President Barack Obama, the son of a Kenyan and travelling through Ghana today, was asked what Africa means to him - "Is it half of you?''

"Well, no, I don't think it would be fair to say it was half,'' the president told an interviewer for Sky News. "You know, I never lived here. I didn't visit until I was in my mid-twenties. But I think that it is a source of inspiration, it's also a place that, because of my familial connection you know, I think I feel very personally when I think about children who aren't getting opportunities, when I think about the problems of HIV/AIDS, or issues of corruption. These are things that people I know, family members of mine, have experienced. It's not something I see in abstract terms.''

Obama also was asked by the British interviewer, Adam Boulton, if the first African-American president represents a "post-racial America.''

"I don't use that term,'' Obama replied. "Just because it somehow implies that the door is closed to any issues related to race. And I just don't think that's true. But I do think there is no doubt that my election signifies extraordinary progress, progress that my grandparents or Michelle's grandparents could have never have imagined.''

The president also visited Cape Coast Castle in Ghana with his young daughters -- the colonial era castle housed dungeons where Africans were held for the trans-Atlantic slave trade - and had this to say in a public statement after the visit:

"You know, I think it was particularly important for Malia and Sasha, who are growing up in such a blessed way, to be reminded that history can take very cruel turns, and hopefully one of the things that was imparted to them during this trip is their sense of obligation to fight oppression and cruelty wherever it appears, and that any group of people who are degrading another group of people have to be fought against with whatever tools we have available to us.''

The castle stop came up in the interview as well. Here, courtesy of Sky News, is the transcript of Political Editor Adam Boulton's interview with the president in Ghana:

President Barack Obama, the first African-American president of the United States, founded with the slavery of Africans and perpetuating legalized racial discrimination well into the 20th Century, addressed the parliament of Ghana today in his first journey to Africa as president.

Obama called this time "a new moment of promise.''

He told an intimately personal tale of his own family, and how the history of colonialism should not blur the aspirations of modern nations, pointing to Ghana as one that embraced democracy early.

"I say this knowing full well the tragic past that has sometimes haunted this part of the world,'' said, whose mother came from Kansas, his father from Kenya. "I have the blood of Africa within me, and my family's own story encompasses both the tragedies and triumphs of the larger African story. ''

He spoke of his grandfather, a cook for the British in Kenya called "boy'' by his employers. He spoke of his father herding goats in a tiny village, and he spoke of the problems that have persisted across the African continent.

"It is easy to point fingers, and to pin the blame for these problems on others,'' he said. "Yes, a colonial map that made little sense bred conflict, and the West has often approached Africa as a patron, rather than a partner.

"But the West is not responsible for the destruction of the Zimbabwean economy over the last decade, or wars in which children are enlisted as combatants,'' he said. "Here in Ghana, you show us a face of Africa that is too often overlooked by a world that sees only tragedy or the need for charity. The people of Ghana have worked hard to put democracy on a firmer footing, with peaceful transfers of power even in the wake of closely contested elections.''

This the text of the president's address to the parliament of Ghana:

by Mark Silva

For Lorraine Silva, the notion of devotion to family -- her husband Dan of 56 years, her two children, their wives, her four grandchildren, their spouses and her one greatgrandson, baby Noah, born just last year -- was as simple as the song which she led for the children of the nursery school she taught at the church where she worshipped for many years:

"It's raining on the sidewalks, it's raining on the street. I'll go out with my raincoat on, and let it rain on me."

She played the piano, too.

The world's greatest teacher passed away suddenly last night, at the age of 80, mercifully averting any pain but leaving holes in the hearts of a farflung community of family and friends greater than even she might realize. She always put everyone else first.

Born Lorraine Palmisano in Newark, N.J., she was raised in Cambridge, Mass., where she met her husband-to-be as teenagers. She attended Cambridge Latin. He was the quarterback at Rindge Tech. She went to Simmons College and was trained as a schoolteacher. He went into the Marines, and on to Boston University.

They moved to Schenectady, N.Y., in the mid-1950s for his job at General Electric, where he long worked as a manager of manufacturing. He has retired, happily and healthfully, for many more years. She taught at Trinity Methodist Church's nursery school -- she was the school, one class a year.

