovi ? have visited the White House since Obama took office. Many are repeat visitors, including Longoria, Jay-Z and John Legend.

Still, the fundraisers that attract celebrities tend to be held in private homes, away from prying reporters and photographers. And while drop-bys and impromptu tours still occur at the White House, more common now are appearances that have a theme consistent with policy initiatives like saluting military families, promoting mentoring programs, cultural concerts or government groups such as Obama?s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Education to which Colombian-born singer Shakira was recently appointed.

The mutual attraction is nothing new. Obama?s 2008 campaign was a magnet for celebrities, who helped enhance the generational contrast with his Republican opponent, John McCain. Singers, supermodels and sports stars including Will.i.am, Nicole Scherzinger and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar sang ?Yes We Can.?

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/politico_rss/rss_politico_mostpop/http___www_politico_com_news_stories1011_66624_html/43354221/SIG=11mir6sip/*http%3A//www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/66624.html

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Rangers rally in 9th, beat Cards to even Series (AP)

ST. LOUIS ? Down to their last three outs and facing another serious World Series deficit, the Texas Rangers did some rallying of their own.

Lost at the plate, Josh Hamilton and the Texas hitters suddenly found their strokes. They scraped together two runs in the ninth inning against the vaunted St. Louis Cardinals' bullpen and escaped with a 2-1 win Thursday night that evened the Series at 1-all.

"It wasn't a Series-saving rally, but it was huge," said Ian Kinsler, whose single and safe-by-inches steal set up the comeback.

Hamilton and Michael Young did their jobs, hitting consecutive sacrifice flies that completed the comeback.

A year after they dropped the first two games at San Francisco and got wiped out in the World Series, the Rangers kept things interesting ? for themselves, and for baseball fans all over yearning for some October drama.

"It was almost a great story for us, turned out to be a greater one for them," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said.

Now, after a travel day, Texas will host Game 3 on Saturday night. Matt Harrison is set to start for the Rangers against Kyle Lohse.

"It would have been hard," Hamilton said of possibly facing being 0-2. "We would have been comfortable going back to our place, having three games. They're just like we are, never say die, till the last out is made. It makes it fun."

Up until the ninth, Hamilton and the Texas boppers were in serious danger. They chased pitches that bounced, broke their bats and seemed totally overmatched.

In a city excited by a Rally Squirrel, it was Groundhog Day ? almost.

For the second straight night, Cardinals pinch-hitter Allen Craig greeted reliever Alexi Ogando with a go-ahead single. This time, Craig did it the seventh. In Game 1, his hit in the sixth sent the Cards to a 3-2 win.

The Rangers have not lost two straight games since Aug. 23-25. They sure waited a while to save themselves on this night that began as duel between starters Colby Lewis and the Cardinals' Jaime Garcia. Texas gained a split in St. Louis despite hitting a combined .186.

Kinsler opened the ninth with a bloop single against closer Jason Motte. Next up was Elvis Andrus, whose tremendous play at shortstop kept the game scoreless much earlier. Kinsler, though, wasn't about to wait ? he stole second, sliding in just ahead of three-time Gold Glove catcher Yadier Molina's excellent throw.

"My hand just barely got in there," Kinsler said. "It took everything I had."

Andrus followed with a single to center, sending Kinsler to third. And when the throw from center fielder Jon Jay eluded first baseman Albert Pujols, went to catcher Yadier Molina, and Andrus scampered to second.

More than an hour after the game, the three official scorers gave Pujols an error.

"I should have made a better throw right there. It was the big part of the game," Jay said. "It was off-line a little bit.

"It just tailed a little bit. I mean, it was inches. So it was just the way it went today," he said.

La Russa, who's been making all the right moves this October, brought in lefty Arthur Rhodes to face Hamilton. But the slumping slugger, slowed throughout the postseason by a groin injury, hit a solid fly ball that scored Kinsler and moved Andrus to third.

La Russa went to his bullpen again, bringing in Lance Lynn to face Young. The steady Texas veteran lofted a fly ball that sent Andrus scampering home.

