Michael Calderone at Politico has confirmed last week’s rumor that former New Republic owner Marty Peretz will be buying back the magazine from struggling CanWest. And it turns out Paul Waldman at The Daily Beast wasn’t so far off when he threw Laurence Grafstein‘s name into the mix — the Lazard executive will be leading a the group of investors.

Peretz tells Calderone the deal is underway and an official announcement will be made later today: “Something is happening today that I am very happy about…There is a group of us that are acquiring the New Republic from CanWest.” Peretz also confirms that editorially the paper will continue as is.

Obama and the press: it’s not easy to keep up. In lieu of a flow chart, a brief recap. Over the winter the Press had such a crush on Obama that SNL’s parody was considered an act of intervention, and Tina Fey was heralded as a sort of feminist hero. Then there was the whole Jeremiah Wright thing and it looked like the Press was finally going to do some quality vetting on the candidate, which the campaign appeared none to pleased about. Then there was a whole slew of flattering covers and a industry-wide call for Hillary to step down, then there was the New Yorker cover (which is a sell-out, by the way), and the Lizza article, and the Nagourney article (more on this in a second) after which the better part of the American press corps including all three network anchors picked up to follow Obama on his first international tour as a candidate; a trip which culminated in yesterday’s ich bin ein Berlin speech. At the moment, and certainly according to John McCain, the press LOVES Obama. However, not so fast says the New Republic, who is arguing that the press’s love affair with Barack may actually be over. The problem? Obama is no longer putting out.

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