For those of you who didn’t see these pics, here they are again for your viewing pleasure. An old friend of Obama dug these up in her garage and they’ve been the topic of much conversation.

Obama is being battered by the press once again:

Barack Obama defended his choice of a conservative evangelical pastor to deliver a religious invocation at his January 20 presidential inauguration.

Pastor Rick Warren is a popular preacher who attracts some 20,000 people to his weekly sermons at his huge Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California.

The author of the best seller “The Purpose Driven Life,” a wildly successful religious advice book, Warren is also known for his strong views against gay marriage and abortion.

“It is no secret that I am a fierce advocate for equality for gay and lesbian Americans,” Obama said at a press conference in Chicago.

But he argued: “It’s important for America to come together, even though we may have disagreements on certain social issues.”

Obama noted that Warren invited him to speak at Saddleback a few years ago “despite his awareness that I held views that were entirely contrary to his” on gay rights and abortion.

Obama said pastor Joseph Lowery, a civil rights icon “who has deeply contrasting views to Rick Warren on a whole host of issues,” will also speak at the inauguration.

“There will be a wide range of viewpoints that are presented. And that’s how it should be, because that’s what America’s about … we are diverse and noisy and opinionated.”

He added: “That’s hopefully going to be a spirit that carries over into my administration.”

Two leading liberal groups expressed shock over Obama’s choice of Warren, who is on record as saying that gay marriage “is morally equivalent to allowing brothers and sisters to marry,” and describing abortion as a “holocaust.”

Warren also supported California’s controversial Proposition 8, which voters approved in November. The measure changes the state constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, therefore banning gay marriage.

In a letter to Obama, the gay rights organization Human Rights Campaign bitterly complained about the choice.

“By inviting Rick Warren to your inauguration, you have tarnished the view that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Americans have a place at your table,” read a statement signed by group president Joe Solmonese.

The approval of Proposition 8 in California, “which stripped loving, committed same-sex couples of their given legal right to marry is the greatest loss our community has faced in 40 years,” Solmonese wrote.

He described Warren’s invitation as “a genuine blow to LGBT Americans.”

The liberal advocacy group People for the American Way expressed its “grave disappointment” over the invitation.

Warren “gets plenty of attention through his books and media appearances. He doesn’t need or deserve this position of honor,” group president Kathryn Kolbert said in a statement.

During the presidential campaign Obama set out to convince religious voters — especially evangelicals and Catholics that often choose Republican candidates — to cast ballots for him.

In mid-August Warren hosted an event at Saddleback in which Obama and his then-Republican presidential rival John McCain spoke about religion.

Warren quizzed each candidate separately for an hour on issues that included their views on same-sex marriage, abortion, their personal views of faith, sin, and their definition of evil.

No matter what Obama does, he will never be able to please everybody. He’s going to face stiff opposition from his rivals as well as those who are supposed to be his supporters.

It’s not surprising that your boy Barack has won yet another honor after his historical win to become President of the US:

Time magazine has named U.S. President-elect Barack Obama the Person of the Year in 2008 after he became the first African American to win the White House.

The other finalists were U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin and Chinese director Zhang Yimou, Time said on Wednesday.

“In one of the craziest elections in American history, he overcame a lack of experience, a funny name, two candidates who are political institutions and the racial divide to become the 44th president of the United States,” the magazine said.

President-elect Barack Obama has promised to invest in infrastructure on a scale not seen since the 1950s, when the US highway system was established.

Obama used his weekly address to outline that the spending would be part of his plan to create at least 2.5m new jobs in the ailing US economy.

He also spoke of the need for expanded access to high-speed internet and the modernisation of school buildings.

Unemployment has risen by more than 500,000 during November, figures have shown.

That was the biggest monthly rise in job cuts since 1974, and it drove up the jobless rate to a 15-year high of 6.7%, up from 6.5% in October.

The figures came less than a week after the National Bureau for Economic Research said the US economy had been in recession since late 2007.

