Some observers are wondering why American Crossroads, the Karl Rove-inspired superPAC, would bother to run a political attack ad against Hollywood star Ashley Judd, an outspoken supporter of President Obama who has said she's mulling a 2014 run against Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

The controversy over President Obama's targeted-killings-by-drone policy is a reminder that the default position of presidents in times of crisis is to side with national security over civil liberties. That instinct has been true throughout history, and has been acted on by liberal presidents and core conservatives.

You've heard of the war on women, the war on religion, and more recently even the war on the Second Amendment. Washington is full of so-called wars. But a war on Wi-Fi?

Of all the individuals in President Obama's first-term Cabinet, Energy Secretary Steven Chu was arguably the least likely to be found in official Washington. And now that the Nobel Prize-winning physicist is leaving government, there are a few reasons that understanding his legacy might take some time.

Defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel's confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee made clear that the former Republican senator has said things that don't sit well with current Republican senators. And for all that we learned, the hearing ended with one lingering question.

Federal spending cuts may have hurt the U.S. economy's fourth-quarter growth. But don't count on that changing the dynamics of the current debate over the sequester, the ax poised to start hacking $1.2 trillion from federal spending if Congress fails to stop it by the March 1 deadline.

If President Obama wanted to pick the perfect wedge issue to split the Republican Party, he could hardly have improved on a comprehensive overhaul of the nation's immigration laws. Not that he has an ulterior motive in advocating for action on Capitol Hill. But it works out the same way.

If, as the White House indicated on Tuesday, President Obama takes the lead in a movement for more effective gun control now that he's been stirred to action by the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, it would mark a significant break from his pattern so far as chief executive.

With U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice withdrawing her name from secretary of state consideration Thursday, attention turned to Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., as a possible successor to Hillary Clinton. And that would have repercussions on Capitol Hill and in Massachusetts.

In Washington's latest game of chicken, President Obama is recruiting voters who see things his way to provide an edge in his quest to get congressional Republicans to accept tax increases on the nation's wealthiest. His newest weapon? A Twitter hashtag.

The White House issued a short report Monday warning of the risks to holiday spending and the 2013 economy if policymakers fail to reach an agreement to avoid the fiscal cliff. The report seemed aimed at raising pressure on Republicans to strike a deal with President Obama.

President Obama's campaign operation apparently isn't going to be totally retired just yet. Instead, the Obama team is considering deploying some of its grass-roots elements to push Congress to solve the fiscal cliff problem and help pass the president's agenda.

Senate Democrats did better than just keep their slim majority. Wednesday brought news that they expanded it by managing to retain control of two of their most threatened seats, in Montana and North Dakota.

GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney showed his softer side and President Obama got to his points more quickly in Tuesday appearances on the campaign trail. Romney was in Iowa; Obama, in Ohio.

Sesame Workshop asked President Obama's campaign to take down an anti-Mitt Romney ad featuring Big Bird. Since the first presidential debate, Obama has used a remark Romney made about the Sesame Street character to mock Romney.

The latest jobs report was good news for President Obama and not so much for Mitt Romney, whose campaign has been predicated on the argument that a bad economy requires a change in White House occupancy.

The day after his widely panned debate performance, President Obama went on the attack.

Mitt Romney's release Friday of his 2011 tax return and a summary of his tax rate over 20 years gave friends and foes alike something to grab hold of. But not all his allies greeted the move.

Tim Pawlenty's resignation as co-chairman of Mitt Romney's presidential campaign comes less than seven weeks before Election Day and during a bad stretch for the candidate.

The punching and counterpunching between the presidential campaigns over Mitt Romney's remarks about President Obama's supporters continued Tuesday. Romney and other Republicans tried to change the subject by citing a 1998 video in which Obama, then an Illinois legislator, talked positively about "redistribution."