AP American Government

Supreme Court to Decide "Obamacare" Health Case

As we recently discussed in class, the Supreme Court has agreed to consider a case challenging the so-called Obamacare health-reform law.  See here.  We'll be following this in the weeks and months to come.

Getting Serious About Governing

See Peggy Noonan's column in last Saturday's Wall Street Journal.

Change in White House Chief-of-Staff's Job

The Wall Street Journal reported today that the White House is in the process of changing the responsibilities of William Daley (pictured at left), the Chief of Staff to President Obama.  In the future, Daley is expected to focus his attention on managing relations with influential outsiders, while Peter Rouse takes over the task of managing the White House Office on a day-to-day basis.

Obama Works the Levers He Has Available

See this article from the New York Times, touching on many points about the presidency we've discussed in the last two weeks. 

Bill Daley, White House Chief of Staff

William Daley, the White House Chief of Staff, gave an interview to Roger Simon of Politico yesterday.  Read it here.

Critiques of Obama's Presidency

One of the most cogent (and, to my mind, accurate) critiques of Barack Obama's presidency appeared this past August in the New York Times.  Its author is Drew Westen, a political consultant and professor of psychology at Emory University. It is, you'll notice, a critique from the left, an expression of the sort of dissatisfaction and disappointment that many liberals feel about Obama's presidency.

Here is an article by Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton, who argues that Obama might well be a one-term president and then goes on to offer a look at some previous presidents who have failed to win re-election.

Obama's Chief of Staff Pushed Into Fighting Role

Here's an article about President Obama's chief of staff, William Daley.

Obama to Use Executive Powers

Frustrated by the obstructionist tactics of congressional Republicans, President Obama has decided to use his executive powers to achieve some of his policy objectives.  See here.

White House Abandons Stricter Air Rules

Yesterday, the White House announced that it had ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to abandon a proposed rule that would have significantly reduced emissions of smog-causing chemicals.  See here. 

We'll talk about this on Tuesday. 

Also, here is an article from Saturday's Boston Globe about the year's first hospitalization due to EEE. Note that the state is monitoring the incidence of the disease, waiting to see if aerial spraying is necessary.

The New West Wing

The New York Times recently put together this interesting interactive graphic, showing the new people President Obama has brought in recently to top positions in the EOP and the White House Office.