They raised two boys, one seven years younger than the other. The younger, Steven, was taken by an accident at work many years later. His two boys are fine and tall young men today. The older son, who writes here, has two grown "children'' as well, and the grandson.

We called it "GE in the sky," that lighted logo atop the main building of the sprawling factory downtown which for decades was the lifeblood of this community in the Mohawk Valley. Growing up in the 1950s, in a family such as this, may be one of the great privileges of modern times. No one, anywhere, had better parents. And their legacy is simple: Our daughter now is the kind of mother that our mother was.

Night came swiftly for our dear mother, and, while we are reluctant to burden others with personal news, we feel an explanation is owed for what will be a moment of silence in these pages, with this contributor, at least. We hope, also, that a moment of reflection offers a reminder to remember, always, the departed ones we love, and embrace and cherish, often, the ones still with us.

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by Christi Parsons and Jim Tankersley

L'AQUILA, Italy -- Developing nations led by China and India refused Wednesday to back lofty but long-term targets proposed by the Group of 8 industrial nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions, balking at reluctance by leaders of the world's biggest economies to move more quickly on their own.

Inability to bridge the gap between rising carbon-emitting countries such as China and the longtime polluters within the G-8 underscores the steep challenges involved in attempting to strike a comprehensive bargain to contain global warming.

The impasse comes down to the politically sensitive issue of who goes first.

President Obama and his counterparts in the G-8, who are holding two days of meetings in the central Italian mountain town of L'Aquila, offered broad agreements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The statement pledged to slash global emissions by 50%, led by reductions of 80% by the G-8 countries.

They also prepared to offer new financial incentives for developing nations to join the effort.

But the G-8 stopped well short of pledging to take aggressive action that could curb emissions more quickly -- at the cost of higher energy prices and a feared worsening of the global economy.

And neither the broad promises of future action nor the relatively modest financial incentives were likely to break the standoff between the most advanced economies and the emerging powerhouses. Countries such as China, India and Brazil are unwilling to take the first steps to cut emissions that could choke off economic growth, instead demanding that wealthier nations take the lead.

See the full report on the climate-change impasse in Tribune newspapers and here in the Swamp:

by Noam Levey

WAUKON, Iowa -- One is a thrifty soybean farmer from Iowa with a penchant for righteous speeches about government waste. The other is a Stanford-educated lawyer from a Montana ranching family who looks uncomfortable leading a debate.

Despite more than 60 years in Congress between them, Charles E. Grassley, the Iowa Republican, and Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat, are outsiders -- loners whose independent streaks make colleagues wary, sometimes even mistrustful.

But unlikely as it may seem, the partnership between these two slightly eccentric men may hold the key to overhauling the nation's sprawling healthcare system -- a legislative grail that has eluded the giants of the Senate for more than half a century.

In the face of strident criticism from colleagues in both parties, Baucus (chairman of the Senate Finance Committee) and Grassley (the panel's senior Republican) are laboring to fashion a series of compromises on healthcare that might win the support of a bipartisan majority on Capitol Hill.

Their effort got a nod Wednesday from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who at a meeting with Grassley encouraged the quest despite complaints from more-partisan Democrats.

The stakes remain high. If Baucus and Grassley fail, this year's historic healthcare debate easily could devolve into another battle royal between the parties, with the prospects for meaningful legislation uncertain at best.

Many Democrats and Republicans have already rejected a middle ground.

"On both sides, there are people who want it their way or the highway," said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), who is working with the two on a healthcare bill. "But if we want to really make a difference with healthcare . . . it is critical that we find some compromise."

See the full report on healthcare reform and the two senators seeking it in Tribune newspapers today and here in the Swamp:

by Mark Silva

Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, son of one president and brother of another, is attempting to forge a new consensus within the Republican Party on issues which might reengage the party with a disaffected voting public.

There are few issues bigger than immigration reform, when it comes to rifts within the GOP, or rifts within the Democratic Party, for that matter. Bush, who serves as chairman of a Council on Foreign Relations task force on immigration, says it's essential that Congress get immigration right. That means not only revamping the legal channels of immigration, including those for guest workers whom American employers need, but also finding a path to legal citizenship for some of the 12 million undocumented workers living in the United States.

