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(CNN) -- President Barack Obama's goal of putting 1 million electric cars on U.S. roads by 2015 could run into a huge roadblock -- the American consumer. According to a report released Wednesday by researchers at Indiana University, automakers are unlikely to manufacture enough cars to reach the president's goal because of a potential lack of buyer demand. Nissan and General Motors, makers of the Leaf and Volt, respectively, already have the capacity to produce enough cars to meet the goal. Serious questions remain, however, about the level of desire among potential buyers worried about cost, ease of use and...

From Christiane Amanpour's interview with the Egyptian president: While he described President Obama as a very good man, he wavered when I asked him if hour felt the U.S. had betrayed him. When I asked him how he responded to the United States' veiled calls for him to step aside sooner rather than later, he said he told President Obama "you don't understand the Egyptian culture and what would happen if I step down now."

(Reuters) - When a public uprising ousted Tunisia's leader after two decades in power, U.S. policymakers and intelligence analysts immediately wondered what this might mean for Egypt, the most populous Arab nation and a staunch American ally. Indeed, as far back as last year, senior aides to President Barack Obama got a warning from outside analysts that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's grip on power was tenuous. The analysts advised the administration to try to get out in front of events. Yet, as the crisis in Egypt built over the course of the past week, the Obama administration struggled to keep...

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday challenged President Obama to "stand up" on gun control, an issue on which he has been largely silent in the wake of the tragic shootings in Tucson. During an interview on MSNBC, the a longtime gun control advocate argued that the White House, along with Congress, needs to be more vigilant in enforcing existing laws regarding the sale of firearms. "The trouble is that the Congress has done this - and they do it repeatedly - they pass a law showing they're tough on the bad guys and then they don't give...

West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin is wasting no time attacking the Obama administration’s energy policies. The senator will use his maiden speech on the Senate floor today to trumpet legislation he is introducing that would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from revoking Clean Water Act permits that have already been finalized, his aides tell POLITICO. Manchin was livid in January when EPA pulled the plug on a massive mountaintop-removal coal mine in West Virginia that the George W. Bush administration had signed off on in 2007. The move was the agency’s first-ever retroactive veto of a coal mine permit, and...

Acting on a vow to fight the Obama administration on climate issues, Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, unveiled draft legislation Wednesday to try to strip the Environmental Protection Agency of its power to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. Sen. James M. Inhofe (Okla.), ranking Republican on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, and Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), chairman of the subcommittee on energy and power, joined Upton in issuing what they called the Energy Tax Prevention Act. In a statement, the congressmen said the legislation's intent is to...

When it comes to crises like the one in Egypt, the trouble with the White House is structural. It has a briefing room. (So does State.) When you have such a room, the pressure is to have a briefing. That means saying something -- almost anything in the present case -- when prudence, history and the gods of mythology cry out for silence. The Obama administration ought to just shut up. The latest from the White House, as reported in The Post, is a reassessment of its relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood. In principle, there's nothing wrong with that. The...

In his 2011 State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama said he wanted 98 percent of Americans to have access to a high-speed Internet connection within five years. “Within the next five years, we will make it possible for business to deploy the next generation of high-speed wireless coverage to 98 percent of all Americans,” Obama said in his nationally televised address. The president also used the State of the Union to tell parents it was their job to turn off the TV set and make sure their kids get their homework done and for the United States to...

Montana could be one of a handful of states to join in a movement calling for presidential candidates to provide proof of their U.S. citizenship. MT State Representative Bob Wagner (R-Harrison) is carrying a bill that would require presidential candidates and congressional candidates to file copies of their birth certificates with the Montana Secretary of State. The issue has been in the spotlight in recent years as controversy has swirled around the birth certificate of President Obama. Wagner says his bill protects and defends the Constitution of the United States. "I don't know if the document exists or not. I...

Among the most strident recent critics of the Obama administration is one of the least-known 2012 GOP presidential prospects: former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton. Whether it’s the unfolding events in Egypt, proposed defense cuts or President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address, Bolton during the past month has been unsparing in his criticism, delivered via the main platforms available to him: Fox News and Twitter. Between those statements and some dabbling in the unfamiliar arena of state politics, Bolton appears to be contradicting a spokeswoman’s claims that he is merely “a private citizen leading a private life.” Referring...

