Fickle Voters Are Change Obama Can Believe In

(NEWSER) - Among the families around the world gathering tomorrow to celebrate the beginning of Passover with a dinner, or seder, will be a high-profile group: the Obamas. The White House seder tradition started on the campaign trail in 2008, when then-senator Barack Obama surprised three staffers by showing up for their makeshift celebration in a Pennsylvania hotel basement. Last year's seder was a bit more impressive, with close to two dozen friends, relatives, and staffers gathering at the White House. More»

Let's reform health care, as long as it can stay the same

(NEWSER) - If you listen to pandering politicians or ranting radio hosts, you’d think Americans want big, far-reaching change right away. They might disagree on what change, but nobody likes the way things are. Well, you’d be wrong, writes Michael Kinsley for the Washington Post. As the health care debate so vividly demonstrates, once change becomes a concrete possibility, Americans panic. More»

(NEWSER) - With the 2006 and 2008 election victories, liberals have been cheering the end of the “ghastly interlude of conservative dominance ushered in by Ronald Reagan,” William Kristol writes in the Weekly Standard. Not so fast. “Only six months into the new administration, even a talented hot air blower like President Obama, assisted by friendly gusts of wind from the media, is having trouble keeping the liberal blimp afloat.” More»

(NEWSER) - President Obama has opted to observe today’s National Day of Prayer in private, a sharp turn from his predecessor’s policies that angers at least one organization, the Boston Globe reports. President Bush held public celebrations at the White House. “We are disappointed in the lack of participation by the Obama administration,” said Shirley Dobson of the National Day of Prayer Task Force. More»

Depending who you ask, Obama is 'elusive,' 'arrogant,' or 'preening'

(NEWSER) - Whoever the man in the Oval Office really is, he's not a traditional liberal, writes Gerald Seib in the Wall Street Journal. Rather than aiming to bolster government programs, President Obama "seems to see government as the way to prompt the changes he wants in the economy or society." But not all Republican writers are as ambivalent: More»