Becoming Obama  —  When Barack Obama met Genevieve Cook in 1983 at a Christmas party in New York's East Village, it was the start of his most serious romance yet.  But as the 22-year-old Columbia grad began to shape his future, he was also struggling with his identity: American or international?

Newt Gingrich $4 Million in Debt; Staffers and Creditors Fume  —  Newt Gingrich ends his White House dream today with his political committee facing a mountain of debts — owing about $4 million to scores of businesses and campaign workers around the country who fear they will never get paid.

Wife of NC State Senator: Amendment One Needed ‘To Protect the Caucasian Race’  —  I don't even know where to begin to unpack this trash.  Chad Nance who is a freelance journalist in Winston-Salem and is covering the election here in NC, recorded the wife of NC Sen. Peter Brunstetter confirming …

A Paper Of Cowards  —  Drudge links to a Virginia Pilot editorial piece about a beating in Norfolk, VA experienced by two of their own reporters two weeks ago, but he misses the Obama connection that may explain the delay in their reporting.  —  Per the Pilot a mob of “at least 100” …

Chen Guangcheng leaves U.S. embassy; deal to guarantee his safety may be unraveling, friends say  —  BEIJING — Blind activist Chen Guangcheng, who fled de facto house arrest last month and sought refuge for six days at the U.S. Embassy, left the diplomatic compound on Wednesday …

The curious resignation of Richard Grenell  —  The political world is buzzing over the sudden resignation of Richard Grenell, the former spokesman for John Bolton at the UN who had signed on to serve as foreign policy spokesman for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.  Grenell was scheduled to begin work Tuesday, May 1.

TPMMuckraker  —  Unearthed: George Zimmerman's MySpace Page  —  This is George Zimmerman's MySpace page.  Years before he stood at the center of an international storm over the killing of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin, the Florida man used his page to complain about “mexicans” and celebrate a victory in a criminal case against him.

New York Post Mocks Obama's Afghanistan Trip  —  Two schools of thought: Obama is at risk of being seen as politicizing national security.  Or, any day spent talking about Osama Bin Laden, and not the economy, is a good one.

DEA Ignored All My Cries: Student  —  “They never came back, ignored all my cries and I still don't know what happened,” Chong said.  —  Daniel Chong, the UC San Diego student who was left in a Drug Enforcement Agency holding cell for nearly five days, said the time spent in his cell was a life-altering experience.

Washington Post Rebuts Obama's Malicious Lie  —  Barack Obama never lets truth get in the way of political advantage.  Nothing new about that; mendacity has been a consistent theme of his 3 1/2 years in office.  But it seems that more media outlets are willing to call the president on his falsehoods these days.

Berean Baptist pastor disavows advice to punch gay kids as a joke  —  A Fayetteville pastor says he was joking when he told parents in a sermon Sunday to hit children who show signs of being gay.  —  Sean Harris, pastor of Berean Baptist Church on Glensford Drive, said he does …

It's starting to look over for Dick Lugar  —  Welcome to the permanent era of Tea Party politics  —  It sure doesn't look like Richard Lugar is long for the political world.  The news that the major super PAC supporting his candidacy is bailing on him a week before the Republican primary reinforces …

‘The Passage of Power,’ Robert Caro's New L.B.J. Book  —  “The Passage of Power,” the fourth installment of Robert Caro's brilliant series on Lyndon Johnson, spans roughly five years, beginning shortly before the 1960 presidential contest, including the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban missile crisis …

A better case for Keystone XL  —  THE CASE FOR ultimately approving the Keystone XL pipeline — always strong — has grown stronger.  —  A key environmentalist argument against Keystone XL has been that the project would encourage the extraction of bitumen, a particularly dirty oil-like substance, from the “oil sands” in Alberta.

TRENDING: Second West Virginia Dem unsure about Obama  —  (CNN) - West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, a Democrat, said in an interview published Wednesday he's unsure if he'll vote for President Barack Obama in the upcoming general election.  —  Tomblin is the second prominent Democrat …

Ethics watchdog asks FCC to revoke Fox's broadcast licenses  —  An ethics watchdog group is using the hacking scandal in the United Kingdom to call on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to cancel Fox's broadcast licenses.  —  The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Government …

TPMDC  —  There may not be much President Obama can do to improve the economy between now and the election, but telling a clear story about why it remains weak could mean the difference between victory and defeat this November.  Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman fears …