"I don't care how they come. We just needed to score some runs," Young said. "In that situation, sacrifice flies are what we needed. Josh's job was to get the guy to third and my job was to get him in. Just team baseball. Something we've done all season long."

Then it was Rangers manager Ron Washington's turn. He signaled for closer Neftali Feliz, who worked around a leadoff walk to earn the save.

"Classic ninth inning," La Russa said.

Said Motte: "It stinks."

The sellout crowd at Busch Stadium fell silent as Rafael Furcal flied out to end it. Moments earlier, the fans gave Pujols a big cheer in what could have been his final at-bat at home before he heads into free agency. Pujols flied out to the wall, leaving him 0 for 6 in the Series.

Mike Adams, the third Texas pitcher, got the win.

The Cardinals broke through against Lewis in the seventh when David Freese singled with one out and took third on Nick Punto's two-out single. La Russa pulled Garcia and put up Craig, who was injured for most of the season.

Washington then went to Ogando. After a first-pitch foul, Craig lined a 96 mph heater over Kinsler at second base for the go-ahead run.

Up through the ninth, the Texas hitters were flailing.

Hamilton, the reigning AL MVP seemed to be wearing down with every swing in his first three at-bats.

Hamilton shattered his bat the first time up and slowly jogged to first base. Later, he weakly waved and appeared overmatched as he struck out on three pitches. That left him with an 0-for-16 Series slump dating to last October.

Hamilton's teammates were equally feeble. Maybe it was because none of the Texas starters had ever faced Garcia, maybe it was carryover from the stress that began in last year's World Series wipeout against San Francisco.

The acrobatic Andrus made a sensational play in the fifth to keep the game scoreless.

After a two-out single by Punto and a walk to the light-hitting Garcia, Furcal slapped a hard grounder up the middle. Andrus dived to his left to stop it on the edge of the outfield grass, got to his knees and flipped the ball with his glove to second baseman Kinsler, who barely beat Garcia to the bag for a forceout.

"I always say when you're not hitting good, you better do something good defensively," Andrus said.

Texas batters, meanwhile, couldn't catch up with Garcia.

Their hardest hit early in the game came in the fourth ? rather, it was the hardest a Texas player got hit.

Kinsler was at third base when Adrian Beltre sent a solid, one-hopper down the line. The foul ball nailed a ducking Kinsler in the right shoulder, and he grinned while playfully rubbing it off. No smiling, though, when Beltre took a poor cut at a low pitch and struck out to strand runners at the corners.

Garcia and Lewis dominated at the outset, and no one got a hit until Furcal doubled with two outs in the St. Louis third. Before that, the closest anyone came was Jon Jay, whose bunt danced along the third base line chalk before trickling foul.

Perhaps both sides could have used some hitting tips from Stan Musial. A month shy of his 91st birthday, Stan the Man was sitting in a Busch suite. The Cardinals Hall of Famer was shown on the video board and drew a big cheer.

NOTES: Garcia was the first Mexican-born starter in the World Series since Fernando Valenzuela in 1981. ... The Cardinals hit into the most double plays in the majors this year, Texas was second. ... Rangers president Nolan Ryan, before the game, on why he thought Texas would win in six games: "When I looked at St. Louis' pitching, I don't look at their pitching like a (Detroit ace Justin) Verlander, where you say boy, 'Verlander is on, we're going to hope that something good has to happen.' I'm not downplaying the Cardinals' pitching by any means."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111021/ap_on_sp_ba_ga_su/bbo_world_series

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Napoli giving loaded Rangers some extra punch

By STEPHEN HAWKINS

updated 4:52 p.m. ET Oct. 21, 2011

ARLINGTON, Texas - When Mike Napoli was playing for the other team, Texas Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler had a serious dislike for him.

Sure, a lot of that had to do with Napoli playing for a division opponent the past five years before he became part of a World Series team in Texas.

There was also the way Napoli flipped his bat after hitting a home run or how the top button of his Angels jersey was often undone.

"I would never tell you last year I would probably enjoy having him in the clubhouse," Kinsler said. "You never know what his personality is until you meet a guy, but as far as the way he plays and uniform he wears, there's certain things that bothered me."

