Barack Obama will go on national television tonight and air a 30-minute infomercial about himself and his presidential campaign.

Several political image makers, both Republicans and Democrats, say it's a smart move. But is there a risk of excess in it, as well? 

While Obama hasn't made many strategic mistakes in his campaign against Republican John McCain, he has, on occasion, shown a weakness for extravagance.

Since John F. Kennedy's own beach photos has a nation been so stirred to seek out revealing images of the incoming commander-in-chief. Searches are soaring for "obama pictures" and, in a realm normally reserved for prepubescent idols, "obama shirtless." Yes, the man so far designated to stimulate the economy, restore American dignity abroad, and save the planet from global warming, has inspired lookups more befitting a, dare we say, heartthrob.

Reassuringly, other recent Obama searches do dwell on the more relevant issues at hand ("obama inauguration," "obama cabinet picks"). The photo exposé, however, once again underscores the celebritization of Obama (as a John McCain ad once famously pointed out).

The latest act of online voyeurism comes from a confluence of three recent pictorial events: Two include Barack Obama's return to Time magazine's cover as Man of the Year and the release of never-before-seen college photos, in which the future No. 44 posed in a Panama hat, leather jacket, and occasionally with a cigarette for a hopeful photographer's portfolio. That momentous puff induced a teacup-sized tempest as people zeroed in on the "obama smoking" pic.

The third event is his holiday trip back to his home state. The president-elect did what any red-blooded American would do in a tropical isle: He stripped down to his swimming trunks and dove right into the winter surf. The ABC video showed a fleeting rear view of Obama descending into the water, but that was enough to trigger the buzz for "obama hawaii" (+130%), "obama vacation" (+113%) and, of course, the aforementioned shirtless queries.

To those who would defend the dignity of the Oval Office and all its inhabitants, will their brains eventually soften with four years of headlines like the New York Post's "O, My Bod!" (with yet another name twist in paragraph one: "Just call him 'Ab'-bama.'"). Forget tabloids-the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported regular citizens turning into paparazzi packs. Meanwhile, a true paparazzo snuck a shot, and the hosting site was promptly overwhelmed by political oglers.

His photogenic vim and vigor have long evoked comparisons to the charismatic Kennedy, who similarly inspired a brouhaha over his beach photo. Former Vanity Fair magazine editor Tina Brown, in a CNN interview about Obama's enormous star power, claimed that Obama is aware of his appeal and "he deliberately dials back on his charisma" to spare the masses. (Brown by the way once ventured on Greek God territory and called Obama "Apollonian.")

Indeed, the president-elect himself, while courting the exposure, showed signs of being willing to draw the line: An AFP article noted Obama saying to news photographers, "Ok guys, come on...How many shots do you need?" Doubtless once the honeymoon period is over (and technically, the wedding's not until January 20th anyhow), this rapture will be tempered.

As for the shirtless searches, a slideshow of "Other Shirtless Presidents" reveals he is not the first, nor will he likely be the last. And as for shirtless celebrities versus shirtless politicians, Obama's Web appeal runs second to "Twilight" star Robert Pattinson, thereby upholding the right and proper balance in the world.

WASHINGTON - Confronting a grim economy and a Middle East on fire, Barack Obama turned Wednesday to perhaps the only people on the planet who understand what he's in for: the four living members of the U.S. presidents' club. In an image bound to go down in history, every living U.S. president came together at the White House on Wednesday to hash over the world's challenges with the president-elect. There they stood, shoulder-to-shoulder in the Oval Office: George H.W. Bush, Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

"This is an extraordinary gathering," Obama said, looking plenty at ease in the humbling office that will soon be his.

"All the gentlemen here understand both the pressures and possibilities of this office," Obama said. "And for me to have the opportunity to get advice, good counsel and fellowship with these individuals is extraordinary. And I'm very grateful to all of them."

Bush, blistered without mercy by Obama during the campaign season, played the role of gracious host.

DENVER - President Barack Obama put his own indelible imprint on the nation's distressed economy Tuesday, signing the huge recovery package into law, readying a $50 billion proposal to help homeowners fend off foreclosure and awaiting emergency restructuring plans from flailing automakers. Obama said the sprawling legislation, which congressional Democrats pushed to passage last week over near-unanimous opposition from Republicans, would "set our economy on a firmer foundation."

Obama's first major piece of legislation, it's a $787 billion mix of tax cuts and one of the biggest public spending programs since World War II.

"I don't want to pretend that today marks the end of our economic problems. Nor does it constitute all of what we have to do to turn our economy around. But today does mark the beginning of the end, the beginning of what we need to do to create jobs for Americans scrambling in the wake of layoffs," Obama said.

The setting for the signing was the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, with solar panels on its roof, underscoring the investments the new law will make in "green" energy-related jobs. Workers in solar, wind, and other renewable-energy industries joined Obama and Vice President Joe Biden at the bill-signing ceremony.

Presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters the White House was open-minded about another stimulus effort. But he stressed that there were no plans in the works for one.

Meanwhile, General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC raced to complete recovery plans they were due to submit as part of their deal to receive billions of dollars in government loans. It was not clear they would make Tuesday's deadline.

The two automakers have been living off a combined $13.4 billion in federal bailout loans. They must persuade the administration that they can remain viable. Detroit's third major automaker, Ford Motor Co., did not request government help.

With the economy dominating Obama's first weeks in office, the president on Wednesday will unveil another part of his recovery effort - a $50 billion plan to help stem foreclosures.

All the activity also is allowing Obama to get away from Washington, with its intense partisan wrangling, and be cheered by people who may benefit from the huge government intervention.

Obama planned to outline his plan to help struggling homeowners in a speech in Arizona, one of the states hardest hit by home foreclosures that are at the center of the nation's economic woes.

The $50 billion program was mentioned last week by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner as part of a wide-ranging financial-sector rescue plan that could send $2 trillion coursing through the financial system. But details were not announced at the time.

Obama's announcement is expected to include details about how the administration plans to prod the mortgage industry to do more in modifying the terms of home loans so borrowers have lower monthly payments.

More than 2.3 million homeowners faced foreclosure proceedings last year, an 81 percent increase from 2007, and analysts say that number could soar as high as 10 million in the coming years, depending on the severity of the recession.

As for Tuesday's stimulus package, it will pump money into highway, bridge and other infrastructure projects, health care, renewable energy development and conservation.

It includes a $400 tax break for most individual workers and $800 for couples, including those who do not earn enough to pay income taxes. It will distribute tens of billions of dollars to states so they can head off deep cuts and layoffs and will provide financial incentives for people to start buying again, from first homes to new cars to shoes and cereal. It also provides help to poor people and laid-off workers, with increased unemployment benefits and food stamps, and subsides for health insurance.

Separately, GM and Chrysler raced to finish restructuring plans to present to the federal government but seemed unlikely to complete deals with debtholders and union workers by the government-imposed deadline on Tuesday.

Gibbs, Obama's press secretary, told reporters aboard Air Force One that he wouldn't rule out bankruptcy for Detroit automakers. Gibbs said the administration looks forward to reviewing GM and Chrysler's restructuring plans. Gibbs said it is important for the economy to have a strong and viable auto industry and that it's up to automakers to make choices about what is most helpful to their recovery.

GM earlier received $9.4 billion in government loans and Chrysler $4 billion. GM picked up the second installment of its loans, $4 billion, on Tuesday, according to Gibbs.

The Obama team had weighed appointing a "car czar." But Sunday night, the White House instead announced a task force to oversee the companies' restructuring.

The back-to-back government moves to try to lift the economy from a crippling recession had been eagerly awaited by Wall Street. But with the programs now being put in place, investors seemed concerned the impact might not be fast enough or big enough and stocks tumbled on Tuesday to near their November lows.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - While aknowledging an "astounding" number of job losses in February, President Barack Obama told critics of his $787 billion economic recovery plan Friday that it is saving jobs and said, "I know we did the right thing."

He suggested that critics talk to 25 police recruits in Ohio's capital city who owe their jobs to stimulus spending and "talk to the teachers who are still able to teach our children because we passed this plan."

During a graduation ceremony for the police recruits, he also noted "the nurses who are still able to care for our sick and the firefighters and first responders who are still able to keep our communities safe."

News that 651,000 jobs were lost in February brings to "an astounding 4.4 million" the number of jobs lost since the recession began, Obama said. The unemployment rate spiked to 8.1 percent.

But Obama touted the 114th police recruit class as proof that the stimulus plan, which drew scant Republican support in Congress, is paying dividends.

"I look at these young men and women, I look into their eyes and I see their badges today, and I know we did the right thing," Obama said, the recruits seated behind him on stage.

He said the police recruits had faced a future of joblessness, the same "future that millions of Americans still face right now."

"Well, that is not a future I accept for the United States of America," Obama said, explaining why he signed the stimulus bill on Feb. 17.

The recruit class was laid off in January before they could even start walking the beat. Mayor Michael Coleman, a Democrat, blamed city budget problems.

But last week Coleman announced that the Justice Department had told the city it would get $1.25 million in stimulus funds to cover the officers' salaries through Dec. 31.

The recruits were rehired using money from the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program. The stimulus bill included $2 billion for that program, and the money is being delivered to local departments by a predetermined formula.

Breann Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for Rep. Pat Tiberi, one of eight Ohio Republicans who voted against the stimulus, noted that the money that saved the recruits' job will run out next year. Coleman hasn't said how he'll pay the officers' salaries after that.

