President Bush's commutation of Scooter Libby's prison sentence on Monday will fuel speculation that others at the White House helped coordinate the leak of Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA officer in 2003. But politically the move makes sense. Democrats may hope Bush's act of clemency will be another self-inflicted wound at a time when the White House is already hurting. Only 21% of Americans thought Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, ...

President Obama slowly walked across the grounds of Cape Coast Castle, a slave outpost in Ghana where hundreds of thousands of Africans were shipped as human cargo to a life of bondage in the United States, South America and the Caribbean. "You almost feel as if the walls can speak. You try to project yourself into these incredibly harrowing moments," Obama told CNN's Anderson Cooper. When the president reached the "Door of No Return," an arched gateway with thick doors ...

President Obama commended the progress of African-Americans in a speech on the 100th anniversary of the NAACP, but said there was still much work to be done. Speaking at the organization's annual convention in New York, the city where the organization was founded, Obama evoked symbols of the civil rights movement to describe the NAACP's influence on race relations in the United States. "What we celebrate tonight is not simply the journey the NAACP has traveled, but the journey that ...

President Obama hits the campaign trail Thursday -- not for himself, but for fellow Democrat Jon Corzine. The president is the main attraction at a rally in Holmdel Township, New Jersey, for Gov. Corzine, who's fighting for re-election this year. While Obama has headlined seven political fundraising events this year, this will be the first campaign rally he's attended for a fellow Democrat since taking over as president in January. A poll of New Jersey voters released this week suggests ...

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor avoided direct answers Wednesday to persistent questions about her personal views on abortion and gun control by repeatedly saying she needed the specific circumstances of a case in order to respond. Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma pushed Sotomayor to express her opinions on whether certain abortions would be legal and whether a person has a fundamental right to possess firearms and a right to self-defense. Each time, Sotomayor said she would need to know ...

Whatever Sonia Sotomayor does to reward herself — a glass of wine, an ice cream sundae, a bubble bath — surely she must be giving herself a small pat on the back after surviving her first day of cross-examination by the Senate Judiciary Committee without any kind of gaffe. Despite the best efforts of some Republicans to elicit a hot-tempered response, the Supreme Court nominee answered every question in the same deliberate, dulcet tones that seemed to lull her ...

People have often said that Florida is the new California, but this week the Sunshine State hopes to really drive the point home — all the way into homeowners' pockets. On Tuesday the legislature started a special session to reform Florida's dysfunctional property tax system, aiming to save residents the tens of billions of dollars that Californians reaped a generation ago. It's been almost 30 years since California approved Proposition 13, one of the most dramatic property tax ...

Nearly two weeks of silence on the streets of Tehran were broken in the evening of July 9 when thousands marched through the central districts of the Iranian capital to protest the June 12 presidential election. Another anniversary helped precipitate the show of apparent defiance: the 10th anniversary of a bloody student uprising that was brutally put down by the government. Despite threats earlier in the day of a "crushing" response, men, women and even some children went onto ...

"Everything changed on August 29 in politics in Alaska," Sarah Palin told NBC's Andrea Mitchell this week. The reference was to the day last year when John McCain announced that Palin, a 44-year-old mother of five who became Alaska's governor only in December 2006, would be his presidential running mate. (CNN) -- "Everything changed on August 29 in politics in Alaska," Sarah Palin told NBC's Andrea Mitchell this week. The reference was to the day last year when John McCain ...

Judge Sonia Sotomayor's world these days is a tiny, plain office in the Eisenhower Office Building next door to the West Wing of the White House. There she prepares for next week's confirmation hearings to become the 111th person to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court. While a group of mostly young lawyers meet regularly with her, sources close to the judge say much of her time is spent alone, reading her past cases and speeches, taking notes -- ...