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	<title>SwamplandCategory: Barack Obama &#124; Swampland &#124; TIME.com</title>
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	<description>Political insight from the Beltway and beyond</description>
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		<title>SwamplandCategory: Barack Obama &#124; Swampland &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>President Obama&#8217;s Remarks on the Tornadoes in Oklahoma (Transcript)</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/21/president-obamas-remarks-on-the-tornadoes-in-oklahoma-transcript/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/21/president-obamas-remarks-on-the-tornadoes-in-oklahoma-transcript/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 21 May 2013 15:55:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>TIME Staff</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=96181</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Remarks provided by the White House Press Office THE PRESIDENT:  Good morning, everybody.  As we all know by now, a series of storms swept across the Plains yesterday, and one of the most destructive tornadoes in history sliced through the towns of Newcastle and Moore, Oklahoma.  In an instant, neighborhoods were destroyed.  Dozens of people lost their lives. Many more were injured.  And among the victims were young children, trying to take shelter in the safest place they knew &#8212; their school. So our prayers are with the people of Oklahoma today. Our gratitude is with the teachers who gave their all to shield their children; with the neighbors, first responders, and emergency personnel who raced to help as soon as the tornado passed; and with all of those who, as darkness fell, searched for survivors through the night. As a nation, our full focus right now is on the urgent work of rescue, and the hard work of recovery and rebuilding that lies ahead. Yesterday, I spoke with Governor Fallin to make it clear to Oklahomans that they would have all the resources that they need at their disposal.  Last night, I issued a disaster declaration to expedite those resources, to support the Governor’s team in the immediate response, and to offer direct assistance to folks who have suffered loss.  I also just spoke with Mayor Lewis of Moore, Oklahoma, to ensure that he’s getting everything that he needs. I&#8217;ve met with Secretary Napolitano this morning and my Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor, Lisa Monaco, to underscore that point that Oklahoma needs to get everything that it needs right away.  The FEMA Administrator, Craig Fugate, is on his way to Oklahoma as we speak.  FEMA staff was first deployed to Oklahoma’s Emergency Operations Center on Sunday, as the state already was facing down the first wave of deadly tornadoes.  Yesterday, FEMA activated Urban Search and Rescue Teams from Texas, Nebraska, and Tennessee to assist in the ongoing search and rescue efforts, and a mobile response unit to boost communications<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=96181&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Barack Obama</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/white-house/barack-obama/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/rtxzv45.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">U.S. President Obama speaks about the devastating tornadoes and severe weather impacting Oklahoma, in Washington</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">timeadmin</media:title>
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		<title>Obama: Nation Will Stand With Oklahoma &#8220;As Long As It Takes&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/21/obama-nation-will-stand-with-oklahoma-as-long-as-it-takes/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/21/obama-nation-will-stand-with-oklahoma-as-long-as-it-takes/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 21 May 2013 14:28:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Zeke J Miller</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=96165</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A day after a tornado turned an Oklahoma City suburb into a war zone and killing at least two dozen, President Barack Obama said Tuesday that the nation&#8217;s prayers are with the people of Moore, Okla. and that the federal government will help residents recover. “As a nation, our full focus is on the urgent work of rescue and the hard work of recovery and rebuilding that lies ahead,&#8221; Obama said in brief remarks from the State Dining Room in the White House. Addressing the people of the 55,000 residents of Moore, Obama acknowledged their loss, but said they are not alone. &#8220;You face a long road ahead, but you will not travel it alone. Your country will travel it with you,&#8221; he said, flanked by Vice President Joe Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. Obama noted that the town of Joplin, Mo., where a 2011 tornado killed 158, has deployed a team of first responders to help in Moore, saying that spirit of assistance will continue in the days, weeks, and months ahead. (PHOTOS: Tornado Flattens Suburb Outside Oklahoma City, Kills Dozens) Obama announced that already federal aid is flowing into the storm-ravaged area in the form of FEMA urban rescue teams and damage assessment teams. Late Monday, Obama issued a major disaster deceleration for Oklahoma, paving the way for additional help and federal disaster relief funding. Obama spoke with Gov. Mary Fallin and Moore Mayor Glen Lewis to make sure they have everything they need to carry out rescue and relief operations. &#8220;Our prayers are with the people of Oklahoma today,&#8221;  Obama concluded, &#8221;and we&#8217;ll back up those prayers with deeds for as long as it takes.&#8221;  <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=96165&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Barack Obama</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/white-house/barack-obama/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/addd1bf8bd3249c79b5d3bb391249a97-0.jpeg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">An aerial view shows Tower Plazas Elementary school as rescue workers make their way through the structure, in Moore, Okla., on May 21, 2013.</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">zekemiller</media:title>
