Barack Obama

President Barack Obama fielded questions about the economy, gay marriage, Fifty Shades of Grey - all the key issues - with the women of The View this week.

He corrected Elisabeth Hasselbeck when she described the President’s and Mitt Romney’s position on gay marriage as essentially the same. Not so, he says.

Obama discussed the JP Morgan banking crisis and much more in what was a pleasant, but ultimately forgettable and unnecessary visit to the daytime gab-fest.

There were some substantive policy discussions during his brief visit, but the highlight, at least from THG's perspective, was Obama dishing on celebrity gossip.

Watch him answer a pop quiz from Joy Behar below:

Obama on The View

Boxing champion Manny Pacquiao is pointedly criticizing President Barack Obama's recent endorsement of gay marriage, calling it offensive to his religion.

In an interview, the religious Pacquiao said that Obama's view was nothing more than a direct attack on the morals of society and the will of God.

"God only expects man and woman to be together and to be legally married, only if they so are in love with each other," Manny Pacquiao said.

"It should not be of the same sex so as to adulterate the altar of matrimony, like in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah of old," he added, citing the Bible.

He described same-sex marriage as an "abomination" and went on to say that America should be the model of morality for other countries to emulate.

Recently voted Forbes' fourth most influential athlete, the World Boxing Organization welterweight champion is regarded by many as the best pound-for-pound boxer on the planet, and already has a burgeoning career out of the ring.

He is a member of the Philippines legislature, hosts a weekly TV game show and has his own vegetable business. Manny Pacquiao also hopes to become a leading Christian evangelist after having a religious "awakening."

Last week, Obama became the first U.S. president to publicly back gay marriage.

Many politicians, pundits and stars have weighed in - Jay-Z praised Obama Monday, while Bristol Palin ripped him last week - but members of the sporting community have been largely silent until Pacquiao's condemnation.

Your take: Same-sex marriage ...

[Photos: WENN.com]

Jay-Z says he strongly agrees with President Obama's support of same-sex marriage, equating opposition to gay equality with discrimination.

In a recent interview with CNN, the rapper said he believed supporting gay marriage, as Obama did last week, was "the right thing to do."

“I’ve always thought it as something that was still holding the country back,” Jay-Z said, referencing the fact that it's not recognized nationwide.

“What people do in their own homes is their business and you love whoever you love. That’s their business. It's no different than discriminating against blacks."

"It’s discrimination plain and simple.”

Jay-Z on Gay Marriage

In Philadelphia to announce a two-day music festival in early September, Jay-Z sat down with CNN's Poppy Harlow to chat about broader issues.

Asked if he felt Obama, dubbed the first gay president by Newsweek, could be hurt politically by this, the music mogul and new father shrugged.

"It's really not about votes," he said. "It's about people."

Jay also said he sees America's moribund economy as an opportunity: "You know, for a long time, you know, we had it pretty good in America," he said.

"We were floating on this high. Well, we were hiding some of the troubles that we were going through. So, I just see this as a test of our character."

"I think we'll get there and we test the resolve of Americans. Just to remind us that we have that fight. We haven't had such a fight since the Great Depression."

In the mid-90s, author Toni Morrison famously referred to Bill Clinton as "the first black President" based on his empathy, efforts to foster broad socioeconomic equality and commitment to issues important to African-American community at large.

Newsweek plays off this quote in its new cover story on President Barack Obama.

Following Obama's public support of same-sex marriage, he has been dubbed The First Gay President ... in a manner of speaking of course:

While Obama's statement was groundbreaking and bold, will his "coming out" on behalf of gay marriage even make a different in November’s election?

"If you were going to cast your vote based on a candidate's position regarding same-sex marriage, you were already going to vote for Obama [or] Romney based on that," Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank said on ABC's This Week.

"I literally don't think anybody's vote was changed one way or the other."

In any case, Obama’s end to “evolving” on gay marriage will continue to generate critical comment, and not all of it positive, even from the left.

Bristol Palin is, predictably, receiving a swift and solid Twitter smackdown after speaking out against President Barack Obama's support of gay marriage.

Palin said, in short, that heterosexuals make better parents, Obama is a pushover who lets kids script his policy statements, and Glee might make you gay.

Shortly after writing her blog post ripping Obama, Bristol's hearing about it.

A few comments directed at the unwed 21-year-old mother, who says "in general kids do better growing up in a mother/father home," are as follows:

JWoww: "Bristol should keep her uneducated ignorant mouth shut... If Ur living in the past u wouldn't have a kid w/out marriage #hypocrite. It's 2012!"

