(hat tip: Mike Allen‘s Playbook)

AP’s Deanna Bellandi and Jenny Song have some choice snippets about the journalists covering Obama, in their piece, “Home in Chicago, Obama can be regular guy, sort of.”

So on a recent summer night during a rare break from the campaign trail, Barack Obama escorted his wife, Michelle to a swanky Italian restaurant along Chicago’s Michigan Avenue.

A van full of reporters sat outside in case their night on the town turned into national news. It didn’t. …

And a walk to a neighbor’s house for a barbecue includes a pack of reporters trailing close behind.

The Illinois senator is followed nearly all day, including during down time, by a pool of reporters who don’t leave until he’s tucked inside his home for the night. …

When Obama went to eat at tony Alan Wong’s restaurant with friends Saturday night, the media waited at a more casual establishment across the street while a couple agents went in and asked the staff to help keep other patrons from interrupting the candidate’s meal. Still, some diners snapped cell phone photos from across the room while Obama’s table was served a meal prepared specially for him. The agents tried to be inconspicuous while they ate grilled fish at a nearby table. …