President Barack Obama ends his first year in office with his to-do list still long and his unfulfilled campaign promises stacked high. From winding down the war in Iraq to limiting lobbyists, Obama has made some progress. But the president has faced political reality and accepted – sometimes grudgingly – compromises that leave him exposed to criticism. Promises that have proven difficult... 

By Michael Isikoff President Obama’s decision to suspend sending any detainees being held in the Guantánamo Bay detention facility back to Yemen was “politically, a no-brainer,” a senior administration official tells NEWSWEEK. But the move will do more than complicate Obama’s commitment to shut down the base: it has raised new questions about whether the facility will be shuttered... 

At least a dozen former Guantánamo Bay inmates have rejoined al-Qaeda to fight in Yemen, The Times has learnt, amid growing concern over the ability of the country’s government to accept almost 100 more former inmates from the detention center. The Obama Administration promised to close the Guantánamo facility by January 22, a deadline that it will be unable to meet. The 91 Yemeni prisoners in... 

Former Vice President Dick Cheney accused President Barack Obama on Tuesday of “trying to pretend we are not at war” with terrorists, pointing to the White House response to the attempted sky bombing as reflecting a pattern that includes banishing the term “war on terror” and attempting to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center.   Share/Save Read More →

Greg Craig, the top in-house lawyer for President Barack Obama, is getting the blame for botching the strategy to shut down Guantanamo Bay prison by January — so much so that he’s expected to leave the White House in short order. Share/Save Read More →

By Joseph Curl Facing the first real rough patch of his presidency, President Obama and his supporters are once again resorting to a tried-and-true tactic: attacking George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Share/Save Read More →

After a fairly smooth opening, President Barack Obama faces new concerns among the American public about the budget deficit and government intervention in the economy as he works to enact ambitious health and energy legislation, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds. Share/Save Read More →

After mending fences with the Muslim world in Cairo on Thursday, President Obama might want to keep his diplomatic tools handy for his stopover here, to repair his increasingly strained relationship with Chancellor Angela Merkel. Share/Save Read More →

By Michael Goodwin It was a tale of two speeches. One was clear, direct and powerful. Barack Obama gave the other speech. It would have been heresy to write those words any other time, so commanding has President Obama been with the spoken word. But the real Mission Impossible was to imagine that wheezy old Dick Cheney would be the speaker to best Obama. Share/Save Read More →

By Toby Harnden Thank goodness for Vice President Joe Biden. In one of the few amusing parts of the Wanda Sykes comedy routine at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, she said: "God forbid that Joe Biden falls into the hands of terrorists….We're done. Oh, they won't even have to torture him. All they have to do is go, 'How's it going, Joe?'" Share/Save Read More →

By Michael Goodwin He's the man with the silver tongue, "a gift," as he once called his inspired ability with words. Yet while a heated battle with national security implications rages around him, President Obama has pushed his mute button. It's been six days since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi went wiggy and accused the Central Intelligence Agency of repeatedly lying to her and others...