Four more years, but it’s the first one that really counts
WASHINGTON — The Constitution may promise President Barack Obama another four years in the White House, but political reality calls for a far shorter time frame: he has perhaps as little as a year to accomplish his big-ticket goals for a second term.
14 million votes already cast
With more than one in three votes likely to be cast before Election Day this year, Republicans are stepping up their efforts to chip away at what has been a Democratic advantage in early voting in key battlegrounds like Ohio and North Carolina.
Romney calls Obama’s post-convention gain ‘a sugar high’
President Barack Obama raised more money in August than Mitt Romney did, outpacing him for the first time since the spring and adding to a sense in both parties that Obama is entering the post-convention sprint to Election Day in a slightly stronger position, leaving Romney with less than two months to change that dynamic.
Mitt Romney goes after Rick Santorum on budget
CINCINNATI — Mitt Romney was barely six minutes into a campaign speech here Monday afternoon, dwelling on the success story of a local bioscience company, when he broached a topic that is suddenly confounding his Republican presidential aspirations: Rick Santorum.
A big Romney win in Florida bolsters his campaign
TAMPA, Fla. — Mitt Romney rolled to victory in the Florida primary Tuesday, dispatching an insurgent threat from Newt Gingrich and reclaiming his dominant position in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
Haley Barbour, Mississippi governor, won’t run for president
WASHINGTON — Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi had hired a campaign manager, lined up influential Republican activists in early-voting states and secured commitments from donors across the country, but he surprised them all Monday by announcing that he was abandoning his effort to join the Republican presidential race.
Vote on GOP plan for Medicare could shape 2012 races
WASHINGTON — Just four months into their new majority, House Republicans face a potentially defining Medicare vote this week that is sure to become a centerpiece of Democratic efforts to recapture the House in 2012 and spill into the presidential and Senate campaigns as well.
GOP gains House control as voters reject Dems’ agenda
Republicans captured control of the House of Representatives on Tuesday and expanded their voice in the Senate, riding a powerful wave of voter discontent as they dealt a setback to President Barack Obama two years after his triumphal victory.
Democrats’ grip on the South continues to slip downward
JONESBORO, Ark. — The Southern white Democrat, long on the endangered list, is at risk of being pushed one step closer to extinction.
For districts policing failing schools, Obama backs reward
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Monday that he favored federal rewards for local school districts that fire underperforming teachers and close failing schools, saying educators needed to be held accountable when they failed to fix chronically troubled classrooms and curb the student dropout rate.
Mass. Republican Senator is sworn in, Democrats regroup
<i>WASHINGTON </i>— President Barack Obama and congressional Democratic leaders sought to reset their agenda as they lost their 60th vote in the Senate on Thursday, trying to push ahead with measures to spur job creation even as they grasped for ideas to keep alive their health care legislation.
Obama Faults Intelligence Agencies In Failure ‘To Connect Those Dots’
President Barack Obama said Tuesday that the government had sufficient information to uncover the terror plot to bring down a commercial jetliner on Christmas Day, but that intelligence officials had “failed to connect those dots.”
Obama Presses Afghan Leader on Corruption
President Barack Obama on Monday admonished President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan that he must take on what U.S. officials have said he avoided during his first term: the rampant corruption and drug trade that has fueled the resurgence of the Taliban.
White House Pushes In States’ Races
The White House’s intervention in the race for New York governor is the latest evidence of how President Barack Obama and his top advisers are taking an increasingly direct role in contests across the country, but their assertiveness has bruised some Democrats who suggest it could undercut Obama’s appeal with voters tired of partisan politics.
Obama Seeks ‘New Beginning’ With Islamic World
President Barack Obama pledged on Thursday to “seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world,” imploring America and the Islamic world to drop their suspicions of one another and forge new alliances to confront violent extremism and heal religious divides.
Obama’s Second Choice to Run Commerce Withdraws
Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire abruptly withdrew Thursday as the nominee to be commerce secretary, saying he had “irresolvable conflicts” with President Barack Obama over his economic stimulus plan and a concern over what many fellow Republicans believe is the politicization of the 2010 census.
Obama Set to Add Republican To Cabinet
If a new political breeze is blowing in the capital, perhaps the best evidence can be found in this: A Democratic president selects a Republican senator to serve in the Cabinet. The Democratic governor with the power to fill the Senate seat signals that he will leave it in Republican hands, depriving his party of a chance to reach 60 votes, a magic number when it comes to passing legislation.
