WASHINGTON: It popped out casually, a throwaway line as Barack Obama talked to reporters about finding the right puppy for his young daughters. But with just three offhand words in his first news conference as president-elect, Obama reminded everyone how thoroughly different his administration — and inevitably, the United States — will be. "Mutts like me." In American English, a mutt is a mixed breed dog. By now, almost every American knows that Obama's mother was white and his father black, which will make him the U.S.'s first African-American president. Still, there was something startling, and telling, about hearing his...