The fruits of epic incompetence  —  The president of the United States takes to the airwaves to urgently persuade the nation to pause before doing something it has no desire to do in the first place.  —  Strange.  And it gets stranger still.  That “strike Syria, maybe” …

GOP's unhealthy obsession with Obamacare  —  Republicans in the House need to stop waging a fight they can't win.  —  A large faction in the House wants to hold funding for the rest of the government hostage until Democrats agree to stop implementing Obamacare.

Putin gets his revenge on Obama  —  Russian President Vladimir Putin's criticism of the United States in the op-ed pages of Thursday's New York Times was a revenge of sorts on President Obama.  —  Putin blasted notions of American “exceptionalism” and directly criticized Obama's proposed military strikes …

Poll Finds Republicans Gain Favor on Key Issues  —  The Republican Party is gaining a public-opinion edge on several key issues ahead of the 2014 elections, as Americans question President Barack Obama's leadership on Syria and worry about the country's overall direction, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows.

Elite Syrian Unit Scatters Chemical Arms Stockpile  —  Assad Regime Has Moved Weapons to as Many as 50 Sites  —  A secretive Syrian military unit at the center of the Assad regime's chemical weapons program has been moving stocks of poison gases and munitions to as many as 50 sites …

NASA confirms Voyager 1 has left the solar system  —  This post has been corrected.  See the note below for details.  —  NASA confirmed Thursday that after 36 years of space travel and months of heated debate among scientists, Voyager 1 has indeed left our solar system and had entered interstellar space more than a year ago.

In Email, Zimmerman's Local Police Chief Agrees He's Another ‘Sandy Hook’ Waiting To Happen  —  Police Chief Steve Bracknell, who is responsible for the Florida town where George Zimmerman resides, agreed in a series of emails that Zimmerman is a “ticking time bomb” and another “Sandy Hook” waiting to happen.

Obama Acts Like He Doesn't Know He's an Executive-Power Extremist  —  On the fake moderation of a president who talks a good game but doesn't follow through  —  It's often hard to tell if President Obama is lying to the American people or to himself.  Is he willfully misrepresenting who he is?

AFGHAN TALIBAN ATTACK US CONSULATE, KILL 2 AFGHANS  —  You are here  —  Home » Afghanistan » Afghan Taliban attack US Consulate, kill 2 Afghans  —  KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban militants set off two suicide car bombs in an attack on the U.S. Consulate in western Afghanistan …

Obama to tap budget chief Zients as top economic adviser  —  President Obama will tap former acting budget director Jeffrey Zients to replace Gene Sperling as the administration's top economic adviser, the White House confirmed Friday.  —  Sperling, the first person to serve as director …

The Collapse of the Obama Presidency  —  How bad has 2013 been for Barack Obama?  Let us count the ways.  —  In the first year of his second term, the president has failed on virtually every front.  He put his prestige on the line to pass federal gun-control legislation-and lost.

The Rise of the New New Left  —  Bill de Blasio's win in New York's Democratic primary isn't a local story.  It's part of a vast shift that could upend three decades of American political thinking.  By Peter Beinart  —  Maybe Bill de Blasio got lucky.  Maybe he only won because he cut a sweet ad featuring his biracial son.

COULD OBAMA'S SYRIA DIPLOMACY LEAD TO WAR?  —  On Wednesday, a diplomatic solution to disarm Syria of its chemical weapons crept forward.  Unlike the preceding days, when policy seemed to be made on the fly, the negotiations Wednesday moved behind closed doors.