The 17-room, 6,000 square foot (557 sq metres) brick house for sale adjacent to Obama's Chicago home needs work to update the kitchen and bathrooms, but there is no need to worry about break-ins, the seller says. 

"It's definitely got phenomenal security. A whole team of Secret Service agents is posted 20 feet (6 metres) away" night and day, real estate agent Matt Garrison said.

 "Some people may view that as a negative thing but we're looking for buyers who see it as a positive thing," Garrison said.

 Prospective owners won't face daily searches, Garrison said, but visitors will likely have to be cleared in advance.

The Obama family, of course, lives in the White House for now and their Chicago home in the Kenwood neighborhood is presumably vacant. The Chicago Police Department recently scaled down its around-the-clock presence at the house.

But when the Obamas and their two daughters were there, they sometimes chatted with neighbor Bill  Grimshaw and his wife, who preceded them in the neighborhood. The Grimshaws, whose children have grown, bought the home for $35,000 in 1973.

There are many large mansions in the area that have sold for $2 million and more, sometimes to overseas investors, but the depressed real estate market has stifled interest.

"We're talking to a few traditional, nice families. It's likely the buyer will turn out to be somebody already looking for a house like that in that area. Maybe the Obama factor will put them over the top," Garrison said.

- Photo credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst (U.S. President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia in Washington)

"Many Americans say they're uneasy about Obama. He's pretty new to them. We can provide some assurance," the editorial on the newspaper's website said.

"We have known Obama since he entered politics a dozen years ago. We have watched him, worked with him, argued with him as he rose from an effective state senator to an inspiring U.S. senator to the Democratic Party's nominee for president."

"We have tremendous confidence in his intellectual rigor, his moral compass and his ability to make sound, thoughtful, careful decisions. He is ready," the newspaper said.

Obama has built his political career in Chicago.

Under its past publishers, the Tribune has been a bastion of right-leaning views and generally favored Republicans.

The paper did endorse independent Horace Greeley in 1872, and Progressive Party candidate Theodore Roosevelt in 1912 -- choices it said "were driven by outrage at inept and corrupt business and political leaders."

"We see parallels today. The Republican Party, the party of limited government, has lost its way," the editorial said.

On the candidacy of Republican John McCain, the newspaper said it liked him but found him "hard to figure" on tax policy in light of the federal budget deficit, and termed his proposal to buy up bad mortgages "misguided."

But it said McCain's worst decision was to choose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, calling her unprepared to assume the presidency.

The paper did criticize Obama for not paying more attention to the deficit, and questioned his tax and spending proposals.

Finally, the newspaper compared Obama's aspirations for uniting the country to that of Abraham Lincoln, a Republican who cut his teeth in Illinois politics.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young - U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama greets supporters at a campaign event in Roanoke, Virginia on Oct. 17, 2008.

It was from a suite of rooms on the fourth floor of the Blackstone Hotel that Republican party leaders emerged in June 1920 to declare Ohio Sen. Warren Harding the surprise nominee. The Republican party convention convention deadlocked over two other candidates.

Legend has it that a cloud of cigar smoke poured from the room as they came out to make the announcement to assembled journalists, who coined the phrase that entered the American political lexicon. It refers to a behind-the-scenes move by party bosses to pick candidates.

Some historians credit Harding's friend Harry Daugherty with creating the phrase ahead of the convention.   Harding was subsequently elected the 29th U.S. president.

The original smoke-filled room was redone as part of a $100 million refurbishment of the once-decrepit Georgian Michigan Avenue landmark. Smoking is no longer permitted in the room.

The phrase has made something of a comeback this political season, with Democrats closely divided between two presidential hopefuls that could end up leaving it to nearly 800 party elites called superdelegates to choose the party's nominee. 

Presumably, conventioneers in Denver can find a place where smoking is allowed.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

State Republicans say Franken, who was expected to pose a strong challenge to incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman in the November election, is at fault. 

"Al Franken's business activities must have a full, and complete public airing if he is to retain any credibility as a candidate for public office," Ron Carey, chairman of the Republican Party of Minnesota, said in a statement.

Franken told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that errors by his New York accountant led him to overpay $49,253 taxes to New York state and Minnesota where he lived between 2003 and 2006, while not paying $53,404 in taxes to 17 states where he earned money for appearances and speeches.

The $70,000 is an estimation of what he owes, Franken said.

He and his wife, Franni, "believe in paying state and federal taxes on all our income," Franken told the newspaper.

Carey said in a statement that Franken signed a disclosure statement showing he was aware of earning money in California and elsewhere.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

Photo credit: Reuters/Eric Miller (Al Franken speaks at rally in March)

While former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney answered reporters' questions in front of Chevrolet's (GM) concept hydrogen fuel cell car, rival Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, got briefed a few feet away on the merits of a Chevrolet hybrid SUV.

A Romney aide pleaded with Huckabee's camp for some space, but apparently didn't get much cooperation. Still, many in Romney's bulging press corps failed to notice the intrusion.

Meanwhile, Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut independent backing his Senate colleague from Arizona, John McCain, passed a few feet away as Romney inspected Ford Motor Co.'s latest models.

McCain was due to arrive a little later on Monday at the auto show, a premier event for the industry that was born in Michigan.

Romney, surrounded by cameras and gawking car company executives, also peeked into new models from Chrysler LLC, General Motors, and Ford -- while avoiding any foreign-owned carmakers.

Romney, who grew up in Michigan, peeked into Chrysler's Jeep line of new concept cars that are not yet in mass production. Jeeps were once made by American Motors, a company which his father, former Michigan Gov. George Romney, ran before entering politics. The company was later absorbed by Chrysler.

Romney repeated his call for the federal government to "throw life savers, not anvils" at Detroit's domestic automakers so they can compete on a level playing field.

Asked what cars he owns, Romney hedged initially, then said he had a Ford Mustang, a Cadillac model from GM, a Chevrolet Silverado, and a 1962 American Motors Rambler given to him by his children. He also said he hoped to win the primary, and pledged to fight on, whether he crashes and burns in Michigan or not.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

- Photo credit: Reuters/John Gress (Romney meets with Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli)

He donates some of the profits to the two parties' national committees. But Vaughn definitely knows his politics and offered comments about several candidates, but wouldn't declare his own allegiance.
 
"Based on sales, I'd say Hillary and Obama are very close in Iowa," he said. "On the Republican side, its (Mitt) Romney and (Rudy) Giuliani."
 
Planned for the company's Web site, http://www.shoppolitical.com/ (which was not up as of this writing) Vaughn said a pseudo-poll will indicate each party's respective campaign paraphernalia sales, but doesn't expect it will impress mainstream pollsters. 
 
Can buttons, bumper stickers, T-shirts and yard signs sway an election? They certainly can't hurt, and might indicate momentum, Vaughn said.