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Does Obama need to speak more harshly about Islam?
When it comes to any issue that involves Islam, President Obama starts with an advantage and a disadvantage. The advantage is that he's seen as sympathetic to Muslims. The disadvantage is also that he's seen as sympathetic to Muslims. [ more ... ] ...
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White House
Barack Obama
United States
Sarah Palin gives the GOP an early start on its Thanksgiving family fight.
The Republican Party is having its Thanksgiving family fight early—and for that it can thank Sarah Palin. Palin, whose book is officially out Tuesday, is has set off a new round of fighting with former McCain aides. Dede Scozzafava, the Republican who ...
Will Sen. Harry Reid tax the rich to pay for health reform?
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is reportedly reconsidering tax options for health care reform. According to the Associated Press, Reid is thinking about raising the part of the payroll tax that pays for Medicare on families whose incomes exceed ...
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Congress
Harry Reid
Rich Lowry
Barack Obama
What do they talk about in all those Afghanistan strategy sessions?
Eight months and eight national-security meetings after announcing a new strategy for the war in Afghanistan and sending the first wave of additional troops, President Barack Obama stands on the verge of deciding whether that strategy was right and ...
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World
Afghanistan
Barack Obama
Pete Sessions
United States
A taxonomy of left-liberal opposition to the health care reform bill.
Conservative arguments against health care reform tend to be monochrome: too many pages, too costly, too much government interference in our lives. But while the right supplies nearly all opposition to the health care bill, it does not have a ...
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Other
Health care
President Obama's small masterpiece of a speech at Fort Hood.
President Obama's speech at Fort Hood, Texas, was a small masterpiece—less than 15 minutes—in part because it was so modest. The president had great material and he knew not to get in its way. [ more ... ]
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Photographs of the places where the D.C. shooters struck.
Washington-area sniper John Allen Muhammad will be executed Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET. In the fall of 2002, Muhammad and his accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, killed 10 people and wounded three others in a series of attacks in the D.C. metropolitan area. Sean ...
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Other
Washington, D.C
A guide to the shifting political factions in the health care debate.
President Obama on Sunday celebrated the House's passage of health care reform with a vivid metaphorical message to the other side of the Capitol. "Now it falls on the United States Senate," he said, "to take the baton and bring this effort to the ...
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World
United States
Health care
Health care reformers' million-dollar thank-you card to moderate Democrats.
Lobbying—in Washington, it's often called "issue advocacy"—is a game of carrots and sticks: Support our issue and we'll make life good for you. Oppose it and we'll make it hell. Sometimes groups take a moment to just pause and say, "Thank you." But ...
Why was Berlin the key to the Cold War?
The Berlin Wall came down 20 years ago, but few of the news stories marking the anniversary have explained the event's full significance. The Cold War had been raging for a quarter-century before the wall went up on Aug. 13, 1961. How could its ...
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World
Germany
If women can defend Fort Hood, they can defend America.
Fort Hood, Texas, hosts tens of thousands of men who are trained to fight for their country. But none of them stopped Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan as he blew away 13 of their colleagues Thursday afternoon. It was a civilian police officer, Sgt. Kimberly ...
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World
United States
Michele Bachmann invites tea partiers to Washington for another swig.
Whether it was billing the event as a "Super Bowl of Freedom" or challenging conservatives to "scare" members of Congress, it worked. Rep. Michele Bachmann got thousands of protesters to flood the lawn in front of the Capitol building Thursday ...
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Congress
Michele Bachmann
Washington, D.C
United States
President Obama on the Fort Hood shootings.
AP Video: President Barack Obama comments on the tragic shooting at Fort Hood [ more ... ]
Barack Obama - Barack Obama presidential campaign 2008 - United States - Associated Press - ...
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White House
Barack Obama
United States
Much of the current deficit debate is for the birds.
A once-endangered species is staging a robust comeback: the deficit hawk. Hunted nearly to death during the Bush years, many varieties not seen in Washington in a decade are now perching on branches and dropping their wisdom. Look, there's the ...
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White House
Washington, D.C
Barack Obama
How last night's election results were bad for Obama.
President Obama's message of change was so powerful in 2008 that voters held on to it for an extra year. In Virginia and New Jersey they dropped the incumbent Democratic Party and went with the Republican candidates. In New Jersey, voters said change ...
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White House
Barack Obama
Democratic National Committee
Virginia Foxx
How does the president decide whether your cause deserves a proclamation?
