On the eve of Inaugaration Immaculation Day, Obamamania soars to a new height, er low.
Even before Barack Obama is sworn in as the next president of the United States tomorrow, he has changed our perceptions. Not just because he is the first black man to hold the office – but because he has altered our view of what a middle-aged man can look like.
We are used to political leaders playing the fitness card, but, as the photographs taken during his holiday in Hawaii just before Christmas show, Obama is in a different league to the tennis-playing Tony Blair, and he makes Vladimir Putin's bare-chested fishing shots look embarrassing.
The president -- who will hold no public appearances until he greets President-elect Barack Obama at the White House's North Portico Tuesday -- is expected to hold meetings Monday with senior staff, according to White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto.
"The president does not plan to be in the limelight for a good while -- for the next year," Fratto said.
Disputing critics who claimed Bush was "lame duck," the president intervened in a situation that has been brewing since 2005: the unjustful conviction of border guards Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean.
In his final acts of clemency, President George W. Bush on Monday granted early prison releases to two former U.S. Border Patrol agents whose convictions for shooting a Mexican drug dealer fueled the national debate over illegal immigration.
Bush, responding to heavy pressure from Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike, commuted the prison sentences of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. The two guards from El Paso, Texas, each were sentenced to more than 10 years for the shooting, which they tried to cover up. They will be released within two months.
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