Barack Obama, President | featured news

President Barack Obama has chosen longtime trusted adviser and national security expert Denis McDonough as his fifth chief of staff.

He signed 654 bills into law, made 25 foreign trips and had 113 golf outings. As President Obama's first term comes to an end, Mark Knoller of CBS News has gathered some statistics about the first four years.

On the cusp of his second term, President Barack Obama solemnly honored the nation's fallen soldiers Sunday before taking the oath of office in an intimate White House ceremony, a swearing-in ritual he will repeat 24 hours later before a massive crowd at the Capitol.

Monday is President Barack Obama's big day, but memories of Martin Luther King Jr. will loom large over the festivities.

Second presidential terms are never easy - even for George Washington. More often, they're fraught with peril, frequently marred by scandal, failure, hubris, and burnout, and souring relations with Congress. President Barack Obama acknowledges the dangers of overreach but vows to steer cautiously. The odds are against him.

President Barack Obama declared Syria's main opposition group the sole "legitimate representative" of its country's people Tuesday, deeming the move "a big step" in the international diplomatic efforts to end Syrian President Bashar Assad's embattled regime.

Babies and pets have been named in honor of President Obama -- and now a dinosaur. Researchers at Yale University have dubbed a newly discovered species of dinosaur -- or, if you prefer, a big lizard -- Obamadon gracilis, citing the president's broad smile, Reuters reports.

...In his first full-scale news conference since March, Obama said he was willing to compromise with Republicans to forge a deal on the nation's debt and taxes to avoid the "fiscal cliff," a combination of budget cuts and tax increases that will kick in next year if such an agreement is not reached.

President Obama unquestionably leads his predecessors in at least one area: Denial of pardon and clemency requests.

President Obama’s warning to Syria that the use of chemical weapons would cross a “red line” for the administration drew criticism Tuesday, with experts saying that the remark could provide President Bashar al-Assad cover to continue battling the opposition with tanks, warplanes and other conventional weaponry.