News

"I made some big mistakes ... But I’ve also learned some tough lessons," the former congressman says in a campaign video. 

“The standing joke in the office is Barack’s learning to speak without a teleprompter. I’m learning to speak with one.”

Press secretary Jay Carney made clear the White House was not involved in a planted question that made the story public.

President Obama’s approval rating has slipped into negative territory as a trio of controversies has chipped away at the president’s standing with the public, according to a Fox News poll released on Tuesday.

President Obama on Tuesday announced the eight new members who will round out his presidential commission on voting, jointing Bob Bauer, the general counsel to the president's reelection campaign, and Ben Ginsberg, the former general counsel to Mitt Romney's presidential effort, on the bipartisan panel.

The appointments include Trey Grayson, Larry Loma, Michele Coleman Mayes, Ann McGeehan, Tammy Patrick and Christopher Thomas — all former state-level elections officials — as well as Brian Britton, a Walt Disney World executive, and Joe Echevarria, the general counsel for the New York Public library.

Obama announced the panel in his State of the Union address, saying that with long voting lines, the country was "betraying our ideals."

Read more...

President Obama on Tuesday encouraged young immigrants who entered the country illegally to share their stories with elected officials as the White House looks to build momentum for a new immigration push.

The meeting came as the Senate Judiciary Committee continued its markup of a Gang of Eight bill that should soon head to the Senate floor for a vote. Last week, a bipartisan group of House negotiators also said they had struck a deal on an immigration reform package.

The group of seven young immigrants said they told the president and Vice President Biden about their personal histories and worries about the future.

Read more...

The bipartisan delegation will be led by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.).

White House press secretary Jay Carney on Tuesday unfavorably compared questions about donations solicited by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to Republicans questioning the president's birth certificate.

At a tense briefing where Carney took tough questions on a series of issues that could damage the White House politically, the press secretary aligned himself with White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer, who over the weekend accused Republicans of engaging in “partisan fishing expeditions.”

“You know, we could go down the list of questions — we could say, what about the president's birth certificate?" Carney responded. “Was that legitimate?”

Sen. Tom Coburn's (R-Okla.) office is calling it “crass” to play politics with disaster relief aid as rescue workers are still trying to recover people from the wreckage of a massive tornado that hit Oklahoma.

He said the people of Oklahoma were grappling with “a long road ahead” but “will not travel that path alone.”