Not until Napoli joined the Rangers ? after being traded twice in five days last winter ? and had a breakout season to help Texas reach its second consecutive World Series.

"It's pretty simple to get along with him, and he's just a great guy to have around," Kinsler said.

"Yeah, I didn't like them, either," Napoli said. "That's just part of the sport-hate thing. You don't know people. Just coming over here, it's been amazing."

Watching Texas from the opposite side, Napoli saw a team that had a lot of fun and enjoyed the game. He also saw the Los Angeles Angels replaced as AL West champions by the Rangers last year when they went to their first World Series.

Napoli has fit right in with the loaded lineup for Texas, which plays the next three games of the World Series at home after a 2-1 victory at St. Louis in Game 2 evened the series at a game a piece. Game 3 is Saturday night at Rangers Ballpark.

"I knew coming over here was going to be fun," Napoli said. "I knew they had a great core of players and they were a winning ballclub, so I was excited to come over here and be part of it."

Texas fans have taken to chanting "Nap-o-li!, Nap-o-li!" when the former rival comes to bat at home during the playoffs. It worked the first time they did it in Game 2 of the AL division series, when Napoli kept fouling off pitches before hitting a tying two-run single in the rally that gave the Rangers their first victory over Tampa Bay.

"It was pretty nuts, unexpected," he said. "It was crazy, but now I like it.... I like hearing it. It's definitely a cool experience."

Like he did in the season opener for Texas nearly seven months ago, Napoli also homered in his first World Series game for the Rangers on Wednesday night.

The catcher has endured two bone-jarring collisions at the plate in the playoffs, including the eighth inning in Game 4 of the AL championship series in Detroit when Miguel Cabrera tried to bowl over him for the tiebreaking run. Napoli held on, then three innings later had a go-ahead RBI single before scoring on Nelson Cruz's second 11th-inning homer of that series.

"I call him a dirt bag," manager Ron Washington said. "He's a gamer, and he tries to do whatever it takes to help his team win."

In the clubhouse Friday, Napoli wore a "DirtBag" T-shirt sent to him by a music and clothing company with that name. A DirtBag banner hangs over the empty corner locker between he and Michael Young.

Rays manager Joe Maddon, familiar with the catcher from his days with the Angels, at one point during the ALDS declared "The Year of the Napoli." Along with his big hit in Game 2, Napoli had the go-ahead homer in Game 3.

Napoli spent the first five seasons of his career with the Angels, who traded him in January to Toronto. The first time Napoli actually heard from the Blue Jays was four days later when they told him he was going to Texas in exchange for reliever Frank Francisco.

Washington was all for the move when general manager Jon Daniels called to discuss Napoli's possible availability, even though it was unclear how the catcher-first baseman could be worked into the lineup. The Rangers had already signed catcher Yorvit Torrealba and had plans for Michael Young to play first base after signing All-Star third baseman Adrian Beltre.

"I said get him," Washington said. "We certainly needed to put another professional bat in our lineup, especially losing (Vladimir) Guerrero."

Napoli set career highs by hitting .320 with 30 homers and 75 RBIs in 113 games in the regular season. Of his starts, 57 were at catcher, 27 at first base and 18 as the designated hitter.

Since returning to the lineup July 4 after missing three weeks with a strained left oblique, Napoli has been one of the best hitters in the majors. He hit .378 with 20 homers and 50 RBIs over the last 67 regular-season games, and .302 with two homers through the first 12 postseason games.

Napoli, who turns 30 this winter, has established himself behind the plate working with Rangers pitchers and with his defensive play.

"I'm just glad that I can show I can get it done behind the plate. I kind of got the label to where I was just an offensive player and could hit for power, I really couldn't do it behind the plate," Napoli said. "But just coming over here, I settled in and got comfortable in my receiving and working with the pitchers. So I mean, I'm glad that I can show that I can get it done on both sides."

