Topic: Barack Obama

Obama's 2008 Berlin Speech vs. Today's, by the Numbers, Words, and Themes

AP

President Obama's speech in front of the Brandenburg gate today intentionally echoed his 2008 speech in the city as a candidate. But, perhaps unintentionally, the themes in each speech were also largely the same. We analyzed each speech to see how the President's priorities have (and haven't) changed.

By Dashiell Bennett

Dec 13, 2012

Inauguration Day Is Being Planned on This Gigantic Map of DC

We're still more than a month away from Barack Obama's second inauguration, but the planning is well underway — and apparently includes military personnel playing with this huge toy map of Washington, D.C.

Comments | 2,507 Views

By Adam Clark Estes

Dec 12, 2012

Cliff Diving

Pretty Much Everyone Favors Tax Hikes for the Wealthy to Avoid the Fiscal Cliff

The latest poll numbers show that a record number of Americans favor raising taxes on the rich as a solution to our budget problems. With the fiscal cliff just weeks away, one question remains: Who cares?

Comments | 3,074 Views

By Elspeth Reeve

Dec 12, 2012

Cliff Diving

The Sliding Scale of Fiscal Cliff Panic

Why is the fiscal cliff so boring? It's not because it's about math. But whether or not you freak out over tax hikes depends on what you think about how many details Republicans have made public. A guide.

Comments | 812 Views

By Elspeth Reeve

Dec 10, 2012

Cliff Diving

Can This Man Really Replace Boehner?

SNL's image of a "poor orange man" who needs to be left alone may be funny, but it may not be true: Georgia Rep. Tom Price isn't quite coming for John Boehner's speakership, even if some of the House GOP is coming for his head.

Comments | 2,931 Views

By Elspeth Reeve

Dec 7, 2012

Look How Thin Obama Got

The White House has released a photo of President Obama accepting Mitt Romney's concession call on Election Night, which is cool for historical purposes, but the thing you can't help but notice is how skinny the president has gotten.

Comments | 9,327 Views

By Elspeth Reeve

Dec 6, 2012

Cliff Diving

Here's the Best Fiscal Cliff News So Far

Even though we don't know what's going on behind closed doors in the fiscal cliff negotiations — or on the phone lines (they talked!) — we can measure progress on the fight in a couple clear ways.

Comments | 4,103 Views

By Dashiell Bennett

Dec 6, 2012

What Exactly Is Obama's 'Red Line' In Syria?

President Obama said that the use of chemical weapons would bring "consequences" to Syria, but with nerve gas bombs already being filled, would the United States act before Bashar al-Assad unleashes them? Can they act?

Comments | 1,984 Views

By Elspeth Reeve

Dec 5, 2012

Here's Your First Look at Barack Obama Using Twitter and How He Uses the Web

Let's evaluate the new evidence from a White House video for the president's keyboard prowess... with GIFs!

Comments | 2,573 Views

By Elspeth Reeve

Dec 5, 2012

Cliff Diving

Obama Just Gave Boehner a Taste of His Own Fiscal Medicine on McConnell Idea

The president's latest attempt to portray congressional Republicans as unreasonable now boils down to something like this: What? What did I say? It was y'all's idea all along.

Comments | 10,195 Views

By Dashiell Bennett

Dec 3, 2012

Cliff Diving

Obama Is Taking Himself and #My2K to Twitter This Afternoon

What a day for Twitter! First the Pope, then the Royal Baby, and now President Obama will come online to answer questions about the fiscal cliff.

Comments | 1,278 Views

By David Wagner

Dec 3, 2012

Today's Best

Five Best Monday Columns

Paul Krugman on the post-cliff trouble, Hendrik Hertzberg on the House, Amy Butte on the stock market's opacity, Doyle McManus on drones, and Nathan Brown on Morsi. 

