Obama Plays to Liberal Base, Not Independents  —  At a low point in President Barack Obama's first term, a White House official conceded the president had lost a disturbing amount of ground with independent voters.  —  We have to get them back, the official said in an interview.

Gary Becker, RIP  —  Nobel Prize winner Gary Becker, one of the greatest economists of the last century, passed away on Saturday.  Gary Becker did pathbreaking work on numerous issues, including the economics of discrimination, criminal behavior, the family, and the dynamics of political interest groups.

The Benghazi-Industrial Complex  —  Will the pseudo-scandal be enough to stop Hillary from running?  —  Perhaps if the Republicans can't beat Hillary Clinton fairly in 2016, they can make her so disgusted by the prospect of running that she'll stay out of the race.  —  That's where the Benghazi-Industrial Complex comes in.

Poll: For the midterms, a tilt to the GOP … LEANING REPUBLICAN OBAMA'S IMPACT  —  IMPORTANT ISSUES  —  VIEWPOINTS  —  Source: USA TODAY/Pew Research Center poll taken April 23-27 of 1,501 adults.  Margin of error: +/-3 percentage points.  —  WASHINGTON — Democrats hoping improvements …

Perry: No pause in executions in Texas  —  Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) on Sunday blamed the state of Oklahoma for a “botched” execution of a death row inmate last week, but said his state will proceed with the death penalty without pause.  —  “In Texas, our citizens have decided if you kill our children …

President Obama and the World  —  Two years after winning an election in which foreign policy was barely mentioned, President Obama is being pummeled at home and abroad for his international leadership.  The world sometimes seems as if it is flying apart, with Mr. Obama unable to fix it.

GOP candidate booted from editorial meeting after calling out ‘blah blah’ dis  —  A Republican Senate candidate was kicked out of a local Oregon newspaper's editorial board meeting after daring to challenge a reporter who dissed a fellow candidate by writing “blah blah blah” in his notes instead of her actual quotes.

May primaries to test GOP establishment clout  —  The month of May will go a long way toward answering one of the overriding questions of Election 2014: Can the Republican establishment finally quell the tea party and retake the Senate?  —  A month-long series of primaries …

When Hitting ‘Find My iPhone’ Takes You to a Thief's Doorstep  —  WEST COVINA, Calif. — After a boozy Saturday night, Sarah Maguire awoke the next morning to find that her iPhone was gone.  Her roommate's phone was gone, too.  Were they at the bar, she wondered, or in the cab?

Inventing a Failure  —  Last week, House Republicans released a deliberately misleading report on the status of health reform, crudely rigging the numbers to sustain the illusion of failure in the face of unexpected success.  Are you shocked?  —  You aren't, but you should be.

Joe Manchin ponders gubernatorial run  —  WASHINGTON — West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin said Sunday he's keeping “all options open” on whether to seek the governor's office in 2016 or remain in the Senate, where he has expressed frustration with partisanship and gridlock.

White House Correspondents Dinner: Transcript of Obama's Remarks  —  Here is the transcript of President Barack Obama's remarks at the White House Correspondents Dinner, Saturday, May 3, as released by the White House.  —  THE PRESIDENT: Thank you so much, everybody.  Have a seat, have a seat.