The Washington Post recently ran a story on the latest in Obama’s healthcare reform. Soon almost all health insurance plans might be required to offer patients free coverage of prescription birth control, breast pump rentals, counseling for domestic violence and annual wellness exams and HIV tests.

President Barack Obama‘s recent trip to Ireland was highlighted by many by his visit to a local pub during which he consumed a pint of Guinness. After watching footage of Obama’s later speech, Conan O’Brien could only conclude that the President of the United States is a light weight.

More than a month before U.S. military forces launched a deadly raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound Sunday, President Obama ordered the development of multiple military plans aimed at killing or capturing the notorious fugitive leader of al Qaeda.

Obama’s national security team began drawing up several different options back in March, including plans to bomb the Abbottabad compound located 35 miles north of Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, according to administration officials.

Seth Meyers, taking the podium after Obama, was in his element. He took a few moments to acknowledge how upset he was that the birth certificate issue had been resolved right before the dinner, because now all of his birther material was useless. “Is Joe Biden still the vice president?” he asked. “Because if not I’m down to, like, ‘thank you’ and ‘God bless America’.”

President Obama was introduced with an intentionally cheesy video package (picture Barney Stinson’s video resume from “How I Met Your Mother”) set to Rick Derringer’s “I Am A Real American” and featuring a repeating shot of his birth certificate set against an American flag background. Obama addressed the birther issue in his speech as well, announcing “I am prepared to go a step further…I am releasing my official birth video,” which turned out to be the opening number from The Lion King. The president even had a few choice words for Donald Trump.

As Fox News host Neil Cavuto said after watching Senator Paul Ryan reacted to Obama’s earlier address on reducing the budget deficit “the name calling ensues.” Earlier today President Obama gave a speech on how to best address fiscal responsibility (that may have been soporific to at least one senior White House official) that was predictably received along partisan lines.

After a failed attempt earlier in the week to provide his birth certificate, Donald Trump on Tuesday proved that he is in fact an American citizen. Trump is the latest person to demand that President Obama prove he, too, is an American, and the stunt got people wondering about Trump’s intentions. The birther movement may [...]

With the “kinetic operations” in Libya by American troops fully underway, the media is only beginning to comprehend how to evaluate our intervention in the struggle. The Fox New Watch panel analyzed the response to the invasion by the media in the context of President Obama as peacemaker, and were evenly torn between considering it a pure partisan issue or a matter of the media simply not having enough information to make a move.

Mike Huckabee tends to define himself as a candidate on his social and domestic issues, but despite appearing as a Fox News personality and not 2012 presidential candidate on Red Eye, he took the time to delve into foreign policy. Discussing recently polls showing America’s popularity around the world surging under President Obama, Huckabee disapproved of what he classified as an apologetic foreign policy, and instead proposed America be “feared rather than liked.”

On the heels of Monday’s lively discussion with Niall Ferguson, whose cover story in Newsweek brands President Obama‘s handling of the uprising in Egypt a failure, MSNBC’s Morning Joe returned to the question Tuesday morning with former national security adviser–and Mika Brzezinski‘s Dad–Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski. Brzezinski dismissed the suggestion that Obama necessarily “blew it.”

The new Fox News show Justice with Judge Jeanine featured an interview with Sarah Palin that was scheduled to air last night. Due to the breaking news developments though, Pirro’s show was preempted, but in this video preview of the interview, Palin had some cheerful comments to share.

The Obama administration really can’t catch a break when it comes to random celebrities. Add to an army that includes Fabio, Snooki, and Jon Voight, among others, Full Metal Jacket star turned GEICO spokesman R. Lee Ermey, who railed at the president’s “socialism” at a Toys 4 Tots charity event this week. With this addition, the anti-Obama celebrity league is sure a list to rival the cast of that Norwegian sitcom promo.

Over the course of 2010, we covered an array of politicians, authors, entertainers, media mavens, and others as they discussed their crafts and their industries. We enjoyed most of the panels, lectures, and debates we took in, while some of them fell short. Here, a rundown of our 5 favorites, followed by the 10 quotes that defined the year in New York City media panels:

Former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather says President Obama’s caught in a “political nightmare” over the likely extension of the Bush tax cuts for another two years.

Rather, speaking on MSNBC’s Jansing & Company said an extension of those cuts will infuriate the left and lead to a Democratic primary challenge against the president in 2012:

President Obama has arrived in Afghanistan after an overnight, 13-hour flight. Air Force One landed a short while ago, giving the cable nets a chance to air “unedited video,” which is always fun. The president is scheduled to speak shortly at Bagram Air Base, but plans for a face-to-face meeting with Afghan president Hamid Karzai have been scrubbed due to bad weather.

The trip may only last about three hours–a chance to meet with American troops on the ground, and to have private talks with Gen. David Petraeus.

President Barack Obama tonight became the first sitting President to appear on The Daily Show, and the first guest to be interviewed for the entire show.

The wide-ranging discussion with Jon Stewart was heavy on politics, reflecting on the past two years (and the campaign) and had a few brief moments of disagreement between host and guest.

Who: Alec Baldwin, Jeffrey Toobin, Judy Gold, moderated by Andy Borowitz
What: “The Borowitz Report: Midterm Madness!”
Where: 92nd St. Y
When: October 20, 2010
Thumbs: Up

Who: Jonathan Alter, David Remnick, moderated by Abigail Pogrebin
What: What Everyone’s Talking About: The Obama Experts
Where: The JCC in Manhattan
When: October 13, 2010
Thumbs: Up

Today, Barack Obama unambiguously defended Park51’s right to exist. After Fox News correspondent Wendell Goler asked the president to “weigh in on the wisdom of building a mosque a couple of blocks from Ground Zero,” the Commander-in-Chief responded with resonant—if not exactly original—words about the United States’ dedication to upholding individual liberties.

A federal judge in California has found that the government’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy violates the First and Fifth Amendment rights of gay and lesbian military members and issued an injunction halting enforcement of the law. The case, brought by the gay Log Cabin Republicans, puts the Obama administration again in the position of potentially taking an appeal to the liberal U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit defending a law that is opposed by its powerful (and increasingly skeptical) lesbian and gay base.

President Barack Obama was in Wisconsin today for a Labor Day speech that took some major shots at the Republicans – including a new twist to his oft-used car analogy.

It was a markedly different tone than his usual one, complete with sharp jokes, rolled up sleeves and no tie and at least one moment of going off script. The three cablers covered it live.

This morning the comedy world woke up to the news that there’s a a potential deal for Virginia comedian Jay Pharoah to become the fourth new cast member for the 2010-2011 season of Saturday Night Live.

Pharoah has made a small splash online with dead-on impressions of Denzel Washington and Will Smith and dozens of others – including our Presidnet. The big question for fans of political comedy is: Does SNL have a new Barack Obama?

Here is the full text of President Obama’s address to the nation this evening (video here), released to the media by the White House shortly before the live address. This is the speech, as written and sent out prior to the address: Good evening. Tonight, I’d like to talk to you about the end of [...]

MSNBC and talk radio host Ed Schultz delivered his address to the progressive congregation of bloggers at the Netroots Nation conference, and he had some strong words for the White House. Alluding to the Shirley Sherrod fiasco, Schultz quipped that the White House “must have a sissy room,” and that despite the fact that he “busted my ass for Obama,” the President visited Special Report with Bret Baier, “in my time slot.”

Since the start of his term, President Barack Obama‘s critics have accused him of many things, from being a socialist to not being liberal enough. Ed Martin, Missouri’s Republican congressional candidate, has added another accusation to the list: Obama does not want to give you the choice to find the Lord.