On Tuesday night’s The Young Turks, host Cenk Uygur went the eff off on President Obama over what he sees as administration signals of a compromise on the religious employer exemption to the Affordable Care Act’s Preventive Services Mandate. Loudly calling it like he sees it, Uygur said that President Obama “doesn’t have the guts” to fight conservatives on the issue, and that “his natural instinct” to “run for the hills” kicks in whenever he’s challenged a little bit.

Former Colorado congressman and 2008 presidential contender Tom Tancredo spoke to Hardball’s Chris Matthews about Mitt Romney‘s economic policy alternatives to President Obama. “I haven’t heard the Romney plan for the next four years to get us out of the economic challenge,” Matthews observed. “Do you think he’s running negative or positive campaign?” “Here’s what I think that Romney has been doing,” Tancredo opined. “That is setting the stage for a debate between him and Obama who can best handle the economy. Who has the best record for creating jobs and for, you know, essentially, increasing prosperity. I think Romney feels, and i think rightly so, he can make a case for that. Hell, my dog’s better at it than Obama!”

The influence of independent expenditure groups like PACs and SuperPACs has become a major factor in this year’s presidential election. Consequently, the news that President Obama has decided to encourage donations to the Priorities USA Action SuperPAC is dominating political news today, with handwringing on the left and the right about the President’s prior vocal opposition to outside groups. Philosophically, he’s just taking a page from Ronald Reagan‘s book.

On Monday’s Hardball on MSNBC, Chris Matthews gave President Obama’ an early Valentine, fawningly gushing over the political power of his toothy grin. “I think that smile of his is worth five to ten points in the general!” Matthews exclaimed. He added the caveat , “Hs campaign strategists might feel differently.”

Jennifer Wedel, the woman who became famous when President Obama asked for her unemployed husband’s resume during a video chat over the weekend, was a guest on CNN’s Early Start Wednesday morning and revealed that she had already passed along the resume to the White House, but said that — even with the President of the United States actively trying to find her husband a job — she still may not vote for him in the upcoming election.

Chief Obama strategist David Axelrod posted a cutting photo tweet implicitly targeting Republican hopeful Mitt Romney. The photo featured President Obama riding in his car with his Portuguese water dog, Bo, with the caption “How loving owners transport their dogs.” Oh snap!

Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus appeared on Fox News’s America Live to respond to the growing furor over his comments comparing President Obama to Captain Francesco Schettino, the Italian captain of the Costa Concordia. Megyn Kelly asked Priebus if he stood by his comments, which he strongly defended as “clear.” “Clearly Megyn! When I [...]

Ed Schultz and Eric Bolling have a pretty longstanding cable news rivalry of sorts, one that goes back and forth on issues from who is maybe drinking to grabbing drinks together to maybe not doing that, and policy disagreements, sometimes. The latest barb was thrown in Bolling’s direction, and for the last of those reasons, as Schultz blasted the Fox News host for disagreeing with President Obama’s use of Air Force 1.

President Obama spoke with ABC’s Diane Sawyer in an interview on Thursday. Sawyer asked him how intense his reelection ambitions were. “How much do you want it?” “Badly,” Obama replied. “Because I think the country needs it.”

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer appeared on CNN Thursday and was grilled by John King over her contentious meeting with President Obama. “Were you trying to create a scene here?” King asked. “There are some people suggesting you wanted to have a scene with the president so you could sell more of your books.” “Absolutely not!” Brewer exclaimed “That’s absolutely ridiculous!”

Appearing on Fox News’ America’s Newsroom, The Dally Caller‘s Tucker Carlson argued with Alan Colmes about President Obama’s State of the Union address, with Carlson blasting it for many of its pro-government themes.

While President Obama‘s State of the Union speech received a predictably mixed response divided among partisan lines, most people tended to agree the most cringe-inducing moment of the night came during a milk joke that went over like a lead balloon. “I’ve ordered every federal agency to eliminate rules that don’t make sense…We got rid of one rule from 40 years ago that could have forced some dairy farmers to spend $10,000 a year proving that they could contain a spill – because milk was somehow classified as an oil. With a rule like that, I guess it was worth crying over spilled milk.” Obama’s crack drew some nervous laughter.

In what was unarguably one of the most moving moments during Tuesday night’s State of The Union address, President Obama gave outgoing Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords a farewell hug.

Former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain enthusiastically tore into President Obama and his State of the Union address Tuesday night, calling the economy “anemic.” “With all due respect Mr. President, some of us are not stupid,” Cain exclaimed. “The state of the union is not good!”

Following the State Of The Union address, Fox News contributor Charles Krauthammer commended President Obama for delivering a speech “that struck the right tone.” “It was less partisan than I would have expected,” Krauthammer observed.

During a SOTU preview segment on Tuesday evening’s Hardball, MSNBC contributor Howard Fineman made an observation about a rankling trend among certain opponents of President Obama, the tendency not to address him by his hard-won title. Framing it in the context of those who question the President’s legitimacy, Fineman noted “I have never heard Newt Gingrich call President Obama ‘President Obama.’”

I thought I’d put Fineman’s claim to the test, using last night’s debate. The results were surprising.

Maryland Congressman Elijah Cummings spoke with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell about President Obama’s record and made the extraordinary claim that President Obama had “some 508 promises that he made to the American people and he has acted on all of them except three.”

After a surprisingly resounding win in South Carolina, Newt Gingrich made a victory speech that thanked his supporters while blasting the usual suspects. Those suspects included, President Obama “the most effective food stamp President in history,” the media, the “elites in New York and Washington” and radicals in San Francisco.

President Obama surprisingly soulful rendition of Al Green‘s “Let’s Stay Together,” is now available for download on his campaign website.

Speaker of the House John Boehner lambasted President Obama for rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline during a press conference Wedneday. “President Obama expedited approval of the Solyndra loan project, but won’t approve a project that’s been under review for over three years…President Obama is destroying tens of thousands of American jobs and shipping American energy security to the Chinese.”

During Betty White‘s birthday celebration Monday night on NBC, the 90-year old actress received a special surprise video message from President Barack Obama. The President as seated at his desk, composing a letter to the Golden Girls star:

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie sat down with Oprah Winfrey on her show Oprah’s Next Chapter, and had some surprisingly complimentary comments for President Obama. “Those who underestimate Barack Obama, underestimate him at their own peril. He’s as good a politician as I’ve ever seen,” Christie gushed. “I think he’s very charismatic. And I think he’s genuine. I think what he says he believes, he believes. That’s a very dangerous politician.”

The Newt Gingrich campaign released an attack ad featuring a kitchen sink’s worth of clunky Mitt Romney moments, but the undisputed star of the clip is Seamus, the Romney’s Irish setter, who was famously strapped to the roof of the Romney family station wagon for a long road trip. Don’t worry, though. The ad shows Romney explaining, to Fox News’ Chris Wallace, that Seamus was safely inside an “airtight kennel.”

Appearing on Good Morning America to promote his critically-acclaimed film, The Descendants, movie star George Clooney told host George Stephanopoulos that he was rooting for President Obama in 2012.

Surging Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum downplayed President Obama‘s role in the good news that the unemployment rate fell to 8.5% in December, the lowest level in three years. According to a tweet by Politico‘s Dave Catanese, Santorum claimed unemployment was dropping as a result of widespread “optimism that Republicans will take the White House.”