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		<title>President Obama to Speak on Oklahoma Disaster</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/21/president-obama-to-speak-on-oklahoma-disaster/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/21/president-obama-to-speak-on-oklahoma-disaster/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 21 May 2013 11:13:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Associated Press</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=96146</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[(WASHINGTON) &#8212; President Barack Obama will be meeting with his disaster response team, including Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, on Tuesday before delivering a statement on the devastating tornado that tore through the Oklahoma City suburbs Monday. Obama has declared a major disaster in Oklahoma, ordering federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts. The president also spoke Monday with Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin and Rep. Tom Cole, whose home is in the heavily damaged town of Moore. The White House says Obama told Cole that the American people stand behind Oklahomans as they recover from the disaster. Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Craig Fugate is heading to Oklahoma on Tuesday to ensure that federal resources are being properly deployed. PHOTOS: 51 Dead, Including at Least 20 Children: Photos of the Destruction<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=96146&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/21/president-obama-to-speak-on-oklahoma-disaster/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Barack Obama</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/white-house/barack-obama/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">timeassociatedpress</media:title>
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		<title>Obama Discusses Race, Fatherhood, Responsibility at Morehouse College (Transcript Included)</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/19/obama-discusses-race-responsibility-at-morehouse-college/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/19/obama-discusses-race-responsibility-at-morehouse-college/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 19 May 2013 17:05:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Zeke J Miller</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=95998</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[President Barack Obama told graduates of Morehouse College on Sunday that they have a responsibility as black men to set an example in improving their communities and the world. Speaking at the historically black college that produced greats like Martin Luther King Jr., Obama paid tribute to the fact that &#8220;laws, hearts and minds have been changed to the point where someone who looks like you can serve as President of the United States.” As the nation&#8217;s first black President, Obama publicly reflected on his own upbringing without a father and the challenges facing young black men. He spoke movingly of his struggles to discuss the responsibility of men as fathers and husbands, and the need for the young graduates to be role models. &#8220;We know that too many young men in our community continue to make bad choices,&#8221; the President said. &#8220;Growing up, I made quite a few myself. Sometimes I wrote off my own failings as just another example of the world trying to keep a black man down. I had a tendency sometimes to make excuses for me not doing the right thing.&#8221; &#8220;But one of the things that all of you have learned over the last four years is there&#8217;s no longer any room for excuses,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I understand there&#8217;s a common fraternity creed here at Morehouse: excuses are tools of the incompetent, used to build bridges to nowhere and monuments of nothingness. Well, we&#8217;ve got no time for excuses — not because the bitter legacies of slavery and segregation have vanished entirely; they haven&#8217;t.&#8221; &#8220;Not because racism and discrimination no longer exist; we know those are still out there,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It&#8217;s just that in today&#8217;s hyperconnected, hypercompetitive world, with millions of young people from China and India and Brazil, many of whom started with a whole lot less than all of you did, all of them entering the global workforce alongside you, nobody is going to give you anything that you haven&#8217;t earned. And moreover you have to remember that whatever you&#8217;ve gone through pales in<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=95998&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Barack Obama</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/white-house/barack-obama/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/morehouse.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Graduates of the class of 2013 react to their commencement address given by U.S. President Obama during a spring downpour at Morehouse College in Atlanta</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/b456c5209a547a000e0b869f3333aa77?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">zekemiller</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/obama2.jpg?w=753" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">U.S. President Obama poses with honorary Doctor of Laws degree he received from Chairman of Board of Trustees Davidson and College President Wilson at graduation ceremony of class of 2013 at Morehouse College in Atlanta</media:title>
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		<title>Obama Talks Jobs, Says Politics Misplace Focus</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/18/obama-talks-jobs-says-politics-misplace-focus/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/18/obama-talks-jobs-says-politics-misplace-focus/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 18 May 2013 13:38:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Associated Press</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=95990</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[(WASHINGTON) — President Barack Obama is calling attention to his economic proposals and efforts to expand the middle class. In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama says the U.S. should focus on attracting good jobs, educating workers and ensuring workers get paid a decent living. Obama has been pushing those priorities in recent visits to Baltimore and Austin, Texas. Obama says he&#8217;ll make the case in more U.S. cities soon. Obama says politics in Washington often aren&#8217;t focused on what Americans care about. He&#8217;s alluding to a series of political troubles that dogged him last week and overshadowed his agenda. In the Republican address, Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland says red tape in Obama&#8217;s health care law will drive up costs. He says the embattled IRS needs less power, not more. MORE: Obama Pushes Out IRS Commissioner<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=95990&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Barack Obama</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/white-house/barack-obama/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">timeassociatedpress</media:title>
