By Stephen Collinson (AFP) –1/22/12

WASHINGTON — As Republicans feud in a divisive nominating melee, President Barack Obama this week takes his reelection blueprint of economic justice for all direct and unfiltered to American voters.

Obama will lay out his vision in his annual State of the Union address on Tuesday, seeking to defy political logic that suggests incumbent presidents lose when they ask for a second term amid sluggish growth and high unemployment.

Then, he will embark on his first cross-country campaign foray of the year, visiting five states -- Iowa, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Michigan -- that his campaign team sees as vital to his prospects in November's election.

Obama's third State of the Union address will pitch him into the volatile Republican nominating race electrified by comeback kid Newt Gingrich's win in the South Carolina primary over establishment pick Mitt Romney.

The annual televised showpiece offers the president a unique platform to beam his message into the living rooms of millions of Americans and Obama said Saturday he would conjure up a picture of an economy where "everybody gets a fair shot, everybody does their fair share and everybody plays by the same set of rules."

With his approval ratings below 50 percent -- dangerous territory for a president seeking reelection -- Obama will renew his call for the richest Americans to pay more in taxes to ease the pain of the middle class.

He promises initiatives to boost manufacturing, create jobs and to tap homegrown and alternative energy, though most are believed dead on arrival in a Congress locked down by hostile Republicans.

The president's case boils down to an argument that Republicans favor the rich while he is a warrior for the middle class.

The Republican counter charge is also simple and targeted at voters weary of years of economic pain: Obama has failed to create jobs, run up government debt and is covering up his failures by resorting to class warfare.

Obama's aides are watching the Republican primary joust with glee.

They have mocked multi-millionaire Romney over a row about his tax returns and record as a venture capitalist which fits nicely into Obama's populist anti-Wall Street message.

And Gingrich and Romney are now seeking to outdo one another with contempt-laden critiques of Obama's performance.

Romney paints Obama who is a nice guy who is out of his depth running a country and claims the president sits idle while Iran cooks up a nuclear bomb.

Gingrich took his criticisms to a new pitch in South Carolina victory speech on Saturday, branding Obama a dangerous radical "so weak that he makes Jimmy Carter look strong."

The attacks delight conservatives desperate to floor a president they revile but could backfire by complicating the eventual Republican nominee's bid to court the crucial political center ground.

Obama will seek to frame a contrast with the Republican flame-throwers when he steps up in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, using the pageantry of the presidency to pose as an altruistic steward of the national destiny.

Often, he has appeared weighed down by partisan brawls in Washington but Obama's competitive fire still burns strong and he seems to relish the chance to turn on the campaign trail theatrics.

He even even burst into song on Thursday in New York, crooning: "I'm .... so in love with you," to supporters as he piled up campaign cash and positioned potential Republican foes as extremists.

The White House insists that Obama has yet to throw himself into the campaign proper, despite a flurry of swing state events and fundraisers, keen to avoid claims the president he is neglecting his job for political gain.

But Obama's travel reflects his campaign team's strategy for amassing the 270 electoral votes needed to win reelection in November.

Iowa was the cradle of Obama's 2008 campaign and could form a Midwestern firewall with his path back to the White House expected to be narrower than it was four years ago.

In far western Arizona, Obama hopes to profit from changing demographics and Hispanic support to spring an upset on Republican turf.

Another Hispanic bastion, Nevada, is next, before he visits Colorado where he inspired first time voters in 2008 who are less enthused four years later.

The president will wrap up his trip in Detroit, Michigan, where he will tout his role in saving the mighty US auto industry with an unpopular bailout early in his term when the economic storm clouds were at their darkest.

Obama says his gray hair is from genes, not pressure

A graying President Obama speaks at a fire station in Chesterfield County, Va. (Jay Paul / Getty Images / October 19, 2011)

Breaking Down President Obama’s $37.1M White House Payroll

Presidential staffing isn't exactly the road to riches

Since 1995, every president has had to deliver a salary report of White House employees to Congress and the American people. And at a time when federal spending is front and center and government employees are getting laid off left and right, I thought it would be interesting to dig into the 2011 report from the Obama administration and see who’s who on the president’s payroll.

To be clear, I’m not trying to score political points here. While some of these salaries might seem plush, as a suburban D.C. resident myself, I can say this area is one pricey place. D.C.’s workers enjoy the highest salaries of any major U.S. city, with a median household income of $85,198. And some of these folks are highly qualified individuals in grueling jobs who could make a mint in the private sector based on their resumes.

We can quibble over their political slant, but someone like Gene Sperling who attended Yale Law School and attended biz school at Wharton probably has a resume worth a bit more than $45,000 per year, even if you pooh-pooh his government experience.

