Gun-Toter's Pastor Prayed for Obama's Death

Iowa Tea Party founder Ryan Rhodes confronts him at town hall

(USER SUBMITTED) - President Obama was greeted with some unexpected spice at the end of his town hall meeting in Iowa last night, when the founder of the Iowa Tea Party confronted him about Joe Biden's alleged remark that Tea Party members acted like "terrorists" (the VP denies saying it ). Obama didn't directly respond in public, but did tell Ryan Rhodes that "as someone who’s been called a socialist, not born here, taking away freedoms for providing health care, I’m all for lowering the rhetoric." The two then apparently held a brief but "animated" private conversation, reports Greta Van Susteren's GretaWire . More»

Says 'big chunk of country thinks I've been too soft on you'

(NEWSER) - President Obama insisted he was not “anti-business” today, as he was confronted with several angry businesspeople in a town hall-style event on CNBC . “I have been amused over the last couple of years by this sense of me beating up on Wall Street,” Obama said. “Most folks on Main Street feel like they got beat up on. There's a big chunk of the country that thinks I've been too soft on Wall Street.” More»

(NEWSER) - The Rev. Steven Anderson—he's the Arizona preacher praying for the president's death—is positioning himself nicely to take up a new title, writes Jeffrey Weiss for Politics Daily: American Taliban. Anderson isn't a terrorist. But he is a "man with an absolute belief in a particular interpretation of Scripture that many others consider archaic, an interest in seeing those beliefs affect the modern political and legal milieu, and a disregard (even a contempt) for other putative co-religionists who do not share these views. Sound familiar?" More»

Health care reform advocates look to Obama '08 playbook

(NEWSER) - Obama supporters will try to recapture the energy of his presidential campaign with a two-week health care reform push featuring a bus tour, rallies, and more than 2,000 house parties. Organizing for America, the network of Obama supporters now run by the Democratic National Committee, aims to show lawmakers that the raucous town halls of previous weeks don't represent the majority of Americans who, want to see health care expanded. More»

Terrorism, recession, economy drive nationwide rage

(NEWSER) - With town halls gone mad and anti-Obama protesters toting guns, this is America’s angriest summer in recent memory, McClatchy reports. The fury of voters has deep roots, from a long history of hate groups to anti-Vietnam marches to rage against George W. Bush when he left office—but it’s only intensified under Barack Obama. Town halls "were the most visible sign of something that may be larger," one expert says. More»