The contortionists impress, until they twist again. Then the crowd goes “Awww.” On Tuesday, I tried to explain all the knots both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney had tied as they tried to bend with the political winds on the …
White House
After Health Care Ruling, Team Obama Breathes a Sigh of Relief and Moves On
Barack Obama got to watch his own legacy crumble on live television, standing just outside the Oval Office where a flat screen broadcasts the feeds of four different cable news stations. “Supreme Ct. Kills Individual …
Obama vs. Romney on Immigration
From the “no core” division of the Obama campaign’s messaging operation comes this new Web video, essentially a compendium of news reporters carping about Mitt Romney’s evasiveness on immigration policy:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFi6Bn5RVg4]
Commerce Secretary John Bryson Resigns
Updated, 11:55 a.m.
Less than two weeks after taking medical leave in the wake of multiple car accidents, U.S. Commerce Secretary John Bryson has resigned. Bryson sent a letter informing President Obama of his resignation …
How Anxious Europeans Could Decide the U.S. Presidential Contest
The reactions of everyday Europeans to their predicament could determine the next U.S. President
Romney’s Dream Act Response Highlights Political Peril
Mitt Romney faced a Catch-22 in President Barack Obama’s high-profile roll-out of a regulatory version of the Dream Act last Friday. The presumptive GOP presidential candidate crafted a careful response, but not a particularly …
The Campaign of No Change
In the normal meta-narrative of a presidential campaign, when things are going badly, talk of change fills the air. The least extreme move is to change tactics. A more extreme move is to change strategy. The most extreme move is to change senior personnel. Not surprisingly, there is no sign of any such response from Team Obama at this point.
What Will Obama’s Leak Prosecutors Find?
When do the biggest scandals of a Presidency start to become public? Sometimes it’s when the President publicly commits himself to the truth: think of Bill Clinton’s request to Attorney General Janet Reno to appoint a special …
As Economic Concerns Mount, President Obama Says, ‘The Private Sector Is Doing Fine’
UPDATED
President Obama attempted Friday to improve his chops as an international leader working hard to protect American workers and save Europe from its political dysfunction. But his morning appearance in the White House briefing room is likely to be remembered, instead, for a single sound bite he surely wishes he could take back: …
Obama’s Expanding Clandestine War
On the eve of the 1991 Gulf War – as hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops streamed toward Iraq-occupied Kuwait – a U.S. Army officer remarked how much easier all this would be if someone – a Saddam Hussein turncoat, perhaps, or an American spy – put a bullet in the back of the Iraqi dictator’s head.
It didn’t happen, of …
Presidents in Profile: 20 Portraits from the White House Archives
From Clinton to Coolidge (plus a few historical favorites), TIME looks back at renditions of U.S. commanders-in-chief as George W. Bush joins their ranks on the White House walls.
Presidential Portraits: A Friendly Tradition with a Touch of Politics
There isn’t much of a relationship between Barack Obama and George W. Bush, and it is unlikely that Thursday’s unveiling of the former President’s portrait at the White House will alter that dynamic. But if recent history is any guide, personal animosities usually fade away when a sitting President hosts an unveiling for the man he …
C’Mon Man: Why Joe Biden Is Starring in Obama’s Reelection Campaign
“I love Joe,” Michelle Obama said Tuesday on The Daily Show. It had come to that point in the evening—which happens on just about every late night program, just about every night when politics comes up—when the comedian …