Your Prez-Elect Is a Gym Rat

Boutique gyms push them hard and charge bigtime

(NEWSER) - Think you're in shape? Then meet the New Yorkers who endure—sorry, enjoy—two or three workouts a day, along with a full-time job and whatever family or social life they can fit in. “It’s New York, and I think that everyone’s always just trying to look better and better,” a 32-year-old working mom tells the New York Times . “Some people think it’s crazy. ... But you see so many other people doing it, you don’t feel crazy.” More»

Barack Makes list of fittest guys

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama has already nailed one nomination. He's cruised onto a list of the fittest guys in America. His 16-hour days on the campaign trail, early morning workouts at hotel gyms, brisk 45-minute runs and pick-up basketball games put him in some super-fit company, according to the list compiled by Men's Fitness magazine. Golfer Tiger Woods is in first place. More»

'New York Times' dives into president's counterterrorism approach

(NEWSER) - The New York Times is running what is undoubtedly today's biggest talker—in terms of both length and heft. The paper interviewed three dozen current and past Obama advisers in an attempt to define the president's counterterrorism approach—a topic it describes using words such as baffling, confounding, paradoxical, and inscrutable. Among the most notable talking points:

• Some 100 national security officials meet via video teleconference near weekly as part of a Pentagon-led "secret nominations process" (described as "an invention of the Obama administration") in which they review potential additions to the "kill list" of suspected terrorists.
• Nominations are communicated to Obama, who himself approves every single name added to the "kill list," after reviewing potential targets' bios. He OKs "lethal action without hand-wringing."

Lays wreath at Tomb of the Unknowns

(AP) - President Barack Obama paid tribute today to the men and women who have died defending America, saying the country must strive "to be a nation worthy of your sacrifice." He said the war in Iraq has ended after nine years and is "winding down" in Afghanistan. But he conceded that the pain of war lingers for the families of those lost in battle, noting mourners can be seen at Arlington National Cemetery daily, not just on Memorial Day. More»

Nabs 60% of the vote or less in latest primaries

(NEWSER) - He's already clinched the Democratic nomination, but President Obama's performance in last night's primaries wasn't exactly definitive: In Arkansas, he was opposed by a Tennessee lawyer who claimed 40% of the vote to Obama's 60%; in Kentucky, Obama won almost 58% of the vote but another 42% voted "uncommitted." (Mitt Romney fared better, but still not all that well, in the two primaries, Politico notes.) John Wolfe, Obama's Arkansas opponent, was also on the ballot in the Louisiana, Missouri, and New Hampshire primaries, and will be on Texas' ballot as well. Obama had a similar experience in West Virginia, where a convicted felon won 41% of the vote against him. More»