During last week's first-of-many hearing into the IRS scandal, one subplot emerged: Conservatives presented anecdotes to argue that the IRS didn't just target Tea Party groups seeking tax exempt status but a broader swath of conservative individuals and organizations. But the anecdotal evidence does not stand up to the data on tax audits.
President Obama spoke of many issues and challenges facing the nation in his State of the Union, but, having grown up among the bridge-and-tunnel crowd in Central Jersey, there was one crisis that stood out for Daily Show host Jon Stewart's: the crumbling infrastructure of those bridges and tunnels.
What with all of the political drama in this year's Best Picture crop — and Michelle Obama hosting the kid from Beasts of the Southern Wild at the White House — we couldn't help but wonder which films our top politicians would like to see win.
Insisting that raising the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour would cost jobs, House Speaker John Boehner has already rejected President Obama's State of the Union call to bring it up from $7.25. Here's research that says otherwise.
The president's gun request in the State of the Union was memorable, but it was also just that — a very, very modest request for Congress to vote, amidst a wish list that otherwise called for an ambitious agenda. Why just a vote? Because the deeper conversation has changed.
He has now given five State of the Union addresses (four officially), and if you watch them all in order you can witness the subtle development in his approach to the speech — one that also mirrors the development of his presidency, and his exercise of power.
David Ignatius on Obama's optimistic State of the Union, Maureen Dowd on Rubio's response, James Hohmann on issues that should concern Democrats, Fred Kaplan on the President's vague foreign policy, and Simon Jenkins on the senselessness of sanctions.
Although we already knew a lot of Obama was going to say in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday night, critics didn't waste a second to pounce on the president when he said it.
This was a very consequential sip of water, given that Rubio's lines about "big government" were quite familiar, as was his biography. Let's break down the one moment America may remember about Tuesday night more than Obama's gun refrain.
"I pray we can come together to solve our problems, because the choices before us could not be more important," Rubio said following the President's State of the Union address. Our word cloud indicates that "government" and "more" were frequent.
Here's the speech, focusing on the economy — particularly job creation, by way of manufacturing, energy, infrastructure, and housing — and a broader theme of citizenship. We've got a word cloud, too. (Hint: There's a lot about jobs.)
The most powerful moment of the State of the Union on Tuesday night came when President Obama said the victims of gun violence — people like Gabby Giffords and the family of Hadiya Pendleton — deserve a vote on gun control measures. But there were many more moments and issues than that. Re-live them all here.
You can bet on two things from President Obama's State of the Union: post-speech hype about how he's making an aggressive case for liberal policies, followed by liberal disappointment at Obama's policies.
Some details have leaked about the President's big spring trip to Israel, including a planned dinner with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a stop so the President can check out Israel's rocket intercepting Iron Dome.
North Korea's latest show of nuclear might has many conservatives fuming over the Obama administration's supposed weakness on nuclear proliferation. But what exactly do they expect the President to do?
Here, from the big economic push to other pressing issues and Obama's general attitude from the podium, is what the talking heads and editorial boards are betting on. It actually serves as a nice outline for the kind of speech the White House has promised — even if you never can trust a pundit.
In an interview with CBS, Cheney said that the drone program is the only portion of Obama's foreign policy that he agrees with — indeed, that he thinks it's a "good policy."
We already know how President Obama will describe the state of our union in his State of the Union address Tuesday: strong. Here's how the traditional line became a cliché.
Should we be concerned that Ted Nugent — the paleo-rocker who said he'd be "dead or in jail" by this time if President Obama were reelected — is attending tomorrow's State of the Union address?
In a reversal, the Obama administration is considering signing an sign executive order that would protect gay federal contractors from workplace discrimination.
President Obama will unveil a set of concrete proposals in his State of the Union speech Tuesday, and as in his inaugural address last month, he's expected to sound pretty liberal.
Eleanor Clift on State of the Union stakes, Andrew Brown on the pope's resignation, Marc Thiessen on Jack Lew's offshore investments, Connie Rice on the LAPD's culture, and Fouad Ajami on drones.
Yes, that sounds like a parody movie trailer. But unfortunately this is a real story based on real things that happened in real life instead of brilliant satire. The Washington Post has an amazing story about how an Obama lawn sign ignited an intense legal battle in a Virginia neighborhood.
If you're ever in a meeting with the leader of the free world, you know it's important. Or rather, you better show it's important.
President Obama previewed the disappointment that members of his party are almost destined to eventually feel in a speech at the House Democratic Issues Conference on Thursday in Leesburg, Virginia.
After a blog alleged that she didn't vote in this election, Dunham took to Twitter to clear up the situation. Maybe.