Most importantly, let’s not forget that the current salary for 535 rank-and-file members of the House and Senate is $174,000 per year — which is greater than any single position in the White House. If you cut that salary to “only” $100,000 per year, you could save the government $40 million. As you’ll see, some of the folks on the payroll are making reasonable wages for pretty unglamorous work. So let’s not blame the White House receptionist for bankrupting our nation.

All those disclaimers aside, as long as we are focusing on the government and its spending habits these days, we cannot overlook the White House payroll. So here’s some of the stats on what Obama’s staffers are earning:

Total White House Payroll: $37,121,463

Total White House Employees: 454. Three workers are listed at a salary of zero dollars per annum, however.

Average White House Salary: Omitting the three workers without pay, simple math gives us an average of $82,309. The median salary is significantly lower, however, at $70,000.

Top Earners: 21 staffers make $172,200 annually — and you will undoubtedly recognize the names. Except for one instance, all are listed as “Assistant to the President” along with a specific duty, so for brevity’s sake I have cut out the assistant status unless it is part of the complete title. The complete list follows in alphabetical order, along with the employee’s position:

• Barnes, Melody C. — Director of the Domestic Policy Council
• Brennan, John O. — Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism
• Carney, James F. — Press Secretary
• Cutter, Stephanie N. — Deputy Senior Advisor
• Daley, William M. — Chief of Staff
• DeParle, Nancy-Ann Min — Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy
• Donilon, Thomas E. — National Security Advisor
• Favreau, Jonathan E. — Director of Speechwriting
• Jarrett, Valerie B. — Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement
• Lane, David J. — Counselor to the Chief of Staff
• Lu, Christopher P. — Cabinet Secretary
• Mastromonaco, Alyssa M. — Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations
• McDonough, Denis R. — Deputy National Security Advisor
• Nabors, Robert L. — Director, Office of Legislative Affairs
• Pfeiffer, Howard D. — Director of Communications
• Plouffe, David A. — Senior Advisor
• Rouse, Peter M. — Counselor to the President (though not listed as an “assistant”)
• Ruemmler, Kathryn H. — Counsel to the President
• Schiliro, Philip M. — Special Advisor
• Sperling, Eugene B. — Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director of the National Economic Council
• Tchen, Christina M. — Chief of Staff to the First Lady

Who Works for Free: So who’s at the other end of the spectrum? Advisor Patricia G. McGinnis, Senior Policy Advisor Jessica E. Schumer and Policy Advisor Shale L. Wong all are listed at pay of $0 per annum.

Who Are the Working Stiffs: Lest you think the White House is populated by policymakers and advisors, there are a host of employees making less than $50,000 per year (not a whole lot in the metro D.C. area) who simply are involved with the day-to-day work of keeping the wheels of government turning. Some of those unsung workers include West Wing receptionist Kathleen E. Herbek, who earns $42,000 per year, or travel manager Mary E. Baskerville, who earns $45,000 per year. Surely these are not just “regular” jobs, being at the White House. But it’s worth noting that the list of employees also is populated with normal folks with normal responsibilities.

You can find this year’s complete list of Obama administration employees at WhiteHouse.gov.

Jeff Reeves is editor of InvestorPlace.com. Follow him on Twitter via @JeffReevesIP and become a fan of InvestorPlace on Facebook.

Obama's 2012 Re-election Chances: Why He Could Lose

The most telling moment in Barack Obama's 60 Minutes interview came when Steve Kroft asked for his reaction after he saw the photo of Osama bin Laden, shot in the head. "It was him," the President said. And that was all he said. Now, this was a classic TV how-did-you-feel question, and Obama had a range of possible options. He could have gone all political, "I thought of the families who had lost loved ones ..." Or graphic, "Well, it was pretty ugly, but ..." Or excited, "Oh. My. God." Or religious, "Thank God." Or triumphal, "My first thought, actually, Steve, was 'Hasta la vista, baby.' " But, of course, this is Barack Obama, more Gregory Peck than John Wayne. And the same taciturn, hyperdisciplined quality that is so frustrating when he seems unable to connect with the economic anguish of the American people came across as just right, perfectly Midwestern - Kansas, not Hawaii, much less Kenya.

A few days earlier, five of the Republican candidates for President gathered in South Carolina for their first official debate. It was a weird show, newsworthy only because Congressman Ron Paul came out in favor of legalizing heroin, cocaine and prostitution. Many of the more serious (Mitt Romney, Mitch Daniels, Newt Gingrich) and less serious (Donald Trump, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich) Republican candidates weren't there - and so it would be unfair to compare the Republican punytude with the massive presidentiality of Obama during his strongest week. (See pictures from inside Obama's Situation Room.)

