Citing a "deficit of trust" in government by the American people, President Obama's first State of the Union address urged Congress to erode the influence of special interests and work together to confront the nation's most pressing problems.
10:20 Address ends with Obama calling on Americans to "seize this moment -- to start anew, to carry the dream forward and to strengthen our union once more"
The following is a list of the top 10 people who made the year 2009 in the United States memorable. It was compiled by CNN editor Jay Kernis, who acknowledges that it is entirely subjective. Kernis puts together a list each weekday of intriguing people, which runs on CNN.com.
Unveiling the White House Christmas tree and holiday decorations, first lady Michelle Obama explained Wednesday why she chose this year's theme, "Reflect, Rejoice and Renew."
Citing a "deficit of trust" in government by the American people, President Obama's first State of the Union address urged Congress to erode the influence of special interests and work together to confront the nation's most pressing problems.
10:20 Address ends with Obama calling on Americans to "seize this moment -- to start anew, to carry the dream forward and to strengthen our union once more"
The following is a list of the top 10 people who made the year 2009 in the United States memorable. It was compiled by CNN editor Jay Kernis, who acknowledges that it is entirely subjective. Kernis puts together a list each weekday of intriguing people, which runs on CNN.com.
Unveiling the White House Christmas tree and holiday decorations, first lady Michelle Obama explained Wednesday why she chose this year's theme, "Reflect, Rejoice and Renew."
When a racist image of first lady Michelle Obama surfaced from the ugliest corners of the Internet last week to top Google's image search results, the episode shined a spotlight on the mysterious workings of search engines.
President Obama toasted a growing U.S. friendship with India at the first state dinner of his administration Tuesday, an evening of regal pageantry and symbolic politics in a tent on the White House South Lawn.
Last week a New York Times article reported that Michelle Obama's great-great-great grandparents were a white man and a slave whom he impregnated. This story highlights the growing importance of genealogy in America.
President Obama will travel this week to Copenhagen, Denmark, to make a big push for holding the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Chicago, Illinois, the White House said Monday.
In just 200 days, Michelle Obama has put her own stamp on one of America's most unusual political positions -- the unelected, undefined job of being first lady. And the way she's done it? It's largely through the fashion choices she's made.
President Obama spoke at the Pentagon on Friday to those who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001, telling them no words would heal their pain yet calling for a renewed resolve against the ones who attacked the country eight years ago.
Former first lady Laura Bush praised the performance of her husband's successor Monday, breaking with many Republicans in telling CNN that she thinks President Obama is doing a good job under tough circumstances.
On a sunny day in March, about 25 contractors clustered in a dusty former grocery store in Bowling Green, Virginia. Construction was slow, and they hoped this new project -- a health care center funded by stimulus dollars -- could help steer their struggling businesses back toward stability.
In many places across the South you can walk in the footsteps of slaves, and if you understand the history, it is not a happy journey. The same is true at Friendfield Plantation outside Georgetown, South Carolina.
President Obama slowly walked across the grounds of Cape Coast Castle, a slave outpost in Ghana where hundreds of thousands of Africans were shipped as human cargo to a life of bondage in the United States, South America and the Caribbean.
First lady Michelle Obama's father is not buried in the Chicago-area cemetery where investigators say hundreds of graves have been dug up in a scheme to resell the burial plots, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.
A street vendor in Ghana's capital sells small American flags with an image of President Obama on them, in front of a billboard that proclaims "Akwaaba" -- or "Welcome" -- next to a smiling image of the U.S. leader.
President Obama honored Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month with a White House reception Monday where he likened the struggle for gay rights with the struggle of African-Americans for civil rights.
President Barack Obama wants intellectual firepower and a common touch in the next Supreme Court justice, and doesn't "feel weighed down by having to choose ... based on demographics."
Dream big and give back, Michelle Obama told the first graduating class of University of California, Merced on Saturday in her first commencement speech as first lady.
I can't find it anywhere in the Constitution, so maybe there is a first lady dress code buried in an obscure addendum to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, since every mistress of the White House for the last four decades has chosen a wardrobe that follows a particular one with near pathological devotion.
Is anyone else besides Michelle Obama leaving the house these days? Because for the last week, you would have thought that Anne Hathaway, Gwyneth Paltrow and Halle Berry had gone into the Witness Protection Program.
First lady Michelle Obama was expected to make headlines in Europe with her style and flair as she accompanied her husband to the Group of 20 summit, but it was a simple gesture that has set off a media frenzy.
The power of women hit the State Department on Wednesday when first lady Michelle Obama joined Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to celebrate champions of women's rights around the world.
Jamaal Young was watching Barack Obama and his family greet an ecstatic crowd in Chicago, Illinois, on Election Night when he realized that something seemed wrong.
Michelle Obama dazzled on the dance floor Tuesday night at the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball in Washington, wearing an elegant, one-shouldered ivory gown created for her by 26-year-old designer, Jason Wu.
The 2009 presidential inauguration is looking to be historic and, frankly, headache-inducing for the throngs of people descending on the nation's capital to watch Barack Obama sworn in as the 44th president.
When George W. Bush became president eight years ago, about 90,000 people applied for jobs in his administration. That's about a quarter, however, of the people who are looking for a way into President-elect Barack Obama's administration.
The wife of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama told CNN's Larry King on Wednesday that she is not offended by a much-publicized comment made toward her husband in Tuesday night's debate.
While others urge him to attack, the Democratic nominee remains passive. Perhaps because he senses that America still doesn't like it when anger and melanin mix
Here at the Glenn Beck program, the budget isn't exactly that impressive. We're not the federal government, with a limitless American Express card that we never have to pay off.
Good friends, with different views on this election, tune in to the first night of the Democratic convention. They're sitting on the couch in Rachel Bouve's apartment in Crystal City, Virginia, just across the Potomac River from Washington.
The last place Kathy Archuleta could have ever imagined she'd spend the first night of the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, was at a happy hour sponsored by the Republican Party.
While Sen. Barack Obama has campaigned on a message of hope, his wife, Michelle, has talked about the realities of American life -- the gaps between rich and poor, black and white.
Sen. Edward Kennedy and Michelle Obama kicked off the first night of the Democratic National Convention with speeches that focused on "new hope" and the American dream.
Some Republicans on Monday conceded the Democratic National Convention's first day featured some charismatic speeches, but they urged the public to look beyond rhetoric and see that the GOP's presidential candidate has an edge in substance.
Sen. Edward Kennedy declared there was "new hope" for the nation in his surprise appearance at the Democratic National Convention, while Michelle Obama addressed critics of her patriotism and stressed her love for the country.
Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, a top supporter of Sen. Barack Obama, said Wednesday that while he's not running for Obama's vice president, he will do everything he can to help the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate win in Virginia.
Politicians. They're just like us, or at least, that's what they're desperate to have us believe, particularly during a campaign season in which the word "elitist" has been lobbed about like a pinless hand grenade.
Michelle and Barack Obama knocked knuckles as he took the stage to claim the Democratic presidential nomination, bringing new attention to the high-five's celebratory successor
Take a brilliant, strong-willed, American woman. Let her marry a rising politician, start a family, build a successful legal career, and then emerge as a polished public figure in her own right.
Friends and close associates of both Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are now convinced that, assuming she loses the race for the presidential nomination, she is probably going to fight to be the vice presidential nominee on an Obama-for-president ticket.
Michelle Obama, wife of Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, Friday called questions early in the campaign about whether her biracial husband was "black enough" to appeal to African-American voters "silly."
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