Barack Obama | featured news

President Obama's public swearing-in ceremony and parade may have been full of pageantry, but the inauguration wasn't much of a draw on television. About 20.6 million people tuned in to watch as Obama repeated his oath for a second term at the U.S. Capitol on Monday, according to Nielsen, the TV ratings company. That's way down from the nearly 37.8 million people who watched the nation's first black president take office in 2009.

In one of his first acts as commander in chief, President Obama in 2009 signed an executive order to close the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It was part of a campaign promise the president made, to close the camp and "determine how to deal with those who have been held there." But four years on, the controversial prison remains open.

Beyonce used a pre-recorded voice track to perform her rousing rendition of the national anthem at President Barack Obama's inauguration, according to the U.S. Marine Band....

The White House says a House Republican bill to extend the government's borrowing authority for three months still faces concerns in Congress but press secretary Jay Carney says that if it reaches President Barack Obama's desk, "he would not stand in the way of the bill becoming law.

The text of President Barack Obama's inauguration speech today at the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

The nation was honoring civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday - the same day it celebrated the inauguration of the first black president to his second term....

He signed 654 bills into law, made 25 foreign trips and had 113 golf outings. As President Obama's first term comes to an end, Mark Knoller of CBS News has gathered some statistics about the first four years.

On the cusp of his second term, President Barack Obama solemnly honored the nation's fallen soldiers Sunday before taking the oath of office in an intimate White House ceremony, a swearing-in ritual he will repeat 24 hours later before a massive crowd at the Capitol.

Hours before President Barack Obama's official swearing-in to a second term, top Democrats predicted a victory for the broadest component of the White House's push to change the nation's gun laws.

Monday is President Barack Obama's big day, but memories of Martin Luther King Jr. will loom large over the festivities.