Barack Obama had three weeks to plan his first move of the fall political season. When he announced it, that move appeared to be an aggressive one. And then it blew up in his face.
Midday on Wednesday, his aides announced that …
White House
The Rich History of Mitt Romney
The former Massachusetts governor and runner-up for the 2008 Republican presidential ticket is poised to seize his party’s 2012 nomination for the White House. TIME looks at his vibrant family life, business career and political trials.
Team Obama Finds Hope for 2012 in a History Lesson
Weeks before the debt-limit showdown came to a head, White House chief of staff Bill Daley held an unannounced retreat for his senior staff at Fort McNair, an Army base near the southern tip of the District of Columbia. The …
Stop Whining About What Obama Hasn’t Said. Look at What He’s Actually Done.
I know President Obama is supposed to be an awful disappointment to environmentalists because he doesn’t talk enough about climate change, just like he’s an awful disappointment to progressives because he doesn’t say enough nasty things about bankers. But people who actually care about what Presidents do, as opposed to how they …
Operation “Kill Romney”
Mitt Romney’s camp is up in arms today about a Politico report that team Obama plans to “kill Romney” with a barrage of personal attacks that make him out to be a weirdo who flunks the have-a-beer-with-him test. (“Disgraceful,” Romney’s campaign manager told Fox News this morning.) Never mind that the metaphor quoted above is exceedingly …
What Washington Can — and Won’t — Do About Market Fears
The 6% stock-market sell-off on Monday elicited hopes from Wall Street that Washington would do something to reassure the world that it is serious about its mounting debt and determined to reinvigorate the stalled recovery. …
Obama Sticks to the High Ground in Addressing a Downgraded Nation
The emotional highpoint of the disastrous debt-limit negotiations last month may have come in the Oval Office, after House Majority Leader Eric Cantor offered a proposal that left the President displeased. “Eric, don’t call …
Reid Endorses Debt Deal, but Partisan Reservations Remain
Updated, 6:35 p.m.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid ‘s office announced late Sunday that he had signed off on a deal to raise the debt ceiling and enact $2.4 trillion in budget cuts, pending agreement from his …
Keeping a Safe Distance, Obama Lays Out a Path Forward in Debt Talks
“Tweet,” said the President of the United States, Friday, speaking from the Diplomatic Reception Room. He was renewing his call, first issued in Monday’s primetime address, for Americans to contact their Senators and Congressman …
In the ArenaViewpoint
Republicans’ Debt Ceiling Charade Is Downright Dangerous
Let us not put too fine a point on it: Thursday’s House vote on Speaker John Boehner’s debt ceiling proposal is a joke. If it passes the House, Harry Reid has said it is dead on arrival in the Senate. If it somehow passes the …
Unable to Deal With Each Other, Obama and Boehner Invade Prime Time
“I won’t bore you,” President Obama said, as he broke into America’s prime time TV lineup on Monday night. This was ironic, because he went on to talk about Triple A credit ratings, Dwight Eisenhower and the debt limit. …
Obama and Boehner Close to a Debt Deal, Sources Say
President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner are close to a deal to cut the deficit and raise the federal borrowing limit, congressional sources say.
Though both sides deny a deal is imminent, congressional Democrats who …
Still Stalled: Debt Talks Splinter as Negotiators Go Their Own Ways
Washington’s debt-ceiling talks have entered a new and desperate phase. With two weeks to go until the U.S. begins to cut government services to avoid defaulting on its credit obligations, negotiators are further apart on a plan …