Three relevant observations can be made, however. First, Paul's willingness to go off the libertarian deep end, without a blink, says something about the ideological extremism that has overwhelmed the Republicans in recent years. Paul is certainly further out than most, but all sorts of loony notions have become accepted wisdom in the Republican Party - about taxation, about the science of climate change, about the utter perfection of markets. Which leads to the second observation: even the serious Republican candidates aren't very. Romney refuses to take credit for his greatest accomplishment as governor of Massachusetts - a universal health care plan that works. There are grounds to hope that Indiana's Governor Daniels and former Utah governor Jon Huntsman will not make fools of themselves, but it is hard to imagine either of them prospering by challenging the conventional Limbaugh wisdom of the party, and Daniels has already gotten into trouble by proposing that there should be a truce on "social issues" like abortion and homosexuality. (See TIME's photo-essay "President Obama Visits Ground Zero.")

But my third reaction to the Republican debate cuts in the opposite direction. By depriving the Republicans of the birth-certificate and tough-on-terrorism issues in a single week, Obama may ultimately force them to spend most of their time discussing the weakest point of his presidency: the economy. My colleague Mark Halperin has observed that when Trump talks about something other than the President's birth certificate (or himself), he strikes some very resonant chords. He wants to slap tariffs on the Chinese, and he's mad as hell about gasoline prices (and wants to seize the Iraqi oil fields). This is the other side of the President's reserve: he won't demagogue those issues, or even talk about them very much. (See "The Awkward Republican Coalition.")

I came into presidential politics with Jimmy Carter, and I'll never forget his staff's derision of a certain washed-up actor-extremist from California named Ronald Reagan. Similarly, I remember the Democratic Party's despair in 1992, especially after Bill Clinton was linked, lubriciously, to a lounge singer named Gennifer Flowers. Carter had brought Israel and Egypt together. George H.W. Bush had beaten Saddam Hussein and retaken Kuwait; his popularity rating stood at 90%. But both Carter and Bush were beaten by a bum economy.

Obama could lose too, even to someone who seems silly to fusty opinionators like me. He could lose if he keeps playing on the Republican field - deficits - rather than in the arena preferred by most Americans: the sputtering economy. He needs some big, new, easy-to-understand economic initiatives. He could lose if he doesn't remind the public that he cut their taxes, as promised, and their Medicare drug bills. He also has to prove that, despite the bailouts, he's not Wall Street's sucker. (See "Bin Laden Is Dead. Now It's Time to Fix the Economy.")

There is a grand history of populist loudmouths like Trump making an early impression in presidential campaigns: Pat Buchanan, Pat Robertson and Howard Dean all had their moments. And so did John McCain, who lost his shot in 2008 when the financial crisis came and he didn't know how to react. Obama was calm under fire then, and ever since. It is why he's likely to be re-elected: we prefer Presidents who are adults over those who are angry. But he is certainly not a lock.

Files suggest elder Obama forced to leave Harvard

AP – FILE - This undated photo provided by the Obama Campaign shows Barack Obama Sr., father of President …

BOSTON – President Barack Obama's father was forced to leave Harvard University before completing his Ph.D. in economics because the school was concerned about his personal life and finances, according to newly public immigration records.

Harvard had asked the Immigration and Naturalization Service to delay a request by Barack Hussein Obama Sr. to extend his stay in the U.S., "until they decided what action they could take in order to get rid of him," immigration official M.F. McKeon wrote in a June 1964 memo.

Harvard administrators, the memo stated, "were having difficulty with his financial arrangements and couldn't seem to figure out how many wives he had."

An earlier INS memo from McKeon said that while the elder Obama had passed his exams and was entitled on academic grounds to stay and complete his thesis, the school was going to try and "cook something up to ease him out."

"They are planning on telling him that they will not give him any money, and that he had better return to Kenya and prepare his thesis at home," the memo stated.

In May 1964, David D. Henry, director of Harvard's international office, wrote to Obama to say that, while he had completed his formal course work, the economics department and the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences didn't have the money to support him.

"We have, therefore, come to the conclusion that you should terminate your stay in the United States and return to Kenya to carry on your research and the writing of your thesis," Henry's letter stated.

Obama's request for an extended stay was denied by the INS. He left Harvard and — divorced from the president's mother — returned to his native Kenya in July 1964. He did not complete his Ph.D.

The immigration memos, contained in the elder Obama's Immigration and Naturalization file, were given to a Boston Globe reporter in 2009 through a Freedom of Information request. The papers were first made public Wednesday by The Arizona Independent, a weekly newspaper. The Associated Press obtained copies of them on Friday.

