Under Obama, the national debt has increased to $12 trillion and will be $21 trillion by 2019. Even still Liberal Washington with Obama at the helm is now debating whether to create more social programs they can't afford.The dollar's decline is indicative that the United States is no longer the dominant force in the global economy. China is the largest creditor to a heavily indebted U.S. government. World living standards will grow faster than ours, as will global wealth. Capital will move abroad, leaving U.S. unemployment at high levels. That is the cost of Liberal ideology.By 2030, China will surpass the U.S. in the size of its economy. Global power follows economic strength. Even still, Obama is willfully accelerating the decline of the USA as the global power. China thrives because it is hungry, dynamic, unwilling to accept failure and convinced that it should be a leading force in the world. That is why America thrived a century ago. Today, such hunger and dynamism are less evident in American life and are being replaced by a welfare mentality as Obama seeks personal popularity and ego satisfaction by being an apologist for what he perceives as US shortcomings and by ceding authority to the United Nations.The next crisis has already started. The vast printing of money has begun to depress the value of the dollar. The economy will appear to recover from the subprime crisis and recession by mid to late 2009. It will though be the calm before the real storm as a consequence of Obama's wild spending. In the early part of the next decade, America will enter a depression, with stocks reaching new lows. Housing prices will not recover and housing will remain a poor investment. A global bull market will not return until the end of the next decade and by then everything will be worth much less in dollar terms because of its declining value.Obama was elected to be President of the USA. What he has done is totally polarize the country - worse than any President in 40 years. The people who feel disenfranchised most are those who drive the capitalist engine which has made the USA the most successful country in the world. That is a disastrous dynamic. Obama was elected as a do-gooder: audacity of hope, diplomacy, disarmament, income redistribution, climate change and international-back-pedaling. We will now reap the consequences. Obama is lost in knowing how to handle conflict throughout the world. Afghanistan will become Obama's Vietnam. Obama has no answer to the Taliban or al-Qaeda. Do-gooders believe that everyone has good intentions. Such was Chamberlain's belief when he negotiated "peace for our time" with Hitler in 1937.

Shortly after President Obama and the First Family moved into the White House, they adopted a pint-sized Portuguese Water Dog named Bo who captured the world's attention, and immediately won the hearts of everyone who saw him. Bo Barks is an up-close and personal look at life in the White House (and on the world's stage, too!) written by Bo himself. Containing over 40 full-color and black-and-white photos, this fun book features such exclusives as:  Bo's Classified Secret Service Dossier; Bo's White House scrapbook of famous past First Dogs (and a First Cat named Socks); Bo's Tweets on Twitter; and his never-before-told exploits around the world. He reveals the inside skinny on what it's like to live in the White House, be hounded by the paparazzi, receive training from First Lady Michelle, and experience the agony of defeat getting tackled by the President in a game of football in the Rose Garden. You'll have a doggone good time as you read Bo Barks!

In this nuanced and complex portrait of Barack Obama, Pulitzer Prize-winner David Remnick offers a thorough, intricate, and riveting account of the unique experiences that shaped our nation’s first African American president.  Through extensive on-the-record interviews with friends and teachers, mentors and disparagers, family members and Obama himself, Remnick explores the elite institutions that first exposed Obama to social tensions, and the intellectual currents that contributed to his identity. Using America’s racial history as a backdrop for Obama’s own story, Remnick further reveals how an initially rootless and confused young man built on the experiences of an earlier generation of black leaders to become one of the central figures of our time. Masterfully written and eminently readable, The Bridge is destined to be a lasting and illuminating work for years to come, by a writer with an unparalleled gift for revealing the historical significance of our present moment.

