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President Obama: I’m going to win reelectionBy Amie Parnes - 01/26/12 07:07 PM ET President Obama said in no-uncertain terms on Thursday that he will win his re-election campaign in November. Asked by ABC News’s Diane Sawyer if he was going to win, Obama replied: “Yes.” He also told Sawyer he would "fight with every fiber of my being" for a second term. "How much do you want it?" Sawyer asked Obama in the interview. "Badly," Obama said. "Because I think the country needs it." Just a few months ago Obama described himself as an underdog in the 2012 election....

UPDATED: Gov. Bev Perdue is expected to announce today that she will not seek a second term as governor, two sources close to the Democrat's campaign tell The News & Observer. Perdue is expected to make an announcement this afternoon, a N.C. Democratic Party spokesman said. Her campaign aides began telling top Democrats in the past 24 hours. Perdue campaign spokesman Marc Farinella could not be reached for comment.

During the State of the Union speech last night we had the TV turned up very loud so I could hear the speech while following along in the released transcript on my computer screen and taking notes at the keyboard while simultaneously roughing a draft of our editorial today. Let him make this perfectly clear... During the 65 minutes he spoke, I developed something of a headache. It seemed to me the president virtually shouted his entire speech. . .

After reading Andrew Sullivan's Newsweek essay about President Obama, his critics, and his re-election bid, I implore him to ponder just one question. How would you have reacted in 2008 if any Republican ran promising to do the following?

Poll: Americans, 2-1, Fear Obama's ReelectionJanuary 9, 2012 When it comes to how Americans view President Obama going into the new year, there appears to be very little spirit of Auld Lang Syne. Instead, according to the new Washington Whispers poll, many voters aren't forgetting what they dislike about Obama and want him out office. In our New Year's poll, when asked what news event they fear most about 2012, Americans by a margin of two-to-one said Obama's reelection. Only 16 percent said they fear the Democrat won't win a second term, while 33 percent said they fear four more...

HONOLULU (AP) — With an eye on the 2012 campaign, President Barack Obama is wrapping up a low-key Hawaiian vacation and planning to quickly get back in front of voters as he ratchets up his bid for re-election. The president and his family are scheduled to leave the island of Oahu Monday evening after a 10-day vacation. Air Force One will touch down in Washington Tuesday morning, just hours before Republican presidential candidates square off in the Iowa caucuses, the first nominating contest of the 2012 campaign. After more than a week out of the spotlight, Obama plans to make...

If President Obama reaches a 50 percent approval rating by March, he’ll be in good shape for re-election, a panel of pollsters and election observers said today. Since the middle of July, the weekly average of Obama’s approval rating has been between 40 and 43 percent, according to Gallup, which organized the panel for the media. The pollsters pointed to two recent presidents who didn’t earn a second term to make the case for the importance of a 50-percent threshold: Just before Election Day, George H.W. Bush had a 34 percent rating, and Jimmy Carter was at 37 percent. Victors,...

Despite being heckled and shot at by members of the Occupy protests that have sprung up in various locations around the country, President Obama says they “are the reason I ran for office.” “I can’t dispute the view that corporate greed is what is dragging this country down,” the President said. “And I can’t really blame these protesters for their opposition to the current economic system. But I’m asking them to take a broader perspective.” The president acknowledged that “my taking money from Wall Street for my campaign looks bad. Surely, though, this has got to be the lesser of...

How the tables have turned. One year out from the election the Obama team is apparently worried enough about their chances at reelection that the President's top advisors secretly met with former President Bill Clinton in Harlem last week to seek out his advice.

Statement of Terry O’Sullivan, General President of LIUNA, On Delay of Keystone XL Pipeline Construction Washington, D.C. (November 10, 2011) – Terry O’Sullivan, General President of LIUNA – the Laborers’ International Union of North America – made the following statement today in response to the U.S. State Department delay of the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline: Environmentalists formed a circle around the White House and within days the Obama Administration chose to inflict a potentially fatal delay to a project that is not just a pipeline, but is a lifeline for thousands of desperate working men and women. The...

