Obama Presidency

Mitt Romney drew criticism Monday after he failed to challenge a questioner who suggested at a campaign event that President Obama should be tried for treason. The woman, in posing a question to Romney, asserted, “We have a president right now that is operating outside the structure of our Constitution.” She was interrupted by applause from the crowd. “I want to know," she said before turning to another audience member and saying, “Yeah, I do agree he should be tried for treason.

Mitt Romney drew criticism Monday after he failed to challenge a questioner who suggested at a campaign event that President Obama should be tried for treason. The woman, in posing a question to Romney, asserted, “We have a president right now that is operating outside the structure of our Constitution.” She was interrupted by applause from the crowd. “I want to know," she said before turning to another audience member and saying, “Yeah, I do agree he should be tried for treason.

The cable TV channels fired their screeching engines hours in advance. A "Health Care Make or Break Moment" screamed a CNN headline. Countdown clocks at Fox and MSNBC ticked inexorably toward 00:00, the moment when President Obama would face down a joint session of Congress. This had to be really, really big, I learned all day Wednesday from the excitable people on cable TV -- a speech that likely would determine the fate of healthcare reform and, perhaps, the Obama presidency.

WASHINGTON — President Obama's top economic advisors pushed back hard Sunday against a charge by Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney that American women have suffered the brunt of the weak economy over the last three years. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner called Romney's claim that women have accounted for 92% of the jobs lost since Obama took office "ridiculous and very misleading. " The broadside came after a week in which the two campaigns had traded barbs over which candidate was more supportive of working women.

Regarding Tom Petruno's column "Obama and the Fear Factor," Nov. 8: This column focuses on the conjecture and politically biased fears of Wall Street Republicans. But inexplicably buried in the commentary was this briefest of truths about how Wall Street may very well fare under Obama: "Whatever else Clinton did, he wasn't bad for stocks in the '90s." "Wasn't bad?" Obama's economic plans are similar to Clinton's, and this is how the Dow Jones industrials fared on an annualized basis under recent presidents: Reagan, 11.4% gain; George H.W. Bush, 11.8% gain, Clinton, 16.6% gain.

President Obama's call for economic fairness in his State of the Union speech met with caustic responses from his Republican rivals, who accused him of spurring divisions. "No feature of the Obama presidency has been sadder than its constant efforts to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others," Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said in the official GOP response to the speech. "We do not accept that ours will ever be a nation of 'haves' and 'have-nots'; we must always be a nation of 'haves' and 'soon to haves.' " Daniels, a popular fiscal conservative, criticized Obama's economic policies as a "grand experiment in trickle-down government" and "pro-poverty" strategies that have hampered the economy.

What's a state dinner without the Big Dance? President Obama is scheduled to share one of his greatest passions with David Cameron during the British prime minister's visit to the United States next week: college hoops. Obama plans to travel with Cameron to Dayton, Ohio, on Tuesday night to take in an opening-round game in the men's NCAA basketball tournament, the White House confirmed. The NCAA tournament -- known as March Madness -- has become a fixture of the Obama presidency.

When he ran for president, Barack Obama attacked the George W. Bush administration for putting political concerns ahead of science on such issues as climate change and public health. And during his first weeks in the White House, President Obama ordered his advisors to develop rules to "guarantee scientific integrity throughout the executive branch." Many government scientists hailed the president's pronouncement. But a year and a half later, no such rules have been issued. Now scientists charge that the Obama administration is not doing enough to reverse a culture that they contend allowed officials to interfere with their work and limit their ability to speak out. "We are getting complaints from government scientists now at the same rate we were during the Bush administration," said Jeffrey Ruch, an activist lawyer who heads an organization representing scientific whistle-blowers.

Writers are contrarians. Ask a group of them a simple question -- What might the presidency of Barack Obama mean for literature and culture? -- and you get a range of answers, from the high-minded to the tongue-in-cheek. You get essays, riffs, wishes for the future as well as reflections on the past and what it has meant.

WASHINGTON - President Obama hosted the leaders of Mexico and Canada on Monday in a White House summit aimed at boosting the region's growing economic ties, but the scourge of drug violence in Mexico muddled the message and highlighted friction between the neighbors. Obama met with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and the three announced an initiative to cut regulations that constrict trade across the northern and southern borders. But Mexico's drug war, which has killed tens of thousands of people, dominated a Rose Garden news conference.

What's a state dinner without the Big Dance? President Obama is scheduled to share one of his greatest passions with David Cameron during the British prime minister's visit to the United States next week: college hoops. Obama plans to travel with Cameron to Dayton, Ohio, on Tuesday night to take in an opening-round game in the men's NCAA basketball tournament, the White House confirmed. The NCAA tournament -- known as March Madness -- has become a fixture of the Obama presidency.

President Obama's call for economic fairness in his State of the Union speech met with caustic responses from his Republican rivals, who accused him of spurring divisions. "No feature of the Obama presidency has been sadder than its constant efforts to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others," Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said in the official GOP response to the speech. "We do not accept that ours will ever be a nation of 'haves' and 'have-nots'; we must always be a nation of 'haves' and 'soon to haves.' " Daniels, a popular fiscal conservative, criticized Obama's economic policies as a "grand experiment in trickle-down government" and "pro-poverty" strategies that have hampered the economy.

Since the release of Ron Suskind's new book, “Confidence Men,"  White House officials have sought to disparage his reporting and paint the book as an unfair depiction of the Obama presidency. And yet someone in Obama's orbit opened an important door for the author: Suskind landed an interview with the president. A White House advisor said Thursday the sit-down with Obama was an attempt to alter the “trajectory" of the book -- to let Obama provide a corrective to any misleading bits of information Suskind might have heard.

Between cash-grabbing stops in New York and Florida, Republican presidential front-runner Rick Perry has paused to release a new video assailing President Obama as “President Zero.” The ad opens with austere, cinematic images from the stalled economy, empty restaurants, broken down buses, vacant streets, boarded-up homes, even abandoned (yet still swinging) playground swings, along with some apocalyptic lightning flashes, thunder crashes and air-raid sirens for good measure.

No book about the Obama presidency appears to have unnerved the White House quite so much as "Confidence Men" by Ron Suskind, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has developed a niche in the specialized art of parting the curtain on presidential dealings. The book gives a tough assessment of Obama's leadership style.  Brainy but untested, Obama proved unable to exert control over a dysfunctional economic team that was dubious about his orders, the book concludes. Through Tweets and interviews, White House officials have sought to discredit the book, questioning its basic accuracy.

On the Balboa Bay Club's wall of its most famous guests, there are photos of Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Gerald Ford and, of course, the Duke. There are no Democratic politicians. Securely tucked behind the Orange Curtain, Newport Beach is Republican-held territory. But Barack Obama may be hoping to change that.

Since the release of Ron Suskind's new book, “Confidence Men,"  White House officials have sought to disparage his reporting and paint the book as an unfair depiction of the Obama presidency. And yet someone in Obama's orbit opened an important door for the author: Suskind landed an interview with the president. A White House advisor said Thursday the sit-down with Obama was an attempt to alter the “trajectory" of the book -- to let Obama provide a corrective to any misleading bits of information Suskind might have heard.

"You are America's young Jedi. " "I hope you are rocking and rolling with Elvis!" "Thank you for the pennies; [we] love finding them. " "We miss your laughter, your smile and your meatloaf. " "I hope you are on beautiful golf course with Dad up in Heaven. Send me a rainbow so I know you are OK. " Relatives of Sept. 11 victims, addressing their lost loved ones ----- "These past 10 years tell a story of resilience. Our people still work in skyscrapers.