Barack Obama, Democrats | featured news

The 2008 election was a reminder of the demographic forces that are changing America and potentially the political balance in the country. The most diverse electorate in the nation’s history added to the favorable winds that pushed President Obama to victory. He will need the assistance of those shifts even more in 2012 if he is to avoid defeat.

It's become a periodic sight: hecklers interrupting a speech by President Obama. This time, followers of the Occupy Wall Street movement began yelling at the president today as he began his speech in Manchester, N.H.

For much of the presidential election of 2008, Barack Obama’s campaign was Emma Guerrero’s life. She was one of a dozen volunteers who showed up at an Obama campaign office here every night, taking time from her studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, to be part of what she still remembers as the most exciting period of her life.

The sweeping health care reform bill championed by President Barack Obama was upheld as constitutional by another federal appeals court Tuesday.

He shouldn't have to concede any states for lack of money – and he already has raised more than his Republican rivals combined. His approval ratings are down and the economic recovery is sputtering. But President Obama brings to the 2012 campaign one strategic advantage that previous Democratic presidential candidates would have envied: the money to compete everywhere.

There’s no question that President Obama faces one of the most challenging political environments in modern memory as he prepares to try to win a second term next November.

President Obama faces the voters a year from today, and right now he has reasons to be both concerned and confident. On the downside, there's an unemployment rate of 9% and approval ratings stuck in the 40s; on the other hand, Obama leads all the Republican challengers in most polling. Approval ratings in the 40s are a problem for any president seeking re-election.

Senate Democrats proposed Friday tax incentives for businesses hiring veterans as well as job training for all service members leaving the military. The measure was unveiled as the next piece in President Obama's jobs bill and as a remedy to unemployment among veterans.

President Barack Obama's fortunes are improving slightly, although he would face a tough struggle for re-election next year if Mitt Romney were the Republican nominee, a Reuters/Ipsos poll said on Friday.

President Obama appears to be moving up politically. A new Quinnipiac Poll gives Obama an approval rating of 47% -- not great, to be sure, but better than the 41% he rang up in the same poll last month.