Harvard issued a statement Friday saying that it could not find in its own records anything to support the accounts given in the INS memos.

"While we cannot verify accounts of conversations that occurred nearly 50 years ago, a review of our existing files did not find any support for either the language or the implied intent described by the U.S. government official in the government documents," the statement read.

When Obama was attending Harvard, the school faced serious constraints in financing research by international graduate students, the university also said.

Department of Homeland Security spokesman Matt Chandler declined to comment Friday, saying the department does not comment on specific immigration cases.

Concerns about Obama's personal life while he had been studying in the U.S. had been raised previously, according to the INS documents.

In 1961, while he was an undergraduate student at the University of Hawaii, the school's foreign student adviser called an immigration official and said Obama had recently married Stanley Ann Dunham — the president's mother — despite already having a wife in Kenya.

According to a memo written by an INS official in Honolulu, the adviser said Obama had been "running around with several girls since he first arrived here and last summer she cautioned him about his playboy ways."

Obama told the adviser that he had divorced his wife in Kenya. He told the president's mother the same thing, though she would later learn it was a lie.

Obama worked for an oil company and as a government economist after returning to Africa, but his personal and professional life would later deteriorate. He died in a car crash in 1982, when the future president was 21 and a student at Columbia University.

Obama to Supporters: Brother Can You Spare $5

President Barack Obama is going small in an effort to fill his coffers for next year’s re-election campaign.

“I will be direct: Can you step up and make a donation of $5 to get us started?” he wrote in an E-mail sent to supporters Thursday and published by Politico. Obama has just finished a fundraising tour for much bigger bucks in New York City.

And why should his supporters give? Obama cites many of the same policies that Republicans find objectionable.

“You know that our victories so far have been hard won: taking the difficult steps necessary to put our economy back on track, reforming Wall Street excess despite an army of lobbyists against us, and making health care more affordable and accessible despite well-organized opposition by those who profit from the status quo.”

Firefighters Union Pulls Plug on Federal Campaign Donations

Although the International Association of Fire Fighters gives to both Democrats and Republicans, the 300,000-member organization gives far more to the Democratic Party. In the most recent election cycle, Democrats received $1.9 million, and Republicans, just over $400,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

In announcing the move to suspend federal campaign contributions, union President Harold Schaitberger blasted both parties, charging that “extreme right-wing conservative and so-called tea party politicians are coming after firefighters, paramedics, and all public workers with a vengeance across the United States” and that “too few Democrats are standing up and fighting for us.”

Firefighters President Harold Schaitberger raps politicians from both sides of the aisle. (AP Photo)

“Over the past two years, politicians from both parties have failed to address our issues in Washington, DC,” he said. “Now, anti-labor members of Congress and their allies are championing measures that would undermine pension security, tax employer-sponsored health benefits, force newly hired fire fighters into Social Security and attack federal fire fighters. And with no pro-fire fighter legislation likely to be advanced in the 112th Congress – it’s time to take a stand.”

The Center for Responsive Politics reports that Democrats have received $14.5 million from the group’s political action committee and individuals. Its PAC, FIREPAC, ranks 10th among those contributing to federal-level politics during the 2010 election cycle.

The group was also a lifeline for a number of politicians in caught in tough fights. The Center for Responsive Politics noted that it ponied up $49,000 for Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., in his race against Republican John Raese and donated $43,000 to help Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, pull out her win, running as an independent against tea party favorite Joe Miller.

The firefighters union has left the door open to resuming federal activity, and experts don’t expect the move to spread to other unions. Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University, told The Associated Press that he would be surprised if other unions decided to withhold political donations.

"Other than making a very momentary splash, I don't think it's going to embarrass members of Congress into being more supportive of unions," Baker said, according to the AP.

Regardless, the union will not be leaving the battlefield. Schaitberger said the union would focus its considerable strength on GOP efforts in the states to roll back union rights, which he alleges are “funded by anti-labor extremists like the multibillionaire Koch brothers.” He said conservatives were “attempting to take away basic American rights” like collective bargaining, trying to eliminate pensions and retirement security, and seeking to drive down wages and benefits.

“We know we have legislative fights, ballot measures and re-call elections that will require us to be on the offensive at the state and local level through this fall,” he said. “I expect this strategic decision to focus our resources on state and local efforts, and the freezing of federal contributions, to last as long as the fights in the states remain at such a high level and until we see some real results and leadership from those in Washington, D.C., on our members’ behalf.”

The nation’s largest firefighters union has decided to bail on federal candidates this election cycle, dealing President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats a major blow in their efforts to hold the White House and Senate.