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		<title>Despite President Obama&#8217;s Optimism, No Quick Fix Likely For IRS</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/17/despite-president-obamas-optimism-no-quick-fix-likely-for-irs/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/17/despite-president-obamas-optimism-no-quick-fix-likely-for-irs/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2013 09:30:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Scherer</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=95940</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As he announced the forced resignation of his top tax collector Wednesday, President Obama seemed to find a silver lining on the scandal engulfing the Internal Revenue Service. “The good news,” he said, “is it’s fixable.” A day later, the White House seemed determined to continue radiating the same confidence. At midday, Obama appeared again before his press corps, saying variations of the word “fix” five more times in relation to the IRS mess. Hours later, the Treasury Department announced a replacement for the top job at the IRS, Danny Werfel, a well-respected technocrat who has worked for both Republican and Democratic administrations. And another senior IRS official, Joseph Grant, who recently oversaw the troubled unit that mishandled nonprofit applications, had announced his retirement. But the prospect of a clean or quick resolution to the scandal seemed no closer, especially with a drip of more revelations expected in the coming days and weeks, and the uncertainty of a criminal investigation looming. On Capitol Hill, Republicans made clear that they will not be rushed in their investigations, and that they intended to attempt to broaden the scandal in an effort to hamper the roll out of the 2010 healthcare reform law, called Obamacare, which will require substantive new oversight by the IRS. ABC News named Sarah Hall Ingram, a bureaucrat now charged with implementing Obamacare enforcement at the IRS, as the person in charge of the office that oversaw tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012, during the worst documented abuses. “Now more than ever, we need to prevent the IRS from having any role in Americans’ health care,” said Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a former chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, in a statement. “After the events of last week, I cannot support giving the IRS any more responsibility or taxpayer dollars to implement a broken law.” He introduced a bill that would bar the IRS from enforcing any part of the new health insurance law, a symbolic measure that has little hope of passage. On the other side of<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=95940&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Barack Obama</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/white-house/barack-obama/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/obama1.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">U.S. President Barack Obama delivers a statement about the Internal Revenue Service in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on May 15, 2013.</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">michaelscherer</media:title>
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		<title>Obama: IRS Acting Commissioner Has Resigned</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/15/obama-irs-acting-commissioner-has-resigned/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/15/obama-irs-acting-commissioner-has-resigned/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 15 May 2013 22:34:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Associated Press</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=95760</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[(WASHINGTON) — President Barack Obama on Wednesday announced the resignation of the top official at the Internal Revenue Service following a controversy over the agency&#8217;s targeting of conservative political groups. Obama, who has been criticized for appearing passive in his response to the matter, declared, &#8220;I am angry about it&#8221; and said the American people had a right to be angry as well. Before announcing the resignation of Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller, Obama met at the White House with top officials from the Treasury Department, which oversees the IRS. The White House scheduled the meeting a day after the release of an inspector general report that showed ineffective management at the IRS allowed agents to improperly target tea party groups for more than 18 months. Miller became acting commissioner in November, after Commissioner Douglas Shulman completed his five-year term. Shulman had been appointed by President George W. Bush. The president has proceeded cautiously since the IRS controversy was made public Friday. While he initially said the accusations were &#8220;outrageous,&#8221; he also said he wanted to wait until the inspector general&#8217;s report was released before addressing what should be done to hold accountable those responsible. The report lays much of the blame on IRS supervisors in Washington who oversaw a group of specialists in Cincinnati who screened applications for tax exempt status. It does not indicate that Washington initiated the targeting of conservative groups, but it does say a top supervisor in Washington did not adequately supervise agents in the field even after she learned the agents were acting improperly. The Justice Department is also investigating the IRS targeting, as are three congressional committees. MORE: The Real IRS Scandal<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=95760&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Barack Obama</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/white-house/barack-obama/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">timeassociatedpress</media:title>
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		<title>Obama to Speak on IRS Matter</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/15/obama-to-speak-on-irs-matter/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/15/obama-to-speak-on-irs-matter/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 15 May 2013 21:48:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>AP / Jim Kuhnhenn</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=95756</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[(WASHINGTON) — President Barack Obama is scheduled to deliver a statement at 6 p.m. regarding the Internal Revenue Service&#8217;s targeting of conservative groups for special review. The president will make his remarks after discussing the IRS matter with Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and his top deputy, Neil Wolin. Obama has been under pressure to act in the aftermath of acknowledgement by top IRS officials that conservative groups were improperly singled out. An investigation by a Treasury inspector general found that the IRS used inappropriate criteria that identified for review tea party and other conservative groups that were seeking tax exempt status. MORE: Inspector General Blasts IRS For Conservative Targeting &#160;<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=95756&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Barack Obama</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/white-house/barack-obama/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">timeassociatedpress</media:title>
