Barack Obama

Ted Nugent had to meet with the Secret Service on Thursday as part of its investigation into the rocker after he made heated comments at last weekend's National Rifle Association confab in St. Louis. Nugent, 63, urged the assembled to help oust President Obama and his "vile, evil, America-hating administration" in November. "If Barack Obama becomes the president in November," he added, "I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year. " Democratic leaders have asked GOP candidate Mitt Romney to condemn Nugent's outburst.

PEOPLE KEEP SAYING this is an historic election, the most important in half a century. And it is. In concrete terms, the United States is faced with a range of crises - economic, military, diplomatic - that are increasingly complex, that defy ideology and demand an uncommon, united effort. Failure to address them in the past has put the well-being of our children and our planet in doubt. Failure to address them now will, we fear, seal their doom. But history also includes things that are less prosaic, more poetic: We could be on the verge of picking a president who symbolizes what our country stands for. Opportunity.

THE CHOICE in Tuesday's Democratic presidential primary is not only the one between a white woman and a black man. It's a choice between the past and the future. More specifically, the nation must decide how to face the future racing toward us in the form of slumping home sales, unstable financial markets and increased joblessness - and staring at us from the Green Zone in Iraq and the beds at veterans hospitals. Should Democrats choose someone who will employ hard-won - even bitter - experiences gained in a past Democratic administration, or reach beyond political truisms toward a new (and untried)

RE THE letter from Lawanda Horton (Feb. 15, "Obama Held to Higher Standard"): Of course it's the white person who makes more money than his black counterparts, but I do have a question. I'm not Jewish, but how were the Jewish people, after being persecuted by just about everybody, able to be successful in the tough world we live in? And what about the Koreans who came with nothing, but arise at 4 a.m. to load up their food stands by 6 a.m., and most don't go home until 7 p.m.? Lenny Serlen, Audubon, N.J. Lawanda Horton, I'm in total agreement with you concerning this country being so racist and bigoted toward President Obama.

The Democratic presidential primary Tuesday presents Pennsylvania voters with a choice that is more about style than substance. On the issues, there's scant difference between Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. The biggest difference comes down to their styles of leadership. Obama wants to bring about change by inspiring people to accept his vision of social justice. Clinton bills herself as the more competent leader, who knows how to effect change incrementally, due largely to her extensive government experience.

SORE LOSER"; " . . . lead rather than pout"; "Any other candidate would have faced reality with grace and pragmatism"; " . . . a campaign that became even more divisive and dishonest. " You call Hillary Clinton every name in the book, and she's supposed to endorse Barack Obama, because if she doesn't she'll "jeopardize the team's chances . . . "? What is this - everybody in the world owes Obama, and if you don't support him, you're either a racist or stupid or worse? Here's one lifelong Democrat who's sick of this Obama worship from the press, and the misogyny from the Daily News toward Hillary.

Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency By Randall Kennedy Pantheon Books. 336 pp. $25.95 What It Means to Be Black Now By Touré Free Press. 288 pp. $25 Reviewed by Gerald B. Jordan Herman Cain started it. He blustered that "I was po' before Barack Obama was poor," then he segued into more schoolyard signifying about who's really the "black" candidate. Ann Coulter couldn't stay out of it. Her broadside about "our blacks are so much better than their blacks" fixed African American Republicans with the uncomfortable grimace of having overindulged in five-alarm chili.

WE HAVE HOPE. Of course, that word was the cornerstone of Barack Obama's campaign, but it took his historic victory yesterday to make us realize how much of it we have been missing. Steadily, over the years, we have felt the erosion of hope for a country united on the principles of democracy and fairness, a country that could once again lead the world based, not on military might, but on a steadfast defense of human rights. For so long, we have missed the hope that ordinary people could join together to bring about change.

TODAY at 1 p.m., I'm set to interview President Obama during a live radio broadcast from the White House. We'll be in the Diplomatic Reception Room, where FDR once held his fireside chats. Our conversation will mark the first time a radio host has interviewed this president live on the air, "on campus," as his advisers put it. It will also be the first time I'll meet Obama personally, although I interviewed him three times over the phone during the campaign. The conversations went well.

WASHINGTON - Former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell declined Tuesday to renew the presidential endorsement he gave Barack Obama four years ago, saying he wasn't ready "to throw my weight behind someone" at this time. The former chairman of the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff and cabinet member under President George W. Bush demurred when asked if he was backing Obama again. A longtime GOP figure, Powell caused a stir in Republican political circles four years ago by endorsing Obama over war hero Sen. John McCain, calling Obama a "transformational figure.

