A recent poll released by the Pew Research Center, shows Obama improving his standing with independent voters in a head-to-head match-up against top GOP contender Mitt Romney. Just a month ago, only 40 percent of registered independent voters nationwide preferred Obama to the former Massachusetts governor, but now that number sits at 51 percent.
The ad features a young Asian woman on a bike, peddling past rice paddies toward the camera as stereotypical Chinese music plays in the background. In broken English, the woman thanks “Debbie SpendItNow” for spending so much American money and “borrowing more and more…from us. Your economy get very weak. Ours get very good. We take your jobs,” she continues with a smirk.
American commandos flew into Somalia Tuesday and rescued two hostages who had been kidnapped by pirates based there, a mission ordered by President Barack Obama before he addressed the nation, the Pentagon said.
"We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by, or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, and everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules. What’s at stake are not Democratic values or Republican values, but American values. We have to reclaim them."
— President Barack Obama — State of the Union Speech Focuses on Middle Class Success: In election year speech, Obama outlines White House vision for creating jobs and to ‘reclaim American values’ — by Kenneth T. Walsh
Two days before the South Carolina Primary, Perry drops out of the race.
"That same biography also explained that the Supreme Commander never made a bowel movement."
Following his announcement of a U.S. “pivot” toward the Pacific region, President Obama is in Bali, Indonesia, this weekend for the East Asia Summit. His visit marks the first-time the United States has attended the regional meeting. While few expect anything concrete to emerge from the conference, Obama’s symbolic visit could help the country win points—especially over China—with regional players seeking more U.S. attention.
Joe Frazier, Ali’s Greatest Foe, Dies at 67: “Smokin’ Joe” Frazier, who was the first boxer to beat Ali, died in Philadelphia a month after being diagnosed with liver cancer. Leslie Wolff, Frazier’s personal manager, confirmed his death.
If anyone needed proof that Herman Cain had become a legitimate contender for the 2012 presidential nomination, the story that broke over the weekend in Politico—that he had been accused of sexual harassment when he headed the National Restaurant Association—is it.
It’s the politics of personal destruction all over again. Someone who would rather not see Cain as the GOP nominee—or who just wants to keep the GOP field in disarray—has injected a highly volatile, potentially campaign and career-ending allegation into the race that has already forced the arguable Republican front-runner onto the defensive.
"I’ve been Joe the Plumber for three years now,” Wurzelbacher said. “I haven’t made millions of dollars off it."
"After nine years, America’s war in Iraq will be over."
— Obama Fulfills Campaign Promise in Declaring Iraq War Over
Where Steve Jobs Ranks Among the Greats
When Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak co-founded Apple in 1976, they set to work building a line of computers—culminating in the Macintosh—that would be the most intuitive machines of their kind. In a way, they introduced the middling people to the magic of digital processors the way Henry Ford introduced them to cars. The brash young Jobs left Apple in 1985, after a spat with the board over the company’s direction. By his own later admission, he needed a strong dose of perspective.
Jobs did other things for 12 years, until returning to Apple as CEO in 1997. The company was floundering, after a string of misfires. Jobs straightened things out, then brought Apple to new heights with wonders like the iPod, iPhone and iPad, along with services like iTunes and Apple TV meant to complement the elegant devices. By the time Jobs retired as CEO earlier this year, Apple was more valuable than virtually any other technology company in the world, including Google, IBM and Microsoft.
Christie’s Out. Now Who for GOP Fiscal Conservatives, Romney?
As unlikely as a Christie run seemed, it ignited intense interest from a certain class of Republicans. Reportedly, industrialist David Koch, one of the intellectual and financial godfathers of the Tea Party movement, was among those pushing for a Christie run. Christie’s high-profile battles with the state’s public employee unions, and his full-throated and passionate case that entitlements are strangling the futures of New Jersey and America, made him look like the perfect candidate for the segment of the GOP concerned mainly with deficits and the size of government. While, on paper, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, another northeastern moderate, seems a logical choice for Christie backers to turn to, there are many reasons why they might look elsewhere—or sit out for the time being.
