President Dwight D. Eisenhower is most commonly remembered as a vocal opponent of communism and a leader who ushered in one of America's most prosperous eras. But a new national memorial in Washington D.C. offers a different image: designed by famed architect Frank Gehry, the proposed monument features Eisenhower as a young, barefoot boy in Abilene, Kansas, gazing on images of his adult accomplishments. This has been met by criticism, mostly from Eisenhower's family.

Although his father was the first candidate to release their tax returns, the impetus for Massachussetts governor Mitt Romney making his financial life public — and the rallying cry of Gingrich-boosting Super PACs — is the assertion that Romney is too rich and therefore too out of touch to be president. Throughout the decades, Americans have elected very wealthy men to the White House without any fanfare. Yet with record rates of unemployment that many are experiencing over a period of years, the issue of class in the U.S. has gained a new significance.

A year ago President Obama announced his plans for high speed rail lines and other cutting edge transportation for the nation. But after many defeats in Congress, including the de-funding of high-speed rail, the President’s transportation initiative suddenly seems less futuristic and more focused on rebuilding the old highways of the past. 

Michele Bachmann announced on Wednesday that she is disbanding her campaign. Now that she is no longer pursuing the Republican nomination, there are no other female candidates running for president. However, this absence is consistent with overall political trends: while women consist of 51 percent of the population, they hold 17 percent of congressional seats, 22 percent of state senate seats, and 24 percent of state house seats.

Mitt Romney lost the New Hampshire GOP primary to John McCain in 2008, but he's hoping 2012's primary will be different. Romney received a key endorsement from the granite state's former governor, John H. Sununu. New Hampshire will hold the first presidential primary in the nation in January after the Iowa caucuses. While Romney continues to be the front runner in the GOP race, support for the former Massachusetts governor remains tepid at best. With a history of modified positions and the albatross of "Romneycare," the Massachusetts health care reform legislation that served as a model for President Obama's health care reform, hanging around his neck, many in the GOP base question Romney's conservatism.

Newly released interview tapes with Jacqueline Kennedy show a very different side to the resilient and charming first lady who gracefully lead America through one of the nation’s greatest tragedies. The tapes, which will be made publicly available tomorrow, show Kennedy as deeply opinionated, angry, judgemental and even, as our guest says, downright "nasty." Do these tapes shed light on a dark side to Kennedy, or, do they reveal a larger story, of the stress and responsibility that comes with being America’s First Lady?

As America faces an ongoing recession, the Middle East faces revolution and turmoil, and the president faces what could be an incredibly difficult re-election campaign, we couldn’t think of a better person to talk current events with than Nobel Peace Prize winner and 39th president of the United States, Jimmy Carter.

It is widely assumed that Texas Governor Rick Perry will soon announce plans to seek the Republican nomination for president. The governor's announcement may come this weekend, a week after his large prayer rally in Houston — which drew almost 30,000 attendants — where he prayed for divine intervention to the assist President Obama's judgement. 

For months, the words "debt ceiling" have been hanging over Americans' heads, along with apocalyptic predictions of what might happen if President Obama and Congress don’t raise the ceiling or rearrange the budget before August.

But back in April, Garrett Epps proposed something completely novel, that’s just now starting to get a lot of attention: what if the president simply asserted that under the Fourteenth Amendment the debt ceiling is unconstitutional?

Mother’s Day is just around the corner, and this week, during which all eyes are on the accomplishments of the president, we look at his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham. A teenage mother, she married and divorced twice, had two children, and eventually went on to earn a PhD and work in international development. New York Times writer Janny Scott has written a new, comprehensive biography of Dunham called “A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother.”

President Obama's mother Stanley Ann Dunham died young, at the age of 52. Because of this, her four grandchildren never got to hear her stories, eat her cooking, or experience those other parts of the special relationship many children are able to have with their grandparents. Maya Soetero-Ng, Dunham's daughter, didn't think deeply about this until one of her kids asked her what grandma was like. That question served as the inspiration for a children’s book called “Ladder to the Moon.” The story, illustrated whimsically by Yuyi Morales, imagines a meeting between Maya’s older daughter and her own mother.

100 years ago this February, a ten-pound future president was born in Illinois, feet first. His name was Ronald Wilson Reagan. While he eventually came to be a household name, first as an actor, then as a politician, the details of Ronald Reagan's personal life have always been more or less private. Even his own son, Ron Reagan, wasn’t fully sure of his dad’s story, until he set out to learn more about him. 

When President Obama delivers his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, he won't just be speaking to the American people; he'll be speaking to the world. From Iran to Afghanistan to Russia, world leaders and ordinary citizens will listen carefully to Obama's words. For a look at the geopolitical landscape facing Obama on the eve of his address, we talk to George Friedman, author of "The Next Decade: Where We've Been and Where We're Going."

Fifty years ago today, the 35th president of the United States John F. Kennedy uttered the following words at his inaugural address: 

"The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it — and the glow from that fire can truly light the world. And so, my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

Why did JFK’s words strike a cord with so many? And how did his inauguration foreshadow what was ahead for the young president’s time in office?

How well do we really know our president? All week we’ll be looking at the President Obama that has emerged over the past two years, and what that portends about Barack Obama’s future plans as he seeks re-election in 2012. David Bromowich, Sterling Professor of English at Yale University, says that when the nation elected Barack Obama, they actually got two presidents, not one.  

President George W. Bush has promised readers that his new memoir, "Decision Points," is unconventional. But is it really unique? Will readers be surprised? Or will his book, like so many presidential memoirs and biographies, fall flat?

Karen Holt joins us; she has written about other presidential biographies. She’s a former deputy editor of Publishers Weekly and contributes book reviews to O: The Oprah Magazine and Essence. She shares her opinions on "Decision Points," and presidential memoirs in general.

Dwight D. Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States. During his two terms, he enlarged Social Security, signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, and declared racial discrimination a national security issue. And, of course, before all that, he was a five-star general in the United States Army and Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II.

Widely considered a great president and a great Republican, many people still can’t help but like Ike.

This week we’ve been talking a lot about the people and groups financially supporting political candidates in the mid-terms. But there is another national election we’re following where American money could have a major influence. Haiti’s presidential election is on November 28th. Candidates in that election have been actively campaigning State-side to raise money.

At what point can we properly judge a president’s legacy? Is it after the first term, the first 100 days, or the first 100 years after they've left the Oval Office?

Over the weekend, our partner, The New York Times, will run "The Education of a President," by Peter Baker. The article begins with an American public poised to hand the president a mid-semester report card, in the form of November mid-term election votes. No matter which way they vote, says Baker, a very new presidential administration will emerge.

Peter Baker writes that “for all intents and purposes the first chapter of Obama’s presidency has ended. On Election Day, the next chapter begins.”

This Fourth of July weekend, a lot of us will be eating hot dogs, potato salad, corn on the cob, and hamburgers. But when we’re done feasting on the char-broiled delicacies that have come to represent our nation’s independence, how should we finish it all off?

Bill Yosses has some suggestions. He’s the official White House Pastry Chef, and author, along with Melissa Clark, of a new cookbook called “The Perfect Finish.” Chef Yosses joins us live from the White House, where he gives us the scoop on everything from what he serves official visitors to the first family's favorite sweets.

Below, Bill Yosses and Melissa Clark's red, white and blue berry buttermilk bundt cake with orange glaze.