Obama delays Keystone decision until after 2012 reelection bidBy Ben Geman - 11/10/11 05:54 PM ET The Obama administration announced Thursday it would delay a politically explosive decision on the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline until after the 2012 elections. The pipeline is especially treacherous waters for President Obama because it splits key elements of his base. While green groups oppose it, several major unions are pushing for approval. Keystone had become a serious thorn in Obama’a side, with environmental groups warning they’d feel betrayed if the pipeline moved forward. Business groups and unions had heralded the thousands of...

President Obama and his team are quite optimistic they will win reelection in 2012, notwithstanding the bad poll numbers he is facing and the absolute collapse of confidence with Washington and indeed the American economy. There are a number of reasons why the president and his advisers are so optimistic. First, it is his judgment that with the horse race now tied for president, he has managed to weather the storm of a declining economy and declining confidence much better than he, or frankly most observers, would have expected. (SNIP) But what heartens the president's advisers is they believe they...

Obama’s collective team faces a daunting task to get their man elected for four more years. Some have discounted Obama’s chances in 2012 since he is such an ineffectual leader. But they forget one thing; Obama is a master campaigner. They forget he won the presidency in 2008 when the only record was a short one in the senate of primarily voting present. So how did he do it and how can he repeat it in 2012?

President Barack Obama’s new senior campaign adviser is a longtime Wall Street lobbyist, and has the potential to damage the president’s aspirations to appeal to the protesters currently “occupying” New York City’s Zuccotti Park. Obama’s new adviser, Broderick Johnson, has an extensive history of lobbying for big banks and corporations, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. In 2007, he lobbied for JP Morgan Chase and in 2008 Johnson lobbied for Bank of America and Fannie Mae. From 2008 through 2010, he lobbied for Comcast and in 2011 he lobbied for Microsoft. Johnson is currently a partner at D.C.-based communications...

Barack Obama is campaigning for both his jobs bill and his re-election on a three-day bus tour beginning Monday through North Carolina and Virginia, two southern states crucial for his chances in next November's election. ... on a $1.1 million bus purchased by the Secret Service... The effect is a campaign-style trip that allows the president to engage in a little retail politics, while also garnering the national media coverage typically afforded only to a sitting president.

I was part of a panel a few days ago on politics, culture and the media. And the first question put to us was right to the point: “Can Barack Obama win re-election?” Political guru Dick Morris, Tea Party unofficial leader Dick Armey, a scholar from the Heritage Foundation all said no. It’s tough to argue with that. President Obama’s approval ratings are not good and most Americans think we’re on the wrong track. He’s lost support from his key constituents, including Jewish voters and African-Americans. Worst of all for the president, independents who supported him in 2008 have jumped...

The disease that is the unmistakable sign of a president on the cusp of losing his re-election to the Land of Oz that is a second term in the White House. A looming loss always signaled by the telltale barking dogs of American politics. What is Barking Dog Syndrome? What sets the dogs off? For that matter -- just who are these barking dogs in the first place?

It’s April 20, 2010, and let me call it now – President Barack Obama will easily win re-election in 2012. Any discussion you hear about the 2012 presidential election is just a way to wile away the hours between the next Lindsay Lohan and/or Kim Kardashian news. There’s three indisputable reasons to call this race so early: 1) The economy will be better in 2011 than it is now. It’s almost impossible not to improve the economy after eight years of George W. Bush’s mad and often confusing slay-the-beast onslaught. It was as if the kids from “Jersey Shore” were...

One of President Barack Obama's harshest Hispanic critics on immigration policy Tuesday signalled that the president and the Latino leaders finally are getting back on the same page. In a Chicago press conference, U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Chicago, strongly backed a recent White House move to focus deportations on those convicted of felonies, ending action against illegal immigrants who have otherwise lived here without crossing the law. In a written statement, Mr. Gutierrez said the action will "move us in the right direction." But Mr. Gutierrez went much further at the press conference when asked about the policy shift. "This...

Barack Obama to be re-elected President in 2012: 49.6%