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They say failure can be a good teacher, but, so far, the Obama administration is opting out of the course. The post-midterm period has been one of the most bizarre of the Obama presidency. I’m not sure why the Obama administration has been behaving so strangely since the midterms. Maybe various people in the White House are angry in defeat and want to show that they can be as obstructionist as anyone. Maybe, in moments of stress, they are only really sensitive to criticism from the left flank. Maybe it’s Gruberism: the belief that everybody else is slightly dumber and...

After a productive trip abroad, President Barack Obama headed home Sunday on a collision course with Republicans on immigration and an oil pipeline project, showdowns that threaten prospects for cooperation over his remaining two years in office. Given his faltering political support in the U.S. and his party's recent election losses, his trip to China, Myanmar and Australia appeared to offer respite. The president, who was due to arrive in Washington late Sunday, basked in policy breakthroughs with China and warm welcomes in Myanmar and Australia. "I intend to build on that momentum when I return home," Obama said at...

During their summit meeting in Beijing, President Obama and President Xi Jinping of China made much of their agreement to ease visa restrictions for businessmen, students and tourists. Yet when Mr. Xi was asked at a news conference if he would do the same for foreign journalists, who have had a hard time obtaining permission to work in China, he displayed little patience with such concerns. The Chinese government has regularly declined to process visas for any New York Times journalist. China, with 1.3 billion people and the world’s second-largest economy after the United States, is a major force regionally...

Expectations were low when President Obama started his China trip Monday, less than a week after Democrats were trounced in the midterm elections. Yet upon his departure Wednesday from Beijing, Obama could claim some trophies from his visit: He’d landed several agreements with his hosts, including a first-ever commitment by China to control its greenhouse gas emissions. “I would describe this as the most successful multilateral summit of his presidency,” said Aaron Connelly, a research fellow in the East Asia program of Lowy Institute in Australia. He said it was impressive that the White House had been able to nail...

... Obama is the smart, well-behaved lad in the global high school that punks love to pick on. As president, he’s tried for six years to be a rational-minded conciliator. He wants his opponents, both foreign and domestic, to simmer down, dispense with threats and do the logical thing. Apparently -- from the bully who brazenly stole Crimea to the wild bunch who shut down the federal government -- everyone but him thinks that’s a lame idea. It’s doubtful anyone worries about Obama doing anything crazy. Contrary to what Nixon believed, sanity should be a good thing, right? Maybe, but...

....Jon Stewart is sitting outside his offices reflecting on his directorial debut, “Rosewater,” a drama about the unjust imprisonment of journalist Maziar Bahari in Iran.... It’s the morning after “The Daily Show” broadcast live for the midterm elections, including a sketch that reported from the campaign headquarters of the night’s big winner — Money, as played by a hard-partying Rob Riggle — and the desolate base of the night’s loser, Ideas. ....Stewart shot the film last summer in Jordan while on hiatus from “The Daily Show.” In extreme heat, working with a largely international cast and with a small budget,...

IN POLITICS, there’s nothing harder than realizing that it’s time to go. For Democrats Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, that moment has arrived. With the Democrats’ midterm losses, the two 74-year-olds should announce that when this session of Congress ends, they will relinquish their roles as leaders of their respective Democratic caucuses. And if Reid and Pelosi don’t soon come to the conclusion on their own that it’s time to bow out? Well, then, their fellow Democrats, recognizing that you can’t begin a new era with old leaders, should let both know that the time has come to go.

The full magnitude of the Republican Party’s success in reshaping the national political landscape at President Obama’s expense became clearer Wednesday morning as the party seemed headed toward an even longer list of electoral victories in Senate and governor races that had been too close to call before dawn. The results are an immediate blow to the administration’s hopes to further broaden the president’s health care law by expanding Medicaid in additional states. White House aides are bracing for calls from both parties for Mr. Obama to cancel or postpone plans to announce executive actions that would reshape the nation’s...

Did you think John Kerry was poised to win the presidency? That Scott Walker was close to losing the 2012 governor’s recall election in Wisconsin? Do you believe that the black share of the electorate in North Carolina dropped to 23 percent in 2012, from 26 percent in 2004? If you said “yes” to any of those things, you probably have too much faith in exit polls. Don’t get me wrong: Exit polls are an exciting piece of Election Day information. They’re just not perfect. The problem with them is that most analysts and readers treat them as if they’re...