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		<title>The Obama Administration Looks to Latin America After Years of Neglect</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2013/05/13/has-washington-finally-discovered-latin-america/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2013/05/13/has-washington-finally-discovered-latin-america/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 14 May 2013 21:38:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tim Padgett</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=95637</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=95637&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Barack Obama</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/white-house/barack-obama/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/20130503_zaf_e26_232.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">World News - May 3, 2013</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">drogers1271</media:title>
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		<title>Obama Says He Won&#8217;t Tolerate Political Bias at IRS</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/13/obama-targeting-by-irs-is-outrageous/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/13/obama-targeting-by-irs-is-outrageous/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 16:15:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Associated Press</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[irs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[President Obama]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=95466</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[(WASHINGTON) — President Barack Obama said Monday he will not tolerate political bias at the Internal Revenue Service and promised to get to the bottom of the agency&#8217;s admitted targeting of conservative groups. Obama, in his first comments on the revelations of political targeting at the tax agency, said he learned about them from the initial news reports Friday. With a growing list of congressional panels saying they will investigate the matter, Obama said people are properly concerned. &#8220;You don&#8217;t want the IRS ever being perceived to be biased and anything less than neutral in terms of how they operate,&#8221; Obama said at a news conference Friday with British Prime Minister David Cameron at the White House. He called the revelations of targeting &#8220;outrageous.&#8221; &#8220;I&#8217;ve got no patience with it. I will not tolerate it, and we will make sure that we find out exactly what happened on this,&#8221; the president added. (MORE: Joe Klein: Obama&#8217;s IRS Mess) On Friday, the IRS apologized for scrutinizing the tax-exempt status of groups with conservative titles such as &#8220;Tea Party&#8221; or &#8220;Patriot&#8221; in their applications. Republicans have challenged the tax agency&#8217;s claim that the practice was initiated by low-level workers. &#8220;I just don&#8217;t buy that this was a couple of rogue IRS employees,&#8221; said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. &#8220;After all, groups with &#8216;progressive&#8217; in their names were not targeted similarly.&#8221; If it were just a small number of employees, she said, &#8220;then you would think that the high-level IRS supervisors would have rushed to make this public, fired the employees involved, apologized to the American people and informed Congress. None of that happened in a timely way.&#8221; The IRS said Friday that it was sorry for what it called the &#8220;inappropriate&#8221; targeting of the conservative groups during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status. The agency said no high-level officials were aware. But according to a draft of a watchdog&#8217;s report obtained Saturday by The Associated Press that seemingly contradicts public statements by the IRS commissioner, senior IRS officials<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=95466&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Barack Obama</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/white-house/barack-obama/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">timeassociatedpress</media:title>
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		<title>Not Nixon, Exactly.</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/13/not-nixon-exactly/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/13/not-nixon-exactly/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 14:44:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Joe Klein</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[In the Arena]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=95448</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I may have swung a bit too hard, putting Barack Obama&#8217;s Administration in the same league as Franklin Roosevelt&#8217;s and Richard Nixon&#8217;s when it comes to the Internal Revenue Service. The situation remains a major embarrassment, though. The most important difference is that the Roosevelt and Nixon IRS depredations came from the White House. This mess seems to have percolated from the middle&#8211;the IRS&#8217;s Cincinnati office (a major facility, by the way)&#8211;up to the upper-middle. It was an overreaction, to be sure&#8211;but, as Ezra Klein explains, it was a response to a very real problem: how do you draw the line between political advocacy, which is a taxable activity, and policy advocacy, which is not, if the advocate organizes itself as a 501(c)4? Here&#8217;s Ezra: Let’s try to keep two things in mind simultaneously: The IRS does need some kind of test that helps them weed out political organizations attempting to register as tax-exempt 501(c)4 social welfare groups. But that test has to be studiously, unquestionably neutral. The story thus far seems both chilling and cheering. Employees at the agency’s Cincinnati branch did employ a test that, in effect, targeted tea party groups. Whether they meant it to be discriminatory or they simply created one that was discriminatory is in contention, but ultimately immaterial. The IRS, more so than almost any other agency, must act in ways above reproach. But when the Cincinnati group explained their test to IRS exempt organizations division chief Lois G. Lerner, she objected to it and it was changed. A few months later, the IRS would release new guidance that suggested scrutinizing &#8220;political action type organizations involved in limiting/expanding Government, educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, social economic reform movement,&#8221; and after that, &#8220;organizations with indicators of significant amounts of political campaign intervention (raising questions as to exempt purpose and/or excess private benefit.)&#8221; The context for all this is that after Citizens United and some related decisions, the number of groups registering as 501(c)4s doubled. Because the timing of that doubling coincided with<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=95448&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Barack Obama</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/white-house/barack-obama/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">jklein1271</media:title>
