Obama’s Middle-Class Task Force Has No Middle Class

Last Friday, Vice President Joe Biden and seven White House officials traveled to Philadelphia to kick off the inaugural gathering of President Obama’s Middle Class Task Force. The task force will convene monthly in cities across the country to confront the problems faced by average Americans. It’s an admirable goal; with rising costs, stagnant wages and job cuts, a Pew Research study found that 78% of self-described middle class Americans have trouble maintaining their current standard of living

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Clinton: 2 U.S. officials to visit Syria

The U.S. government will dispatch two officials to the Syrian capital to explore Washington’s relationship with Damascus, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced Tuesday. “There are a number of issues that we have between Syria and the United States, as well as the larger regional issues that Syria obviously poses,” she said.

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For Obama, Helping Gaza Is Harder Than It Looks

President Barack Obama has been busy on foreign policy in recent weeks, chairing meetings with his national security principals, plotting his approach to Iraq, Iran and North Korea, and consulting at weekly private sessions with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. For the most part, in these meetings, he’s composed and restrained

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After Netanyahu: Where Does Obama’s Peace Initiative Go?

Barack Obama’s economic team likes to say that crisis breeds opportunity. His foreign policy team is unlikely to feel that way about the political turmoil in Israel and the Palestinian territories right now. The ascension of Benjamin Netanyahu in the wake of the fragmented Israeli parliamentary elections puts a hawk in control in Jerusalem and sets up a period of political uncertainty that blunts any early moves the U.S

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