Michael Jackson Made Obama President, Says ...

President Obama, you can thank The Gloved One for your presidency. So says Michael Jackson's brother Jermaine, who tells the Independent that Michael's 1993 interview with Oprah Winfrey made her a star, and her support for Obama made him president. "Michael invited her [to Neverland] and that was the moment that put her in 90 countries around the world and made her successful," Jermaine says.

"What did she do with that success? She put it behind Obama." In the Oprah interview, Michael admitted to suffering from Vitiligo, which Jermaine says underlined his brother's black heritage and put Oprah on the map. Jermaine, now touring the US with his brothers, also expressed pleasure over the current British inquiry into tabloid newspapers. He says the papers coined the term "Wacko Jacko" and denied "Michael's humanity. ... The question is why didn't they understand him while he was here?" (More Michael Jackson stories.)