Michelle Grounds Barack's Vision

(NEWSER) - President-elect Barack Obama addressed the country and the world for the first time tonight, vowing to unite a nation beset by trouble at home and abroad, the Chicago Tribune reports. "Change has come to America," Obama told a crowd of tens of thousands at Chicago's Grant Park and millions more watching around the world. "Our stories are singular, but our destinies are shared." More»

Candidate's 'believable' wife 'lives in the same world we do'

(NEWSER) - The divide between the chattering classes and the average voter comes into sharp focus when spending time with Michelle Obama, novelist Curtis Sittenfeld writes for Time. Sittenfeld's recently released American Wife is about a character clearly based on Laura Bush, who "inspires my affection and sympathy," but Obama "is completely and totally believable as a person who lives in the same world we do." More»

Stewart and Colbert recreate the controversial cartoon for EW cover

(NEWSER) - Taking their spoofing of TV into print, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart grace the cover of this week’s Entertainment Weekly in imitation of the Obamas-as-terrorists New Yorker cover that set media of all kinds afire in July. The stunt surely threatens to obscure the question-and-answer session it’s intended to advertise, but the duo cheerily critiques the campaign and its characters regardless. More»

Puff piece with young daughters just another episode of political peekaboo

(NEWSER) - The press tries to treat politicians’ offspring, particularly younger ones, with kid gloves, writes David Carr of the New York Times—so it’s no wonder there was a furor when Barack Obama let Access Hollywood interview his 10- and 7-year-old daughters. Many reporters were irked by the beyond-puff piece, and Obama swiftly said he wouldn’t do it again, drawing the curtain back over his family. More»

'Too many fathers are AWOL,' he says at Chicago black church

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama sharply critiqued black fathers today at one of Chicago's biggest black churches, the New York Times reports. “Too many fathers are M.I.A, too many fathers are AWOL,” he said to a mostly black audience, including his wife and daughters. “I say this knowing that I have been an imperfect father,” he said, “knowing that I have made mistakes and I’ll continue to make more." More»