In Europe, where more than 200,000 people thronged a Berlin rally in 2008 to hear Barack Obama speak, there's disappointment that he hasn't kept his promise to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, and perceptions that he's shunting blame for the financial crisis across the Atlantic. In Mogadishu, a former teacher wishes the president had sent more economic assistance and fewer armed drones to fix Somalia's problems. And many in the Middle East wonder what became of Obama's vow, in a landmark 2009 speech at the University of Cairo, to forge a closer relationship with the Muslim world.

President Obama should "man up" and take a stand on same-sex marriage, former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell advised Tuesday on MSNBC, predicting that no political harm would come from supporting it. "If he believes in it, he should say he's for it," Rendell said later in an interview with The Inquirer. "If he's going to do it eventually, he should do it now. Say his piece. Too many people in public life are afraid to say what they believe. " Obama has said that he opposes legalizing same-sex marriage, but that his view is "evolving" and that he supports equal civil rights for gay couples.

NEW YORK - Republican Mitt Romney on Tuesday accused President Obama of politicizing the death of Osama bin Laden a year ago but said it was "totally appropriate" for Obama to claim credit for ordering the U.S. military raid that ended with the terrorist leader's death in Pakistan. Obama's reelection campaign has used his decision to suggest that Romney would not have made the same call. Romney, the president's all-but-certain Republican challenger in the fall election, says he would have.

Ted Nugent had to meet with the Secret Service on Thursday as part of its investigation into the rocker after he made heated comments at last weekend's National Rifle Association confab in St. Louis. Nugent, 63, urged the assembled to help oust President Obama and his "vile, evil, America-hating administration" in November. "If Barack Obama becomes the president in November," he added, "I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year. " Democratic leaders have asked GOP candidate Mitt Romney to condemn Nugent's outburst.

ANNIE BELL Henderson was the kind of neighbor everybody should have. When she lived on 26th Street near Cecil B. Moore Avenue, in North Philadelphia, she took care of neighbors who needed her help. "If she heard about someone who was ill, she would cook a meal for them and make sure they had something to eat," said her daughter, Betty Henderson. "She would do the shopping for people who couldn't get to the store. " She was also a chauffeur for fellow members of Zoar United Methodist Church, making sure that they got to services and back home.

From "The Elephant in the Room," Rick Santorum's column in The Inquirer: On Democrats' opposition tobanning partial birth abortion (April 2007): "Can you imagine their response if we were talking about banning the euthanizing of puppies by stabbing them with scissors at the base of their skulls and suctioning their brains out?" On Mitt Romney's speech about his Mormon faith, December 2007: "Unlike John F. Kennedy in 1960, he didn't cop out and say his faith does not matter.

Bear with me while I quote from The Godfather - hey, doesn't everyone? - because this is really about how Barack Obama has been playing fast and loose with the Constitution. Michael Corleone tells Kay that his dad, Vito, is really no different than "a senator or a president. " Kay tells Michael that he's being naive, because "senators and presidents don't have men killed. " To which Michael says, "Oh. Who's being naive, Kay?" You tell her, Michael! Because, as the U.S. attorney general made clear the other day - in a speech that got little play in the media, thanks to the Republican primaries - Obama is the first president to claim the legal authority to whack U.S. citizens, to act as judge, jury, and executioner without a shred of transparency or public accountability.

WASHINGTON - Afghanistan is not Iraq, U.S. officials have been fond of saying from the first days of Barack Obama's presidency. The difference, they said, was that one war Obama inherited, in Afghanistan, was worth fighting, while the other, in Iraq, was best ended as quickly as possible. Now, Afghanistan has turned into Iraq: an inconclusive slog in which the United States cannot always tell enemy from friend. And like Iraq, Obama has concluded that Afghanistan is best put to rest.

There's no reason the Republican Party can't recapture the White House - if it has the right nominee. But many within the party don't think they have that person, so they're still trying to shame Jeb Bush or Chris Christie into coming to the rescue. What they fail to see is that it's not so much the candidates as their messages that are failing to fire up voters. The economy is improving, so their doomsday rhetoric isn't resonating. And none of them has articulated a program that makes him stand out from the other contenders.