If it sounds like an agenda that his older brother pursued, it is. The Senate adopted former President George W. Bush's vision for "comprehensive immigration reform,'' only to see it fail in the House. President Barack Obama hopes to revive it in some fashion, though the domestic congressional agenda already is piling up with potentially irreconcilable issues, such as healthcare and energy.

If the former president had a personal perspective on the debate, as the former governor of border-state Texas, his younger brother has a personal perspective as well. His wife was born in Mexico, and they moved from Texas to Miami in part to find a community more hospitable to a bicultural family - as well as helping his dad campaign for president the first time around. Florida stands on the front lines of illegal immigration as well.

Lately, since retiring as governor of Florida after the legal limit of two terms, the 56-year-old Bush has been working behind the scenes at attempting to forge some new leadership within his party. He passed up an opportunity to wage his own campaign for an open Senate seat, and some still view him as one of the party's better prospects for the presidency, though overcoming the hurdle of one Bush who lost the presidency after one term and another who left office after two terms with a severely depressed public image of his performance could be a long waiting game for those who hold out any hope of a Bush trifecta at the White House.

The changing demographics of the United States, with fewer workers and more retirees, should compel Washington to make comprehensive immigration reform a top policy priority, Bush says in an interview published by the Council on Foreign Relations. At the same time, he acknowledges how difficult an already complex issue is in the context of an already crowded and contentious domestic debate.

"I would say the principal problem is a lack of confidence that the federal government was capable of protecting the borders,'' Bush says of the failure to win immigration reform in recent years. "We've had immigration reform every decade. Commitments were made about enforcement, and clearly they haven't [been] delivered.

"So there's a lot of frustration, a lot of anger regarding that and that has made comprehensive immigration reform difficult,'' he allows.

(Former President George W. Bush, above left, and his brother, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, above right, at the parachute jump of their father, former President George H.W. Bush, center, celebrating his 85th birthday earlier this year in Kennebunkport, Me. Photo by Robert F. Bukaty / AP)

by Mark Silva

Michelle Obama may not have made much of a splash in Moscow, where any obsession with Western fashion still has one foot in the Cold War, but the Romans are watching the American first lady, on tour with her husband for the G-8 summit .

The first lady arrived at the Capitoline hill, one of Rome's seven, around noon today, catching a brief bird's eye view of the Roman Forum. The Capitoline Museums are part of the Campidoglio, the Capitol Hill of Rome. The spouses of the G-8 leaders had lunch there with their host, the mayor's wife, Isabella Rauti Alemanno.

. "It's the city, the most important in the history of the city," said Gian Paolo Pelizzaro, a spokesman for the mayor, speaking of a museum that houses a colossal sculpture of Marcus Aurelius on horseback as well as the original bronze of the she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus, which is the symbol of Rome.

Before a tour of the museum, the first ladies had lunch on a terrace overlooking the city. The head table was covered in ivory tulle with centerpieces of red and yellow roses mixed with oranges and apples. The chef, Heinz Beck, a German-born gazillion star chef with a restaurant in Rome called La Pergola, delivered the fare: Lobster medallions, veal filet on apricot puree and, for dessert, walnut semi-freddo.

Michelle Obama wore black flats and what the print pooler described as a taxicab yellow sheath with an oversize green floral brooch on her left shoulder. "From a distance it looked to be bakelite and frankly resembled lettuce,'' the pooler noted.

With thanks for the pool reporting of Robin Givhan of the Washington Post.

lPhoto of Michelle Obama, above, with Sarah Brown, wife of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, during their visit at the Capitoline Museums in Rome, Photo by Domenico Stinellis / AP)

by Mark Silva

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, who still has $250 million to "roll out'' for job creation, maintains that the Obama administration is "not looking at just a quick fix'' for the economy and allows that this is "the toughest job'' she ever has held.

The former congresswoman from Callifornia and member of President Barack Obama's Cabinet, says in an interview airing this afternoon on FOX Business Network that the administration is intent on pursuing solutions to the recession that will "take us out of this bad economy for the next decade.''

"We're not looking at just a quick fix here, we're looking at something that is going to take us out of this bad economy for the next decade,'' Solis says. "And we have to make these investments that were neglected in the last eight years."

