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Lots of tense, awkward laughter on NPR today! Hillary Clinton's book tour took her to "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross this afternoon, where the two got into it a bit over if and when Clinton "evolved," as they say, on the issue of gay marriage, or whether she held her personal opinions in favor of equality until they were politically viable. The answer is: Clinton is not telling. But it wasn't for Gross's lack of trying. "So what's it like when you're in office and you have to do all these political calculations to not be able to support something...

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) wave to the crowd June 27, 2008 in Unity, New Hampshire. Obama and Clinton appeared together in a show of unity for Obama's presidential campaign. Almost exactly six years ago, when Hillary Clinton finally conceded the Democratic presidential nomination to Barack Obama, she bore the scars of years of partisan warfare that he had soared above. As Clinton unofficially embarks upon her second presidential campaign with the release of her book, the two figures have nearly reversed roles. Now Obama is a figure brought low by accumulated...

Hillary Rodham Clinton retains broad public support for her performance as secretary of state, a sign that President Obama’s struggles abroad and Republican attacks over Benghazi have not been a major drag on her reputation. “More people blame the White House than they blame the secretary of state, and that strikes me as quite appropriate,” said Kori Schake, a former State Department official during the George W. Bush administration. The public “admires Secretary Clinton’s toughness and how much she got out there and tried to do stuff.” With many of the Obama administration’s foreign policy priorities still unresolved, Clinton has...

One-time presidential candidate Hillary Clinton refused to go along with an Obama campaign attack against Sarah Palin in 2008 that she saw as gender baiting, according to an except from her new memoir reported Friday. NBC News’ Kelly O’Donnell said during a morning segment on “The Today Show” that despite reconciling with the Obama camp after the primaries, Clinton didn’t endorse the campaign’s anti-Palin line upon her selection as John McCain’s vice-presidential nominee. “When Sarah Palin was picked by John McCain, Clinton refused to back up a ‘dismissive statement’ from Obama’s campaign,” O’Donnell reported. “‘I was not going to attack...

Talk along the lines of Hillary, Hillary, Hillary dominated the network news shows Sunday, as hosts and their guests mulled Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state, excerpts from her forthcoming memoir Hard Choices and her potential 2016 presidential bid. Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace countered praise of Clinton from Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., by listing some of Clinton’s troubles as President Barack Obama’s top diplomat. Wallace singled out developments in U.S. relations during Obama’s first term with Russia, Iran and Syria."She defended Syria’s President Assad as a possible reformer at the start of that country’s civil war," he...

One great big GOP/Fox News rebuke. That’s the early word on Hillary Clinton’s Benghazi explanation in her new book, “Hard Choices,” out on June 10. She’s “defiant,” not “defensive.” She blames her Ben-ghazi critics for exploiting the “tragedy over and over as a political tool” against her that has nothing to do with justice for the four Americans who died there. Since that’s an accurate summation of Republicans’ cynical agenda on Benghazi — and since an awful lot of Americans can see that clearly — I’d say those who think Ben-ghazi will sink Clinton in 2016, well, they better think...

Medical research has indicated that people like schizophrenics, or people suffering from mania, cannot distinguish between voices outside of themselves and the self-talk that goes inside their head. It’s just a simple biologic matter of that particular brain not being able to make that distinction. Democrats have that same problem. And here’s why: the only voices that are truly outside Democrats’ heads are voices from the opposition that they pay no attention to. Criticism to Democrats is like a dog whistle. They just can’t hear that frequency. The media, the bureaucracy, the economists, the government funded nongovernmental organizations and...

President Barack Obama kicked off a campaign to promote new restrictions on U.S. power plant emissions on Saturday by tying the fight against climate change with efforts to promote better health for children and the elderly. In his weekly radio address, Obama said the United States had to do more to reduce carbon emissions so that children suffering from asthma and other related ailments did not face further problems as a result of polluted air. Obama said the new guidelines would reduce smog and soot that threaten vulnerable populations such as the young and the aged and he said up...

Calling someone a "racist" used to mean that a person disliked certain people because of their skin color. Today, MOST OF THE TIME, it means something entirely different. Now, if someone is better and smarter than a liberal, a liberal cries "white privilege." If a liberal is failing and he doesn't know what to do about it, he yells "racism." If a liberal doesn't know how to counter your argument, he calls it "racist." If liberal can't counter your political argument, he screams out "bigot." So, if you're conservative, it's almost a backwards compliment at this point. "You're just...

In his highly anticipated new book and movie "America," conservative author Dinesh D'Souza is warning that Hillary Clinton won't be a clone of her moderate husband, but will instead take the baton from President Obama to continue radicalizing the country and “undo the nation's founding ideals.”