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		<title>Obama to Welcome U.K. PM Cameron to White House</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/13/obama-to-welcome-u-k-pm-cameron-to-white-house/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/13/obama-to-welcome-u-k-pm-cameron-to-white-house/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 11:41:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>AP / DARLENE SUPERVILLE</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=95441</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[(WASHINGTON) &#8212; President Barack Obama is welcoming British Prime Minister David Cameron to the White House for talks on subjects ranging from Syria&#8217;s civil war to preparations for a coming summit of the world&#8217;s leading industrial nations in Northern Ireland. Iran, the Mideast peace process, counterterrorism and trade are other likely topics for Monday&#8217;s meeting. (VIDEO: TIME Interviews David Cameron) The U.S. and Russia agreed last week to arrange an international conference to bring representatives of the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad and the opposition to the negotiating table. There is no date yet, but such talks would focus on setting up a transitional government. Cameron said after a meeting last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin that they both agreed that &#8220;we must help drive this process.&#8221; The British leader also said Britain, the U.S., Russia and other countries should take part in setting up a transitional government. Separately last week, the Obama administration announced it will provide $100 million in new aid to Syria, strictly for humanitarian relief for Syrian refugees and not linked to any possible decision on arming the rebels who seek to topple Assad from power. Total U.S. humanitarian assistance in the war, now in its third year, will surpass $500 million. The Obama administration has said it is considering providing weapons to vetted units in the armed opposition, among other military options, following the recent revelation of a U.S. intelligence assessment that suggested chemical weapons use by the Assad regime. Obama has said use of such weapons would cross a &#8220;red line.&#8221; The president and Cameron also will review priorities for the Group of Eight summit. Cameron will preside over the June 17-18 gathering in Lough Erne, Northern Ireland. The White House said Friday that Obama would stop in Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, before joining the summit. The visit will be Obama&#8217;s first to Northern Ireland.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=95441&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Barack Obama</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/white-house/barack-obama/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/sl_camerongallery8_0315.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Oval Office</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">timeassociatedpress</media:title>
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		<title>Obama Calls on Congress to Help More Homeowners</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/11/obama-calls-on-congress-to-help-more-homeowners/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/11/obama-calls-on-congress-to-help-more-homeowners/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 11 May 2013 18:20:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>AP / Darlene Superville</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=95408</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[(WASHINGTON) — President Barack Obama says Congress must give more homeowners the chance to refinance their mortgages to save money. Obama says more than 2 million people are saving about $3,000 a year after restructuring their loans under his administration but that more deserve the same chance. In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama also calls on the Senate to confirm &#8220;without delay&#8221; his choice of Democratic Rep. Mel Watt to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees government-controlled mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Obama says the North Carolina congressman helped enact rules to protect consumers from dishonest lenders. In the Republican address, Alabama Rep. Martha Roby discusses legislation passed by the GOP-controlled House to give private-sector workers the right to trade overtime pay for additional time off. MORE: On Jobs Tour In Texas, Obama Offers Little New Hope For Jobs Progress In Washington<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=95408&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Barack Obama</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/white-house/barack-obama/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">timeassociatedpress</media:title>
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		<title>IRS Mess</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/11/irs-mess/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/11/irs-mess/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 11 May 2013 16:17:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Joe Klein</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[In the Arena]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=95404</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Internal Revenue Service&#8217;s targeting of conservative groups is outrageous. Those who did this should be fired immediately. That&#8217;s obvious. It continues a slovenly week for Barack Obama. The President has been very proud of the absence of scandal in his Administration, and rightly so. The inability of his opponents to find any significant corruption in the historic $800 billion stimulus package was a real achievement, given the speed of the payout. None of his top aides have been caught up in taking bribes while in office — although their race through the revolving door into lucrative private-sector positions is well beyond nauseating. As in most presidencies, there have been an awful lot of political hacks populating the midreaches of this Administration. In the