There are straightforward political reasons for President Barack Obama’s “recess” appointment of former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau: Obama’s base wants him to fight big banks and Republicans’ opposition to the agency; and picking a fight with the Hill, especially if it …
Barack Obama
The Obama Campaign’s Romney Glossary
It is fast becoming a 2012 campaign tradition: When Mitt Romney has a good news cycle or two, the Obama campaign calls together reporters covering the race to poke holes in his potential. On Wednesday, the day after Romney won the Iowa caucuses, the campaign responded with a conference call starring senior strategist David Axelrod and …
Mitt Romney’s Fierce General Election Strategy at Work in Iowa
Des Moines, Iowa
For Mitt Romney’s campaign, there’s no question whom this election is really about. “Let’s be real clear, Barack Obama came out to Iowa and he talked about hope and change,” New Jersey Gov. Chris …
Mitt Romney in Iowa: Winning, One Slogan at a Time
Clinton, Iowa
As Mitt Romney enters the final stretch in Iowa, poll numbers rising, crowds appearing, the inevitability beginning to sink in, his message is honed down, lean and mean, with declarative sentences that slice the …
Mitt Romney’s Rhetorical Evolution: From Listmaker to Storyteller
There are two broad categories of campaign messages: Stories and lists. The list message is the easiest to pull off, and usually the least effective. Put the candidate on a stump, or before a camera, and rattle it off: Less …
Why Rick Perry’s New Ads Are Wrong on Religion–And Obama
For a swaggering Texas cowboy, Rick Perry certainly does have a serious victim complex. In two different campaign ads released in Iowa this week, the Texas governor defends his faith from enemies named and unnamed. “I’m not ashamed to talk about my faith,” he says in the first spot. “Some liberals say that faith is a sign of weakness. …
Obama Trades a Likely Consumer Bureau Loss for a Political Win
Now that President Barack Obama has embraced his inner populist, he’s finding all kinds of weapons lying around to beat Republicans with. The payroll tax cut is getting a lot of attention. If his success with conservative appellate court judges is any indication, the constitutionality of ObamaCare will be another. The latest weapon …
Romney Attacks Obama on New Paid Media Front of GOP Race
In a barrage that marks a new phase of the presidential campaign, Mitt Romney has used his first paid media ad to assail Barack Obama, welcoming the President to New Hampshire today with a withering TV ad and open letter that …
As Election Approaches, Obama Sharpens Rhetoric on China
Barack Obama’s first trip through Asia was about avoiding direct confrontation and modeling his new, un-Bush approach to foreign policy: More committed to international cooperation and deliberation, less aggressive in its …
Exit Dennis Ross, the Last of the Obama Foreign Policy “Czars”
With his just-announced departure from the Obama White House next month, Dennis Ross will be the last of the “special envoys” installed by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in early 2009. Although Obama has enjoyed his share of important foreign policy successes–the deaths of Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki, the new Strategic Arms …
Q&A: Bill Clinton’s Vision for ‘A Smart Government and a Strong Economy’
Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, spoke with TIME’s Rick Stengel about his new book, Back to Work, and how to fix the economy. Excerpts from that conversation follow.
What Primary? Obama-Allied Super PAC Continues Singular Campaign Against Romney
Continuing the barrage of attacks against Mitt Romney, an outside group allied with President Obama on Wednesday unveiled a web ad depicting the former Massachusetts governor as a candidate who would put corporate and Tea Party interests ahead of the middle class.
Q&A: Hillary Clinton on Libya, China, the Middle East and Barack Obama
TIME Managing Editor Richard Stengel accompanied Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on her recent trip to Libya, Oman, Afghanistan and Pakistan. On Oct. 19, in the course of reporting for TIME’s cover story, which is now …