Mr Obama, who takes office on 20 January, has previously said that his incoming team will be tasked with generating 2.5m new jobs by 2011.

On Saturday, speaking in his weekly address, Mr Obama outlined how most of that employment might be created. “We will create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s,” he said.

“We’ll invest your precious tax dollars in new and smarter ways, and we’ll set a simple rule - use it or lose it. If a state doesn’t act quickly to invest in roads and bridges in their communities, they’ll lose the money.”

The president-elect said that broadband internet connections in the US should be available to schoolchildren and hospitals.

“In the country that invented the internet, every child should have the chance to get online and… that’s how we’ll strengthen America’s competitiveness in the world,” he said.

School buildings, he continued, would be modernised and upgraded to make them energy-efficient.

The new administration, he added, would launch a massive effort to make public buildings more energy-efficient by replacing old heating systems and installing efficient light bulbs.

“Our government now pays the highest energy bill in the world - we need to change that,” he said.

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Obama’s cabinet will definitely go down in history as one of the most diverse of all time:

The Wall Street Journal reports on Obama’s possible pick for Labor Secretary, Mary Beth Maxwell:

For the rainbow cabinet of the nation’s first African American president, Mary Beth Maxwell is the perfect labor secretary you’ve probably never heard of: a gay woman, community organizer and labor leader with an adopted African American son. And this founding executive director of American Rights at Work is about to get the full-court press.

Maxwell already had the strong backing of former Rep. David Bonior, who despite repeated attempts to get his name removed from consideration continues to be on the short list of potential labor secretaries. Bonior, 63 years old, says it is time for his generation to turn over power to a new generation, and Maxwell, whose labor-backed organization pushes for expanded collective bargaining rights, is his pick.

As Marc Ambinder notes, “Maxwell, who’d be the first openly gay cabinet secretary, is being vetted for the job, along with Jennifer Granholm of Michigan and Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas.”

The far Right Wingers and people in the Bible Belt must be going out of their minds after this news. America is changing before our very eyes. It’s truly amazing.

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President-elect Barack Obama named New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson as commerce secretary on Wednesday, filling a top economic post in troubled times and placing a second former campaign rival in his new Cabinet.

Talking optimistically despite the recession, Obama also said, “We have everything we need to renew our economy, we have the ingenuity and technology, the skill and commitment - we just need to put it to work.”

The president-elect called Richardson a leading “economic diplomat for America. During his time in state government and Congress, and in two tours of duty in the Cabinet, Bill has seen from just about every angle what makes our economy work and what keeps it from working better.”

Richardson, 61, was United Nations ambassador and energy secretary during the Clinton administration, and he is in his second term as New Mexico’s governor. He also served seven terms in the House of Representatives.

If confirmed by the Senate, he would take over a sprawling department that oversees the National Weather Service, the Census Bureau, economic development programs and more.

One of the nation’s most prominent Hispanic politicians, Richardson pledged - in English and Spanish - to work to renew the economy.

He will become the latest former Democratic primary opponent to join Obama’s Cabinet. The incoming chief executive has chosen another adversary-turned-ally, Hillary Rodham Clinton, to be his secretary of state. Obama also chose former rival Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate.

Obama is considering another Hispanic politician, California Democratic Rep. Xavier Becerra, to be U.S. Trade Representative, according to two Democratic officials speaking on a condition of anonymity ahead of an announcement for the position.

New Mexico’s Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, a Democrat will become the state’s first female governor when Richardson leaves to assume his new post. Denish will take over for the remainder of Richardson’s term, which runs through 2010.

In neighboring Arizona, the ascension of a Democratic governor will put the state in the hands of a Republican governor.

Under Arizona state law, the move of Gov. Janet Napolitano to secretary of Homeland Security will mean a Republican, Arizona Secretary of State Jan Brewer, will assume the reins there.

The president-elect has moved quickly to fill out his Cabinet, having named more than half of it in the month since he was elected the country’s 44th president.