Comments | 2,759 Views

By Elspeth Reeve

Nov 30, 2012

Cliff Diving

What the Fiscal-Cliff Zingers Really Mean

For now, all the "negotiating" amounts to little more than House Republicans and President Obama giving press conferences full of catchy phrases. Here are some of the best from Friday's back-and-forth, and a look into the subtext therein.

Comments | 1,035 Views

By Elspeth Reeve

Nov 30, 2012

Evidence That the GOP Doesn't Love John Kerry as Much as They're Saying They Do

As Republican senators suddenly break out the effusive praise for Democratic Senator John Kerry as the right choice over Susan Rice for Secretary of State, well, there's a whole lot of flip-flopping on the not-so-fast track to Foggy Bottom.

Comments | 6,233 Views

By David Wagner

Nov 30, 2012

Today's Best

Five Best Friday Columns

Therese Poletti on Groupon, Anthony Lane on the Leveson report, Paul Krugman on class war, Ana Marie Cox on #Obama, and Ruth Marcus on Susan Rice. 

Comments | 3,273 Views

By Elspeth Reeve

Nov 30, 2012

The Never-Before-Seen Polls That Made Mitt Romney Think He Was Going to Win

Romney's campaign has insisted that its internal polls showed a much closer race. Now comes word that the campaign has revealed some of those poll numbers to The New Republic's Noam Schieber, and the magic numbers are not what you'd expect.

Comments | 13,080 Views

By David Wagner

Nov 29, 2012

The Obama Campaign's Desperate Fundraising Emails Worked

An analysis of Obama campaign emails revealed today that supporters will cough up $690 million if you guilt trip them hard enough. One commenter recalls the desperation flooding his inbox.

Comments | 1,724 Views

By Elspeth Reeve

Nov 29, 2012

Cliff Diving

A Look Inside Obama's Opening Offer on the Fiscal Cliff

The president asked for a whole lot in his opening offer to Republicans Thursday, and they rejected it.

Comments | 4,035 Views

By Elspeth Reeve

Nov 29, 2012

What Obama and Boehner Aren't Saying to Each Other Right Now

Angry phone calls. Dismissive press conferences. Negotiations without details. Nobody said this fiscal-cliff thing would be easy, but can't everyone get along? Isn't the president having his other rival over to the White House right about now?

Comments | 2,688 Views

By Elspeth Reeve

Nov 29, 2012

Which Obama E-mail Subject Line Raised Him the Most Money in 2012?

The campaign's rigorous scientific analysis of what happens when it spams your inbox for a couple years straight has revealed some troubling conclusions.

Comments | 4,368 Views

By Adam Clark Estes

Nov 28, 2012

With Muted Enthusiasm, CEOs Tell Obama They'll Pay Higher Taxes

President Obama's sit down session with 14 chief executives on Wednesday afternoon went swimmingly. At least from the Obama administration's point of view it did.

Comments | 1,694 Views

By Elspeth Reeve

Nov 28, 2012

Cliff Diving

A Guide to the End of the Fiscal Cliff

The debt-limit debacle of 2011 created the fiscal cliff of 2012, but the homestretch of this new fight is going to be different than the one that created it. Here's what the next four and a half weeks might look like.

Comments | 398 Views

By Elspeth Reeve

Nov 28, 2012

A Visual History of Presidents Awkwardly Meeting the Losers They Defeated

The White House says there will be no press coverage of Obama and Romney's meeting, but luckily we have a long photo archive of past presidents' microexpressions giving away exactly how they feel about the other guy.

Comments | 24,037 Views

By Jen Doll

Nov 28, 2012

What Obama and Romney's Lunch Might Look Like — or Should

Thursday's lunch, between a couple of men who didn't seem terribly keen on each other just a few weeks ago, brings up a host of modern-day etiquette questions. Here, we do our best to answer them.