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Pujols' 3 blasts carry Cards

??Albert Pujols joined Babe Ruth and Reggie Jackson as the only players to hit three home runs in a World Series game, tying records with five hits and six RBIs that led the Cardinals to a 16-7 rout of the Texas Rangers on Saturday night that gave St. Louis a 2-1 Series lead.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/44992699/ns/sports-baseball/

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Democrats target Romney, draw from Bush vs. Kerry (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Democrats in and around President Barack Obama's campaign are targeting Republican Mitt Romney by drawing on lessons from the 2004 campaign run by Republicans and President George W. Bush against Sen. John Kerry seven years ago.

Kerry and Romney are parallel candidates. Both are wealthy men with Massachusetts roots who have a presidential air but suffer from a stiff bearing.

Even before Romney has won a single nominating contest, Obama's camp is singling him out as a fickle politician and is preparing to go straight at Romney's perceived strength ? his record as a businessman. It was a strategy Republicans used against Kerry, who had to fend off charges of flip-flopping and whose strength as a decorated Vietnam veteran was undermined by attack ads.

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Senate unveils next piece of Obama jobs bill (AP)

WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama's allies in the Senate on Friday unveiled the next piece of his failed $447 billion jobs measure to get a vote in the Senate: a $60 billion investment in infrastructure projects such as roads and bridges.

Like its two predecessors, however, the infrastructure package figures to be unanimously opposed by Republicans and a handful of Democrats over its stimulus-style spending and tax surcharge on the very wealthy. A test vote on the measure will come after the Senate returns from vacation next month.

The legislation would provide an immediate $50 billion investment in America's roads, bridges and airports, and transit systems and establish a $10 billion national infrastructure bank to leverage private and public capital for longer-term infrastructure projects.

"This legislation will create hundreds of thousands of construction jobs rebuilding our roads, bridges and infrastructure," said Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

The measure would be financed by a 0.7 percentage point surcharge on income over $1 million.

The announcement by Senate Democrats came the day after Republicans scuttled a pared-back jobs measure designed to boost hiring of teachers and first responders.

That plan failed on a 50-50 test vote that fell well short of the 60 needed to break a filibuster. Two Democrats abandoned Obama on the vote and two more who voted with the president said they couldn't support the underlying Obama plan unless it's changed.

Thursday's $35 billion measure combined $30 billion for state and local governments to hire teachers and other school workers with $5 billion to help pay the salaries of police officers, firefighters and other first responders. The White House says the measure would "support" almost 400,000 education jobs for one year. Republicans call that a temporary "sugar high" for the economy and say it's a taxpayer-funded bailout of state and local governments.

Obama and his Democratic allies are acting like they've found a winning issue in repeatedly pressing popular ideas such as infrastructure spending and boosting hiring of police officers and firefighters. The sluggish economy and lower tax revenues have caused many teachers' jobs to be cut over the past several years.

"For the second time in two weeks, every single Republican in the United States Senate has chosen to obstruct a bill that would create jobs and get our economy going again," Obama said in a statement after the vote. "Every American deserves an explanation as to why Republicans refuse to step up to the plate and do what's necessary to create jobs and grow the economy right now."

"We cannot afford to be bailing out local governments, and we can't afford stimulus 2.0," countered Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.

Democrats haven't said which piece they'll resurrect next as an individual bill, but there's widespread support among party members for spending on highway and bridge projects, as well as for a poll-tested financing mechanism ? a surcharge on income exceeding $1 million.

An AP-GfK poll taken Oct. 13-17 found 62 percent of respondents favoring the surcharge as a way to pay for jobs initiatives. Just 26 percent opposed the idea.

More ominously for Democrats, the poll shows that Obama's party has lost the faith of the public on handling the economy. In it, only 38 percent said they trust Democrats to do a better job than Republicans in handling the economy, the first time Democrats have fallen below 40 percent in the poll. Some 43 percent trust the Republicans more.

"The fact is we're not going to get this economy going again by growing the government. It's the private sector that's ultimately going to drive this recovery," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said. "Look, if big government were the key to economic growth, then countries like Greece would be booming right now."

Democrats Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Democratic-leaning Independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut broke with Obama on Thursday's vote. Two Democrats who voted with the president, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana, said they couldn't support the underlying Obama plan unless it's changed.

"This bill fails to give taxpayers any guarantee that this money would actually be used to hire teachers and invest in our schools," Tester said. "States would get loads of money with little guidance that they spend the money on teachers."

