Ny Safidinao

WASHINGTON (AP) — Among the offices Barack Obama has yet to fill, one has a special importance to his family: first dog. At his first postelection news conference on Friday, the president-elect called choosing a dog a "major issue" in the Obama household and a hot topic on his Web site. "We have two criteria that have to be reconciled. One is that Malia is allergic, so it has to be hypoallergenic," he said. "On the other hand, our preference would be to get a shelter dog, but a lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me." Add to that the strain of the inevitable attention that comes to a cute pup in the White House. On Thursday, President Bush's normally docile Scottish terrier Barney bit a Reuters reporter on the right index finger. So, how to choose? No breeds are completely hypoallergenic. However, some breeds have a tendency to cause fewer problems — mostly those that don't shed and need to have their coats trimmed regularly, or those that tend to s...

CHICAGO — President-elect Barack Obama moved swiftly on Thursday to fill his administration and form his response to the economic crisis. Mr. Obama scheduled his first post-election visit to the White House and convened an economic advisory board to meet here amid signs of a deteriorating financial outlook. With the global economy on a knife’s edge, and labor figures on Friday very likely to show mounting American job losses, the financial markets, foreign leaders and even the Bush administration are looking to Mr. Obama for signs of how he will manage the crisis. In responding, Mr. Obama must strike a delicate balance between cooperating with an unpopular president whose policies he campaigned to change, and the inclination to wait until he takes charge in two and a half months to prescribe his own remedies. Adding to the pressure were steep drops in world financial markets on Thursday; the Dow Jones industrial average alone fell 443 points, or nearly 5 percent, compiling a two-day lo...

President-elect Barack Obama began moving Wednesday to build his administration and make good on his ambitious promises to point the United States in a different direction, as his commanding victory reordered the American political landscape and transfixed much of the nation and the world. A day after becoming the first African-American to capture the presidency, Mr. Obama announced a transition team and prepared to name an ally as his White House chief of staff in his first steps toward assuming power. President Bush vowed to work closely with Mr. Obama to ensure a smooth transition in the first handover since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, the fourth-ranking House Democrat and a close friend of Mr. Obama’s from Chicago, has been offered the job of chief of staff, and although he was said to be concerned about the effects on his family and giving up his influential role on Capitol Hill, many Democrats said they expected him to accept it. Mr. Ob...

Barack Hussein Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States on Tuesday, sweeping away the last racial barrier in American politics with ease as the country chose him as its first black chief executive. The election of Mr. Obama amounted to a national catharsis — a repudiation of a historically unpopular Republican president and his economic and foreign policies, and an embrace of Mr. Obama’s call for a change in the direction and the tone of the country. But it was just as much a strikingly symbolic moment in the evolution of the nation’s fraught racial history, a breakthrough that would have seemed unthinkable just two years ago. Mr. Obama, 47, a first-term senator from Illinois, defeated Senator John McCain of Arizona, 72, a former prisoner of war who was making his second bid for the presidency. To the very end, Mr. McCain’s campaign was eclipsed by an opponent who was nothing short of a phenomenon, drawing huge crowds epitomized by the tens of thousands of people who t...

WASHINGTON – It's a nightmare scenario for Democrats — their nominee Barack Obama winning the popular vote while Republican John McCain ekes out an Electoral College victory. Sure, McCain trails in every recent national poll. Sure, surveys show that Obama leads in the race to reach the requisite 270 electoral votes to win the presidency. Sure, chances of Republicans retaining the White House are remote. But some last-minute state polls show the GOP nominee closing the gap in key states — Republican turf of Virginia, Florida and Ohio among them, and Democratic-leaning Pennsylvania, too. If the tightening polls are correct and undecided voters in those states break McCain's way — both big ifs — that could make for a repeat of the 2000 heartbreaker for Democrats that gave Republicans the White House. In 2000, Democrat Al Gore narrowly won the popular vote by 537,179 votes. But George W. Bush won the state-by-state electoral balloting that determines the presidency, 271 to 266. The...

MIAMI — The strange tale of Joe the Plumber unfolded a bit more on the campaign trail Friday when Senator John McCain used a rally here to defend the Ohio man he made a national star of by focusing on him in Wednesday night’s presidential debate. The man, Joe Wurzelbacher, gained fame after he met Senator Barack Obama recently and expressed concerns that Mr. Obama’s tax plans would hurt him if he ever became wealthy enough to buy his own plumbing business. Mr. McCain seized on the encounter at the debate to highlight the fact that Mr. Obama’s tax plan — which would cut taxes on 95 percent of Americans — would raise the taxes on small businesses. The Obama campaign countered that Mr. Wurzelbacher in fact stood to get a bigger cut under their plan. But under the glare of the ensuing media spotlight, reporters found that Mr. Wurzelbacher did not actually have a plumbing license, and that he actually owed some back taxes. Mr. McCain leapt to his defense here Friday in a rally at Florida In...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Deep-seated racial misgivings could cost Barack Obama the White House if the election is close, according to an AP-Yahoo News poll that found one-third of white Democrats harbor negative views toward blacks — many calling them "lazy," "violent," responsible for their own troubles. The poll, conducted with Stanford University, suggests that the percentage of voters who may turn away from Obama because of his race could easily be larger than the final difference between the candidates in 2004 — about two and one-half percentage points. Certainly, Republican John McCain has his own obstacles: He's an ally of an unpopular president and would be the nation's oldest first-term president. But Obama faces this: 40 percent of all white Americans hold at least a partly negative view toward blacks, and that includes many Democrats and independents. More than a third of all white Democrats and independents — voters Obama can't win the White House w...