Comments | 3,097 Views

By Connor Simpson

Nov 25, 2012

They're Drafting a Rule Book for the 'Kill List'

The secret list the White House uses to determine who to target with a drone strike, known as the 'kill list' -- or 'disposition matrix,' whatever -- is still highly classified, but we know there isn't a hard-and-fast set of rules they follow. Well, it seems like there will be soon. 

Comments | 4,421 Views

By Elspeth Reeve

Nov 21, 2012

A Visual History of Presidents Petting Turkeys

The annual presidential pardoning of a turkey is a slightly morbid tradition that doesn't make much sense, but that doesn't mean it's without value. It gives us the opportunity to watch the highly stylized and ceremonial Office of the President interact with nature in the form of a hideous, uncooperative fat bird.

Comments | 9,828 Views

By Esther Zuckerman

Nov 21, 2012

Obama to Pardon Both Turkeys After Useless Facebook Contest

Despite pitting two animals against one another in a Facebook contest to choose the National Thanksgiving Turkey, the president will still pardon both birds—Cobbler and his alternate Gobbler—per the White House.

Comments | 1,667 Views

By Elspeth Reeve

Nov 20, 2012

The Guy Who Unskewed the Polls Has a Sad Sequel to Unskew the Vote

Look, the predictions Dean Chambers made on UnskewedPolls.com were totally wrong, but at least he did math to get them. Chambers' followup, BarackOFraudo.com, is supposed to expose how Democrats stole the 2012 election, but you can find more original content on bot-made e-commerce sites.

Comments | 3,133 Views

By Esther Zuckerman

Nov 20, 2012

The White House's Turkey Game: Gobbler Must Die

The White House turkey pardoning ceremony is a Thanksgiving tradition, but what happens to the poor birds that don't pardoned? The White House's new social media outreach makes us go all existential on the holiday.

Comments | 935 Views

By Elspeth Reeve

Nov 20, 2012

Mysteries of Obama Cabinet Become Clearer as Holder Agrees to Stay on

Eric Holder will stay on as attorney general for "about a year" into President Obama's second term, even though he's reportedly wanted to quit since 2010, and even as the rest of the cabinet remains up in the air.

Comments | 4,783 Views

By Connor Simpson

Nov 17, 2012

The President Is Unimpressed

This is a picture of the President with Olympic hero and living meme McKayla Maroney imitating her now famous facial expression from this summer's Olympics.

Comments | 16,380 Views

By Esther Zuckerman

Nov 16, 2012

Five Best Green Stories

How China Could Stop Environmental Protests; Australia's Marine Parks

Mother Jones on protest in China, The Guardian on building bamboo bikes, The Daily Climate on coal plants, Reuters on Australia's marine parks, Scientific American on Obama's energy and green policies. 

Comments | 862 Views

By Connor Simpson

Nov 16, 2012

Bloomberg Comes Under Fire for Not Being a Hugger

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is facing a strange bit of criticism while on the slow path to recovery since Hurricane Sandy: he isn't really a hugger. We've decided to give him some help. 

Comments | 1,162 Views

By Elspeth Reeve

Nov 15, 2012

What Obama Saw on His Tour of New York's Hurricane Sandy Damage

President Obama went to Staten Island in New York City Thursday to see the ongoing recovery efforts from Hurricane Sandy. There were a lot of hugs, but the mood was not quite as uplifting as his tour right after the storm struck.

Comments | 1,947 Views

By Esther Zuckerman

Nov 15, 2012

Trimming the Times

China, A Hoax in Colorado, and Herculaneum

A summary of the best reads found behind the paywall of The New York Times.

Comments | 1,282 Views

By Esther Zuckerman

Nov 14, 2012

Mitt Romney's Not Finished Making Memes: #ObamaGifts

Even though it's been a week since the election: Mitt Romney's gaffes are still being used as fresh fodder for the Internet.

Comments | 36,739 Views

By Connor Simpson

Nov 14, 2012

Obama Defends Susan Rice in First Press Conference After Re-Election

President Obama passionately defended U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice's record during his first press conference with the White House press pool since wining re-election. In fact, it was the first time he spoke to White House reporters in over eight months. 

