Controversies dominated this past week's political headlines, leaving the Obama White House on the defensive, trying to contain any lasting damage. Host Rachel Martin talks with NPR's Mara Liasson.

President Obama is in the middle of a series of scandals. But are they serious enough to undermine his second term? Veterans of past Washington scandals assess the potential for political peril, and what the president can do about it.

The second term curse has plagued the last five two-term presidents, but President Obama's administration had been confident they'd be the ones to break the streak. But instead the administration finds itself on the defensive about the Benghazi and now IRS questions targeted at Tea Party groups.

It has been a difficult spring for the president. He couldn't get Congress to work with him on the sequester or gun control legislation. Now he appears to be making an effort to get back to the issues Americans say they care most about.

In the three years since the Affordable Care Act became law, public opinion has remained deeply divided with as many Americans opposing the law as supporting it. When Americans begin signing up for health insurance under the act, opinion may finally begin to shake loose. Some people without access to insurance gain it and others encounter new bureaucracies.

President Obama has said repeatedly that the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government against its own people was a red line, and crossing it would bring U.S. action. On Thursday, the administration said that the intelligence community "does assess with vary degrees of confidence" that the regime has used such weapons "on a small scale." Yet the administration also contends that these findings fall short of the red line.

Gun-control groups are regrouping after a bill to tighten background checks for gun sales failed to overcome a filibuster last week in the Senate. The failure was not only a stinging defeat for President Obama, it was also a setback for the new players in the debate.

They don't want to offend Hispanic voters, but they don't want to turn off the GOP base either, says Ron Bonjean, a former Republican leadership aide. And competing for Hispanic votes is not a top priority for the sizable number of Republican rank and file who still see the bill as amnesty.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky gave a speech Wednesday at Howard University in Washington, D.C. He began by posing this question to the audience at the historically black school: How did the party that elected the first black U.S. senator, the party that elected the first 20 African-American Congressmen become a party that now loses 95 percent of the black vote?

President Obama submits his budget on Wednesday and he's more than two months late. But there's a political strategy behind his tardiness — he waited until after both House Republicans and Senate Democrats passed their budget plans.

President Obama is expected to name Caroline Kennedy, daughter of former President John F. Kennedy, ambassador to Japan. The job has been critical to U.S. trade and business interests with the world's third largest economy. But Kennedy has no prior experience in government or business.

President Obama has announced a new initiative on brain mapping alongside neuroscientists and others.

Mara Liasson joins talks to Audie Cornish about the politics of Tuesday's court argument on gay marriage. Public opinion has shifted rapidly in favor on the issue, and the Supreme Court decision this summer on whether states can ban same-sex marriage and whether federal benefits should flow to same sex partners promise to roil the water again.

National attitudes and electoral demographics are changing so fast on issues like gay marriage and immigration that the GOP is struggling to keep up without alienating its social conservative base.

The Republican Party has issued a blistering assessment of why it lost the 2012 election. Focused groups described the party as narrow minded and out of touch. The report recommended many changes to become competitive again.

After failing to take the presidency or U.S. Senate in 2012 and losing House seats, Republicans launched the "Growth and Opportunity Project" to understand what went wrong. Party Chairman Reince Priebus and others toured the country and released a report with recommendations on Monday.

The Conservative Political Action Conference is drawing a huge crowd of politicians, activists and Republican presidential hopefuls, all looking to break the Republican Party's recent string of presidential election losses. It kicked off Thursday with speeches by two young senators interested in the White House — Marco Rubio of Florida and Rand Paul of Kentucky.

The annual meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference began on Thursday. The lunchtime speakers were Senators Marco Rubio and Rand Paul.

From Chris Christie to Jeb Bush, a slew of potential candidates for president have been getting attention. Most of them are speaking this week at the Conservative Political Action Conference, but a few pointedly were not asked.

The big donors behind Karl Rove's Crossroads superPAC have started a new project to vet and recruit Republican candidates they believe can win. But some anti-establishment groups have viewed the project as an inside-the-Beltway power grab.