Harsh advertisements and negative attacks are a staple of presidential campaigns, but Senator John McCain has drawn an avalanche of criticism this week from Democrats, independent groups and even some Republicans for regularly stretching the truth in attacking Senator Barack Obama’s record and positions. Mr. Obama has also been accused of distortions, but this week Mr. McCain has found himself under particularly heavy fire for a pair of headline-grabbing attacks. First the McCain campaign twisted Mr. Obama’s words to suggest that he had compared Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, to a pig after Mr. Obama said, in questioning Mr. McCain’s claim to be the change agent in the race, “You can put lipstick on a pig; it’s still a pig.” (Mr. McCain once used the same expression to describe Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s health plan.) Then he falsely claimed that Mr. Obama supported “comprehensive sex education” for kindergartners (he supported teaching them to be ale...

DAYTON, Ohio (Reuters) - Republican John McCain picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate on Friday, a senior campaign official said, in a surprise choice that could help him appeal to women voters. The choice of Palin, 44, will be unveiled later on Friday in a rally in Dayton as McCain grabs the political focus away from Democratic rival Barack Obama one day after Obama accepted his party's presidential nomination. McCain and Palin will face Obama and his No. 2, Joe Biden, in the November 4 presidential election. The pick followed days of speculation about McCain's choice, with most of the better-known contenders like former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney slowly eliminated over the last 24 hours. Palin is a conservative first-term governor of Alaska with strong anti-abortion views and a record of fiscal conservatism. She is an avid sportswoman who would bring youth and vitality to the ticket. McCain turns 72 on Friday. Palin is not well-known nationally, and that coul...

DENVER — With her husband looking on tenderly and her supporters watching with tears in their eyes, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton deferred her own dreams on Tuesday night and delivered an emphatic plea at the Democratic National Convention to unite behind her rival, Senator Barack Obama, no matter what ill will lingered. Mrs. Clinton, who was once certain that she would win the Democratic nomination this year, also took steps on Tuesday — deliberate steps, aides said — to keep the door open to a future bid for the presidency. She rallied supporters in her speech, and, at an earlier event with 3,000 women, described her passion about her own campaign. And her aides limited input on the speech from Obama advisers, while seeking advice from her former strategist, Mark Penn, a loathed figure in the Obama camp. But the main task for Mrs. Clinton at the convention — reaffirming her support for Mr. Obama in soaring and unconditional language — dominated her 23-minute speech, and she betrayed...

DENVER — Senator Edward M. Kennedy, struggling with terminal brain cancer, arrived on Monday night at the Democratic National Convention in a triumphant appearance that provided an emotional start for the event as the party turned to a new era and gathered to nominate Senator Barack Obama for president. Mr. Kennedy arrived at the convention center here shortly before dusk, accompanied by a flock of family members. He walked a few halting steps to a waiting golf cart, which drove him into the hall where Democrats are meeting this week. Mr. Kennedy walked out with his wife, Vicki, who kissed him and left him at the lectern. The crowd, many of them wiping tears from their eyes, would not stop cheering until he settled them down “My fellow Democrats, my fellow Americans, it is so wonderful to be here,” Mr. Kennedy said. “And nothing is going to keep me away from this special gathering tonight.” “I have come here tonight,” he continued, “to stand with you to change America to restore its f...

WASHINGTON — Senator Barack Obama introduced Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. as his running mate on Saturday at a boisterous rally in Springfield, Ill., a choice that strengthens the Democratic ticket’s credentials on foreign policy and provides Mr. Obama a combative partner as he heads into the fight with Senator John McCain. In Mr. Biden, Mr. Obama selected a six-term senator from Delaware best known for his expertise on foreign affairs — Mr. Biden spent last weekend in Georgia as that nation engaged in a tense confrontation with Russia — but also for his skills at political combat. Mr. Obama passed over other candidates who might have brought him a state or reinforced the message of change that has been central to his candidacy. At the rally outside the Old State Capitol where Mr. Obama announced his candidacy 19 months ago, he described Mr. Biden as a man ready to be president. And he offered a passionate and politically instructive introduction of Mr. Biden: the portrait of a running ...

The Democratic National Convention Committee announced the prime-time speakers today for the four nights of the convention later this month in Denver from August 25-28. On August 25, Michelle Obama will headline the opening night of the convention, while former presidential rival Sen. Hillary Clinton will headline Tuesday night. The DNCC statement tout’s Clinton as “a champion for working families and one of the most effective and empathetic voices in the country today.” On August 27, the still unnamed vice presidential nominee will speak. All three of those speeches will take place at the Pepsi Center while on the final evening the venue moves to Invesco Field for Barack Obama’s convention speech. “The 2008 Convention will highlight Americans coming together to change the course of this nation,” said Convention Co-Chair and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius in a statement echoing the theme of the four-day nominating convention. The DNCC will roll out additional programming details and sch...

Eating out invariably raises a number of tricky questions: sit-down or drive-thru? Burgers or pizza? Thin or stuffed crust? And if you're dining with your family, add the biggest question of all: Will the food we eat today bring a fatter tomorrow for our kids? And fewer tomorrows for the rest of us? So the choice between McDonald’s and Burger King shouldn’t be based solely on whether you're more terrified by the scary clown Ronald McDonald or that creepy masked Burger King. Choosing one over the other could be the difference of hundreds of calories in a meal, more than 10 unnecessary pounds over the course of a year, and countless health woes over the course of a lifetime. During more than a year of research, my coauthor and I discovered vast dietary discrepancies between many of the places Americans love to eat most. So to help you separate the commendable from the deplorable, we put 43 major chain restaurants under the nutritional microscope — both for your benefit, and that ...