As she prepares to answer questions about the Benghazi attacks of 2012, Hillary Clinton has hired former Obama aide Tommy Vietor to help with the roll out of her new book. Earlier this month, Vietor, a former Obama administration national security spokesman, appeared on Fox News to defend the administration’s response to the attacks and famously said to anchor Bret Baier: “Dude, this was like two years ago.” Here is the transcript from that exchange: BAIER: Did you also change ‘attacks’ to ‘demonstrations’ in the talking points? VIETOR: Maybe. I don’t really remember. BAIER: You don’t remember? VIETOR: Dude, this...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Hillary Clinton may not be much at administering the State Department, but she’s certainly a pro when it comes to expressing outrage at her own persecution. For the woman who is supposedly the world’s most powerful feminist, her sense of victimhood remains surprisingly strong. That’s never been more true than in her new book, Hard Choices, which points out that she – not the four men who died in Benghazi, Libya, on the night of September 11, 2012 – is the victim. The Clinton camp reportedly leaked the 34-page Benghazi chapter of Hillary’s latest tome to favored outlet Politico. The...

“It is inaccurate to state that every single one of them was influenced by this hateful video." This statement is part of Hillary's 36 page "fog of war" chapter on Benghazi in her forthcoming memoir, a chapter obtained at least in part by Politico's Maggie Haberman, and it appears to be indicative of how she filled those 36 pages without answering any of the crucial questions about the events of that night and the following day. This line refers to the killers. And this line is of course a straw man, easily recognized after the president's straw man Woodstock at...

Behind Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s visit to Iowa this week to campaign for local politicians is a careful effort to remake his image from the 2012 Republican presidential candidate who couldn’t remember a key message during a debate, to a more polished and prepared contender. While he denies it is a dress rehearsal for a second presidential run, Perry is studying policy, traveling and meeting with key activists as he campaigns for Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad and U.S. Senate candidate Matt Whitaker in the state expected to host the first presidential caucus of 2016. …

First lady Michelle Obama is more aggressively wading into policy fights while expanding her portfolio. Six years into the Obama administration, the first lady has gone to bat on issues outside her bailiwick in the East Wing. [snip] Most notably, earlier this month, she spoke out on the kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian girls......[snip] She also made a rare foray into Capitol Hill politics earlier this week when House Republicans threatened to rollback the school lunch programs......[snip] The first lady’s more public role in politics goes beyond Boko Haram and the fight over school lunches.[snip] the first lady is...

The scandal over a made-up study that badly disrupted traffic at the George Washington Bridge may not be New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's biggest problem after all. Less than a year after the charismatic governor was the toast of the Republican Party and a leading contender to run for the White House in 2016, the story was supposed to be about a New Jersey economy that he had managed to turn around and budget problems he had been able to solve. That narrative appears to be unraveling.

Is it better for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton if Democrats boycott or participate in the new House investigation of the Benghazi attacks? That question is central to Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s decision whether to appoint Democratic members to the House select committee.

WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama chastised his Republican opponents on Monday for focusing criticism on the events surrounding the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, and on his signature healthcare law."The debate we're having now is about what, Benghazi? Obamacare? And it becomes this endless loop. It's not serious. It's not speaking to the real concerns that people have," Obama said.He was speaking to more than 60 people at a fundraising dinner for Democratic candidates for the House of Representatives.The event took place at a physician's home in the Washington suburb of Potomac, Maryland, as Obama...

Some 57 percent of Americans “who were aware of Clinton” (isn’t that everyone?) have a favorable opinion, while 43 percent see her negatively. And “nearly one-quarter of Republicans said they had a favorable view of Clinton.” That’s pretty remarkable in a polarized electorate, suggesting a certain crossover appeal. Clinton was most frequently described as “strong,” but “‘Benghazi’ was the term that stood out most when respondents who said they had an unfavorable view of Clinton were asked to explain this perspective.” And therein lies the rub. […] “The reality is that if nothing extraordinary happens, the only person who could...

In 2008, Democrats insisted that Senator John McCain was too old to be president. At a rally introducing Hillary Clinton, Congressman John Murtha criticized him for even running. "It's no old man's job," he said. Obama and Kerry used language suggesting that McCain was senile. Left-wing activists claimed that could die of skin cancer at any moment. Late night comedians turned McCain's age into a target. McClatchy headlined a story, "Some wonder if McCain's too old and wrinkly to be president." There are no stories in which reporters ask passerby if Hillary is too old and wrinkly to take...