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Debt talks to resume Monday after testy 75-minute session By: Carrie Budoff Brown and David Rogers July 10, 2011 12:24 PM EDT President Barack Obama called congressional leaders back to the White House for another round of budget talks Monday, telling them during a testy meeting Sunday that they will gather daily until a deal is reached, Democratic and Republican officials said. In a bid to take his case to voters, the president also will hold a press conference Monday morning, the White House announced at the conclusion of the meeting. During a 75-minute session Sunday at the White House,...

Surprising to many, the Exxon Valdez spill is only the 34th largest oil spill ever. And while the Deep Water Horizon spill is a disaster by any means, it remains distant to this top 10 list (Hopefully it never makes this list). I decided to publish this list because I’ve heard a handful of people say it’s the end-of-the-Ocean/Gulf-as-we-know-it. While it will take time to cleanup the surrounding shores from this environmental disaster, there is no doubt the Ocean and Gulf of Mexico will continue. See Top 10 List...

Talk about taking another giant leap in the wrong direction. Fresh off his successful (for now) effort to ram through an unpopular healthcare “reform” law, President Barack Obama is now fighting for legislation on Capitol Hill that would set up a permanent fund to bail out companies in the financial sector. Of course, that’s not how his team is spinning things. On the White House Blog, Jen Psaki claims that “under the Senate bill, the taxpayers will never be asked to foot the bill for Wall Street’s irresponsibility.” But that’s simply not true If you liked the bailouts in 2008,...

President Obama at a Shanghai town hall with students, as provided by the White House PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good afternoon. It is a great honor for me to be here in Shanghai, and to have this opportunity to speak with all of you. I'd like to thank Fudan University's President Yang for his hospitality and his gracious welcome. I'd also like to thank our outstanding Ambassador, Jon Huntsman, who exemplifies the deep ties and respect between our nations. I don't know what he said, but I hope it was good. (Laughter.) What I'd like to do is to make some opening...

Off-year elections can be notoriously unreliable as predictors of the future, but as a window on how the political landscape may have changed in the year since President Obama won the White House, Tuesday's Republican victories in Virginia and New Jersey delivered clear warnings for the Democrats. Neither gubernatorial election amounted to a referendum on the president, but the changing shape of the electorates in both states and the shifts among key constituencies revealed cracks in the Obama 2008 coalition and demonstrated that, at this point, Republicans have the more energized constituency heading into next year's midterm elections. The most...