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's campaign whisperer  —  Barack Obama's top advisers are making a mid-"core" correction in their attacks on Mitt Romney — with a little nudge from Bill Clinton, who is finding a niche as an Obama campaign whisperer and fundraiser.  —  Late last year, as Romney galloped to the right …

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 …

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.

White killer whale adult spotted for first time in wild  —  “Iceberg” is believed to be the first mature white orca observed  —  Scientists have made what they believe to be the first sighting of an adult white orca, or killer whale.  —  The adult male, which they have nicknamed Iceberg …

Romney's healthcare plan may be more revolutionary than Obama's  —  Instead of getting coverage at work, more Americans would shop for it on their own.  That would mean more choices — and more risk.  —  Republican candidate Mitt Romney says he would dump President Obama's healthcare overhaul and replace it with something else.

Obama targets foreign nationals' use of new technologies in human rights abuses  —  President Obama issued 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, from cellphone tracking …

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.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher can't enter Afghanistan  —  Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Monday he was denied entry into Afghanistan because of his critical views of that country's government.  —  “Apparently, [Afghanistan President Hamid] …

State GOP served with eviction papers for its St. Paul office space  —  The debt-plagued Republican Party of Minnesota is getting kicked out of its party headquarters near the state Capitol.  —  Massachusetts-based Hub Properties Trust filed paperwork in Ramsey County on Wednesday to evict …

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.

Cynthia McKinney back and running for her old congressional seat  —  Former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney is preparing to run for her old 4th Congressional district seat on the Green Party ticket.  —  McKinney was defeated by 4th district incumbent Hank Johnson in 2006 …

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.”

TV Corrects Itself, Just Not on the Air  —  After broadcasting an audio clip on the “Today” show about George Zimmerman last month that hit the trifecta of being misleading, incendiary and dead-bang wrong, NBC News management took serious action: it fired the producer in charge and issued …

Sarkozy courts French far right after Hollande win  —  (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy appealed directly to far right voters on Monday with pledges to get tough on immigration and security, after a record showing in a first round election by the National Front made them potential kingmakers.