Obama instance, these have shown an anachronistic, pre-Clinton liberal bias when it comes to the rules and regulations governing many of our safety-net programs, like Social Security disability. And now they have violated one of the more sacred rules of our democracy: you do not use the tax code to punish your opponents. Lois G. Lerner, the IRS official who oversees tax-exempt groups, said the &#8216;absolutely inappropriate&#8217; actions by &#8216;frontline people&#8217; were not driven by partisan motives. Does anyone actually believe this? Yet again, we have an example of Democrats simply not managing the government properly and with discipline. This is just poisonous at a time of skepticism about the efficacy of government. And the President should know this: the absence of scandal is not the presence of competence. His unwillingness to concentrate — and I mean concentrate obsessively — on making sure that government is managed efficiently will be part of his legacy. Previous Presidents, including great ones like Roosevelt, have used the IRS against their enemies. But I don&#8217;t think Obama ever wanted to be on the same page as Richard Nixon. In this specific case, he now is. (Read more from Joe Klein on the IRS scandal.)<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=95404&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Barack Obama</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/white-house/barack-obama/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/wp15cc51c9420347c59c6d7da4bbba98f8-0.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">President Barack Obama boards Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base in Prince George&#039;s County, Md., on May 9, 2013.</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">jklein1271</media:title>
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		<title>On Jobs Tour In Texas, Obama Offers Little New Hope For Jobs Progress In Washington</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/10/on-jobs-tour-in-texas-obama-offers-little-new-hope-for-jobs-progress-in-washington/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/10/on-jobs-tour-in-texas-obama-offers-little-new-hope-for-jobs-progress-in-washington/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 10 May 2013 09:45:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Zeke J Miller / Austin, Texas</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=95314</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[President Barack Obama’s campaign-style, jobs-focused swing through the Texas technology core on Thursday was notable mainly for what it left out—any plan for putting his proposals into law. In less than six hours on the ground in the Austin area, Obama spoke with a high school robotics team, then the full high school. He lunched with a roundtable of residents over barbecue, and followed that with a three-part tour and listening session at Capital Factory, a downtown Austin tech start-up incubator and co-working space. He took a factory tour of a company that makes industrial equipment for the technology sector, and delivered a speech to employees at the plant. “I’ve sent Congress proposals on a wide range of ideas,” Obama told the students at Manor New Technology High School. “But some of them have been blocked in Congress for, frankly, political reasons. I’m going to keep on trying.” Ostensibly Obama flew to a Democratic enclave in the deep-red state to pitch his previously announced plan for 15 nationwide manufacturing innovation institutes and to highlight a new open-data initiative to make government releases “machine-readable.” But his remarks touched on everything from universal pre-kindergarten to more resources for manufacturing. He was mostly silent on the Washington stalemate he left behind before boarding Air Force One. The cable networks largely ignored the two speeches, which focused on a litany of previously announced proposals. There is no new active jobs program in Washington. And the evidence is clear that since the last election the actions of the U.S. Congress have on net hurt job creation in the short term. The specter of sequestration likely slowed growth at the start of the year, as did the $85 billion in spending cuts that is expected to shave about a half point of gross domestic product growth this year. The tax increases that started 2013 took spending money out of the economy, reducing growth as well. Obama has some programs in the works—an infrastructure bank and efforts to speed refinances among them—but there has been no visible<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=95314&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Barack Obama</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/white-house/barack-obama/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/obama-texas-jobs-speech.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/obama-texas-jobs-speech.jpg?w=200" />
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			<media:title type="html">U.S. President Barack Obama speaks on the economy and job creation after touring Manor New Technology High School in Manor, Texas, on May 9, 2013.</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/b456c5209a547a000e0b869f3333aa77?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">zekemiller</media:title>
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		<title>Why Barack Obama Plays Golf</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/06/why-barack-obama-and-bob-corker-play-golf/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/06/why-barack-obama-and-bob-corker-play-golf/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 06 May 2013 20:33:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alex Rogers</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=94883</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It was cool and overcast but not raining as the President arrived at the golf course at Joint Base Andrews this afternoon with Sens. