Yesterday, President Obama tried to dissuade Americans from getting distracted over whether he’s an American citizen. Then reality TV star and presidential hopeful Donald Trump quickly took credit for Obama’s move to release his long form birth certificate. Now Trump is flirting with the idea of prolonging the issue with concerns over the certificate’s authenticity and concerns over whether Obama should open up his academic records from his undergraduate work at Occidental College. Is the birther issue over?  And how do conspiracy theories like these become full blown political issues?

President Barack Obama is a different leader than candidate Barack Obama. What remains difficult to discern is just how different both men are on matters of U.S. foreign policy. Critics to both the left and the right of the president have voiced frustration at the administration's obstinate refusal to state a foreign policy doctrine. Ryan Lizza, Washington correspondent for The New Yorker describes how recent events in the Middle East may be creating an Obama doctrine on its own.

Yesterday was the deadline to file taxes in the U.S. and in what has become a tradition, President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden released their tax returns to the public. The Takeaway's Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich  shares his findings.

President Obama made the decision to use U.S. military forces in Libya in his role as the top of American government's executive branch. But the president's cabinet and circle of advisers play an important role in policy. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates come from different areas of the political spectrum, and their positions on Libya have appeared to be quite different. Will the relationship between President Obama's advisers complicate the endgame in Libya?

While the world watches the events unfolding in Japan and the Middle East, President Obama heads to Latin America for a five day tour. The president and first lady Michelle Obama begin their first official trip to Brazil tomorrow, a country with a fast-rising GDP rate that some economic experts have taken to calling "The New World Player." The president and first lady will also stop in Chile and El Salvador.

President Obama delivers his 2012 Federal budget proposal today, and already debate is in full swing. Stan Collender, budget expert and writer for the Capital Gains and Games blog, helps us understand what to expect. His prediction? A congressional stalemate the likes of which we haven't seen in over a decade.

The 110th Congress begins its lame duck session today, and the question remains: how much can lawmakers get done before the new members step in? Charlie Herman, economics editor for The Takeaway and WNYC looks at how this session of Congress handles the Bush tax cuts, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and the new START treaty.

After the beating Democrats took in last week's mid-term elections, all eyes, including those of our managing producer, Noel King, will be looking at what the GOP's initial moves will be this week. She'll also look at President Obama's continued trip through Asia, along with Charlie Herman, business and economics editor for The Takeaway and WNYC Radio.

President Obama stood before reporters yesterday and addressed the big losses his party suffered in the midterm elections — including the turnover of the House of Representatives to Republicans. Obama accepted blame for not fullfiling voters' needs on the economy. How will the President's agenda now change? And with Republicans in control of Congress, what will their own agenda be? We'll look towards the future of Congress and the president with Peter Baker, chief political correspondent for The New York Times.

President Obama surely won votes during the 2008 election when he promised Americans that he would rebuild our standing in the international community through diplomacy, and much of Europe responded with open arms. But two years later, as Europeans watch the American spectacle that has become the 2010 elections, we look at the reaction abroad as Democrats lose major races for the House and Senate

Paddy O’Connell, host of our partner the BBC’s Broadcasting House, joins us from London. Theda Skocpol also weighs in.

Was this race effectively a "recall" on President Obama?  That depends on who turned out at the voting booths yesterday. John Zogby, president of the polling firm Zogby International, gives us a picture of who turned out to vote yesterday and what surprised him in this morning's results.

President Obama meets today with governors and mayors from around the nation to talk about “investing in America’s infrastructure.”

President Obama will announce the departure of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel later today. As the right hand man to the president, Emanuel championed Obama’s causes behind the scenes and brokered deals to push through legislation. But his wasn’t a flawless record. Critics argue that Emanuel’s pugilistic nature often attracted negative attention to himself, and that his focus on short term goals squandered some of the political capital the president carried into his first term.  

"Everyone talks to Bob Woodward," New York Times White House correspondent Peter Baker told The Takeaway last week. Baker was talking about the Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist's latest tome, "Obama's Wars," which has captivated Washington with its revelations of bitter infighting in the president's national security team.

Israel's partial freeze on settlement buliding in the West Bank ended last night, and Marcus Mabry, associate national editor for The New York Times, and Charlie Herman, economics editor for The Takeaway and WNYC Radio, discuss how this will affect peace talks between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.  They'll also take a look at what's ahead this week for Bishop Eddie Long, who has been accused of trying to sexually seduce four teenage boys; President Obama's continued conversations with middle-class Americans; how China and Japan's relationship is rapidly deteriorating, and more.

Soon, there will be several changes at the top levels of the Obama administration. Following the November elections, the White House’s top economic advisor, Larry Summers, will return to his position as a professor at Harvard University; Herbert Allison also announced he would step down as the Treasury Department’s assistant secretary for financial stability. Perhaps less surprising is the much rumored, though finally announced, departure of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, in October.

President Obama gave a sweeping economic address to a handpicked crowd of 800 people near Cleveland, Ohio yesterday… partly to announce several new economic proposals, partly to try to set a new tone for the midterm election campaigns. 

It was his second speech on the economy this week; in it, he proposed $180 billion dollars in new business tax breaks and infrastructure spending, to get businesses spending and hiring again. 

But even if Congress passes the proposals, would they be enough to turn the economy around in a substantial way? And will it do anything to improve fortunes for the Democrats heading into the November 2nd elections?

It wasn’t that long ago that presidential candidate Barack Obama could command rapt crowds chanting his campaign motto of hope, change and rejuvenation for a nation seemingly in dire straits. But these days, President Obama has a harder time commanding that kind of grassroots support.

Midterm elections are now less than two months away, and this week President Obama’s agenda is all about the economy. In Milwaukee on Monday, the president said, “I am going to keep fighting, every single day, every single hour, every single minute, to turn this economy around, and put our people back to work.”

In Monday's speech, the president proposed a $50 billion plan to invest in infrastructure across the country—from roads to railways and runways—as well as an expansion of the tax credit for research and experimentation.

Today, in Cleveland, the president will give another speech on the economy, and one of the major initiatives he’s expected to propose would allow businesses to write off 100 percent of their new investments in equipment and plants all at once—rather than over a number of years, which is how businesses can currently deduct investment expenses. The idea is that this would be an incentive for businesses to start immediately investing in goods they need, and hiring more workers.

President Obama spent his Labor Day in Milwaukee, announcing big plans for the nation's infrastructure. The plan begins with an initial investment of $50 billion of taxpayer money, followed by increased spending over the next six years. It aims to build or repair 150,000 miles of roads; 4,000 miles of rail and 150 miles of airplane runways.