"My best friend will get married one day and not just have civil union with his man. Stop hating people," added the outspoken Jersey Shore star.

Sherri Shepherd: "Sara Palin educated Bristol... and not blaming Bristol, but I'm blaming Bristol being young & not excercising good judgment."

Samantha Ronson: "'We know that in general kids do better growing up in a mother/father home.' really bristol palin? how's your kid doing?"

Apparently President Obama's support for gay marriage, which he announced yesterday, does not sit well with Bristol Palin. Nor does the Fox hit Glee.

In an anti-gay marriage blog post aimed at Obama's first statement advocating same-sex marriage rights, Sarah Palin's daughter does not hold back.

In short, Bristol feels Barack is a stupid man, a weak leader and a bad father. Why? Because of his daughters' role in his evolving gay marriage stance.

"While it’s great to listen to your kids’ ideas, there’s also a time when dads simply need to be dads," says the 21-year-old spawn of Sarah.

"In this case, it would’ve been helpful for him to explain to Malia and Sasha that while her friends parents are no doubt lovely people, that’s not a reason to change thousands of years of thinking about marriage."

The unwed mother, whose baby daddy is totally MIA, continues, "As great as her friends may be – we know that in general kids do better growing up in a mother/father home. Ideally, fathers help shape their kids’ worldview."

Unless they're Levi Johnston.

In the wake of President Obama's support for gay marriage, his all-but-certain Republican foe in the 2012 presidential election reaffirmed that he is opposed to it.

Mitt Romney said he is opposed to both civil unions and same-sex marriage, in fact. The former Massachusetts governor told Denver Fox affiliate KDVR-TV:

"Well, when these issues were raised in my state of Massachusetts, I indicated my view, which is I do not favor marriage between people of the same gender, and I do not favor civil unions if they are identical to marriage other than by name."

"My view is the domestic partnership benefits, hospital visitation rights, and the like are appropriate but that the others are not," added Romney.

Obama's support came following Tuesday's passage of North Carolina Amendment One, a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, civil unions and domestic partnerships, and Vice President Joe Biden support for gay marriage.

He made the end of his "evolution" on the topic official in an interview with ABC News' Robin Roberts, which aired on Good Morning America today.

President Barack Obama today became the first sitting president to announce support for same-sex marriage, making his position on the subject clear.

In a sit-down interview with ABC's Robin Roberts, Obama completed what has been a long and often dubious "evolution" on the controversial topic.

"I've always been adamant that gay and lesbian Americans should be treated fairly," Obama told Roberts in an interview that will air Thursday.

Obama's announcement, on the heels of North Carolina's Amendment 1 ban on gay marriage in that state, was made after much soul-searching.

"Over the course of several years, I have talked to friends and family and neighbors, and I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together," he said.

"When I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don't Ask Don't Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married."

Genevieve Cook, an ex-girlfriend of President Obama, shares some intimate details about their relationship in a new book about the Commander-in-Chief.

Barack Obama: The Story, by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist David Maraniss, is the most thorough account of the President's life not written by Obama.

Vanity Fair published excerpts Wednesday. While The Story contains no sordid, shocking tales of impropriety, it portrays Obama as extremely ambitious.

Obama's autobiography Dreams From My Father, while generally true, makes him look less calculating and motivated by his own career, in other words.

Barack Obama: The Story also goes into much greater detail about his early life, including romantic relationships, such as that with Genevieve Cook.

Using Obama’s writings and ex-girlfriends’ diaries, Maraniss paints a picture of Obama as an intense, conflicted and sometimes brooding intellectual.

It was that intelligence that drew Cook to Obama after a chance meeting at that East Village apartment gathering, according to Maraniss' book.

The future President, who in 1983 was a recent graduate of Columbia University, began chatting up the assistant teacher at a party that Christmas.

Obama apparently earned Cook’s endorsement, as they went on a date just days later and she spent that night at his tiny Manhattan apartment.

While sitting on an orange beanbag chair, the two bonded over the time each spent in Indonesia as youths, then exchanged phone numbers.

If political pundits think President Obama's only strategy to win a second term would be to carpet bomb Mitt Romney with negative ads, he didn't get the memo.

Romney has but one brief, silent cameo in the Obama campaign's new seven-minute ad, touting the controversial administration's record over the past three years.

The ad does go out of its way to portray Republican leaders, in general, as obstructionist extremists who would rather play political games than help Americans.

For the most part, though, the ad, entitled "Forward," hits home the fact that Obama inherited "once-in-a-century type" recession and still accomplished a ton.

Pure spin? Pure facts? In between? Take a look at it below and see:

Obama 2012 Ad - Forward