The great abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass once told us, "If there is no struggle, there is no progress." Progress in America has not come easily, but has resulted from the collective efforts of generations. For centuries, African American men and women have persevered to enrich our national life and bend the arc of history toward justice. From resolute Revolutionary War soldiers fighting for liberty to the hardworking students of today reaching for horizons their ancestors could only have imagined, African Americans have strengthened our Nation by leading reforms, overcoming obstacles, and breaking down barriers. During National African American History...

he Senate may vote as early as this week on legislation that would repeal the Obamacare law that contains abortion and rationing concerns of pro-life groups. The vote would come on the heels of a ruling by a federal judge declaring the law unconstitutional. Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said today the Senate may vote on the House-passed legislation this week, putting on Twitter: “Vote on health care repeal could come as early as this week in the Senate.” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Jim DeMint of North Carolina, both of whom are pro-life, have led the...

Today’s CBO report has some bad news about the deficit. But CBO has some really, really bad news about Social Security: It’s officially broke. The CBO’s revenue/expenditure estimates now place the program in permanent deficit. There had been some hope that payroll taxes would recover sufficiently post-recession to put the program back into the black (the theoretical black) for at least a few more years, putting off the day of reckoning for an election cycle or more. No more: The new CBO estimates put Social Security in the red for as far as the eye can see. But there’s a...

The American government has set aside Sh3.6 billion for its youth empowerment programme in Kenya, according to US ambassador Michael Ranneberger. The announcement, made in a wide-ranging speech to the American Chamber of Commerce on January 25, indicates the Obama administration is not stepping back from its youth outreach efforts in the country, despite criticism from some politicians. Mr Ranneberger told the audience that empowering the youth to take part in the political process would stop their exploitation by politicians and enhance Kenya’s economic prospects. “President Obama has a strong interest in developing the leadership skills of young people and...

The November election sent a clear message to Washington: less government, less debt, less spending. President Obama certainly heard it, but judging from his State of the Union address, he doesn't believe a word of it. The people say they want cuts? Sure they do - in the abstract. But any party that actually dares carry them out will be punished severely. On that, Obama stakes his reelection. No other conclusion can be drawn from a speech that didn't even address the debt issue until 35 minutes in. And then what did he offer? A freeze on domestic discretionary spending...

The state would charge $100 for a copy of President Obama’s birth records under a bill introduced in the Legislature by five Democrats. It would change a privacy law barring the release of birth records unless the person seeking them has a tangible interest. The bill has not been scheduled for a public hearing, and cannot move forward unless that happens. But the idea behind it is to end skepticism over Mr. Obama’s birthplace while raising a little money for a government.

Celebrity journalist Mike Evans told Minnesota's KQRS radio last week that his friend, Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie, has been unable to find President Barack Obama's birth certificate despite an intensive search. A group of conspiracy theorists known as "birthers" have long claimed that Obama is constitutionally ineligible for the presidency because he was actually born in Kenya. Abercrombie, an old friend of Obama's family, made headlines last month when he announced that he was trying to figure out how he could release more explicit documentation of the president's birth in order to permanently defuse the issue before the 2012 elections....

President Barack Obama’s administration is using new “environmental standards” to force independent owner-operator truckers into becoming part of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a union that gave more than $2 million to Democrats in the last two election cycles. By increasing the number of “green” requirements truckers have to comply with in order to get into some major United States ports — like Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland — the Obama administration and the Environmental Protection Agency are helping push previously independent truckers into companies, which then makes them vulnerable to unionization or, in many cases, forced to join...

President Barack Obama delivered his third State of the Union speech tonight, and in an age in which opinion media so dominates political will, the reaction to the delivered text by various pundits is almost as interesting as the text itself. Take for example the initial reaction by the Fox News panel that seemed primarily unimpressed by what some may have seen as a significant move to the center by the Democratic president. Charles Krauthammer did not demure, calling the speech “flat and uninspired” and “remarkably against the trend of what the electorate said this November.” To be fair, the...

Tonight's State of the Union provides President Obama with one of the easiest, yet high profile, chances to explain why Congress should pass gay rights legislation as soon as possible. Daniel Hernandez Jr., the heroic, openly gay intern who has been credited with saving the lives of Representative Gabrielle Giffords and others during the Tuscon massacre, will be seated in First Lady Michelle Obama's box as the president delivers his address. The president, no doubt, will introduce Hernandez and thank him for his selfless actions earlier this month. But the Obamas' symbolic gesture will ring hollow unless the president asserts...