As a result of the Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case, rules regarding corporate and union campaign spending were significantly eased. Super PAC ads are more strongly-worded and less accurate, largely because the third party groups funding them are harder to track down than something funded directly by a candidate's campaign. Though they are not limited to one party by nature, their role in the Republican race has been striking: ads run by pro-Mitt Romney Super PAC "Restore Our Future" are widely credited with reversing Newt Gingrich's lead in Iowa.

Newt Gingrich was for health care mandates before he was against them. Rick Perry was for allowing abortions in cases of rape and incest before he was not. And Mitt Romney has changed his positions on climate change, health care, abortion, and gay rights, just to name a few. In 2004, the caricature of John Kerry as a "flip-flopper" partly cost him the presidential election. Although flip-flopping is almost universally portrayed as negative, these changes of heart sometimes reveal an evolution of ideals and maturity. "When the facts change, I change my mind," John Maynard Keyes once said. "What do you do, sir?"

"From the creator of 'I'm Running For Office for Pete's Sake' comes the story of two men trapped in the same body — Mitt versus Mitt." It sounds like a movie trailer, but it's really the latest political ad from the Democratic National Committee. The DNC is reportedly spending $22,000 to run the ad this week. Among the GOP presidential candidates, Rick Perry has already spent $2.8 million on advertising, Ron Paul has spent $2.1 million, Mitt Romney has spent $134,000, and Herman Cain has spent $78,900. But what kind of poll numbers does one TV spot really buy?

President Barack Obama addressed a joint session of Congress and television viewers across the country last night, presenting a $447 billion package of tax cuts and new government spending meant to increase jobs in America. Obama urged Congress to "pass this jobs plan right away." After the speech, House speaker John Boehner said "The proposals the president outlined tonight merit consideration." Will Obama's plan pass through Congress and, more importantly, will it work?

The markets started off jittery yesterday and throughout the morning they just kept dropping. Later in the afternoon President Obama made an attempt to reassure Americans. During a statement at the White House he said, "Markets will rise and fall, but this is the United States of America. No matter what some agency may say, we've always been and always be a triple A country."

President Obama stood before the nation and pleaded with Congress to come to an agreement as soon as possible, in a prime-time speech to the American public last night. "We can't allow the American people to become collateral damage to Washington's political warfare," he said. House Speaker John Boehner immediately followed Obama's speech with his response, agreeing that the debate needs to be resolved, but urging Obama to sign on to the Republican proposal to raise the debt limit.

Presidents throughout history have had to deliver speeches in the wake of tragedy to comfort the nation. Ronald Reagan did so after the Challenger explosion; Bill Clinton after the Oklahoma City bombing and Columbine shootings; and George W. Bush after 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the Virginia Tech shootings. President Obama is set to deliver his own speech tonight in Arizona to try and comfort a nation following the shooting of twenty people, that left six dead. How will President Obama approach the events, and their political impliations, from the scene of the tragedy?

President Obama addressed the country last night, marking the official end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq. Balancing his own former opposition to the war with congratulating the troops required Obama, a gifted orator, to thread several rhetorical needles, but a larger question remains: do people care what Obama had to say about Iraq?

With the help of Kathleen Hall Jamieson, professor of communications and director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, we take a look at President Obama's Oval Office speech from last night. Jamieson analyzes the president's rhetoric, looking at whether it was effective in communicating his control over the Gulf oil crisis and setting up the changes in the country's energy policy.

From the Gulf region to the Beltway, everyone has an opinion on President Obama's eighteen minute long speech about the BP oil spill last night, including Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. That story and this morning's headlines.

From television, to talk radio, to the newsstands, Americans are inundated with news about the sorry state of politics. But are the media merely covering the story of D.C.'s gridlock, or are they creating it? For the second installment of our series, "Frustration Nation," we examine the role of the media and its impact on the political divisiveness in America and Washington, D.C., today.

President Obama delivered his first State of the Union address last night, covering a broad range of issues from our wars abroad, to the devastation in Haiti and the stalemate on healthcare reform at home. We talk with Kathleen Hall Jamieson, the director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, to review what the President addressed in his speech.

President Obama completes his first year in office today, and the excitement and euphoria that characterized his inauguration has turned to skepticism and doubt about his agenda.

Since the health care debate began, advocacy groups, including the NAACP and the National Council of La Raza, have been arguing for a public option and for health care that's affordable for all their members. But will they be successful in using a civil rights organizing platform to affect the health care debate? For a primer on whether or not affordable health care can be considered a fundamental human right, we turn to Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. We also hear from Hilary Shelton, the NAACP's senior vice president for advocacy and policy and director of its Washington bureau. And we talk to Jennifer Ng’andu, deputy director of health policy at the National Council of La Raza.

President Obama appeared on no fewer than five media outlets over the weekend, trying to get the word out about his health care initiative, the war in Afghanistan and his missile defense plans overseas. For a look at the impact of the president's media blitz, we speak to Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

Tonight the president will trade in his policy-wonk hat for (hopefully) more comedic fare when he appears on "The Late Show with David Letterman." We are creating our own Top 10 list of things the president should not say on the show. Send us your suggestions and we'll make a list of the funniest.

There was a moment during the president's address to Congress last night when all eyes were not on President Obama. As the president called "untrue" the canard that health care reform would provide coverage to undocumented immigrants, Representative Joe Wilson (R-South Carolina) broke a decades-long tradition of comity and heckled the president, shouting "You lie!" The room booed his poor manners. To find out who Joe Wilson is, we talk to Mark Quinn, host of South Carolina ETV and Radio’s Public Affairs Program, The Big Picture. And for a look at the history of congressional comity we speak with Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

Watch Wilson's outburst in this clip from last night's address:

When we talk about health care reform, we're talking about a process of government: it's messy, it's complicated, and the tone changes week to week. For Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, this health care debate is a lesson in exactly the way government should work.

Now that the Pentagon has lifted its 18-year ban on press coverage of the return of America's war dead, will the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan return to the national conversation? Or has the moment passed us by? Is the American public war weary and ready to move on? For a look at what exposure to Dover Air Force base means, The Takeaway turns to Kathleen Hall Jamieson. She is Director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of numerous books, including Presidents Creating the Presidency and unSpun: Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation.

He’s the first sitting president to appear on a late-night talk show. He’s been on the cover of GQ and Vanity Fair. His weekly “radio” address airs on YouTube and his emails are still going out regularly to supporters. President Obama is using the media in a way no president ever has. Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and co-author of Presidents Creating the Presidency, joins John with an analysis of how the President's communication strategy is working.


Obama's most recent media appearance was on 60 Minutes last night. The first part of that interview is below.