With unemployment at 9.5 percent in the latest count, and with the Obama administration holding out hope that the economic stimulus that the president signed in February will save or create 3.5 million jobs, the Labor secretary says it's too soon to start talking about any second stimulus bill.

"I think it would be wise to go ahead and extend all of the dollars that we have already set aside that have been approved by the Congress,'' Solis says.

On that joblessness - the highest in 26 years - the secretary says: "I'm not going to be able to predict how far down we may go...I think it's too soon for me to say that you know, things are going to get worse. I can't say that.

"I predict that there will be some bumps ups. We may have some peaks and valleys here. But I think we're on the right track...

"We have managed to stabilize at least that tremendous number of job loss. And I think that we're going to have to restructure our work force. The manufacturing industry has to change. It has to be competitive, it has to look forward to where there's going to be growth. And I think green jobs, renewable energy is a path that we can look at,'' Solis says.

"This is the toughest job I've ever had. But it's also one that is very gratifying to me because I can see that I can actually touch people in a way that perhaps other agencies can't,'' she says. "It's a challenge. But it's a challenge that I take very seriously and I know that there are a lot of people counting on me. And I know that everything that I do, every decision I make is going to be weighted so enormously by so many people, by our critics.''"

Here, courtesy of FOX Business Network, is a look at that interview with Solis airing this afternoon:

by Mark Silva

The 9 mm pistol that the late Saddam Hussein was carrying when American forces found him hiding in a "spider-hole'' in Iraq is among the many artifacts that curators are assembling for the new George W. Bush Presidential Library going up in Texas.

This museum piece may serve to remind many of the Iraq war opponents and critics of the construction of the presidential library at a Methodist Church-owned college campus in Dallas of what they opposed in the first place.

It's only one of many museum pieces in a Bush collection being assembled at a warehouse not far from Southern Methodist University. Where the 43rd president's library, museum and public policy institute will be constructed.

They include a Texas Rangers baseball jersey autographed by pitcher Nolan Ryan - Bush served as managing partner of the team before election as governor of Texas -- and a framed mosaic of St. Peter's Basilica from the pope whom Bush visited at the Vatican.

The $300 million presidential library and museum, being built with private donations, will be the nation's 13th and the third in Texas -- Bush's father has one at College Station, Lyndon Johnson's is in Austin.

"It's a wonderful eight-year time capsule," Jennifer M. Schulle, the registrar for the Bush library, says of the collection. "It's everything that was going on -- politically, personally and socially."

by Mark Silva

"Politically speaking," Alaska's lame-duck, gone-fishin' Gov. Sarah Palin says, "If I die, I die. So be it.''

But a lot of Americans aren't ready to let go of the resigning governor, stepping down later this month with 18 months left in her term, citing the "insane'' business of dealing with consuming ethics complaints back home in the aftermath of her brief stint on a national stage as the Republican 2008 vice presidential nominee.

Palin says that she cannot say what the next few years will bring - no more than what the next fish run holds.

But four in 10 Americans surveyed say they could vote for the Alaskan for president - with just 19 percent saying they would be "very likely" to vote for her should she run, and another 24 percent saying they'd be somewhat likely to do so.

The Gallup Poll's Jeffrey Jones suggests that this offers Palin " a decent reservoir of potential support to build upon. ''

At the same time, 41 percent of those surveyed this week in the wake of Palin's surprise Fourth of July weekend resignation say they would be not at all likely to vote for her. And 13 percent say they'd be "not too likely'' to vote for her.

As a benchmark on this question, consider what Gallup asked in 2005 about Hillary Clinton running for president: 52 percent of registered voters surveyed said they were at least somewhat likely to vote for her, including 28 percent who said they were very likely to do so.

by Christi Parsons and Mark Silva

ROME -- As President Barack Obama arrived in Italy today for a summit of the Group of Eight industrial nations, aides voiced confidence that leaders will maintain their support for economic stimulus strategies in the face of a global recession and said the best commitment that the United States can make on climate change lies with energy legislation moving through Congress.

The president arrived in Rome this morning to meet with Italian leaders and prepare for the G-8 summit taking place this week at L'Aquila, in a region struck by an earthquake in April - the president planned to tour the damaged area today.

