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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...