No story has been more central to America’s history this century than the rise of Barack Obama, and until now, no journalist or historian has written a book that fully investigates the circumstances and experiences of Obama’s life or explores the ambition behind his rise. Those familiar with Obama’s own best-selling memoir or his campaign speeches know the touchstones and details that he chooses to emphasize, but now—from a writer whose gift for illuminating the historical significance of unfolding events is without peer—we have a portrait, at once masterly and fresh, nuanced and unexpected, of a young man in search of himself, and of a rising politician determined to become the first African-American president.The Bridge offers the most complete account yet of Obama’s tragic father, a brilliant economist who abandoned his family and ended his life as a beaten man; of his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, who had a child as a teenager and then built her career as an anthropologist living and studying in Indonesia; and of the succession of elite institutions that first exposed Obama to the social tensions and intellectual currents that would force him to imagine and fashion an identity for himself. Through extensive on-the-record interviews with friends and teachers, mentors and disparagers, family members and Obama himself, David Remnick allows us to see how a rootless, unaccomplished, and confused young man created himself first as a community organizer in Chicago, an experience that would not only shape his urge to work in politics but give him a home and a community, and that would propel him to Harvard Law School, where his sense of a greater mission emerged.Deftly setting Obama’s political career against the galvanizing intersection of race and politics in Chicago’s history, Remnick shows us how that city’s complex racial legacy would make Obama’s forays into politics a source of controversy and bare-knuckle tactics: his clashes with older black politicians in the Illinois State Senate, his disastrous decision to challenge the former Black Panther Bobby Rush for Congress in 2000, the sex scandals that would decimate his more experienced opponents in the 2004 Senate race, and the story—from both sides—of his confrontation with his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. By looking at Obama’s political rise through the prism of our racial history, Remnick gives us the conflicting agendas of black politicians: the dilemmas of men like Jesse Jackson, John Lewis, and Joseph Lowery, heroes of the civil rights movement, who are forced to reassess old loyalties and understand the priorities of a new generation of African-American leaders.The Bridge revisits the American drama of race, from slavery to civil rights, and makes clear how Obama’s quest is not just his own but is emblematic of a nation where destiny is defined by individuals keen to imagine a future that is different from the reality of their current lives.From the Hardcover edition.

No story has been more central to America’s history this century than the rise of Barack Obama, and until now, no journalist or historian has written a book that fully investigates the circumstances and experiences of Obama’s life or explores the ambition behind his rise. Those familiar with Obama’s own best-selling memoir or his campaign speeches know the touchstones and details that he chooses to emphasize, but now—from a writer whose gift for illuminating the historical significance of unfolding events is without peer—we have a portrait, at once masterly and fresh, nuanced and unexpected, of a young man in search of himself, and of a rising politician determined to become the first African-American president.The Bridge offers the most complete account yet of Obama’s tragic father, a brilliant economist who abandoned his family and ended his life as a beaten man; of his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, who had a child as a teenager and then built her career as an anthropologist living and studying in Indonesia; and of the succession of elite institutions that first exposed Obama to the social tensions and intellectual currents that would force him to imagine and fashion an identity for himself. Through extensive on-the-record interviews with friends and teachers, mentors and disparagers, family members and Obama himself, David Remnick allows us to see how a rootless, unaccomplished, and confused young man created himself first as a community organizer in Chicago, an experience that would not only shape his urge to work in politics but give him a home and a community, and that would propel him to Harvard Law School, where his sense of a greater mission emerged.Deftly setting Obama’s political career against the galvanizing intersection of race and politics in Chicago’s history, Remnick shows us how that city’s complex racial legacy would make Obama’s forays into politics a source of controversy and bare-knuckle tactics: his clashes with older black politicians in the Illinois State Senate, his disastrous decision to challenge the former Black Panther Bobby Rush for Congress in 2000, the sex scandals that would decimate his more experienced opponents in the 2004 Senate race, and the story—from both sides—of his confrontation with his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. By looking at Obama’s political rise through the prism of our racial history, Remnick gives us the conflicting agendas of black politicians: the dilemmas of men like Jesse Jackson, John Lewis, and Joseph Lowery, heroes of the civil rights movement, who are forced to reassess old loyalties and understand the priorities of a new generation of African-American leaders.The Bridge revisits the American drama of race, from slavery to civil rights, and makes clear how Obama’s quest is not just his own but is emblematic of a nation where destiny is defined by individuals keen to imagine a future that is different from the reality of their current lives.

