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BERLIN (AFP) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel has slammed a request by Barack Obama to give a speech this month before the Brandenburg Gate as inappropriate, her deputy spokesman said Wednesday. The conservative leader said that while she would be pleased to meet the US Democratic presidential hopeful, it would be wrong for him to hold a "campaign rally" at the historic symbol of German unity. "It is unusual to do electioneering abroad," spokesman Thomas Steg told reporters. "It is unusual to hold election rallies abroad. No German candidate for high office would even think of using the National Mall...

Are The NY TImes Obama Drugs Wearing Off ? Its taken a long time but it looks as if that hit of Barack Obama LSD that the NY Times too may be wearing off. Today's Times editorial criticized the "chosen one" for his flip-flops on public financing, the FISA bill, faith based federal programs, the death penalty and gun control. I think the best part is near the end, where the Times editorial board admonishes the Senator NOT to change is position on Iraq, obviously it was written before yesterday's flip-flop: Editorial New and Not Improved Senator Barack Obama stirred...

A significant number of West Virginians (and some others in America) evidently take the view that U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Hussein Obama is a Muslim. In a surpassingly depressing report from the coal-miner state on the eve of Tuesday's West Virginia primary, The Los Angeles Times noted voter views that go like this: "We do not need a Muslim to lead the good ole USA." It would not necessarily be so horrible if this well-spoken senator from Illinois were in fact Muslim. It turns out that most Muslims, like those in the country with the world's most Muslims (Indonesia),...

In last Tuesday's Democratic Debate, Barack Obama admitted that he has not called a single meeting of a Senate Oversight subcommittee on Afghanistan that he chairs. He used the excuse that he has been "pretty busy running a campaign." Now, his failure to be concerned enough about Afghanistan to call at least one meeting is going to really jump up and bite him. A quote published in the Washington Post of something Obama said last August (2007), denigrating the work of our brave U.S. Troops in Afghanistan, has surfaced: "Asked whether he would move U.S. troops out of Iraq to...

Coming soon in a Clinton email... Meanwhile... The media insisted that Obama was not wearing Muslim clothing in the last Clinton email. But, lookie here:

Barack Obama has publicly repudiated Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, but Debbie Schlussel says she’s spoken with an Obama insider, who told her that Obama continues to employ several Farrakhan followers in his campaign.

Memo to all national political journalists, columnists, pundits, etc.: Please, get a clue. Perhaps because I live in and cover the politics of a state which has elected two African-American U.S. senators, a black mayor of our largest city and a black secretary of state who four years ago carried all 102 counties, I find your coverage of the ''race issue'' in the presidential contest to be utterly devoid of insight and context. I'll try to fill you in. First, just because a prominent African-American leader endorses Hillary Clinton, that doesn't mean Barack Obama's campaign has suffered a mortal wound....

AP) LOS ANGELES Illinois Senator Barack Obama will visit Los Angeles for the first time since he announced his presidential candidacy. The Democrat will address a rally in the Crenshaw District Tuesday afternoon, then attend a fund-raiser in Beverly Hills hosted by DreamsWorks SKG founders Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. In San Francisco on Monday, Obama drew applause at a fund-raiser for Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., when he declared that "we are in the midst of war that should have never been authorized or waged."

SPRINGFIELD, Illinois (Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record), citing the legacy of Abraham Lincoln, pledged on Saturday to bridge the partisan gridlock in Washington, end the war in Iraq and transform American politics as the first black U.S. president. Launching his 2008 White House campaign outside the building in where Lincoln began his fight against slavery with a famous 1858 speech that declared "a house divided against itself cannot stand," Obama said it was time to "turn the page" to a new politics. "Let us begin this hard work together. Let us transform this nation,"...

After only being a U.S. Senator for a couple of years, Barak Hussein Obama, Democrat Senator from Chicago, has managed to catapult himself to the status of a messiah in the Democrat Party. The result is that, ever since, he's been walking on water toward the White House. Obama says after his visit with friends and family in Hawaii during the 2006 year-end holidays, he'll announce if he's going to run for president in 2008. Bets are that he will. Who is Obama and what has he done? Independent columnist, Andy Martin (Out2.com) says he believes Obama is a political...

SEN. BIDEN SHOCK INTERVIEW: OBAMA FIRST 'CLEAN' BLACK IN MAINSTREAM... 'I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy'...

