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 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.

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.

"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.

Since President Obama has been having a rough time lately, let me belatedly congratulate him on his apparently successful policy of regime change in Libya. Initially, I favored a more robust and decisive intervention when Obama seemed to dither, and then I criticized how he ultimately committed the United States to a so-called leading-from-behind strategy. But fair is fair; whatever happens next — a big question — Obama has succeeded in toppling one of the most loathsome creatures on the international stage.