Campaign Fatigue Grips Dems

Xi Jinping, China's next president, to meet with Obama

(NEWSER) - The man slated to be China's next president began his US tour today, meeting with President Obama in the Oval Office before having lunch with Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. Biden will serve as Xi Jinping's host in Washington, the New York Times reports. Other stops on the agenda: a meeting with the Chamber of Commerce, and a high-level trip to the Pentagon, where he'll get an honor guard salute and meet with Leon Panetta and the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey. More»

Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell top the list

(NEWSER) - Who are the real power brokers in Washington? GQ names the top 50 in its biennial list of the most powerful people in DC—although, the magazine notes, "People with the last names Obama and Biden not included." The top five:

• Eric Cantor: The House majority leader is definitely the Democrats' least favorite Republican; you can thank him for Washington's hyper-partisanship and inability to compromise. GQ notes that he is widely expected to follow—or even push aside—John Boehner as speaker of the House.
• Mitch McConnell: "Even Cantor has to go through this guy eventually," thanks to his position as Senate minority leader.

Preliminary hearing begins Dec. 16

(NEWSER) - Bradley Manning's preliminary hearing is set to begin Dec. 16, and if the US Army private has his way, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will be among the witnesses. The president and the secretary of state were included on a 20-page list of defense witnesses in a request made Friday, Politico reports. Manning's preliminary hearing will determine whether the case against him—accusing him of passing classified information to WikiLeaks—should be referred for a full-scale court martial. More»

Hillary Clinton, as 'buyer's remorse' plagues a third of the country

(NEWSER) - The most popular politician nationwide is the one that got away: Hillary Clinton. Nearly two-thirds of the country sees the secretary of state favorably, and a third are battling what Bloomberg terms “buyer’s remorse” over not electing her president. Just over a year ago, only a quarter of Americans felt that way. “Looking back, I wonder if she would have been a stronger leader, knowing the games and the politics and all that goes on,” says a Florida woman. “I don’t think she would have bent as much.” More»

His position makes no sense, and isn't changing: Dana Milbank

(NEWSER) - Hillary Clinton fell over herself congratulating her home state on its “historic vote” in favor of gay marriage this week. “I’ve always believed that we would make progress because we were on the right side of equality and justice,” she declared. “Clinton left out one salient detail though,” writes Dana Milbank of the Washington Post : “She and her boss, President Obama, oppose legalizing gay marriage.” They say they believe gay couples should be equal, yet oppose giving them the 1,300 federal benefits straight couples enjoy. More»