How Wall Street thoroughly dominated Obama’s economic policy.

On the complex nature of a presidential second term and what Obama would do if he wins one.

On the last weekend of April 2011, two things happened in Washington D.C.: the annual White House Correspondents Dinner and the decision to raid Osama bin Laden’s compound. This is the story of how both transpired.

A literary exploration of Obama’s voice.

Lessons learned about Washington from investigating how the “grand bargain” fell apart.

The inside story of the Affordable Care Act.

Taking the measure of the president, with a view to history.

On the occasion of Hamid Karzai’s visit to the White House, a fever dream tour of the Afghanistan war through the eyes of the leaders who gave birth to its narrative.

A profile of Elizabeth Warren.

Why the US intervened in Libya.

Why has the White House ignored clemency petitions?

Retracing the early economic steps of the Obama administration.

On Hillary Clinton’s Arab Spring.

Inside Obama’s most glaring reversal.

In 1967, Stanley Ann Dunham took her 6-year-old son, Barry, on an adventure to Indonesia. An excerpt from A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mother.

As surely as 2008 was made possible by black people’s long fight to be publicly American, it was also made possible by those same Americans’ long fight to be publicly black. That latter fight belongs especially to one man, as does the sight of a first family bearing an African name. Barack Obama is the president. But it’s Malcolm X’s America.

Obama’s presidency may well be defined by whether or not he can curb unemployment. Step One: find a decent idea.

A profile of Eric Holder.

According to this excerpt from Woodward’s Obama’s Wars, the president’s military advisors gave him only one option: send an additional 40,000 troops. Obama pushed back.

A profile of Rahm Emanuel, written during his first congressional campaign in Illinois. Emanuel was running to fill the seat vacated by Rod Blagojevich.

A day in the political life of Barack Obama.

Frank Rich on The Promise, Jonathan Alter’s book about the first year of the Obama administration.

Playing beer pong with David Axelrod—and other scenes from the lives of young, high-profile aides in the Obama White House.

In 1995, the Chicago Reader profiled a little-known professor (and lawyer and philanthropist and author) who had decided to run for office to get back to his true passion: community organizing.