Five common voter suppression tactics that experts look for: ELECTION DATE CHANGE Emails, robocalls or paper flyers placed in mailboxes or on car windshields telling voters that one political party votes on one day, and everyone else on another, are simply not true. INTIMIDATION In the past, billboards with ominous messages have appeared in neighborhoods, "observers" have threatened to challenge the eligibility of certain voters. ARREST THREATS Polling places do not have access to voters' criminal records. Anything that says you can be arrested for showing up to vote if you have unpaid parking tickets, outstanding arrest warrants or a...

After the TCU-WVU football game, I made the mistake of leaving the TV on, and the news (ABC 7 KGO in San Francisco) came on. The lead story was on a capsizing of a sport crab-fishing boat in the San Francisco Bay. (You can read about the actual story here.) The TV report had testimonials from both a US Coast Guard captain, and an officer in the Bodega Bay Fire Department. And, how did KGO ABC-7 "News" decide to label them on-screen? By using the flag of the mass-murdering, beheading, crucifying ISIS terrorist group. Witness the pictures below.

If the mainstream media had a mantra these days, it would be "The Pope Is Just Like Us!" A recent variation on the meme of Francis as an earth-shattering revolutionary is the press's guiding interpretation of the pope's address to the Pontifical Academy of the Sciences. As Catholic blogger Damian Geminder observes, MSNBC Community Editor Daniel Berger had "the most popular article on msnbc.com for much of Tuesday, featuring this completely-not-sensationalistic-and-totally-journalistic headline" No need to give details here on where the MSNBC spin goes off the rails, as Geminder has done a serviceable (albeit highly polemicized) job. So too has...

Cash-strapped news outlets looking to cover President Obama's trip to Asia next month may find it difficult to do so. At a bare minimum, outlets will have to front $60,000 per person for a seat on the chartered plane that will tail Obama as he visits China, Myanmar and Australia on a 9-day trip next month. News organizations split the cost of the chartered flight evenly, so when only a few outlets sign up, the cost skyrockets. 51 journalists will be onboard when Obama departs on Nov. 9, which partially explains the eye-popping sum.

... At a time when the Obama administration is lurching from crisis to crisis — a new Cold War in Europe, a brutal Islamic caliphate in the Middle East and a deadly epidemic in West Africa, to name just the most obvious ones — it is not surprising that long-term strategy would take a back seat. But it raises inevitable questions about the ability of the president and his hard-pressed national security team to manage and somehow get ahead of the daily onslaught of events. Early stumbles in the government’s handling of the Ebola crisis as well as its belated...

CBS honchos stuck their heads in the sand Monday rather than address a former veteran reporter’s memoir that revealed how the network routinely canned stories it perceived as anti-Obama. Everyone from network CEO Les Moonves to “Evening News’’ anchor Scott Pelley to former “Evening News’’ Executive Producer Patricia Shevlin ignored repeated phone calls and e-mails from The Post seeking comment on the bombshell claim by ex-CBS investigative ace Sharyl Attkisson. A secretary for David Rhodes, president of CBS News, immediately volleyed a Post reporter’s phone call to company spokeswoman Sonya McNail. Before the reporter could even ask a question, McNair...

Last year Former CBS News investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson, who is known for incredible work on Operation Fast and Furious, Benghazi and other White House scandals, noticed her computers at work and at home were acting strange. She suspected someone had hacked into her computer, specifically into a desktop in her home due to the machine turning on and off by itself at all hours of the night. An initial review of the hard drive revealed that her computer had in fact been compromised, but it wasn't known at the time who did it. The intruder into her system didn't...

The Conversation by Jay Rosen, Associate Professor, Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University Foundation essay: This article is part of a series marking the launch of The Conversation in the US. Our foundation essays are longer than our usual comment and analysis articles and take a wider look at key issues affecting society. If extreme polarization is now an enduring feature of American politics — not just a bug — how does that change the game for journalists? I have some ideas, but mainly I want to put that question on the table. “Conflict makes news,” it...

CNN has canceled multiple series. Per Deadline,Crossfire has officially been canceled. The series, a CNN staple from 1982-2005, relaunched in September 2013, earned low ratings until it went on hiatus in May. The show briefly returned in July, then went on hiatus again. CNN is also canceling Sanjay Gupta M.D, CNN Money With Christine Romans and Unguarded With Rachel Nichols. All three anchors will remain with the network.

This Texan takes bumper stickers to a whole new level. A photo of a truck with Texas tags that features on the tailgate one the most racist decals, complete with a real (and fresh) banana, that targets President Barack Obama was posted to Reddit on Thursday. "Does this Socialist a** make my truck look too big," the decal, which appears to be professionally done, reads. It also includes photo of Obama dressed in Somalian garb from a 2006 meeting in the country. The image was taken in the East Texas town of Tyler at the intersection of Loop 323 and...