Carl P. Leubsdorf

Critical blasts erupted from the Democratic Party's left wing when the White House indicated President Barack Obama could include Social Security and Medicare cuts in a bipartisan multitrillion-dollar deficit reduction package.

MoveOn.org used adjectives like "stunning" and "sickening."

Presidential candidates use their formal announcements to introduce themselves to American voters. Many do so in their hometowns: Bill Clinton in Little Rock, Bob Dole in Russell, Kan., and, in a few weeks, Rep. Michele Bachmann in Waterloo, Iowa.

Others, though, seek to create an image they want to place before the voters. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney recently declared his candidacy on a New Hampshire farm with a sharp attack on President Barack Obama's stewardship of the American economy.

President Barack Obama's stunning announcement that U.S. forces had killed Osama bin Laden is first and foremost an enormous American victory that eliminates a vicious adversary who both masterminded anti-Western terrorism and symbolized the dark side of Islamic fundamentalism.

The Republican presidential race has barely begun, and the tea party's impact is already evident.

First sign was the re-emergence of the "birther" issue, the unproven allegation that Barack Obama is an illegal president born in Kenya, not Hawaii. Polls show tea party activists are the Republicans most likely to believe that.

President Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday is taking place this weekend amid a wave of nostalgia and a growing sense his long-term importance has surmounted the bitterly partisan policy fights during his White House tenure.

A year ago, we predicted that Texas Gov. Rick Perry would beat Bill White for re-election and that Congress would pass President Barack Obama's health care bill. But we failed to see that a lagging economic recovery would mean Republicans would win back the U.S. House and make big Senate gains.

It's been three weeks since the mid-term elections, but neither congressional party seems to have gotten the message.

The Republican congressional leadership rejected President Barack Obama's first invitation for a post-election meeting, citing resentment over how he handled previous meetings and renewing the kind of tit-for-tat partisanship that drives voters nuts.