An energy secretary and United Nations ambassador in President Bill Clinton’s administration, Richardson was a contender for the State Department job, but Obama offered him the post as commerce secretary after choosing the former first lady as his top diplomat.

Among those Cabinet posts yet to be disclosed if not chosen: the heads of the Interior, Transportation, Labor, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Education, Agriculture and Veterans Affairs departments. Obama also has yet to name his intelligence team, including his director of national intelligence and CIA chief.

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I think that Obama made a great choice in Hillary:

Leaving the news conference in Chicago yesterday where he introduced his national security team, President-elect Barack Obama strolled out of the room arm in arm with his choice for secretary of state and onetime rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton. The gesture may have been a subtle indication that Obama is aware that one of the biggest questions about his choice of Clinton is the kind of relationship they will be able to forge in the months ahead.

Many of the most successful secretaries of state, though not all, enjoyed great influence with the presidents they served, giving them crucial leverage with foreign leaders and inside the national security establishment. But Obama and Clinton are only starting to develop the kind of rapport that could lead to that trust, and the ultimate success of the senator from New York in her new role may depend as much on Obama’s willingness to admit her to his inner circle as her ability to master the intricacies of the Middle East peace process or North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, according to senior foreign policy officials from past administrations.

Democrats familiar with the transition said the two have spent time over the past several weeks discussing the parameters of the job and how they would work together: Clinton received assurances that she would have the kind of access to Obama she needs, as well as the authority to pick her own team. They said the Obama team would like her to select James Steinberg as her deputy, but that hardly seems a problem, since Steinberg worked closely with her husband in the Clinton White House as deputy national security adviser.

Ironically, Steinberg recently co-authored a book raising questions about the wisdom of appointing “all-stars” — foreign policy experts and prominent members of Congress with little connection to the new president — in key national security jobs. While such appointments can help foster a sense that a new president has made the transition from campaigning to governing, Steinberg and co-author Kurt M. Campbell pointed to numerous examples of the appointments leading to discord and disappointment, especially in the Clinton administration.

Some close to Clinton and Obama say the two are well aware of these potential pitfalls. In their private discussions in recent weeks, Obama “really made an effort to say that she would be an important member of his team,” said one Democrat familiar with the transition effort.

Melanne Verveer, Clinton’s chief of staff when she was first lady, said Clinton was heavily influenced by watching her husband conduct foreign policy. “She learned the importance of there not being sunlight, if you will, between the secretary and the president in terms of foreign policy,” Verveer said. “She really understands the importance of speaking with one voice, and that is the president’s voice. Her record is very clear on that — and that is exactly what she will do.”

Former secretary of state Madeleine K. Albright said that the body language of Obama and Clinton, as well as the public statements they have made since the primary season concluded, suggest that the partnership will work. “I think they are both highly professional and highly respectful of each other,” she said. “I am sure that in fact that they have worked out a way that she will have the kind of access she needs. She will give him her opinion unvarnished, but she will also be a very good team member.”

Clinton, if confirmed, may be the most prominent figure to hold the top job at State in modern times — a presidential candidate and former first lady who knows other world leaders on a first-name basis and has been a fixture on the world stage since the 1990s. Her nomination is the first time that a president has appointed a major political rival to head the State Department since 1881, when James Garfield chose James Blaine.

“I think this is a sensational appointment,” said Samuel R. “Sandy” Berger, who served as Bill Clinton’s national security adviser. “She brings intellectual firepower. She brings a high energy and a credibility in the world, which will be very valuable. Obama has shown great leadership in putting this team together.”

But the risks to the appointment are substantial, and success is far from guaranteed. Clinton has enormous star power, but some of her predecessors who were initially greeted as rock stars, such as Colin L. Powell, proved to be less effective than anticipated. Clinton has no real experience managing a large government bureaucracy, and in fact her two most significant management missions — running the health-care task force in her husband’s first term and her own presidential campaign — were riven by infighting. And Bill Clinton has been a magnet for controversy.

