Berlusconi Adds Michelle to His 'Tan Obama' Dig

Plan to hit him where McCain pulled back

(NEWSER) - Top Republican strategists have devised a plan to "do exactly what John McCain would not let us do" and bombard the public with incendiary Jeremiah Wright soundbites just in time for the Democratic National Convention in September. The plan was commissioned by Chicago Cubs owner Joe Ricketts, who would pump $10 million into it. The New York Times obtained a copy of the report, dubbed "The Defeat of Barack Hussein Obama" from a source who was "alarmed by its tone." More»

Epithet-hurling Baracka Flacka Flames gets down in the 'hood

(NEWSER) - An epithet-laced hip-hop parody of President Obama has triggered furious debate: Is the hit YouTube video an "antidote" for Obama's popularity troubles among youth or an "anti-valentine" from those voters whose support the president craves, asks the Christian Science Monitor. The slick "Head of the State" video is a spoof of "Hard in Da Paint" by Atlanta hip-hop artist Waka Flocka Flame, and it features "Baracka Flacka Flames" (aka James Davis) getting down and dirty in the 'hood—smoking pot, petting a pit bull, and denigrating everyone from Michelle to Oprah Winfrey. More»

(NEWSER) - Besieged Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is “a national joke,” Michael Wolff writes in Vanity Fair. He’s also immensely popular. In the midst of his most recent sex scandal, he and his party were handily reelected. What’s the deal? To begin with, “he controls his country’s dominant political party, its primary television networks, and its government.” So what if he's an incorrigible Lothario—"a dime-store Sinatra”—whose wife airs their dirty laundry and seeks divorce? More»

Gates incident, rise of birthers indicate issue's persistence

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama’s election was supposed to be a healing moment, proof that we’re in a post-racial America. “Didn’t last very long,” writes Roger Simon of Politico. Today America seems as racially divided as ever. Exhibit A: the birthers, who say Obama’s “an alien who successfully hid himself for years.” Exhibit B: The Henry Louis Gates incident, which culminated in Glenn Beck calling Obama a racist. More»

But don't forget about racial profiling

(NEWSER) - The beer meeting at the White House has come and gone, but Henry Louis Gates offers a postscript: "I thank God that I live in a country in which police officers put their lives at risk to protect us every day," he writes in the Root, where he is editor in chief. The Harvard professor also thanks President Obama for bringing him and Sgt. Crowley together. "Our country is blessed to have such a leader," he writes. More»