CHICAGO, Dec. 20 (UPI) -- Illinois Sen.-elect Barack Obama, who becomes the only black U.S. senator next month, is on the cover of the current Newsweek magazine as a future newsmaker.
Newsweek picked Obama in its "Who's Next" issue of people who will make news in 2005 the same week President George Bush graces the cover of Time magazine as its Man of the Year.
Obama, who last week signed a $1.9 million deal with Crown for three books, said he would try to bridge divisions between the red states and the blue states.
"This shouldn't be hard to do. Martin Luther King did it," Obama told Newsweek senior editor Jonathan Alter. "Most of the reform movements that have changed this country have been grounded in religious models. We don't have to start from scratch."
The self-described "skinny guy with the funny name" told the Economic Club of Chicago he felt like a dog who's been chasing a truck. "I caught the truck," he said. "Now what?"
