Related Content: Barack Obama
GOP Unveils a 'Plan B' if Budget Talks FailEssential Reads Despite progress toward agreement on a budget deal with the White House, House Republican leaders on Tuesday proposed a backup plan to prevent most Americans from facing an income-tax increase if negotiations collapse. |
The Most Consequential Candidates of 2012 Show the Art of Politics Is InterpretiveEssential Reads Early next year, a Democrat will be sworn in as governor of red Montana. A Democrat will take her Senate seat in red North Dakota. Republican governors will gear up for reelection bids in blue Michigan and Wisconsin. They all won in spite of unfavorable political landscapes because candidates, and their campaigns, matter. A strong campaign and a sharp candidate can overcome long odds, while a weak campaign can wilt even with the wind at its back. |
Obama Facing Critical Choice After ShootingEssential Reads For President Obama, the massacre of schoolchildren in Connecticut has upended standard political calculations and has presented a choice that goes to the heart of his approach to governance, not just on guns but also on issues like climate change, immigration and even taxes. |
Boehner’s Backup Tax Plan Shakes Up ‘Fiscal Cliff’ NegotiationsEssential Reads House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) veered off the bipartisan course he had been charting toward a broad tax-and-entitlement deal with President Obama and instead Tuesday pushed a GOP package to extend tax cuts for income up to $1 million. |
Obama Makes A Substantial Counteroffer On Fiscal DeadlineEssential Reads President Obama trimmed his demand for tax increases on the wealthy Monday, making a substantial counteroffer as he and House Speaker John A. Boehner reconvened privately at the White House. |
Obama Now Has Freedom to Push on Gun ControlEssential Reads President Obama offered his boldest statements to date on gun control on Sunday evening in Newtown, Conn. Always a supporter, never a doer on this particular topic, Obama has the freedom now to push a little bit harder on an issue that evenly divides the country. |
‘These Tragedies Must End,’ Obama SaysEssential Reads President Obama vowed on Sunday to “use whatever power this office holds” to stop massacres like the slaughter at the school here that shocked the nation, hinting at a fresh effort to curb the spread of guns as he declared that there was no “excuse for inaction.” |
December 14, 2012Weekly Show Gun control debate is again at the forefront after a tragic Conn. school shooting. Amidst continued fiscal cliff talks, Susan Rice chooses not to pursue the Secretary of State nomination. Plus, the U.S. recognizes the Syrian opposition. Joining Gwen: Reid Wilson, National Journal Hotline; Martha Raddatz, ABC News; David Sanger, New York Times; John Dickerson, Slate Magazine and CBS News. |
Rice’s Blunt Style Endeared Her to President, but Not AllEssential Reads For President Obama, the decision to forgo the fight to make Susan E. Rice his secretary of state was a deeply painful one. It required publicly abandoning one of his most loyal aides, who had broken with the Democratic foreign policy establishment early to side with his improbable candidacy, and whose blunt-speaking style — which helped cost her the job — had always been, for Mr. Obama, a part of her appeal. |
Behind Closed DoorsEssential Reads The most encouraging news in Washington in ages was the word that Barack Obama and John Boehner were talking—by themselves, and to each other—about how to avoid the series of automatic tax increases and spending cuts that could send the country over the so-called fiscal cliff. Boehner went to see the president at the White House last Sunday for their first solo meeting since the November election. |
