On that unusually balmy Chicago night a year ago, the candidate who campaigned on what he called the "fierce urgency of now" became the president-elect who needed time.
President Obama said he signed into law Friday a bill to provide up to 20 additional weeks of jobless benefits to unemployed Americans and extend the $8,000 tax credit for new homebuyers into the middle of next year.
President Obama deserves an A+ for his agenda for education reform. His decision to nominate Arne Duncan as U.S. education secretary was inspired, and his comments on holding the system accountable are honest, refreshing and insightful.
President Obama said Thursday that the federal government was guilty of mistreating Native Americans in the past and promised to forge a new relationship between the federal government and tribal leaders.
The Natural Edges Salon in Dallas, Texas, is a rowdy barbershop where black men gather to loudly talk smack, politics and sports.
The western United States, with its independent streak and growing population, is the terrain both political parties are hoping to mine for electoral gains in the coming years.
In a new book, the half brother of President Obama claims the father they shared was often drunk and physically abusive.
Victories in New Jersey and Virginia Tuesday provided a major shot in the arm for the Republican Party heading into the 2010 elections, but the Democratic losses of these two governorships should not be interpreted as a significant blow to President Obama.
The president didn't watch the election returns Tuesday night, according to his press secretary, Robert Gibbs. He watched his beloved Chicago Bulls instead.
As marchers gathered on the streets of Tehran on Wednesday, the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Embassy takeover, U.S. President Barack Obama nudged Iran on making choices for its future.
On that unusually balmy Chicago night a year ago, the candidate who campaigned on what he called the "fierce urgency of now" became the president-elect who needed time.
President Obama said he signed into law Friday a bill to provide up to 20 additional weeks of jobless benefits to unemployed Americans and extend the $8,000 tax credit for new homebuyers into the middle of next year.
President Obama deserves an A+ for his agenda for education reform. His decision to nominate Arne Duncan as U.S. education secretary was inspired, and his comments on holding the system accountable are honest, refreshing and insightful.
President Obama said Thursday that the federal government was guilty of mistreating Native Americans in the past and promised to forge a new relationship between the federal government and tribal leaders.
The Natural Edges Salon in Dallas, Texas, is a rowdy barbershop where black men gather to loudly talk smack, politics and sports.
The western United States, with its independent streak and growing population, is the terrain both political parties are hoping to mine for electoral gains in the coming years.
In a new book, the half brother of President Obama claims the father they shared was often drunk and physically abusive.
Victories in New Jersey and Virginia Tuesday provided a major shot in the arm for the Republican Party heading into the 2010 elections, but the Democratic losses of these two governorships should not be interpreted as a significant blow to President Obama.
The president didn't watch the election returns Tuesday night, according to his press secretary, Robert Gibbs. He watched his beloved Chicago Bulls instead.
As marchers gathered on the streets of Tehran on Wednesday, the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Embassy takeover, U.S. President Barack Obama nudged Iran on making choices for its future.
With a year to go before midterm congressional elections, a new national poll indicates that Americans are divided over whether they'd vote for the Democratic or Republican candidate in their district.
A top Taliban political leader delivered a message Friday to U.S. President Obama, calling his attempt to lure away Taliban fighters with money "an old weapon that has failed already."
One year after he won a historical presidential election, a slight majority of Americans approve of the job Barack Obama's doing in the White House.
President Barack Obama warned Monday that more job losses should be expected in the months ahead despite recent signs of economic recovery.
Now that we're officially (if barely) out of the Great Recession, it's time for our nation's elected officials to get down to serious business -- that of taking credit, assigning blame, and calling each other liars.
To: Interested parties From: John King, CNN chief national correspondent Re: The Monday Memo
The Obama administration invoked the state secrets privilege on Friday in a lawsuit pertaining to government eavesdropping intended to intercept terrorist communications, and one privacy advocacy group called the decision "incredibly disappointing."