Michael Froman, the president's point man on the G8 summit, said this morning that there is a "consensus view" among the nations' leaders that "we are still in the midst of an economic downturn," and that world leaders were not planning any mass exodus from their shared plan to stimulate recovery.

Leaders have said "it's time to prepare exit strategies," Froman said, "but not necessarily to put them into place yet."

World leaders gathered in L'Aquila for a noontime luncheon and then a series of meetings on issues ranging from the global economy to nuclear nonproliferation and food security.

Obama will preside over a side meeting of the major economies with a focus on climate issues. That summit has suffered a setback with Chinese President Hu Jintao's return home to deal with deadly rioting in Xinjiang.

But White House officials said that meetings today and tomorrow still can be productive, and Froman rebuffed suggestions that the Italian hosts have not put together an organized session. He denied reports that the U.S. had called an emergency meeting of the summit's "sherpas'' to take charge of the session.

""The Italian presidency has done a terrific job preparing for the summit," Froman said. "The Italians defined an agenda early on and worked methodically" on it.
"The way the G-8 works,'' he said, is "we all do our part."

by Mark Silva

President Barack Obama, interviewed in Moscow today, said that his vice president's assertion that Israel is a sovereign nation and cannot be told what to do, or not to do, about Iran's nuclear program is "absolutely not'' a green light for a preemptive attack against Tehran's nuke plants.

"Absolutely not,'' Obama told CNN's Ed Henry. "And I think it's very important that I'm as clear as I can be, and our administration is as consistent as we can be on this issue.

"Vice President Biden stated a categorical fact which is we can't dictate to other countries what their security interests are,'' Obama said of Joe Biden's remarks in an interview with ABC News in Baghdad over the weekend.

" What is also true is that it is the policy of the United States to try to resolve the issue of Iran's nuclear capabilities in a peaceful way through diplomatic channels,'' Obama said. "We are committed to a peaceful resolution to this conflict and I think it is still possible, but ultimately if we present an opportunity to the Iranians at some point, they've got to seize that opportunity.''

On this day of memorial services for singer Michael Jackson, whose followers have turned out in droves in Los Angeles, Obama, who had not had much to say publicly about the musical icon, had this to say:

"I do not think there was any doubt, he was one of the greatest entertainers of our generation, perhaps any generation,'' Obama said. "I think like Elvis, like Sinatra, like The Beatles he became a core part of our culture.

"You know, his extraordinary talent and his music was matched with a big dose of tragedy and difficulty in his private life and I don't think we can ignore that,'' the president said. "But it's important for us to affirm what was the best of him and that was captured by his music, music that Michelle and I listened to from the time we were little kids.''

See the full comments from the interview with President Obama below the fold, courtesy of CNN:

by Mark Silva

Josh Bolten, who served as chief of staff and budget director for former President George W. Bush, is bound for an ivy ivory tower:

Bolten, who also happens to be a 1976 graduate of Princeton University, will join the faculty of Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs for the upcoming academic year.

The organizational and financial wizard, who ran Goldman Sachs' legal and governmental affairs in London before becoming policy director for Bush's first bid for the White House, will serve as the Woodrow Wilson School's John L. Weinberg / Goldman Sachs & Co. visiting professor.

The former director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, who served as Bush's final chief of staff, will teach an undergraduate course on the federal budget this fall and two graduate seminars on the politics and practice of international trade and international financial regulation in the spring.

Bolten, 54, served the Bush White House for eight years, starting as deputy chief of staff for policy, then OMB director and finally chief of staff from April 2006. Bolten (pictured in a photo by J. Scott Applewhite / AP ) also had served during all four years of the first President Bush's term, mostly as general counsel to the U.S. Trade Representative.

As OMB director, he also presided over a then-record federal budget deficit, which has been far surpassed by his successors.
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Volunteering with an AIDS relief organization in Africa, he serves on the board of the ONE Campaign and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

"I'm excited to follow my government career in a vibrant academic environment that's on the cutting edge of contemporary public policy thought," Bolten said in a statement issued by Princeton.

With a B.A. from Princeton and law degree from Stanford, he international trade at Yale Law School in the fall of 1993. Between the Bushes, he worked as executive director of legal & governmental Affairs, for Goldman Sachs International in London for five years.