During the primary campaign, the two leading Democrats also fought bitterly at times over foreign policy, with Clinton questioning Obama’s willingness to talk with Iran’s president and Obama questioning her judgment in supporting the resolution giving President Bush the authority to go to war in Iraq. But associates of both Clinton and Obama say the differences were magnified during the heat of the campaign; Clinton, they say, shares Obama’s desire to restore American influence in the world through diplomatic efforts such as a new initiative aimed at getting Iran to halt uranium enrichment that could lead to the development of a nuclear weapon.

“She is very keen on having America’s leadership restored in a way where we are respected, where we are capable of talking to countries we don’t like,” Albright said. “That would be her modus operandi, and it fits with what Obama has said.”

James M. Lindsay, director of the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas’s LBJ School of Public Affairs, said there are several key ingredients for a secretary of state’s success. First, he said, a secretary needs “a mixture of political savvy and a vision for the world.” Second, the secretary needs the trust and support of the president — “someone who takes your calls and doesn’t hang you out to dry.” And third, “having a strong will to work and an ego wrapped in leather.”

Many of those qualities describe James A. Baker III, who worked for President George H.W. Bush and is generally regarded as the most successful of modern secretaries of state. Baker came to the office with few defined foreign policy views — but worked for a president who did. He was also the president’s closest friend, which made him a formidable force when combined with his political skills as a former Treasury secretary, White House chief of staff and presidential campaign manager.

In much the same way, Condoleezza Rice’s close relationship with George W. Bush helped pave the way for influence overseas. Kings and prime ministers believed that she had a direct line to the president, and that when she spoke, she was speaking for him — in contrast to Powell, her predecessor.

“Clinton’s challenge will be to make sure her stewardship of the State Department is compatible with the views of the new president,” said Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser under President Jimmy Carter.

The comments that many politicians make about their opponents are made in the heat of battle. Obama’s comments about Clinton’s foreign policy experience were a reaction to previous negative comments about his experience. Leave it to Fox News to try make a big deal about it. The choice is made so I hope that Fox News and all of the Right wingers can move on because obviously Obama and Clinton have.

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The publishing industry is betting on Barack Obama like no president in decades. Since Election Day alone, more than half a dozen book deals have been signed to exploit Obamania.

Two dozen books in the works range from the serious to the silly. There are retrospective ticktocks on how Obama won office and prospective looks at his first year in the White House. There is a biography on Obama’s father, a compilation of essays on Obama and race, and others tilting toward the celebratory with photographic montages. There are children’s books, of course, and a style guide on Michelle Obama, framing the down-to-earth future first lady as a latter-day Jackie Onassis.

With few exceptions, the books share a tone of celebration and optimism, and a view of Obama as hero. To borrow from the president-elect, perhaps some hope-mongering is afoot. In contrast, President George W. Bush, who reportedly is having difficulty finding a publisher for a book he hopes to write, has been savaged in many recent tomes.

“The American reading public appreciates great stories. They like heroes, and they like villains,” said Gail Ross, a top political literary agent. As for Obama, “at least for now, he’s a hero. Bush books worked when he became a villain.”

Tim Duggan, a vice president and executive editor at HarperCollins, said that the Obama book boom reflects the president-elect’s “honeymoon period.”

“No matter what the state of the book industry, or the state of the economy, the idea of the new African American president coming into office is exciting,” said Duggan, who is editing a retrospective on the 2008 campaign by reporters John Heilemann and Mark Halperin.

If these are hard economic times, they are especially difficult in the literary world. Publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced this week that it was suspending all acquisitions of new manuscripts. Borders Group Inc., the second-largest U.S. bookseller, has fired 20 percent of its workforce and reported this week that third-quarter losses far exceeded Wall Street estimates.

But publishers are gambling that the interest in all things Obama will boost sales now and have literary staying power, because many of the new titles will not hit bookstores for a year or more.

“Every time an editor picks a book, they are making a bet,” Ross said. In a nod to Obama’s campaign theme, she added: “Instead of hope we can believe in, it’s hope we can bet on.”

