The official blog of The Daily.

Download the app for the full interactive experience.

Today’s awkward lunch between President Obama and Mitt Romney would be a lot more interesting if they pulled these passive-aggressive moves. 

Today’s awkward lunch between President Obama and Mitt Romney would be a lot more interesting if they pulled these passive-aggressive moves. 

Everything you need to know about Myanmar as President Obama becomes the first serving U.S. president to visit, attempting to strike a balance between praising the nation for shaking off military rule and pressing for more reforms. 

President Obama made it clear yesterday that he’s fed up with a do-nothing Congress and won’t be intimidated by GOP attacks. At his first news conference since being re-elected, Obama dared Republicans to raise taxes on the richest Americans, and slammed two powerful GOP lawmakers for picking on his U.N. ambassador, challenging them to “go after me” instead. With another four years in the White House stretching before him, a stern Obama took Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham to task for their “outrageous” swipes against Ambassador Susan Rice. Rice has been under fire for remarks she made days after the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. She called the assault, in which Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed, a “spontaneous” act spawned by protests against an anti-Islam film. She later corrected herself, saying that intelligence subsequently had determined that it was a terrorist attack. “If Sen. McCain and Sen. Graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me,” Obama told reporters in the East Room of the White House. “And I’m happy to have that discussion with them. But for them to go after the U.N. ambassador, who had nothing to do with Benghazi, and was simply making a presentation based on intelligence that she had received, and to besmirch her reputation is outrageous.”

President Obama made it clear yesterday that he’s fed up with a do-nothing Congress and won’t be intimidated by GOP attacks.

At his first news conference since being re-elected, Obama dared Republicans to raise taxes on the richest Americans, and slammed two powerful GOP lawmakers for picking on his U.N. ambassador, challenging them to “go after me” instead.

With another four years in the White House stretching before him, a stern Obama took Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham to task for their “outrageous” swipes against Ambassador Susan Rice.

Rice has been under fire for remarks she made days after the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. She called the assault, in which Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed, a “spontaneous” act spawned by protests against an anti-Islam film. She later corrected herself, saying that intelligence subsequently had determined that it was a terrorist attack.

“If Sen. McCain and Sen. Graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me,” Obama told reporters in the East Room of the White House. “And I’m happy to have that discussion with them. But for them to go after the U.N. ambassador, who had nothing to do with Benghazi, and was simply making a presentation based on intelligence that she had received, and to besmirch her reputation is outrageous.”

We asked columnist Michael Maiello to paint us a picture of what left-leaning folks think America could look like in 2016, after four more years of Obama.  It’s August 2016, and Barack Obama is finally beginning to waddle like a lame duck. But wow, has he had a busy and productive four years. The White House race in 2012 was a hard-fought contest after a first term marked by long stretches of gridlock and inertia. Even many liberals wondered if Obama was incapable of getting things done. It’s safe to say that no one wonders that anymore. For those of us who backed the president in ’08 and ’12 and support his main policy objectives, we’ve gotten all that we ever could have hoped for. His second term will go down in the history books as a golden age for liberal politics in America. Just as Ronald Reagan fundamentally changed the country as a conservative leader in the ’80s, Obama has done so as a progressive three decades later. Of course, not everyone is happy about it — including lots of Republicans. But we’re not worried about them or their complaints in this essay. This is about taking stock of all the ways in which Obama has transformed America in his second term. So step into the time machine and get ready to see what change really looks like. Read more. 

We asked columnist Michael Maiello to paint us a picture of what left-leaning folks think America could look like in 2016, after four more years of Obama. 

It’s August 2016, and Barack Obama is finally beginning to waddle like a lame duck. But wow, has he had a busy and productive four years.

The White House race in 2012 was a hard-fought contest after a first term marked by long stretches of gridlock and inertia. Even many liberals wondered if Obama was incapable of getting things done. It’s safe to say that no one wonders that anymore.

For those of us who backed the president in ’08 and ’12 and support his main policy objectives, we’ve gotten all that we ever could have hoped for. His second term will go down in the history books as a golden age for liberal politics in America. Just as Ronald Reagan fundamentally changed the country as a conservative leader in the ’80s, Obama has done so as a progressive three decades later.

Of course, not everyone is happy about it — including lots of Republicans. But we’re not worried about them or their complaints in this essay. This is about taking stock of all the ways in which Obama has transformed America in his second term.

So step into the time machine and get ready to see what change really looks like.

Read more. 

A look back at Obama’s long, winding road back to the White House … as a sweet little game of Candy Land!

A look back at Obama’s long, winding road back to the White House … as a sweet little game of Candy Land!

If you’re still undecided, click here.

If you’re still undecided, click here.

We’ve compiled some of the most noteworthy reactions to last night’s debate. Click here for more!

We’ve compiled some of the most noteworthy reactions to last night’s debate. Click here for more!

Obama is still in the lead — but barely.

Our Reihan Salam put together this list of five (unlikely) events that could possibly help the President regain his momentum.

Both political parties could be missing a crucial — and open-minded — group of voters in swing state Ohio: Actual swingers. One recent estimate cited by ABC News suggests that four million Americans participate in the ‘swingers’ lifestyle. Assuming the sexual adventurers are evenly distributed across the country, the Buckeye State is home to about 150,000 — a number greater than George W. Bush’s vote margin over John Kerry in 2004. In a state whose 18 electoral votes may well decide the presidency, it’s a constituency that might merit some calculated courting.

Both political parties could be missing a crucial — and open-minded — group of voters in swing state Ohio: Actual swingers.

One recent estimate cited by ABC News suggests that four million Americans participate in the ‘swingers’ lifestyle. Assuming the sexual adventurers are evenly distributed across the country, the Buckeye State is home to about 150,000 — a number greater than George W. Bush’s vote margin over John Kerry in 2004. In a state whose 18 electoral votes may well decide the presidency, it’s a constituency that might merit some calculated courting.

The man who went to school with both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney and predicted the president would “smoke” the Republican nominee says he is dumbfounded by Obama’s poor showing in the first debate. “I’m surprised. I was shocked, actually,” Sidney Barthwell, a district court magistrate in Michigan who attended Cranbrook with Romney and Harvard Law School with Obama, told The Daily. “That was not the Barack Obama I’ve seen through the years. I’m thinking the man might have had the flu or something.”

The man who went to school with both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney and predicted the president would “smoke” the Republican nominee says he is dumbfounded by Obama’s poor showing in the first debate.

“I’m surprised. I was shocked, actually,” Sidney Barthwell, a district court magistrate in Michigan who attended Cranbrook with Romney and Harvard Law School with Obama, told The Daily. “That was not the Barack Obama I’ve seen through the years. I’m thinking the man might have had the flu or something.”