President Obama announced Friday that he will lift a 22-year-old ban on entry into the United States for people infected with HIV/AIDS.
Picture U.S. President Barack Obama moving forward with his arm outstretched. Is he about to shake hands? Emphasize a remark? Or grab a putter?
President Obama said Thursday that watching the arrival of 18 flag-draped cases containing bodies of Americans killed in Afghanistan was a "sobering reminder" of U.S. sacrifice as he prepares to decide on sending more troops there.
The Obama administration has dramatically ratcheted up the American drone warfare program in Pakistan. Since President Obama took office, U.S. drone strikes have killed about a half-dozen militant leaders along with hundreds of other people, a quarter of whom were civilians.
Some Democrats had dubbed the possibility of a Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton pairing last year as a "dream ticket," though the notion that the two once-bitter primary rivals would team up always seemed far-fetched.
President Obama on Wednesday signed a law that makes it a federal crime to assault an individual because of his or her sexual orientation or gender identity.
Top Democrats put the issue of climate change back in the spotlight Tuesday, debating legislation to cut greenhouse gas emissions while announcing $3.4 billion in new clean energy funds.
As small business lending continues to dry up, the federal government is readying two new initiatives aimed at reversing the trend. To unveil them, President Obama traveled Wednesday to Maryland, where he visited a family-owned company that used a government-backed loan to fund a recent expansion.
President Obama is scheduled to meet with the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Friday as part of his reassessment of the military strategy in Afghanistan, a White House spokesman said Tuesday.
In the schoolyard of American politics, President Obama is the big, smart kid with all of the test answers who's being bullied by a bunch of Neanderthal ankle-biters from all sides.
No one can accuse President Barack Obama of cozying up to corporate America.
Nearly a year after the presidential election, the excitement of Barack Obama's campaign has faded into the reality of an Obama White House.
President Obama has declared a national emergency to deal with the "rapid increase in illness" from the H1N1 influenza virus.
Even though President Obama is not on the ballot this November, he and the Democrats who control Congress have a lot on the line.
U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Saturday discussed Iran's request for nuclear fuel for a research reactor and other security issues, the White House and the Kremlin said.
U.S. President Barack Obama says the war in Afghanistan isn't going to end up like Vietnam. A majority of Americans don't agree and don't want to get in any deeper, but even they don't like the alternative.
The Senate passed groundbreaking legislation Thursday that would make it a federal crime to assault an individual because of his or her sexual orientation or gender identity.
After dialing back his attacks on President Obama's foreign policy, former Vice President Dick Cheney says the administration has damaged U.S. ties with key allies, dangerously wavered in Afghanistan, undermined progress in Iraq and sabotaged the Bush administration's national security legacy.
A coalition of top musicians, including R.E.M. and Pearl Jam, want to know if their music was used by the U.S. military as part of controversial interrogation methods at the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
A security guard at New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport is under arrest for allegedly making threatening remarks about President Obama, a spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service said Wednesday.
President Obama said U.S.-Iraqi ties are entering a new period, a change marked by a decreased emphasis on security and an increased focus on the Iraqi economy.
As President Obama navigates his way through a series of issues as controversial as they are vital, he's getting a yellow flag from the American people.
President Obama is trying -- again -- to help small business get the cash they desperately need.
The United States is fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but there are thousands of troops caught-up in a very different battle and President Barack Obama is promising to win it.
Every president believes, upon election, that his term of service will be transformative. Some, like Barack Obama, actually campaign on the idea: that his brand of leadership and force of personality are so persuasive that they will change the way the world (aka Washington) does business. "We are the hope for the future," the candidate told a crowd before his huge wins on Super Tuesday last year. "[We are] the answer to the cynics who tell us our house must stand divided."
Some issues, it seems, still transcend America's increasingly bitter partisan divide.
There will be no cost-of-living increase for 57 million Social Security beneficiaries next year because consumer prices have fallen, the Social Security Administration announced on Thursday.
