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President Obama rushed to fill nearly 100 federal government vacancies during a frenzy of appointments in his final few weeks in office. Since the new year, Obama has named 72 people to federal job openings and nominated another 17 for positions requiring Senate confirmation, according to CBS reporter Mark Knoller. On Monday night, Obama announced appointments for 27 officials to government positions and named two to jobs requiring Senate confirmation. The wave of announcements includes several White House officials, who will serve well after Obama leaves office.

Thousands of people have lined up in frigid temperatures hoping for tickets to President Barack Obama’s farewell speech in his hometown of Chicago. Tickets are being handed out Saturday morning at McCormick Place, a convention center along Lake Michigan. […] Obama has described the event as “a chance to say thank you for this amazing journey.” …

In his weekly address, President Obama on Saturday delivered a message to the nation for the new year. In his message, Obama reflected upon the “significant progress” he and his administration made over his two terms, citing Obamacare, the death of Osama bin Laden, and the Iran nuclear deal. He also praised the power of “diplomacy” for creating the Iran deal that “shut down Iran’s nuclear weapons program,” fostered new relations with Cuba, and led to the Paris Climate Agreement. “We have made extraordinary progress as a country these past eight years,” said Obama. “To keep America moving forward is...

With just over two weeks left in office, President Barack Obama wants you to know that for him it’s “always been about you.” “In 1796, as George Washington set the precedent for a peaceful, democratic transfer of power, he also set a precedent by penning a farewell address to the American people. And over the 220 years since, many American presidents have followed his lead,” Obama said in a blog post about the speech he plans to deliver in Chicago on Jan. 10.

(CNN) President Barack Obama will deliver his farewell address to the nation on January 10 from his home city of Chicago, the President announced in a statement Monday. "I'm thinking about them as a chance to say thank you for this amazing journey, to celebrate the ways you've changed this country for the better these past eight years, and to offer some thoughts on where we all go from here," Obama wrote. President Obama said he was following the precedent set by George Washington, who penned a farewell address to the American people over 220 years ago.

President Obama says he believes he would have won the 2016 presidential election had he been a candidate. . . . The president, whose second term ends next month and is, of course, forbidden to seek a third term, told his former senior adviser that based on the conversations he's had — even with "some people who disagreed with me" — people nationwide have said "the direction that you point towards is the right one."

President Obama admitted he cried at a recent senior staff send-off dinner — and is now claiming that he’d be able to get re-elected if he had run for president again. “I am confident in this vision because I’m confident that if I had run again and articulated it, I think I could’ve mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it,” Obama said in a “The Axe Files” podcast interview by former aide David Axelrod. “I know that in conversations that I’ve had with people around the country, even some people who disagreed with me, they would...

Hypocrisy never sleeps: even as the Obama ambassador to the UN ensured the passage of the Resolution against Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Barry  - without a smidgeon of pecksniffery – wished Jews around the world a Happy Hanukkah: “As night falls over each of the next eight days, Jews in the United States, Israel, and around the world will gather to light their Hanukkah menorahs, display them proudly in the window, and recall the miracles of both ancient times and the present day.For more than two millennia, the story of Hanukkah has reminded the world of the Jewish people’s...

President Barack Obama defended his vision of America on David Axelrod's The Axe Files podcast, claiming he is confident "that if I had run again and articulated [this vision], I think I could've mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it." The interview was the latest in Obama's post-election and pre-exit analysis, and he told his former senior adviser that despite Donald Trump winning, "what I would argue is, is that the culture actually did shift, that the majority does buy into the notion of a one America that is tolerant and diverse and open and full...

In a recent discussion about political correctness and whether it has gone too far, President Barack Obama said it's a “tricky issue,” because "the definition of political correctness is all over the map.” At one point in his pre-vacation interview with NPR, Obama used himself as an example: “I had to live through controversies like the notion that I was trying to kill Christmas. Right? Well, where’d that come from? Well, I bet, you know, well, he said ‘Happy Holidays’ instead of ‘Merry Christmas’. So, that, you know, that must be evidence of him either not being a Christian or...

President Barack Obama began the second day of his annual Hawaii holiday vacation Sunday with a wet midmorning walk at Ho‘oma­luhia Botanical Garden on Oahu’s Windward side. The president and first lady were joined by friends for the nature walk in Kaneohe on a rainy, overcast day. At times the rain turned into a downpour,

What are you watching here? This is Obama, speaking at Fort Drum and justifying his willy-nilly pullout of Afghanistan in front of the 10th Mountain Division. And he references SFC Jared Monti of the 10th Mountain as being the first Medal of Honor recipient not to get the award posthumously. Except Jared Monti was dead when he got the award. He was killed in action in 2006. Those are his parents in the picture as Obama presented them with Monti’s MOH. The soldier Obama must have been thinking about is SSG Sal Giunta, of the 173rd Airborne. Giunta was the...

The juxtaposition on our front page this morning is striking. We carry a photograph of Acting Sgt Michael Lockett - who was killed in Helmand on Monday - receiving the Military Cross from the Queen in June, 2008. He was the 217th British soldier to die in the Afghan conflict. Alongside the picture, we read that the Prime Minister was forced to dash through the kitchens of the UN in New York to secure a few minutes “face time” with President Obama after five requests for a sit-down meeting were rejected by the White House. What are we to make...