Did you realize that last month was National Information Literacy Awareness Month? No? Perhaps that's because it was also National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, National Disability Employment Awareness Month, National Cybersecruity Awareness Month, ...
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World
United States
Calling the president a liar has been good for Joe Wilson's career. But is it good for the GOP?
As soon as the words "You lie!" left Rep. Joe Wilson's lips during the president's September address to the joint session of Congress, the question was not so much, Will this hurt Joe Wilson? It was, How much will this hurt Joe Wilson? Two ...
The latest updates from Barack Obama's Facebook feed.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Fox News, and Joe Biden's Halloween costume. [ more ... ]
Sponsored Topics:
Barack Obama - Joe Biden - United States - Politics - Candidate
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White House
Barack Obama
Joe Biden
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Fox News
United States
Is 60 the new 50? How many votes will it take to pass health care form in the Senate?
How many votes does Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid really need to pass health care reform? Is it 50 or 60? It's not simply a question of parliamentary procedure—the answer will in large part shape the legislation. The logic is simple: the more ...
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Congress
Harry Reid
Health care
United States
Why the president will be setting low expectations in Afghanistan.
What will Afghanistan look like when American troops leave? President Obama will have to answer that question in the coming weeks at the same time he announces whether he'll be sending new troops into the fight. The answer will help define success for ...
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World
Afghanistan
Barack Obama
United States
Jim Jones calls a two-state solution a top priority at the first annual J Street conference.
When a politician attends the annual conference of the American Israel Political Action Committee, Washington's largest pro-Israel lobbying group, his task is simple: assert his commitment to Israel in the strongest possible terms. At the first annual ...
Joe Lieberman's stance on health care reform makes him even less popular among Democrats.
From now until health care reform either passes or dies, there will be a series of daily eruptions that will rival the ones from August for passion, confusion, and mischief. Today's installment was Sen. Joe Lieberman's announcement that he will ...
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Congress
Joe Lieberman
Health care
Running the White House Web site on Drupal is a political disaster.
In yet another repudiation of its predecessor, the Obama administration this week migrated the White House Web site to Drupal, the popular open-source Web site management software. By dumping the Bush administration's propriety system and embracing ...
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White House
Barack Obama
What next week's congressional election in New York won't tell us about the Republican party.
Odd-numbered election years are like panda bears: They take on special significance mainly because there are so few of them. [ more ... ]
Sponsored Topics:
New York - Republican - Politics - ...
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World
Republican National Committee
United States
Dick Cheney isn't the first ex-vice president to criticize a sitting president—and he won't be the last.
Dick Cheney was already going down in history as one of the most influential vice presidents ever. Now he's taking flak for being one of the most vocal ex-VPs, too. Since leaving office, Cheney has gone from White House booster No. 2 to White House ...
How John Kerry got the Afghan leader to see sense.
Sen. John Kerry's successful mission to Kabul—in which he convinced Afghan President Hamid Karzai to hold a second-round runoff to August's fraud-soaked election—suggests that the Obama administration is putting the squeeze on Karzai to clean up his ...
TK
Who's winning, who's losing, and why. [ more ... ]
Sponsored Topics:
Programming - Languages - Tcl-Tk - United States - Touchpad
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World
United States
How does fair-use law work?
Shepard Fairey may have hoped to teach something new about art and copyright with his iconic "Hope" poster of Barack Obama. Instead, he is accused of lying about which Associated Press photo he used. (He says he made a mistake.) But if Fairey's lying ...
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White House
Barack Obama
Can Bill Clinton help Creigh Deeds get elected as Virginia governor?
In their first prime-time debate last week, Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds derided his opponent, Republican Bob McDonnell, as "smooth talker." But now Deeds is getting help from two of the party's smoothest talkers: Terry ...
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White House
Bill Clinton
Virginia Foxx
Terry McAuliffe
Will Obama's new medical marijuana directive actually change anything?
The Justice Department's announcement that the feds will no longer crack down on medical marijuana sellers who follow state laws will surely cheer the liberal/libertarian axis that wants the government to take a more relaxed stance on drug laws. It ...
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White House
Barack Obama
United States
Is Chris Christie too fat to win an election in New Jersey?
"In case you haven't noticed, I'm slightly overweight," said Chris Christie on Friday, during his second gubernatorial debate with incumbent Jon Corzine. "Apparently this has become a great case for discussion in the state. I don't know what that has ...
