"Mutts like me."

"It popped out casually, a throwaway line as he talked to reporters about finding the right puppy for his young daughters. But with just three offhanded words in his first news conference as president-elect, Barack Obama reminded everyone how thoroughly different his administration - and inevitably, this country - will be. "Mutts like me." By now, almost everyone knows that Obama's mother was white and father was black, putting him on track to become the nation's first African-American president. But there was something startling, and telling, about hearing his self-description - particularly in how offhandedly he used it. The message seemed clear - here is a president who will be quite at ease discussing race, a complex issue as unresolved as it is uncomfortable for many to talk about openly. And at a time when whites in the country are not many years from becoming the minority." Mobile News Network