While President Obama takes plenty of heat over his plans to overhaul domestic policies, critics have also taken aim at his foreign policy approach, particularly as it relates to human rights around the globe.
During the 2008 presidential campaign, analysts noted that then-Sen. Barack Obama ran a relatively tight ship -- complete with a near lock-step message strategy and a loyal political team.
President Obama huddled with top military, foreign policy and national security advisers Wednesday as part of an ongoing review of U.S. strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The health care reform debate reached a new milestone Tuesday as a key congressional committee passed an $829 billion plan projected to extend coverage to an additional 29 million Americans.
Months after her father's prolonged campaign against President Obama's national security policies, Liz Cheney is spearheading a new organization aimed at organizing conservative opposition to the new administration's foreign policy approach.
When President Obama took office, Democrats stood beside him in unity, but just as soon as Congress got to work, divisions in the party emerged.
Is the largest one-time economic recovery effort in U.S. history creating jobs?
President Obama has been steadfast in his pledge that he won't raise taxes on those making less than $250,000. But that doesn't mean only high-income households will be subject to higher taxes.
Judy Shepard stood before a massive crowd at the Capitol on Sunday for a single, painful reason.
President Obama woke up today with the once-in-a-lifetime news that he won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. The joy and pride of this early morning news must have matched, if not surpassed, that other piece of news he received the evening of November 4, 2008, when he won the presidency of the United States.
To: Interested parties From: John King, CNN chief national correspondent Re: Monday Memo
President Barack Obama's top economic adviser said Monday the United States is on the path toward economic recovery, conditions in financial markets are steadier and there have been initial signs of stabilization in the housing market.
As thousands gathered Sunday in Washington for a march and rally focused on gay rights issues, lawmakers showed that some of the demonstrators' key goals face major obstacles ahead.
President Obama delivered a rousing speech Saturday night to the nation's largest gay rights group, praising the gay community for making strides in equal rights and pledging to deliver on major campaign promises that some say he's left on the back burner.
Gay rights advocates gathered near the Washington Monument on Saturday to express opposition to the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy just hours before President Obama was expected to speak to the Human Rights Campaign on issues affecting the gay community.
The decision to award President Obama the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to "strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples" appears to have left some in the United States divided over whether intangible achievements are worthy of such an esteemed award.
Yes he can win the Nobel Peace Prize. Even on the same day that President Obama met with his war council yet again to consider sending up to 40,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan.
President Obama said Friday that he was "surprised and deeply humbled" by the decision of the Norwegian Nobel Committee to award him the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.
In winning the Nobel Peace Prize, President Obama joins an elite group of U.S. presidents. He is the fourth to win the prize, the third to win it while in office and the first to receive it during his first year in office.
The President "has created a new international climate," the committee announces
The surprise decision to award U.S. President Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize elicited swift reaction Friday, with some hailing the choice and others expressing astonishment and skepticism.
President Obama on Friday made his strongest push yet for the creation of a new consumer protection agency, lashing out against those who have lobbied hard to stand in its way.
Cynics will say that Oslo was jealous that Copenhagen, Denmark, scored a visit from President Obama, and giving him a Nobel was the only way to get him to Norway.
When President Obama received word that he had won the Nobel Peace Prize, I'll bet he felt a little like I did the first time Diane Friday, the smartest, prettiest girl at the University of Texas, kissed me: I didn't fully feel like I deserved it, but I sure wasn't going to turn it down.
When President Barack Obama came to Cairo in June and made his address to the Muslim world, reaction in Egypt was wildly positive.
Maybe I'm just old-fashioned or just plain old, but when I awoke this morning to news that Barack Obama had been selected to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, something didn't feel right.
President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009, making him the 108th recipient of the prestigious award.
Loan servicing companies have put 500,000 troubled borrowers into trial mortgage modifications, the Obama administration said Thursday.
As tensions mount over the best way forward in Afghanistan, top aides say President Obama is adamant about coming up with a new plan before deciding on troop levels.
