WASHINGTON (AP):

The economy will determine whether Barack Obama achieves what few United States presidents have: a far-reaching change in American politics that might even earn its own title and legacy.

Will there be an Obama version of the New Deal, the Great Society or the Reagan Revolution?

Afghanistan, North Korea and other foreign hot spots certainly will test Obama. But the deeply troubled economy is his signature challenge and the focus of his greatest efforts, attention and gambles in his first 100 days in office.

Of course, 100 days is just the start, too little time to determine the results (let alone the wisdom) of his decisions. But it's enough time to discern the path Obama has chosen, the overarching philosophy that will shape his administration and history's eventual judgement of it.

In a way, Obama, a Democrat, is reversing the famous dictum of Republican President Ronald Reagan, who said government is the problem, not the solution.

Confronting the worst economic crisis in more than a half-century, Obama is dramatically increasing the government's role in overseeing banks, helping homeowners avoid foreclosure and even determining who runs General Motors Corp or merges with Chrysler LLP. Pouring billions of dollars into the efforts, he is stoking a huge federal deficit that could haunt him, and the nation, if it does not recede sharply in the next few years.

Obama's domestic agenda would be huge even if he focused only on reviving the moribund economy and addressing the recession's causes, including loosely regulated lending and a collapsed housing market. But he has gone much further, calculating that a crisis creates the best environment for ramming big changes through Congress.

WASHINGTON (AP):

Veteran Republican Senator Arlen Specter switched parties yesterday with a suddenness that stunned Washington, a moderate's defection that left Democrats one seat shy of a 60-vote supermajority they need to push President Barack Obama's agenda through the Senate.

Specter's decision gives Democrats and their allies at least 59 Senate seats. One vacancy remains from the state of Minnesota, where Democrat Al Franken holds a narrow lead in a race being disputed in court.

With 60 votes in the 100-seat chamber, Obama's fellow Democrats could stop Republican filibusters, a stalling tactic used to delay or defeat legislation.

Seeking sixth term

Specter, 79 and seeking a sixth six-year term in 2010, conceded bluntly that his chances of winning a Republican primary election were bleak in his home state, Pennsylvania, where as in many states the party's membership has grown increasingly conservative.

He cast his decision, however, as one of principle rather than political ambition, as Republican leaders alleged. Pennsylvania is mostly Democratic.

"I am not prepared to have my 29 years' record in the United States Senate decided by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate," Specter said in a news conference.

Specter is one of a handful of Republican moderates remaining in Congress in a party now dominated by conservatives. Several officials said the White House as well as leaders in both parties had been involved in discussions that led to his move.

WASHINGTON (AP):

First Lady Michelle Obama yesterday reflected on her own family's rise from slavery to the White House as she helped to unveil a statue of abolitionist Sojourner Truth - the first black woman to be so honoured at the United States Capitol building.

"I hope that Sojourner Truth would be proud to see me, a descendant of slaves, serving as the first lady of the United States of America," Obama said to loud applause at a ceremony at the Capitol Visitor Center.

An early crusader for women's rights to vote who was also for an end to slavery, Truth met presidents Abraham Lincoln in 1864 and Ulysses S. Grant in 1870, and delivered her signature, "Ain't I a Woman?" speech at a women's rights convention in Akron, Ohio, in 1851. She tried to vote on two occasions, but was turned away both times. She died in November 1883 at her home in Battle Creek, Michigan.

Lawmakers, students and actress Cicely Tyson were among those who gathered at the visitor's centre to celebrate Truth's legacy and watch Mrs Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others unveil the bronze bust of Truth.