Comments | 3,104 Views

By Dashiell Bennett

Nov 13, 2012

Meet the Psychologists Who Convinced You to Vote for Obama

President Obama's re-election team has already been lauded for its mastery of data and organziation, but a feature in today's The New York Times looks at another secret, and more subtle, weapon: Behavioral science.

Comments | 2,262 Views

By Elspeth Reeve

Nov 12, 2012

Here Are Photos of Barack Obama and Joe Biden Wearing Shutter Shades

We present these photos of President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden wearing American flag-style shutter shades because it is  clear the American people have been demanding to see Obama wearing Kanye glasses for years since he was crudely photoshopped into them way back in September 2008.

Comments | 19,066 Views

By David Wagner

Nov 12, 2012

Today's Best

Five Best Monday Columns

Maureen Dowd on Romney's America, Sarah Westwood on college Republicans, Doyle McManus on wedge issues, Ahmed Rashid on Afghan peace, William D. Cohan on Wall Street reform. 

Comments | 2,242 Views

By Dashiell Bennett

Nov 9, 2012

Cliff Diving

Obama Brings a Pen to the Fiscal Cliff Knife Fight

Both President Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner have revealed their opening gambits in the great fiscal cliff chess match, and they are basically what everyone expected. 

Comments | 7,213 Views

By Elspeth Reeve

Nov 9, 2012

Obama Says Americans Picked His Approach to the Deficit

In President Obama's first White House speech since his victory Tuesday night, he said that while "I'm open to compromise, I'm open to new ideas," the voters picked his approach to handling the budget deficit.

Comments | 1,379 Views

By Connor Simpson

Nov 8, 2012

Watch Hope and Change Make Obama Cry

Obama stopped by the Obama for America headquarters on Wednesday to thank his volunteers for giving him their time and effort over course of the long campaign, and all that hope and change made him tear up a little bit. 

Comments | 10,258 Views

By Elspeth Reeve

Nov 8, 2012

People Celebrating Obama's Re-Election Through Tattoos

Supporters of President Obama celebrated his reelection in a variety of ways, like getting tipsy, or partying in front of the White House. But that wasn't serious enough for some Obama fans.

Comments | 3,299 Views

By David Wagner

Nov 8, 2012

Today's Best

Five Best Thursday Columns

Amy Davidson on Sasha and Malia, Gail Collins on the fiscal cliff, Maghan Daum on single women voters, Ezra Klein on the filibuster, and Ana Marie Cox on gay equality. 

Comments | 4,061 Views

By Elspeth Reeve

Nov 8, 2012

Romney Called Off the Ohio Fight on Election Night

While Karl Rove was battling Fox News' own Decision Desk over the network's calling Ohio -- and thus the presidency -- for President Obama, Mitt Romney had given up.

Comments | 27,692 Views

By Esther Zuckerman

Nov 8, 2012

Trimming the Times

Obama in the World, Storm Barriers, and Biden's Sitcom Debut

A summary of the best reads found behind the paywall of The New York Times.

Comments | 517 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Nov 7, 2012

The Power of the Reddit Vote

Barack Obama did a Reddit Ask Me Anything back in August not just as a gimmick to prove he was "with it," but because that's where his voter base was, an anonymous "official" from Obama's analytics team told Time's Michael Scherer.

Comments | 11,243 Views

By Esther Zuckerman

Nov 7, 2012

Cliché Watch

Joe Biden Joins a Long Line of 'Happy Warriors'

Last night Obama called Joe Biden a "happy warrior." There have been others before him.

Comments | 5,419 Views

By Jen Doll

Nov 7, 2012

How the Election Changed America

Did the 2012 election change America? Or has America been changing all along, with our votes simply a way of registering that fact?

Comments | 16,708 Views

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