He also drives a big motorcycle.

by Mark Silva and updated with ABC and FOX talks

'I knew that everything changed on Aug. the 29th,'' says Sarah Palin, the resigning governor of Alaska who was chosen as the Republican Party's vice presidential nominee last year. "That was the day I was tapped.''

Reporters caught up with Palin at "a remote fishing village'' in Alaska where husband Todd Palin's family has run a commercial fishing operation for years, a favorite Fourth of July weekend resort for Alaska's first family -- which became a lame-duck first family on the eve of the Fourth, when Palin abruptly announced her resignation..

Allowing that she may not have political staying power after her surprise resignation Friday, Palin told Kate Snow on ABC's Good Morning America: "I said before ... 'You know, politically speaking, if I die, I die. So be it.''

NBC's Andrea Mitchell offered this account this morning, asking Palin, wearing overall waders and jumping out of a boat on a beach 300 miles from Wasilla, if, now that she is stepping down as chief executive 18 months before the end of her first term as governor, she can envision herself running for president in 2012:

"I don't know what the future holds,'' said Palin, smiling on the shore of the remote waters of her home state. "Can't predict what the next fish run is going to look like, much less what's going to happen in the next few years....''

So why he she resigning on July 26?

"I knew that I wasn't going to run for election,'' Palin said. "The choice I had to make was how I was going to react.''

She cited "the political game that's being played right now,'' all of the ethics complaints that her administration has had to defend against since she returned to Alaska as the failed GOP vice presidential nominee. ""I think that some people may not be fully aware of all the conditions. We have sat down with many reporters and we have shown them how it has cost thousands of hours in time and thousands of dollars.''

She personally has "a legal bill of about a half million dollars, but that's not the consideration,'' said Palin, who also has a book deal that should be worth a few million dollars to her next year. "The consideration is how it affects the state....''

pretty darn independent, and not get wrapped up into a strong political machine that hasn't been extremely successful in some ways."

In the media swarm around Palin out there in the salmon-fishing grounds, the outgoing governor told Dan Springer of the FOX News Channel: ""I do not know what the future holds...

""I want to work, right now, for people who are going to work in office or out of office for the right things,'' Palin said. "Those principles that built up America, those who are inspired by the values of America, and will not deride or apologize for the values we hold as Americans. I'm gonna work for those people."

by Mark Silva

President Barack Obama and friends at the FOX News Channel are talking about the president's meetings with Russian leaders - Obama meeting with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin today in Moscow, following his meetings with President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday.

The question remains, who's running Russia?

"I think that President Medvedev is my counterpart, the president of Russia,'' Obama told FOX's Major Garrett, during an interview in Moscow which started airing on FOX and Friends this morning and will continue throughout the day on FNC. "The prime minister, who I just met today, obviously still has enormous influence.

"Interestingly,'' Obama said, "nothing Putin said contradicted anything that Medvedev has said. It was consistent."

Having suggested before the start of this trip that Putin, the former president who so famously struck up a relationship with former President George W. Bush only to see the two nations' relations deteriorate by their terms' end, still had one foot stuck in the Cold War, Obama said this today in the interview with FOX:

"I think he would admit that his formative years were shaped on the cold war and that some of his continued grievances with respect to the West are still dated in some of the suspicions that came out of that period... I think he genuinely would like to see U.S.- Russians relations improve.''

by James Oliphant

Al Franken -- the former comedian who won a bruising, eight-month vote recount and court battle in Minnesota -- arrived on Capitol Hill on Monday, a day before he was to be sworn in as a new Democratic member of the Senate.

But Franken immediately downplayed the importance of his vote in the Senate.

"A lot has been made of this number 60," Franken said. "The number I'm focused on is the number two. I see myself as the second senator from the state of Minnesota."

Franken's victory would seem to hand Democrats their long-desired 60-vote supermajority -- counting the two independents who caucus with them. Sixty votes would allow Democrats to defeat any Republican filibuster attempt and clear the path for legislation on energy, healthcare, immigration and other issues.

But it isn't likely to play out that way.

For one thing, two Democrats, Sens. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia and Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, are sidelined by serious illness, casting doubt on their availability for roll-call votes.

