Kenya Feels Betrayed by 'Brother Barack'

And as for Kenya comment, 'I made a mistake, I corrected it'

(NEWSER) - Mike Huckabee has more to say on both of his recent headline-making statements: That Barack Obama grew up in Kenya , and that Natalie Portman is setting a bad example with her out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Mediaite reports Huckabee’s comments from Sirius Radio’s POTUS channel:

• On Kenya: “The reaction ranged from, ‘This guy is so dumb he doesn’t know that Barack Obama grew up in Indonesia not Kenya,’ all the way to the other extreme, I saw people like Andrea Mitchell saying, ‘Oh no, he did this on purpose, he is very smart and shrewd, he did this in a calculating way.' Well, I can’t be both. I can’t be the dumbest guy in the room and the smartest guy in the room at the same time. I have to be one or the other, or maybe it was just that I made a mistake, I corrected it.”

20K flee country as violent confrontation looms

(NEWSER) - Last chance for a peaceful resolution? West African leaders met with Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo today to try to resolve the country’s post-election strife, the BBC reports. The heads of Benin, Sierra Leone, and Cape Verde met with Gbagbo, who has refused to step down despite international support for his opponent, President-elect Alassane Ouattara. A regional bloc has threatened to use force if Gbagbo refuses to budge. More»

Critics scream about cost despite widely discredited report

(NEWSER) - Faced with a barrage of outrage—based on a discredited report—over the cost of his 10-day trip to India, Indonesia, South Korea, and Japan, Barack Obama has rebranded it as a jobs mission. “The primary purpose is to take a bunch of US companies and open up markets so that we can sell in Asia … and create jobs here,” Obama told his Cabinet yesterday, reports the New York Times. He repeated that message today, while lauding an encouraging new jobs report . More»

Family members question 'car accident' story

(NEWSER) - The official story is that President Obama’s father died after crashing his car into a tree—but Obama’s family in Kenya fears foul play had a hand in his death, according to a book Peter Firstbrook is working on about the Obamas. Though Barack Sr.’s car appeared to have hit a tree, “he didn’t look like somebody who was involved in an accident,” the president’s cousin told Firstbrook. His grandmother told a similar tale. "His body was never broken, his vehicle was not badly crashed. He was just dead after the accident. Not even much blood was seen." More»

Ignore the cynics, Obama urges

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama gave his second speech to the UN General Assembly today, and spent most of his time calling for support for the US’ latest stab at peace in the Middle East. “Peace must be made by Israelis and Palestinians, but each of us has a responsibility to do our part as well,” Obama said, according to Politico . “Now I recognize many are pessimistic about this process,” he allowed. “But consider the alternative.” More»