Apparently, Senator Barack Hussein Obama, D-Illinois, is the Messiah. The New York Times reported on Sunday that in Obama's time at Harvard Law School, he "developed a leadership style based more on furthering consensus than on imposing his own ideas. Surrounded by students who enjoyed the sound of their own voices, Mr. Obama cast himself as an eager listener, sometimes giving warring classmates the impression that he agreed with all of them at once." Also on Sunday, the Boston Globe reported, "These days, Obama is the hot new candidate for the White House, trying to end the warring in Washington...

Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) listens during a hearing by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington January 17, 2007. Obama jumped into the 2008 White House race on Tuesday, promising to 'change our politics' with a campaign that could make him the first black president in U.S. history. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque (UNITED STATES)

By all indications, we are closer this week to Barack Obama’s announcement that he is running for president. He and his wife Michelle are featured on Ebony magazine’s February cover. His book, "The Audacity of Hope," hit the New York Times’ best-seller list and with Democrats winning the U.S. Senate majority, he is highly sought for political talk shows. Along with all the speculation comes increased curiosity about Obama’s background and influences. The night he won his U.S. Senate seat, Obama thanked his campaign staff generically and immediately recognized his longtime spiritual advisor, the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Jr., pastor...

Soon, very soon, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama will announce his bid to become the first black president of the United States. If you believe the press and the pundits, this country is in the grips of Obama mania. He has entranced and enthralled the electorate. I have been both heartened and puzzled by the enthusiasm among white voters across the nation. On the other hand, we haven't heard much from regular black folks. So over the holidays, I did my own unscientific survey. Around the Christmas dinner table, the family was amazingly blase. My uncle Leland "Sugar" Cain is famous...

CHICAGO — An intern in Sen. Barack Obama's office last year was recommended by an Illinois Democratic fundraiser later indicted for seeking kickbacks on government deals. Obama has denied doing any favors for Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against him. The internship was one of 98 Illinois spots filled from a pool of 350 applicants. John Aramanda, a 20-year-old student, served in Obama's Capitol Hill office from July 20 to Aug. 26, 2005, and was paid an $804 stipend, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs told the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times in reports...

Sen. Barack Obama (D.-Ill.) portrays himself as a thoughtful Democrat who carefully considers both sides of controversial issues, but his radical stance on abortion puts him further left on that issue than even NARAL Pro-Choice America. In 2002, as an Illinois legislator, Obama voted against the Induced Infant Liability Act, which would have protected babies that survived late-term abortions. That same year a similar federal law, the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, was signed by President Bush. Only 15 members of the U.S. House opposed it, and it passed the Senate unanimously on a voice vote. Both the Illinois and...

In this holiday season, Democrats are trying to decide if Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois is the gift their party has been waiting for, or just another sack of sticks and ashes. One thing is certain: He has presidential hopefuls on both sides of the aisle checking their hole cards. Obama is a genuine, up-from-the-grassroots phenomenon. On the wings of one spectacular speech, he has ignited the hopes of disillusioned voters from coast to coast. We haven't seen his like in a generation or more. Whether that star-power can withstand the withering fire that will be directed at him from...

This is a long but above average article on Senator Obama. I have excerpted only a small portion below: ...Obama-mania has exploded across the country this fall, propelled by a wave of adulation that greeted the publication of his second book, "The Audacity of Hope," and by shrewd manipulation of the opportunity that attention afforded. He has popped up everywhere from the cover of Men's Vogue to "Monday Night Football." He has been urged to run for president by everybody from Oprah Winfrey to a shockingly large number of ideologically opposed political commentators... He has nearly the opposite effect on...

A 2005 intern in U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's Capitol Hill office had ties to Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a developer and political fundraiser now under indictment, according to a published report. The 20-year-old student, who was paid an $804 stipend for the competitive five-week internship, was recommended by Rezko, now a main figure in a kickback scheme involving investment firms seeking state business, the Chicago Tribune reported in its Sunday editions. The intern is the son of Glenview businessman Joseph Aramanda, who once served as a chief operating officer of a Rezko company and had a long-term business relationship with Rezko,...

