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Here is a video report from ABC and Jake Tapper which says President Obama is losing ground on both the economy and health care. The report shows a new Washington Post/ABC News poll that has Obama's approval dropping dramatically on his handling of the economy, the deficit, and health care. Jake Tapper reports that is why Obama will talk health care all five days this week, including a prime time Press Conference on Wednesday night, and a visit to the Cleveland Clinic on Thursday. Tapper also reports that Obama is counting on an essay by ailing Sen. Ted Kennedy to...

TAPPER: On April 20th -- I know you remember when the president said that he'd asked all the Cabinet secretaries to identify at least $100 million in additional cuts to their administrative budgets, separate and apart from the work Orszag and the rest of the team did. And they were required to report back with their savings at the end of 90 days. So that was 91 days ago, and I'm wondering if you guys have any list of the spending cuts. GIBBS: The -- those are being reviewed now, and we'll release something in the coming days. TAPPER: OK,...

Barack Obama and his administration don’t mind playing hardball on the stimulus package, as Jake Tapper reports. Yesterday, Senator Jon Kyl suggested that not only should Congress refuse to consider a second stimulus package, they should bring the current Porkulus to a halt before it wastes even more money. Rather than make a reasoned argument for their stimulus package, however, the White House threatened to choke Arizona’s federal funds in retaliation: "On This Week with George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said of the $787 billion stimulus package, “the reality is it hasn’t helped yet. Only about 6.8...

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has received lettres from Obama cabinet secretaries reminding her how much money her state stands to lose if stimuls spending is halted as Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) called for on Sunday saying it hasn't done what the administration promised it would. From ABC News' Jake Tapper In a coordinated response to comments made by an Arizona Republican senator calling for a the stimulus bill to be halted, the Obama administration this week coordinated a series of letters to the governor of Arizona, with the implicit message: put up or shut up. Arizona Republicans responded that the...

If a teleprompter falls in the White House, does it make a sound? Yes, especially when it’s the President’s teleprompter – or TOTUS as it is often referred to. Midway through his speech on urban and metropolitan policy in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building this afternoon, one of his two small glass prompters came crashing down, hitting the wood floor and crashing in many pieces. It made quite a ruckus. “Oh, goodness,” a startled President Obama said. “Sorry about that, guys.” He then proceeded on with his remarks, “To pull our economy back from the brink, including the largest and...

Yes, especially when it’s the President’s teleprompter – or TOTUS as it is often referred to. Midway through his speech on urban and metropolitan policy in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building this afternoon, one of his two small glass prompters came crashing down, hitting the wood floor and crashing in many pieces. It made quite a ruckus. “Oh, goodness,” a startled President Obama said. “Sorry about that, guys.” He then proceeded on with his remarks, “To pull our economy back from the brink, including the largest and most sweeping economic recovery plan in our nation's history…” For the rest of...

Despite devoting almost the entire Good Morning America program on Tuesday to Michael Jackson, ABC could only find three minutes for a hard-hitting Jake Tapper interview with Barack Obama. And even though co-host Diane Sawyer promised at the close of the piece, "And we'll have more of the President's interview with Jake Tapper later in the broadcast," the show never returned. Tapper, who was in Moscow to cover Obama's summit with Russian President Dimitry Medvedev, quizzed, "Whether it's this summit with President Medvedev, or anything else, can you point to any reason why you're encouraged that your approach to Iran...

President Obama struggled to explain today whether his health care reform proposals would force normal Americans to make sacrifices that wealthier, more powerful people -- like the president himself -- wouldn't face. The probing questions came from two skeptical neurologists during ABC News' special on health care reform, "Questions for the President: Prescription for America," anchored from the White House by Diane Sawyer and Charles Gibson. Dr. Orrin Devinsky, a neurologist and researcher at the New York University Langone Medical Center, said that elites often propose health care solutions that limit options for the general public, secure in the knowledge...

While being interviewed by ABC News’ Jake Tapper, potential 2012 GOP presidential candidate Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC) admitted that Cheney and Limbaugh’s leadership probably isn’t good for the Republican Party. He said that Limbaugh is one of those leaders, “who have had more than their share of time at a front-row seat.” Here is the audio courtesy of Think Progress: When asked if Cheney’s upfront role was good for the GOP, Sanford said, “Probably isn’t…Everybody needs a rest from any of us in the world of politics. It’s why I am such a proponent of term limits. For a republic...