Gonzalez said Tiberi "is thrilled" that these officers were hired, but that the question of how to pay for them will confront the city again come January.

"This stimulus represents a very temporary solution to an even larger problem," she said.

The trip was Obama's first as president to Ohio, which he won in the November election.

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Associated Press writers Devlin Barrett and Matt Apuzzo in Washington and Andrew Welsh-Huggins and Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON - Facing misgivings within his own party, President Barack Obama mounted a stout defense of the administration's economic blueprint Thursday, arguing that delay on health care, energy and education would make "recovery more fragile and our future less secure."

The president's far-reaching plans faced skepticism from both Democrats and Republicans, as senators questioned his long-term budget outlook and the deficits it envisions in the middle of the next decade.

Sen. Kent Conrad, the chairman of the Budget Committee called the track of future deficits "unsustainable" and singled out Obama's proposal for spending $634 billion on health care over the next 10 years.

"Some of us have a real pause about the notion of putting substantially more money into the health care system when we've already got a bloated system," said Conrad, D-N.D.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, testifying before Conrad's committee, also encountered blunt questions about the administration's plans for shoring up the nation's banks. He reiterated the administration's goal to lay out a private-public partnership fund designed to make up to $1 trillion in financing available to help banks clear their books of toxic, mortgage-related assets that have led to a national credit freeze.

Geithner hinted more money might be required beyond the existing $700 billion financial rescue fund. "We certainly can start with the resources we have," he said.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., played down talk that Democrats would consider a second economic stimulus bill.

"I know that people have made suggestions that we should be ready to do something, but I really would like to see this stimulus package play out," Pelosi said. "It's just not something that, right now, is in the cards," she added later.

The flurry of comments illustrated the complicated moving parts confronting Washington as the economy continues to decline, credit remains clogged and a new president advances broad and expensive initiatives. The money set aside to address those needs so far has been staggering - $787 billion for an economic stimulus designed to save and create jobs, $700 billion approved by Congress for the financial rescue package and hundreds of billions more through programs from the Federal Reserve Bank.

On top of that, Obama wants to overhaul health care, reduce greenhouse-gas pollution and undertake major changes in energy policy. He's projecting a federal deficit of $1.75 trillion this year, by far the largest in history, but says he can get it down to $533 billion by 2013.

"I am not choosing to address these additional challenges just because I feel like it, or because I'm a glutton for punishment," Obama said in prepared remarks to the Business Roundtable. "I am doing so because they are fundamental to our economic growth, and to ensuring that we don't have more crises like this in the future."

Obama said his health and energy changes would build a foundation for a lasting economic recovery, arguing that the current economic crisis was precipitated by an "illusion of prosperity."

Critics of Obama's budget, such as Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., complained that the spending blueprint does not tackle the rising costs of Social Security and Medicare. Geithner said the administration intends to confront higher health care costs with broad changes that will lower Medicare spending.

Geithner is at the center of Obama's economic policy, advocating for its budget proposals and tax policies, as well as the rescue program for the financial sector. He faced questions on all those fronts before heading to London for talks Friday and Saturday with finance officials from the Group of 20 nations.

Obama's budget would raise taxes, starting in 2011, on individuals earning more than $200,000 and on households earning more than $250,000. Geithner said the increases would kick in after the economy was expected to be in recovery.

But he sidestepped a question by Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, about whether the administration would let the increases take effect if the economy had not recovered in two years. "We have to watch how the economy evolves," Geithner said.

At the White House, the administration conferred with state officials about how the $787 billion in stimulus money will go out.

Vice President Joe Biden opened the meeting by warning state officials that if they misuse money from the stimulus package, they should not expect more help from the federal government for a long time.

"If we don't get this right, folks, this is the end of the ability to convince Congress that anything should go to the states," Biden said.

Added Obama: "If we see money being misspent, we're going to put a stop to it."

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Jimmy Carter came to Notre Dame in 1977. So did Ronald Reagan in 1981 and George W. Bush in 2001.

The University of Notre Dame has a tradition of inviting new presidents to speak at graduation. But this year's selection of President Barack Obama has been met by a barrage of criticism that has left some students fearing their commencement ceremony will turn into a circus.

Many Catholics are angered by Obama's planned appearance at the May 17 ceremony because of his decisions to provide federal funding for embryonic stem cell research and international family planning groups that provide abortions or educate about the procedure.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama declared Friday that the slumping economy has begun to show "glimmers of hope," but cautioned that it remains severely stressed and will require lots more work to turn it around.

Once criticized for talking too pessimistically about the economy, Obama is highlighting the positive.

"We're starting to see glimmers of hope across the economy," the president said after a White House meeting with his economic team, including Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and top economic adviser Larry Summers. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke also participated in the session.

Obama echoed Summers' prediction a day earlier that the "sense of a ball falling off a table" would end in a few months.