CALMING THE WATERS. A rapprochement appears to be in the works between Barack Obama and Al Sharpton, with the former smoothing the latter’s ruffled feathers with a short phone call, reports the New York Daily News. Relatedly, the Daily News has also decided to give Obama the rather awesome short-hand headline name of “Bam,” as in “Al & Bam phone chat axes feud.” I foresee a string of “Biff! Bam! Pow!” online ads, with maybe an occasional “Zowie!” thrown in for good measure. Some guys have all the luck.

–Garance Franke-Ruta

Garance Franke-Ruta is a former senior editor at the Prospect. Her work has also appeared in The Washington Post, The Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications. She was a 2006 recipient of a fellowship at the Joan Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics, and Public Policy at Harvard University.