Since its debut on October 11, 1975, "Saturday Night Live" has spoofed, ridiculed and hammered presidents and other political figures without regard to political affiliation or any other sensitivities.
"Saturday Night Live" was formed in the crucible of the mid-1970s, when Watergate brought respect for politicians to all-time lows, the counterculture was taking over comedy, and many television viewers were seeking out something fresh and bold.
President Obama's national security team will begin discussing the number of troops needed in Afghanistan as early as Friday, according to a White House spokesman.
In my next life, I'd like to be an opposition party leader. What fun to go to work every day knowing you will always be right, largely because your ideas will remain untested.
We are witnessing a wingnut war break out in American politics, organized on the Internet and fought out in airwaves and in town halls, wingnuts firing their shots from the outer reaches and strafing the common sense center.
There's a standard scene in old movies about young hotheads behind the wheels of fast cars.
Amid nervousness about states' economies and a growing unemployment rate, the Obama administration is considering a series of measures aimed at putting many Americans back to work before the 2010 midterm elections, sources close to the process told CNN.
President Obama will meet with top congressional leaders from both parties Tuesday to discuss a war in Afghanistan that now appears to be at a potential tipping point.
President Obama kicked off a crucial week in the health care reform debate Monday by castigating political opponents for spreading distortions about his plan.
Deliberations over what to do in Afghanistan are taking place behind closed doors, but the divisions among some of President Obama's trusted advisers are starting to emerge.
During the past few months, two events have revealed a side of President Obama that we knew little about. First came his remark in July when he said at a press conference that the police who arrested Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates had acted "stupidly."
To: Interested parties From: John King, CNN chief national correspondent Re: Monday Memo
There is no immediate danger of Afghanistan falling to the Taliban, National Security Adviser James Jones said Sunday.
Most people think they pay too much to Uncle Sam, but for some people it simply is not true.
He just couldn't resist, could he? Sports is always so tempting for the politician: Starry-eyed fans, a docile crowd bursting with civic or national pride, all those softball questions from commentators happy just to get time with the big man ... what's not to like? Best of all, there's that wonderful finality about athletics, so seductive to one used to spending months on the slow, incremental grind of health care reform or the murk of Afghanistan. Sports seems so clear. There's a winner and a loser, a final score. It's kid stuff: Fun.
Michelle Obama gave an impassioned speech before the International Olympics Committee. President Obama traveled overseas -- in the middle of debates over health care and Afghanistan -- to make his personal pitch to bring the 2016 Olympics to his hometown.
How much will Barack Obama bet on Afghanistan?
When his stint in the White House is over, President Obama might just learn that Thomas Wolfe was right. You can't go home again.
Some Olympic experts believe Barack Obama's trip to Denmark to lobby for Chicago to host the 2016 Games could swing the decision in the U.S. city's favor.
President Obama is under increasing pressure to decide whether the United States will commit more troops and resources to the conflict in Afghanistan.
A meeting between President Obama and his national security team Wednesday could be a turning point in the war in Afghanistan, says someone who's been in similar meetings.
President Obama's former personal physician of 22 years, Dr. David Scheiner, has been very vocal on the issue of health insurance, particularly with his criticism of commercial insurers and how he feels they are meddling with the doctor-patient relationship.
President Obama, in an effort to stimulate the economy and support critical research, announced $5 billion in grants during a visit to the National Institutes of Health on Wednesday.
President Obama's decision to head to Copenhagen, Denmark, later this week to make a push to bring the 2016 Olympic Games to Chicago is not without political controversy.
President Obama faces a daunting fall to-do list against the backdrop of an American public losing enthusiasm on a variety of issues.
First lady Michelle Obama vowed Monday to "take no prisoners" as she and her husband launch an unprecedented bid for Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid.
"Obama! Obama! Obama!" a student confidently chants as he strides down the hallway of Sojourner Truth School in Harlem.
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