The biggest challenge Obama faces in the aftermath of the hour-long speech lies not in enacting the bulk of policy proposals he outlined; the White House already knows that isn't likely to happen with this Congress. It's convincing those middle-class and blue-collar voters who have been most resistant to joining his electoral coalition that this president has their best interests at heart—and that he's not taking advantage of the economic recovery, the end of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and his...]]> Wed, 07 Jan 2015 00:00:00 -0600 When President Obama committed U.S. forces to combat the Islamic State, he said it was necessary to defend the nation’s core beliefs. That’s why an assault on a French newspaper hits so close to home.

The difference is the new Republican Congress. It throws the president, for his final two years in office, into the role of a goalie trying to preserve his squad's hold on the game. If the GOP can bridge its internal fissures—no small task—Obama may see a steady stream of unpalatable bills pertaining to energy, health care, education, immigration, and, of course, the federal budget.

Those setbacks ate away at Obama's public support. According to Gallup, the president began 2014 with a 41 percent approval rating, and he's ending it a tick or two higher. He's also ending the year as a certified lame duck, facing two final years with a hostile Congress and the political conversation centering around the likes of Hillary Clinton,...]]> Fri, 21 Nov 2014 00:00:00 -0600 By going it alone on immigration reform, President Obama signaled Thursday that, in his final two years in office, he's going to be dealing strictly in reality—his version of it anyway.

Not the long-dead dream of hope and change, that rhetoric alone can move mountains. Not the similar fantasy of working hand-in-hand with congressional Republicans. Or even the fiction that most of the country is listening to him.

Constrained by crises over which he has little power to impact events, hemmed in by a divided Congress more interested in scoring points with voters than in legislating, and watching as his potential successor assumes more and more of the political spotlight, Obama may be receding into history more quickly than either he or his aides ever anticipated.

We're sitting in a Cracker Barrel restaurant filled—no, jammed—with customers, many of them tourists in town to take in the March sun, play golf, or see an exhibition baseball game. It isn't long before the meal arrives—and here it's never contained to a single plate. Food thuds on the table like mortars. "This is a don't-judge-me breakfast," Constantin Querard says.

They wish.

In fact, what President Obama has announced will have little operational effect on the National Security Agency's collection of Americans' data. And, significantly, the administration has attempted to dodge some of the biggest decisions, passing the ball to Congress, which will likely do nothing if recent trends hold.

Nor is the chief justice of the United States a closet liberal, a rank opportunist, a political animal, a consummate deal-maker, a turncoat, a sellout, a coward, an Obama-lover, a pod person, or the secret love child of Earl Warren.

A month after he shocked lawyers, pundits, and the press by single-handedly rescuing the Democratic health care insurance overhaul, known forevermore as "Obamacare," from near-certain doom, Roberts remains monstrously unpopular with conservatives. His approval ratings have dropped so precipitously among the Right (and have correspondingly soared among the Left) that he could serve as a celebrity endorser for Dramamine....]]> Tue, 29 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0500 In his remarks to the nation Monday, President Obama needed to navigate a narrow, thorny path in explaining the United States' involvement in Libya's internal strife.

He had to persuade a somewhat skeptical American public that intervention was in the national interest, while reassuring viewers that the U.S. military's role would remain a limited one.

The new president had won over voters once thought to have abandoned his party for good. He'd found new reservoirs of support among groups many thought were tapped out.

He energized a coalition — made up of blacks, women, Latinos, young voters and large numbers of suburbanites — that some believed would keep Democrats in power for years to come.