Sen. Barack Obama is concerned about his personal security --telling the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board Thursday that he and his wife fear there is a potential for violence -- even if he does not run for president. "Being shot, obviously, that is the least-attractive option,'' Obama said. The Illinois Democrat told the Sun-Times he has concluded a 2008 White House bid "would be viable" and he would have "a pretty good chance of winning the nomination.'' For the first time, Obama talked about the downside of his swelling popularity, before his expected presidential announcement in January, after a vacation in...

OBAMA TV In the wake of Barack Obama's high-energy and much-publicized debut in the Granite State, the first "Barack Obama for President" ad will begin airing early next week air on WMUR and some cable news outlets. The ad was first made public on UnionLeader.com yesterday afternoon. The 60-second spot is the work of Maryland-based draftObama.org and features a collage of photos of Obama making speeches and meeting with people while he speaks about the raising the minimum wage, improving education and the lives of seniors and about a new direction for foreign policy. The ad begins with the written...

It is sometimes called a bubble or a boomlet or a bandwagon. A new political figure arrives on the national stage and audiences swoon. Suddenly, mysteriously, and without anybody knowing much about him, he is The One, the next hot thing, eclipsing all other presidential wannabes. (Until he isn't anymore.) This bubble is not love -- as anyone who was ever 15 years old can testify. This bubble is infatuation. Political infatuation. Presidential contenders can be the subject of crushes just as surely as that new kid in high school, and in both cases it's what you don't know about...

Meredith Vieira stopped just short of breaking out the pom-poms, but the 'Today' show crew otherwise did their best to cheer Barack Obama and his appearance on last night's Monday Night Football. For those who missed it, the broadcast opened with a deadpan Obama appearing to be make an announcement of his intention to run for president, before simply endorsing his home-state Chicago Bears.Call me a grump, but watching it live last night my first reaction was "how's this for millions in free advertising, courtesy ABC-ESPN?"But the folks at NBC clearly weren't troubled by a little politicking by their rivals...

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Sen. Barack Obama presented himself as a commonsense, pragmatic, non-ideological Democrat on Sunday as he opened his anticipated presidential campaign in this first-in-the-nation primary state. Obama drew huge, excited crowds at a signing for his best-selling second book in Portsmouth and then again at a rally in Manchester for the New Hampshire Democratic Party, with a sellout crowd of about 1,500. He also made several smaller stops. Every veteran New Hampshire observer I interviewed said the Obama reception was extraordinary for a first visit from a presidential hopeful. The Illinois Democrat was very conscious that New Hampshire...

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Sen. Barack Obama sparked an early frenzy Sunday during his initial visit to the nation's first presidential primary state, but said he still hasn't decided whether to run despite large crowds that he said have shown his "15 minutes of fame has extended a little longer." The Illinois senator said he is still "running things through the traps" as he considers whether to join a field of Democrats that's expected to include front-runner Sen. Hillary Clinton and several other more experienced political hands. "This is an office you can't run for just on the basis of ambition,"...

Let's be generous and chalk it up to the early-morning hour. Otherwise we'd have to come down hard on radio host Mike Gallagher, who as a guest on this morning's Fox & Friends Weekend went ga-ga for Barack Obama. It's one thing to acknowledge as did Mike that Obama has appeal as a candidate. But, interviewed by Keran Chetry, it was Gallagher's praise for Obama's substance that shocked, coming as it did from a putative conservative. Said Gallagher: "He's got some pretty solid ideas. He's a moderate." Moderate?? If Mike would check Obama's record, he'd find that in addition to...

The National Democratic Party has its rock star: His name is Barack Obama, and his New Hampshire coming-out party Sunday is already an unprecedented success. He’s got less than two years seniority in the U.S. Senate. He won the seat only after the leading Democrat in the race, Blair Hull, nosedived after charges of domestic abuse and the Republican nominee, Jack Ryan, dropped out after embarrassing sexual allegations from his ex-wife. So what about this good-looking, well-spoken 45-year-old makes his speech Sunday at the Center of New Hampshire Radisson Hotel in Manchester the hottest Democratic ticket in recent history? Does...

As Sen. Barack Obama (D.-Ill.) gathers increasing attention as a potential rival to Sen. Hillary Clinton (D.-N.Y.) for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, remarkably little attention has been paid to his record, which reveals him to be at least as liberal as Hillary.