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), Bob Corker, (R-Tenn.), and Mark Udall, (D-Colo.). “With the major fiscal issues our country is facing, not to mention foreign relations issues around the world, anytime you can get the president’s ear for a few hours, I think that’s a good thing,” Sen. Corker said in a statement Monday. But it&#8217;s Obama who&#8217;s looking to sway the Senators on the course today, not the other way around. In March the President tried to charm both Corker and Chambliss over dinner; in April they voted against an amendment Obama supported that would have expanded gun background checks to include Internet sales and gun shows. Now the President is searching for allies amongst his old colleagues to help move an immigration reform bill, a grand bargain budget deal, and maybe even revisit the gun control package later this year. Without GOP support, he will be the “lame duck” political commentators have started naming him after only 126 days into his second term. He has his work cut out for him. Besides the gun control debate, Corker, a member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, said that Obama’s new appointment to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.), “Gives new meaning to the adage that the fox is guarding the hen house.” Corker has also recently hit the President on the alleged massive cash payments to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and has asked the President to consult Congress before extending U.S. involvement in Syria. Chambliss, who is retiring in 2014, urged the President to deem Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bomber, an “enemy combatant,” which the White House declined to do, and voted against Obama’s nominee for CIA director John Brennan. Chambliss, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, also has questioned the President on Syria. Obama&#8217;s effort isn&#8217;t hopeless, though. Corker has said that he is &#8220;optimistic&#8221; about the possibility of passing<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=94883&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Barack Obama</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/white-house/barack-obama/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/rtxzcme-1.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">U.S. President Barack Obama plays golf with Senators Saxby Chambliss and Senator Bob Corker at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">drogers1271</media:title>
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		<title>Obama to Ohio State Graduates: Participate, Persevere (Transcript)</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/05/obama-to-ohio-state-graduates-participate-persevere-transcript/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/05/obama-to-ohio-state-graduates-participate-persevere-transcript/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 05 May 2013 19:29:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>TIME STAFF</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=94812</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Remarks Provided by the White House Press Office THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Hello, Buckeyes!  O-H! AUDIENCE:  I-O! THE PRESIDENT:  O-H! AUDIENCE:  I-O! THE PRESIDENT:  O-H! AUDIENCE:  I-O! THE PRESIDENT:  Well, thank you so much.  Everybody, please be seated.  Thank you, Dr. Gee, for the wonderful introduction.  I suspect the good President may have edited out some other words that were used to describe me.  (Laughter.)  I appreciate that.  But I&#8217;m going to let Michelle know of all the good comments. To the Board of Trustees; Congresswoman Beatty; Mayor Coleman; and all of you who make up The Ohio State University for allowing me to join you &#8212; it is an incredible honor. And most of all, congratulations, Class of 2013!  (Applause.)  And of course, congratulations to all the parents, and family, and friends and faculty here in the Horseshoe &#8212; this is your day as well.  (Applause.)  I&#8217;ve been told to ask everybody, though, please be careful with the turf.  Coach Meyer has big plans for this fall.  (Laughter.) I very much appreciate the President’s introduction.  I will not be singing today.  (Laughter.) AUDIENCE:  Aww &#8212; (laughter.) THE PRESIDENT:  It is true that I did speak at that certain university up north a few years ago.  But, to be fair, you did let President Ford speak here once &#8212; and he played football for Michigan!  (Laughter.)  So everybody can get some redemption. In my defense, this is my fifth visit to campus in the past year or so.  (Applause.)  One time, I stopped at Sloppy’s to grab some lunch.  Many of you &#8212; Sloopy’s &#8212; I know.  (Laughter.)  It’s Sunday and I&#8217;m coming off a foreign trip.  (Laughter.)  Anyway, so I&#8217;m at Sloopy’s and many of you were still eating breakfast.  At 11:30 a.m.  (Laughter.)  On a Tuesday.  (Laughter.)  So, to the Class of 2013, I will offer my first piece of advice:  Enjoy it while you can.  (Laughter.)  Soon, you will not get to wake up and have breakfast at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday.  (Laughter.)  And once you<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=94812&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Barack Obama</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/white-house/barack-obama/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/pol-obama-budget-130411.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">President Barack Obama makes his way to the Rose Garden to speak on the budget on April 10,2013 at the White House in Washington.</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">zekemiller</media:title>
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		<title>Obama Wraps Up Latin Trip with an Eye Back Home</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/04/obama-wraps-up-latin-trip-with-an-eye-back-home/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/04/obama-wraps-up-latin-trip-with-an-eye-back-home/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 04 May 2013 15:49:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>AP / Jim Kuhnhenn</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=94805</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[(SAN JOSE, Costa Rica) — President Barack Obama, concluding a three-day visit to Mexico and Costa Rica, is cheering Mexican economic advances and pressing other Central American leaders to deal with poverty and security while reaching out to a politically powerful Latino audience back home. Boosted by reassuring jobs numbers, Obama is calling for greater trade and economic cooperation with the U.S.&#8217;s southern neighbors, arguing that economic prosperity is the best antidote to drug and gang violence and, by extension, to the illegal immigration that the U.S. is seeking to control. In his radio and Internet address Saturday, Obama also made the case that deepening economic ties with the Americas means more jobs in the United States. &#8220;One of the best ways to grow our economy is to sell more goods and services made in America to the rest of the world,&#8221; he said. &#8220;That includes our neighbors to the south.&#8221; During the trip Obama has tried to modulate the exercise of U.S. influence. He has refused to insert himself in Mexico&#8217;s strategy for confronting narcotrafficking, even if it means more limited access by U.S. security officials to Mexican law enforcement. In Costa Rica, he urged Central American leaders to integrate their economies, reduce their high energy costs and confront the violence in the region. &#8220;As governments, our job is to make sure that we&#8217;re doing everything we can to provide security and opportunity and ladders for success and prosperity for our people,&#8221; he told the regional leaders at the start of a dinner Friday. &#8220;Economic growth that creates jobs, security for people so that they can be safe in their own neighborhoods, and development that allows people to live in dignity.&#8221; On Saturday, Obama was scheduled to speak and takes questions at a meeting at a forum in San Jose on economic growth and development. In addition to its economic aims, the trip served as a nod by Obama to the vast Hispanic population in the United States, which heavily supported him in the 2012 election and which retains<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=94805&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Barack Obama</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/white-house/barack-obama/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">timeassociatedpress</media:title>
