First we had the report that Barack Obama ate dog when he was a boy living overseas. Now comes a bit of a more serious accusation — bullying when a teenager — that Time’s Mark Halperin says has sparked a Mitt Romney “apology tour” (which will include a stop at Sean Hannity’s to be sure) due to this Washington Post report: Mitt Romney returned from a three-week spring break...

ABC’s Jake Trapper reports on the GOP’s game plan on same sex marriage — and Barack Obama’s feelings about how Vice President Joe Biden speeded up his eventual statement of support: video platform video management video solutions video player Also of interest: Why ABC’s Robin Roberts got the exclusive. And, moving from journalism and reporting to the unabashedl political,...

By Ali Ezzatyar I feel like it is difficult to be a casual follower of the Iranian nuclear issue. All related news items are generally tagged with a derivation of one of the following themes: a) Israel is going to attack Iran; or b) the parties are set for nuclear talks. Particularly with respect to the nuclear talks, it is even frustrating for me, an IR nerd of sorts, to see this title every once in a while,...

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When Obama fought for the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy from the time he assumed the Presidency until its repeal in September 2011, he took many political risks. It took courage and he did the right thing. When Obama made the decision one year ago to go after Osama bin Laden, he took tremendous risks. If anything had gone wrong, if the daring mission had failed, he could...

What do journalist Daniel Pearl, Holocaust victim Anne Frank and now members of the House of Orange – the Dutch Royal family – have in common? They are all posthumous members of the Church of Mormon. According to Mormon Church records recently uncovered by the Trouw newspaper of the Netherlands, a number of now-dead members of the Dutch Royal family, formerly members of the Dutch Orthodox Church,...

The increasing ascendancy of Tea Party activists and extreme right-wingers in the Republican Party reinforces America’s need for a centrist third party. Recent events have proven that there is no room in the GOP for moderates, or even moderate conservatives, with Senator Olympia Snowe retiring and Dick Lugar going down to defeat in the Indiana Republican primary. The extremists do not want those they describe...

It’s getting French Revolution-y out there. Mitt Romney is facing villagers with pitchforks, restless natives keep decapitating moderates like Dick Lugar and even new idols like Paul Ryan are being pushed toward the tumbrel. Lugar’s downfall is more 2010 Tea Party guillotining of long-time Republicans, but a search for ideological purity is so intense that even Ryan is forced to disavow his political...

Who needs TV with its bad acting when we can watch the Oval Office race between President Barack Obama and presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney? The overheated rhetoric and overdramatized outrage on each side is now in full gear. Suspense is injected by perpetually see-sawing polls: the latest two show them in a dead heat nationally and Obama losing ground in 12 key swing states. Amid the suspense and...

What’s going on in Europe?  They are just saying no to an economic Third Reich. It is a revolt against the plutocrats and the technocrats and yes the bankers.  This is the sort of the thing that has resulted in revolution – think Cuba, Venezuela and yes pre Communist Russia.  Sometimes violent sometimes through the ballot box.

Other TMV commentators have already discussed the fact that President Obama has announced his support for marriage equality. I thought I’d take a different tack on the subject, the issue of whether this was really the result of Obama being forced on the issue or part of a broader plan. I lean to the 2nd option. As Politico has pointed out, Obama expressed support for marriage equality as far back as his...

Here’s some of what ABC has released from its interview (set to air tomorrow) in which President Barack Obama said he believes same sex marriage should be legal: video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player

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What kind of welcome can France’s new head of state – its first socialist president in decades and only its second ever – expect in Washington? Le Figaro correspondent Laure Mandeville writes that this time around, no alarm bells have been ringing at the White House, but that on a range of issues having to do with Afghanistan, NATO, the euro and eurozone debt, the election of François Hollande...

Daryl Cagle, MSNBC.com This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

My Monday column originally was going to riff off of the words of former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell for Barack Obama “to man up” and endorse gay marriage, an issue which took on a new urgency with North Carolina this week becoming the 30th state to ban same-sex unions. Whether the president was heeding Rendell’s advice or not, his endorsement in a television interview today carried...

George Soros announced the other day that he and a group of big donors will invest $100 million in a get-out-the-vote effort before the November election. The decision has angered and inconvenienced Democratic leaders who need money for TV ads in a (possibly useless) attempt to battle the Republican Super Pacs’ advertising campaign. The resulting acrimony and what the Times report labels “infighting”...

Is President Barack Obama about to announce his support of gay marriage? Speculation is increasing on some of the cable networks that he will — and very soon. On MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell show, talking heads including Time’s Mark Halerpin predicted Obama will announce his support and let the political chips fall where they may. Four reasons why some think this will happen 1)the clamor for Obama...

A padded printed book jacket is even worse.

Yes, it was a political train wreck. First Thoughts nicely summarized the official launch of President Barack Obama’s political campaign: *** Obama’s terrible campaign week: The campaign roll out over the weekend went well. Despite Republicans talking about the empty seats at Ohio State, he still draw four times the crowds (if not more) than Romney. But then Biden’s gay-marriage comments stepped on...