If you remember the fairy tale "The Emperor's New Clothes," it is a young boy who has the courage -- or lacks the inhibition -- to point out that the monarch prancing down the street in his imagined finery is in fact naked. I thought of that story while reading Barack Obama's fine Iraqi policy speech, delivered in Chicago Monday, where he outlined a philosophy of action far more palatable than George Bush's keep-on-doin'-what-we've-bin-doin'-and-hope-it-all-works-out-someday doctrine. It's a good speech. A few historical allusions, to "pay whatever price" reflecting JFK's "bear any burden" and "soul-trying times" echoing Thomas Paine's famous "These...

This is where Barack Obama is head and shoulders above any of the other potential candidates on either side. This is where he is in a league all his own. Listen to him speak and you feel the power of his intellect, but just as strongly you feel the power of his heart. This is a leader who will be able and inclined to reach out to the powerful and the disenfranchised. His guileless style and his heart have not yet been corrupted by the cesspool of Washington politics. That's why we need him now.

What group takes the dimmest view of Barack Obama's presidential hopes? Republicans? Southerners? Hillary Clinton? African Americans. It isn't that they don't like him. They do. Obama's ability to spark excitement in our cynical, battered, creaky democratic system knows no boundaries, at the moment. And of course blacks would particularly embrace him. mailto:nsteinberg@suntimes.com But when talk shifts to assessing his chances of actually reaching the White House, the African Americans I talk to get kind of a sad, head-shaking, you-have-no- idea look in their eye that says, to me, "America will never let a black man be president. Never." Can...

Maureen Dowd is worried that the Republican smear machine is at it again, attacking Barack Obama by using…his middle name. It seems Ed Rogers referred to Obama by his full name on "Hardball" a while back, setting off indignation among some on the left. I don't know why it came to Rogers' mind, but it is true I included Obama's middle name in an NR story (not available on the web) in early November: "Obama has joked that he worried his political career was over after 9/11 because his name sounded too much like Osama. In fact, it's better than...

Obama spoke today, and offered up - exactly what I predicted he would as his method of fighting AIDS on the African continent: Condoms and Microbicides. Microbicides are topical agents that are applied to condoms that will hopefully kill viruses and bacteria. In other words, Barack Obama views the people of the African continent as smart enough to change their behavior so as to apply microbicides and condoms before engaging in otherwise risky intercourse, yet he doesn't believe that the people of the African continent are smart enough to be presented with the fact that it is the risky sexual...

Maureen Dowd plays the false indignation card in her pay-per-view column of today, What’s in a Name, Barry?The gist: those mean Republicans are trying to tar the rising star of the Democratic party [legally-mandated descriptor] by making malign associations with his moniker. The GOP's latest mischief - letting people know that the middle name of the junior senator from Illinois is "Hussein." Bunk. Any possible shock value in the Barack Hussein Obama handle has already largely faded. And this being a nation that likes to see itself as open and accepting, I'd say that, should he stay in the race,...

<p>December 1, 2006 -- WASHINGTON - Iowa Democrats say there's a growing feeling in the key 2008 state that Hillary Rodham Clinton is going to take a pass on the presidency if rising rival Barack Obama jumps in.</p> <p>"She's been quiet and, you know, there's a question that we all hear is that she may not get in this if Barack Obama gets in," Iowa Interim Democratic Party Chairman Rob Tully said.</p>

I just heard the opening shot of the 2008 Dem presidential primary!To paraphrase Hirohito's famous words to his people at the end of WWII, the electoral situation has developed not necessarily to the GOP's advantage. We'll certainly be picking through the rubble in coming weeks. But for the time being, let's look at the bright side: the 2008 presidential race is on! One sure sign of it: Barack Obama has become fair game for criticism - from fellow Democrats.Hilary Rosen, a Dem consultant and former interim Director of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group, was a guest on...

Why Not Obama? By Richard CohenTuesday, October 24, 2006; A19 Ancient Rome had a term for a certain political process: cursus honorum , the honors race. It was, I am told by Anthony Everitt in his new biography, "Augustus," the process by which politicians moved up the ladder. Along the way, they were evaluated until, finally, some made it to the top. Nowadays, the system is different. All you have to do is appear on "Oprah."I am referring, obviously and insidiously, to Barack Obama, who announced Sunday that he might run for president. This followed, of course, the aforementioned...