Both Republicans and Democrats cast themselves as deficit cutters during the presidential election, but the new reality from the anual CO report is further evidence that no one in Washington — not Obama or Boehner — will take credit for the sequester anymore.
After being heavily criticized for not visiting the State of Israel during his first term, the second-term President Obama will be making a trip there very soon.
The President did, in fact, suggest Congress kick the can at a White House briefing, saying that his fiscal-cliff deals are "very much" still on the table.
Everyone is anxious about the "white paper" that finally begins to detail the Obama administration's opinons on targeted assassination, but what seems to have even more people worried on the morning after — and less than 48 hours from John Brennan's confirmation hearing — is what's missing from that argument.
On Monday we saw two very different ideas for how President Obama might achieve his second-term policy goals — one in a campaign-style speech on gun control in Minneapolis and another in the recorded gripes of Democrats on Capitol Hill in Politico. Which one has the best chance of working?
In an attempt to spin forward his gun-violence proposals while on the road and away from the rancor of a fired-up Washington, President Obama said in a speech in Minneapolis that legislators need to adopt new measures in order to prevent further gun violence.
As President Obama takes to the road to sell a "comprehensive set of commonsense ideas" about gun violence, Senate Democrats are reportedly working on a gun-control bill that will include all of the his policy proposals — except the one that might be the biggest.
As the possibility of destructive cyberwarfare inches towards reality, the government is scrambling to figure out who holds the keys to America's malware arsenal. Obviously, it's President Obama.
Should the Scouts be open to gays? It's a clear-cut issue for the President. "Yes," he said during his pre-Super Bowl interview with CBS's Scott Pelley, in which he also spoke out about women in combat, raising rates, and, you know, football.
According to the Boston Globe, President Obama settled on Kerry for Secretary of State before, not after, Rice withdrew herself consideration.
The Daily Show host wasn't very sympathetic to the speculation that the president has never actually operated a firearm. "Since when did the ability a fire a weapon become a badge of honor, a patriotic achievement?" he asked. "All you need is a finger!"
During his immigration speech on Tuesday afternoon President Barack Obama cited the Brazilian born Instagram co-creator Mike Krieger as an example of the potential jobs and money a non-American can bring to our country, a strange choice considering how teeny-tiny the photo-sharing app industry is.
The president's proposals from a speech on Tuesday afternoon are remarkably similar to those released by a bipartisan group of senators Monday, except that while both call for tougher enforcement of immigration laws, only the Senate version really invokes a keyword you'll be hearing a lot about in the coming weeks.
President Obama said in an interview published this week that he has, in fact, shot a gun recently, and conservative skeptics are having a field day with the latest in presidential sport shooting.
The Senate's much anticipated immigration plan did not include same-sex couples, but according to reports on Monday night, President Obama will include them in the proposals of a major speech in Las Vegas on Tuesday afternoon that will seek to build on "momentum" from Congress.
President Obama welcomed the Miami Heat to the White House this afternoon to celebrate their NBA championship, and no one was more excited — or perhaps nervous — about the visit than LeBron James.
Hillary Clinton received a ringing endorsement from President Obama out of their joint interview on 60 Minutes Sunday night, but what did Obama get out of it? He got the chance to tell any other Democrats planning a 2016 run to back off.
On Sunday night, 60 Minutes's Steve Kroft sat down with President Obama and outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, neither of whom seem very interested in talking about the next election.
President Obama officially announced his new chief of staff at the White House on Friday while flanked by two adorably self-effacing geeks, both of whom clutched their hands together looking kind of like shy tweens whose crush had finally noticed them.
President Obama violated the Constitution by filling three National Labor Relations Board seats in the midst of a Senate recess, according to a court ruling issued today. "Told you so," says every conservative on Twitter.
Dexter Filkins on women in combat, Ron Fournier on Obama's great liberal expectations, Malcolm Potts on fighting terrorism through education, Jonathan Weil on Caterpillar's missing millions, and Jim Yong Kim on climate change.
The NRA itself, however, remains very popular among its own members, according to the NRA.
As President Obama nominated Mary Jo White to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission and re-nominated Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau this afternoon, he had something bugging him — literally.
President Obama will be confronted with the first big policy decision of his second term where environmentalists and business interests are at odds: the Keystone XL oil pipeline. Despite promising to act on climate change in his inaugural address, all signs point to the controversial project going forward.
Facebook announced Thursday that CEO Mark Zuckerberg will host his first political fundraiser at his home for... New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Is the world's most famous young exec actually a conservative wolf in a Silicon Valley hoodie? Time for an investigation.
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