President Obama has come out swinging on Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital. As the NATO Summit came to a close on Monday, President Obama defined the presidential election in terms of his economic vision for the country compared to Mitt Romney’s. Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich joins us to answer: Where does the campaign go from here?

The biggest campaign fundraiser in history raised $15 million and packed a star-filled house of Hollywood millionaires in LA with the President at the center of it all. A huge chunk of the money came from people who were entered in a drawing for a chance to see it all, to hang out with George Clooney, Barbra Streisand, Robert Downey Jr., producers like Jeffery Katzenberg, and director Stephen Speilberg.

Who would want to be a nobody at a party like that? We wanted to find out, so John Hockenberry crashes the Clooney dinner in this audio essay.

President Barack Obama’s team is reportedly on the hunt to hire more African-Americans, a search that has stirred a debate among black Democrats about Obama’s record on diversity and its implications for his reelection. Joining us is Jonathan Allen, Politico Senior Washington Correspondent.

Before he was even in the Senate, Barack Obama claimed that he was inspired to move to Chicago by Harold Washington, a man who would become the city's first African-American mayor. What else do these writers of political history have in common? Anna Sale, reporter for It’s a Free Country, leads us through the parallels of the lives of Harold Washington and Barack Obama.

Yesterday Attorney General Eric Holder issued a memo, assuring the Supreme Court that President Obama respects the authority of the court to overturn federal laws they find unconstitutional. This memo came after Republican challengers to the Affordable Care Act accused the President of pressuring the Court during deliberations. We discuss the controversy with Jeffrey Rosen, Professor of Law at George Washington University, and Todd Zwillich, Takeaway Washington correspondent.

Yesterday President Obama criticized his likely general election opponent Mitt Romney by linking Romney to the latest Republican budget plan. As the likelihood of Romney's GOP nomination increases, the attack lines are beginning to be unveiled. For a look ahead at what we can expect in the general election, we're joined by Todd Zwillich, The Takeaway's Washington correspondent.

In his newest book, Rebuild the Dream, green economy pioneer Van Jones reflects on his journey from grassroots outsider to White House insider, shares intimate details of his time in government, and provides a blueprint to reinvent the American Dream. Along the way, he contrasts the structure and rhetoric of the 2008 Obama campaign, the Tea Party movement and Occupy Wall Street. Below are his thoughts on cheap patriots versus deep patriots, and the way forward to reclaim, reinvent, and renew the American Dream. You can order the book here.

At this weekend's conference of the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee, President Barack Obama reaffirmed the United States' commitment to Israel's security. During his remarks to the pro-Israel lobbying group, the President restated that, with regards to ensuring Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon, all options are on the table. The President also said sanctions and diplomacy should be given a chance before further action is taken. Later today, the President will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The meeting will be the latest installment in what has been an uneasy relationship between the two leaders.

The first caucus results are in, heralding the official start of the long slog toward November's big election. Although politicians always bill the election they are involved in as being a critical moment for the nation, this time it is true. At issue in the next election will be what role the federal government plays in the lives of individual Americans. President Obama and the GOP candidates have outlined starkly different views of the social contract in the United States. The potential to shape economic growth, tax policy for the government and common person, and how wealth is distributed will shape fiscal policy for the next decade.

Although some GOP hopefuls have been informally campaigning since this time last year and Barack Obama announced his campaign for reelection back in April, the January 3rd caucus will be the true beginning for the 2012 presidential race. This year, $5.9 million has been spent on TV advertising alone in Iowa. With no heavily favored Republican candidate, the strategy for turning fundraising dollars into actual votes has yet to reveal itself.

As a candidate in 2008, Barack Obama promised to improve the relationship between Washington and American Indian tribes. This year's meeting between the President and tribal leaders is the third such meeting, and comes with many Native Americans approving of the President's outreach effort to their community.

The Senate is set to vote on a new part of President Obama's $447 billion jobs bill which includes funding for programs to help build roads, bridges and other public works programs. The bill is likely to fail, but that has not stopped the president from continuing to campaign for its passage. Andrea Bernstein, director of the Transportation Nation project and senior correspondent for WNYC, looks at why President Obama continues to push for infrastructure despite it looking like a losing cause.

August's Gallup poll numbers showed that 41 percent of American adults approve of the way Obama is currently handling his job, an all-time low for the President. And some of the most significant declines in approval come from Latino voters — a group that was formerly solidly supportive of the President.

White House officials are already criticizing journalist Ron Suskind's book "Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President," which just came out this week, despite having cooperated with Suskind for years. Among the book's more controversial passages are depictions of the Obama White House as dysfunctional, with mean, misogynistic economic advisers undermining a clueless president at every turn. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said, "I lived the original and the reality I lived, we all lived together, bears no relation to the sad little stories I heard reported from that book." White House Press Secretary Jay Carney went even further and accused Suskind of plagiarism, saying, "one passage seems to be lifted almost entirely from Wikipedia."

Faced with an uphill reelection battle and a disenfranchised base, President Obama indicated on Monday that he plans on taking a harder line against an anti-tax GOP. In a speech introducing his debt reduction plan yesterday, Obama vowed to veto any plan Congress sends him that does not raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations while cutting Medicare benefits. "I will not support any plan that puts all the burden for closing our deficit on ordinary Americans," Obama said. Obama's plan, which will reduce annual deficits up to $4 trillion over 10 years, has been assailed as "class warfare" by Republicans.

President Obama will announce a deficit reduction plan today that will reduce government spending by $3 trillion through cutting entitlements, tax increases, and war savings. The plan is the White House's opening offer to the Congressional "super committee," which has until Dec. 23 to reach a deal on deficit reduction. GOP lawmakers have already labeled the proposed tax hikes "class warfare," particularly the so-called "Buffet Rule." Named for billionaire Warren Buffett, who has repeatedly called for higher taxes on the rich, the rule imposes a minimum tax rate on those earning more than $1 million per year. Many Republicans contend that taxing the wealthy will only worsen the economy.

This week, Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve will hold a rare two-day meeting to decide on interest rates, which are currently close to zero. Meanwhile, President Obama will release details of his deficit reduction plan this morning, and one key component is taxing the wealthy, which has many Republicans screaming "class warfare." The Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting begins tomorrow, and the primary topic of discussion will be jobs, as unemployment and poverty prove to be an ever-increasing global problem. Later in the week, the Palestinian Authority will ask the United Nations Security Council for full membership, which the U.S. has already said they will veto.

President Obama continues his jobs tour today, in an attempt to gain public support for the Jobs Act. Tuesday, he visited Ohio, and today he will appear in Raleigh, North Carolina to continue spreading the message and meet with small business owners. Despite President Obama's claims not to be campaigning early for the 2012 election, the White House hopes to persuade voters he has the right strategy on the economy, and put pressure on Republicans to pass the package of spending initiatives and tax cuts.

Congress received President Obama's jobs bill yesterday, giving them an up-close look at the details of it. Some Republicans are skeptical of the plan, but Obama is urging for a speedy passage of the bill, in order to get unemployed Americans back to work as soon as possible.

President Barack Obama continues his jobs tour this week, with stops in Columbus, Ohio and Raleigh-Durham, N.C., rallying support for his jobs plan. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is expected to speak at a conference on regulation of systemic risk on Thursday, five days before the Federal Open Market Committee begins its meetings next week. Tonight, is the first Tea Party debate, which GOP presidential hopefuls Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney and Rick Perry are expected to attend. And Anthony Weiner's old Congressional seat in New York's ninth district is up for grabs in a special election tomorrow.