Immediately after the vote on Obama's plan, Democrats turned the tables and filibustered Republican-backed legislation that would prevent the government from withholding 3 percent of payments to government contractors. The legislation failed to get the 60 votes needed to end the filibuster on a 57-43 vote, even though 10 Democrats voted to advance it.

Many Democrats and Obama support the idea but opposed it Thursday because it would be paid for with $30 billion in cuts from domestic agency spending. Advocates of repealing the withholding requirement say it will help create jobs, especially from contractors on large projects with smaller profit margins.

The withholding law was passed in 2006 by a GOP-controlled Congress. Then, the idea then was to make sure contractors couldn't duck their taxes and was imposed after government investigators found that thousands of federal contractors owed taxes.

The GOP-controlled House is likely to pass the measure next week and Reid promised that the Senate would revisit the issue, though there's likely to be a split between the House and Senate over how to pay for the cost of repealing the withholding rule.

After voting on the competing jobs measures, the Senate worked past midnight on a $128 billion spending bill covering five Cabinet departments.

Early Friday, the Senate voted 84-15 to end direct payments to farmers whose annual incomes exceed $1 million.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/uscongress/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111021/ap_on_go_co/us_senate_jobs

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Hawaii astronomer captures image of forming planet (AP)

HONOLULU ? A University of Hawaii astronomer has captured the first direct image of a planet being born.

Adam Kraus and his colleague, Michael Ireland from Macquarie University and the Australian Astronomical Observatory, used Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea to find the planet being formed from gas and dust, the Institute for Astronomy said Wednesday.

LkCa 15 b is 450 light years away from Earth and is the youngest planet ever found.

Kraus presented the discovery Wednesday at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. Kraus and Ireland's research paper on the discovery is due to appear in The Astrophysical Journal.

Scientists hadn't been able to see such young planets before because the light of the stars they're orbiting outshines them.

"In the past, you couldn't measure this kind of phenomenon because it's happening so close to the star. But, for the first time, we've been able to directly measure the planet itself as well as the dusty matter around it," Kraus said in a statement.

Kraus and Ireland used mirrors to cancel out the bright light of the star near LkCa 15 b.

"It's like we have an array of small mirrors," Kraus said. "We can manipulate the light and cancel out distortions."

The astronomers found the planet while surveying 150 young dusty stars. This led to a more concentrated study of a dozen stars.

The star LkCa 15 ? the planet is named after its star ? was the team's second target. They immediately knew they were seeing something new, so they gathered more data on the star a year later.

"We realized we had uncovered a super Jupiter-sized gas planet, but that we could also measure the dust and gas surrounding it. We'd found a planet at its very beginning," Kraus said.

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Rubio: Libya worse today because Obama ???failed??? to intervene earlier [VIDEO] (Daily Caller)

Following the death of Col. Moammar Gadhafi, freshman Republican Sen. Marco Rubio said Thursday the French and British deserve credit for carrying ?the load? of the mission and criticized President Barack Obama for not acting earlier. Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he is ?hopeful? that Libya?s Transitional National Council will want a ?representative government.?

Rubio, who recently returned from a trip to Libya, was asked if he thinks Gadhafi?s death serves as credit to President Obama.

?No. Let?s give credit where it?s due,? responded Rubio at the Capitol. ?Number one: The French and the British carried the load on this, and let?s not forget that. Number two: The Libyan people, or actually it?s in the reverse ? the Libyan people. Okay, you go to those hospitals, those are Libyans laying in those beds, who fought for their freedom and were able to accomplish it.?

Rubio criticized the Obama administration?s timing and tactics in the conflict.

?My point is, if the U.S. had gotten involved early, aggressively and decisively, today would have happened months ago, Libya wouldn?t be as destroyed, it wouldn?t cost as much money to rebuild them, there wouldn?t be as many people dead or injured, and there wouldn?t be as many militias or rockets missing,? he said.

?So look, it?s great that it turned out well, but there are consequences. Sometimes you don?t just have to do the right thing, you have to do the right thing at the right time. And I think this administration failed to do that.?