For another, several moderate Democrats are expected to have reservations about the energy legislation, which will seek to cap industrial carbon emissions, and the healthcare bill, which is expected to contain a government-sponsored insurance plan that would probably draw opposition from insurers and business groups.

That means a handful of Republican votes could be necessary to pass any sweeping piece of legislation.

See the full story on Franken in the Senate in Tribune newspapers and here in the Swamp. Photo of Sen.-elect Al Franken, above, right, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) by Cliff Owen / MCT.:.

by Mark Silva

Robert S. McNamara, the former secretary of defense for two presidents who only late in life acknowledged that he and his colleagues were "wrong, terribly wrong'' in the prosecution of the war in Vietnam, passed away today at the age of 93.

He had served as secretary of defense for Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson as the U.S. military escalated its forces in Southeast Asia in the 1960s. Before the U.S. pulled out of Saigon in 1975, American forces lost 58,000.

"The problem was that we were in the wrong place with the wrong tactics,'' McNamara allowed 20 years later.

McNamara had served as president of Ford Motor Co., before joining the Kennedy administration in 1961. And for 13 years after leaving Johnson's Pentagon in 1968, he served as president of the World Bank.

Remembered as brilliant and compulsive, with a work ethic that carried him from modest circumstances in California to the pinnacles of power in Washington, he retired from the World Bank in 1981 but maintained a busy director's and consultant's life.

The domestic protests that the war in Vietnam stirred in the U.S. drove one president from office and consumed the campaign of his would-be successors. The ultimate failure of the U.S. intervention in Southeast Asia to prevent a Communist takeover of South Vietnam also left the morale and image of the American military weakened for years - the "lessons of Vietnam''shaping military and political strategies for decades to come.

In his 1995 memoir of the war, In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam, McNamara said that he and his colleagues were "wrong, terribly wrong" to pursue the war as they did. He acknowledged that he failed to force the military to justify its strategy and tactics, had misunderstood Asia in general and Vietnam in particular, and perpetuated the war long after he realized it was futile.

The AP contributed to this report. See an excerpt about the press's impact on the war below, and see McNamara's discussion of his book above, courtesy of C-SPAN.

by Mike Dorning

North Shore Republican Rep. Mark Kirk, who has been contemplating a costly run for the U.S. Senate or governor, reported today that he has built up a campaign warchest of more than $1 million.

Kirk raised more than $580,000 during the second quarter of the year, according to a statement his campaign released. Such a fundraising performance is robust by the standards of U.S. House members but lags slightly behind the amount of money Kirk raised during the same period in the last election cycle.

A statement released by spokesman Eric Elk described the results as "on pace" with Kirk's fundraising during the second quarter of last election cycle. Kirk raised $606,000 during the second quarter of 2007 and had accumulated a balance of $1.1 million at the end of the period.

During the last election cycle, Kirk was among the most prodigious fundraisers in the U.S. House outside of the party leadership, drawing on a support base in a wealthy region to defend a swing congressional district fiercely contested by the opposition Democrats.

The statement from Kirk's campaign described this year's fundraising as "strong" given the economic recession.

"I am humbled that during these difficult economic times, our support is stronger than ever," Kirk said in a written statement.

by Christi Parsons

MOSCOW -- President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced this morning that they had reached agreements on a range of issues including a framework to reduce their nations' nuclear arsenals and steps to fight terrorism, including the war in Afghanistan.

The announced agreements had been expected as Obama kicked off his weeklong trip to Russia, the G-8 in Europe and Ghana by meeting with Medvedev this morning.

"We reaffirm our commitment to the goals of the common fight against the threats of terrorism, armed extremism, and illegal drug trafficking in Afghanistan," Obama and Medved said in a joint statement. "We shall continue and develop our cooperation in the interest of enhancing the capabilities of the government of Afghanistan to accomplish key socioeconomic objectives, to raise living standards, and to ensure the security of its people."

The presidents are scheduled to hold a joint news conference shortly. Earlier, both presidents sounded an optimistic note about repairing relations in this, the first formal U.S.-Russia summit since early in the Bush administration.

"The United States and Russia have more in common than they have differences," Obama said he sat down with Medvedev.

"We'll have a full-fledged discussion of our relations between our two countries, closing some of the pages of the past and opening some of the pages of the future," Medvedev said, through a translator.