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Congress
Chris Matthews
Christopher J. Dodd
United States
Obama's right. It's time to stop taking Fox's skewed news seriously.
Last week, when White House communications director Anita Dunn charged the Fox News Channel with right-wing bias, Fox responded the way it always does. It denied the accusation with a straight face while proceeding to confirm it with its coverage. [ ...
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White House
Fox News
Barack Obama
Barack Obama's Facebook Feed
Balloon Boy, the Nobel Prize, and Michael Steele's fancy new Web site. [ more ... ]
Sponsored Topics:
Nobel Prize - Barack Obama - United States - Politics - Chemistry
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White House
Barack Obama
Michael Steele
United States
Why health care reform will cost more than Congress and Obama say it will.
President Obama has said he will not sign a health care reform bill unless it's paid for. If it doesn't lower costs, he will suggest spending cuts to make sure the deficit doesn't grow. That's a promise he says he will keep. But what about future ...
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White House
Barack Obama
Health care
United States
Why the far left and the far right both oppose swine flu vaccinations.
Swine flu may have an unexpected side effect: political unity. The far left and far right agree that they're sure as heck not getting vaccinated against swine flu. [ more ... ]
Sponsored Topics:
...
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Other
Why did Obama win the Nobel? Since the committee didn't really say, he can.
Say what you want about whether President Obama deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. His acceptance speech in the Rose Garden was an effective combination of humility—"I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments"—and political savvy. From ...
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White House
Barack Obama
Appropriations Committee
United States
What will Obama do with his Nobel Peace Prize?
It came a week late, but President Obama did win the gold. Last Friday, the International Olympic Committee stiffed him. Today he won the Nobel Peace Prize. He should probably leave his schedule open next Friday, because apparently anything can ...
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White House
Barack Obama
When should we stop faulting Bush for the economy and start blaming Obama?
As job losses climb, President Obama faces two related questions. The first is more like a riddle: How do you pass a new round of stimulus measures without tacitly admitting that the first round didn't work? (Answer: Don't call it a stimulus.) The ...
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White House
Barack Obama
United States
George W. Bush
How the Senate can finesse the Constitution to pass health care reform.
The health care reform legislation moving through Congress goes by several names, such as Obamacare and socialized medicine. Soon it is likely to get another: We can call it the AIG bill. This isn't a euphemism; it's the shorthand used in the Senate ...
Tags:
World
Health care
Washington, D.C
United States
Robert Gates wants all Afghanistan advice to the president to stay private.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates recently said that those advising the president on Afghanistan should keep quiet in public. This has been interpreted as a direct message to Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, Obama's top commander in Afghanistan, who was ...
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World
Afghanistan
Robert Gates
The latest updates from Barack Obama's Facebook feed.
Health care, Afghanistan, and Joe Biden's day off. [ more ... ]
Sponsored Topics:
Joe Biden - Barack Obama - United States - Afghanistan - Politics
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White House
Barack Obama
Joe Biden
Afghanistan
United States
The battle between jocks and nerds over Chicago's bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
On Friday in Copenhagen, the International Olympic Committee got Chicago's best shot. President Obama flew in to stump for the city's bid for the 2016 Olympics, joining Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. It wasn't ...
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White House
Michelle Obama
Oprah Winfrey
Why Obama may want to ask Bush what to do in Afghanistan.
President Obama came into office promising he wouldn't be captive to groupthink. He would test the assumptions of his advisers by talking with outside voices. As if to prove he meant it, he has already spoken to his predecessor at least once. He may ...
Liberal economists think we should reduce the deficit. Just not yet.
When it comes to the national debt, says Paul Krugman, the best advice may come from St. Augustine: "Oh Lord, make me chaste and continent—but not yet." That was the rough consensus among the economists who convened Wednesday at the Washington Court ...
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World
Paul Krugman
Washington, D.C
Economic Meltdown
A primer on the word racism.
More than a few naive souls hoped that the election of Barack Obama signaled a new era of racial harmony. Instead, alas, American race relations have entered a bizarre new phase in which tension is ubiquitous and almost anyone can claim to be the ...
Tags:
White House
Barack Obama
Jimmy Carter
Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Rush Limbaugh
Glenn Beck
Taylor Branch's The Clinton Tapes.
When Paul Begala came up with the phrase "the comeback kid" to spin Bill Clinton's second-place showing in the New Hampshire primary in 1992, he may have been making a deeper observation than he knew. At any given moment, Clinton seems to be winning ...
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