Before the historic presidential election of 2008, LIFE Books published a best-selling volume entitled The American Journey of Barack Obama. In researching that book, the editors came to be deeply impressed not only by the exotic story of the candidate himself but also by the life and personality of the woman who would, if Obama were to prevail, enter the White House at his side. Michelle Robinson, the daughter of a Chicago municipal worker-and, in fact, a woman with slavery represented in her family tree-had risen to be educated in the Ivy League and was already embarked upon a successful legal career back in theWindy City before she ever met Barack Obama.Once she did, these two bright, charismatic young people influenced each other and rose together in Chicago politics. The rest, as they say, is history. As the nation came to know Michelle Obama, the nation fell for her-and for Malia and Sasha as well (plus now, of course, Bo). The same has happened on the world stage, where it has been observed that Michelle, with her vivacity and sense of style, has sometimes eclipsed her husband in the way that Jackie Kennedy outshone JFK back in the early 1960s. Meantime, Michelle has been out and about in Washington, working at the food bank, tending the garden, shepherding the kids. That, too, is part of the story-and all of it is here, in words and vibrant pictures, in LIFE's Michelle Obama: A Portrait of the First Lady. This is Michelle's story, from her girlhood to her current crucial role. It is not the story of the President's wife. It is the complete, illustrated biography of one of the most intriguing and captivating women in America.

How does the busiest man on Earth spend his time? Whether he's huddling with top advisers in the Oval Office, zipping around the globe on Air Force One, or enjoying a little downtime with his family, President Obama leads a fascinating life. Look inside to discover: How Barack Obama got America's top job Who helps the President make big decisions What goes on behind-the-scenes in the White House How the First Lady spends her days What the President does when he's not working And much, much more!

Four years of research and writing, four months of wearying travel on the 2008 campaign, and four days of excruciating all-night editing have produced a book that is already a bestseller that raises new questions about Senator Barack Obama's fitness for the presidency. This is the first book to impartially and independently analyze Obama's career and place his life in the context of America's most corrupt big city, Chicago. Unlike right-wing cut-and-paste attacks on Obama, Andy Martin's book is based on over forty years of experience in Chicago and Illinois politics. While some have sought to exaggerate Obama's faults and perceived weaknesses Andy has worked to get behind the man, to see the "inner Obama,' and to present insight, not incendiary attacks that quickly burn out. Andy has created a new kind of bestseller: a coherent and well-organized presentation for the Internet age. Today, the problem is not a lack of commentary and information; rather, people are inundated with bits and pieces. We suffer from "information overload." But not all information is of equal value, and some of it is downright wrong. While the "gatekeepers" of old no longer rule, accuracy and experience are still at a premium. Andy's efforts to inform the American public about Senator's Obama's past and lack of qualifications to serve as president, were not a top-down driven enterprise. Rather, in a classic Internet model, this book and the columns Andy Martin produces on Senator Obama are a bottom-up driven campaign. People genuinely want to know the truth about this mystery man. Andy works constantly to dig out the facts. That is why Andy will match his forty years plus of Chicago and Illinois political experience against anyone else who claims a piece of the Obama story. He carefully sifts and reviews every piece of information about Obama before publication. He doesn't shy away from controversy, but he has a reputation for accuracy. Andy has tried to present the "Obama Story" as he progressed from an unknown to an all-too-well-known. Obama is a complicated man. He has led a complicated life. Even the most basic questions about him raise complex answers. This book is packed with analysis, commentary and thought-provoking inquiry about the candidate; Andy has captured his "essence."