President Elect

On the eve of his inauguration as 44th president, Barack Obama dropped in on wounded veterans of a war that he vows to end, pitched in with community volunteers whose work he promises to promote and dined with leaders of two parties he pledges to unite. On the last full day in office for the 43rd president, George W. Bush kept a low profile at the White House but granted clemency for two former Border Patrol officers in a controversial case.

Transfixed by the daily spectacle of dismal economic news and wild Wall Street swings, few Americans have looked up to see what a wide array of economists say lies beyond the immediate crisis. And with good reason: The picture isn't pretty. The sleek racing machine that was the U.S. economy is unlikely to return any time soon despite the huge repair efforts now underway. Instead, it probably will continue to sputter and threaten to stall for years to come.

Even in this bearish economy, it's hard to find many people who aren't long on Barack Obama. The amount of Obama-related merchandise for sale is unprecedented, historians say. No president has seen so many people sell so many things so shamelessly: collectors' coins and plates, bath towels, bobbleheads and buttons -- just about anything that can have an image applied to it. Apparently, even the presidency can't escape the vise grip of pop culture.

Barack Obama will take the oath of office in the shadow of hard times, but his Hollywood supporters have no intention of letting stormy economic weather dampen their spirits when they converge on Washington to celebrate the inauguration of the United States' first African American president -- and the kind of charismatic star Tinseltown embraces.

The nation's 44th president-elect began his inaugural journey to the White House on a frigid Philadelphia morning, waving to onlookers and wearing no overcoat as he boarded a shiny 1939 rail car draped in red, white and blue. "It was here, in this city, that our American journey began," Barack Obama told about 200 invited guests Saturday in Philadelphia's 30th Street Station before departing along the same path Abraham Lincoln took to Washington.

Valata Jenkins-Monroe contributed to Barack Obama's campaign and made a few phone calls on his behalf, but she doesn't consider herself a fanatic, not even with Obama posters, T-shirts, buttons, mugs, coasters and vases in her home -- along with a photo of her 28-year-old daughter taken with the president-elect.

Months after the worst of the financial crisis seemed to have passed, fears of debilitating losses for the nation's banks returned to the forefront Thursday on Wall Street and in Washington. The federal government said late Thursday night that it had agreed to invest an additional $20 billion in Bank of America Corp. and to share losses on $118 billion of the company's assets.

President-elect Barack Obama said last week that his multibillion-dollar stimulus package would kick-start the economy by essentially creating a New New Deal. "We will put Americans to work in new jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced -- jobs building solar panels and wind turbines; constructing fuel-efficient cars and buildings; and developing the new energy technologies that will lead to even more jobs, more savings, and a cleaner, safer planet in the bargain," he said.

President-elect Barack Obama is coming under strong pressure from his own party to alter the basic mix of his $775-billion stimulus plan, reducing the portion devoted to tax cuts and devoting more money to direct spending for roads, bridges and other projects. Obama has laid out a proposal that would reserve about 40% of the stimulus package for tax reductions -- a commitment partly meant to win over congressional Republicans who would ordinarily be averse to spending on so large a scale.

. President-elect Barack Obama met with Mexican President Felipe Calderon in Washington on Monday to begin work on one of the most vital yet challenging of U.S. relationships. As a symbol of the ties between the two nations, incoming U.S. presidents traditionally meet with Mexico's leader before meeting with other heads of state or government.