Shift on Executive Power Lets Obama Bypass Rivals  —  WASHINGTON — One Saturday last fall, President Obama interrupted a White House strategy meeting to raise an issue not on the agenda.  He declared, aides recalled, that the administration needed to more aggressively use executive power …

Jon Huntsman Trashes GOP, Expresses Campaign Regrets  —  Former Republican presidential candidate compares his party to Communist China.  Says Reagan would have trouble winning GOP primary in this political environment.  Regrets opposition to 10-1 spending cuts to tax increase deficit deal.

Obama to target foreign nationals' use of new technologies in human rights abuses  —  President Obama will issue an executive order Monday that will allow U.S. officials for the first time to impose sanctions against foreign nationals found to have used new technologies …

HOW THE MEDIA COVERED THE 2012 PRIMARY CAMPAIGN  —  LESS HORSE RACE THAN 2008  —  By Tom Rosenstiel, Mark Jurkowitz and Tricia Sartor of PEJ  —  Mitt Romney needed 15 weeks once the primary contests began to gain a secure hold over his party's nomination for president.

Fringes cast shadow over French prez election  —  PARIS (AP) — Socialist Francois Hollande and conservative Nicolas Sarkozy go head-to-head in France's presidential runoff, but a third figure looms large in the campaign: the leader of the nation's far-right National Front.

The Amnesia Candidate  —  Just how stupid does Mitt Romney think we are?  If you've been following his campaign from the beginning, that's a question you have probably asked many times.  —  But the question was raised with particular force last week, when Mr. Romney tried …

Yet another new survey shows that Republican supporters know more about politics and political history than Democrats.  —  On eight of 13 questions about politics, Republicans outscored Democrats by an average of 18 percentage points, according to a new Pew survey titled “Partisan Differences in Knowledge.”

An $8 billion trick?  —  Call it President Obama's Committee for the Re-Election of the President — a political slush fund at the Health and Human Services Department.  —  Only this isn't some little fund from shadowy private sources; this is taxpayer money, redirected to help Obama win another term.

Poll: Just three percent have favorable view of John Edwards  —  CBS News Poll analysis by the CBS News Polling Unit: Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus and Anthony Salvanto.  —  (CBS News) With opening arguments in the trial of former U.S. senator and presidential candidate John Edwards set …

Have Our News Organizations Gone Crazy?  —  I wrote here about MSNBC's campaign to tie the Koch brothers to George Zimmerman's shooting of Trayvon Martin.  That effort was, it is fair to say, insane, but it apparently inspired one or more liberals to take MSNBC's theories a step farther.

At The NYT: Clueless Blue Deer Meet Onrushing Truck  —  Schadenfreude alert: readers, and especially those who don't much like the New York Times, should make sure they are not eating soup or holding hot liquids before viewing the video below.  Uncontrollable gales of laughter stemming …

28 military protesters arrested in DeWitt near Hancock Air Base  —  DeWitt, N.Y. — Twenty-eight people were charged Sunday after failing to obtain a DeWitt town permit to march into the town and protest the U.S. military's use of unmanned drones.  —  The gathering, which included members …

George Zimmerman released on bond in Trayvon Martin killing  —  George Zimmerman enters court Friday for a hearing in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.  (Gary W. Green / Orlando Sentinel / April 21, 2012)  —  George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer who shot an unarmed teenager …

West says Muslim Brotherhood being allowed to influence strategy  —  Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) criticized the FBI on Monday for removing nearly 900 pages of training material it deemed to be offensive, saying it showed extremist Muslim groups were influencing national strategy.

A day will come when I stop enjoying this.  Today is not that day.  —  Here's Gary Eaton on Obama's dog-eatin' (with apologies to Hall & Oates):  —  At Knowyourmeme.com, the page for “Obama, the Eater of Dogs” is going strong, and the gallery is growing by the hour.

Pushback for Romney Fund  —  New Effort Raises Red Flags for Wall Street Donors Due to Tighter SEC Rules  —  A new effort by Mitt Romney's presidential campaign to substantially increase the amount of money wealthy backers can give has hit a hurdle: new Securities and Exchange Commission rules …

Afghanistan, U.S. reach pact on post-2014 American support  —  KABUL — After more than a year of negotiations, U.S. and Afghan officials reached an agreement Sunday affirming the United States' commitment to Afghanistan for a decade after its formal troop withdrawal in 2014.

Gov. Cuomo set to name David Paterson to MTA board, where he will replace Paul McCartney's wife Nancy Shevell  —  EXCLUSIVE: Surprise appointment of scandal-scorched ex-governor to the unpaid position is expected Monday  —  David Paterson with Andrew Cuomo in 2006.