Barack Obama

(Newser) - Spider-Man is about to hook up with a high profile sidekick, reports AFP. Marvel Comics is publishing a fist-bumping Spider-Man special next week featuring Barack Obama. "When we heard that the president-elect Obama is a collector of Spider-Man comics, we knew these historic figures had to meet," said a Marvel editor. In the special edition comic, Spidey battles a foe trying to stop Obama from taking the oath of office. More »

(Newser) - President-elect Barack Obama is prepared to break with Bush administration policy and open lines of communication with Hamas, sources close to the transition team tell the Guardian . Advisors believe that ostracizing Hamas isn't working and support a move by Obama to quietly contact Hamas, perhaps through intelligence agencies—the same way earlier administrations engaged the PLO without Israel's knowledge, according to the sources. More »

(Newser) - Barack Obama's apparent choice for surgeon general, Sanjay Gupta, is drawing fire from within his own party, ABC News reports. John Conyers of Michigan, the House Judiciary Committee chair, sent a letter to his fellow legislators today encouraging them to join him in protesting the nomination of the CNN fixture as "not in the best interests of the nation"—and spelling the celebrity neurosurgeon's first name "Sunjay." More »

(Newser) - Barack Obama’s pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services promised today a bipartisan effort to reform health care, the New York Times reports. “When it comes to health care, we really are in it together,” Tom Daschle said during Senate confirmation hearings, where chairman Ted Kennedy praised the former South Dakota Democratic senator as “just the person for the job.” More »

(Newser) - Barack Obama went for the hard sell today, making the case for his huge stimulus plan. “I don't believe it's too late to change course,” Obama said in a speech at George Mason University, “but it will be if we don't take dramatic action as soon as possible.” Unemployment could hit the double digits, as we “lose a generation” of prosperity. More »

(Newser) - Tom Daschle, Barack Obama’s health-care honcho, saw the 1993 Clinton-care debacle up close; his strategy for passing reform this time around is basically Anything But Clinton, reports Politico. The Clinton push, Daschle thinks, came too far into the first term, and was too exclusive, presenting Congress a completed proposal without seeking input or pushing for it at the grassroots level. More »

(Newser) - Stories of agencies working on the same projects and not bothering to coordinate dog every presidential administration, but Barack Obama has an ambitious plan to avoid all that: He’s concentrating power over domestic issues in the hands of White House advisers. “It really is a way of him maximizing the opportunity to control all aspects of these efforts,” a former Clinton staffer tells the Washington Post. More »