McConnell hopes Libya will be an ally of the U.S. (RELATED: Post-Gadhafi, Obama warns other regional strongmen)

?That certainly clears the way for the Transitional National Council in Libya to begin to put together a representative government. And I am confident that we, along with the Europeans, will try to help them in that process,? said McConnell.

?A number of the people who led the Transitional National Council were educated in the United States, and we?re obviously hopeful that they will want to have a representative government and that they will be an ally of the United States.?

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Johnson & Johnson 3Q profit down 6 pct, sales up (AP)

Johnson & Johnson's third-quarter profit fell 6 percent as continuing product recall costs, rising generic competition and costs tied to an acquisition more than offset higher foreign sales.

The health care giant's U.S. revenue dropped 4 percent because of competition from generic versions of antibiotic Levaquin and several other prescription drugs, a two-year string of product recalls that have hammered its over-the-counter drug business and marketing costs to launch new products.

U.S. sales also were hurt by a severe shortage of J&J's chemotherapy drug Doxil caused by manufacturing problems. Doxil is one of hundreds of drugs, mainly used in hospitals, in such short supply that Congress is investigating.

The maker of baby products, medical devices and biologic drugs said Tuesday that net income was $3.2 billion, or $1.15 per share. That's down from $3.42 billion, or $1.23 per share, a year earlier.

Excluding a charge of 9 cents per share for the pending acquisition of medical device maker Synthes Inc., earnings would have been $3.4 billion, or $1.24 per share.

That topped by 3 cents the expectations of analysts polled by FactSet, but they were expecting revenue of $16.02 billion, just above the $16 billion J&J reported. Total revenue rose nearly 7 percent from a year ago, because of a 16.4 percent jump in foreign sales, but half of that came from favorable currency exchange rates.

Analyst estimates generally exclude one-time items.

The company, based in New Brunswick, N.J., raised the low end of its 2011 profit forecast, to betweem $4.95 and $5 per share, from its earlier forecast of $4.90 to $5 per share. Both sets of figures exclude one-time items.

In morning trading, J&J sales fell 19 cents at $63.60.

"In the third quarter, we produced solid sales growth," Chief Financial Officer Dominic Caruso told analysts on a conference call.

However, revenue in all three J&J divisions ? prescription drugs, consumer health care and medical devices and diagnostics ? were down in the U.S.

U.S. prescription drug revenue fell 6 percent. U.S device and diagnostic product sales dipped 0.7 percent, on lower sales of artificial hips after a recall of implants causing severe pain and of artery-opening stents because J&J has stopped making heart stents as safety risks have reduced that market.

The consumer business declined 4.5 percent as the product recalls, mainly nonprescription medicines made by its McNeil Consumer Healthcare business, kept Tylenol, Motrin and other products off store shelves.

Only a couple of the consumer medicines, most recently Tylenol Cold and Flu Severe, are back in production so far. J&J officials said more will return to stores later this year and "the balance of key selected products" will begin shipping next year, but they are not predicting when all the products will be back.

One of McNeil's three factories shut down in April 2010 and is being gutted and rebuilt. The other two have slowed production amid upgrades and heightened inspections required under a deal with the Food and Drug Administration. Manufacturing of some products is being switched to other J&J factories.

Meanwhile, shoppers have been buying much-cheaper store brands or rivals' brands, some of them heavily advertised as competitors lure J&J customers.

"We're hopeful that the loyalty these (J&J) brands have achieved with consumers over many years will stay with us as we bring these products back into the market," Caruso said. He declined to give details but said the company plans a mix of marketing and coupons to win customers back, "kind of a surround-sound effect."

International revenue was stronger in all three divisions, driven by sales jumps mainly in emerging markets ? in the Asia-Pacific and Africa regions and in North and South America, excluding the U.S.

Worldwide, revenue from medical devices and diagnostics rose 6.1 percent, to $6.28 billion. Prescription drug revenue jumped 8.9 percent to $5.98 billion. Consumer product revenue rose 4.9 percent to $3.74 billion.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/earnings/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111018/ap_on_bi_ge/us_earns_johnson___johnson

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