"No matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise to the American people," President Obama told the American Medical Association on June 15. "If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what." But today the president clarified that promise. It seems he wasn’t saying “no one” will take away any American’s health insurance – he was saying the government wouldn’t. Which is not to say that...

As the Obama administration faces questions about the president's firing of the Corporation for National and Community Service Inspector General last week, and about the Treasury Department challenging the independence of the Special Inspector General dedicated to federal bailout dollars for the financial bailout money, a third inspector general controversy has emerged. This week Judith Gwynn, the Inspector General for the International Trade Commission, was told that her contract would not be renewed. The news was delivered to Gwynn within three hours of Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, sending the chair of the ITC a letter asking about a March 5...

ABC News' Sunlen Miller reports: In the heat of the debate on the Hill over health care reform, President Obama spoke at a fundraiser tonight for the Democratic party, calling out the critics for “tinkering” around the edge of health care reform with their own plans. “I sincerely hope that there are members of both parties who will participate in reform,” the President said, “But for those who simply criticize without offering new ideas of their own, I have to ask —what’s your answer?” The feisty President said it’s not acceptable to “pretend” that offering “meager tax cuts” is a...

If, like me, you haven't had time over the last few days to keep up with the story of Barack Obama's firing of Gerald Walpin, the Inspector General who has responsibility for the AmeriCorps program (Bruon York) will bring you up to speed. The story is an interesting one that sheds light on the lawless, bullying nature of the Obama administration. Walpin, who by statute is supposed to be independent of White House control, ran afoul of Obama because he investigated a charity operated by former pro basketball player Kevin Johnson, a prominent Obama supporter. The non-profit, St. Hope, received...

It was Wednesday evening and Gerald Walpin was pleading for his job. Just a few hours before, at around 5:20 pm, Walpin -- , Inspector General of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) -- was driving on a highway when he had received a phone call from Norm Eisen, special counsel to the president for ethics and government reform, informing him that President Obama no longer had confidence in him and wanted him to resign. Walpin had an hour to make up his mind as to whether he was going to resign or have the president seek his...

TAPPER: I have two questions, Robert. First, how do you respond to the charge that in the hurry to make the president's deadline of closing Guantanamo within a year some decisions are being made without proper consultation? A senior State Department official yesterday said that the British government was, quote-unquote, 'pissed' that they had not been consulted about Uighurs going to Bermuda. GIBBS: I think they were -- if I'm not mistaken, and I don't want to parse the word 'pissed,' but I think they... (LAUGHTER) TAPPER: It was your administration's word, not mine. GIBBS: All right. But I --...

President Obama’s Justice Department filed legal papers late Thursday to dismiss the first same sex marriage case filed in federal court. The Justice Department defended the Defense Of Marriage Act, or DOMA, which as a candidate then-Sen. Obama opposed, saying that the plaintiffs Arthur Smelt and Christopher Hammer are seeking a ruling on "whether by virtue of their marital status they are constitutionally entitled to acknowledgment of their union by states that do not recognize same-sex marriage, and whether they are similarly entitled to certain federal benefits. Under the law binding on this Court, the answer to these questions must...

ABC News' Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller report: A cynic might wonder why the Obama White House feels the need to open up its own informal taxpayer-financed television broadcasts to run puff pieces about President Obama and his team, given the willingness of so many others to do the job for free, but once again we bring you an installment of OTV. This episode features White House chef Sam Kass and Phillies 1st Baseman Ryan Howard, who just gained a World Series Ring and dropped twenty pounds. They talk nutrition and healthy diet! It's really one to grow on.

Just a day after President Obama announced he was nominating appellate court judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, the battle over her confirmation has begun with former House speaker Newt Gingrich branding her a racist and saying she should withdraw. Gingrich today joined the chorus of conservatives such as Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh, who called Sotomayor a "reverse racist." The accusations are aimed at comments Sotomayor made during a 2001 lecture at the University of California-Berkeley. Referring to former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's saying that "a wise old man and wise old woman will reach the same conclusion...

Somebody in the lamestream media tries to do some actual reporting.

In his weekly address today, President Obama calls for fiscal discipline and says his administration will eliminate waste and increase efficiency. "We cannot settle for a future of rising deficits and debts that our children cannot pay," the president says, adding that we must "recognize that we cannot meet the challenges of today with old habits and stale thinking. So much of our government was built to deal with different challenges from a different era. Too often, the result is wasteful spending, bloated programs, and inefficient results. It’s time to fundamentally change the way that we do business in Washington."...