Susan Crabtree

Obama: June jobs report is ‘a step in the right direction’

President Obama portrayed a disappointing jobs report — just 80,000 added to the payrolls in June — as "a step in the right direction," during a campaign stop in Ohio Friday.

July 6, 2012

President tells of trade complaint against China on Ohio tour

President Obama's two-day bus tour headed to northern Ohio on Thursday, where he touted a new U.S. complaint with the World Trade Organization against China for imposing more than $3 billion in duties on American-produced automobiles.

July 5, 2012

Health care law ‘here to stay,’ president insists

President Obama defiantly insisted Thursday that his health care law is "here to stay" — and so, apparently, is the controversy over whether the massive plan is enforced by a penalty or a tax.

July 5, 2012

Obama announcing China trade complaint on Ohio swing

President Obama's two-day bus tour headed to northern Ohio Thursday where he touted a new U.S. complaint with the World Trade Organization against China for imposing more than $3 billion in duties on American-produced automobiles.

July 5, 2012

Health care law ‘here to stay,’ president insists

President Obama defiantly insisted Thursday that his health care law is "here to stay" — and so, apparently, is the controversy over whether the massive plan is enforced by a penalty or a tax.

July 5, 2012

Romney changes tune: Health care law is ‘a tax’

Undercutting what his top adviser said two days ago, Mitt Romney on Wednesday flatly stated that President Obama's individual mandate, which the Supreme Court upheld last week, is indeed "a tax."

July 4, 2012

Obama presses Congress on immigration at naturalization ceremony

President Obama began his Fourth of July celebration Wednesday by naturalizing more than two dozen active-duty service members, using the event to highlight his recent executive order to spare hundreds of thousands from deportation and press lawmakers to pass a comprehensive immigration overhaul.

July 4, 2012

White House says Holder won’t be prosecuted

The White House is arguing that Attorney General Eric Holder won't be prosecuted for being held in contempt of Congress because he is protected by President Obama's use of executive privilege.

June 29, 2012

Obama threatens veto of GOP effort to defund health care bill, Wall Street reform

The White House on Thursday threatened to veto a 2013 spending bill that defunds President Obama's signature Wall Street reform bill and the 2010 health care overhaul that the Supreme Court upheld earlier in the day.

June 28, 2012

Obama urges country to move on after health care victory

Calling the Supreme Court ruling upholding a majority of the health care law a "victory for people all over this country," President Obama urged the country to put aside divisive political fights over the law and move on.

June 28, 2012

Obama is crying the blues for cash

President Obama — who analysts originally thought would be history's first $1 billion presidential candidate — lowered that bar Tuesday, warning donors instead that he now expects to be outspent by the GOP this year.

June 26, 2012

Obama slams Romney for ‘outsourcing’ work at Bain

President Obama continued to assail Mitt Romney for his record at Bain Capital during a campaign trip to New Hampshire on Monday — at one point mocking his GOP rival for trying to differentiate between outsourcing and offshoring.

June 25, 2012

Two sides circle warily in legal clash over Fast and Furious

As the House of Representatives moved closer to a vote to hold Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in contempt in the clash over the probe into the Fast and Furious affair, the two sides Thursday were still seeking a deal short of all-out constitutional warfare.

June 21, 2012

Interior touts oil-lease sales Bush had planned

The Obama administration Wednesday took credit for holding a successful oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico the same day, but critics were quick to point out that President George W. Bush had scheduled the auction years ago and President Obama had delayed it.

June 20, 2012

Top business executives see new obstacles to recovery

America's business leaders are losing faith in the economy's ability to produce a strong recovery by the end of the year.

June 20, 2012

Obama tells Ohioans he champions the middle

In a speech his campaign billed as a reset after a series of stumbles and a string of bad economic news, President Obama stuck to a long-established script Thursday with the only new line shifting the onus on voters to break open the partisan deadlock in Washington.

June 14, 2012

Obama, Romney make dueling speeches in battleground of Ohio

For proof of how important Ohio is this fall for both presidential campaigns, look no further than this afternoon, when President Obama hit the stump in Cleveland just a few minutes after Republican rival Mitt Romney ripped the incumbent in Cincinnati.

June 14, 2012

Both sides deny there’s civil war in Syria

Syrian troops stormed a rebel-held area on the Mediterranean coast Wednesday, driving out opposition fighters and retaking the Haffa region as world leaders debated the mounting violence there and mulled how to quell it.

June 13, 2012

Seven senators call for Obama to withdraw Iraq nomination

Seven Republican members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are calling on President Obama to withdraw the nomination of Brett McGurk to be ambassador to Iraq after a string of steamy emails surfaced last week between Mr. McGurk and a reporter he later married.

June 13, 2012

Congress members agree to fix tricky tax code

Amid all the unbridled partisanship and naysaying about Washington gridlock, a glimmer of consensus has begun to develop in Congress around the herculean task of fixing the nation's tax code.

June 13, 2012