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		<title>Barack Obama&#8217;s White House Press Conference April 30, 2013 (Transcript)</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/04/30/barack-obamas-white-house-press-conference-april-30-2013-transcript/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/04/30/barack-obamas-white-house-press-conference-april-30-2013-transcript/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 30 Apr 2013 19:49:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>TIME Staff</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=94515</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Remarks Provided by the White House Press Office THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon &#8212; or good morning, everybody. I am here to answer questions in honor of Ed Henry, as he wraps up his tenure as president of the White House Correspondents Association. Ed, because of that, you get the first question. Congratulations. Q Thank you, sir, I really appreciate that. And I hope we can go back to business and being mad at each other a little bit. (Laughter.) THE PRESIDENT: I&#8217;m not mad at you. Q Okay, good. Thank you, I appreciate that. THE PRESIDENT: You may be mad at me. (Laughter.) Q I&#8217;m not. A couple of questions on national security. On Syria, you said that the red line was not just about chemical weapons being used but being spread, and it was a game-changer &#8212; it seemed cut and dry. And now your administration seems to be suggesting that line is not clear. Do you risk U.S. credibility if you don&#8217;t take military action? And then on Benghazi, there are some survivors of that terror attack who say they want to come forward and testify &#8212; some in your State Department &#8212; and they say they’ve been blocked. Will you allow them to testify?  THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, on Syria, I think it’s important to understand that for several years now what we&#8217;ve been seeing is a slowly unfolding disaster for the Syrian people. And this is not a situation in which we&#8217;ve been simply bystanders to what’s been happening. My policy from the beginning has been that President Assad had lost credibility, that he attacked his own people, has killed his own people, unleashed a military against innocent civilians, and that the only way to bring stability and peace to Syria is going to be for Assad to step down and to move forward on a political transition. In pursuit of that strategy we&#8217;ve organized the international community. We are the largest humanitarian donor. We have worked to strengthen the opposition. We have provided<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=94515&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Barack Obama</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/white-house/barack-obama/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/03682650.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">U.S. President Barack Obama responds at a press conference in the Brady Press Breifing Room at the White House in Washington DC, on April 30, 2013.</media:title>
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		<title>President Obama At Press Conference: In Charge, But Not In Control</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/04/30/obama-press-conference-tktk/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/04/30/obama-press-conference-tktk/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 30 Apr 2013 17:53:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Zeke J Miller</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=94489</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[After the first 100 days of his second term, President Obama just can&#8217;t stop talking about the limits of his own power. At a press conference Tuesday morning, he said he wanted a smooth roll out for ObamaCare, but then added, &#8220;even if we do everything perfectly, there&#8217;ll still be, you know, glitches and bumps.” He reaffirmed his desire to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, but said &#8220;Congress determined that they would not let us close it.” He argued for an end to the sequester, only to add that he doesn&#8217;t have enough sway with Congress to make it happen. “You seem to suggest that somehow these folks over there have no responsibilities, and that my job is to somehow get them to behave,” he said to one reporter. “That&#8217;s their job!” In the White House briefing room, the President stayed largely on defense, ticking through the topics offered to him by reporters by explaining all that he could not do. Asked if he still had “the juice” to get the rest of his agenda through Congress, Obama smiled. “Maybe I should just pack up and go home, golly,” he responded from the White House podium before paraphrasing a quote from Mark Twain. &#8220;Rumors of my demise may be a little exaggerated at this point.” The first 100 days have not exactly gone according to plan: Gun control measures in which he invested his political capital died weeks ago, immigration reform faces a perilous path in the House of Representatives, budget and deficit reduction talks are mired in slow moving back room negotiations, and the sequester remains in place with a few targeted exceptions. As nearly every legislative priority has stalled, his approval rating has fallen below 50 percent. More often than not, he said the problem is Congress, with the GOP-controlled House and the filibuster-loving Senate Republicans, repeating a refrain that has long been a part of his public comments. “I think it comes to no surprise, not even to the American people, but even members of Congress themselves (find) that<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=94489&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Barack Obama</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/white-house/barack-obama/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/sl_obama_presser_043013.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">zekemiller</media:title>
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