Scorning Bush, Obama Takes Aim at McCain
Sen. Barack Obama accepted the Democratic Party presidential nomination on Thursday, declaring that the “American promise has been threatened” by eight years under President Bush and that Sen. John McCain represented a continuation of policies that undermined the nation’s economy and imperiled its standing around the world.
Obama Secures Democratic Presidential Nomination
When Sen. Barack Obama announced in early July that he would give his nomination address in an outdoor stadium in front of 75,000 people, he wowed members of both parties who saw it as an inspired stroke of campaign image making.
Obama Seeks Support for His Plan for the Economy
Two weeks before assuming power, President-elect Barack Obama took his economic recovery package to Capitol Hill on Monday and worked to build a bipartisan coalition to endorse his plan of tax cuts and new spending with an urgent appeal “to break the momentum of this recession.”
Obama Unveils Team to Tackle Economic Crisis
President-elect Barack Obama sought to seize the reins of the economic crisis on Monday as he and his new economic team worked closely with President Bush to inject confidence into the trembling financial markets, which rallied throughout the day and erased nearly all of last week’s losses.
Obama Lays Out Costly Plans To Help Many With Fiscal Ills
Sen. Barack Obama proposed new steps on Monday to address the economic crisis, calling for temporary but costly new programs to help employers, automakers, homeowners, the unemployed, and state and local governments.
For Rivals, Financial Crisis Poses On-the-Fly Tests
The financial crisis has turned the race between Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama into an audition for who could best handle a national economic emergency.
With Democrats Worried, Obama Plans Sharper Attacks
Sen. Barack Obama plans to intensify his assault against Sen. John McCain, with new television advertisements and more forceful attacks by the candidate and surrogates beginning Friday morning, as he confronts an invigorated Republican presidential ticket and increasing nervousness in the Democratic ranks
New Fundraising Pressures For Obama Campaign
After months of record-breaking fundraising, a new sense of urgency in Sen. Barack Obama’s fundraising team is palpable as the full weight of the campaign’s decision to bypass public financing for the general election is suddenly upon them.
Facing Recession, Clinton and Obama Push Populist Projects
Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y, and Barack Obama, D-Ill., intensified their populist appeals on Monday, responding to widespread economic anxiety and pushing the Democratic Party further from the business-friendly posture once championed by Bill Clinton.
Clinton Ready to End Bid and Endorse Obama, Aides Say
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will endorse Sen. Barack Obama on Saturday, bringing a close to her 17-month campaign for the White House, aides said. Her decision came after Democrats urged her Wednesday to leave the race and allow the party to coalesce around Obama.
Black Leader Pulls His Support From Clinton, Shifts to Obama
Rep. John Lewis, an elder statesman from the civil rights era and one of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s most prominent black supporters, said on Thursday night that he planned to cast his vote as a superdelegate for Sen. Barack Obama in hopes of preventing a fight at the Democratic convention.
Clinton Campaign Struggles As Obama Raises $32 Million
Concerned that it could lose several primaries and caucuses through the rest of February, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign sought to create an alternate story line of success on Thursday by announcing that Clinton had raised $7.5 million online so far this month.
GOP Senators Thwart Debates Over US Troop Buildup in Iraq
Republicans on Monday blocked Senate debate on a bipartisan resolution opposing President Bush’s troop buildup in Iraq, leaving in doubt whether the Senate would render a judgment on what lawmakers of both parties described as the paramount issue of the day.
Senate Approves New Lobbying Constraints, Bans Private Gifts
The Senate gave final approval Thursday to a far-reaching package of new ethics and lobbying rules, with an overwhelming majority of Republicans and Democrats agreeing to better police the relationship between lawmakers and lobbyists.
Senators Reject Democrats' Call to Pull Troops Thursday
The Senate on Thursday rejected a Democratic resolution to withdraw most U.S. combat troops from Iraq in 2008, but a similar measure advanced in the House, and Democratic leaders vowed to keep challenging President Bush to change course in Iraq.
Democrats Gamble They Can Finish Senate's Squabbling on Iraq Debate
As the House prepared to pass a symbolic resolution denouncing President Bush's war policy, Senate Democratic leaders on Thursday abruptly scheduled a weekend debate on Iraq in an effort to break a stalemate and avoid impressions that partisan bickering was weighing down deliberations over the war.
Democrats Sets House Debate To Rebuke Bush on Iraq Policy
House Democratic leaders persuaded members of their party on Thursday to limit the scope of an Iraq war resolution next week to a simple repudiation of President Bush’s troop buildup plan, hoping to temporarily set aside divisive decisions over war financing and troop redeployments.