The book world’s interest in Obama is just part of a larger Obama industry.

There are coins with his face and commemorative plates and Washington inauguration vacation packages. HBO recently purchased a documentary that tracks Obama’s campaign. NBC is promoting a DVD on its cable channel that unapologetically plays off Obama’s “Yes We Can” mantra, urging viewers to “watch MSNBC and experience the power of change.”

Obama’s own books - “The Audacity of Hope” and “Dreams From My Father,” which earned him more than $4 million last year - are currently number one and two, respectively, on the New York Times bestseller list and are helping to feed the book frenzy. Number three on the list is a Time magazine book, “Change We Can Believe In,” with a forward by Obama.

“A lot of people, at least one chunk of the American population, made him a best-selling author before they made him a nominee,” said Priscilla Painton, editor in chief of Simon & Schuster. “There is more interest because of who he is, the history he made and the kind of campaign he ran. I think some part of the voting population is used to reading about him because they started discovering him in book form.”

Obama is driving sales for others, too. The Time children’s bestseller list is topped by “Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope.” His embrace of “Team of Rivals” by Doris Kearns Goodwin, which describes how Abraham Lincoln filled his Cabinet with opponents and is considered a guide for some of Obama’s Cabinet choices, inflamed interest in the book and led to fresh print runs in the hundreds of thousands. Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter’s book on Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first 100 days as president, “The Defining Moment,” got a boost after reports that Obama was reading it.

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It’s good to know that the girls will continue to be raised with the same values now that Barack has won:

Barack Obama says his daughters Sasha, 7, and Malia, 10, will have chores at the White House — including picking up after their new pup.

They’ll “scoop the poop,” he told Barbara Walters in a 20/20 interview Wednesday. “We’ve been talking to them about that. We don’t want litter on the White House lawns. They’re going to have to do their job.”

Look back at famous first children.

(Incidentally, they still haven’t settled on a dog. Walters suggested one like her Havanese named Cha Cha, but the president-elect said it sounded like a “little yappy dog” and seems a little “girly.” Michelle Obama then chimed in, “We’re girls, we have a house full of girls!” He said the family would “have a big, rambunctious dog of some sort.”)

See photos of stars’ adorable dogs!

Chores will be important, Michelle went on.

“That was the first thing I said to some of the staff when I did my visit,” she said. “I said, ‘You know, we’re going to have to set up some boundaries,’ because they’re going to need to be able to make their beds, and clean up.”

See Obama’s “Just Like Us” photos.

The Obama girls wil be attending the prestigious Sidwell Friends School, which counts Chelsea Clinton as an alum.

Barack said Malia wants to do her homework at the desk in the Lincoln bedroom.

He said his daughter told him “I’m going to sit at that desk, because I’m thinking that will inspire big thoughts.”

Barack — who will be sworn in on Jan. 20 — said he wants to make the White House “green.”

“Part of what I want to do is to show the American people that it’s not that hard,” added Barack, who plans to sit down with the chief usher for the presidential mansion and do an evaluation of its energy efficiency.
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Obama said he won’t be obsessive about tiptoeing around at night, turning off the lights.

“But I do that in my current house,” he added, “and there’s no reason why I wouldn’t do it in my next one.”

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Who would have ever thought that the station that refused to play videos from Black artists in the early 80’s would now be hosting an Inaugural Ball for our nations first Black President:

MTV is throwing an inaugural ball for President-elect Barack Obama.

The network announced Tuesday that it will host the “Be the Change Inaugural Ball” at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington on Jan. 20. The event will be televised live across MTV’s many channels and platforms, including MTV and MTV.com.

The Viacom Inc.-owned network said the event will feature leading artists, celebrities and government officials. To celebrate the large youth voter turnout in the election, hundreds of young people will be chosen to attend based on their demonstrated volunteerism.

MTV’s announcement comes as a host of organizations are planning inaugural balls in Washington, where more than a million people are expected to be drawn to the nation’s capital for the occasion.

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