Obama's New York Getaway 'Proportionate'

(AP) - President Barack Obama made good on a campaign promise to his most important supporter tonight—his wife, Michelle. The president and first lady jetted for a date in New York late this afternoon, aides and media in tow. "I am taking my wife to New York City because I promised her during the campaign that I would take her to a Broadway show after it was all finished," the president said in a statement read by an aide. More»

Details of Jodi Kantor book continue behind-the-scenes look

(NEWSER) - Details from The Obamas, by New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor, continue to trickle out , and ABC News reports on revelations of a personal nature. According to Kantor, Michelle Obama felt "frightened and alone" during her first days in the White House. The first lady wanted to stay behind longer in Chicago with her two girls, and worried about living in a bubble and her daughters bumping into White House tourists during playdates. And the pressure was enormous. "She saw the responsibility, the impact, the potential of her role,” writes Kantor. And "everyone was waiting for a black woman to make a mistake,” an adviser told the author. More»

(NEWSER) - Barack and Michelle Obama’s night in New York has “prompted many wives to glare across the breakfast table,” writes Jan Hoffman in the New York Times, “trying to remember the last time their husbands made a fuss over them.” After 16 years together, the Obamas still seem into each other, seeming proof that the modern fantasy of the passionate marriage is still alive. More»

It was 'entirely inappropriate,' says Harlem congressman

(NEWSER) - Harlem Congressman Charles Rangel has apologized for saying that President Obama should watch his back during a planned visit to New York, reports the New York Daily News. Rangel made the crack as he commented on the accidental shooting death of black police officer Omar Edwards by a fellow white cop last week. "It was entirely inappropriate to bring the president and his wife into this discussion during their visit to New York," Rangel said yesterday. More»

Winfrey-Obama relationship breaks down, Edward Klein alleges

(NEWSER) - BFFs no more? A new, unauthorized, and contentious Barack Obama biography alleges that the relationship between Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey has been deteriorating ever since the early days of Obama’s presidency, the Telegraph reports. According to The Amateur, by former New York Times Magazine editor Edward Klein, Obama advisers Valerie Jarrett and Desirée Rogers grew worried about Winfrey’s closeness to the Obama family and Michelle herself became jealous of the influence Winfrey had over her husband. More»