Rove: Team Obama 'Winging It'

Senator's decision to quit is rallying cry for Republicans

(NEWSER) - Judd Gregg said the right bipartisan things, but to a Republican Party in need of a boost, his withdrawal as nominee for commerce secretary feels like an act of defiance against the administration, reports Politico. When his decision was announced in a party meeting, attendees broke into applause. "Sen. Gregg has shown the American people the type of selfless leadership they should only hope to see from the White House," Rep. Tom Price said in a statement. More»

Team searches for ways to bolster economy

(NEWSER) - With economic recovery looking sluggish at best , President Obama is considering a national infrastructure program, alongside a wave of tax cuts for businesses and individuals. Up for discussion are additional tax cuts for small businesses, a possible payroll tax cut for businesses and individuals, and other tax breaks aimed at encouraging businesses to hire, sources tell the Wall Street Journal . More»

Critics who say it's failed are off base: David Leonhardt

(NEWSER) - It may not “yet feel like much of a recovery” to jobless Americans, President Obama concedes, but it’s thanks to the massive economic stimulus package passed a year ago “that a second depression is no longer a possibility.” Obama celebrated the anniversary of the recovery act today with a reminder that it had saved or created around 2 million jobs. And David Leonhardt seconds the president's claim. The “best-known economic research firms” all agree with the president’s jobs numbers, he writes in the New York Times . More»

President's miscalculations include scale, momentum

(NEWSER) - Scott Brown’s Senate victory in Massachusetts is the final nail in the coffin of the Obama administration’s first-year political strategy, John F. Harris and Carol E. Lee write for Politico . The miscalculations cover “three major counts":

• Believing 2008 was a game-changer: The Obama team thought the "election represented something seismic." But "the assumption that Obama would be swimming mostly with the current rather than often against it on issues such as health care, financial regulation and global warming was naive in retrospect."

Solid first year falls short of president's ambitious agenda

(NEWSER) - In his first year in office, President Obama has done a more-than-acceptable job—but his own stated ambitions were so numerous and wide-ranging that by his own definition, his performance has been disappointing. The bar was simply set too high, writes Doyle McManus for the Los Angeles Times , "and the agenda quickly proved longer and more ambitious than either Congress or President Obama's executive branch could handle." More»