I have a new print column, which TIME subscribers can find here, about Barack Obama’s rousing and very effective State of the Union message. It was effective in three ways–as a policy response to the Republicans running for President, as a spiritual response to the Republican insinuations that he was not quite American and as a response …
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The Numbers and Politics of Barack Obama’s New Buffett Rule
The moral case President Obama has made to explain his “Buffet Rule” proposal is pretty simple. “Let me tell you something,” Obama told a crowd in Iowa on Wednesday, “asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his …
Obama’s State of the Union: An Optimistic President Talks to a Pessimistic Nation
Bristling with optimism and a can-do pep, President Obama asked for his pessimistic nation’s attention on Tuesday night to announce he would not stand the naysayers any longer. “Anyone who tells you that America is in decline …
Obama’s State of the Union in Pictures
Photographers capture the action inside the House chamber as President Obama delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress.
Obama Calls for ‘Fairness’ in His Address to a ‘Stronger’ Union
Couching his argument in terms of fairness, President Obama proposed a range of policy initiatives Tuesday night in his State of the Union address, asking Congress to shift a heavier tax burden onto the very wealthiest earners, …
Obama to Call for a New Economic ‘Blueprint’ in State of the Union Address
As he has three times before, President Obama tonight will address a joint session of Congress and millions of Americans at home, offering them a status update on the nation’s economic health, of its relationships abroad and, in some ways, a defense of his tenure to date.
Mitt Romney Releases Tax Returns, Paid Lower Taxes
Pop quiz. How are these three facts related?
–Warren Buffett’s secretary will sit nearby Michelle Obama at tonight’s State of The Union Address.
–Oscar nominations were announced at 5:30 a.m. PST Tuesday.
–Mitt …
The Most Important Number in Politics You’ve Never Heard Of
January 31 is set up to be a big day in the 2012 presidential presidential campaign. Not only will Florida voters go to the polls, possibly sealing the party’s presidential nomination, but most super PACs that have been …
Bill Daley and the Obama Cosa Nostra
Paul Starobin has a nice story in The New Republic on Bill Daley’s short and ultimately unhappy tenure as White House chief of staff. One of his key conclusions, after interviewing close Obama and Daley associates, is that Daley failed to break through the Obama inner circle that has been together since he was a Senator and presidential …
Inside Obama’s World: The President talks to TIME About the Changing Nature of American Power
In an exclusive interview with TIME’s Fareed Zakaria, President Obama opens up on Iran, Afghanistan, China and the challenges the U.S. faces in navigating a rapidly changing world. A full transcript of their conversation follows
President Obama: Romney Foreign Policy Attacks Will Wither in ‘Serious Debate’
President Obama dismissed Republican rival Mitt Romney’s critiques of his foreign policy credentials Wednesday in an exclusive TIME interview, saying the GOP front runner’s attacks are little more than primary posturing that …
Department Consolidation: Obama’s Latest Hopeless Good-Government Project
Somewhere in the bowels of the White House there is an aide whose sole job is to make a list of popular measures President Obama can propose that Congress is guaranteed not to pass this year. To judge by the number of Going-Nowhere Good-Governance suggestions Obama has made recently (remember the Jobs Act?) maybe there’s a whole room …
Romney’s Killer Instinct: How Mitt Is Winning and Why Obama Should Take Note
Mitt Romney has been running his presidential campaign based on a primal instinct: kill or be killed. And so after Rick Santorum fought Romney to a virtual tie in Iowa and arrived in New Hampshire trailed by media hordes, …